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Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Harry Potter blamed for India's declining owl population

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

New Delhi - India's environment minister has linked the popularity of boy wizard Harry Potter to the widespread illegal trade in owls that threatens the birds in the country, news reports said Wednesday.

Jairam Ramesh said there was a "strange fascination" among the affluent classes in India with giving owls to their children, inspired by the Harry Potter films and books that feature his feathered companion Hedwig, an IANS news agency report said.

The minister, who published a report on the country's owl population late Tuesday, said there had been an increase in people wanting to buy the owls from illegal bird traders.

The findings were also revealed in the report Imperilled Custodians of the Night written by the conservation group Traffic.

The report's author, Abrar Ahmed, said he decided to investigate the owl trade after a friend's wife asked him to obtain a live white-colored owl for her son's Harry Potter-themed birthday party.

"This was probably one of the strangest demands made to me as an ornithologist," Ahmed said in the report.

The report said a growing number of India's owls were being killed in sacrifices during black magic rituals as well as for medicinal purposes.

It revealed that as many as half of the 30 species of owls in India were being caught and sold alive in markets, and recommended stricter monitoring and control on the bird trade particularly during Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, that starts Friday.

The study said the sales of owls peak during the Diwali festival, when their "darshan" (sacred view) and sacrifice are believed to bring wealth to the household.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351645,indias-declining-owl-population.html.

Turkish police identify Istanbul bomber as PKK member

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

Istanbul - Police officials have identified the bomber who blew himself up Sunday in Istanbul's downtown Taksim Square as being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Turkish media reported Wednesday.

According to the reports, a police investigation identified the bomber as 24-year-old Vedat Acar.

Thirty two people, including 15 police officers, were injured in the attack.

A statement released by the Istanbul governor's office said Acar had joined the PKK in 2004, although it did not directly blame the organization for the bombing.

The PKK denied responsibility for the bombing soon after the attack.

A report in the Turkish daily Hurriyet said Acar had spent time training in PKK camps in northern Iraq. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

The group recently announced that it was extending a unilateral ceasefire that was set to end on Sunday for another eight months.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351651,istanbul-bomber-pkk-member.html.

East Turkestan: Uyghur Human Rights Activists to Stage Demonstration With Tibetan, Falun Gong, and Chinese Activists During Chinese President Hu Jintao’s Visit to France

On November 4, 2010 at 3:00 pm, during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to Paris, the France Uyghur Community, a member organization of the World Uyghur Congress, will join Tibetan, Falun Gong, and Chinese human rights activists in Paris in protesting the Chinese government’s egregious and relentless human rights violations. Activists will peacefully march from the Parvis des Droits de l’Homme au Trocadéro à Paris to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Paris. The march is being organized by l’Association de “la Communauté Tibétaine de France et ses Amis.”

Below is a press release published by World Uyghur Conference:

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) respectfully urges French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other officials in the French government to convey France’s concern to President Hu over the Chinese government’s persecution and repression of Uyghurs and other peoples. WUC is based in Germany and is an umbrella organization of Uyghur human rights groups worldwide.

“President Hu’s visit to France is a good opportunity for President Sarkozy and the French government to demonstrate their commitment to human rights and human dignity and express France’s concern to President Hu over the Chinese government’s brutal and repressive treatment of the Uyghur people and other peoples,” said WUC President, former prisoner of conscience, and multiple-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Rebiya Kadeer.

For many years, the Chinese government has waged an intense and often brutal campaign to repress all forms of Uyghur dissent, crack down on Uyghurs’ peaceful religious activities and independent expressions of ethnicity, dilute Uyghurs’ culture and identity as a distinct people, and threaten the survival of the Uyghur language. The authorities have routinely equated Uyghurs’ peaceful political, religious, and cultural activities with the “three evils” – terrorism, separatism and religious extremism – and have couched their persecution of the Uyghurs as efforts to quash these “three evils.” The authorities have also economically marginalized the Uyghurs in East Turkestan through intense and blatant racial discrimination in employment.

On July 5, 2009, Uyghurs in Urumchi (the regional capital) staged a peaceful demonstration against the human rights violations. Chinese security forces moved in and brutally and lethally suppressed the protest. Eyewitnesses interviewed by Amnesty International indicated that security forces fired on/shot at the demonstrators and extrajudicially killed demonstrators. Eyewitnesses also told Amnesty International that security forces beat and kicked demonstrators. Security forces also used stun batons and tear gas on the demonstrators. Uyghur human rights organizations and overseas media outlets received similar witness accounts of security forces extrajudicially killing Uyghur demonstrators and using other types of brutal and excessive force against demonstrators.

Ethnic unrest and violence followed, as well as one of the Chinese government’s fiercest and most repressive crackdowns on Uyghurs in history.

