Thousands seek refuge at Central African airport

December 06, 2013

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Thousands of Christian civilians sought refuge at an airport guarded by French soldiers Friday, fleeing from the mostly Muslim ex-rebels with machetes and guns who rule the country a day after the worst violence to hit the chaotic capital in nine months.

When several French helicopters landed at the airport, people sang with joy as they banged on plastic buckets and waved rags into the air in celebration. Outside the barbed wire fences of the airport, bodies lay decomposing along the roads in a capital too dangerous for many to collect the corpses. Thursday's clashes left at least 280 dead, according to national radio, and have raised fears that waves of retaliatory attacks could soon follow.

"They are slaughtering us like chickens," said Appolinaire Donoboy, a Christian whose family remained in hiding. France had pledged to increase its presence in its former colony well before Christian militias attacked the capital at dawn Thursday. The arrival of additional French troops and equipment came as the capital teetered on the brink of total anarchy and represented the greatest hope for many Central Africans.

About 1,000 French forces were expected to be on the ground by Friday evening, a French defense official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. As night fell across the near anarchic capital, Christians fearing retaliatory attacks by the mostly Muslim ex-rebels crowded as close to the runway as possible, laying out their woven mats in front of a barbed wire coiled fence. National radio announced that at least 280 people had died, citing figures from local Red Cross officials.

The U.S. State Department said it was "deeply concerned" by the violence and praised France's quick intervention. France signaled its amped up presence in its former colony on Friday by sending out armored vehicles to patrol the streets. A French fighter jet made several flyovers, roaring through the sky over an otherwise lifeless capital as civilians cowered at home. Britain also flew in a C-17 plane Friday loaded with equipment to help with France's intervention.

As many as 250 French troops are carrying out permanent patrols in Bangui, and "we didn't notice any direct clashes between armed groups today," said French military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron in Paris.

On Thursday, however, 10 armed attackers in a pickup truck fired on a French position at the airport, including with a rocket-propelled grenade whose charge did not detonate. French forces returned fire, killing four attackers and wounding six, Jaron said.

A planned vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday allowed France to proceed with its mission. It coincided with the worst violence to roil the capital since March when the mostly Muslim rebels known as Seleka overthrew the president of a decade.

On Thursday, Christian militias believed to be loyal to ousted leader Francois Bozize attacked the city, and hours of gunbattles ensued. The conflict in one of Africa's poorest countries has gathered little sustained international attention since the government overthrow in March, and the dramatic developments were overshadowed Friday by global mourning for South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, who died at the age of 95.

"Thanks to France and the United Nations who want to save the Central Africans, soon the Seleka attacks on civilians will stop. We have had enough of Seleka killing, raping and stealing," said Abel Nguerefara, who lives on the outskirts of Bangui.

Streets in the city were empty Friday except for military vehicles and the trucks favored by the rebel forces who now claim control of the government. Nine unclaimed bodies lay sprawled in front of the parliament building alone — local Red Cross workers didn't dare retrieve them, or other bodies that were left to decay outside.

Despite the cheers that went up when a jet engine roared overhead, France insisted it was going only reluctantly into Central African Republic and with the limited aim of doubling its presence in the country to 1,200 troops.

Still, it remains an open question how France can achieve even its limited goals in the six months allotted to the mission. "There's a big gap between the vision France has of itself as a global power and as a power that can intervene," said Aline Leboeuf, a security and development specialist at the French Institute for International Relations.

The real question, she added, is: "Can you intervene in the right way and when do you leave?" Rebel leader-turned-president Michel Djotodia appealed for calm, even as his residence and that of the prime minister were looted and vandalized by the fighters Thursday. He announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew in hopes of preventing retaliatory violence against Christians from Muslims.

In a speech broadcast Thursday in the Sango language and a television interview in French, Djotodia called on people to realize that French forces were not in Central African Republic to take sides in an increasingly sectarian conflict.

Djotodia, who is Muslim, unified rebel groups in the country's mostly Muslim north, where resentment of the federal government and a sense of disenfranchisement has been rife for years. Yet once those rebels were unleashed upon the capital, he wielded very little control over the mix of bush fighters, child soldiers and foreign mercenaries he had recruited.

Supporters of the ousted president formed self-defense militias such as those behind Thursday's attack, which came hours before the U.N. Security Council voted to authorize the French deployment. "We're appreciative of France, but we know that 50 years after our independences, France is again required to come in as a fireman to save us — it's not right," said Alpha Conde, president of Guinea. "It's a humiliation for Africa that 50 years afterward, we are not at all able to manage our problems ourselves."

France's military, which controls Bangui airport, said about 2,000 Central Africans took refuge there Thursday, most if not all of them Christian. The crowd swelled on Friday. Yves Wayina, 26, fled with his wife and six children.

"France must come and rapidly deploy and do everything possible to save us," he told the AP on Friday. He's not sure whether he can go back and live among Muslims. Too much has happened. Too many attacks by the Seleka, which include foreign mercenaries among their ranks.

"We are angry," he said through the fence keeping civilians away from the airport runway. "The Muslims should go back where they came from."

Lori Hinnant reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Jose Richard Pouambi in Bangui, Central African Republic; Jamey Keaten, Elaine Ganley and Sylvie Corbet in Paris; and Cassandra Vinograd in London contributed to this report.

French operations launch in Central African Rep.

December 06, 2013

PARIS (AP) — France's defense chief says military operations began overnight in Central African Republic, with patrols and a helicopter detachment arriving to quell violence in the streets of the capital.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Radio France Internationale that the streets of Bangui were calm on Friday, after a spasm of bloodshed that began before dawn Thursday and left nearly 100 people dead.

