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NASA marks 25th anniversary of Challenger accident

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Hundreds gathered at NASA's launch site Friday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, receiving words of hope from the widow of the space shuttle'scommander.

The chilly outdoor ceremony drew space agency managers, former astronauts, past and present launch directors, family and friends of the fallen crew — and schoolchildren who weren't yet born when the space shuttle carrying a high school teacher from Concord, N.H., erupted in the sky.

The accident on Jan. 28, 1986 — just 73 seconds into flight — killed all seven on board, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger's commander, Dick Scobee, urged the crowd to "boldly look to the future" not only inspace travel, but in space and science education. She was instrumental in establishing the Challenger Center for Space Science Education.

"The entire world knew how the Challenger crew died," she said. "We wanted the world to know how they lived and for what they were risking their lives."

Rodgers and NASA's space operations chief, Bill Gerstenmaier, placed a memorial wreath of red, white and blue-tinted carnations at the base of the Space Mirror Memorial. The 42-foot-tall gleaming mirrored slab of granite bears the names of all 24 astronauts killed in the line of duty over the years — 17 of those in U.S. spacecraft.

Dennis and Pat Cassidy of Franklin, N.H., blinked back tears as Rodgers spoke. Pat Cassidy recalled the joy she felt when McAuliffe was named as NASA's teacher in space — she screamed she was so excited. When Challenger was lost, she couldn't stop crying.

"Geez. You never expected it to happen. We never expect these kinds of things to happen, I guess," she said, clutching a red rose.

Her husband recalled after the initial shock, feeling so badly for McAuliffe's family, all present at the launch: her husband, two children and her parents. "All I could do was say a prayer for the family. And that's what they should do today, say a prayer for the families."

The Cassidys, wintering in Florida, made a point to be at the ceremony.

So did Peggy Shecket, who traveled from Cleveland. Her dear friend Judith Resnik was aboard Challenger that freezing morning. The two women, back in the mid-1980s, lived such different lives. Shecket was a suburban Ohio mom with two sons. Resnik had become the second American woman in space. But their bond was strong: Resnik invited Shecket to the launch, and she went.

A photo she took an instant before the shuttle exploded hangs on her family room wall.

"I miss her terribly," Shecket said. "At this age, in our 60s, we could have gone to ladies' weekends together. She probably would have had time that she didn't have 25 years ago because she was so busy."

Kathryn Serene drove four hours from Savannah, Ga., in the wee hours of Friday to attend the 9 a.m. ceremony. She brought a homemade basket bearing a paper model space shuttle, red, white and blue silk flowers, and a large red apple, which she left at the base of the memorial. She was in middle school when the accident occurred, and wanted to show her respects all these years later.

Erik Volk hadn't been born yet. Neither were his fellow fifth-graders from Espiritu Santo Catholic School in Safety Harbor, Fla., on the opposite coast. The 60 students were at an overnight space camp Thursday, and the chaperones rearranged the schedule once they learned of the ceremony.

"Remember the teacher? What I said about the teacher?" prompted his father, Joe Volk. "Yes. She was going to give classes from space," said the boy, holding a yellow rose.

Erik, 10, said he was there "to remember the lives that were lost."

The crew included commander Scobee; co-pilot Michael Smith; Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian-American in space; Resnik; Ronald McNair, the second African-American in space; McAuliffe; and Gregory Jarvis.

Erik waited patiently in a long line to place his long-stemmed rose in the white grated fence around the memorial. Each guest did the same following the ceremony, and the fence soon was adorned with flowers.

At the high school in Concord where McAuliffe taught, special assemblies were held Friday in her honor. Anniversary events also took place at Challenger Learning Centers across the country.

This silver anniversary comes as NASA is winding down the space shuttle program. The fleet will be retired after three more flights this year to the International Space Station.

Friday's speakers stressed that exploration will never be risk-free. The Challenger astronauts demonstrated that painful truth — so did the lost crew of Columbia. But they also showed "that we can learn from our mistakes and be better for them in the end," said Robert Cabana, a former shuttle commander who now is theKennedy Space Center director.

"They continue to urge us forward, to explore and to never quit just because it's hard," Cabana said. "They are a part of us forever, and we will not let them down"

Honda's quarterly profit falls on strong yen

TOKYO – Honda reported a nearly 40 percent drop in quarterly profit, hit by a strong yen and fading sales in Japan but raised its full-year earnings forecast, crediting cost cuts.

Honda's October-December profit totaled 81.1 billion yen ($989 million), down from 134.6 billion yen the year before, it said Monday. Quarterly sales slipped nearly 6 percent to 2.11 trillion yen ($25.7 billion).

A strong yen hurt Tokyo-based Honda's overseas earnings and the end of green car incentives crimped vehicle sales in Japan, offsetting the perk from strong motorcycle sales in Asia.

Honda Motor Co. was upbeat about the full fiscal year through March 2011, raising its profit forecast to 530 billion yen ($6.5 billion) from its October forecast of 500 billion yen ($6.1 billion).

The revision was mostly from cost cuts and improved model offerings.

The maker of the Civic sedan, Odyssey minivan and Asimo robot lowered its full-year sales projection to 8.9 trillion yen ($108.5 billion) from 9 trillion yen ($109 billion), mainly because the yen is expected to remain strong.

