As the Obama administration struggles to handle the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, a majority of Americans are against the long-fought wars, a new poll says.
The AP-GfK Poll released on Thursday showed that 63% of respondents oppose the war in Iraq and 53% oppose the war in Afghanistan.
This is while 34% favor the Iraq battlefield and 44% favor the conflict in Afghanistan, according to the poll.
The survey also revealed that 56% of Americans approve President Barack Obama's handling of the situation in Iraq and 55% approve his handling of Afghanistan. Both numbers are down just slightly since April.
July is already the deadliest month of the war for both US and NATO forces with 63 international troops killed, including 35 Americans and 19 Britons.
Seven and half years after the US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan to allegedly root out the country's militancy US Vice-President Joe Biden in an interview with the BBC said that groups based on Afghanistan's border with Pakistan could 'wreak havoc' on the US and Europe.
"In terms of national interest of Great Britain, the US and Europe, (the war) is worth the effort we are making and the sacrifice that is being felt," he added.
The US Vice President also warned "there are more to come" and US and UK casualties could be expected to climb.
The poll has been released days after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged that the Obama administration will risk losing public support for the war in Afghanistan if the coalition forces fail to turn the situation around within a year.
The poll was conducted July 16-20 and involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,006 adults nationwide. Re : Presstv
One of France's worst fires for three years has raged on the eastern outskirts of Marseille burning dozens of homes.
The wildfire caused after military practice shelling hit the eastern Trois-Ponts suburb of the southern city, forcing the evacuation of scores of residents.
The fire moved down a hill outside the city and threatened the Trois-Ponts district where residents sprayed water on the outside of their houses before they moved out. People in neighboring La Barasse also left their homes, although local authorities said no evacuation order had been issued.
A thick black smoke swirled around the district and many residents angrily criticized the French Army which had staged the artillery training at its Carpiagne camp just before the fire started.
Regional Prefect Michel Sappin confirmed that the blaze had been started by the shelling, lashing out at the "imbecilic" action that had led to "an annoying and serious" situation in a zone close to a city and saying he was "exasperated."
"In such weather conditions, with high winds, the army should refrain from carrying out shelling practice," he said
Iran-Mashhad : Sixteen die in Aria Air plane crash in Mashhad
At least 16 people have been killed and 21 others have been injured when an Aria Air plane crash-landed in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
The plane en route to the northeastern city of Mashhad from Tehran crashed as it was attempting to make an emergency landing at the destination at about 18:00 (1430 GMT) Friday, reported Fars news agency.
The aircraft, an Ilyushin Il-62 jet, had 160 passengers and crewmembers onboard. Earlier reports had put the number of deaths at 30 and the number of injured at 20.
Images obtained by Press TV show the cockpit and front part of the fuselage completely destroyed, and the aircraft tipping back on its tail, with the main landing-gear deployed.
The aircraft' was likely to have been the UP-I6208, which indicates that it was registered in Kazakhstan.
A spokesman for the airport said that emergency services were carrying the injured to nearby hospitals, and a full breakdown of deaths and injuries will be provided later.
Post incident videos also show that one of the central emergency chutes on the left side of the cabin had been deployed.
The Il-62 is a long-range airliner with a capacity of about 185 passengers and a fair service record.
The incident comes less than 10 days after another Iranian airliner, a Tupolev-154M, crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran en route to the Armenian capital of Yerevan on July 15, killing all 168 passengers onboard. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.
There are many Expensive Military planes in the world.
we can watch the picture also movie from top 10 most expensive military planes in 2009.
B-2 Spirit: $2.4 billion
The B-2 bomber was so costly that Congress cut its initial 1987 purchase order from 132 to 21. (A 2008 crash leaves the current number at 20.) The B-2 is hard to detect via infrared, acoustic, electromagnetic, visual or radar signals. This stealth capability makes it able to attack enemy targets with less fear of retaliation. In use since 1993, the B-2 has been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan.
F-22 Raptor: $350 million First conceived during the Cold War as an airframe to vie with Soviet aircraft that was never built, the F-22 is touted by manufacturer Lockheed Martin as the best overall combat plane in the world — not to mention the most expensive. It can shoot down enemy cruise missiles, fly long distances at supersonic speeds and avoid nearly all types of radar detection. But the Senate debate over whether to build seven more — at a taxpayer cost of $1.67 billion — eventually came down to the plane's job-creating abilities. The axed project would have employed 25,000 Americans.
C17A Globemaster III: $328 million The Air Force military-transport plane is used to move troops into war zones, perform medical evacuations and conduct airdrop missions. There are 190 C17As in service; the aircraft is propelled by four turbofan engines (of the same type used on the twin-engine Boeing 757) and can drop 102 paratroopers at once. In operation since 1993, it has been used to deliver troops and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and Iraq.
P-8A Poseidon: $290 million Boeing's spruced-up military version of its 737 jet will be used by the Navy to conduct anti-submarine warfare and gather intelligence. It can carry torpedoes, missiles, depth charges and other weapons. The P-8A is expected to go into service in 2013.
VH-71 Kestrel: $241 million This high-tech helicopter project, intended to replace the President's aging chopper fleet, was running more than 50% over budget by the time Barack Obama took office. Soon after his Inauguration, the President announced plans to scrap the helicopters because of cost overruns. On July 22, however, the House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved restoring $485 million to fund the Kestrels.
E-2D Advanced Hawkeye: $232 million A major step forward for surveillance and reconnaissance, the Advanced Hawkeye's powerful new radar system will increase the range of territory an aircraft can monitor by 300%. "It can probably watch the pistachios pop in Iran," an analyst for the think tank Lexington Institute told National Defense in July. Though development of the plane is on track and two test versions have been delivered to the Navy, budget cuts may keep the planes grounded for at least a year longer than planned.