The ambush of armed Christian fighters on Muslim neighborhoods of Bangui, the capital, came hours before the United Nations voted to send French troops to stabilize Central African Republic. Le Drian said the immediate goal is to keep the streets safe.

"You have to ensure that the vandals, the bandits and the militias know they can't use the streets of Bangui for their battles," he said.

Clashes sweep Central Africa Republic capital

December 06, 2013

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Wielding rifles and machetes, armed Christian fighters who support the Central African Republic's exiled president assaulted the capital at dawn on Thursday, leaving nearly 100 people dead. Shrouded bodies were lined up in a mosque as dozens of wounded lay on blood-stained hospital floors.

The ambush on Muslim neighborhoods of Bangui came as the United Nations voted to send a contingent of French troops to try to stabilize the country, and French President Francois Hollande announced plans to double the force. The daylong gunbattle touched even the most protected parts of the capital, including the residence of the prime minister, underscoring the volatile mix of arms and ideology facing the arriving French force.

Scores died in Thursday's attack, including 48 people whose bodies were laid out at a mosque in a northern suburb of Bangui. Separately, a Doctors Without Borders spokeswoman, Amelie Ketoff, said another 50 deaths had been confirmed, bringing the toll to 98.

Some died of bullet wounds, others from what appeared to be machete blows using a weapon known in the local language as a "balaka." The Christian militia, whose members are believed to have led the attack Thursday, call themselves the "anti-balaka," reminiscent of the horrific violence once seen in Rwanda.

Rebel leader-turned-president Michel Djotodia appealed for calm, even as his residence was looted and vandalized by the fighters. He announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew in a bid to stem the threat of retaliatory violence against Christians, following the early morning attack on Muslim neighborhoods.

"This morning the enemies of Central African Republic wanted to destabilize the country but they have failed," Djotodia announced in a speech broadcast in the Sango language on state radio. France already has hundreds of soldiers in Bangui, and an armored personnel carrier and other military vehicles patrolled the streets. The roads were otherwise bare except for the brightly painted pickup trucks driven by the ex-rebels who run the government.

The resolution passed by the U.N. Security Council on Thursday allows France to send hundreds more troops for a temporary period. Speaking from the Elysee Palace in Paris, Hollande said the 600 troops already in the country would be doubled "within a few days, even a few hours" to around 1,200.

The U.N. measure also authorizes the deployment of an African Union-led force to Central African Republic for a year to protect civilians and restore public order. The AU force is replacing a regional peacekeeping mission whose presence has been mainly limited to the capital and a few northern cities.

"It's necessary to intervene very quickly to establish order in this country, in order that humanitarian aid arrives and to avoid an actual civil war based on religion," said France's U.N. ambassador, Gerard Araud, speaking on French RTL radio Thursday.

Central African Republic, a desperately poor country in the heart of Africa where the life expectancy is a mere 48 years, has been roiled by rebellions and coups for decades. The president ousted in March had himself ascended to power by force a decade earlier.

Djotodia, the country's current ruler, who is Muslim, managed to unify several rebel groups in the country's mostly Muslim north, where resentment of the federal government and a sense of disenfranchisement has been rife for years. Once those rebels — known as Seleka, the local word for coalition — were unleashed upon the capital, though, he wielded very little control over the mélange of bush fighters, child soldiers and foreign mercenaries he had recruited along the way.

Before long, human rights groups were documenting cases of Seleka rebels going door to door with machetes, bludgeoning their victims and burning down scores of homes. Supporters of the ousted president began rising up in opposition to the lawless and ruthless rebels, forming self-defense militias. Thursday's attack demonstrates that these fighters are more than vengeance-seeking civilians with artisanal hunting rifles.

"This is not a war between an army and a rebel group. It's really become a conflict between communities where people are being targeted based on their religion," said Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch, who has documented scores of attacks in Central African Republic.

"And it is actually the Muslim community which is the most vulnerable because of the vast abuses committed by the Seleka and the fact that they are a relatively small minority amongst a much larger Christian population who are just furious because of the abuses they have suffered" under the Seleka.

Camal Fodor managed to get his friend to a health clinic by 7 a.m., but seven hours later he still lay listless on a bench. "The anti-balaka attacked our neighborhood and he was shot in the stomach," Fodor said of his friend, Solomon Haroun, whose blood-soaked T-shirt was dripping blood through the cracks of a wooden bench, where it pooled on the floor below, next to another man awaiting treatment for gunshot wounds.

In another sign of the growing melee, Prime Minister Nicholas Tiangaye confirmed his house had been looted, describing the attackers as a group of Seleka who arrived in three four-wheel-drive pickup trucks.

Speaking in Paris to the Associated Press, Tiangaye said he had been informed that the provisional toll was "more than 100 dead and several hundred wounded." Babacar Gaye, the U.N. special representative for the Central African Republic, appealed for calm in a joint statement from the U.N., European Union, African Union and France.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney condemned the "shocking and horrific atrocities against civilians" and said the U.S. was providing $40 million in assistance to the African Union mission.

In the hills overlooking Bangui, dotted with banana trees, the ex-Seleka fighters spent Thursday afternoon showing off the weapons they'd seized from the enemy earlier in the day. The fighters traded combat boots for flip flops and munched on French baguettes in the shade.

Gen. Bachar Fadoul says the Christian militia may attempt another attack but his troops will be waiting. "We will hunt them down and chase them from the city," he said.

Associated Press writers Jose Richard Pouambi and Jerome Delay in Bangui, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, and Lori Hinnant and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

UN Security Council faces vote on CAR violence

December 05, 2013

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is set to authorize increased military action by France and African troops to try to end near-anarchy in the Central African Republic, which has seen an upsurge in Muslim-Christian violence along with widespread killings, torture and rapes.

