A relative telephoned the emergency services to raise the alarm.
Screaming, she said: “Yes, we need the ambulance and cops … he’s stuck under the house. The house just fell through.”
The woman was asked: “What happened to the house?”
She replied: “The bedroom floor just collapsed, and my brother-in-law is in there, he’s underneath the house.”
Mr Bush’s brother Jeremy said he jumped into the hole but could not see his sibling.
He had to be rescued himself by a sheriff’s deputy who reached out and pulled him to safety as the ground crumbled around him.
“The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn’t care. I wanted to save my brother,” Mr Bush said. “But I just couldn’t do nothing.”
Jeff Bush is presumed dead
He added: “I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him.”
Mr Bush went on: “All I could see was the cable wire running from the TV going down into the hole. I saw a corner of the bed and a corner of the box spring and the frame of the bed.”
Engineers are planning to resume their work at the site to do more tests on the unstable and dangerous ground.
They have already found the soil in the slowly growing sinkhole around the home is very soft and believe the entire property could eventually be swallowed up.
They said they may have to demolish the small, sky-blue house, even though from the outside there appeared to be nothing wrong with the four-bedroom, concrete-wall structure, built in 1974.
Officials lowered equipment into the sinkhole and saw no signs of life, said Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico.
A dressing table and a television set had vanished down the hole, along with most of Mr Bush’s bed.
County administrator Mike Merrill described the home as “seriously unstable”.
He said no-one can go in the house because officials were afraid of another collapse and losing more lives.
Florida is highly prone to sinkholes because there are caverns below ground of limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water.
They are so common that state law requires home insurers provide coverage against the danger.
Mr Bush said someone visited the home a couple of months ago to check for sinkholes and other things, apparently for insurance purposes.
“He said there was nothing wrong with the house. Nothing. And a couple of months later, my brother dies. In a sinkhole,” he said.
The big reveal is now over – read PS4 console announced by Sony
The event was more developer showcase than console announcement, and though you could argue that ‘it’s all about the games’, a little more substantial information regarding the hardware would have been nice. What we did see was impressive though, there were some polished-looking games, and the hardware (in some respects) is even better specified than the rumours had led us to believe.
We’re not going to get too hung up on what shape the inevitable black box will be (though we are hoping for something larger but quieter, rather than slinky and whiny), but neither pricing or a UK release dates were confirmed. Basically, we didn’t get to see anything we didn’t expect to see.
The name ‘Orbis’ can now safely slink away, it’s the PS4
It’s still gripping stuff for PlayStation fans, and not all the demos are online in full. So if you missed out you can still watch all two hours of it at us.playstation.com/meeting2013.
We may be impressed but we’re still be clamouring for more details. In fact the only question that has been unquestionably answered is the name – it will be called PS4. Below we’ll summarise everything we do now know with everything that we still only suspect.
PS4 RELEASE DATE
The official PS4 release date is currently pencilled in for ‘Holiday 2013′, which most-likely means in time for Thanksgiving in the US, so a mid-November PS4 launch date. However, for us in the UK things are far less clear, and the big question is whether we will get the PS4 before Christmas this year, or be left crying into our Turkey while Japanese and US gamers post huge quantities of next-gen loveliness onto social networking sites.
UK journalists at the event did try and get a firmer date out of Sony’s top brass, a worthy but ultimately doomed endeavour. Tom Bramwell at Eurogamer tried to appeal to the better nature of Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Worldwide Studios, but he would only go as far as saying “For us, Europe is an enormously important market. That’s no question. So I hope European consumers can play PS4 as soon as it’s available somewhere, but I’m not making promises.”
Don’t get too excited that date may not be intended for us Europeans
In addition, we recently heard that the PS4 could be delayed until 2014 in UK. An unnamed developer talking to Edge magazine said that stock issues meant the launch would have to be staggered across the regions. This would be bad news for UK fans, who would then have to wait until after the crucial Christmas period – missing out on numerous holiday hours for playing games.
Our gut feeling on this front isn’t a good one, and although the PS4 is first out of the gate, whoever can get hardware to gamers first could take a big lead.
It’s been widely-known for some time that the PS4 would be based around AMD technology, both for its CPU and GPU elements – as is the remarkably similar Xbox 720.
AMD hardware was confirmed last night, though the precise architecture wasn’t discussed in as much detail as some of the previous leaks, what was revealed confirmed those leaks – with one exception.
