Chinese astronauts complete warm-up maintenance work in space module

Beijing (XNA)
Jun 16, 2013

Chinese astronauts installed new floor boards in the orbiting Tiangong-1 space module on Friday morning, according to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

The maneuver was a warm-up task for the three-person crew that is expected to carry out scientific experiments and technical tests during the remainder of their 15-day journey.

Video clips show the three astronauts, including China's second female astronaut in space, wearing blue jumpsuits while installing the floor boards after receiving instructions from the ground control center.

The astronauts, Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping, were launched into space onboard China's Shenzhou-10 spacecraft on Tuesday afternoon from northwest China's Gobi Desert.

They entered the Tiangong-1 on Thursday afternoon, after the Shenzhou-10 completed an automated docking with the orbiting Tiangong-1 at 1:18 p.m. on Thursday.

The Shenzhou-10 is China's fifth manned spacecraft and the first application-orientated flight under China's space program since the country introduced its manned space program in 1992.

The astronauts are scheduled to conduct a manual docking with the space module during their journey, as well as give a lecture to students back on Earth.

China is the third country after the United States and Russia to acquire the technologies and skills necessary for space rendezvous and docking procedures and to supply manpower and materials for an orbiting module via different docking methods.

The Tiangong-1 space lab has been in orbit for about 620 days. It will remain in service for another three months.

The module is considered the first step in building a permanent space station, which the country aims to do by 2020.

Source: Space Mart.
Link: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Chinese_astronauts_complete_warm_up_maintenance_work_in_space_module_999.html.

Big crowd rallies for 'legitimate' Egyptian leader Mursi

By Tom Perry and Alastair Macdonald
CAIRO | Fri Jun 21, 2013

(Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Islamist supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi gathered in Cairo after Friday prayers to show support for the elected head of state before protests that his opponents hope can force him from office.

Crowds converged on a mosque in the suburb of Nasr City, many waving the national flag, some carrying pictures of the bearded president, in what is intended to demonstrate the Islamists' strength of numbers ahead of the opposition rallies set for June 30, the first anniversary of Mursi's inauguration.

"Yes to respecting the will of the people!" read some banners.

"There are people seeking a coup against the lawful order," said demonstrator Gaber Nader, 22, his head protected from the burning sun by a green banner from Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, the movement whose organizational strength has won it successive elections since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

"Dr Mursi won in free and fair elections like in any state in the world," Nader said, shrugging off concerns among the less well organized opposition that the Brotherhood is aiming for a monopoly of power and to install Islamic rule and social order.

"Secular parties are eating the democracy God gave them."

Mursi's opponents say they have gathered about 15 million signatures - more than the 13 million votes that elected Mursi a year ago - on a petition calling on him to step down; they say new elections could end the paralyzing polarization of society, though no obvious leader has emerged to build consensus.

Mursi's opponents have attracted support from many Egyptians who are less politically engaged but exasperated by economic stagnation under the Islamists.

Supporters of the Brotherhood feel their electoral success is under siege from unelected institutions and vested interests rooted in the Mubarak era, when their party was banned. Reflecting this, some in Friday's crowd - mostly men, with a few heavily veiled women - chanted for "A purge of the judiciary!" and "A purge of the media!"

There was no trouble evident in Cairo, where people packed streets for hundreds of meters around the rallying point at the mosque; there were scuffles in Alexandria when Mursi supporters and opponents faced off briefly in Egypt's second city.

In Cairo, Brotherhood members armed with green staves said they were ready to protect demonstrators from "thugs".

"The other side will take this as an excuse for anarchy," said one man on guard, 26-year-old preacher Amr Hamam, pointing to dozens of injuries in scuffles across Egypt in the past week.

HARDLINERS

Friday's rally was held close to the spot where Islamists gunned down Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat in 1981. The Brotherhood had by that time renounced violence but suffered in a crackdown after Sadat died, as did hardliners from al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, which was involved in the assassination.

Unable, or unwilling, to draw more liberal figures into his administration, and losing the full support of the conservative Salafi Islamist Nour party, Mursi has turned to more radical groups for backing - notably to Gamaa al-Islamiya, one of whose members he made governor of the tourist town of Luxor this week.

That appointment infuriated many who fear further eroding of tourism revenues, since Gamaa al-Islamiya is associated with the massacre at a pharaonic temple in Luxor in 1997 of dozens of foreign visitors, although it has also now renounced violence,

On Friday, dozens of Gamaa al-Islamiya supporters joined the rally for Mursi. Waving their party banner, men chanted their demand for the imposition of Islamic law and rejection of "liberal violence": "The people want God's law," they repeated.

One woman, in black veil and green Islamic headband, said she feared the removal of Mursi would return Egypt to the army rule under which her son was tortured: "They destroyed his mind," Zeinab Abdullah, 54, said. Such fears among Islamists have led some to warn of civil war if the generals who oversaw the transition from Mubarak to elections move against Mursi.

OPPOSITION FRUSTRATION

Opposition groups range from the young liberals who first took to Tahrir Square in January 2011 to challenge Mubarak, to conservatives yearning for the stability of army rule. Many in Egypt's 10-percent Christian minority also fear the Islamists.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the former top U.N. diplomat who is a leader of the opposition "Rebel!" campaign, told Al-Hayat newspaper that economic problems, including power cuts as summer heat takes hold, were fuelling support for a movement which he said hoped to end the "total polarization in Egypt".

ElBaradei said a united opposition push could bring an early presidential election that would unseat Mursi, though he himself would not run: "The division of the opposition put Mursi in power and I believe it has realized this mistake," he said.

Rhetoric has grown more toxic in recent days: one Islamist cleric referred to Mursi's opponents as "infidels" during a rally attended by the president last week. The opposition are billing it as Mursi's last days in office, hoping for a repeat of the uprising that toppled Mubarak two and half years ago.

But lawyer Ahmed Farrag, 60, who came from Alexandria to rally for Mursi in Cairo on Friday, said: "It is a coup against the legitimate authorities by counter-revolutionaries present among the opposition parties and remnants of the regime."

(Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by David Stamp)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/us-egypt-protests-idUSBRE95K0L820130621.

In Turkey's pious heartland, protests seem world away

By Jonathon Burch
KONYA, Turkey | Fri Jun 21, 2013

(Reuters) - "This Nation Is With You" declares a small billboard in the center of this conservative central Turkish city, the words emblazoned on an image of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and a sea of his flag-waving supporters.

Cosmopolitan Istanbul or the avenues of the capital Ankara, rattled by weeks of anti-government protest, seem a world away from Konya, an industrial city in Turkey's pious Anatolian heartland, where support for the premier appears resolute.

The wave of riots has highlighted an underlying tension in Turkish society between a modern, secular middle-class, many living in Istanbul or on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, and a more conservative, religious population that forms the bedrock of support for Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party.

Konya, a city of 1.1 million with a dynamic economy steeped in Islamic tradition, epitomizes Erdogan's reformist vision.

Few restaurants serve alcohol, the Islamic headscarf is more in evidence than in the main cities, and tourists are drawn to the tomb of Rumi, a 13th century Sufi mystic, rather than to any wild nightlife.

But it is also modernizing fast. One of the "Anatolian Tigers", cities whose small industries have flourished under a decade of AK Party rule, Konya's highways have been widened and a fast train line has put Ankara less than two hours away.

There is little sympathy here for the protesters of Istanbul, Ankara or Izmir, the country's three biggest cities and the main centers of unrest.

"There is no other party to vote for but the AK Party. Eighty percent of Konya thinks the same as me, go and ask them," said Yasar Bilen, a central heating salesman who has seen business thrive over the past ten years.

A pious self-made entrepreneur, Bilen, in his 60s, has prospered like many of Erdogan's grassroots supporters.

"I have changed the car I drive, I have changed the house I live in, I have changed my lifestyle, I have changed the education of my children, I have changed the shoes and clothes I wear," he said, a black and white picture on his wall of himself with a young Erdogan in 1974.

"The AKP has worked hard and lifted us out of a quagmire."