France called for a vote Thursday on a resolution that would authorize the deployment of an African Union-led force in the poor, landlocked country for a year to protect civilians and restore security and public order.

It also would authorize French forces, for a temporary period, "to take all necessary measures" to support the AU-led force known as MISCA, whose troop numbers are expected to rise from about 2,500 to 3,500.

France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud has said he expects the council to approve the resolution. France promised last week to send 1,000 troops to the Central African Republic following a warning from French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius that the former French colony "is on the verge of genocide." The Defense Ministry has said about 600 are in the country.

Whether the French and African forces can save lives largely depends on how far the foreign soldiers venture outside the capital, Bangui, and into the lawless provinces. That's where mostly Muslim rebels have been attacking Christian villages. Christian militias, known as anti-balaka, recently have launched retaliatory attacks, forcing thousands of civilians to take refuge in churches and mosques.

The proposed resolution welcomes Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's intention to prepare for the possible transformation of MISCA into a U.N. peacekeeping operation. It asks the U.N. chief to provide recommendations for the possible transformation within three months.

The draft resolution also would impose an arms embargo on the Central African Republic for a year and order all countries to ban the sale or transfer of arms, ammunition, military equipment, spare parts and technical assistance and training.

The country's chaos started late last year when rebel groups joined forces to form the coalition known as Seleka. In March, the rebels overthrew the president and installed their leader in power. But President Michel Djotodia now exerts little control over the renegade fighters in the provinces, most of whom are Muslim and who are accused of committing atrocities and forcibly recruiting child soldiers.

U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf on Wednesday said the United States is appalled at reports that innocent women and children were murdered outside Bangui, which illustrated the deteriorating humanitarian and security situation "that could lead to an escalation in violence and further atrocities."

The U.S. recently announced $40 million in assistance to MISCA to help protect civilians and provide security throughout the country, and Harf said the Obama administration is committed to supporting international efforts to find a solution to the crisis that protects civilians, restores security and puts the country back on the path to democratic governance.

The International Crisis Group think tank warned this week that the situation on the ground is deteriorating at a much faster pace than the international response is mobilizing and that the Central African Republic is staring "into an abyss of potentially appalling proportions." It supported AU and French military action and called for immediate inter-religious dialogue and urgent reconstruction projects.

The draft Security Council resolution expresses deep concern at the "total breakdown in law and order, the absence of the rule of law, inter-sectarian tensions" and "grave concern" at the consequences of instability on the region.

It asks the secretary-general to rapidly establish an international commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of rights abuses and help identify perpetrators.

Amid political violence, Thai king urges stability

December 05, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand put politics aside Thursday to celebrate the 86th birthday of the country's revered monarch, who used his annual birthday speech to call for stability but made no direct reference to the crisis that has deeply divided the nation.

Violence and street battles between anti-government protesters and police were put on hold as both sides observed a truce to mark the 86th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has often served as a unifying figure in times of crisis.

Vast crowds dressed in the royal color of yellow lined the roads in the seaside town of Hua Hin, to catch a glimpse of the frail and aging monarch. Many shouted "Long live the king" as his motorcade drove slowly to Klai Kangwon Palace, which literally means "Far From Worries."

Onlookers wept as the king began to speak, taking great effort and pausing for long stretches between words. "Our country has long experienced happiness because we have been united in performing our duties and working together for the good of the whole country," the king said, dressed in a ceremonial golden robe and seated on a throne before an audience that included Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her Cabinet ministers, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn and the leaders of the armed forces.

"All Thais should consider this very much and focus on doing their duties ... which are the security and stability of the country." Many people were hopeful the king would step in — as he has done before — to ease the current standoff, which results from years of enmity between supporters and opponents of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was deposed by a 2006 military coup after being accused of corruption and disrespect for the king.

As a constitutional monarch, the king has no official political role, but no other figure commands the same moral authority or the same loyalty from the armed forces in the coup-prone country. The king is a less vigorous figure than he used to be. In July, he ended a nearly four-year hospital stay — initially for treatment of a lung infection — to live in a palace in the seaside town of Hua Hin.

Political street fighting that had wracked pockets of Bangkok since the weekend ended Tuesday ahead of the birthday celebrations. The protesters are seeking to bring down the government of Yingluck, who is Thaksin's sister, and institute an unelected "people's council" to administer the country.

Before the break for the king's birthday, earlier violence killed five people and wounded at least 277 since the weekend. Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has vowed to keep up the struggle, saying that "our battle" will resume Friday.

Thai protests ease ahead of king's birthday

December 04, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — Anti-government protesters plan to march peacefully on the Thai national police headquarters Wednesday, a day after the political crisis that has shaken Thailand's capital for more than a week eased suddenly when the prime minister ordered police to stop battling anti-government protesters.

The move was timed to coincide with celebrations of the king's birthday this week, a holiday that holds deep significance in the Southeast Asian nation. In a sharp reversal in strategy that followed two days of increasingly fierce street fighting, riot police lowered their shields Tuesday and walked away from heavily fortified positions around Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's office at Government House.

Shortly afterward, thousands of jubilant demonstrators waving the red, white and blue Thai flag swarmed across the compound's grassy lawn, snapping photos of themselves with cellphones and screaming "Victory belongs to the people!" Yingluck was not there at the time.

The government move was widely seen as offering demonstrators a face-saving way out, and the government expressed hope it would defuse a conflict that has killed four people and wounded more than 256 in the last three days alone.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, however, has vowed to keep up what has become an audacious struggle to topple Yingluck and keep her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, from returning to power.

Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup, and Yingluck's rivals have repeatedly accused her of being his puppet. "You can rest assured that this is a victory that is only partial ... because the tyrannical Thaksin government endures," Suthep said.

He said that after a Thursday truce, "our battle" will begin again Friday. The latest unrest in Thailand emanates from a deep societal schism that has plagued the country for nearly a decade. The conflict pits a poor rural majority which largely backs the Shinawatra family against an urban-based elite that opposes it. The latter camp draws support from the army and staunch royalists who see the Shinawatras as a corrupt threat to their business interests and the monarchy.

After seizing several government ministries last week, and smashing barricades with bulldozers and commandeered police trucks in street fighting that erupted this weekend in isolated pockets of the city, the protesters refused all offers to negotiate.

Instead, they demanded Yingluck's government hand power to an unelected council that would appoint a new premier, a demand Yingluck rejected. Many political observers and Thai academics see the protesters' demands as unreasonable, if not absurd. Yingluck's Pheu Thai party was elected with an overwhelming majority in 2011 and is currently unbeatable at the polls.

The crisis began last month after the ruling party tried to ram an amnesty bill through Parliament that critics said was designed to bring Thaksin back. Thaksin resides in Dubai to avoid serving a jail term for a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated.

The bill failed to pass both legislative houses and protesters, sensing weakness, staged mass rallies that eventually spiraled into serious violence. On Sunday and Monday, masked demonstrators tried to break through concrete barriers surrounding Government House and other offices in a historic quarter of the capital that is home to some of Bangkok's main tourist attractions. They fired homemade rocket launchers and petrol bombs at police, who riposted with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

Early Tuesday, the skirmishes began again. But after a few minutes, police stopped firing back, and disappeared. Bewildered protesters, who had been fighting just moments before, began climbing over rows of overturned concrete blast walls.

About 20 soldiers and police guarded a door into Yingluck's offices, and protesters did not try to enter. After an hour of speeches and cheering, they all filed back out systematically, as their leaders had instructed. The organized exit fueled speculation that a deal — at least for now — had been struck behind closed doors between the two sides.

Yingluck and her deputy said the government told police to avoid clashes so people could peacefully celebrate the birthday of ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turns 86 Thursday. Bhumibol is a constitutional monarch with no formal political role, but he is considered the country's moral authority and a unifying figure. Violence on the day of his birth would be a major sign of disrespect.

__ Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker, Grant Peck, Papitchaya Boonngok and Raul Gallego Abellan contributed to this report.

U.S. draws into 'Group of Death' for 2014 World Cup

By Martin Rogers
December 06 2013, Friday
Yahoo Sports

United States head coach Jurgen Klinsmann described his team's World Cup draw as "the worst of the worst" after it was pooled with Germany, Portugal and Ghana in one of two "Groups of Death."

Klinsmann could scarcely believe his ill fortune after the draw was made in Bahia, Brazil, with the Americans lumped into Group G and a situation that immediately installed them as long shots to reach the last 16.

To add to his discomfort, Klinsmann's side also will have to battle a grueling travel schedule, including a visit to the Amazonian jungle city of Manaus with its extreme humidity and hostile weather environment.

"It is one of the most difficult groups of the whole draw," Klinsmann said. "It couldn't get any more difficult or any bigger but that is what the World Cup is all about.

"We are looking forward to the challenge and we don't see ourselves as any kind of outsiders. If you want to get into the top 10 or 12 teams in the world you have to beat these guys.

"We discussed before the draw that there could be some difficult schedules and we hit the worst of the worst. Every coach said, 'Anything but Manaus' and we got Manaus."

Germany is one of the strongest teams in the tournament and reached the semifinal in 2010, while Portugal will be led by Cristiano Ronaldo, currently the world's best and most dominant player.

Supposedly the weakest opponent, Ghana, eliminated the U.S. at the round of 16 stage four years ago. The Ghanaians also ended the Americans' 2006 World Cup with a victory in the teams' final group game.

"After two losses, it's about time to beat them, I guess," Klinsmann said.

The Ghana matchup will be the first for the U.S. and is scheduled for Natal on June 16. Portugal follows in Manaus six days later before group action ends against Germany in Recife on June 26.

"I kind of had a feeling in my stomach that we were going to get Germany," said Klinsmann, who starred for the West Germany national team as it won the 1990 World Cup and later led the German side to the 2006 semifinals on home soil.

The "other" Group of Death is Group B where 2010 finalists Spain and the Netherlands square off in the opening match. Host nation Brazil kicks off the tournament against Croatia in Sao Paulo on June 12.

Group A:
Brazil – Host nation is a clear favorite to win it all and was the seed no one wanted to meet.
Croatia – Shaky in qualifying and winless in World Cups since 1998; Luka Modric is a shining light.
Mexico – Fortunate to qualify after desperate CONCACAF form pushed it to the brink of elimination.
Cameroon – Lowest-ranked of the African nations after patchy form over the past year.

Group B:
Spain – Defending champion started slowly in 2010, losing to Switzerland in first game.
Netherlands – 2010 runner-up was somehow unseeded and a team nobody wanted to face.
Chile – Struggled early in qualifying but was near perfect late on and will be a real threat.
Australia – Fired coach Holger Osieck after heavy friendly defeats and comes in with little momentum.

Group C:
Colombia – Radamel Falcao heads a deep squad keen to shine after missing last three tournaments.
Greece – Not much fun to watch; defensively excellent but short on attacking firepower.
Ivory Coast – Eliminated in the Group of Death last time, Didier Drogba’s back for one last shot.
Japan – Greatly improved team more than capable of creating some shocks against bigger opponents.