Even what proved to be the most reliable leaks said that the PS4 would have 4GB of system memory. It was theorised that use of a single pool of fast GDDR5 memory would more than make up for the (rumoured) more fragmented 8GB memory system of the ‘Xbox 720′. However, when the reveal came, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the PS4 will have a whopping 8GB of superfast memory.
It’s possible that this was due to Sony telling developers to develop launch games within a 4GB limit. Final hardware wouldn’t have been finalised when development started, and Sony would know exactly how much memory overhead the PS4′s cloud gaming, video capture and operating system would have. So giving developers a smaller limit to work within would have been a safe move. Pure speculation, but it does make sense.
The eight-core Jaguar AMD CPU and the powerful 1.84TFLOPS AMD GPU were both confirmed. There wasn’t any details about the architecture of the latter though, an area where hardware leaks, from the largely-reliable http://www.vgleaks.com, have pointed to a significant advantage for the PS4.
Quantic Dream showed what was possible with the PS4 hardware
The PS4 GPU is rumoured to have 50% more compute units than the Xbox 720. As suspected, and confirmed in the reveal these can be used for more than just graphics though, with Sony showing off an impressive Havok physics demo, with thousands of objects bouncing about – largely managed by the GPU.
Console comparisons aside, the bottom line for a next-gen console is fairly obvious. It should be able to run graphically detailed games at 1080p and 60fps, and preferably also cope with the processing overheads of 3D as well. The PS4 looks well equipped to do this.
While powerful, the gulf between top-end PC graphics cards and consoles is definitely growing – mainly because the best PC cards become more-and-more expensive (the new Nvidia GTX Titan costs the best part of £900. No console would sell at these prices, so it’s hardlt surprising that the PS4 Unreal Engine 4 demo isn’t quite as spangly as its PC equivalent - as pointed out by Reddit user Polypunk.
PS4 SPECS
Here’s the official listing of the PS4 specification, released after the event.
Main Processor: Single-chip custom processor CPU: x86-64 AMD ‘Jaguar’ 8 cores GPU: 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD next-generation Radeon™ based graphics engine
Memory: GDDR5 8GB
Hard Disk Drive: Built-in
Optical Drive (read only): BD 6xCAV DVD 8xCAV
I/O and communication: Super-Speed USB (USB 3.0) AUX Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth® 2.1 (EDR)
AV output: HDMI Analog-AV out Digital Output (optical) We’ve already discussed the CPU and GPU, but it’s worth noting that Sony are claiming both have been integrated onto a single chip. This APU (accelerated processing unit) to use AMD’s terminology has been seen for PCs for some time, with chips such as the AMD A10-5800K, but even this top-end chip has nothing near the graphics power of the PS4.
It’s not clear whether this is a single die, or whether it’s a pair of dies side-by-side on the same chip. It’s more likely to be the former, at this stage, with a fully integrated single-die chip coming along in later revisions once chip yields have improved – in much the same way as the Xbox 360 started out with two chips, then integrated them onto one and finally moved to a single die with the quieter and cooler Xbox 360 S.
PS4 PORTS
When it comes ports, connectivity and video output there was very little space for manoeuvre, and the PS4 is equipped as expected. A HDMI output, built-in Wi-Fi and an Ethernet port are all most people need, there’s also an S/PDIF output for older surround sound hardware. Bluetooth remains of course – and continues to be used for all controllers.
It wasn’t mentioned during the announcement, but after the event Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that the PS4 would support 4K resolutions – but only for video playback. This isn’t a surprise, as playing 4K video isn’t taxing for a next-gen console and HDMI 1.4 supports the resolution required – up to 4,096×2,160p at 24 Hz – the same as in digital cinemas. The big question is then how such content would be supplied?
Sony is keen enough to sell 4K sets it is giving away content on a hard disk with them to watch
HDMI 1.4 will also bring support for Ethernet channel, so it would be possible for your PS4 get a network connection from your AV Receiver, cutting down on cabling – presuming of course you have the right kit.
STANDBY, UPDATES AND CONTROLLER CHARGING
One of our biggest complaints about the PS3 was the size and regularity of its system updates. We’d often turn on the console for a quick game of something, only to have to wait for ages for a massive update to download and install. With the PS4, Sony claims to have solved these problems, with downloads and updates occurring in the background, even when the console is in its ‘Standby Mode’ so it should always be ready to go.
