Moscow, Russia – On Saturday, Jan. 19, General Yuri Baluyevsky, Russia’s military chief of staff, reported that Russia could use its nuclear arsenal in a preventative strike against major threats to Russian sovereignty and integrity. Among the list of possible threats are “the striving by a number of countries for hegemony on a regional and global level,” which some experts believe to be a reference to the United States. Moscow has repeatedly accused the U.S. of disrupting global security through the war in Iraq. Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, has also been critical of the United States’ proposal to create a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.
London, England – A British Airways jet crash landed at London’s Heathrow Airport on Thursday, Jan. 17, injuring 19 people. According to a preliminary report, the engines on the Boeing 777, which was flying from Beijing to London, did not respond when the pilot attempted to add power during the aircraft’s final approach. The jet landed several hundred yards short of the runway, severely damaging its landing gear, engines and wings. While nothing definitive has been determined, it is believed that the malfunction was caused by an on-board computer error. This is the first major accident involving a Boeing 777 since the model first flew in 1995.
New York City – After twelve years on Broadway, the award-winning musical Rent is ending its historic run. The play, which has won a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize, was one of the first to feature openly homosexual and bisexual characters, as well as show the devastating impact of HIV and AIDS. The musical has also served as a launching platform for several famous actors, including Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order) and Taye Diggs (Ally McBeal, Grey’s Anatomy). The show’s final performance will be on June 1, 2008, making it the 7th longest-running show in Broadway history with a total run-time of nine hundred thirty thousand, one hundred eighty minutes.
Sources: FoxNews.com,CNN.com, TimesOnline.co.uk, Nytimes.com