The human rights violations that the Chinese authorities have perpetrated against the Uyghurs in the aftermath of and in connection with the July 2009 incidents have included but have not been limited to: mass and arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances of Uyghurs, including minors; arbitrary sentencing of Uyghurs to death and other severe sentences after trials plagued with politicization and strangleholds on due process; arbitrary executions; and increased restrictions on freedom of speech and expression, including the prosecution and sentencing of Uyghur website staff.

Source: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.
Link: http://www.unpo.org/article/11882.

Ahmadinejad: Iran to make no concessions in nuclear talks

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Iran would make no concessions over its nuclear programs in multilateral talks scheduled for mid-November.

"Acknowledgment of Iran's (nuclear) rights should be the basis of the talks and there would be no concessions whatsoever over these rights," Ahmadinejad said in the city of Bojnourd in north-eastern Iran.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, acting on behalf of the 5+1 group - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - had proposed November 15 for the talks to resume in Vienna.

Iran has neither rejected nor confirmed yet the date, saying that the content of the talks should be clarified and that Iran would not accept demands to suspend its uranium enrichment programs.

"Iran will not accept any conditions as generally Iran does not need you (world powers) at all," Ahmadinejad said.

"Talks can only be held on the basis of respect and equality, if they come up again with political tricks and an arrogant and imperialistic approach, then the outcome would be like before," he added, referring to past fruitless talks.

Iran, which is under several UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to suspend enrichment, denies suspicions that it is secretly pursuing nuclear weapons.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351653,no-concessions-nuclear-talks.html.

Ahmadinejad condemns Russia over canceled missile deal

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday condemned Russia for canceling a missile deal with Tehran.

"Some officials have been deceived by the Satan and thought that by illegally canceling an arms deal, they could harm Iran," Ahmadinejad said in the city of Bojnourd in north-eastern Iran.

"They should however be told that Iran does need their missiles to defend the country, they are still obliged to fulfill the still valid contract and if not, Iran will force them to make good the damage caused," he said.

The Kremlin announced in September that President Dmitry Medvedev canceled the sale of an S-300 missile defense system to Iran because of United Nations Security Council sanctions against the country.

The presidential decree forbade the transfer of tanks, artillery, warships, helicopters and missile defense systems to Iran. Tehran had ordered the missile defense system two years ago.

Ahmadinejad further blamed Medvedev, whose country is a strategic partner of the Islamic state, to have "sold-out" Iran to the United States.

"If you think that Iran would make concessions to the US because of the canceled missile deal, then you should know that Iran would never do this," Ahmadinejad said.

Russia and China are the only two major powers that still maintain extensive political and economic relations with Iran.

However, ties with Moscow have cooled since Medvedev took over the presidency in 2008, in part due to increased Russian support of US policies against Iran's disputed nuclear programs.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351669,russia-cancelled-missile-deal.html.

Indonesia expands evacuation zone as volcano rumbles

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

Jakarta - Indonesia on Wednesday expanded the evacuation zone around Mount Merapi from 10 to 15 kilometers as the volcano spewed clouds of hot ash and lava, a top vulcanologist said.

A series of eruptions Wednesday afternoon were the strongest since last week's deadly burst, said Surono, head of the Center for Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.

The National Disaster Management Agency raised the death toll from Merapi's previous eruptions to 42 in its latest update.

"This is an extraordinary situation," Surono, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told Metro TV Wednesday. "This is the first time that an eruption hasn't stopped after an hour."

He warned that the 15-kilometer evacuation zone must not be ignored.

Some residents living near the volcano previously ignored warnings not to stay within the 10-kilometer zone and returned to work in their fields.

Earlier Wednesday, Metro TV showed people being transported to their hamlets in trucks to allow them to feed their livestock.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited one of the camps sheltering villagers displaced by the eruptions in the Sleman district in the Yogyakarta special region.

He urged local officials to provide adequate food and other needs for the displaced, local media reported.

The daily eruptions prompted the Transport Ministry to issue a warning to airlines Tuesday to avoid certain routes over Java island.

Budget airline AirAsia and Singapore's Silk Air canceled flights to Yogyakarta and Solo, the two cities closest to the volcano.

The 2,968-meter peak is about 500 kilometers south-east of Jakarta. Its deadliest eruption on record occurred in 1930 when 1,370 people were killed. At least 66 people were killed in a 1994 eruption, and two people were killed in 2006.

Vulcanologists warned that several other volcanoes across Indonesia were showing increased activity.

Indonesia has the highest density of volcanoes in the world with about 500 in the 5,000-kilometer-long archipelago nation. Nearly 130 are active, and 68 are listed as dangerous.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351674,evacuation-zone-volcano-rumbles.html.