The Standby Mode has other uses too, the console will now be able to charge the new DualShock 4 controller (via Micro USB) while powered-down – and will probably be able to charge your phone or tablet too, which is handy.
More playing and less waiting, sounds great
The PS4 will also be capable of going into a Suspend Mode mid-game, which means that tedious boot-up and game loading times should be a thing of the past. Simply go into standby when you want a break, and be able to resume from where you left off at a push of a button when you’re ready. This is fantastic news, cutting down on waiting time and increasing playing time.
You’ll also be able to start playing demos and downloaded games before they fully download. Essentially, the PS4 will download the core game code and the first level, and then download the rest as you play. Again, less waiting, more playing.
We don’t have any cold boot times, boot from Standby times, or power usage figures for the PS4 as of yet. But we’ll keep you updated as we get more information.
The specification only mentions a built-in hard disk, with no capacity or type specified. We’d love to have a super-fast SSD drive in our PS4, but that seems unlikely given current prices. A traditional hard disk is almost certain, we just hope that Sony continue to provide the option to swap drives as you wish, with compatibility for standard 2.5in models.
Blu-ray is a must for PS4, the PS3 came a little too early for Sony to comfortably include the hardware, but it still pushed ahead with it at great cost. These days, Blu-ray is one of the defining parts of the PlayStation brand and essential for delivering huge amounts of data for top-end games.
Blu-ray wasn’t mentioned at all at the event, we’re guessing that was just to keep things centred on games; it is in the specification though and the good news is that read speeds have risen from a measly 2x to a more respectable 6x. This will hugely speed up game installation times.
PS4 CLOUD GAMING AND SHARING
With its purchase of Gaikai last year, Sony was always likely to be pushing cloud gaming on the PS4. Still we’re impressed how much the company has achieved on PS4 in just seven months, since its acquisition in July 2012. It goes well beyond just being able to play demos without downloading them too, with the PS4 able to connect with other devices, and your friends, in ingenious ways.
SHARED PLAY
For starters, the PS4 has built-in video compression hardware, which constantly records your gaming as you play. Using the new Share button on the PS4 controller, you can instantly grab a section of gameplay using simple edit controls and post it to say your PSN profile or Facebook. Live streaming is also possible through the popular Ustream sevice – so you’ll be able to stream constant footage to you fans – presuming you’re some kind of pro gamer.
It goes one step further though, allowing others to join in your gaming session, from which they can talk you through difficult parts or even (with your permission) take over the controls to help you out directly when you get stuck. We’re not sure how popular this will be, but games developers might be able to spin it into something far more intriguing – possibly even central to a clever indie game – where you have to help out other players by taking temporary control of their characters.
The cloud gaming system looks impressive, with the ability to instantly share and stream video, as well as allow a friend to take over the controls to help out
The PS4 can also stream video to a Sony PlayStation Vita, in much the same way as the Wii U can stream video to its tablet-like controller. This will allow gamers to play when the TV is being used for other purposes. It wasn’t stated what range such a feature will have, but you might be able to play games remotely (presuming a quick enough broadband connection) when away from home. This would of course mean you’d need to be able to turn the PS4 on-and-off remotely. Dave Perry of Gaikai said it was an aim of there’s to have every PS4 game playable on the Vita, though we think the number supported will depend on Vita sales and developer support.
Other devices will be supported, but we don’t know to what extent you’ll be able to play PS4 games on them
STREAMING GAMES
Gaikai’s tech also allows you to do more traditional streaming from Sony’s servers. As expected, you’ll be able to play demos from the PlayStation Store without having to download them first. Beyond this, the store will have a TiVo-style style system that will automatically download demos and games in the background based on your gaming preferences (such as trophies won in other titles).
PS4 INTERFACE
The new PS4 interface looks to modelled after the latest update to the current PlayStation Store on PS3
More content to be added shortly
PS4 DRM AND USED GAMES
[UPDATE 21/02] Despite the rumours it looks as if Sony may not be taking such a draconian line on second-hand games. In an interview, Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida said to Eurogamer that “… used games can play on PS4.” Though it was hardly the most detailed and unequivocal answer – and we suspect that the final decision will be left in the hands of publishers.