F-35 Lightning II: $122 million Lockheed Martin's 2001 deal to build these stealth, supersonic fighter jets was at the time the largest military contract ever. The F-35s, intended to replace an aging aircraft arsenal, were developed as part of a Joint Strike Fighter program between the U.S. and its allies and were criticized as underpowered and overweight — and therefore easy targets. Making matters worse, from 2007 to 2008, cyberspies infiltrated the 7.5 million lines of computer code that powered the Joint Strike Fighter, raising concerns that enemies could copy the F-35's design and exploit its weaknesses. In April 2009, Lockheed Martin said it did not believe the program had been compromised.
V-22 Osprey: $118 million This tiltrotor aircraft, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but can fly faster and farther like a fixed-wing plane, was first used in combat in Iraq in 2007. The Osprey's production has been bedeviled by design and construction problems: the craft claimed the lives of at least 30 Marines and civilians during its development alone (former Vice President Dick Cheney tried repeatedly to ground the plane). Still, because of its range and versatility, the Marine Corps plans to deploy a squadron of V-22s to Afghanistan by the end of the year.
EA-18G Growler: $102 million Hot off the presses, the Growler is a lightly armed version of the F/A-18 fighter that has been updated for electronic warfare (it is currently being delivered to the Navy). Growlers are capable of not only finding and disrupting anti-aircraft radar, but also jamming enemy communications.
F/A-18 Hornet: $94 million First entering service in the 1980s, the twin-engine fighter plane was the U.S.'s first strike fighter — an aircraft capable of attacking both ground and aerial targets. It has seen action in Operation Desert Storm and as the aircraft of the Navy's Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron. The F/A-18 is also used by Canada, Australia, Finland, Kuwait, Malaysia, Spain and Switzerland.
People in Asia have seen the longest total solar eclipse this century, with large areas of India and China plunged into darkness.
Amateur stargazers and scientists travelled far to see the eclipse, which lasted six minutes and 39 seconds at its maximum point.
The eclipse could first be seen early on Wednesday in eastern India.
It then moved east across India, Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Japan and the Pacific.
The eclipse first became total over India at 0053GMT, and was last visible from land at Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific nation of Kiribati. It ended at 0418GMT.
Elsewhere, a partial eclipse was visible across much of Asia.
Mixed blessing
In India, millions gathered in open spaces from the west coast to the northern plains, with clouds parting in some cities at dawn - just before the total eclipse.
But thick clouds and an overcast sky obscured the view at the Indian village of Taregna, "epicentre" of the eclipse, says our correspondent in the area.
Many of the thousands of people who gathered there to watch the eclipse left the village disappointed.
"We were apprehensive of this cloudy weather but it was still a unique experience with morning turning into night for more than three minutes," scientist Amitabh Pande told the Associated Press news agency.
Some enthusiasts in India were on board a special chartered flight for a close-up view of the eclipse.
The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder, who was on the flight, said that from a vantage point of 41,000ft (12,500m), it was a celestial spectacle like few others.
Among the passengers were a man who was witnessing it for the eighth time, scientists, amateur astronomers and children.
In India and Nepal, where it is considered auspicious to watch the eclipse while immersed in holy water, crowds gathered at rivers or ponds, including tens of thousands of people at Varanasi on the Ganges.
"We have come here because our elders told us this is the best time to improve our afterlife," said Bhailal Sharma, a villager who had travelled to Varanasi from central India.
The event in Varanasi was marred, however, when a woman was killed and several others injured in a stampede on the river banks, police said.
For others, the eclipse was seen to be a bad omen.
In Nepal, authorities shut all schools for the day to avoid exposing students to any ill-effects, says the BBC's Joanna Jolly in Kathmandu.
Some parents in Delhi kept their children from attending school at breakfast because of a Hindu belief that it is inauspicious to prepare food during an eclipse, while pregnant women were advised to stay inside due to a belief that the eclipse could harm a foetus.
"My mother and aunts have called and told me stay in a darkened room with the curtains closed, lie in bed and chant prayers," said Krati Jain, a software worker in Delhi who is expecting her first child.
Authorities in China, where an eclipse was a bad omen in ancient culture, reassured the public that services would run normally.
In the east of the country, heavy cloud or rain obscured it.
Pollution was also a barrier, with thick smog in Beijing blotting out the sky.
'Special opportunity'
The last total eclipse, in August 2008, lasted two minutes and 27 seconds.
Alphonse Sterling, a Nasa astrophysicist who followed the latest eclipse from China, said scientists were hoping data from it would help explain solar flares and other structures of the sun and why they erupt.
"We'll have to wait a few hundred years for another opportunity to observe a solar eclipse that lasts this long, so it's a very special opportunity," Shao Zhenyi, an astronomer at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in China told the Associated Press.
Solar eclipses allow scientists to see the gases surrounding the sun, or its corona.
Solar scientist Lucie Green, from University College London, was aboard an American cruise ship heading for the point near the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, where the axis of the Moon's shadow passed closest to Earth.
"The [Sun's] corona has a temperature of 2 million degrees but we don't know why it is so hot," she said.
"What we are going to look for are waves in the corona.
"The waves might be producing the energy that heats the corona. That would mean we understand another piece of the science of the Sun."
The next total solar eclipse will occur on 11 July, 2010. It will be visible in a narrow corridor over the southern hemisphere, from the southern Pacific Ocean to Argentina.
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