Europe closer to independent satellite navigation

2010-10-27

BRUSSELS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The European Space Agency has signed a fourth contract, out of a total of six, for the setting up of Galileo, Europe's global navigation satellite program, the European Commission announced on Tuesday.

The new contract is for the procurement of full operations capability for Galileo.

The contract, valued at some 194 million euros (about 267 million U.S. dollars), was signed by the European Space Agency on behalf of the European Commission and awarded to a German and Italian joint venture, SpaceOpal GmbH. The company will be in charge of operations of the space and ground infrastructure.

"Galileo is becoming a reality. Europe will have its own independent satellite navigation system capable of high precision and reliability," said Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship.

The two remaining procurement contracts will be awarded in early 2011, while Galileo is expected to become operational in 2014.

Europe will then become independent in satellite navigation, like the United States. Russia, Japan, India and China are also developing their global and regional satellite navigation systems.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-10/27/c_13576862.htm.

Egypt opposition activists arrested

Scores of Muslim Brotherhood members detained in Alexandria for placing "inappropriate" posters ahead of November poll.

26 Oct 2010

Egyptian authorities have arrested about 50 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the outlawed opposition group, as they put up posters ahead of elections in November.

A security official, who wished to remain anonymous, said the political activists were rounded up in and around the coastal city of Alexandria on Tuesday because the posters bore religious slogans in violation of electoral laws.

Police arrested the members "at dawn as they were hanging posters for a woman candidate in various parts of the Alexandria governorate," Hussein Ibrahim, a Muslim Brotherhood politician and candidate, said.

The Brotherhood, which fields candidates as independents to get around the ban on it standing, won a fifth of the seats in the last election in 2005, despite a police crackdown.

Ibrahim, who will be standing for re-election in the November 28 parliamentary poll, said the posters carried the Quranic phrase "Allahu akbar" (God is greater).

He denied accusations that the traditional Brotherhood slogan - "Islam is the solution" - featured on the posters put up in the northern city, an opposition stronghold.

"The streets of Alexandria are rife with campaign posters for candidates from the National Democratic Party (NDP) which carry Quranic verses," Ibrahim said of the ruling party of Hosni Mubarak, the president.

The latest arrests bring to 260 the number of Brotherhood supporters who have been detained over the past 10 days, the security official said. Most of them have now been released.

A total of 508 seats are up for election in the legislature, which is currently dominated by the NDP.

Another 10 seats are presidential appointees.

Source: Al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/20101026155212903364.html.

Indonesia searches for 100 missing after quake, tsunami

Wed, 27 Oct 2010

Jakarta - Rescue workers were searching for more than 100 missing people in tsunami-ravaged villages on Indonesia's Mentawai islands Wednesday, as aftershocks continue to shake the area, officials said.

The National Disaster Management Agency put the death toll at 112, with most of the deaths in Pagai Utara and Pagai Selatan districts where 10 villages were swept away by waves as high as 3 meters caused by Monday's 7.2-magnitude quake.

The number of missing was estimated at 109 people Wednesday, said Agus, an official at the provincial disaster management agency who, like many Indonesians, goes only by one name.

The estimate was down from 500 declared missing late Tuesday, but Agus declined to explain the drop in number.

Additional rescue workers and volunteers, along with disaster aid, were being sent to Mentawai, which takes about six hours by boat, Agus said.

The Health Ministry said waves from the tsunami reached as far as 600 meters inland minutes after the quake, sweeping away and submerging dozens of homes.

On Pagai Utara island, up to 80 per cent of homes in Betumonga village were destroyed, leaving many missing and feared dead, said Mujoarto, head of the Health Ministry's crisis center.

Aftershocks measuring up to 5.5 on the Richter scale were recorded through Wednesday, the Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency said.

The quake-triggered tsunami and the eruption of the Merapi volcano on Java forced President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to cut short a visit to Vietnam, a cabinet minister said.

State secretary Sudi Silalahi said Yudhoyono was scheduled to fly directly to Mentawai from Hanoi to monitor the conditions there.

The Mentawai chain consists of 70 islands and islets with a population of about 68,000 people, 150 kilometers off the western coast of Sumatra.

Experts have for the past two years warned of a massive undersea earthquake and a tsunami similar to the one that devastated Indian Ocean nations in December 2004.

That tsunami killed more than 230,000 people, including about 170,000 in Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra.

A magnitude-7.6 earthquake hit Padang and neighboring districts on Java in September 2009, killing more than 1,100 people.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental plates meet, causing frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

In Indonesia's crowded central Java province, rescue workers resumed their search Wednesday for the dead and missing among the dust-covered villages after Mount Merapi erupted and killed at least 25 people, injuring dozens of others.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350571,100-missing-quake-tsunami.html.