Group D:
Uruguay – Reached the semis four years ago but survived a qualifying scare this time around.
Costa Rica – Qualifying success was built upon outstanding home form, struggles on the road.
England – Lacking in confidence and inspiration and comes in with its lowest expectations in decades.
Italy – Champions in 2006, awful in 2010, full of talent and believes it can go all the way.

Group E:
Switzerland – Considered the weakest seeded team but a skillful unit capable of going deep.
Ecuador – Clinched a World Cup spot for only the third time and has never gone past the last 16.
France – Scraped through with a playoff comeback, hopes to atone for humiliating 2010 campaign.
Honduras – Has reached two previous World Cups but has yet to record its first victory.

Group F:
Argentina – Lionel Messi heads a confident team looking to secure first title since 1986.
Bosnia-Herzegovina – The only newcomer in the 32-strong field, highly talented but unpredictable.
Iran – Managed just one point from three games in 2006 and failed to qualify in 2010.
Nigeria – One of the youngest squads in the tournament that should not be underestimated.

Group G:
Germany – Third in 2010 and aims to build on positive vibe created by its dominant club teams.
Ghana – Knocked out the U.S. in 2010 before being heartbreakingly denied a semifinal spot.
United States – Regarded as the strongest team in its pot after topping CONCACAF group.
Portugal – Cristiano Ronaldo single-handedly won a tense playoff but has yet to shine at World Cup.

Group H:
Belgium – Reached first World Cup since 2002 after huge improvement and a superb qualifying campaign.
Russia – Finished first in a tough qualifying group that also featured Portugal and Sweden.
Algeria – Bottom of the U.S. group in 2010 and one of the weakest teams, at least on paper.
South Korea – An easy campaign became nail-biting late on; finally booked place on goal differential.

Spain views cup draw with unease, excitement

December 06, 2013

MADRID (AP) — Spain doesn't know what to make of its World Cup draw. Some are confident, while others are fearful.

The 2010 winners prepare to defend their title in Brazil with a squad in transition and several key players struggling to find their usual impressive form this season. Drawn alongside the Netherlands, Chile, and Australia in a tough Group B, Andres Iniesta was spurred on by the prospect of having all to play for from the opening kickoff.

"Exciting group to start the World Cup," Iniesta tweeted, "Let's go!" Spain opens the World Cup on June 13 at Salvador against the same team it beat in the 2010 final, the Netherlands, when Iniesta scored the stoppage-time winner in a 1-0 win in Johannesburg.

But Spain goes to Brazil with more doubts than certainties, despite having picked up a second straight European Championship in-between. The nucleus of the team that has provided so much success is older, with key players like Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Xabi Alonso dealing with injuries this season.

Captain Iker Casillas is not even Real Madrid's starting goalkeeper. And while Spanish strikers like Alvaro Negredo and Fernando Llorente are succeeding in Europe, coach Vicente del Bosque may opt for Diego Costa, a Brazilian-born, naturalized Spaniard, to lead his attack.

"We're going to have to be prepared from day one," Del Bosque said. "That would certainly be better for our strength of mind. It depends on us and the state of mind with which we approach the group." Sports dailies As and Marca called Group B "lethal" and "dangerous," with the latter saying "We Start with a Final." La Vanguardia newspaper called it "The Group of Death."

Spain lost the last final it played — a 3-0 defeat to Brazil for the Confederations Cup earlier this year. The European champions have shown defensive frailties in World Cup qualifying, dropping points against France and Finland on home soil after conceding late goals. It has also been used to poor showings in international friendlies.

"It is a complicated group. It is difficult, but there you go," said Spain supporter Alberto Rey, 33, as he watched the draw alongside friends in a local bar in the Spanish capital. "But I think we can get to be top of the group with the team that we have."

Despite some frailties, Spain is a team rich in talent with perhaps the top collection of midfielders in the world with established talents like Cesc Fabregas, Juan Mata, and David Silva, plus the likes of Javi Martinez, Thiago, and Isco waiting for their chance.

Stress may have already set in for the normally calm Del Bosque, who could have the toughest task ahead in choosing his squad for Brazil. The reaction of his players to the draw seems to indicate they are ready to rise to the occasion.

"Nobody said it was going to be easy," defender Gerard Pique tweeted. "Netherlands, Chile and Australia in our group!"

Mangalyaan Reaches First Distance Milestone On Route To Mars

by Morris Jones
Sydney, Australia (SPX)
Dec 07, 2013

Indian's first Mars Orbiter Mission - Mangalyaan - might be a long way from its target, but it has already gone further than any spacecraft India has previously launched.

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is now in interplanetary space - or deep space. With spacecraft conditions all nominal, Mangalyaan has now gone far beyond the orbit of the Moon and outside the influence of the Earth's magnetic field. These are the high seas of the solar system, where other objects are scarce and conditions can be tricky.

Most spacecraft launched from Earth never go further than the geostationary orbit belt, roughly 36,000 kilometers above the equator. India has previously gone beyond this mark only once, when the first Indian deep space mission - Chandrayan - flew to the Moon.

The basic design of the Chandrayan spacecraft bus was replicated for the MOM, but this mission features a larger antenna for communication at interplanetary distances.

What will happen in the months ahead? MOM is in its "cruise" phase, where the momentum of the thruster firings that took it away from Earth will keep it traveling through the vacuum of space.

There will be minor course corrections to ensure that it stays on target, but MOM is essentially flying like a hypersonic bullet. The other major influence on its trajectory is the gravity of the Sun. MOM is in solar orbit like a planet, but heading from one large object orbiting the Sun towards another one.

The spacecraft is in good health. That's a good sign for the future of the mission, as it shows that MOM is suitable for interplanetary space. The mission has also had luck on its side. So far, our Sun has been fairly well-behaved. There have been no particle ejections flung outwards towards the spacecraft.