Obama's visit to mark a milestone in India-US ties, official says

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

New Delhi - US President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to India would result in consolidating the countries' strategic partnership and would mark an important milestone in their relations, India's top diplomat, Nirupama Rao, said.

"We will see concrete and significant steps in a wide range of areas that will expand the long-term strategic framework of the relationship in a way that we can create a productive partnership for the mutual benefit of our two countries and, equally important, to give substantive content and shape to our global strategic partnership," she said.

"The visit could be an important milestone in our shared journey," Rao added in the speech made at a diplomatic function Tuesday night in New Delhi.

Obama is to arrive Saturday in the western city of Mumbai for a four-day tour of the South Asian country.

Key issues that were expected to be covered in his talks with Indian leaders were the global economic situation, terrorism, the security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and stability in Asia.

Rao played down expectations of major announcements during the tour, saying the visit would not result in "dramatic breakthroughs and big bang."

"There has been far too much focus on the transactional aspects of this visit," she said. "All relationships entail transactions, but sustained, long-term partnerships are built on certain basic principles."

India and the United States have built strong ties over the past decade, a marked transformation from strained relations during the Cold War when New Delhi was seen as close to Moscow.

Indian officials said trade, defense, counterterrorism, educational and scientific ties have grown rapidly in recent years.

In 2008, the countries signed a landmark deal for civilian nuclear cooperation, which allowed for the lifting of a three-decade ban on trade in nuclear material with India.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351678,india-us-ties-official-says.html.

Egypt Intelligence Chief To Visit Israel To Try Break Impasse In Palestinian-Israeli Negotiations

CAIRO, Nov 3 (Bernama) -- Egyptian intelligence chief Omer Suleiman will arrive in Israel on Thursday in an attempt to break an impasse in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported, citing news reports.

During the visit, Suleiman is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on means of resuming negotiations, Egyptian media said.

Last week, Suleiman visited Ramallah along with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. They discussed with Palestinian leaders the renewal of dialogue between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah.

-- BERNAMA

Source: Bernama.
Link: http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=540663.

Israel halts strategic talks with UK over lawsuits

Wed Nov 3, 2010

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has stopped sending delegations for routine strategic talks with Britain out of fear pro-Palestinian activists would seek their arrest for alleged war crimes, Israel's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

The announcement, issued during a visit by Foreign Secretary William Hague, showed Israeli frustration at successive British governments' failure to repeal laws allowing private war crimes suits to be filed against foreign dignitaries.

Since 2005, several serving and former Israeli leaders have canceled trips to Britain after being warned they could be arrested for their role in military crackdowns on Palestinians.

The latest was Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, who was scheduled to fly to Britain last month but, according to Israeli media, received word he would risk prosecution for Israel's May 31 killing of nine Turks aboard a Gaza aid convoy.

"As long as they (Israeli delegates) can't come to Britain without fearing arrest, they won't come out," said Andy David, a Foreign Ministry spokesman. "They will go as soon as there is no such threat. The ball is in their (Britain's) court."

Britain's Conservative-led government, like its Labor predecessor, has pledged to trim the "universal jurisdiction" provisions empowering magistrates to order the arrest of foreign nationals for alleged offenses committed abroad.

"We have a real problem, and we recognize it," Hague told Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth daily in an interview.

"We are now dealing with the problem, but since this is a parliamentary system, it takes several months to pass a new law. In the coming weeks, we will introduce the draft of the new law and pass it in the current session of parliament." "I think it would be correct to first pass the law and only then to invite them (Israeli dignitaries)," he said.

British officials have said the government expects to introduce the new law at the end of November.

Both Israel and Britain sought to play down the impact of the suspension of their "strategic dialogue."

David said it was part of routine contacts Israel maintains with allies and noted Hague would discuss Iran, the peace process with the Palestinians, and other regional issues during his visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A British source said the last round had taken place in October 2009, and noted the British and Israeli governments continued to discuss security issues.

(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft and Tim Castle in London; Editing by Diana Abdallah)

© Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved

Source: Reuters Africa.
Link: http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6A23RG20101103?sp=true.

Using Planet Colors To Search For Alien Earths

by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 03, 2010

Earth is invitingly blue. Mars is angry red. Venus is brilliant white. Astronomers have learned that a planet's "true colors" can reveal important details. For example, Mars is red because its soil contains rusty red stuff called iron oxide. And the famous tint of our planet, the "blue marble"? It's because the atmosphere scatters blue light rays more strongly than red ones. Therefore the atmosphere looks blue from above and below.

Planets around other stars probably exhibit a rainbow of colors every bit as diverse as those in our solar system. And astronomers would like to eventually harness color to learn more about exoplanets. Are they rocky or gaseous - or earthlike?