[UPDATE 27/02] Yoshida’s comment now appears to be contradicted by PlayStation UK boss Fergal Gara, who was talking to NowGamer. “We haven’t made a statement on the second-hand games question”, he said, “There was a lot of reaction to a patent that was filed, which is a matter of course for a technology business like us, to file various patents at various times, many of which many never see any application but they are good to have depending on ideas that might be building. The answer to the pre-owned question isn’t clarified just yet and we’re working through that and we’ll announce our position in more detail as and when we can.” For more information see our Sony admits second-hand game blocking is not “clarified” for the PS4
Second-hand sales are a serious problem for the games industry – in some ways, even more so than piracy. Strictly speaking, none of the money from a second-hand sale goes to the publisher or developer, but it’s impossible to predict how many less games consumers would buy if it was impossible to recoup some of the cost by selling them on. By blocking second-hand sales, Sony thinks that a good percentage of those who would have purchased the game second-hand will instead pay full price.
Sony filed a patent late last year that could mean the PS4 won’t play used or second hand games. The patent, US Patent Application 20130007892, describes “a game playing system [including] a use permission tag provided for use in a game disk for a user of a game, a disk drive, and a reproduction device for reproducing the game.” Essentially, this means that a device similar to an RFID or or near-field communication (NFC) tag built into the game disc would tie it to a particular console or console user.
Who will decide on DRM, Sony or its publishers, our guess is the latter
Many current generation games come with single-use codes that let the original owner download extra content, while digital distribution services like Steam, Xbox Live Arcade or the PlayStation Network tie purchases to a single user account.
Sony’s proposed system goes significantly further: once a game disc is inserted into a console featuring the patented technology, it would be permanently tied to that user or console. If the disc is sold, the game could either be a demo version limited to a specific section or a pre-set number of plays and requiring the purchase of a code to unlock or – if Sony goes the whole hog – simply not work at all.
PS4 CONTROLLER – DUALSHOCK 4
After seeing many leaked pictures of the new controller, it was hardly a surprise when we saw it onstage. The final controller, though, is a far more refined version than the prototype that’s knocking about with development kits. It’s nicely sculpted, has what appears to be a grippy underside, and every facet is redesigned, while still keeping the iconic layout largely intact.
The new PS4 DualShock 4 being officially unveiled
It has a small touchpad above the analogue sticks and a coloured light on the front. In this respect it includes functionality we’ve seen on both the Vita (which has a rear touchpad) and in Sony’s motion-based Move controllers. A speaker is also built-in, allowing for local audio effects and a headphone socket too – probably for headset use, but we’re also hoping for Bluetooth audio for easier headphone use while playing – very handy for split-screen gaming.
The button layout has been rejigged, with a new ‘Share’ button added for quick access to social media. Check out our Cloud Gaming section for more details.
There’s also a new Eye device with two 1,280×800 resolution cameras – 4x the previous camera’s resolution. This gives increased accuracy to pick up the existing Move controllers or the new DualShock 4. You can read more about this at PS Eye revealed for PS4.
It’s not much to look at, but it sees all
PS4 GAMES
Before last night we had a lot of words here describing what games might be in development and how far along they are. Now we’ve seen some of them in action. For the games unveiled at the launch event please move along to our Best PS4 games trailers so far, and enjoy the sweet eye candy.
Games on show varied from gentle Myst-like puzzle game, The Witness; with its incredibly dense open world were the developer promises gameplay of distilled Epiphanies …
… to the more traditional cartoon look of Knack, with its great characterisation and impressive physics effects for the protagonist …
… and more traditional blockbuster fare, with a huge explosion courtesy of Killzone Shadow Fall
We’ll be adding more content to this section as new titles are unveiled
PS4 PRICE
We may now know a lot more about the PS4, but its price is still pure speculation. One thing we can say, is that after the event, the PS4 looks to be more expensive than we originally thought; thanks to its increased memory
It’s very hard to put a price on a console as the manufacturers often sell them at a loss, especially to early adopters, in order to get the ball rolling. They make the money back on game sales and online content later. The PS3 was rumoured to cost Sony some $900 dollars to make upon launch, despite that Sony sold it for around $600.
Competition is also a big deal, with companies often forced to price match rivals. So whatever Sony’s plans may be, they could be radically affected by Microsoft’s or even the success or failure of the Wii U.
