Bad weather conditions on the Antarctic coast had earlier delayed the rescue mission 24 hours

Bad weather conditions on the Antarctic coast had earlier delayed the rescue mission 24 hours.A medical staff of five, including an anesthetist, was on the evacuation mission.Others among the evacuees had “family emergencies they need to go take care of,” Sherve said, describing the mass evacuation as “unprecedented.”"Several of the evacuees will need medical treatment,” he said.Sherve declined to provide further information on their conditions.All eleven are employees of Raytheon, which provides support services at the McMurdo Base, 800 miles from the South Pole.There are 211 Americans left at the base following the evacuation, where they will winter over until the next flights, scheduled in late August as Antarctica’s spring begins.The evacuation flight carried fresh fruit and vegetables and personal mail to the ice–and–snow bound base staff.The McMurdo airlift came hours after blowing snow, high winds and low visibility prevented another emergency airlift taking off for the South Pole, where a sick American doctor is waiting for a flight out for urgent treatment.Dr Ronald S Shemenski, doctor at the Amundsen Scott–South Pole station is the only physician among 50 researchers working at that research station. He recently suffered a gall bladder attack and has been diagnosed with the potentially life–threatening condition known as pancreatitis.An eight–seat, twin–engine plane fitted with skis for landing gear is now scheduled to fly as early as Wednesday from the Rothera research station on the Antarctic peninsula and pick up the 59–year–old doctor. The plane arrived at Rothera last week after a flight from Punta Arenas, Chile, accompanied by a backup aircraft.Flights to the South Pole station are normally halted from late February until November because of the extreme winter cold and darkness. But the rescuers are worried that Shemenski’s condition could worsen in the coming months, when an airlift out of the South Pole would be virtually impossible.”The wind’s blowing like hell We’re getting reduced visibility and blowing snow. If the winds calm down and there’s less cloud cover, we’ll get better visibility,” said Steve Penikett, general manager of Kenn Borek Air Ltd, the Canadian airline company leading the evacuation for the doctor.Aviation experts say this would be the first time a plane has attempted a landing at the South Pole during the polar winter, where temperatures are now 75 degrees (–59 Celsius) below zero – 143 (–97 Celsius) below with the wind chill – and skies are nearly pitch–black some 20 hours of the day.The rescue effort is the second in two years.In October 1999, Dr Jerri Nielsen, the lone physician at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was evacuated after she discovered a breast tumor that was diagnosed as cancerous..

President Bush is today set to avoid further conflict with China by announcing he will not sell Taiwan a state-of-the-art arms package ­ instead offering it a deal of older and less controversial military hardware. President Bush is today set to avoid further conflict with China by announcing he will not sell Taiwan a state-of-the-art arms package ­ instead offering it a deal of older and less controversial military hardware.
Taiwan ­ which Beijing considers a renegade province ­ has asked the US to provide it with four $1bn destroyers equipped with state-of-the-art Aegis radar defence systems designed to detect and attack dozens of missiles, aircraft and ships at once. Beijing has made it clear that it does not want Taiwan to be sold these weapons.Most observers believe George Bush will stop short of providing Taiwan with its full demands, though at the same time he is expected to make clear to China that the US does not approve of the large number of missiles stationed on its coastline pointing across the South China Sea at Taiwan. “The Chinese missile build-up is the single most destabilising part of the balance across the Taiwan Strait,” a senior defence official said. “This will achieve significance over the next few years as the numbers and accuracy go up.”Senior State Department and defence officials have advised Mr Bush instead to sell Taiwan older and less sophisticated equipment. While a US law demands Washington be responsible for Taiwan’s defence needs, a recent military assessment by the US concluded the Taiwanese did not require Aegis. His final decision will be announced to a Taiwanese delegation at the Pentagon later today by the Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.But Mr Bush may yet surprise everyone.

The recent stand-off with Beijing when the crew of a US spy plane was held for 11 days despite requests from Washington for the 24 men and women to be released immediately, has strengthened the hand of the hardliners within the Bush administration.Prominent among these voices is that of Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a State Department official during the Reagan years who has long argued China is more of a rival than an ally. The Bush administration now talks of a China as a “strategic competitor”.Amid this tense atmosphere, Mr Bush needs to play a careful hand. Following what many in his party consider an acute embarrassment on the spy plane issue, the President needs to ensure he is not seen to be bowing to China on the arms deal.At the same time, Chinese officials in Washington have warned of the “devastating impact” on US-China relations if the US sells advanced weapons to Taiwan and there are many US business interests which do not want US-China trade relations to be damaged. Taiwan itself has been cranking up the temperature, last weekend holding its annual Chinese Glory exercises ­ a large-scale military training operation designed to show how its forces would react to any Chinese invasion.In addition to the Aegis-equipped destroyers, Taiwan’s military shopping list ­ said to be the longest for many years ­ includes Apache helicopter-gunships and diesel submarines.. General Augusto Pinochet has received treatment for diabetes and undergone dental surgery at Santiago’s military hospital.