First Vega starts journey to Europe's Spaceport

Paris, France (ESA)
Oct 05, 2011

The first elements of Europe's new Vega small launcher left Italy last Thursday to begin their long journey to Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, marking the final step towards its inaugural flight in January.

After several intense weeks of checking the hardware and equipment - and the shipping paperwork - Vega's Zefiro-23 and Zefiro-9 motors and the AVUM fourth stage were carefully packed and left Avio's facility in Colleferro, where they were built.

During the night, the convoy headed to Livorno Harbor and the stages were loaded onto the MN Colibri, a vessel that is normally used by Arianespace to carry Ariane rocket components on the same route across the Atlantic Ocean.

It then departed on its first leg to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

The fairing, built in Switzerland, the Dutch-built Interstage-1/2 structure that links the first two stages and the LARES laser relativity satellite from Italy's ASI space agency will be loaded onto the vessel, which is scheduled to set sail on 6 October.

Some 18 days later, the ship will arrive at Degrad de Cannes Harbor in Cayenne, French Guiana.

From there, the ship's cargo will be taken by road to Kourou for mating with Vega's P80 first stage, now undergoing final preparations in the Booster Integration Building.

The P80 solid-propellant motor, also built in Colleferro, awaits insertion of its igniter.

Vega's first launch campaign

The three-month launch campaign will begin in November following the Flight Readiness Review on 13-14 October.

The first step will move the P80 stage to the pad for final testing of the thrust vector control system. The two solid-propellant second and third stages will then be added.

The campaign will continue with the integration of the AVUM - Attitude and Vernier Upper Module - and its fueling, and further testing of the electrical systems and software controls.

Finally, the upper composite, comprising the fairing and the payload, will be mated with AVUM.

The payload for Vega's first launch is the LARES satellite, together with nine small CubeSats from European universities.

ESA, CNES, ASI and industry teams will arrive at Europe's Spaceport for the launch campaign in November.

"With all of the elements for Vega's maiden flight in Kourou by mid-October, we are now looking forward to beginning the launch campaign, which will be the final step before the first flight of Europe's new rocket," says Stefano Bianchi, Vega Program Manager.

This first launch, the Vega qualification flight, is planned for January 2012 and will pave the way for five missions that aim to demonstrate the system's flexibility.

Vega is designed to cope with a wide range of missions and payload configurations in order to respond to different market opportunities. In particular, it offers configurations able to handle payloads ranging from a single satellite up to one main satellite plus six microsatellites.

Vega is compatible with payload masses ranging from 300 kg to 2500 kg, depending on the type and altitude of the orbit required by the customers. The benchmark is for 1500 kg into a 700 km altitude polar orbit.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/First_Vega_starts_journey_to_Europe_Spaceport_999.html.

Lebanese women fight revolution through football

by Jens Juul Petersen
04 October 2011

Beirut - Lebanese women are fighting a silent revolution on the football field through the popular club program of the Cross Cultures Project Association (CCPA) in Lebanon, which provides educational activities for those in post-conflict countries.

Farah and Mirna are two young women on an important mission: they want to change Lebanese society by promoting gender equality and giving young girls the opportunities they didn't have themselves.

“We are here at the CCPA seminar because we want to change something,” says 28-year-old Mirna. Together with her friend Farah, Mirna is taking part in a seminar in Beirut for volunteers in the CCPA Popular Club program. The two school teachers want to establish their own sports club for girls in their hometown. “There is nothing like this in our town. All sports clubs are for boys and men, but we want to make a club for girls – and only girls!” says Farah, who has been living in a little town in South Lebanon her entire life and is fed up with how her society views and treats girls and women. “We have had no opportunities for sports or physical activities. It has been very frustrating,” she says.

CCPA Lebanon is focusing on bringing together a mixed group of children who play in the same club regardless of gender, talent, social standing, religious and ethnic distinctions. The CCPA popular club project is working to support the development of an active civil society based on diversity and equality, where females are encouraged to take an active part in order to promote gender equality and non-discrimination.

The idea of popular clubs for girls is revolutionary – especially in the south. The two women’s hometown is located in a conservative area around the city of Tyre, where cultural mores have made it difficult for CCPA Lebanon to organize sports activities for girls and women. The local CCPA coordinator Adel Saad has experienced how complicated it is to attract females to sports activities, not only in the south but all over the country: “This is Lebanon, and it is unusual for girls to participate in sports outside school. We need to change this, but it should be done slowly,” says Adel.