Now there are rumours that the PS4 is likely to cost $400, but it’s not that simple. A Japanese newspaper reported it will cost at least YEN40,000, which translates to at least $400, which in turn works out to at least £310 in the UK including tax.
Now all this speculation is well and good, but the comment in the Japanese press was from an unattributed source, and no it’s not any more accurate simply because the source comes from Japan.
Then there’s the exchange rate problem. The console was designed in Japan, but the chips were designed in America, and all the parts were manufactured and put together in China. The Yen is a lot stronger against UK and US currencies now than it was when the PS3 came out – by almost 50% in fact. That could make the price higher than some are predicting, but the truly global nature of the product makes this very hard to predict – even if you knew the Yen price for sure, it would be a guess to calculate a European selling price.
Going on historical facts, the original PlayStation sold for £299, as did the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 3 price jumped up to a whopping £425. Adjust those prices by the retail price index and you get 2013 prices of – £471, £412 and £504 respectively. Thankfully electronics haven’t risen in price in line with RPI, but you still get some idea of how hard Sony will have to try to bring in the console at a competitive £299 – which would be the sweet spot fans are hoping for.
CONCLUSION
Even after the announcement event, there’s still a lot left to learn about the PS4. We’ve taken everything we learnt so far and applied a liberal dosing of the most-trustworthy rumours. Based on this we’re really excited about the PS4, it looks to have the edge over its competitor at present – though that may all change when the new Xbox is announced – and that aside, it looks like a well-conceived and designed piece of hardware with some impressive cloud gaming features mixed in.
A journalist's New York reunion with a refugee from Kosovo brings back memories of time spent together in the former war zone in the late 90s.
Gusts of icy wind hustled Fifth Avenue. The outdoor rink in Bryant Park, built over the underground stacks of the grand New York Public Library, was packed with skaters - around and around they went, the artful pirouetting, the amateur clowning.
And headgear of every design - mufflers, beanies, furs, ear-protectors - bobbed along sidewalks as New Yorkers took on the first full-blown blast of winter.
A long overdue reunion made me think of the nearby Statue of Liberty and its famously inscribed assurance, the one that captures the raison d'etre not just of this city but of the entire United States of America: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
In weather as cold as this, any arrivals in New York still have a lot more huddling to do, I thought, as I waited for Adam (not his real name), stamping my feet at a set of traffic lights.
We had not really seen each other for years.
Since 1999, our only encounters had been virtual, via email initially, later Facebook.
But our experience before that had been very real and very intense. We had gone to war together.
Adam is a Kosovar Albanian. I had met him in early 1998, long before Nato military planners had taken Kosovo in their sights, when the first violence broke out between the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and Yugoslav - that is to say Serbian - forces.
He was a final year medical student with enough English, nous and raw courage to make a fantastic gatekeeper for a foreign correspondent like me.
"Translator or fixer" does not do justice to the role played by Adam. Without him Kosovo would, for me, have remained closed.
We spent a lot of time together that summer.
Tim Butcher in Kosovo in 1998
He smuggled me into "liberated" territory, we set up camp in Malisevo - the KLA's capital - we met the group's Amazonian women fighters and, with Adam's skill, we dodged checkpoints to reach the ancient holy places of the Serbian Orthodox Church - reliquaries and monasteries manned by bear-like monks with black beards and blacker demeanours.
And when a year later I entered Kosovo with the first Nato ground forces, it was Adam who came to my rescue. His medical skills had seen him deep in the forests stitching up wounded Kosovars and his stories added richly to my understanding.
When the circus of world news moved on, I went with it, leaving Adam behind.
A few years later he, himself, left Kosovo and joined those streaming to New York in search of a new life.
When I spotted him on the other side of Fifth Avenue he was, no surprise, greyer and more portly. Before I could consider too closely what this might make me, we had hugged and made for the warmth of a coffee shop.
There then followed two tender hours of catching up and reminiscing.
"You remember when we were in Malisevo and we watched the first game of the World Cup in that Imam's house?" Adam prompted.
"Brazil were playing but I cannot remember who against," I half remembered.
"Come on, it was Scotland. I thought you were meant to be British." Adam's sharp memory had me blushing.
Eventually, we came around to the issue of how he came to leave his homeland.
"Things got complicated after you left," he said sipping his latte. "I was working with a friend and there was a situation that led to him being shot.
"They tried to kill him but failed. I took to carrying a gun for my own protection. I had to leave for my own security."