Mission controllers will be monitoring the health and trajectory of the spacecraft rigorously. The mission has many challenges ahead of it, but it is making steady progress. Arrival at Mars is slated for September 2014.

Entering orbit at Mars will be the next big task facing this mission. If the spacecraft continues to perform at the same level, it should accomplish this task with no serious problems.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mangalyaan_Reaches_First_Distance_Milestone_On_Route_To_Mars_999.html.

Giant Alien Planet Discovered in Most Distant Orbit Ever Seen

By Denise Chow
December 06, 2013

An enormous alien planet — one that is 11 times more massive than Jupiter — was discovered in the most distant orbit yet found around a single parent star.

The newfound exoplanet, dubbed HD 106906 b, dwarfs any planetary body in the solar system, and circles its star at a distance that is 650 times the average distance between the Earth and the sun. The existence of such a massive and distantly orbiting planet raises new questions about how these bizarre worlds are formed, the researchers said.

"This system is especially fascinating because no model of either planet or star formation fully explains what we see," study lead researcher Vanessa Bailey, a fifth-year graduate student in the University of Arizona's department of astronomy, said in a statement.

In the most commonly accepted theories of planet formation, it is thought that planets that orbit close to their parent star, such as Earth, began as small, asteroid-type bodies that clumped together in the primordial disk of gas and dust around the burgeoning star. Yet, this process operates too slowly to explain how giant planets form far away from their star, the researcher said.

Alternative hypotheses have suggested that distant giant planets may form in ways similar to mini binary star systems, Bailey said.

"A binary star system can be formed when two adjacent clumps of gas collapse more or less independently to form stars, and these stars are close enough to each other to exert a mutual gravitation attraction and bind them together in an orbit," she explained.

In the HD 106906 system, the star and planet may have collapsed independently, but the materials that clumped together to form the planet were insufficient for it to grow large enough to ignite into a new star, Bailey said.

But, there are still problems with this scenario. For one, difference between the masses of two stars in a binary system is typically no more than a ratio of 10 to 1.

"In our case, the mass ratio is more than 100-to-1," Bailey said. "This extreme mass ratio is not predicted from binary star formation theories — just like planet formation theory predicts that we cannot form planets so far from the host star."

Researchers are also keen to study the new planet, because leftover material from when the planet and star formed can still be detected.

"Systems like this one, where we have additional information about the environment in which the planet resides, have the potential to help us disentangle the various formation models," Bailey said. "Future observations of the planet's orbital motion and the primary star's debris disk may help answer that question."

The planet HD 106906 b is only 13 million years old, and is still glowing from the residual heat from its formation," the researchers said. By comparison, Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, which makes it roughly 350 times older than the newfound exoplanet.

The planet was found using a thermal infrared camera mounted on the Magellan telescope in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The researchers used data from the Hubble Space Telescope to confirm their discovery.

The study, which has been accepted for publication in a future issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, could lead to a better understanding of distantly orbiting exoplanets.

"Every new directly detected planet pushes our understanding of how and where planets can form," study co-investigator Tiffany Meshkat, a graduate student at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, said in a statement. "Discoveries like HD 106906 b provide us with a deeper understanding of the diversity of other planetary systems."

Source: SPACE.com.
Link: http://www.space.com/23858-most-distant-alien-planet-discovery-hd106906b.html.

China's most moon-like place

Beijing (XNA)
Dec 05, 2013

The desert of fine, soft sand ripples with low dunes and not a plant is in sight. Simmering under a ceaseless noonday sun, the Kumtag desert descends through chill to extreme frigidity as night falls. This is the most moon-like place in China.

It was here in northwest China on the boundary of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Gansu Province that Chinese scientists built the testing ground for moon rover Yutu (Jade Rabbit).

If successful, the Chang'e-3 lunar probe, launched on Monday on its two-week voyage to deliver Yutu to the surface of the moon, will be China's first soft-landing on an extraterrestrial body.

Why The Desert?
Jia Yang, deputy chief designer, said that as this is China's first such mission, the designers conducted many ground experiments.

"The field tests in the Kumtag are some of the most important," Jia said.

"We tried our best to simulate the lunar environment in the lab, and tested Yutu there. However, the operators of the rover became so familiar with the lab environment that they could pilot him entirely satisfactorily on experience alone, even if they had no clear images," said Jia.

"To avoid this kind of problem, we needed to create an environment in the field which was entirely unknown to the remote crew, who must use their judgment to control the rover purely on the basis of the images transmitted by Yutu himself," Jia said. Yutu's long-range abilities can really only be on trial in the desert, he added.

Yutu weighs approximately 140 kilograms and runs on six wheels. The solar-powered vehicle can climb inclines of 30 degrees and cover up to 200 meters in an hour. Equipped with clusters of cameras and spectrometers, an optical telescope, radar and other sensors, the Jade Rabbit will survey the moon's geological structure and surface substances, while keeping on the look out for signs of useful natural resources.

Sometime in mid-December, Chang'e-3 should touch down in the Bay of Rainbows, or Sinus Iridum, a flat volcanic plain thought to be relatively clear of large rocks. The Bay of Rainbows was selected because the level terrain should guarantee smooth communications and ample sunshine for Yutu's solar panels.

Desert? Which Desert?
Finding a test ground that could provide everything the mission required meant analyzing the geography and climate of all the deserts in China.

"We took several factors into consideration. First, we wanted very fine sand. The average diameter of particles in the lunar soil is about 70 micrometers, as thin as a hair," Jia said.

"Second, the desert must be very dry. Although China has a surfeit of deserts, many of them have vegetation, which was precisely not what we wanted. After all, there are no plants on the moon. So we looked for places with a very low precipitation," Jia said.