Malaysia, India finalize terms of free trade deal for 2011 - Summary

Wed, 27 Oct 2010

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia and India on Wednesday put the finishing touches on a trade deal expected to be signed early next year, to boost annual bilateral trade to 15 billion dollars by 2015.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak witnessed the signing of an agreement confirming the end of negotiations for the Malaysia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement.

The trade pact is expected to be signed by January 31, and take effect in the second half of 2011.

It covers goods and services as well as investments, and would provide a "solid foundation for the building of a strategic partnership," Singh said at a press conference with Najib in the Malaysian administrative capital of Putrajaya.

The deal is intended to complement a trade pact that took effect in January between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Malaysia is a member.

Both leaders also witnessed the signing of several agreements in the areas of health, tourism and education.

"The year 2010 is truly a turning point in the history of India-Malaysia relations," Singh said.

India was Malaysia's 12th-largest import source and 11th-largest export destination last year, with bilateral trade totaling 7.3 billion dollars.

From January to August this year, Malaysia's total trade with India rose 13.5 per cent to 5.65 billion dollars, compared to the same period in 2009.

An estimated 2.5 million ethnic Indians live in Malaysia, about 9 per cent of the population, and Singh was expected to meet with some members of the community later Wednesday.

Ethnic Indians, many of Malaysia's poorest citizens, have accused the government of discrimination and claim they have been left out of the country's development.

Singh said Wednesday he was confident that Malaysian authorities and laws respected the democratic rights of all its citizens, even as Najib stressed that the issue was a domestic matter and had not been discussed between the two leaders.

"I am confident that the Malaysian system has the built-in flexibility to tackle any problems," said Singh.

"I have no reason to be apprehensive of the future of Indian origin communities in this great country."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350583,deal-2011-summary.html.

Pyongyang demands massive aid amid talks on family reunions

Wed, 27 Oct 2010

Seoul - North Korea has demanded 500,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer from its Southern neighbor, a news report said Wednesday.

The North Korean Red Cross made the demands during discussions with its counterpart about reunions of families divided by the peninsula's split after the 1959-53 Korean War, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency said.

The first such reunions for two years were scheduled to take place from Saturday to next Friday in the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang, and run in cooperation with the South.

Seoul used to provide 300,000 to 400,000 tons of rice to the impoverished North annually, but stopped large-scale aid in 2008 when conservative President Lee Myung Bak took office, and demanded that any further aid be linked to steps towards denuclearization.

The South Korean delegation to the Red Cross talks said did not have the authority to approve such a request, but Seoul was pondering the matter, reports said.

Tensions have been running high between the Koreas since the sinking of a South Korean navy vessel in March in which 46 sailors died, and which Seoul blames on the North. Pyongyang denies any involvement.

Ties have thawed slightly recently, with South Korea sending its northern neighbor 5,000 tons of rice in emergency aid to flood-stricken areas earlier this week, and the breakthrough in allowing family reunions to resume.

Discussions between the two countries' Red Cross societies were continuing on the topic of future family reunions. Sources did not confirm whether the North's aid request was a prerequisite to any further reunions.

South Korea has suggested that family reunions be held once a month, to allow some of the 80,000 Koreans separated from their families a chance to see their loved ones.

Technically at war since the 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, the two Koreas never signed a formal peace treaty, and there is almost no civilian communication across the border.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350613,aid-talks-family-reunions.html.

Hamas warns leaders against purchasing Israeli-imported cars

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

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Tue, 26 Oct 2010

Gaza City - Hamas has warned its members against buying cars imported via Israel without first undergoing thorough scrutiny checks, officials confirmed Tuesday.

The cars could have tracking devices or be booby-trapped, according to the radical Islamist movement which rules Gaza.

Gaza's Interior Ministry sent a note with the warning to officials in the de-facto Hamas government as well as to other Hamas leaders and to those of other factions, a security official said Tuesday.

Any car purchased via Israel should undergo a thorough test at a special garage before it was used, it said.

Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein confirmed the note.

Importing cars into Gaza via Israel has only recently resumed for the first time in four years, when Israel in June eased a near-total blockade on Gaza.

Israel made the concession after it came under heavy international pressure following a May 31 Israeli naval attack on a Gaza-bound flotilla, which had declared it would attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian coastal enclave.

Israeli naval commandos shot dead nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists, after they were taken by surprise by a rioting crowd.

Over the past month alone, some 180 cars have been imported into Gaza by Palestinian car dealers via Israel, most of them South Korean, German and Japanese.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350451,leaders-purchasing-israeli-imported-cars.html.