And how was it arriving in New York City?
"Well you would be amazed how many Kosovars were already here," he said, smiling.
"Almost all of the 'Italian family restaurants' you see are really owned by Albanians, so I could get plenty of work while I studied for my medical licence.
Adam, right, pictured in Kosovo
"It was difficult at first but who has an easy ride when they arrive in New York? It was worth it because finally my family was able to join me from Pristina.
"Now I work as a psychiatrist in the public health sector over in New Jersey.
"You know what they say about Americans? They are mad enough to keep us shrinks busy forever."
The conversation moved on to those intense days of war almost 15 years back and we did what any member of the journalist tribe does when gathering after many years apart - slagging off the louder mutual acquaintances and wondering what ever happened to the quiet ones.
But as we left the shop and Adam, without even blinking, paid the exorbitant $40 charge for parking his car in Manhattan for only two hours, I thought about the alchemical power of America.
The Adam I had first known had been a quiet, bookish student from the backwoods of the Balkans. Now he was a healthcare professional in one of the most advanced societies on the planet - quite some transformation for someone who simply "yearned to breathe free".
More than 900 people have been injured after a meteor strike in central Russia, the country's interior ministry said.
Fragments of at least onemeteorite - the weight of a double-decker bus - were seen falling from the sky in theChelyabinsk region at around 9am local time, around 1,500km east ofMoscow.
A regional governor said 950 people have been injured. Russia's Ministry of Emergencies said at least 82 children were hurt and 34 adults and 12 children were being treated in hospital. Two people are in intensive care.
The meteor lit up the sky
Many were hurt by flying glass as windows were blown in. Witnesses described feeling a pressure wave and hearing explosions overhead as the object hurtled to earth.
The Russian Academy of Sciences estimates the meteor weighed about 10 tonnes and entered the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of at least 33,000mph (54,000kph) - 15 times the speed of a rifle bullet - and shattered up to 32 miles (50km) above ground.
Meteors typically cause sizeable sonic booms when they enter the atmosphere because they are travelling much faster than the speed of sound.
The meteorite weighed 10 tonnes
The defence ministry said it had identified a six metre crater near a lake in this region and has sent soldiers to the site of the impact.
The emergencies ministry said that 20,000 rescue workers had been dispatched to help the injured and locate those needing help.
Resident Anna Pinkus told she saw a bright light outside her window and then heard three explosions.
More than 500 people have been injured
"It was a very loud sound. After that our windows began to shatter and shiver so it was very terrifying. First we thought it was a plane crash."
Planetary scientist Professor Ian Crawford of Birkbeck University said this was an unusual case as meteorite hits rarely cause any damage.
Viktor was injured by a shock wave
"Several times a year meteorites are observed to fall on the earth's surface but damage to people or property is very unusual - there are only several recorded cases of buildings being hit by meteorites."
Describing the course of the meteorite he said: "I think it's very likely that it would have been a larger lump of rock that broke up in the earth's atmosphere – this is usually what happens.
"The rock comes in from space and hits the earth's atmosphere. That decelerates it and puts a lot of stress on it. Then it's likely to fragment into lots of pieces."
The local office of the National Emergencies Ministry said in a statement: "A meteorite disintegrated above the Urals (mountain range in central Russia), partially burning up in the lower atmosphere.
The crash site of a piece of meteor (Pic: Chelyabinsk MVD)
"Fragments of the meteorite reached Earth, falling in sparsely populated areas in the Chelyabinsk region."
Many drivers in Russia have video recorders fitted in their cars in case of accidents or disputes with traffic police. Footage from these uploaded to YouTube show the fireball crashing to the ground.
There were reports of traffic in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk grinding to a halt and people seeking shelter in buildings as the fireballs lit up the sky.
The emergencies ministry confirmed the mobile phone network was temporarily cut. Schools were closed for the day across the region after the impact blew out windows.
The meteor hit Chelyabinsk
The meteor hit less than a day before the asteroid 2012 DA14 is to make the closest recorded pass of an asteroid to the Earth - about 17,150 miles (28,000km). But the European Space Agency in a tweet said its experts had determined there was no connection.
The Chelyabinsk region is Russia's industrial heartland, home to many factories and other huge facilities that include a nuclear power plant and the Mayak atomic waste storage and treatment centre.