ECONOMIC BOOM

Erdogan could hardly have put it better himself.

His forceful, emotional style and common touch have won him unprecedented support in the conservative heartland, enabling him to dominate Turkish politics like no leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern republic 90 years ago.

He has made many democratic reforms, taming a military that toppled four governments in four decades, starting entry talks with the European Union and forging peace talks with Kurdish rebels to end a near 30-year war.

Per capita income has tripled in nominal terms and business boomed, with the Anatolian Tigers reaping much of the benefit.

On the electoral map, nearly all of Turkey - apart from the Aegean coast, the mainly Kurdish southeast corner and a small region on the European continent - is AK Party orange.

So Erdogan takes the protests as a personal affront.

But even in AK strongholds, his domineering leadership style and what is seen as his meddling in private lives is beginning to grate - from his declaration of a non-alcoholic yoghurt as the national drink over the potent aniseed spirit raki, to his suggestion that women should bear three children.

There were two or three small protests in Konya in the early days of the unrest, but unlike demonstrations elsewhere, the police stepped in not to break the group up but to protect the protesters from stick-wielding gangs.

"Am I completely happy with Erdogan? Of course not," said Sinasi Celik, 46, a waiter in the city of Nevsehir, some 200 km (120 miles) east of Konya. "I don't like his 'I do what I want' style ... There's been too much pressure over personal things like how many kids we should have.

"But I'll tell you, the election outcome here, it wouldn't change. Because before, there were no roads, no proper hospitals. It's different now, people are better off."

OVERBEARING

A small-scale environmental protest in late May over government plans to develop an Istanbul park quickly spread into the broadest show of public defiance against Erdogan's government during his decade in power.

Police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse stone-throwing protesters night after night in cities including Istanbul and Ankara, unrest in which four people died and some 7,500 suffered injuries ranging from cuts to breathing difficulties, according to the Turkish Medical Association.

The protesters saw his plan to build a replica Ottoman-era barracks on one of central Istanbul's few remaining green spaces as symptomatic of an arrogant and overbearing government, the final straw after restrictions on alcohol sales and a police show of force to prevent May Day demonstrations a month earlier.

Those who took to the streets were from all walks of life - doctors and lawyers to leftists and nationalists - but they were predominantly young, often too young to remember the series of military coups and crumbling coalition governments that preceded the AK Party, when Turkey was an economic backwater.

"They want to take our nation back to the dark ages," said Naci, a 77-year old retired civil servant and resident of Nevsehir, a smaller central Anatolian town.

"I want to ask those protesters: let's say Erdogan is gone. Who will replace him? That (Kemal) Kilicdaroglu? He can't even manage a building, let alone govern a nation," he said of the leader of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

It is a question even the Istanbul protesters have struggled to answer. The AK Party's dominance derives, at least in part, from a lack of robust opposition. The center-left CHP has been largely sidelined from government since the 1970s and now holds just 134 seats in the 550-seat parliament.

For the protesters of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, that leaves the AK Party free to impose its will, which many fear includes an agenda of creeping Islamisation.

In Konya, there is little sense of such a threat. Instead, many see in Erdogan a liberator after decades of militantly secularist rule in a nation of 76 million people, the overwhelming majority of whom are Muslims.

"If there's interference in anyone's life then it is the Muslims of this country that have suffered ... Headscarved girls could not go to university, bearded men could not get employment in state institutions. On the other side, anyone wearing a mini skirt and high heels, no-one said a word," said Bilen.

"Those that say there is oppression are lying."

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Nevsehir; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/us-turkey-protests-heartland-idUSBRE95K0AF20130621.

Lebanese army seals parliament after protests, Syria-linked tension

By Dominic Evans
BEIRUT | Fri Jun 21, 2013

(Reuters) - The Lebanese army sealed off Beirut's parliamentary district with razor wire and threatened stern action against violence on Friday after a night of unrest stoked by the war in Syria and political paralysis at home.

Around 100 protesters, angered by the postponement of June's parliamentary election until next year, scuffled with police on Thursday night near parliament. Twenty camped out overnight outside the ring of barbed wire, vowing to maintain the protest.

As the largely peaceful demonstration unfolded in central Beirut, protesters blocked roads with burning tires elsewhere in the capital and in Bekaa Valley towns in eastern Lebanon.

Demonstrators said they were acting in solidarity with residents of the Sunni Muslim Bekaa town of Arsal, which they say has been cut off by security forces investigating the shooting of four Shi'ite Muslim men on Sunday.

Sectarian violence has intensified across Lebanon and particularly in the Bekaa region because of the conflict raging across the border in Syria, where Lebanon's Shi'ite militia Hezbollah and Lebanese Sunni gunmen have joined opposing sides of the 27-month-old civil war.

Rockets from suspected Syrian rebel positions have hit Shi'ite towns in Lebanon since Hezbollah intervened decisively to recapture the Syrian border town of Qusair for President Bashar al-Assad's forces earlier this month.

The army also discovered a rocket launcher in an area east of Beirut on Friday. The rocket was still in place, and apparently had not gone off due to a technical fault, a security source said.

The fighting in Syria has already driven half a million Syrian refugees into Lebanon and worsened a political stalemate which forced the election delay and held up efforts to form a new government. Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a Sunni leader, warned this week of the potential for "state collapse".

President Michel Suleiman has appealed to Hezbollah to bring its fighters home from Syria, saying that further entanglement there by the Iranian-backed movement will fuel instability in Lebanon, still scarred by its own 1975-1990 civil war.

ARMY WILL CONFRONT "OUTLAWS"

The army said several military posts and patrols were targeted on Thursday night by protesters, some of them armed, and four soldiers were wounded in exchanges of gunfire.

Security sources said at least two demonstrators were hurt in a protest near the main border crossing with Syria at Masnaa.

"The army leadership again urges citizens to be calm and not to follow rumors and sectarian emotions," the military said in a statement. "It will not be lenient in confronting with force any outlaws or those who harm the armed forces."

The statement said gunmen fired on army posts in three towns close to the Masnaa border crossing early on Friday. The army returned fire and arrested 22 suspects in raids following the incidents.

Travelers trying to reach Lebanon from Syria on Friday morning said the frontier was closed for several hours due to the skirmishes, but reopened later in the day.

Army commander General Jean Kahwaji was quoted by the local As-Safir newspaper as saying the military would not tolerate any threats to Lebanon's security during what he described as "very critical and very difficult" times.

In central Beirut, activists said they would keep up their protest against the 17-month extension of parliament, agreed by politicians after they failed to break a deadlock over planned changes to the electoral law.

"We called for a protest yesterday against the extension and against the violation on Lebanon's democracy," protester Marwan Maalouf said. "This is a new coup against the republic.

"Security forces used force against the protesters so we decided to set up tents here in a peaceful way to protest the extension. There is a year and a half, we won't let them rest."

(Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/us-syria-crisis-lebanon-idUSBRE95K0GS20130621.

Greek party quits coalition over state TV debacle

By Renee Maltezou
ATHENS | Fri Jun 21, 2013

(Reuters) - The smallest party in Greece's ruling coalition pulled out of the government on Friday after a row over the abrupt closure of the state broadcaster, leaving Prime Minister Antonis Samaras with a tiny majority in parliament.

Democratic Left lawmakers voted to withdraw their ministers from Samaras's government but have yet to decide whether to offer external support in parliamentary votes to keep Greece's international bailout on track, party officials said.

"The country doesn't need elections," party leader Fotis Kouvelis said in a statement. "The Democratic Left insists on its reform policy and will continue to seek and demand solutions within the European reality."

The moderate leftist party's departure is major blow to the conservative Samaras, who is left with a three-seat majority in parliament, making it tougher to pass unpopular reforms demanded by foreign lenders and emboldening the hard left opposition.

In a defiant address to Greeks after midnight, Samaras said he was ready to press ahead without the leftists if necessary.

"I want us to continue together as we started but I will move on either way," Samaras said in a televised statement following the collapse of three-party talks on the future of the ERT radio and television station.