“There is an idea here that girls who wear the hijab (headscarf) don’t play sports,” Mirna adds. “Men think that we are not interested and don’t like being active, but this is so wrong. We know many, many women who are like us.” Adds Farah, “I want to change the impression that girls who wear hijab can’t do anything except sit at home and be quiet. By playing sports we can change this and express ourselves!”

Involving women in sports is only a small step for better conditions and equality for women in Lebanon, but it is a clever way to start changing society. In this very volatile country everything tends to be politicized  but sports are seen as far removed from politics and therefore safe. Mirna and Farah chose to take active part in society through CCPA Lebanon because of the reputation of the organisation in the area.

Many people in Lebanon are not ready to deal with strong and independent women doing sports. Even these two women had to struggle before going to the CCPA seminar in Beirut, far away from their hometown. “Our families were against it,” Farah says. “Staying at a hotel with 50 men is not a good thing to do for young decent women. We couldn't convince our families to allow us to go, so in the end we just said, ‘Enough. We will go whether you like it or not.’”

Farah and Mirna have learned a lot at the seminar, but it is not only the women who have something to learn. According to Farah, male instructors and trainers also have many things to learn: “Some of the men here are not used to have women around them. But they have to learn this: women are also allowed on the playing field and to take part in society.”

The small liberation movement for Farah, Mirna and their Lebanese sisters has started. There is still a long way to go, but Farah is optimistic and motivated. “We will need time. Things don’t change overnight here, but we know that we can do it. We know that we can change how other people are seeing women. We can’t lose faith – and we can’t fail! But we need patience."

Source: Common Ground.
Link: http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=30474&lan=en&sp=0.

Free media in Tunisia, from illusion to reality

by Mourad Teyeb
04 October 2011

Tunis - Immediately after the 14 January uprising, Tunisians experienced the illusion of a free and prosperous society. Tunisian journalists have enjoyed newfound freedom in print and broadcast media, which under President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had been tightly controlled. Although we accomplished much to be proud of, the illusion of what this newfound freedom meant for the media lasted mere days.

The media interpreted freedom literally: to say what they liked when they liked. Criticizing government officials, even insulting them, has become quite common in television and radio talk shows and newspapers have become full of provocative, indecent content. Nobody understood that freedom required a sense of responsibility.

In fact, today we often hear people saying that the media is not telling them the truth about the political reality on such key issues as the country’s security, unemployment figures or political parties.

Nearly a hundred publications – daily and weekly newspapers and magazines – and a dozen local FM radios have been authorized to publish and broadcast since January. More than 30 licenses for new television channels were issued. Two high commissions were created to review the press codes that, under Ben Ali’s regime, shaped coverage, and stipulated fines and prison sentences against violators of the old media legislation.

These are some positive steps forward in terms of media freedom, but many opinion polls show that people are not satisfied with the emerging trends in media because they believe that the changes have not been for the better. The poll conducted by SIGMA Conseil, a market research firm based in Tunisia, revealed in late July that 85 per cent of Tunisians “are not satisfied” with the country’s media.

Even after the fall of the regime, the majority of journalists in the Tunisian media are still unable to tackle real issues like corruption and the economy, to differentiate between freedom and chaos, and to assess those businesses and investors who are corrupt but who, through advertising and buying large numbers of subscriptions, help their companies survive and thus keep journalists and editors in their jobs. In fact, 80 per cent of media magnates are still there and, though many media enterprises formerly owned by the Ben Ali clan have been shut down, it is impossible to put everybody in jail.

Ridha Kéfi, a senior journalist and member of the Commission on Media Reform, which was formed to investigate the administrative and financial corruption in the media sector, thinks it is “very difficult” for Tunisian journalists “to get rid of habits and practices, such as corruption and lying, that they have been used to for more than three decades”.

Kéfi, whose magazine L'Expression was prevented from advertising publicly before being obliged to close down in 2009 under the Ben Ali regime, also thinks that “the poor background of journalists, their reluctance to develop capacities, the pressure of everyday work and bad working conditions oblige the Tunisian media to just cope with these trends and avoid any clashes with their employers that might cost them their jobs.”

