Most Powerful People In The World

Most Powerful People In The World

Hu Jintao

President, People's Republic of China

China's President Hu Jintao attends the declaration ceremony at the end of the APEC Summit on November 15, 2009, in Singapore. The 2 day APEC CEO Summit, part of APEC Leaders Week, had brought together over 800 of the world's top business leaders and 15 world leaders in Singapore to address key global trade and economic issues
Barack Obama

President, United States of America

Official portrait of President Barack Obama on Jan. 13, 2009.

Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud

King, Saudi Arabia

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud awaits the arrival of Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah for an emergency summit of the Gulf Cooperation

Vladimir Putin

Prime Minister, Russia

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, seen during a meeting with the leadership of the United Russia party at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow in Moscow, Saturday, Oct., 2, 2010.

 Pope Benedict XVI

Pope, Roman Catholic Church

Pope Benedict XVI greets the crowd after he presided over a Mass at Westminster Cathedral in central London, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday he was ashamed of the "unspeakable" sexual abuse of children by priests, telling the British faithful during Mass in Westminster Cathedral that he was deeply sorry and hoped the church's humiliation would help victims heal. Benedict also said he hoped the church would be able to use its contrition to purify itself from the "sins" of its ministers and be able to renew its commitment to educating the young.

  Angela Merkel

Chancellor, Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel smiles during an European Council summit on September 16, 2010 in Brussels. Europe heads for a fireball summit with France

David Cameron





furious over attacks on its expulsion of Roma Gypsies and trouble brewing over how to prevent a repeat of the Greek debt crisis.

Prime Minister, United Kingdom

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron leaves 10 Downing Street, his official residence, in London, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010. Cameron is scheduled to outline the details of cuts likely to total as much as 3 billion pounds ($4.8 billion) from the defense ministry's annual budget of about 37 billion pounds ($59 billion). Britain will lose thousands of troops, build new aircraft carriers without new fighter jets and delay a multibillion-pound upgrade to its nuclear deterrent under sweeping defense cuts being announced Tuesday following the first major military review in more than a decade.
Ben Bernanke

Chairman, Federal Reserve

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke waits for the beginning of a hearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee September

 Sonia Gandhi

30, 2010 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The hearing was to focus on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

President, Indian National Congress

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is welcomed by Chairperson of the UPA Government and Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi during a meeting at her

Bill Gates

Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, listens during an interview at Roosevelt House in New York, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 31, 2011. Gates, chairman and co-founder of Microsoft Corp., called for urgent donations to stop the spread of polio and make it the first infectious disease eradicated since smallpox was wiped from the planet in 1979.

World’s Biggest Diamond Mine

World’s Biggest Diamond Mine is located at Mirna, Eastern Siberia, Russia. The mine is 525 meters (1,722 ft) deep and has a diameter of 1,200 m (3,900 ft).

The mine is so big and giat that the airspace above the mine is closed for helicopters because of a few incidents in which they were sucked in by the downward air flow. To give an idea how big it is here is is a fine illustration.

Figure 1

Figure 2

This giant truck, BELAZ (200-220 ton payload ) (see Figure 1), looks like small spot on next picture (see Figure 2). The truck in the picture, one of the biggest in the world, is just a small point in comparison to the diamond mine.
The town is strictly off limits to outsiders without a special permit and the authorities regard any foreigners with considerable suspicion. BBC Reported about this here

History:
The mine was discovered on June 13, 1955 by Soviet geologists Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina and Viktor Avdeenko during the large Amakinsky Expedition in Yakut ASSR. They found traces of volcanic rock kimberlite which are usually associated with diamonds. This finding was the first success in the search for kimberlite in Russia, after numerous failed expeditions of the 1940s and 1950s. For this discovery, in 1957 Khabardin was given the Lenin Prize, which was one of the highest awards in the Soviet Union.

The development of the mine had started in 1957 in extremely harsh climate conditions. Seven months of winter per year froze the ground into permafrost, which was hard in winter, but turned into sludge in summer. Buildings had to be raised on piles, so that they would not sink in summer, and the main processing plant had to be built on a better ground found 20 km away from the mine. The winter temperatures were so low that car tires and steel would shatter and oil would freeze. During the winter, the workers used jet engines to defreeze and dig out the permafrost or blasted it with dynamite to get access to the underlying kimberlite. The entire mine had to be covered at night to prevent the machinery from freezing.

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