"Our aim is to conclude our effort to save the country, always with a four-year term in our sights."

The row coincided with a new hitch in Greece's EU-IMF bailout with the discovery of a potential funding shortfall due to the reluctance of some euro zone central banks to roll over their holdings of Greek government bonds.

Ten-year Greek government bond yields rose to their highest since late April, on course for their biggest daily rise since July 2012, while Greek stocks tumbled 4 percent.

Samaras's conservative New Democracy party and its Socialist PASOK ally command 153 deputies in the 300-seat parliament, so they can muddle through for a while without the Democratic Left's 14 lawmakers, but the outlook is more unstable.

"The government can't last for long in its new shape. The horse-trading will begin, there will be more crises, they won't be able to push reforms," said John Loulis, a political analyst.

"At some point we'll have early elections whose outcome can't be predicted."

Officials from all three parties ruled out snap elections for now, which would derail the bailout program.

An ongoing inspection visit to Greece by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund needs to be completed as planned in July to avoid funding problems, the lenders said on Thursday. That may require new savings measures to plug the gap.

At least two independent lawmakers have suggested they would back Samaras's government, which came to power a year ago in an uneasy pro-bailout coalition aimed at ensuring Greece stayed in the euro zone after nearly going bankrupt.

The coalition has bickered over a range of issues from austerity policies to immigration, and lawmakers from Samaras's parties have accused Democratic Left of blocking public sector reforms needed to secure bailout funds.

UNDER PRESSURE

The latest crisis began 10 days ago when Samaras abruptly yanked the ERT public radio and television station off air and fired its 2,600 workers, sparking an outcry from his two allies, unions and journalists.

Calling it a "sinful" and "wasteful" hotbed of political patronage, Samaras said the move was necessary to hit public sector layoff targets set by Greece's EU and IMF lenders.

After initially refusing to restart ERT, Samaras said on Thursday he had offered during talks with his allies to re-hire about 2,000 workers at a new broadcaster, a compromise accepted by PASOK but rejected by the Democratic Left.

"We will no longer have black screens on state TV channels but we are not going to return to the sinful regime," he said.

But Kouvelis insisted on behalf of Democratic Left that all workers be rehired, saying the issue at stake was far bigger than state television broadcasts and about protecting democracy and the rule of law.

PASOK, the mainstream center-left party that has been decimated in Greece's debt crisis and would likely lose more ground in a new election, has said it will continue backing the government even without the Democratic Left.

PASOK is expected to get a bigger role in the government after Democratic Left's departure, with its lawmakers likely to fill more ministerial positions as part of a reshuffle.

"The situation for the country, the economy and its citizens is especially grave," said Venizelos late on Thursday.

Greece's top administrative court on Thursday confirmed an earlier ruling suspending ERT's closure and calling for a transitional, slimmed-down broadcaster to go on air immediately.

ERT remains off air despite the court rulings ordering it back on, though workers have continued broadcasting a 24-hour bootleg version on the Internet from their headquarters.

(Additional reporting by Karolina Tagaris, Harry Papachristou and Lefteris Papadimas; Writing by Deepa Babington; Editing by Paul Taylor)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/us-greece-idUSBRE95K0IJ20130621.

China's long march in space

Beijing (XNA)
Jun 16, 2013

The Shenzhou X spacecraft, with three astronauts on board, blasted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province and entered its designated orbit on Tuesday. At noon on Thursday, it successfully docked with the Tiangong-1, a target orbiter and space module.

The latest launch, China's fifth manned mission within just 10 years of its first such mission into space, demonstrates the country's steady progress in manned space operations. The smooth launch also ushers in the first application-oriented flight of the Shenzhou spacecraft, which was preceded by years of both unmanned and manned test spaceflights since 1999.

Shenzhou X and the upgraded Long March-2F carrier rocket constitute China's Earth-to-space transport system, which can ferry astronauts and supplies between Earth and the in-orbit Tiangong-1 space module and support scientific experiments in the target orbiter.

As such, there are no drastic changes in Shenzhou X in the technical sense, except for a few adjustments from Shenzhou IX, which include upgraded internal environmental control and life support system. Still, Shenzhou X marks a giant leap in China's space program, because it provides technological guarantee for assembling a space station in orbit, which holds great significance for a rising space-faring nation like China.

As is well known, the United States and Russia agreed to join their space station efforts in 1993. Since 1998, they have also been collaborating with other major powers, including Japan and 10 member states of the European Space Agency, in the International Space Station program.

The US, however, has played a pivotal role in preventing China from participating in the so-called family of space-faring nations. Washington issued the Cox Report in 1999, which accuses China of nuclear spying and stealing military technology from the US. The report and the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999, which prohibits exports of US-origin satellites, missile equipment and other related technologies to China, rule out the possibility of space cooperation between China and the US.

Despite the US straight-arming China from joining the ISS program, Beijing's space mission continues to thrive, and the successful launch of Shenzhou X shows that it has moved one step closer to building its own space station by 2020.

China is the third country to independently send humans into space and conduct extra-vehicular activities. It is now one of the top countries in overall space prowess. And its homegrown navigation satellite system Beidou aims to grab 70-80 percent of the domestic market share from GPS and is expected to achieve full-scale global coverage possibly by 2020.

Besides, China has maintained a high frequency of orbital launches in recent years, with last year alone witnessing 19 launches, next to Russia in numbers but topping the ranking with a 100 percent success rate.

Compared with China's steady advancement, the US has slowed down its space exploration, with the US government-led Space Shuttle Program coming to a stop in 2011 and the National Aeronautical and Space Administration planning to de-orbit the ISS in 2016 for lack of long-term funding.

The waxing and waning of the US space program and China's growing space capability have evoked mixed reactions in the US. Some US observers highlight the so-called dual-use nature of China's robust space programs, designed to fulfill military and non-military missions, to add thrust to their "China threat" theory. Marcia Smith, founder and editor of Spacepolicyonline.com, has said that while there certainly are people in US Congress who don't want to see the country fall behind China in manned space programs, even the success of the Shenzhou X mission will not change Congress's decision on NASA's future.

Some observers are optimistic about Sino-US cooperation, though. The Atlantic Monthly once published an article, China's Space Race is America's Opportunity, saying it is worth considering whether aspects of the US-Russian experience in space cooperation can be pursued with China to serve long-term American interests.

Gregory Kulacki, senior analyst and China project manager at the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists has said China's human spaceflight program now seems to be less threatening to US observers who originally viewed it with some suspicion. A more relaxed US attitude toward the program, combined with the slow but steady pace of Chinese progress in human spaceflights, may create opportunities for Sino-US cooperation and collaboration in space, Kulacki has said.

Regardless of the US' attitude, China will steadily advance its space exploration program. As some Chinese experts have said, at a time when China's space technology shows the potential of matching that of the US, Washington continues to adopt a containment approach. After China achieves major breakthroughs in space technology on its own strength, the US will have to adopt a policy of engagement and seek bilateral cooperation.

The Shenzhou X mission is exceptionally important for China's space dream. It will help boost national confidence, and astronauts will deliver their first lecture from space to school students, which will inspire youths' passion for space projects.

Besides, the commercial value of manned space missions will be realized after the successful transition of test spaceflights to application-oriented flights, which will generate benefits for a wide range of industries, including the manufacturing, energy and electro-mechanical sectors, and thus stimulate economic growth.

More importantly, it will also create more global cooperation opportunities for China. As China makes steady progress in space technology and inches closer to building its own space station, more countries, developed and developing both, are showing a keen interest in working with China. China already has cooperated with Russia, Brazil and some European countries. People within the US' space industry have also called for cooperation with China.

It is thus imperative for China to consolidate the existing cooperation and expand joint space projects and partnerships in order to enable its space sector to gain more global influence.

The author is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Chinas_long_march_in_space_999.html.

Europe's largest spaceship reaches its orbital port

Paris (ESA)
Jun 19, 2013

ESA's fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle, Albert Einstein, completed a flawless rendezvous with the International Space Station on 15 June when it docked smoothly with orbital outpost at 14:07 GMT (16:07 CEST).