Similar experiences in many other countries, such as Georgia, Bulgaria, China and South Africa, show that weak transitions towards democracy have hindered the development of a free media. After 50 years of oppression, a singular voice and political party are very difficult to overcome overnight. Tunisia’s political elite and civil society have no experience dealing with transition requirements, and the media suffer so much from internal pleas that addressing the real questions of censorship and corruption become absurd.

Today, internal and public debates show that more journalists realize it is time to start anew with greater self-criticism and more in-depth self-assessment. Refusing to submit to any pressure compelling them to work in a corrupt world is a first step towards reform. Rejecting any form of government interference in their job is the beginning of their war against censorship. Taking the initiative and tackling the real problems of today’s Tunisia are essential for keeping the media free of out-dated issues and old-fashioned techniques.

Democracy cannot ensure a free media but a free media can help create a more successful democracy. One hope is that the market will eventually weed out incompetent journalists, thus creating a Tunisian media that is not only free, but also informative.

The January 2011 popular revolution in Tunisia is an opportunity to use bottom-up pressure for enabling legislation and an appropriate framework for an unrestricted but responsible media at a time when there is urgent need to break with the past.

Source: Common Ground.
Link: http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=30472&lan=en&sp=0.

Tripoli commercial flights resume

2011-10-04

Passenger flights are once again arriving in Tripoli, ANSA reported on Monday (October 3rd). A Turkish Airlines plane landed Saturday at the Mitiga airport to mark the resumption of service. At a press conference in Tripoli last week, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Alitalia would resume commercial flights between Rome and Tripoli on November 2nd and "work towards an Italy-Benghazi flight for next year".

Source: Magharebia.

Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/10/04/newsbrief-07.

World Amazigh Congress elects Libyan president

2011-10-04

Libya's Fathi Ben Khalifa will replace Algerian Belkacem Lounès as president of the World Amazigh Congress, El Watan reported on Monday (October 3rd). The election was held Sunday night on the Tunisian island of Djerba, at the conclusion of the 6th World Amazigh Congress. Delegations from Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and the Canary Islands, along with representatives of the Touareg community and the Amazigh diaspora in Europe and North America, attended the three-day event. Talks reportedly focused on the Amazigh movement in the aftermath of the Arab spring.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/10/04/newsbrief-06.

Real Madrid mulls Algeria training centers

2011-10-04

Real Madrid plans to build two youth football training centers in Algeria, Liberte reported on Tuesday (October 4th). "One of them will be built in collaboration with the Association of USM Alger," CSA/USMA chief Said Allik said. The project by the prestigious Spanish club is part of the future of Algerian football, he said.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/sports/2011/10/04/newsbrief-04.

Kadhafi birthplace falls to NTC

2011-10-04

National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters on Monday (October 3rd) took control of Moamer Kadhafi's birthplace of Qasr Abu Hadi, AFP reported. Reclaiming the town some 20km from Sirte marked a symbolic victory in their battle to eradicate the last vestiges of the Kadhafi regime. The ousted Libyan leader was reportedly born in a nomad tent in Qasr Abu Hadi in 1942.

In other news Monday, NATO said that large numbers of portable surface-to-air missiles could be missing in Libya. "It is a matter of concern if stockpiles of weapons are not properly controlled and monitored," AP quoted NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen as saying. His comments came in response to a report published by Germany's Der Spiegel that some 10,000 SA-7 shoulder-launched missiles were missing from Libyan military depots.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/10/04/newsbrief-01.

Algeria flood toll climbs

2011-10-04

The death toll from flooding in the Algerian town of El Bayadh rose to 12 on Monday (October 3rd), Liberte reported. Some 30 people remain missing. The civil protection authorities have not confirmed the figure announced by local officials.

Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia, who visited Monday to assess the damage, said that some 400 families displaced by the floods had been moved to temporary housing in three schools. The wilayas of Oran, Saida and Djelfa sent hundreds of blankets and food products to assist the survivors.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/10/04/newsbrief-04.

NATO backs Patriot anti-missile system for Turkey

December 04, 2012

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO announced Tuesday that it will deploy Patriot anti-missile systems near Turkey's southern border, shoring up defenses against the threat of cross-border attacks from Syria and bringing the United States and its allies closer to Syria's civil war.