A spokesman for Rosatom, the Russian nuclear energy state corporation, said that its operations remained unaffected.
"All Rosatom enterprises located in the Urals region - including the Mayak complex - are working as normal," said a Rosatom spokesman.
The crippled cruise ship slowly making its way back to land suffered another setback when a tow line snapped, briefly setting the vessel adrift once again.
Passengers on board the Carnival Triumph have described overflowing toilets, sewage backed up in showers, scarce food and people getting sick, bringing the scene into sharper focus after a week at sea.
What began as a four-day voyage in the Gulf of Mexico has turned into a holiday nightmare.
Passengers were expected to make it to shore Thursday - only to then face an hours-long bus ride or other travel hassles to finally get back home.
Frustrations with the cruise line were simmering on and off the ship, as passengers and their relatives questioned why it has taken so long to get back to dry land after an engine-room fire disabled the ship on Sunday.
The ship is not expected to make port until late Thursday
“There’s poop and urine all along the floor,” Renee Shanar, of Houston, said from her mobile phone aboard the ship. “The floor is flooded with sewer water … and we had to poop in bags.”
The ship was in sight of the Alabama shore on Thursday afternoon when the tow line broke. Coast Guard crews managed to reconnect the line, but it was still expected to take several hours before the ship makes port in Mobile.
The 14-storey ship – carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew – still has to negotiate a tricky shipping channel before it can dock. Before the line broke, the ship was travelling about 5 mph (8kph).
Ms Shanar, who is on the ship with her husband, said the couple had a cabin with no windows, so they have been sleeping outside for days. She said food has been distributed on the ninth floor, and some of the elderly have needed younger people to bring it to them.
Relatives of passengers have tried to maintain contact via mobile phone
They were initially only given cold cuts, like turkey and vegetable sandwiches. Then another cruise line dropped off hamburgers and chicken sandwiches, but the line for that fare was nearly four hours long.
“And then people started getting sick from the food,” she said.
The company has disputed the accounts of passengers who describe the ship as filthy, saying employees are doing everything to ensure people are comfortable.
Terry Thornton, senior vice president for Carnival Cruise Lines, said they received an extra generator that allowed them to serve hot food on the ship Wednesday night, and that food services will be fully operational by the time they dock.
When passengers arrive in Alabama, they will be given the option of boarding buses directly to Galveston, Texas, or Houston – a roughly seven-hour drive – or taking a two-hour bus ride to New Orleans, where the company said it booked 1,500 hotel rooms.
Carnival senior vice president Terry Thornton talks to reporters in Mobile
Those staying in New Orleans will be flown on Friday to Houston. Carnival said it will cover all the transportation costs.
“I can’t imagine being on that ship this morning and then getting on a bus,” said Kirk Hill, whose 30-year-old daughter, Kalin Christine Hill, is on the cruise. “If I hit land in Mobile, you’d have a hard time getting me on a bus.”
Thelbert Lanier was waiting at the Mobile port for his wife, who sent him a text message from the ship early Thursday.
His wife wrote: “Room smells like an outhouse. Cold water only, toilets haven’t work in 3 1/2 days. Happy Valentines Day!!! I love u & wish I was there.”
Robert Giordano, whose 33-year-old wife Shannon is aboard the cruise liner with a group of friends from Edmond, Oklahoma, said he has yet to speak to someone at Carnival.
The disabled vessel slowly makes its way to port
All his information has come through pre-recorded phone calls, the most recent one Wednesday when he was told the ship would “probably” arrive in Mobile late on Thursday or early Friday. He found out more, he said, when NBC’s Today show called him.
Mr Giordano said: “That’s the biggest frustration for me now is that the media knows more than the family members do and certainly more than the passengers do on the ship.”
Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said the company has tried to keep families updated and established a free hotline number for friends and relatives. He said about 200 Carnival employees are in Mobile waiting to assist passengers upon their arrival.
The ship left Galveston for a four-day cruise last Thursday. The vessel was about 150 miles (240 km) off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula when an engine room fire knocked out its primarypower source, crippling its water and plumbing systems and leaving it adrift on only backup power.
No one was injured in the fire, but a passenger with a pre-existing medical condition was taken off the ship as a precaution. The National Transportation Safety Board said it has opened an investigation into the cause.
The ship, which had been plagued by other mechanical problems in recent weeks, will be kept for several months.
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