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is now connected to the Space Station.

"Bravo Europe, bravo ESA, bravo ATV. Thank you Member States, thank you industry, thank you CNES, thank you Russian partner," commented Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA.

"With the fourth ATV now ready to support and supply the Space Station with essential supplies and scientific experiments, ESA again proves itself to be a reliable partner in the international station upon which the future can be developed."

Gentle contact; amazing achievement
The 20-tonne ferry, the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by Europe, flew autonomously and docked with the 420-tonne complex with a precision of a few cm as both circled Earth at 28 000 km/h.

"Such a gentle contact between a spacecraft the size of a double-decker bus and a Station 20 times larger is an amazing achievement, highlighting the impressive level of control achieved by this European space system developed by our industry under ESA's direction," said Thomas Reiter, ESA's Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations.

"These impressive technological capabilities will live on in the service module of NASA's upcoming Orion crew vehicle."

Autonomous docking at 28 000 km/h
The rendezvous and docking were performed autonomously by ATV's own computers, closely monitored by flight controllers from ESA and France's CNES space agency at the ATV Control Center in Toulouse, France, and by Luca Parmitano and his crewmates on the Station.

Like its predecessors, ATV-4 is much more than a simple supply vessel: it is a space tug, a tanker, a freighter and a temporary habitation module.

To compensate for the natural decay in altitude of the Station's orbit caused by atmospheric drag, it is loaded with 2580 kg of propellant to perform regular reboosts. It can even move the entire space complex out of the path of hazardous space debris. ATV also provides attitude control when other spacecraft are approaching the Station.

In its tanks, it carries 860 kg of propellant, 100 kg of oxygen and air, and 570 kg of drinking water, all to be pumped into the Station's tanks.

In its pressurized cargo module, it carries more than 1400 items packed into 141 bags, including 2480 kg of dry cargo such as scientific equipment, spare parts, food and clothes for the astronauts.

During its four months attached to the Station, ATV will provide 45 cubic meters of extra crew quarters. On previous missions, the addition was welcomed by the astronauts as "the quietest place in the Station" and was often the preferred area for working.

At the end of its mission, scheduled for 28 October, ATV-4 will separate from the Station, packed with waste bags. The following day, it will be directed to burn up safely in the atmosphere during reentry over the South Pacific Ocean.

Source: Space Mart.
Link: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Europes_largest_spaceship_reaches_its_orbital_port_999.html.

Australian team maps Moon's hidden craters

Sydney (AFP)
June 18, 2013

Australian scientists Tuesday said they had identified a possible 280 additional craters on the Moon, a finding they said could shed light on the history of the Earth's natural satellite.

By combining gravity and topography data collected by satellites, the scientists from Curtin University in Western Australia were able to use computer modelling to at first identify two basins on the far side of the Moon.

They later developed a high-resolution image to find a total of 280 "candidate basins" which they suspect are craters.

"There are many more (craters) that have been mapped from optical observations or from just the shape of the topography," researcher Will Featherstone told AFP.

"So there's many, many craters that were already known, we've just been able to apply this technique to enhance the ones that aren't so easy to see.

"What we have been able to use is the topography and the gravity together to get a stronger indication that there is something there that needs further investigation."

Featherstone said the researchers looked at the lunar surface on both the near and far sides of the Moon, the dark side being more challenging because satellites cannot be tracked from Earth when they are on that side.

To get around this, the researchers used data gathered from a mission which used multiple satellites which were tracking each other as they circled the Moon.

"So when the satellite orbiting the Moon went behind the far side and they couldn't be seen from Earth, they could be seen by other satellites," he said.

Featherstone said of the 280 possible craters, the researchers had classified 66 of them as distinctly visible according to both gravity and topography.

"Scientists can, instead of looking at every square inch of the Moon looking for basins, they can target these areas," he said.

"It just helps investigations of the Moon and the history of the Moon and the solar system," he added.

The team has also done some work on the gravity of Mars and Featherstone said other data sets were also available for Venus and other planets.

He said scientists were optimistic about further discoveries from applying their techniques to new gravity data from NASA's GRAIL mission, which ended in late 2012 when the two satellites - named Ebb and Flow - were deliberately crashed on the Moon.

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Australian_team_maps_Moons_hidden_craters_999.html.

1M Brazilians fill streets with protest, violence

June 21, 2013

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — More than a million Brazilians poured into the streets of at least 80 cities Thursday in this week's largest anti-government demonstrations yet, protests that saw violent clashes break out in several cities as people demanding improved public services and an end to corruption faced tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets.

At least one protester was killed in Sao Paulo state after a car rammed into a crowd of demonstrators, the driver apparently angered about being unable to drive along a street. In Rio de Janeiro, where an estimated 300,000 demonstrators swarmed into the seaside city's central area, running clashes played out between riot police and clusters of mostly young men, their T-shirts wrapped around their faces. But several peaceful protesters were up in the crackdown, too, as police fired tear gas canisters into their midst and at times indiscriminately used pepper spray.

Thundering booms echoed off stately colonial buildings as rubber bullets and the gas were fired at fleeing crowds. At least 40 people were injured in Rio, including protesters like Michele Menezes, a wisp of a woman whose youthful face and braces belie her 26 years. Bleeding and with her hair singed from the explosion of a tear gas canister, she said that she and others took refuge from the violence in an open bar, only to have a police officer toss the canister inside.

It exploded on top of Menezes, tore through her jeans and dug out two quarter-sized holes on the back of her thighs while also perforating a rash of small holes in her upper arm. "I was leaving a peaceful protest and it's not the thugs that attack me but the police themselves," said Menezes, removing her wire-rim glasses to wipe her bloodshot eyes.

She later took refuge in a hotel along with about two dozen youths, families and others said they had been repeatedly hit with pepper spray by motorcycle police as they too took refuge inside a bar. Despite the crackdown, protesters said they would not back down.

"I saw some pretty scary things, but they're not going to shake me. There's another march on the 22nd and I'm going to be there," said 19-year-old university student Fernanda Szuster. Asked whether her parents knew that she was taking part in the protests, Szuster said that "they know and they're proud. They also protested when they were young. So they think it's great."

She added, though, that she wouldn't tell her father the details of the police violence she was a victim of. "If he knew, he would never let me leave the house again." By Thursday evening, the number of protesters had swelled to 1 million, according local police estimates from cities across Brazil.

In Brasilia, police struggled to keep hundreds of protesters from invading the Foreign Ministry, outside of which protesters lit a small fire. Other government buildings were attacked around the capital's central esplanade. There, too, police resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets in attempts to scatter the crowds.

Clashes were also reported in the Amazon jungle city of Belem, in Porto Alegre in the south, in the university town Campinas north of Sao Paulo and in the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador. "This was meant to be a peaceful demonstration and it is," said artist Wanderlei Costa, 33, in Brasilia. "It's a shame some people cause trouble when there is a much bigger message behind this movement. Brazil needs to change, not only on the government level, but also on the grass roots level. We have to learn to demonstrate without violence."

The protests took place one week after a violent police crackdown on a much smaller protests in Sao Paulo galvanized Brazilians to take to the streets. The unrest is hitting the nation as it hosts the Confederations Cup football tournament with tens of thousands of foreign visitors in attendance. It also comes one month before Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the nation, and ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, raising concerns about how Brazilian officials will provide security.

Mass protests are rare in this 190 million-person country, with demonstrations generally attracting small numbers of politicized participants. The ongoing, growing marches have caught Brazilian governments by surprise, but have delighted many citizens.

"I think we desperately need this, that we've been needing this for a very, very long time," said Paulo Roberto Rodrigues da Cunha, a 63-year-old clothing store salesman in Rio. In Salvador, police shot tear gas canisters and rubber bullets to disperse a small crowd of protesters trying to break through a police barrier blocking one of the city's streets. One woman was injured in her foot.

Elsewhere in Salvador some 5,000 protesters gathered in Campo Grand Square. "We pay a lot of money in taxes, for electricity, for services, and we want to know where that money is," said Italo Santos, a 25-year old student as he walked with friends toward the square.