In a study recently accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, a team led by NASA astronomer Lucy McFadden and UCLA graduate student Carolyn Crow describe a simple way to distinguish between the planets of our solar system based on color information. Earth, in particular, stands out clearly among the planets, like a blue jay in a flock of seagulls.

"The method we developed separates the planets out," Crow says. "It makes Earth look unique."

This suggests that someday, when we have the technology to gather light from individual exoplanets, astronomers could use color information to identify earthlike worlds. "Eventually, as telescopes get bigger, there will be the light-gathering power to look at the colors of planets around other stars," McFadden says. "Their colors will tell us which ones to study in more detail."

Earth the Exoplanet

The project began in 2008, when Crow teamed up with McFadden, her faculty mentor at the University of Maryland in College Park. McFadden currently heads university and post-doctoral programs at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

New color information about Earth, the moon, and Mars became available, thanks to NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. En route to a planned encounter this November with Comet 103P/Hartley 2, Deep Impact observed Earth.

The idea was to determine what our home looks like to alien astronomers and eventually use that insight to figure out how to spot earthlike worlds around other stars.

As Deep Impact cruised through space, its High Resolution Instrument (HRI) measured the intensity of Earth's light. HRI is an 11.8-inch (30 cm) telescope that feeds light through seven different color filters mounted on a revolving wheel.

Each filter samples the incoming light at a different portion of the visible-light spectrum, from ultraviolet and blue to red and near-infrared. On May 28, 2008, Deep Impact even caught a glimpse of the moon's light as it crossed in front of Earth. Later, in 2009, HRI scoped Mars.

McFadden wondered what combination of color information from the filters would best distinguish Earth from the other planets and moons of the solar system. She recruited Crow to work on the project. Eight other researchers from NASA, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington (Seattle), and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab also joined the team.

The Magic Mix

The Deep Impact color data covered Earth, the moon, and Mars. The relative amounts of light passing through the filters vary for each planet or moon, providing a kind of color fingerprint. To this the team added existing color information about Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn's moon Titan.

A simple side-by-side comparison of color data on all the major planets was a confusing mess. The team finally found a combination of three different filters - one in the blue, one in the green, and one in the red - that highlights the differences between the planets.

On a special "color-color" diagram the team created, the planets cluster into groups based on similarities in the wavelengths of sunlight that their surfaces and atmospheres reflect. The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn huddle in one corner, Uranus and Neptune in a different one. The rocky inner planets Mars, Venus, and Mercury cluster off in their own corner of "color space."

But Earth is the true loner in color space. Its uniqueness traces to two factors. One is the scattering of blue light by the atmosphere. This is called Rayleigh scattering, after the English scientist who discovered it.

The other reason Earth stands out in color space is because it does not absorb a lot of infrared light. That's because our atmosphere is low in infrared-absorbing gases like methane and ammonia, compared to the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn.

"It is Earth's atmosphere that dominates the colors of Earth," Crow says. "It's the scattering of light in the ultraviolet and the absence of absorption in the infrared."

Colorful Future

Someday, the three-filter approach may provide a rough "first cut" look at exoplanet surfaces and atmospheres. "There are some things we can tell from the colors but there are some things that we can't quite tell without additional information," Crow says.

For example, if an exoplanet shows a similar color fingerprint to Earth's, it would not necessarily mean that the planet has the blue skies and vast oceans of our home. But it would tell us to look at that planet more closely.

And that would be an important first step toward making sense of the colorful complexity of the 490 (and counting) alien planets already discovered, and the scores more on the way.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Using_Planet_Colors_To_Search_For_Alien_Earths_999.html.

Mars Rovers Mission Using Cloud Computing

by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 03, 2010

The project team that built and operates the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity has become the first NASA space mission to use cloud computing for daily mission operations.

Cloud computing is a way to gain fast flexibility in computing ability by ordering capacity on demand - as if from the clouds - and paying only for what is used. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project moved to this strategy last week for the software and data that the rovers' flight team uses to develop daily plans for rover activities.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., which manages the project, gained confidence in cloud computing from experience with other uses of the technology, including public participation sites about Mars exploration.

"This is a change to thinking about computer capacity and data storage as a commodity like electricity, or even the money in your bank account," said JPL's John Callas, rover project manager.

"You don't keep all your money in your wallet. Instead you go to a nearby ATM and get cash when you need it. Your money is safe, and the bank can hold as much or as little of the money as you want. Data is the same way: You don't need to have it on you all the time. It can be safely stored elsewhere and you can get it anytime via an Internet connection.

"When we need more computing capacity, we don't need to install more servers if we can rent more capacity from the cloud for just the time we need it. This way we don't waste electricity and air conditioning with servers idling waiting to be used, and we don't have to worry about hardware maintenance and operating system obsolescence."

Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004 for what were planned as three-month missions. Bonus, extended missions have continued for more than six years.

