Happy Newyear 2017...

Jul 26,2016 Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth.

Nov26,2016 Fidel Castro, Cuba's leader of revolution, dies at 90.

Jul 26, 2016Solar plane makes history after completing round-the-world trip

Solar Impulse 2, which landed in Abu Dhabi, is first plane powered by the renewable energy source to tour the globe Solar Impulse 2 has completed the first round-the-world flight by a solar-powered aeroplane, after touching down in Abu Dhabi early on Tuesday. The final leg of the feat, aimed at showcasing the potential of renewable energy, was a bumpy one, with turbulence driven by hot desert air leaving the solo pilot, Bertrand Piccard, fighting with the controls.
The plane, which has a wingspan wider than a Boeing 747 and carries more than 17,000 solar cells on its wings, began the circumnavigation in March 2015 in Abu Dhabi. It has since crossed both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans using no fossil fuel and has spent more than 23 days in the air. During daylight, the solar panels charged the plane's batteries, which make up a quarter of the craft's 2.3 tonne weight. The pilot also climbed to 29,000 feet during the day and glided down to 5,000 feet at night, to conserve power. The plane flies at about 30mph, although it can go faster if the sun is bright.
Bertrand alternated with Andre Borschberg to fly the 16 legs of the journey, spending up to five days in the unheated and unpressurised cabin, taking only short naps and with the single seat doubling up as a toilet. Borschberg flew the longest leg, 4,000 miles over the Pacific from Japan to Hawaii, smashing the record for the longest uninterrupted journey in aviation history.
Two men, both pioneers, innovators and pilots, are the driving force behind Solar Impulse.Piccard and Borschberg, both Swiss, are seasoned adventurers. Bertrand Piccard, a medical doctor specialized in psychiatry, explorer and aeronaut, who made the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight in 1999, is the initiator and chairman. while Borschberg, a former Swiss Air Force fighter pilot, has had brushes with death involving an avalanche and a helicopter crash, is the co-founder and CEO..

Nov 26,, 2016: Fidel Castro, Cuba's leader of revolution, dies at 90

Fidel Castro (1926-2016)
The former Cuban president has died aged 90 - his dramatic life makes his longevity all the more surprising.
80 rebels landed with him on Cuba to launch the revolution
32 was his age when he came to power, toppling Fulgencio Batista
49 years as Cuban president, a record for a non-royal leader
638 assassination attempts he reportedly survived
Cuba's former president Fidel Castro, one of the world's longest-serving and most iconic leaders, has died aged 90. His younger brother and successor as presidentRaul Castro announced the news on state television. Castro toppled the government in 1959, introducing a Communist revolution. He defied the US for decades, surviving many assassination plots. His supporters said he had given Cuba back to the people. Critics saw him as a dictator.

Ashes and grave, President Raul Castro told the nation in an unexpected late night broadcast on state television that Fidel Castro had died and would be cremated later on Saturday. "The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening (03:29 GMT Saturday, Nov 26, 2016)," he said. "Towards victory, always!" he added, using a revolutionary slogan. A period of official mourning has been declared on the island until 4 December, when his ashes will be laid to rest in the south-eastern city of Santiago.

Castro was the longest serving non-royal leader of the 20th Century. News of his death left some in Havana stunned.

How he defied the US:
Throughout the Cold War, Fidel Castro was a thorn in Washington's side. An accomplished tactician on the battlefield, he and his small army of guerrillas overthrew the military leader Fulgencio Batista in 1959 to widespread popular support.
Within two years of taking power, he declared the revolution to be Marxist-Leninist in nature and allied the island nation firmly to the Soviet Union. He established a one-party state, with hundreds of supporters of the Batista government executed. Political opponents have been imprisoned, the independent media suppressed. Thousands of Cubans have fled into exile. Despite the constant threat of a US invasion as well as the long-standing economic embargo on the island, Castro managed to maintain a communist revolution in a nation just 90 miles (145km) off the coast of Florida.
Cuba is now changing:
It's unlikely to, mainly because Raul Castro has already been implementing economic changes intended to attract foreign direct investment and ease the tight restrictions on ordinary Cubans. Plus, of course, there is the new approchement with Washington.
Barack Obama arrives in Havana on Sunday,Mar20, 2016 marking the start of an historic trip to Cuba, the first by a US president in 88 years. President Obama, his wife Michelle, children Sasha and Malia and the first lady's mother, Marian Robinson, touched down in Havana at 4:20pm ET on Sunday, with the first drops of rain falling as the Obamas walked down the Air Force One steps. The three-day trip is the culmination of a diplomatic thaw announced by Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro in December 2014, ending a cold war-era estrangement that began in 1959.In a meeting with US embassy staff and their families, Obama says 'it's a historic opportunity to engage directly with the Cuban people'
While it's still not clear what a Trump presidency will mean in that regard, those changes are unlikely to be reversed because of Castro's death. Nor will Cuba change its one-party political system in his absence