Despite the energy on the street, many protesters said they were unsure how the movement would win real political concessions. People in the protests have held up signs asking for everything from education reforms to free bus fare while denouncing the billions of public dollars spent on stadiums in advance of the World Cup and the Olympics.

"It's sort of a Catch-22," Rodrigues da Cunha said. "On the one hand we need some sort of leadership, on the other we don't want this to be compromised by being affiliated with any political party." Earlier Thursday, the protests took on the feel of a party, especially in Sao Paulo and Rio.

People of all ages, many of them draped in flags, gathered in front of the majestic domed Candelaria church in downtown Rio, while groups elsewhere pounded out Carnival rhythms or chanted slogans targeting Rio state's governor.

At one point, a police helicopter flew over the crowd, which booed and pointed green lasers at the craft. When shirtless youths, many of them with T-shirts wrapped round their faces, pushed and jostled their way through the crowd, people spontaneously broke out into a chant of "Without violence!"

But as has been the pattern earlier this week, the clashes began once night fell. Several city leaders have already accepted protester demands to revoke an increase in bus and subway fares in the hopes that anti-government anger cools. In Sao Paulo, where demonstrators blocked Paulista Avenue, organizers said they would turn their demonstration into a party celebrating the lower transit fares.

But many believe the protests are no longer just about bus fares and have become larger cries for systemic changes. President Dilma Rousseff called an emergency meeting with top advisers for Friday morning. Rousseff has been largely absent since the demonstrations broke out, making just one public statement but offering no speeches or grand gestures in an attempt to calm the situation.

"This is the start of a structural change in Brazil," said Aline Campos, a 29 year old publicist in Brasilia. "People now want to make sure their money is well spent, that it's not wasted through corruption."

Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja in Brasilia, Bradley Brooks and Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo and Ricardo Zuniga in Salvador contributed to this report.

Crisis pending in South Sudan, ICRC says

June 19, 2013

JUBA, South Sudan, June 19 (UPI) -- Ongoing violence in parts of South Sudan has the potential to create a humanitarian disaster given the number of people fleeing their homes, the ICRC said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday it was growing concerned about the status of civilians in Jonglei.

Five members of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan were killed in April while on patrol on Jonglei, the country's largest state. The attack followed a report from the United Nations investigating violence that killed at least 85 people in the state in early 2013 when gangs attacked cattle grazers.

Adrian Zimmerman, deputy director of regional operations for the ICRC, said "thousands of people" were forced to flee ongoing violence in the state. The coming rainy season only added to the humanitarian challenge.

"We are worried about the humanitarian situation in Jonglei state, where continuing violence has forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes," he said in a statement.

Zimmerman said the ICRC was able to identify basic needs in the area, but access was a problem because of security and logistical concerns.

The Sudanese government this week said it agreed to African Union mediation on outstanding issues with South Sudan. Border fighting, ethnic clashes and disputes over oil are threatening to unravel a peace deal that secured South Sudan's independence in 2011.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/06/19/Crisis-pending-in-South-Sudan-ICRC-says/UPI-46441371661301/.

Lebanon feeling heat from Syrian war

June 19, 2013

BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 19 (UPI) -- Lebanese leaders need to work quickly to prevent sectarian conflict from erupting as the threat from Syria's war moves closer, the speaker of Parliament said.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Wednesday there were growing concerns about "sectarian strife" in Lebanon.

Lebanon's political structure is divided along religious lines. Those divisions have been strained by the role Shiite movement Hezbollah has played in Syria's civil war.

Hezbollah says it is fighting alongside pro-government forces in Syria to protect Lebanon from Syrian rebel groups, some of which are aligned with al-Qaida. Conflict has erupted, however, between pro- and anti-Syria elements near Lebanese-Syrian border.

Berri was quoted by the official National News Agency as calling "for doubling efforts to put an end to such attempts that threaten [to destabilize] the country."

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said from Beirut the refugee crisis was compounding the issue for Lebanon. He said Lebanon is on pace to host more than 1 million Syrian refugees by the end of the year.

Guterres said the threat of spillover from the Syrian war "is now becoming a harsh reality" for countries like Lebanon.

"The international community must overcome its divisions and come together to stop the fighting if we want to prevent the flames of war from spreading across the Middle East," he said in a statement.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/06/19/Lebanon-feeling-heat-from-Syrian-war/UPI-95621371656907/.

Qur'an-themed park is Dubai tribute to Holy Book

Friday 21 June 2013

Dubai has added a new item to its top ambitions such as building the world’s largest Ferris wheel and bidding for an Angry Birds theme park — a site honoring the Holy Qur’an.

The estimated $7.3 million project will include a garden with plants mentioned in the holy book and an air-conditioned tunnel depicting events from the Qur’an.

The park should be ready in September 2014, reports said. It will be in Al-Khawaneej and, according to Dubai Municipality, it has been specially designed in the Islamic perspective to introduce the miracles of Qur’an through a variety of surprises for the visitors.

The park will include all available plants mentioned in the Qur’an, along with facilities such as main entrance, administration building, Islamic garden, play areas, Umrah corner, outside theater, areas for miracles of the Qur’an, fountains, bathrooms, desert garden and palm oasis. It will also have a lake, running track, cycling track and sandy walking track.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/news/455714.

Assad forces build up for Aleppo offensive

June 19, 2013

BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 19 (UPI) -- Forces loyal to embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad are reported tightening a cordon around the northern city of Aleppo, once the country's commercial heart, in a major offensive against rebels who hold 60 percent of the city.

The regime, dominated by the minority Alawite sect, is massing tanks and artillery around the ancient city that was once part of the famed Silk Road to China, for the coming showdown military analysts say could determine the course of the civil war, now in its third year.

Assad's troops were greatly buoyed by their capture of the strategic town of Qusair in central Syria's Homs province June 5 after a three-week battle.

The town, which controls supply routes from neighboring Lebanon, had been held by rebel forces for more than a year, cutting off Damascus from the Alawite heartland in the northwest.

The fall of Qusair after fierce fighting opened the way for the regime to push into central Syria in a drive to recapture territory held by the rebels, including Homs, the provincial capital, and Aleppo, the big prize.

The regime needs to take control of Aleppo to undercut the rebellion that erupted March 15, 2011, and to reassert dominance of Syria's main population centers.

A rebel defeat in Aleppo would mean a critical and possibly terminal setback for those seeking to end Assad's rule.

U.S. President Barack Obama's decision Thursday to arm rebel forces -- although it's not clear whether arms would include urgently needed anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles -- could make a critical difference if the flow starts quickly.

The U.S. move overturned two years of reluctance by the West to get directly involved in the Syrian fighting, which threatens to spill over into neighboring states like Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.

Indeed, it was the regime's conquest of Qusair, largely due to fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah who spearheaded the assault, that convinced Obama U.S. aid should be increased from medicine and supplies to include arms.

Much will depend on how swiftly the Americans can start the arms flowing to the rebels through Jordan and Turkey.

Rebels report Syrian warplanes attacked their positions around the contested Kweiras airbase near Aleppo Tuesday amid heavy ground skirmishes.

The regime's command of the air is a major problem for the rebels, and unless they get surface-to-air missiles they will face serious problems in the looming battle for Aleppo.

The air force has carried out a series of aerial resupply operations in the region in the last two months that rebels have been powerless to prevent.

But it's not all clear sailing for the regime forces either.

They face major obstacles in the push on Aleppo from well-entrenched rebel blocking positions, which are being supplied with weapons through Turkey, Syria's northern neighbor, funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Loyalist forces have seized several villages in Homs province in recent days to consolidate their Qusair victory.

"Troop movements and bombardment patterns suggest the regime will likely stage attacks on rebels in Homs city proper and around the towns of Rastan and Talbiseh along the M5 highway, which leads from the Jordanian border in the south, through Damascus and all the way north to Aleppo," the U.S.-based global security consulting firm Stratfor says.

