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From Wikinews, the free news source, this is the Audio Wikinews Brief for Monday, July 20, 2009. I'm James Pain, and here are today's current stories.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first ever landing of humans on the Moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 touched down on the lunar surface at 20:17 UTC on July 20.
The historic anniversary was marked by the current United States President, Barack Obama, meeting the crew, Neil Armstrong, "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins, who remained in lunar orbit while the other two were the first men on the satellite's surface. The culmination of the 1960s space race between the Soviet Union and the U.S. was not solely the work of the Americans. Among the statements surrounding the anniversary, Armstrong had written a message praising the Australian team at Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station near Canberra. Without their involvement there would have been no black and white television pictures for the millions worldwide who watched man's first step onto the Moon.
A civilian helicopter chartered by NATO has crashed while taking off from Kandahar International Airport in Afghanistan, killing sixteen. The Mil Mi-8 did not come under enemy fire.
The helicopter had been chartered from the Russian company Vertical-T and all the victims were civilians. A NATO statement said that there was no obvious cause for the accident but hostile fire had been ruled out. Emergency responders are on the scene.
Five other people were wounded in the accident. The airport serves as NATO's operating base for southern Afghanistan.
A United States fighter jet crash on Saturday has claimed the lives of the two American pilots onboard in eastern Afghanistan, and a NATO fighter crash at Kandahar Airfield has injured two more pilots today.
Saturday's accident involved a U.S. Air Force (USAF) F-15, which crashed at 3:15 a.m. Kabul time in Nawur, Ghazni. Both of those on the two-man fighter were killed
The MOD of the United Kingdom confirmed that the aircraft in today's accident was an RAF Tornado GR4 which crashed on take-off. The crash occurred at 7:20 a.m. local time and the wreckage burned for five hours. Both pilots ejected safely but sustained minor injuries, they are currently being treated and assessed in hospital.
On Saturday, the Taliban released a video showing Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. solider captured in Paktika, Afghanistan on June 30. In the film, Bergdahl, of Ketchum, Idaho, says he is frightened and asks that the United States, "Please, please bring us home so we can be back where we belong and not over here".
The events leading to Bergdahl's abduction remain somewhat unclear. Taliban commander Mulvi Sangeen claimed that Bergdahl had gone to a military post on his own, became intoxicated, and was ambushed on the way back to his vehicle. The U.S. military has dismissed this.
The mayor of Ketchum has said that, "As the mayor, I can say this is a community situation. I trust the leadership of this country, the wisdom of the people who are serving and the decisions that led up to the situation."
This has been a News Brief from Wikinews.org, the free news source, and has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.
Until next time, thank you for listening and good day.
Wikinews:Briefs/July 20, 2009