Venezuela, China to launch satellite next year

May 27, 2011

CARACAS — Venezuela and China will develop an observation satellite to be built in Asia and launched from South America in 2012, according to Venezuela's science and technology minister.

Ricardo Menendez said Thursday that the earth-observation satellite, to be built at a cost of $140 million, would be used to monitor troop movements and illegal mining as well as study climate change and the environment.

"We will have a satellite with the ability to monitor our territory 24 hours a day," he told reporters at the unveiling of the project.

"The Venezuelan state will monitor the development and impact of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, floods and heavy rainfall," he added.

The contract was signed by the Venezuelan ministry and the state-owned China Great Wall Industry Corporation.

The launch was set for October 2012, four years after the launch of the "Simon Bolivar," the first-ever Venezuelan satellite, named for the Latin American independence hero and also built with Chinese aid.

"As with the first satellite, the second will be made available to other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean," Menendez said.

The two countries have forged close economic ties in recent years as leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has sought to reduce dependence on Washington.

China has invested heavily in Venezuela's oil, gas and mining sectors in recent years and has sold Caracas 18 Chinese K-8 fighter jets.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

Palestinians hail reopening of Rafah crossing despite Israel's reservation

by Emad Drimly, Saud Abu Ramadan

GAZA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians on Thursday welcomed an Egyptian decision to ease restrictions of passengers movements, which had been imposed on the Rafah crossing on its borders with the Gaza Strip four years ago after the Islamic Hamas movement seized control of the enclave in 2007.

On Wednesday, the Hamas Ministry of Interior announced that Egypt had decided to permanently reopen the Rafah crossing point with the Gaza Strip and ease the restrictions imposed on the movement of the population of the coastal enclave, which had been under an Israeli blockade for four years.

Egyptian media reported Thursday that the country's authorities decided to extend the working days at the Rafah border crossing from 9:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) to 5:00 p.m. (1500 GMT) six days a week instead of five days, adding "this measure was made to help end the internal division."

Yasser Abed Rabbo, an official of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Voice of Palestine Radio that the Palestinian leadership encouraged the Egyptian officials to hurry up in reopening the Rafah crossing as soon as possible and ease the restrictions imposed on people's movement.

"Reopening the Rafah crossing is so necessary because it will end the suffering of the Gaza Strip people in accordance with the agreements and laws that were used in running the crossing before the internal Palestinian division has begun in 2007," Abed Rabbo said.

He added that the Egyptian decision "goes in harmony with creating a proper opportunity to finalize the implementation of the reconciliation agreement and also it would help the Palestinians to be able to confront the upcoming difficulties with better conditions."

However, Abed Rabbo denied that reopening the crossing "is part of the reconciliation agreement," which was signed in Cairo on May 4 between Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the Islamic Hamas movement, adding "the decision to ease the restrictions is a pure Egyptian decision."

Meanwhile, the Hamas movement hailed the Egyptian decision. Hamas has been ruling the coastal enclave since it seized control of it by force in June 2007. Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in a press statement that the Egyptian decision is brave and responsible."

"Egypt has been guarding the highest interests of the Palestinian people and the Arabs," Barhoum said, adding "this decision is a step forward towards ending the unfair siege that the whole international community should follow Egypt and help completely end the siege."

The less-influential Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement also welcomed the Egyptian decision. The movement's spokesman Dawood Shihab said in a press statement that his movement welcomes the decision, adding that they hope all restrictions will be lifted.

"I believe that easing the restrictions at the Rafah crossing is one of Egyptian revolution's achievements," Shihab said. Other Palestinian NGOs had praised the Egyptian decision, calling on the international community to exert more pressure on Israel to end the ongoing blockade.

Meanwhile, the Popular Committee to end the Israeli Siege said in a press statement that in addition to easing restrictions on people's movement, "we hope that the measures will include soon mutual commercial cooperation between the Palestinians and Egyptians."