Iran, Bolivia vow to strengthen anti-US front

Tue, 26 Oct 2010

Tehran - The presidents of Iran and Bolivia on Tuesday vowed to strengthen their front against the United States, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Evo Morales reportedly said during their meeting in Tehran that "under the current circumstances, imperialism was at its weakest point and it was the right time to strengthen and form an independent front against global arrogance."

"It is time for strengthening the resistance front formed by independent and freedom-seeking nations in dealing with imperialism as well as global hegemony," Ahmadinejad said, referring to the US.

"There is no doubt that strengthening of independent states will be to the benefit of global peace and security and will lead to demise of capitalism," the Iranian president added.

Morales had earlier underlined the "common revolutionary consciousness which brings the two countries closer together."

"Fighting imperialism and injustice in the world are two important aspects which will further expand relations between Iran and Bolivia," he said.

The Bolivian leader was also quoted by IRNA as saying that the two countries should cooperate in thwarting plots by enemies and reducing the vulnerability of independent states in dealing with the US.

He additionally said that Iran's political progress and industrial development would serve the welfare and development of other nations.

Morales, who arrived on Sunday night, was to discuss an earlier agreement on projects worth 1.1 billion dollars over the next five years, and another 287-million-dollar investment by Iran in Bolivia.

Morales' second visit to Iran in two years was scheduled to last three days, the news network Press TV reported.

Iran plans to invest in Bolivia's industrial, agricultural and housing sectors, including a cement factory built with Iranian and Venezuelan financial aid.

During the first leg of his visit, Morales visited a tractor manufacturing company in Tabriz, in north-western Iran, ordering 1,000 tractors and assessing the company's readiness to set up a tractor production line in Bolivia.

Morales said that Iranian tractors are especially compatible with Bolivian geographical conditions, IRNA reported.

President Ahmadinejad has in recent years boosted Iran's relations with leftist Latin American administrations in Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350518,vow-strengthen-anti-us-front.html.

Reactor should be model for Iranian energy needs, US says

Tue, 26 Oct 2010

Washington - Iran's use of a Russian-built nuclear reactor shows that the country does not need its own program for producing nuclear fuel and enriched uranium, the US State Department said Tuesday.

"Russia's supply of fuel, we think, is a model that Iran should follow in its ambition for civilian nuclear energy," spokesman PJ Crowley said, adding that the power reactor at Bushehr will be subject to international monitoring.

"What is interesting about Bushehr is that Iran does not need an indigenous enrichment capability to generate civilian nuclear energy if its intentions are purely peaceful," Crowley said.

Iranian officials announced Tuesday that they have begun fueling the Bushehr reactor and hope to begin producing electricity next year.

The United States and its European allies suspect Iran's separate uranium enrichment program is intended to produce fuel at levels sufficient for building nuclear weapons - accusations Iran rejects. Enriched uranium at low concentrations is suitable for powering a nuclear reactor.

For years, the United States had voiced concerns about the Bushehr nuclear reactor but backed off after Moscow agreed in 2005 to require Iran to return all of Bushehr's spent fuel to Moscow, alleviating US worries.

"This is precisely the kind of international cooperation that we think is appropriate for Iran and undercuts Iran's rationale for why it needs to pursue its own enrichment capability," Crowley said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350524,energy-needs-us-says.html.

Brazil to donate 2 million dollars to combat cholera in Haiti

Tue, 26 Oct 2010

Brasilia - Brazil is set to donate 2 million dollars to help Haiti fight an outbreak of cholera and assist people suffering from the disease, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The money is to go toward the purchase of medication and hospital equipment to fight the outbreak, which was confirmed last week and has already caused 259 deaths and more than 3,000 infections, according to Haitian authorities.

Further, two Brazilian epidemiologists are set to travel to Haiti this week to help Haitian authorities draw up a strategy to hinder the cholera spread.

Brazil was assessing a possible release of additional money as an "extraordinary loan" to finance the work of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) in Haiti, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued in Brasilia.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350526,dollars-combat-cholera-haiti.html.

Netanyahu praises Israeli navy for deadly Gaza flotilla raid

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

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Tue, 26 Oct 2010

Tel Aviv - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday praised the Navy unit that was involved in the deadly interception of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in late May.

Netanyahu said during a visit to a military base in Atlit on the Mediterranean coast that the soldiers had acted "heroically" during a confrontation aboard one of the vessels, the Turkish Mavi Marmara.

Nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed during the incident. Both sides have blamed each other as being responsible for the bloodshed.

International outcry over the raid eventually led Israel to ease its four-year-old blockade on the Gaza Strip.

"Gaza has become an Iranian terror base that endangers the state of Israel," Netanyahu was quoted as saying Tuesday by his office. "It is very close to us and very dangerous."

The deployment of the Shayetet 13 naval commando unit was "indispensable, necessary, important and legal," he went on to say.