But the lowered projection still leaves Honda ahead of the previous fiscal year when it posted 268 billion yen ($3.3 billion) profit on 8.58 trillion yen ($105 billion) sales.

Honda said vehicle sales fell in Japan, because of the end of government incentives for green models last year, but improved in North America. Honda's vehicle sales also fell in Europe.

Among Honda's green car offerings are the Insight and CR-Z hybrid models, which are popular but trail the world's top-selling hybrid, the Prius from Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp.

Honda sold 855,000 vehicles around the world in October through December, down 6.5 percent from 914,000 sold a year earlier. Japan sales slid to 118,000 from 177,000 while North American sales jumped to 364,000 from 344,000.

Honda said there were some signs of a gradual recovery in the key U.S. market but acknowledged lingering worries about tighter credit and high unemployment. It was more optimistic about China and India, where it hopes to expand not only in autos but also in motorcycles.

The surging yen remains a risk for all Japanese exporters, including Honda. It said the dollar traded at about 83 yen during the three months, down from 89 yen a year earlier.

The negatives from currency rates erased 45 billion yen ($549 million) from Honda's quarterly operating profit, it said.

Honda expects the dollar, now at about 82 yen, to trade at 80 yen in the January-March quarter.

For the first nine months of the fiscal year, Honda's profit soared to 489.5 billion yen ($5.97 billion), more than doubling from 196 billion yen the same period the previous fiscal year.

Nine-month sales gained about 7 percent to 6.72 trillion yen ($82 billion).

Toyota, the world's top automaker in annual vehicle sales, reports earnings Feb. 8. Nissan Motor Co., which outsold Honda globally last year to become Japan's No. 2 automaker, reports earnings Feb. 9.

Honda shares lost 1.4 percent to close at 3,475 yen ($42) in Tokyo.

Bombings targeting police kill 5 in NW Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A pair of bombings targeting police in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday killed five people, including asenior police officer, officials said.

In the most deadly attack, a suicide bomber struck a vehicle carrying Rasheed Khan, the deputy superintendent of police in southern Peshawar, killing him and three others, including his driver, one of his guards and a passer-by, said police official Shafqat Malik.

Authorities originally said the suicide bomber was in a car, but Maliksaid he was on foot and used about 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of explosives. Seven people were wounded in the attack, which took place on the outskirts of Peshawar, he said.

Less than three hours later, a roadside bomb hit a police vehicle on patrol, killing one policeman and wounding three others, said police official Fazle Wahid. The bombing took place several miles away from the first attack.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but Peshawar has been repeatedly attacked by the Pakistani Taliban. The city is located next to Pakistan's tribal area, which the militants use as their main base of operations.

US set to fly thousands of Americans from Egypt

WASHINGTON – The State Department is set to evacuate U.S. citizens from Egypt on chartered planes, but is relying largely on friends and families in the U.S. to relay that information to stranded Americans.

The charters were flying out of Cairo and Assistant Secretary of State Janice Jacobs said the U.S. was looking at Athens, Greece; Istanbul,Turkey; and Nicosia, Cyprus, as destinations.

The U.S. Embassy in Cyprus said the first flights were expected to arrive there early Monday.

Jacobs told reporters Sunday that she expects it will take several flights over the coming days to handle the number of Americans who want to leave Egypt, where rioters are threatening to overturn the ruling regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Jacobs acknowledged that Internet interruptions in Egypt are making it difficult for Americans there to get information about the evacuations. But she said they have been able to get information from people in the United States who do have access to State Department and embassy websites.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appealed for an orderly transition to lasting democracy in Egypt even as escalating violence threatened Mideast stability. She refused to speculate on Mubarak's future and his teetering government, but said U.S. officials "obviously want to see people who are truly committed to democracy, not to imposing any ideology on Egyptians."

She warned Sunday against a takeover resembling the one in Iran, with a "small group that doesn't represent the full diversity of Egyptian society" seizing control and imposing its ideological beliefs.

The U.S. wants to see "real democracy" emerge in Egypt, Clinton said, "not a democracy for six months or a year and then evolving into essentially a military dictatorship or a so-called democracy that then leads to what we saw in Iran."

Clinton. who was interviewed on five Sunday morning news shows, made clear there are no discussions at this time about cutting off aid to Egypt, which receives about $1.5 billion in annual foreign assistance from the U.S. to help modernize its armed forces and strengthen regional security and stability. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had said Friday that military and civilian aid was under review.

Jacobs said the U.S. will have enough flights to take out all American citizens and dependents who want to leave. And the U.S. may also send charter planes to other cities in Egypt, such as Luxor, if there are a number of Americans stranded there. She said Americans with tickets on commercial airlines should first contact those carriers about getting out.

Americans taking the charter will be billed for the cost of the flight and will need to make their own travel arrangements home after arriving in Europe.

According to the State Department there are about 52,000 Americans registered with the embassy in Cairo. Officials noted, however, that many people don't register — or deregister when they leave — and some Americans may not want to leave.

Americans looking for information on the flights should monitor the State Department and embassy websites or send an e-mail to egyptemergencyusc(at)state.gov. They can also call toll-free, 1-888-407-4747, from within the U.S. and Canada. From outside the U.S. and Canada people can call 1-202-501-4444.