Hamas Minister of Agriculture Mohamed al-Agha said he hopes that the Egyptian decision would develop and includes opening a commercial crossing between Egypt and Gaza to enable Gaza farmers to export their products to the outside world and encourage commercial cooperation with Egypt.

Chief of Gaza Chamber of Commerce Maher Tabba said it is necessary and important to reopen the Rafah crossing for the Gaza Strip. However, he said "the Rafah crossing can never be an alternative crossing, where other crossings with Israel must be also reopened permanently."

Meanwhile, Israel expressed reservations after Egypt decided to ease the restrictions imposed on the Rafah crossing. Israeli Radio quoted Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Mattan Vilna'i as saying that "easing the restrictions at the Rafah crossing would resolve some of the problems with Israel."

Meanwhile, Israeli security sources expected that reopening the Rafah crossing "would be helpful to Israel." The sources told Israeli Army Radio that "the Egyptian decision may help transfer Gaza responsibility to Egypt."

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/26/c_13895924.htm.

Study reveals most biologically rich island in Southern Ocean

London, UK (SPX) May 27, 2011

The first comprehensive study of sea creatures around the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia reveals a region that is richer in biodiversity than even many tropical sites, such as the Galapagos Islands. The study provides an important benchmark to monitor how these species will respond to future environmental change.

Reporting this week in the online journal PLoS ONE, the team from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), funded by the British Government's Darwin Initiative and the South Georgia Heritage Trust, describe how they examined over 130 years of polar records.

About 1500 species were recorded showing South Georgia and its surrounding islands to be the richest area for marine life in the Southern Ocean.

Lead author Oliver Hogg from BAS says, "The biodiversity of South Georgia exceeds that of its nearest rivals such as the Galapagos and Equador in terms of the number of species inhabiting its shores. During the breeding season it hosts the densest mass of marine mammals on Earth."

Specimens were collected from scientific cruises, fisheries vessels and by scuba divers from the seas around South Georgia, famous for great polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition. Species identified include sea urchins, free-swimming worms, fish, sea spiders and crustaceans. Most are rare and many occur nowhere else on Earth.

The near-surface waters around South Georgia are some of the fastest warming on Earth so this study provides a framework to identify ecologically sensitive areas and species, identify conservation priorities and monitor future changes.

Oliver Hogg continues, "This is the first time anybody has mapped out the biodiversity of a small polar archipelago in the Southern Ocean. If we are to understand how these animals will respond to future change, a starting point like this is really important."

The weblink to this Darwin Initiative project, a collaboration between BAS, the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the Shallow Marine Surveys Group of the Falkland Islands, is: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/sgmarbase/.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Study_reveals_most_biologically_rich_island_in_Southern_Ocean_999.html.

NASA-Funded Scientists Make Watershed Lunar Discovery

Washington DC (SPX) May 27, 2011

A team of NASA-funded researchers has measured for the first time water from the moon in the form of tiny globules of molten rock, which have turned to glass-like material trapped within crystals. Data from these newly-discovered lunar melt inclusions indicate the water content of lunar magma is 100 times higher than previous studies suggested.

The inclusions were found in lunar sample 74220, the famous high-titanium "orange glass soil" of volcanic origin collected during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The scientific team used a state-of-the-art ion microprobe instrument to measure the water content of the inclusions, which were formed during explosive eruptions on the moon approximately 3.7 billion years ago.

The results, published in the May 26 issue of Science Express, raise questions about aspects of the "giant impact theory" of how the moon was created. That theory predicted very low water content of lunar rock due to catastrophic degassing during the collision of Earth with a Mars-sized body very early in its history. The study also provides additional scientific justification for returning similar samples from other planetary bodies in the solar system.

"Water plays a critical role in determining the tectonic behavior of planetary surfaces, the melting point of planetary interiors and the location and eruptive style of planetary volcanoes," said Erik Hauri, a geochemist with the Carnegie Institution of Washington and lead author of the study.

"I can conceive of no sample type that would be more important to return to Earth than these volcanic glass samples ejected by explosive volcanism, which have been mapped not only on the moon but throughout the inner solar system."

