AXJ GLOBAL SHIELD AGAINST METEORS PROPOSED BY AXJ AFTER FEB.15TH EXPLOSIONS

[AXJ USA]

AXJ PROPOSES GLOBAL SHIELD AGAINST METEORS

AXJ GLOBAL ALERTS

New York, N.Y., USA

After the February 15th, 2013 impact of many large sized meteors AXJ Members around the world are pointing fingers at government authorities for not alerting the general population in Russia that these impacts were expected.

The Populations could have gone to local underground military installations and taken refuge. This is simply another case where the Military are simply being left out of the equation and not carrying out their role to safe guard the general civilian populations in the world.

Meteor injures hundreds in Russia

Anna Arutunyan, Special for USA TODAY1:12p.m. EST February 15, 2013

(Photo: Oleg Kargopolov, AFP/Getty Images)

Story Highlights

• At least 500 people said to be injured; dozens hospitalized
• Meteor shower struck the Chelyabinsk region
• Reports that Russian air defenses intercepted debris

MOSCOW - Russians say a meteor that exploded above the central Ural Mountains on Friday and injured hundreds of people looked like a nuclear blast out of a movie.

"I woke up hearing a blast. It felt like the whole building jumped up," said Igor Chudnovsky, a commercial director in the town of Chelyabinsk. "I saw a light, it looked like it was from a nuclear explosion, like I had seen in documentaries."

As many as 1,000 people say they were hurt by glass that shattered from the sonic wave created by the explosion of the 11-ton meteor, Russia's Emergency Ministry said.

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Fragments of the meteorite crashed over a thinly populated area of the Chelyabinsk region about 900 miles east of Moscow near the border of Kasakhstan. People in six cities reported damage to their homes, according to reports in RIA Novosti, the Russian state news agency.

Most of the wounded received treatment for minor cuts from broken glass, Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said.

Large holes were found in the ice of frozen lakes. Kolsenikov also said about 6,000 square feet of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed.

The meteorite entered the Earth's atmosphere at 33,000 mph and shattered into pieces about 18-32 miles above the ground, the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement to RIA Novosti. Reports conflicted on what exactly happened in the clear morning sky.

A meteor streaks across the sky on Friday near Chelyabinsk, Russia.  Nasha Gazeta via AP

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A spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry, Irina Rossius, told The Associated Press that there was a meteor shower but another ministry spokeswoman, Elena Smirnikh, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteorite.

Russia Today said it was informed that the meteor was intercepted by Russian air defense. Russia's deputy prime minister said Russia does not have the capability to shoot down meteors.

Amateur video broadcast on Russian television showed an object speeding across the sky about 9:20 a.m. local time (0320 GMT), leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

"My first thought was that it was an airplane crash," Chudnovsky said. "There's a military aviation base nearby and we've already had cases of their planes crashing."

Chudnovsky said the landing windows in his building shattered when the explosion sounded and a fried of his who lives nearby was thrown out of his kitchen by the blast. Another acquaintance who was out driving in his car told him the blast felt likme "a wave of heat."

Cars with loudspeakers drove around the city during the day, telling people not to panic, but some did.

"There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people's houses to check if they were OK," said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, about 930 miles east of Moscow, told the Associated Press.

Marat Lobkovsky said he was heading to a window to see what the flash was about.

"The window glass shattered, bouncing back on me.They patched me up. It's OK now," he said.

Yekaterina Melikhova, a high school student, was in her geography class when they saw a bright light outside.

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"After the flash, nothing happened for about three minutes. Then we rushed outdoors The door was made of glass, a shock wave made it hit us," she said.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a nationalist leader, blamed the Americans.

"It's not meteors falling. It's the test of a new weapon by the Americans," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

Later Friday, an asteroid known as the 2012 DA14 as due to come within 17,100 miles of Earth at 2:24 p.m. ET, a record close-approach for an asteroid this size.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the incident showed the need for leading world powers to develop a system to intercept objects falling from space.

"At the moment, neither we nor the Americans have such technologies" to shoot down meteors or asteroids, he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard, The Associated Press

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/15/russia-meteorit...