Earth From 425 Miles Above

Incredible images captured from 425 miles above the Earth's surface Capturing the natural and man made beauty of our planet, these remarkable images are photographed from 425 miles above the Earth's surface St. Petersburg Showing the world's tallest mountain... Mount Everest ...and the glory of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, they make up part of commercial satellite firm GeoEye's 2011 calendar GeoEye have released this year's calendar to mark 18 years as the world's largest space imaging corporation Grand Palace, Bangkok Operating three satellites out of their Dulles, Virginia headquarters, GeoEye provide exclusive imagery to the Google Earth and Google Maps applications. As of last year, GeoEye had gathered together 340 million square kilometres of photographs and their newest satellite GeoEye 1 is capable of capturing something the size of a beer barrel from 684 kilometres up Piazza del Campo in Siena "Our biggest customer is the military and primarily the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, whom we provide photos to within 50 cm clarity on the ground," said Elizabeth "Eli" Doerr, GeoEye's Corporate Imagery Services Representative The five story, marble-lined Ak Orda Palace in Kazakhstan Launched in 2008 GeoEye 1 ''has a sun-synchronous orbit, which means that it can pass over the same location every day at approximately 10.30am... The First hole at Augusta golf course, Georgia ...and is capable of collecting up to 700,000 square kilometres of material every day'' The Takla Makan Desert, China Australia's Bondi Beach The coastline of Antigua Sao Paulo's Octavio Frias de Oliveira Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge over the Pinheiros River in Brazil The island of Santorini, Greece

World's Bravest Divers

The height of daring: World's bravest divers take the breath away with awe-inspiring leaps By Oliver Pickup Last updated at 2:15 PM on 23rd May 2011 Brit wins event jumping from a staggering 27 metres - or 88.5 feet Here is a Red Bull-sponsored event where it really would be useful to have wings: The Cliff Diving World Series. Southampton-born Gary Hunt - the reigning Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series champion - won the day, at Lake Vouliagmeni near Athens. Yesterday was the 26-year-old's first success of the current season, and after winning four out of six events last year, Hunt has been the man to beat. Scared of heights? England's Gary Hunt dives 27 metres into Lake Vouliagmeni in the third event of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series No turning back: Steven LoBue begins his dive at the Cliff Diving World Series event in Athens Daring: An athlete dives during the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series over Lake Vouliagmeni With his main rival, 2009 champion Orlando Duque, out of action with a broken ankle, the man from the south coast rose to the occasion and wowed the Greek crowd with a series of stunning dives from 27 metres - or 88.5 feet. Colombian Duque, who injured himself during a sky dive recently, said: 'Right now is when I felt I was in the best stage of my career. 'After the accident I know it's going to be hard to get back to where I was.' Daredevil: Alain Kohl of Luxembourg is shown flinging himself fearlessly from the Red Bull Cliff Diving platform in Athens No turning back: Michal Navratil from Czechoslovakia leaps from the 27 metre-high platform (left) while Todor Spasov of Bulgaria (right) shows how high it is Stylish: Hunt, 26, is watched by spectators who have scrambled up the cliffs to get a decent view Grant did not mind that the 37-year-old was not in Greece and after finishing on the podium in all six events last year has proved himself a great competitor. The daredevil said: 'I take care in every aspect of my life and I just want to give myself every chance of becoming the champion.' And on his success at Lake Vouliagmeni, he added: 'I couldn't be happier. 'The first round yesterday did not start exactly how I had wanted. But I really got into the atmosphere today and it went perfectly.' Don't look down: Bulgarian Todor Spasov drops down from the platform on Sunday Going down: Two of the athletes perform their dives at the Cliff Diving World Series On top of the world: Gary Hunt drops down the 88.5 feet into the waters at Lake Vouliagmeni Champion: Hunt is congratulated by Artem Silchenko of Russia, who came second. The Brit - the 2010 series winner - moved to the top of the leaderboard after this third stage win The win moved Hunt - who says his favourite dive is a Back 1.5 piked from 10 metres - to the top of the leaderboard after three rounds. It gave him 49, nine points ahead of Duque, who had won the first two rounds in Chile and Mexico. Also joining Hunt, who was awarded 471.15 points, on the podium in Greece were Russian Artem Silchenko (447.10) and Michal Navratil from Czechoslovakia (421.31). The next stop for the divers is La Rochelle in France on June 18 - and there are later fixtures in Malcesine, Italy, Boston in the US and finally Yalta in Ukraine.

10 Oldest Mosques in the World..............

10 Oldest Mosques in the World The designation of the oldest mosque in the world requires careful use of definitions, and must be divided into two parts, the oldest in the sense of oldest surviving building, and the oldest in the sense of oldest mosque congregation. Even here, there is the distinction between old mosque buildings that have been in continuous use as mosques, and those that have been converted to other purposes; and between buildings that have been in continuous use as mosques and those that were shuttered for many decades. In terms of congregations, they are distinguished between early established congregations that have been in continuous existence, and early congregations that ceased to exist (wikipedia).    01. Quba Mosque, Saudi Arabia First Built: 622   02. Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, Saudi Arabia First Built: 622 03. Masjid al-Qiblatain, Saudi Arabia First Built: 623 04. Jawatha Mosque, Saudi Arabia First Built: 629 05. Masjid al-Haram, Saudi Arabia First Built: 638 06. Great Mosque of Kufa, Iraq First Built: 639 07. Mosque of Uqba, Tunisia First Built: 670 08. Imam Hussain Mosque, Iraq First Built: 680 09. Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem First Built: 705 10. Al-Zaytuna Mosque, Tunisia First Built: 709