Opportunity is currently active, requiring daily activity plans by a team of engineers at JPL, and scientists at many locations in North America and Europe. Spirit has been silent since March 2010 and is believed to be in a low-power hibernation mode for the Martian winter.

"The rover project is well suited for cloud computing," said Khawaja Shams, a JPL software engineer supporting the project.

"It has a widespread user community acting collaboratively. Cloud enables us to deliver the data to each user from nearby locations for faster reaction time."

Also, the unexpected longevity of the mission means the volume of data used has outgrown the systems originally planned for handling and sharing data, which makes the virtually limitless capacity of cloud computing attractive.

JPL collaborated with the cloud team of Amazon.com Inc., Seattle, to plan and implement the use of cloud computing in the Mars Exploration Rover Project's daily operations. JPL developed the rover project's activity-planning software, called Maestro.

"We have worked closely with multiple cloud vendors since 2007 to learn the best ways to gain the advantages of cloud computing," said Tomas Soderstrom, chief technology officer for the JPL Office of the Chief Information Officer.

"To implement JPL CIO Jim Rinaldi's vision of renting instead of buying capacity, we pragmatically look past the hype about cloud computing to find the practical, cost-efficient real mission applications. The Mars Exploration Rover project's use of clouds is one example of this results-oriented partnership. More will follow."

In support of the federal Open Government Initiative, which increases public access to data collected by the federal government, JPL collaborated with the cloud team at Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash., to launch the "Be a Martian" website in November 2009.

The site enables the public to participate as citizen scientists to improve Mars maps and take part in Mars research tasks. At this site - Be A Martian - more than 54,000 people have signed up to be "Martian citizens" and analyze data.

For another early use of cloud computing, JPL worked with the cloud team at Google Inc., Mountain View, Calif. The Google cloud served a project in which JPL and computer science students at the University of California, San Diego, developed an educational application enabling fifth- and sixth-graders to tag labels onto images from Mars spacecraft.

In addition to establishing a private cloud and working with Amazon, Google and Microsoft, JPL has also collaborated with other vendors of public cloud computing. Soderstrom said, "We defined a 'cloud-oriented architecture' to use clouds as an extension of our own resources and to run the computing and storage where it is most appropriate for each application."

The extended missions of Spirit and Opportunity have provided a resource for testing innovations during an active space mission for possible use in future missions.

New software uploads giving the rovers added autonomy have been one example, and cloud computing is another. JPL is currently building and testing NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, for launch in late 2011 in the Mars Science Laboratory mission. This rover will land on Mars in August 2012.

Shams said, "The experience we gain using cloud computing for planning Opportunity's activities may be valuable when Curiosity reaches Mars, too."

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mars_Rovers_Mission_Using_Cloud_Computing_999.html.

UN: Talks on Western Sahara conflict to resume

Tue, 02 Nov 2010

New York - United Nations talks aimed at settling the decades-old conflict in Western Sahara will resume next week in the United States, a UN spokesman said Tuesday.

Representatives of Morocco, Western Sahara's Frente Polisario, Algeria and Mauritania will meet November 8-9 in Long Island city, said Martin Nesirky.

"Solving the conflict in Western Sahara remains a priority for the United Nations and we hope the next meeting will be productive and will help the parties to move beyond the impasse," Nesirky said.

The parties met in 2009 and most recently in February under the mediation of UN special envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, but any progress made had not been made public.

Ross will also brief the UN Security Council next week on his diplomatic work in the territory.

Western Sahara has been claimed by Morocco and Algeria-backed Polisario Front, the armed group that engaged in brief war against Morocco decades ago. The territory, a former Spanish colony until 1975, has been mostly under Morocco's control since 1976.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351549,western-sahara-conflict-resume.html.

Kosovo government falls, elections on December 12

Tue, 02 Nov 2010

Pristina - Kosovo will hold early polls on December 12, the country's acting president said Tuesday, minutes after parliament backed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's cabinet.

The motion was supported by 64 of the 120 legislators. It was submitted weeks after Thaci's coalition fell apart, plunging Kosovo - which is also without a president - into a political crisis.

Even representatives from Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) voted in favor of the no-confidence motion, saying they wanted to end the political impasse triggered by the PDK's junior partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).

The acting head of state, parliamentary speaker Jakup Krasniqi, immediately dissolved the assembly and scheduled the early elections.

The alliance between the PDK and the LDK disintegrated on October 16 amid wrangling over the vacant post of president and the privatization of the telecommunications company PTK.

LDK leader Fatmir Sejdiu resigned as Kosovo's president on September 27, when the Constitutional Court said he had broken the law by doubling as head of state and party chief.

The PDK and LDK failed to agree on a replacement for Sejdiu, so early polls were called for February 13 - more than half-a-year before they are due.

