NEWS
6A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SCIENCE
THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2006
Skygazers commemorate solar eclipse
BY SUZAN FRASER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SIDE, Turkey — Thousands of skygazers gathered in an ancient temple of Apollo and let out cheers Wednesday as a total solar eclipse turned day into twilight, casting an eerie blue glow across the sky and the Mediterranean Sea.
NASA astronomers handed out protective glasses to hundreds of Turkish children before the eclipse cut a dark swath across the sky — a band that stretched from Brazil, across West Africa, Turkey and Central Asia, then disappeared at sunset in Mongolia.
A Turkish man holds a baby as he watches a solar eclipse at an ancient Roman theater in the Turkish Mediterranean coastal resort of Side, Antalya on Wednesday. Thousands of skygazers gathered in Turkey Wednesday as a total eclipse turned the day into twilight, casting an eerie blue glow across the sky and the nearby Mediterranean Sea.
Kaan Sovturk/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The last total solar eclipse was in November 2003, but that was best viewed from sparsely populated Antarctica. Wednesday's eclipse blocked the sun in highly populated areas.
Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq were summoned to mosques during the eclipse for a special prayer reserved for times of fear and natural disasters.
In Ghana, automatic street lamps switched on as the light faded, and authorities sounded emergency whistles in celebration. Schoolchildren and others across the capital, Accra, burst into applause.
In the Turkish resort of Side, a crowd of some 10,000 began cheering and whistling as the moon took its first bite out of the sun. When the moon masked the sun and Venus suddenly appeared in the blue glow of the darkened sky, another loud cheer went up.
"It's one of those experiences that makes you feel like you're part of the larger universe," said NASA astronomer Janet Luhmann who witnessed the eclipse from the ruins of an ancient Roman theater just a few hundred feet from the temple of Apollo.
As the moon covered the sun, the temperature dropped quickly and some skygazers put on sweaters.
The sun blackened and a flery rim surrounded it; the sky turned an eerie dark blue while a bright sunset red could be seen on the horizon.
There was a festive atmosphere in Side, with people
gathered on the fallen stones and collapsed columns of the temple dedicated to Apollo — god of the sun — or on rocks at a beach about 40 feet away.
A string quintet played classical music at the foot of the temple's five standing pillars and a Turkish brewery distributed free beer.
Vendors hawked eclipse T-shirts and at one point, the stargazers began waving to a nearby cruise ship.
Children sat on the ruined stone steps of the second-century Roman theater and watched as astronomers from NASA and the San Francisco-based Exploratorium museum, using
large telescope and cameras, broadcast the phenomenon live on the Web.
Many in Ghana, a deeply religious country of Christians and Muslims, said the eclipse bolstered their faith.
"I've never experienced this and we all need to pray to God and worship him. I believe it's a
Total eclipses require the tilted orbits of the sun, moon and Earth to line up exactly so that the moon obscures the sun completely. The next total eclipse will occur in 2008.
wonderful work of God," said Solomon Pomenya, a 52-year old doctor. "This tells me that God is a true engineer."
Pewee Flomoku/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
U. N. troops are seen as they stand together before the arrival of captured former Libarian President Charles Taylor at the airport in Monrovia, Liberia on Wednesday. U.N. peacekeepers escorted the former president in handcuffs and into jail Wednesday at the Sierra Leone tribunal where he is wanted for trial on war-crimes charges.
WORLD
Ex-president charged for war crimes
BY CLARENCE ROY- MACAULEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, captured on the run in Nigeria with sacks full of cash, was flown to Sierra Leone on Wednesday to be tried on war crimes charges.
A white U.N. helicopter carrying Taylor left neighboring Liberia and landed inside the compound of the U.N.backed war crimes tribunal that will try the former warlord, U.N. officials said. A second U.N. chopper also landed on the helipad
was picked up in a car with his wife and taken to a regional state capital.
in the capital, Freetown.
Tavlor then was jailed.
Taylor was captured Tuesday day night by security forces in the far northeastern border town of Gamboru, in Borno State, nearly 600 miles from the villa in southern Calabar from which he reportedly disappeared Monday night, Information Minister Frank Nweke said in a statement. He was trying to cross the border into Cameroon.
President Bush said he appreciated Nigeria's work in apprehending Taylor.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was visiting the White House, gave few details about Taylor's arrest except to say he
"The fact that Charles Taylor will be brought to justice in a court of law will help Liberia and is a sign of your deep desire for there to be peace in your neighborhood," Bush told Obasanjo in an Oval Office meeting.
They also were carrying two 110-pound sacks filled with U.S. and European currency, Alhaji Mohammed Aminu Belo said.
Taylor and his son were taken into custody while the others were let go, Bello said.
A Nigerian police official said Taylor was in a vehicle with his son, an aide and a local guide when arrested.
Taylor then was flown on a plane bearing a Nigerian flag to Monrovia, Liberia, where hundreds of U.N. troops patrolled.
Associated Press reporters George Gedda in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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