Analysts say the regime's assault on Aleppo may be deferred until there's a significant loyalist push from the south as well.

"For all the regime's announcements of an imminent victory in Aleppo, it is important to remember the very significant obstacles," Statfor stressed. "Many of these are in fact the same that prevented the regime from ousting the rebels from the city in the summer of 2012."

The rebels are dug in along much of the M5, which the regime would need to control to supply a major mechanized force.

Activists say rebels have already sent blocking forces to key supply routes in anticipation of a regime push northward from Hama province.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah will likely play a key role in the Aleppo offensive as a strike force, as it did in the battle of Qusair.

The Shiite movement, which has fought the Israelis for three decades, has proven to be a staunch ally of Assad's Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/06/19/Assad-forces-build-up-for-Aleppo-offensive/UPI-13761371648604/.

Andalusian fusion: Christianity and Islam

June 20, 2013

GRANADA, Spain (AP) — For the third time in a week, I'm touring the Alhambra, one of the most popular sites in the world's fourth most-visited country, and finally I have it all for myself.

Not a pushy guide but a bullfrog in one of the fountains is the loudest sound on a late May night in this hilltop Islamic palace complex in southern Spain. I linger to stick my nose into the cabbage-size roses lining the pathways and to gaze over the floodlit red-tinged ramparts. Their massive simplicity belies the infinite intricacy of the palaces inside, and I can easily believe the legend that the last Muslim ruler wept as he left Granada. Centuries later, we can be grateful that the conquering Christian royalty left this masterpiece nearly intact.

Nowhere in Europe is the complex coexistence between Islam and Christianity more etched in historical landscapes and current customs than here, in Spain's Andalusia, a vast region of snowy mountains, olive-studded valleys and desert coasts whose tip sits less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Morocco.

For nearly 800 years, caliphs ruled Andalusia. In 1492, the Catholic king and queen (and ultimate power couple), Fernando and Isabel, ended the last Islamic stronghold in Europe —a few months before signing off on Christopher Columbus' trip to the new world, which also started here.

I've traveled through the region in fall, winter and spring to admire the Muslim-Christian monuments in the major cities of Granada, Cordoba and Seville. But this year, on a longer trip, I found the mingling of cultures in everyday life. In Granada, I bought almond cookies and orange wine through a wooden rotating tray from an unseen cloistered Catholic nun in a convent near re-created Arab baths, where I sipped mint tea and spent a silent hour steaming and soaking feet sore from climbing cobblestone alleys.

And it turns out that tapas are a classic example of the region's cultural fusion, having originated in Andalusia centuries ago, even though internationally they have come to symbolize trendy modern Spanish cuisine.

Of course, Andalusia also offers all the other experiences that draw tourists to Spain: Channeling Hemingway at a bullfight, getting goose bumps from a wailing flamenco singer, mingling sacred and profane at the Eastertide processions and fairs, gorging on jamon iberico and whole fish baked in sea salt, and joining throngs of sunburned Northern Europeans on Mediterranean beaches.

But what's unique about Andalusia is the trail of Islamic conquerors who arrived in the eighth century, and the Catholic monarchs who imposed their reconquista (reconquering) centuries later — vanquishing not just Islam but also eventually the Jews who had flourished under the Muslims' tolerant rule.

CORDOBA Begin your visit with the earliest masterpiece, the bizarrely repurposed great mosque, now a cathedral, of Cordoba. From its massive size and horseshoe arches, the Mezquita's exterior gives some hints that this is not your usual medieval cathedral, but walking in still stuns. Out of the darkness pierced by low-hanging lights is a multiplication of two-tiered arches in all directions, disorienting like a house of mirrors.

This forest of shiny columns and red-and-white arches, together with the kaleidoscope of golden mosaics, Arabic inscriptions, and carvings, show off what I see as the hallmarks of Andalusian Islamic art. Geometry and repetition play with light to create flowing motifs that both overwhelm with their richness and seem weightless.

Smack in the midst sits an unremarkable church, built in the 16th century. A much nicer reconquista touch is a few blocks away, in the 14th-century Alcazar, a fortress whose gardens lined by pools and rippling fountains mirror the centrality that water has in Islamic architecture.

The whitewashed homes around both monuments, covered by decorative iron grilles and bright potted plants, were part of Cordoba's Jewish quarter, called the Juderia, a center of Jewish intellectuals before the Catholic takeover. The great philosopher Maimonides was born in Cordoba in the 12th century, and a modern statue of him is located in the quarter near a 14th century synagogue. But Maimonides did not die here; he fled to Egypt as the persecution of Jews began under the Catholic regime. Digging deeper into cultural fusion: The Roman philosopher Seneca was also born in Cordoba, and a restored bridge from around his time still crosses the wide river behind the Mezquita.

SEVILLE Less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the southwest, Seville's grand cathedral also incorporated a Muslim element: La Giralda, the former 12th-century minaret, now bell tower, nearly identical to towers still standing in Rabat and Marrakech.

Next door is another much embellished Alcazar fortress, this one too visited by Fernando and Isabel as well as Columbus. Its style, called mudejar, is all about fusion, reflecting the taste and workmanship of Muslim artists in Catholic Spain. Around it is the former Jewish neighborhood, the barrio de Santa Cruz, centered on small, orange-tree lined squares with homes and palaces whose doors and windows are often bordered in blue and gold.

GRANADA Seville is the region's largest, most cosmopolitan city. But my Andalusian favorite is Granada, framed by the improbably snowy Sierra Nevada mountain range. It's a university city that is small enough for the tradition of free tapas with each drink (think giant chorizo sausage and heaping plates of fried whitebait for the price of a 2-euro frosted glass of beer). But its attractions are outsized — not only the Alhambra, arguably the most impressive secular medieval monument from the Muslim world, but its ideological counterpart, a triumphant cathedral with its royal chapel preserving the marble funeral monuments of, who else, Fernando and Isabel.

I most enjoyed my night visits to the Alhambra's Nasrid Palaces, where every inch is covered in Koran and poetry inscriptions, star-patterned tiles, and gravity-defying ceilings decorated with pointed ornamentation called muqarnas, all deflecting light with a soothing, awe-inspiring effect that plays on the motto written all over: "Only Allah is victor."

In the many marbled patios and sprawling Generalife gardens farther uphill, water fountains seem to trace in the air the same curves as Arabic script, bubbling and flowing with precise patterns. On the opposite hill is the Albaicin, the much restored Muslim quarter of whitewashed homes hiding scented gardens, or carmenes, watered by medieval cisterns, whose only outside signs are overflowing purple bougainvillea and austere cypress spires.

Nearby, two more churches show off Roman-inspired triumphalism, the convent of San Jeronimo with its giant altarpiece and the Cartuja's small Baroque sagrario, which theatrically swirls with chubby angels and saints in a profusion of red marble and gold.

That Christian humanism sitting next to Islamic intellectualism is Andalusia's own enchantment. Back in the Generalife, a guard watched me linger by water jets arching into a long pool. She was the daughter of a watchman there who raised his eight kids in a house on its property, and she's worked in the Alhambra for 31 years.

"Magico, no?" she whispered. Three days later, I got back for visit number four.

Bangladesh sentences to death 10 Islamists for suicide bombing

DHAKA | Thu Jun 20, 2013

(Reuters) - A Bangladeshi court handed down death sentences on Thursday to 10 militants of an Islamist group with ties to Al-Qaeda over a 2005 suicide bomb attack that killed eight people, court officials and lawyers said.

Violent protests have gripped Bangladesh this year following the conviction of members of the overwhelmingly Muslim nation's most prominent Islamist group, the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Thursday's case involved a less well-known group, and the decision is unlikely to spark public anger. The convicted men have 30 days to appeal to the high court against their sentence.

"The JMB carried out the attack to create a panic among the people to press the government to enforce Islamic sharia," said lawyer Rafiqul Islam, who presented the state's case.

The 2005 attack on the bar association office in Gazipur, north of the capital Dhaka, was staged by the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), to lobby for the introduction of sharia, or Muslim religious law.