Amid a row over the sale of PTK, the LDK then left the coalition three weeks ago and vacated all government posts it held, blocking the executive from functioning.

Kosovo, with its majority Albanian population, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nine years after NATO ousted Belgrade's security forces from the former province.

It was recognized by the United States, most European Union countries and neighbors - in total, by 71 nations.

Opinion surveys in Europe's youngest country are still unreliable, but it is generally believed that only Thaci's PDK will profit from elections at such short notice.

Early elections are likely to delay the still unscheduled start of the first direct talks between Pristina and Belgrade since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351555,falls-elections-december-12.html.

Jordan to treat Iraqi church attack wounded

Tue, 02 Nov 2010

Amman - Jordan's King Abdullah II on Tuesday ordered his government to coordinate with Iraq an airlift of people wounded in Sunday's attack on a Baghdad church so they can receive treatment in Amman, according to an official statement.

"Jordan has already notified the Iraqi government of its full readiness to receive and hospitalize victims of the terrorist attack," the statement said.

At least 58 people were killed and 78 wounded after militants seized a Baghdad church during evening mass and held the congregation hostage, triggering a raid by Iraqi security forces.

In a message to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, King Abdullah condemned the attack as an "act of terrorism" and expressed Jordan's backing for Baghdad in their endeavors to combat terrorism.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351552,iraqi-church-attack-wounded.html.

UN Security Council's British presidency aims at Sudan peace - Summary

Tue, 02 Nov 2010

New York - The British government said Tuesday its presidency of the UN Security Council will focus on timely completion of two polls that will decide the fate of the peace agreement between north and south Sudan.

The 15-nation council will hold an open debate on November 16 on the situation of Sudan, to be presided over by British Foreign Secretary William Hague. London said that Sudan is its "highest priority" as it took over the rotating presidency of the council this month.

"We will use our presidency to push for timely completion of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, give support to the efforts of President (Thabo) Mbeki and the African Union," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

"We will maintain the Security Council's focus on Darfur and reinforce the importance of lasting and inclusive peace settlement for the Darfuri people," it said.

The British ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant, told reporters the debate will involve UN, Sudanese and other African diplomats.

"We believe it critical that the Security Council maintains very close focus on Sudan," Grant said. He led a council delegation that visited Africa's Great Lakes region last month.

"The council attaches great importance that the referenda be held in a timely and peaceful fashion, and that the outcomes are respected by all parties," Grant said.

London said it is working with donors and Sudanese parties to make "urgent progress on preparations" for the referenda and is providing 10 million British pounds (16 million dollars) to support the vote.

London is also providing 100 million pounds to support the UN mission in Sudan and the UN-African Union peacekeeping operations in Darfur.

Concerns have increased over whether the referenda would be held on January 9 because of the enormous task of setting in motion the preparations, and because of the lack of funding and referendum workers. Khartoum is opposed to the breakaway of Southern Sudan, which holds sizable oil reserves.

Southern Sudan is scheduled to hold the self-determination referendum on January 9 and a second vote will allow inhabitants in the oil-rich Abyei border region between Southern Sudan and north Sudan to decide to join the south or north.

The peace agreement in 2005 ended decades of conflict between north and south Sudan by binding the two sides in a power-sharing government in Khartoum. The agreement called for a referendum in 2011 to let the south decide its own political arrangement.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351559,sudan-peace-summary.html.

Yemen seeks US intervention to ease European flight restrictions

Tue, 02 Nov 2010

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemen on Tuesday asked the United States for help in convincing European countries to ease flight restrictions imposed in the wake of a foiled bomb plot involving US-bound parcels flown out from Sana'a, the state Saba news agency reported.

Last week's discovery of a pair of printer cartridges loaded with explosives on two cargo flights renewed fears about terrorism. The bombs were found at airports in Britain and Dubai.

Germany on Monday banned all flights originating in Yemen. Canada banned all air cargo from Yemen, following similar action by Britain.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh made the plea during a telephone conversation with US President Barack Obama, Saba reported.

"The decisions made by some European countries to halt air flights from Yemen is a collective punishment to the Yemeni people," Saleh was quoted as saying.

The ban "achieves the aims of terrorists and damages Yemen's efforts to fight terrorism," he added.

Saleh called on Obama to "intervene (to convince) the European Union countries to reconsider such a decision."

He also reassured the US president that "strict and tight procedures have been taken at Yemeni airports," the agency said.

Yemen had previously protested Germany's flight ban on Monday, calling it a "hasty and exaggerated reaction" and a "collective and illogical punishment."

Yemeni authorities are still searching for the militants who mailed the parcels. Police released the main suspect, a 22-year-old student who apparently had fallen victim to identity theft.