The alliance's 28 members decided to limit use of Patriots solely for the defensive purpose of warding off the mortar rounds and shells from Syria that have already killed five Turks. But the announcement also appeared to be a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime at a time when Washington and other governments fear Syria may be readying its chemical weapons stockpiles for possible use.

"We stand with Turkey in the spirit of strong solidarity," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters. "To anyone who would want to attack Turkey, we say, 'Don't even think about it!'"

Fogh Rasmussen stressed that the deployment of the Patriot systems — which includes missiles, radar and other elements — wouldn't be a first step toward a no-fly zone over parts of Syria or any offensive operation against the Arab state.

But the decision to deploy the systems takes the U.S. and its European partners closer to the war, with the possibility of U.S.-made and NATO-operated hardware being used against the Assad regime for the first time.

Officials say the Patriots will be programmed so that they can intercept only Syrian weapons that cross into Turkish airspace. They aren't allowed to penetrate Syrian territory pre-emptively. That means they would have no immediate effect on any Syrian government offensives — chemical or conventional — that remain strictly inside the country's national borders.

Still, Fogh Rasmussen insisted that the weapons could help de-escalate tensions along a border across which tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled and which has emerged as a critical transit point for weapons being smuggled to the rebels fighting to overthrow Assad.

Germany and the Netherlands are expected to give Turkey several batteries of the latest PAC-3 version of the U.S.-built Patriots air defense systems, which intercepts incoming missiles. The U.S. would likely fill any gaps, possibly by sending some from its stocks in Europe.

But the exact details of the deployment and the number of batteries are still to be determined by NATO. A joint team is studying possible basing sites in Turkey, and parliaments in both Germany and the Netherlands must then approve shifting the assets and the possible involvement of several hundred soldiers.

It's unclear if any American soldiers would need to be deployed. Due to the complexity and size of the Patriot batteries — including their radars, command-and-control centers, communications and support facilities — they cannot be flown quickly by air to Turkey and will probably have to travel by sea, alliance officials said. They probably won't arrive in Turkey for another month, officials predicted.

NATO, like the U.S., doesn't want to be drawn into the Syrian conflict. Washington has refused to entertain proposals for no-fly zones over Syria or for providing military support to Syrian rebels, fearful of making the conflict even more violent after 21 months in which more than 40,000 people have died.

The U.S. also cites the risk of extremists among the rebels getting their hands on weapons that they may later use against U.S. allies such as Israel. NATO previously installed long-range Patriot batteries on Turkish territory during the 1991 and the 2003 Iraq wars. They were never used and were withdrawn a few months later.

The Patriot, which first entered service three decades ago, has been successively upgraded over the years. Although mostly used for anti-aircraft defense, advanced versions can also be used against cruise missiles and against medium- and short-range ballistic missiles. They have a maximum range of about 160 kilometers (100 miles) and can reach altitudes of about 80,000 feet.

Syria is reported to have an array of artillery rockets, as well as short- and medium-range missiles. These include Soviet-built SS-21 Scarabs and Scud-B missiles. The Scuds are capable of carrying chemical warheads.

At NATO headquarters in Brussels, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the alliance's 27 other foreign ministers "unanimously expressed grave concerns about reports that the Syrian regime may be considering the use of chemical weapons," according to Fogh Rasmussen.

"Any such action would be completely unacceptable and a clear breach of international law," he said. His comments came a day after President Barack Obama warned of consequences if Assad made the "tragic mistake" of deploying chemical weapons. American officials say the U.S. and its allies are weighing military options in light of intelligence reports showing the Syrian regime may be readying its unconventional weapons and may be desperate enough to use them.

German ambassador Martin Erdmann said the Bundestag will probably take up the matter next week. The decision was announced after the NATO foreign ministers met Tuesday with their Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. The Kremlin has stymied more than a year of international efforts to apply global pressure on the Assad regime, its strongest ally in the Arab world, but officials say it has expressed equal concern about the threat of any chemical weapons.

Speaking to reporters, Lavrov said Russia wouldn't object to the Patriots. "We are not trying to interfere with Turkey's right" to defend itself, he said. "We are just saying the threat should not be overstated."

