Russian and U.S. crew sets off for space station

Russian and U.S. crewsets off for space station
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan -- A rocket carrying two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut to the international space station streaked into orbit today, the latest flight of a Russian space vehicle to fill in for grounded U.S. shuttles.
For Russians Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and American Leroy Chiao, it was the first mission in a Soyuz spacecraft -- breaking the nearly 30-year tradition of having at least one crewman with previous experience in piloting the capsule.
Chiao and Sharipov both have flown U.S. space shuttles, while Shargin is a rookie.
The Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft lifted off as scheduled from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the bleak, wind-swept steppes of Kazakhstan at 7:06 a.m. and entered its designated orbit less than 10 minutes later.
"The crew reached orbit and the parameters are normal," Russian Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov told reporters in Korolyov, outside Moscow. "We are in for two days of quite energetic work."
The spaceship is due to dock with the station at 8:17 a.m. Moscow time Saturday.
NASA deputy administrator Fred Gregory, who came to Baikonur to see the launch, hailed U.S.-Russian cooperation on the space station as the basis for future space forays.
California wildfire
LAKE BERRYESSA, Calif. -- Firefighters began to get control of a more than 37,000-acre wildfire northeast of San Francisco on Wednesday.
Favorable weather helped nearly 2,000 firefighters get the fire 45 percent contained Wednesday night, up from just 5 percent containment earlier in the day.
"The winds weren't as severe as they have been," said Dianne Sanders, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention. "The red flag warning was lifted about noon. They were able to make some good progress today."
Full containment of the fire was expected by Saturday night, Sanders said.
The 37,599-acre fire was burning in Napa and Yolo counties near Lake Berryessa. It prompted the voluntary evacuation of a remote community of 75 homes about 60 miles northeast of San Francisco.
A smoke plume could be seen as far south as the San Francisco Bay area, where air quality warnings were issued.
Rising lava gives volcanoan eerie red glow at night
SEATTLE -- The molten rock rising inside Mount St. Helens is giving the peak an eerie red glow at night.
Lava has been climbing to the surface at nearly 1,300 degrees for the past few days in a process that scientists said Wednesday could go on for days, weeks or months. At night, low-hanging clouds and the steam rising from the volcano reflect the glow of the red-hot stone inside the crater.
Scientists said they do not know how long the eruption might continue, or whether it will be marked by explosive blasts. But they said any eruption would probably be far less dangerous than the cataclysmic explosion in 1980 that blasted away much of the mountaintop and killed 57 people.
The area immediately around the mountain remains closed.
The molten rock, or magma, rising inside the mountain has been depositing itself on the crater floor inside the volcano, halfway up the 8,634-foot peak, creating a "fin" of rock estimated Tuesday at 60 to 90 feet tall and 150 to 180 feet wide.
Scientists calculate its growth rate at about 2 to 3 cubic meters a second, said Jeff Wynn, chief scientist for volcano hazards. That's enough new rock to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in about 15 minutes.
Bill allows Musharrafto stay as army chief
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's parliament passed a bill today allowing President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to remain as army chief, despite his earlier promise to step down from the post.
The bill passed with a simple majority in the National Assembly after a day of debate. Opposition lawmakers opposed the move, saying it would give the president too much power and violated the constitution.
"The government decided to move the bill in the assembly to bring stability and ensure a smooth continuation of democracy," Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afghan said.
He added that the bill's passage should end all debate as to whether the president, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, would also remain army chief.
A spokesman for the ruling party, Tariq Azeem Khan, said the bill would "strengthen our drive and commitment in the fight against terrorism."
The legislation must now be approved by the Senate, or upper house of parliament, where the ruling party also has a majority.
Associated Press