A team of US investigators arrived Monday in Sana'a to review security measures at Yemen's two international airports.

A Yemeni government official, who asked not to be named, told the German Press Agency dpa that the team would also train airport officers on "advanced search techniques."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351561,ease-european-flight-restrictions.html.

10 years at home on the International Space Station - Feature

Tue, 02 Nov 2010

Washington - On Tuesday, the world celebrated the space station's 10th birthday - the longest period of time of continuous human habitation outside Earth's atmosphere.

The three Russian and three US astronauts who currently live aboard the International Space Station celebrated the occasion with a special meal and a congratulatory call from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Bolden spoke of the "toehold in space" provided by the orbiting station and the international cooperation used to create it.

"As we enter the station's second decade, our path forward will take us deeper into space and expand humanity's potential farther," he said. "The lessons we learn on the station will carry us to Mars and beyond. I want to give a heartfelt thank you to the six crew members on orbit and all the teams over the years that have helped us get to this milestone day."

It began on November 2, 2000, when an American and a Russian astronaut floated side by side into the ISS that orbits more than 300 kilometers above Earth's surface.

The project was born out of the death of the Cold War, as the US and Russia began cooperating and US astronauts first visited Russia's Mir space station. The first ISS component, Russia's Zarya module, launched in 1998.

The ISS just last week barely squeaked out its claim to "longest habitation in space", when it beat out the longevity record of the Russians' long experiment on the Mir.

"The space station's crowning glory is that it's made the world a smaller place," said John McCullough, head of NASA's flight director office.

The station's first crew was made up of Russians Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev and American commander Bill Shepherd. In the intervening decade, some 200 people have spent time on board, 15 countries have helped build it and more than 600 experiments have been conducted.

The ISS permanent crew was expanded to six people last year, for the first time including representatives of all the space agencies involved in the project - the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada.

"It's an amazing spacecraft and the feat we have accomplished as a team with our international partners is perhaps the most difficult thing ever accomplished by humankind," said NASA ISS program manager Mike Suffredini.

Much of the international effort has focused on building the station. Including its solar panels, the ISS is nearly as long as a football field. The livable space is the equivalent of a five- bedroom house.

Cost estimates for more than a decade of international work and planning invested in the station range from 35 billion dollars to 160 billion dollars.

The craft has been assembled in pieces in space, with most of the heavy lifting done by the US space shuttle, which is capable of carrying aloft huge components. That alone is an engineering accomplishment, since those pieces were constructed around the world and had never been in the same room together before being connected in space.

The station is now largely complete and even had a "picture window" installed earlier this year that allows astronauts a 360- degree view when protective shutters are lifted.

The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to be on its way to the station later this week and will bring the last US major component to the station.

The new room to be installed during the mission was built by the Italian Space Agency and has been in space before in a different guise - as the cargo-fetching Leonardo module. NASA, which owns the module, has transported things to and from the Earth in it, and has outfitted it anew to be installed as a permanent "multipurpose" part of the station.

The US space agency plans to retire the aging shuttle fleet next year, with one more mission planned and another possible if funding comes through.

"It wouldn't have happened without the space shuttle, absolutely," said Bob Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Center, where shuttles launch for their trips to the ISS.

Shuttle proponents have expressed concern that without it, there will be no craft large enough to take large equipment to the station. Only the Russian Soyuz will be available to shuttle astronauts aloft. NASA has used that argument in pressing for another flight, which has secured approval albeit without the money to back it up.

The final shuttle flights have been aimed at stocking the ISS with spare parts for repairs. In August, for example, part of the cooling system broke. It was fixed through emergency spacewalks that replaced a cooling pump using the spare parts on board.

US lawmakers also recently approved support for the ISS through at least 2020, much to the relief of its international partners. It had earlier been scheduled to be de-funded and then de-orbited in 2015.

That's also good news for scientific experimentation that can now get into full swing once the focus on ISS construction is complete, NASA says.

The orbiting space lab will also provide key insights into long- durations spent in space ahead of potential missions to asteroids and Mars, showing how humans and equipment hold up after long periods in space.

"We should believe and think about the fact that we will explore beyond low Earth orbit and this really was the first step in that endeavor," Suffredini said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351577,space-station-feature.html.

Shuttle Discovery's final launch delayed again - Summary

Tue, 02 Nov 2010

Washington - The final launch of the space shuttle Discovery was delayed Tuesday after a problem with an electrical system was discovered during pre-launch engine tests.

The launch is now aimed for Thursday if NASA engineers can fix the problem.

Having lasted three times as long as most vehicles used by Earth- bound individuals, Discovery will launch as the US space agency NASA retires the aging shuttles and begins to transition routine flights to commercial providers.

The launch was already delayed for two days because of repairs of helium and nitrogen leaks in one of the shuttle's engine pods and subsequent inspections.