Lavrov stressed that Syrian artillery strikes into Turkey were accidental. And he warned that the conflict "is being increasingly militarized," and that more weaponry in the area would only add to that problem.

Addressing Lavrov and the other 27 NATO foreign ministers, Clinton said Washington and Moscow still have major differences on the political transition needed in Syria. She and her NATO partners issued a statement later, also stressing that the Patriots "will in no way support a no-fly zone or any offensive operation."

Turkey, one of the harshest critics of the Assad regime, asked for the Patriots to defend against possible retaliatory attacks by Syrian missiles. It welcomed the NATO decision, adding in a government statement that it would press on with efforts "to solve the Syrian crisis through peaceful ways, with the same resolve as before."

Turkey and Syria share a porous, 566-mile (911-kilometer) border, which has allowed rebel leaders to take shelter in Turkey and brought the countries to near war in recent months. Syria was blamed for shooting down a Turkish plane and for lobbing mortars that killed two women and three children.

Syria, which is party to the 1925 Geneva Protocol banning chemical weapons in war, has repeatedly insisted it would not use them even if it did possess such weapons.

Associated Press writer Christopher Torchia in Istanbul contributed to this report.

Draconid Meteor Outburst

Huntsville AL (SPX)
Oct 05, 2011

On October 8th Earth is going to plow through a stream of dust from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, and the result could be an outburst of Draconid meteors. "We're predicting as many as 750 meteors per hour," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.

"The timing of the shower favors observers in the Middle East, north Africa and parts of Europe."

Every 6.6 years Comet Giacobini-Zinner swings through the inner solar system. With each visit, it lays down a narrow filament of dust, over time forming a network of filaments that Earth encounters every year in early October.

"Most years, we pass through gaps between filaments, maybe just grazing one or two as we go by," says Cooke. "Occasionally, though, we hit one nearly head on--and the fireworks begin."

2011 could be such a year. Forecasters at NASA and elsewhere agree that Earth is heading for three or more filaments on October 8th. Multiple encounters should produce a series of variable outbursts beginning around 1600 Universal Time (noon EDT) with the strongest activity between 1900 and 2100 UT (3:00 pm - 5:00 pm EDT).

Forecasters aren't sure how strong the display will be, mainly because the comet had a close encounter with Jupiter in the late 1880s. At that time, the giant planet's gravitational pull altered the comet's orbit and introduced some uncertainty into the location of filaments it has shed since then.

Competing models place the filaments in slightly different spots; as a result, estimated meteor rates range from dozens to hundreds per hour.

One respected forecaster, Paul Wiegert of the University of Western Ontario, says the meteor rate could go as high as 1000 per hour - the definition of a meteor storm. It wouldn't be the first time. Close encounters with dusty filaments produced storms of more than 10,000 Draconids per hour in 1933 and 1946 and lesser outbursts in 1985, 1998, and 2005.

Meteors from Comet Giacobini-Zinner stream out of the northern constellation Draco--hence their name. Draconids are among the slowest of all meteors, hitting the atmosphere at a relatively leisurely 20 km/s. The slow pace of Draconid meteors minimizes their danger to satellites and spacecraft and makes them visually distinctive.

"A Draconid gliding leisurely across the sky is a beautiful sight," says Cooke.

Unfortunately, many of this year's Draconids will go unseen. Draconids are faint to begin with, and this year they have to complete with an almost-full Moon. Lunar glare will reduce the number of meteors visible from Europe, Africa and the Middle East by 2- to 10-fold. The situation is even worse in North America where the shower occurs in broad daylight-completely obliterating the display.

That isn't stopping a group1 of middle school and high school students from Bishop, California, however. They plan to observe the shower from the stratosphere where the sky is dark even at noontime.

Led by Science@NASA's Tony Phillips, the 15 students have been launching helium balloons to the edge of space since May of 2011. With more than 95% of Earth's atmosphere below the balloon, the sky above looks almost as black as it would from a spacecraft-perfect for astronomy.

"The students are going to attempt to fly one of our low-light meteor cameras in the payload of their balloon," says Cooke. "I hope they catch some Draconid fireballs for us to analyze. They could be the only ones we get."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Draconid_Meteor_Outburst_999.html.