Eight people were killed, four of them lawyers, and 80 were injured. One JMB member died while carrying out the attack.

The JMB was led by Siddique ul-Islam, popularly known as "Bangla Bhai" or "Bengali Brother", who battled alongside Afghanistan's mujahideen in the Soviet intervention in the 1980s.

After a campaign of bombings in northern Bangladesh in 2005, he was caught and sentenced to death.

(Reporting By Serajul Quadir; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/20/uk-bangladesh-islamists-idUKBRE95J0IE20130620.

In northern Iraqi city, al-Qaida gathers strength

June 20, 2013

BAGHDAD (AP) — Al-Qaida's Iraq arm is gathering strength in the restive northern city of Mosul, ramping up its fundraising through gangland-style shakedowns and feeding off anti-government anger as it increasingly carries out attacks with impunity, according to residents and officials.

It is a disturbing development for Iraq's third-largest city, one of the country's main gateways to Syria, as al-Qaida in Iraq makes a push to establish itself as a dominant player among the rebels fighting to topple the Syrian regime.

The show of force comes as Mosul residents cast ballots in delayed local elections Thursday that have been marred by intimidation by militants. Al-Qaida's renewed muscle-flexing is evident in dollar terms too, with one Iraqi official estimating that militants are netting more than $1 million a month in the city through criminal business enterprises.

Mosul and the surrounding countryside, from where al-Qaida was never really routed, have emerged as major flashpoints in a wave of bloodshed that has killed nearly 2,000 Iraqis since the start of April — the country's deadliest outbreak of violence in five years. Gunbattles have broken out between militants and security forces, and several candidates have been assassinated.

Just since the start of last week, attackers in and around the city have unleashed a rapid-fire wave of five car bombs, tried to assassinate the provincial governor and killed another local politician and four other people in a suicide bombing.

The violence increased as Thursday's elections approached in Ninevah and neighboring Anbar province. Iraqis elsewhere went to the polls in April, but the Baghdad government postponed voting in the two provinces, citing security concerns.

Other Sunni militant groups, including Ansar al-Islam and the Army of the Men of the Naqshabandi Order, are also active in Ninevah. Mosul is the capital of the Sunni-dominated province. Al-Qaida's growing power is particularly worrying because it is thought to be behind the bulk of the bombings across Iraq and because it is trying to assert itself as a player in neighboring Syria's civil war. The head of al-Qaida's Iraq arm last week defied the terror network's central command by insisting that his unit would continue to lay claim to al-Qaida operations in Syria, too.

"We're definitely concerned about it," said a U.S. diplomat about the deteriorating security situation in Mosul. The diplomat, who wasn't authorized to speak on the record, said al-Qaida's Iraq arm sees an opportunity to try to build support in the area and is "out blowing things up to show that the government can't protect and serve the people."

Al-Qaida's growing strength in Mosul is painfully clear to businessman Safwan al-Moussili. Traders like him say they are once again facing demands from militants to pay protection money or face grave consequences. Merchants say that practice had largely disappeared by the time American troops left in December 2011.

"They tell us: 'Pay this amount.' And if it's higher than before, they say something like: 'You recently went to China and you imported these materials and you made such and such profits,'" he said. "It seems they know everything about us."

Small-scale shop owners, goldsmiths, supermarkets, gas stations and pharmacies are all being hit up for money these days. Al-Moussili and his fellow businessmen feel they have little choice but to pay up. About two months ago, he recalls, one businessman refused to pay, and insurgents planted a bomb inside his shop that killed the man.

"That forced everybody to pay, because we don't see the security forces doing anything to end this situation," he said. A Mosul food wholesaler, who referred to himself only by the nickname Abu Younis out of concern for his security, said he and other traders resumed paying $200-a-month kickbacks to al-Qaida three months ago after finding threatening letters in the market hall where they operate.

Al-Qaida focused its operations in historically conservative Mosul following setbacks in Anbar province in 2006. It soon became the only major Iraqi city with a significant al-Qaida presence. The U.S. urged Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to focus his resources on Mosul to wipe out al-Qaida and prevent the insurgents from reorganizing there. Instead, the government shifted resources at a key moment to crush al-Maliki's armed Shiite rivals in the southern city of Basra, which prevented a decisive defeat of al-Qaida.

Over time, the militants, exploiting ethnic tensions in the Mosul area between Arabs and Kurds, were able to reinforce their position. Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who closely follows regional security issues, said al-Qaida in Iraq has long generated cash from businesses such as trucking and real estate, and through extortion of large firms such as mobile phone companies.

"If they're extending their extortion back out to local traders, that indicates they've got better street control," he said. "It just shows they're able to operate in the urban neighborhoods and don't see a security force retaliation like they did two years ago. And they don't fear informants identifying them."

Abdul-Rahim al-Shimmari, a member of the Ninevah provincial council, agreed that extortion is making a comeback. He blamed rising political and sectarian tensions fueled in part by the civil war in nearby Syria, where mostly Sunni rebels are trying to topple President Bashar Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Al-Qaida is also enjoying increased sympathy in Mosul because of what al-Shimmari called the central government's "brutal and irresponsible" handling of Sunni protests that have raged for months against the Shiite-led administration in Baghdad.

In March, security forces in Mosul opened fire on Sunni demonstrators demanding the release of a local tribal sheik who had been detained. At least one person was killed. Human Rights Watch recently urged Iraqi authorities to investigate allegations that federal police executed five people, including a 15-year-old boy, south of Mosul in early May. Residents discovered the bodies more than a week later in the same area where the five were last seen being led away by federal police, according to the rights group.

Maj. Gen. Mahdi al-Gharawi, the federal police 3rd Division commander who was named in the rights group's report, called the allegations baseless. He said the five were no longer in police custody at the time of their deaths. He blamed al-Qaida for killing them in an effort to tarnish the image of the police.

A lack of trust from the people, who fear both the militants and the security forces, is hindering authorities' fight against al-Qaida and other militants, according to Iraqi officials. "The problem is that nobody in Mosul will come forward and complain" about al-Qaida's increasing abuses, said a senior military intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss operational matters with reporters.

He estimated that al-Qaida is able to pull in between $1 million to $1.5 million from Mosul alone each month — a considerable amount in Iraq. "We want to catch these people red-handed, but the local government is not cooperating with the security forces," he complained.

Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed reporting.

Saudi to expel Hezbollah supporters over Syria war

June 20, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — In the latest sign of the fissures growing in the Arab world over the Syrian civil war, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Beirut has announced that the kingdom plans to deport Lebanese who supported Hezbollah, one of Damascus' key allies.

The warning comes as the Lebanese Shiite militant group takes an increasingly prominent role in the Syrian war, fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's troops in a key battle earlier this month. Saudi Arabia is a strong backer of the mostly-Sunni Syrian opposition trying to remove Assad from power. Assad belongs to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

It follows the decision earlier this month by the Gulf Cooperation Council — which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — to crack down on Hezbollah members in the Gulf and limit their "financial and business transactions."

Hezbollah says it has no businesses in the Gulf nations. However, there are more than half a million Lebanese working in the Gulf Arab nations, including tens of thousands in Saudi Arabia, some of whom have been living in the kingdom for decades. Many of those Lebanese are Shiites.

Saudi Arabia will deport "those who financially support this party," Ambassador Ali Awad Assiri told Lebanon's Future TV late Wednesday. He did not elaborate on whether other actions could be also considered support for Hezbollah.

"This is a serious decision and will be implemented in detail," Assiri said, without specifying when the deportations would begin. "Acts are being committed against innocent Syrian people." Lebanon's Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour told reporters Thursday he was in contact with Gulf officials over the matter. Hezbollah and its allies dominate Lebanon's current government, which resigned March 22, but continues to run the country's affairs in a caretaker capacity.

Syria's 2-year civil war, which has killed nearly 93,000 people, is increasingly pitting Sunni against Shiite Muslims and threatening the stability of Syria's neighbors. Assad draws his support largely from fellow Alawites as well as other minorities including Christians and Shiites. He is backed by Shiite Iran, Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiites.