The mission will deliver the last major US contribution to the International Space Station (ISS) - an extra room - along with supplies, including a human-like robot, known as Robonaut 2 (R2), the first-such robot ever sent to space.

The oldest vehicle in the operating space shuttle fleet, Discovery entered construction in 1979 and blasted off into space for the first time in 1984.

After Discovery's planned 11-day mission, the workhorse of the fleet will have spent nearly a year in orbit, made more flights than any other shuttle and carried more crew members.

In February, the shuttle Endeavor is slated to make the absolutely last shuttle program flight to the ISS, although NASA is pushing for funding for another flight for Atlantis in summer 2011.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351582,delayed-again-summary.html.

Libya Motor Show kicks off

2010-11-02

The 4th Libya International Motor Show opened on Tuesday (November 2nd). Along with parts, tools and auto vendors, China, Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia set up national pavilions at the Tripoli Fairgrounds. The program of the four-day event features classic cars, a go-carting circuit and commercial presentations.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/11/02/newsbrief-08.

Libya launches 'Energy Cities' project

2010-11-02

Libya launched a $54b "Energy Cities" master plan, Tripoli Post reported on Monday (November 1st). "The energy cities at Al Brega and Ras Lanuf will provide opportunities for investors to access high quality hydrocarbon resources," Energy Cities Development Company chief Abdullah Mahmud told Zawya. Planners say the projects will create job opportunities, boost tourism and increase the country's economic diversification. In other energy news, the Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) announced that the 11 foreign companies operating in Libya's petrol sector employed nearly 5000 Libyans between 2007 and 2009. Some 1,000 Libyans are currently being trained in France, Spain, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, India, and Russia.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/11/02/newsbrief-06.

Human Development Forum opens in Agadir

2010-11-02

More than 1,700 experts from Europe, Africa, Asia and America gathered in Agadir on Monday (November 1st) to open the "Forum on Human Development", MAP reported. The fight against poverty will be among the issues discussed at the two-day event.

In his address to the participants on Monday, IMF Director General Dominique Strauss-Kahn called on G-20 member countries to fix the financial sector. "In the framework of the new globalization, the first priority is employment, the second priority is employment and the third priority is employment," AFP quoted him as saying.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/11/02/newsbrief-03.

Candidate numbers fall to 763 in final tally

By Khetam Malkawi

AMMAN - A total of 763 candidates will run for the 120 seats of the Lower House of Parliament in next Tuesday’s elections after 87 withdrew, according to the final list of candidates issued Monday.

Women make up 134 of the remaining candidates and nine of those who withdrew, Elections Director at the Ministry of Interior Saad Shihab told The Jordan Times yesterday.

Monday was the deadline for candidates to announce their decision to withdraw from their races, Shihab said. As of today, candidates are no longer allowed to withdraw.

In an interview with The Jordan Times yesterday, Shihab said the Ministry of Interior and the Central Elections Committee have finished all preparations for the elections.

He said the 1,492 polling centers across the Kingdom will be connected through a network that will allow the ministry to follow the voting process electronically on computer monitors.

“We have 13 monitors connected with the country’s 12 governorates and the badia,” Shihab explained yesterday, adding that whenever a voter casts a ballot at any polling center, his or her name will appear on the relevant monitor.

Each monitor contains a map of the governorate or region, their main districts, cities and neighborhoods, along with the names of the members of their elections committees.

He also noted that a special committee headed by Governor Walid Abeda has been formed to count the votes cast for women candidates and announce the winners of the 12 seats allocated for women.

Polling centers will open on November 9 at 7:00am and will close the same day at 7:00pm, but heads of the governorates’ committees are authorized to extend voting by up to two hours if needed.

After the polls close, the committees in each governorate will report their results to the central committee, and Minister of Interior Nayef Qadi will announce the final results at a press conference.

The results should be announced within 48 hours after the end of the voting, Shihab said.

Also Monday, Prime Minister Samir Rifai urged teachers, preachers and clerics to play an active role in raising public awareness on the importance of participating in the elections, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Addressing teachers and clerics at a meeting held to emphasize their role in the elections, he said: “You have a key role in preparing citizens, especially the young, to shoulder their responsibility for the future.”

The premier noted that 50 per cent of Jordanians are below the age of 18, stressing that today’s decisions will have a major impact on their future.

“We consider you as main partners in efforts to raise awareness among young people on the importance of choosing deputies with high political and social understanding and who are capable of conveying their problems to the Parliament,” he said.

Rifai added that the elections should be viewed as a means for change towards a better future.

Speaking at the meeting, several teachers and clerics reiterated that participation in the elections is a national and a religious duty, expressing appreciation for the measures the government has taken to guarantee free and fair elections.

2 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31482.