Another requirement was the absence of any strong winds during the testing season in October, because there is no wind on the moon.

There is more than one desert that fits the bill in China. Taklamakan, China's largest desert also has the right circumstances, but the scientists were also considering the shape of the dunes.

"We hoped to make the testing ground relatively flat with some stones to simulate the most typical lunar landform, but Taklamakan has huge pyramidal dunes which would be too much trouble to work around," said Jia.

After more than 20,000 kilometers of travel and collecting data on climate, vegetation, soil mechanics and security, the northeast part of the Kumtag, close to the Lop Nur was chosen.

"We checked all the deserts in China, and this place is the most suitable," Jia said.

Covering 22,800 square kilometers, the Kumtag is China's sixth largest desert. Resembling a bird's feather on satellite images, the Kumtag, from the Uygur for "sand mountain", boasts many unique landscapes. Annual precipitation is less than 10 millimeters and no plant can grow on the dunes in the northeast.

Sandbox
Within an area of about three square kilometers, some transformation was required to bring the testing ground in line with data and pictures collected by Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2, as well as the Apollo missions.

Duan Hailin, who was in charge of the work, said, "We built slopes according to the scientists' blueprint, and dug more than 10 'meteor craters', and scattered stones here and there."

"We made the testing ground as similar to the lunar surface as we could, except for the light conditions and the temperature," said Jia.

To make Yutu weigh as same as he will on the moon, some electronic equipment was moved to another vehicle, and connected with wires.

Yutu's ability over short distances of around 10 meters and much longer distances of up to one kilometer were rigorously tested. Another important experiment was to look for a dormancy point during the lunar night.

"Before sunset, Yutu will find a suitable place to park up with an inclination that will allow him to be ready to awaken again after the severe cold of the lunar night," Jia said.

The scientist was reluctant to speculate on how far the Jade Rabbit can go on. "He will not go very far, even though he has the ability. He will spend most of the time conducting surveys and taking pictures. After the pictures are sent back to Earth, it will take the ground crew a long time to find suitable paths," Jia said.

"Every step Yutu takes will be very carefully planned. He will not go very far during his life," Jia said.

The scientists named the desert sandbox "Wangshu Village." In Chinese mythology, Wangshu is a goddess who drives the carriage of the moon.

"And here we are, building and driving a moon rover in reality," Jia said.

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Chinas_most_moon_like_place_999.html.

Turkey keen on space cooperation with China

Istanbul (XNA)
Dec 05, 2013

Turkey is keen on space cooperation with China, especially in lunar missions and outer space exploration, scientists said here on Wednesday after China's launching of lunar probe Chang'e-3.

The scientists watched the launching of Long March-3B rocket, which carried Chang'e-3 lunar probe and Yutu lunar rover, on Monday.

"Turkey closely watches China's lunar exploration programs," Onur Haliloglu, Technical Deputy Director of Space Technologies Research Institute of Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), said in a interview with Xinhua.

Now Turkey with great enthusiasm waits for the latest information from Chang'e-3, Haliloglu remarked.

The scientist said the areas that Turkey and China should expand cooperation are satellite projects, lunar mission projects and exploration of the outer space.

Meanwhile, Director of Center for Science and Technology Research and Assistant Professor Celal Sami Tufekci in Yildiz Technical University Department of Mechatronics Engineering told Xinhua that Turkey could develop its partnership with China in designing astronaut programs.

"Turkey needs an astronaut program and in the near future I think that the two countries could expand their cooperation in sending astronauts to the space," Tufekci added.

China has been investing a lot in space missions, Tufekci said. "It has been conducting very impressive programs and the Chang'e-3 is one of them."

Tufekci also mentioned, China Space Station is expected to be operational in 2022, which would provide a good opportunity for Turkish scientists to cooperate with their Chinese counterparts.

"Turkey is at the beginner level in developing space programs and is ready to cooperate with China," he remarked.

Speaking of space bilateral cooperation, Haliloglu said, Turkey and China are two senior members of Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) and TUBITAK is an authorized institution of the organization in Turkey.

"TUBITAK has long been working with China in developing space projects and has enjoyed continuous support from Beijing for its ongoing programs. APSCO is an important agency in facilitating our cooperation," Haliloglu said.

One of the important projects that TUBITAK has been working with China is the earthquake prediction.

"TUBITAK gets support from China in studying the ionic activities in the ionosphere to predict earthquakes," Haliloglu said.

In addition, TUBITAK and China also cooperate in developing regional GPS satellites, he noted.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Turkey_keen_on_space_cooperation_with_China_999.html.

Astronomers detect water in atmosphere of distant exoplanets

Greenbelt, Md. (UPI)
Dec 3, 2013

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope say they've found faint signatures of water in the atmospheres of five distant planets.

Although the probable existence of atmospheric water has been detected previously on a few exoplanets orbiting stars beyond our solar system, the new study is the first to conclusively measure and compare the profiles and intensities of these signatures on multiple worlds, NASA reported Tuesday.

"We're very confident that we see a water signature for multiple planets," Avi Mandell, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said. "This work really opens the door for comparing how much water is present in atmospheres on different kinds of exoplanets, for example hotter versus cooler ones."

The five planets studied are hot Jupiters, massive worlds that orbit close to their host stars.

"To actually detect the atmosphere of an exoplanet is extraordinarily difficult," study researcher L. Drake Deming of the University of Maryland said. "But we were able to pull out a very clear signal, and it is water."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Astronomers_detect_water_in_atmosphere_of_distant_exoplanets_999.html.