U.S. officials estimate that 5,000 Hezbollah members are fighting alongside Assad's regime, while thousands of Sunni foreign fighters are also believed to be in Syria — including members of Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida affiliate that is believed to be among the most effective rebel factions. Public opinion in Sunni states is often sympathetic to the rebels.

Fighting between pro- and anti-Syrian groups has broken out in Lebanon, and Hezbollah's involvement in Syria is deepening tensions at home. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, who has been increasingly critical of the group recently, said in remarks published Thursday that he is against Hezbollah's involvement in Syria and that Hezbollah fighters should return to Lebanon.

"I told them from the start that I am against this act," he was quoted by al-Safir daily as saying. In Syria, activists reported violence between government forces and rebels in different parts of the country on Thursday, mostly near the capital Damascus and in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest urban center and its commercial hub.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 rebels were killed in a battle with government troops in Aleppo, where the opposition has controlled whole neighborhoods and large swathes of surrounding land since last summer.

Pro-regime media outlets announced earlier this month that troops had launched an offensive to build on the momentum of their Qusair triumph to retake Aleppo and other areas of the north. Another activist group, the Syria-based Aleppo Media Center, said rebels launched an attack on army positions in the city's Suleiman al-Halabi neighborhood. There were no immediate reports of casualties on the government side in the fighting.

Amateur videos showed gunmen shooting and firing rockets at army positions in the neighborhood. The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted. Meanwhile, Syria's main Western-backed opposition group said 40,000 civilians in two northern districts of Damascus in which government forces have been operating are suffering food shortages and lack medical supplies.

"After six months of continuous siege, (and ) military checkpoints ... the neighborhoods of Qaboun and Barzeh are at risk," the Syrian National Coalition said in a statement. It said the government forces conduct frequent raids in the two districts and there is fear that such army operations will result in a "massacre."

Also on Thursday, the Observatory urged the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations to intervene and take medicine and food to Aleppo's central prison. Heavy fighting around the prison has raged for weeks and there have been casualties among the prisoners, the activists said.

The Observatory, which has a network of activists around the country, said three detainees died this week from tuberculosis and that scabies was spreading in the jail, which holds thousands of prisoners.

The prison, which is besieged by rebels, relies on food and medicine brought in drop-offs by army helicopters. The Observatory said more than 100 detainees have been killed since April when the fighting around the prison began.

Meanwhile, Syrian rebels and Kurdish gunmen reached an agreement to end a rebel siege of the northern predominantly Kurdish region of Afrin that triggered a shortage of food and medicine there, the Observatory said.

The Afrin flare-up began when rebels wanted to pass through it to attack the predominantly Shiite villages of Nubul and Zahra, controlled by Assad loyalists, the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said. After Kurdish groups refused, rebels attacked Kurdish checkpoints and laid siege beginning on May 25.

Wiki-leaks Founder Still in Ecuadorian Embassy – One year later

SA Breaking News

London – It was a year ago today that founder of Wiki-leaks Julian Assange – facing questioning by Swedish authorities of allegations of sex crimes – skipped the country to seek refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy. Assange is still refusing to leave. The man responsible for the leak of confidential government information is wanted in more than just Sweden.

The US has ordered the arrest of Assange for the publishing of among other things, 250 000 US state department cables, including sensitive information over US troop locations.

Assange has been fighting extradition charges for sexual assault on 2 Swedish women. He denies the charges, and many believe they are part of a conspiracy to get Assange extradited to the US.

The left leaning Ecuadorian government has said they will continue to assist Assange. As long as he remains within the embassy, which according to international law is seen as Ecuadorian soil, he remains out of reach of the British authorities. Police officers remain constantly stationed outside the embassy  in case he tries to slip out. According to the National Post the police cost of the “Assange operation” hit almost US$6 million at the end of May.

Assange remains in the public mind, with visits from celebrities including Lady Gaga and Vivienne Westwood. He does occasionally step out onto the embassy’s balcony to address pro-WikiLeaks demonstrators, but this is the only time he goes outside.

According to the National Post Assange has admitted that his embassy exile is taking a toll on his health.

Space enthusiasts dream big after Shenzhou-10 launch

Jiuquan, China (XNA)
Jun 16, 2013

The expectation within Ji Shisan grew stronger and stronger as he waited for the launch of the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert of northwest China.

Ji, founder of science club Scientific Squirrel and popular science website Guokr.com, said that the more other people told him about viewing spacecraft launches live, the stronger his desire became to have this privilege himself.

His wishes came true when he joined around 1,000 spectators, mostly ordinary members of the public, who were accepted to witness Shenzhou-10's blast-off up close on Tuesday afternoon.

"I have long watched spacecraft launches on TV, when I could only see the scenes and hear the sounds. But watching at the scene this time must be three-dimensional," Ji said as he waited excitedly at the Jiuquan launch center.

"Many people who have witnessed on-site launches said a strong heatwave flaps upon the spectators. Wow, the feeling must be very special," he added.

While Ji and the other lucky spectators will no doubt leave with lifelong cherished memories, people across China have been inspired by the mission. For many, they are now thinking about the fantastical possibilities of space travel, while the mission is offering members of the public accessible insights into this field of science.

During the fifth manned space mission, astronauts will deliver science lectures to students on Earth through a live video feed system while in orbit.

The lectures could be the forerunner of future space lessons in which kids on Earth can acquire knowledge from the moon and Mars, while people born on the two planets can get understanding of Earth through long-distance simulations, Ji speculated.

He hopes that he can enter space within his lifetime and maybe even meet beings from other celestial bodies.

"In outer space, people would be able to see themselves from another angle and it is the same with meeting extraterrestrial life. The aliens could have quite different understandings of time, space and even life. Through contact with them, humankind could again examine the meanings of life," Ji said.

Entering outer space is an equally tantalizing prospect for Yu Jun, an editor of Guokr.com.

Yu said that if he got the chance to go, he would spend much time taking photos of Earth. "We can watch Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter at home through an astronomical telescope, but we could only view Earth after leaving it," he explained.

"I would also wish to watch the stars without the obstruction of atmosphere," added the editor.

Liu Cixin, one of China's best-selling science fiction writers, said that entering outer space means seeing other worlds and he believes he could accomplish his dream of going there within his lifetime.

Liu started to publish his Three-Body trilogy in 2008, namely "Three-Body," "Dark Forest" and "Dead End," attracting huge attention from sci-fi fans.

"Mankind's space exploration is in the initial period and therefore carries lots of risks. But with further scientific development, it could become a normal thing for average citizens. Aeroplane flights within the atmosphere is a good example," said Liu.

The author predicted that in a century, mankind could set their footsteps on all planets in the solar system and there could be many people living on Mars and the moon.

Heavy industries could be transferred to the geostationary orbits of Earth, many people could work in outer pace and space travel could become as simple as taking an aeroplane flight, he said.

"Outer space will surely become a major part of people's everyday life, and it won't be mysterious and remote from us any longer," added Liu.

Zhao Yang, a deputy research fellow at the China Science and Technology Museum, hailed Tuesday as "the day for space fans." Zhang majored in space program history and is a big spaceflight and sci-fi fan.

Mankind is terricolous and could feel very uncomfortable while losing gravity in space and meanwhile, long-term space flights could exert huge psychological pressure, Zhao noted.

To ease these issues, he suggested, "We could use real-life simulation and network technologies to let astronauts feel at home and speak with their family back on Earth."

Zhao believes that in 100 years, humankind will have landed multiple times on Mars and established settlements on the south and north poles of the moon.

Meanwhile, man will have sent artificial-intelligent probes powered with electric rockets and photon-sail technologies on their maiden trips to the star Alpha Centauri 4.2 light-years away. And scientists could reach there in decades and send data back to Earth, the academic said.

"At that time, detectors, wires and cameras could be skins, ears, eyes and the brain of a scientist," according to Zhao.

"Although I couldn't go there, my imagination has already been!" he added.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Feature_Space_enthusiasts_dream_big_after_Shenzhou_10_launch_999.html.