"You fighters had to deal with one of the groups supporting the terror that was violent, armed with knives, clubs, electrical saws and firearms," Netanyahu told the naval officers.

Given the deadly threat, the soldiers acted "professionally, heroically, cautiously, ethically," he added.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350527,deadly-gaza-flotilla-raid.html.

15 killed, 13 injured as Indonesia volcano spews hot ash - Summary

Tue, 26 Oct 2010

Jakarta - At least 15 people were killed and 13 injured Tuesday after a volcano on Indonesia's Java island erupted, spewing clouds of hot ash, local television reported.

Metro TV said thousands of people were moved by trucks and cars after Mount Merapi started spewing hot ash and volcanic rocks just before dusk, a day after authorities upgraded an alert status to the highest level.

Television footage showed residents, most wearing masks, being taken away in trucks with windscreens covered by dust.

"This is an initial phase of an eruption," said Subandrio, head of the Volcanic Technology Development and Research Center in Yogyakarta, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

Metro TV reported that 15 badly burned bodies were found near the house of Mbah Marijan, the man known as the keeper of the mountain, who had refused to leave his home.

An official at Sardjito Hospital in the city of Yogyakarta, near the volcano, said 11 bodies had been brought in.

The Jakarta-based Vivanews.com news website confirmed that one of its reporters was among the dead.

An Indonesian Red Cross official said another 13 people were injured and were being treated in a hospital.

Vulcanologist Surono said three explosions were heard at around 6 pm (1100 GMT) and Merapi spewed clouds of black smoke 1,500 meters into the sky.

On Monday, authorities began moving children and elderly people to some of the 60 emergency shelters after scientists upgraded the alert status as lava flowing down the cone's slopes reached 4.5 kilometers.

Tents, blankets and plastic sheeting were distributed to dozens of evacuation points around Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces, said Arief Setyo Hadi, an official with the Indonesian Red Cross.

Officials estimated up to 40,000 people were living in the endangered areas.

The 2,968-meter volcano last erupted in 2006, killing two people.

Its most deadly eruption on record occurred in 1930 when 1,370 people were killed.

At least 66 people were killed in a 1994 eruption.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350530,15-killed-13-injured-as-indonesia-volcano-spews-hot-ash.html.

NASA prepares to view comet close up

Tue, 26 Oct 2010

Washington - Astronomers are preparing for an up-close and personal look next week at a comet, which they say will provide the best extended view yet at that class of objects in the solar system.

The Deep Impact spacecraft will pass within 700 kilometers of comet Hartley 2 at a speed of 43,000 kilometers per hour on November 4. Its mission, dubbed Epoxi, is to take high resolution images of the comet's nucleus using two telescopes with digital and an infrared spectrometer.

Scientists have captured close images of four other comets, but never one with such a small nucleus, and hope Hartley 2 will provide new details about the composition of comets and the formation of the solar system.

Deep Impact is being reassigned after delivering a probe to crash into the comet Tempel 1 in 2005, in the first such look at the inner material of a comet. The mother ship, however, remained in good condition, and NASA decided to repurpose the spacecraft for a look at another comet.

Hartley 2 is much smaller - with a nucleus that is about a kilometer wide - and more visible from Earth than Tempel 1, providing scientists a chance to compare the celestial objects. They also hope to learn about jets of material emitted by comets.

The orbiting bodies of ice, dust and gas are considered key to learning about the formation of the solar system, because they are believed to be leftover building blocks of the early solar system that may have brought water and other organic compounds to Earth.

The craft will send back 64,000 pictures with its camera, which is fine tuned enough to "distinguish between a car and a pickup truck" from 640 kilometers away, said Amy Walsh, lead engineer of the mission. Deep Impact has already been sending back images as it nears Hartley 2 and will continue to do so even after passing close by the comet, collecting a total of 11 weeks of data.

The comet was discovered by Australian astronomer Malcolm Hartley in 1986 during a survey of the southern sky.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350531,view-comet-close-up.html.

Jordanian activists call for annulment of peace pact with Israel

Tue, 26 Oct 2010

Amman - Scores of Jordanian activists demonstrated near the Israeli embassy on Tuesday in the capital Amman to mark the 16th anniversary of the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel.

Participants - mainly trade unionists and Islamists - chanted slogans and raised placards urging the government to cancel the October 26, 1994, peace pact and to close down the Israeli embassy.

The demonstration was organized by the National Committee for Confronting Normalization with Israel, a coalition of opposition parties and trade unions.

Addressing the audience, chairman Hamzeh Mansour called for extending support to the Palestinian people to enable them to withstand "the racial policy of the Zionist enemy."

He also called on Jordanians to boycott Israeli goods and refrain from establishing normal ties with the Jewish state.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350516,annulment-peace-pact-israel.html.