In contrast to most volcanic deposits, the lunar melt inclusions are encased in crystals that prevent the escape of water and other volatiles during eruption.

"These samples provide the best window we have on the amount of water in the interior of the moon where the orange glass came from," said science team member James Van Orman of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

In a 2008 study led by Alberto Saal of Brown University in Providence, R.I., the same team reported the first evidence of water in lunar volcanic glasses. They used magma degassing models to estimate how much water was originally in the magmas before eruption.

Building on that study, Thomas Weinreich, a Brown undergraduate student, searched for and found the melt inclusions. With that data, the team measured the pre-eruption concentration in the magma and estimated the amount of water in the moon's interior.

"The bottom line is that in 2008, we said the primitive water content in the lunar magmas should be similar to lavas coming from the Earth's depleted upper mantle," Saal said. "Now, we have proven that is indeed the case."

The study also puts a new twist on the origin of water-ice detected in craters at the lunar poles by several recent NASA missions. The ice has been attributed to comet and meteor impacts, but the researchers believe it is possible that some of the ice came from water released by the eruption of lunar magmas eons ago.

The paper entitled, "High Pre-Eruptive Water Contents Preserved in Lunar Melt Inclusions," was written by Hauri, Weinreich, Saal, Van Oman and Malcolm Rutherford of Brown. The research is funded by NASA's Lunar Advanced Science and Exploration Research and Cosmochemistry Programs in Washington, the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) at the agency's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., and the Astrobiology Institute at Ames.

The NLSI is a virtual organization enabling collaborative, interdisciplinary research in support of agency lunar science programs. The researchers are members of NLSI teams from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and Brown. The institute uses technology to bring scientists together around the world, and it is comprised of seven competitively selected U.S. teams and several international partners. NASA's Science Mission and Exploration Systems Mission Directorates in Washington fund the institute.

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/NASA_Funded_Scientists_Make_Watershed_Lunar_Discovery_999.html.

Hizb ut-Tahrir Protest at Syrian-Jordanian border warns of foreign intervention

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

AMMONNEWS - Jordanian authorities and security forces on Friday prevented hundreds of protestors in Ramtha, northern Jordan, from reaching the Syrian-Jordanian border during a protest against the Syrian regime's crackdown on Syrian pro-reformers.

Hundreds of activists and members of the banned "Hizb ut-Tahrir" movement marched following Friday noon prayers from Al Taqwa Mosque in the border town in a solidarity stand with the Syrian people.

Hizb ut-Tahrir protestors chanted slogans criticizing "Arab silence" towards the bloody events in Syria, and called on the Arab League to take action to protect the Syrian people.

The protestors were stopped from marching towards the Syrian-Jordanian border and staged a sit-in near the state-run Ramtha hospital.

Several speakers blasted the military crackdown on Syrian activists whose demands have escalated to call for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad following bloody clashes in several Syrian cities.

Protestors warned against foreign intervention in the Syrian political scene, and blasted US President Obama's speech on Thursday and US administration's position towards events in the region.

They urged Arab intervention in resolving "Arab-Arab" issues, and warned against continued "Western intervention" in the region.

Banan Malkawi
24th May 2011

Source: Ammon News

Source: Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia.
Link: http://www.hizb-australia.org/newsroom/hizb-ut-tahrir/3683-hizb-ut-tahrir-protest-at-syrian-jordanian-border-warns-of-foreign-intervention.

France to help Russia create Caucasus ski resorts

By Alexei Anishchuk
DEAUVILLE, France | Thu May 26, 2011

(Reuters) - France will help Russia with its ambitious plan to create a constellation of ski resorts in the North Caucasus, a poor region plagued by insurgent violence, the two presidents said on Thursday.

Russia laid out a $15 billion plan last year to build five resorts in the stunning mountains of the North Caucasus, hoping to draw tourism and investment to an area where poverty fuels an Islamist insurgency a decade after the wars in Chechnya.

France voiced support in a joint statement released after talks between President Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during a G8 summit in the seaside resort of Deauville.

Sarkozy and Medvedev "agreed to list the creation of a tourist cluster in the North Caucasus as a priority ... in the strategic partnership between the two countries," it said.

"France has unique and varied experience and knowledge of full-scale development of highland regions ... and is ready to share its experience with Russia," the document said.

Russia and France are considering a joint venture that would inject at least 2 billion euro in to the project, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported.

State-run North Caucasus Resorts Company NCRC.L, which is running the project, has said it would create 200,000 jobs in the impoverished region and is to be named Peak 5,642 after Europe's tallest mountain, Mount Elbrus.

Russia has ski areas around Mount Elbrus and elsewhere in the western portion of the North Caucasus, but much of the infrastructure is rudimentary and few foreigners visit.

The insurgency, which is rooted in Russia's 1990s wars against Chechen separatists but has spread to other mostly Muslim provinces further west in the North Caucasus, poses a serious challenge to the plan.

In February, three Russian ski vacationers were killed by insurgents near Mount Elbrus in Kabardino-Balkaria province. (Editing by Steve Gutterman and Jon Boyle)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/26/uk-russia-france-tourism-idUSLNE74P05620110526.

Chad's migrants fleeing Libya need more help - aid groups

26 May 2011

By George Fominyen

DAKAR (AlertNet) – Thousands of Chadian migrants fleeing Libya’s conflict are arriving in droves in northern Chad, but they lack food, water and medical assistance in the desert villages they pass through on their way home, aid agencies say.

Over 40,000 Chadians who had been working in Libya have returned since violence erupted in the north-African country in February, and many arrive weak and sick after the journey across the desert that takes some three weeks under harsh conditions.

“Most are traveling on top of trucks under the scorching Sahara sun with limited access to water,” Felix Leger, country director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC)in Chad, said in a statement.

“By the time they arrive in Chad, many are dehydrated, suffering from heat stroke, hungry and exhausted.”

Authorities in Chad estimate that over 300,000 Chadians lived in eastern and western Libya for years where they worked – like other sub-Saharan African migrants – mainly as low-paid laborers in the oil industry, agriculture and construction, or as domestic servants.

Many Chadians and other sub-Saharan workers say that when Libyan unrest started they were targeted, and accused of being mercenaries, by supporters of the rebels trying to oust long-serving Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The influx of returnees is straining locals in small and remote villages near the border with Libya.

WATER TENSIONS

Tension over water access is mounting between villagers and migrants who stay three to four days to rest, convalesce, or allow repair time for trucks taking them to a main town northern-Chad town, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement after staff visited Zouarke village, near the Chadian border with Niger.

"The village is unable to cope with providing water from a 36-meter deep well for more than 500 migrants at any one time," said IOM's assessment team leader, Craig Murphy.

Migrants have to queue for five hours to fill a single jerrycan and there have been scuffles at the water point, IOM said.

Some migrants have measles and are quarantined in the open under trees just a few hundred meters from the rest of the migrant population, sleeping near trucks

The organization plans to establish a transit station in the village which is a mid-way point in the journey from southern Libya to Faya Largeau in northern Chad, via Niger – a journey avoiding landmines along the Aouzou strip Strip that separates Libya and Chad, and which the two countries fought over in the 1970s and 1980s.

However, conditions are also difficult at Faya Largeau, which has a transit center to shelter women and children and other vulnerable returnees.

“The hospital is buckling under the pressure of treating so many sick people,” says IRC’s Leger. “Many of the arrivals are also traumatized by the violence they witnessed or experienced,” he added.

Ten IRC aid workers have been dispatched to the town, including five medical staff providing support at the overburdened hospital.

“Our priority is to support the hospital staff in Faya with medical expertise. The health situation is currently critical and the hospital cannot cope,” Leger said.

Source: Alertnet.
Link: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/chads-migrants-fleeing-libya-need-more-help-aid-groups.