Moon gardens: NASA to sow first seeds of future habitat

Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Dec 03, 2013

NASA is bravely venturing into new scientific territory with a plan to start growing plants on the moon no later than 2015. The experiment is designed to yield important knowledge about life's long-term chances in space - including for us.

The initiative comes courtesy of the Lunar Plant Growth Habitat team - a small group of scientists, students, volunteers and contractors - who plan to install specially-designed containers about the size of a coffee can, in which the plants will be encased, complete with sensors, cameras and other devices that will be relaying information down to Earth.

This is to be the first life sciences project conducted on another world and is ambitious about exploring opportunities for future human life support, apart from the obvious benefits of learning more about growing life in extreme temperatures.

The dream is to be able to freely live on the moon for decades on end - instead of hours. Follow-up experiments are already in the making.

The idea, according to the space scientists, is "to develop a very simple sealed growth chamber that can support germination over a five-10 day period in a spacecraft on the moon," with filter paper used to feed dissolved nutrients to the plant.

NASA wants to start off with basil, turnips and Arabidopsis. The latter has been described by scientists as the 'lab rat' of plant biology.

The habitats will have to regulate their own water consumption, temperature and power supply.

Upon landing on the moon a trigger would release a small reservoir of water wetting the filter paper and initiating germination of the seeds. The air in the sealed container would be adequate for more than five days of growth. No additional air supply or air processing would be necessary.

The seedlings would be photographed at intervals with sufficient resolution to compare with growth in Earth controls. We would use the natural sunlight on the moon as the source of illumination for plant germination as a first ISRU (in situ resource utilization) demonstration," the scientists reported on the space agency's website.

Interestingly, the experiment is quite cheap. This is in part due to technological advances, but also owing to NASA's adventurous idea of crowdsourcing the initiative. Instead of copying the experiment hundreds of times over, the special kits and growth habitats will be distributed to schools, as well as budding scientists. The space agency will then collect all the data from their experiments and compare it to the results on the moon. This will also give schoolkids the opportunity to personally contribute to the study.

Such a lighthearted approach has never been taken to an experiment of such magnitude, and the crowdsourcing initiative is already being praised for its ingenuity.

The only question remaining is - how do we get the plants up there?

The agency's best bet is to send the plants on a commercial spacecraft.

Google has been instrumental in spearheading the commercial space race, with its Lunar X-Prize 2015 being sought after by many takers.

The prize will go to the one who safely lands a vessel on the moon, travels at an altitude of 500 meters above, on, or below its surface and transmits two 'mooncasts' back to Earth by December 31, 2015. Bonus prizes will also be available.

The beauty of the Google-prize approach is that NASA no longer has to spend hundreds of millions of dollars or wait until the next space ship departs for our satellite.

Speaking to Singularityhub.com, prominent planetary scientist, Dr. Chris McKay, explained that just 20 years ago, the project would have cost $300 million, while now it can be done at literally less than a hundredth the cost. It is a victory for both NASA and the private space industry.

"Just like we buy tickets on commercial airlines, why shouldn't we buy space on commercial flights," he explained.

Even if NASA fails, a new door has been opened to undertaking incredibly ambitious projects at negligible costs.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Moon_gardens_NASA_to_sow_first_seeds_of_future_habitat_999.html.

Russian android may take on outer space operations at ISS

Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Dec 03, 2013

Russia has presented a new humanlike robot, which may be delivered to the International Space Station to perform 90 percent of risky operations in open space instead of cosmonauts.

The SAR- 401 prototype was revealed to journalists at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow Region's Star City on Wednesday.

The robot was developed in 2013 and is currently being tested terrestrially, Vyacheslav Sychkov, executive director of the Android Technics company said.

It's vital for the android to achieve maximum precision in its every move, he added.

The operating principle for the robot is based on the machine repeating movements performed by a human operator.

"We're working on two possible control scenarios: an emergency scenario when the robot is managed from Earth and routine operations when it's managed from inside the ISS," Sychkov is cited as saying by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

The developers plan to make the SAR- 401 compatible with the European Robotic Arm manipulator in the Russian segment of the ISS.

"The robot has a base point in order to attach it to the manipulator," the Android Technics head explained.

The android will also be used as a communications system as it's equipped with hardware capable of receiving messages from Earth and passing it to the station's crew.

It's not yet clear if the robot will be stored inside the ISS and then delivered to the work areas or be permanently housed on the station's outer shell.

In case of the second scenario, the android will most likely be put in a special container, in which optimum temperature conditions will be maintained, Sychkov said.

When asked about the cost of the SAR- 401 project, the Android Technics head replied that "the work isn't yet completed, so it's currently impossible to evaluate the whole program."

But the Russian robot will be "a lot cheaper" than its American counterpart, already working at the ISS, he added.

The developers expect that in the future the android will perform over 90 percent of open space operations at the ISS.

The Cosmonaut Training Center plans to review a list of works on the station's outer shell, currently performed by the cosmonauts, to determine which can be taken on by the SAR- 401.

"In general, its work will be replacement of equipment, checking and maintenance," Sychkov explained.

Robots v. Humans
Meanwhile, the head of the Cosmonaut Training Center, Sergey Krikalyov, stressed that the androids won't be able to replace people in space in the near future.

"A robot can never become a full substitute for a man. It's interaction, not replacement we're talking about," he stressed.

According to Krikalyov, the newly presented robot may undergo a number of enhancements before it'll be actually sent into space.

NASA's Robonaut-2 was launched into orbit in 2011. The US android was designed to assist the crew inside the station as it lacks the kind of protection needed to exist in open space.

This August, the first Japanese robot astronaut arrived at the station. The main task of the small android, named Kirobo, is to see how humans and robots can interact in space as his capabilities include voice recognition and speech synthesis.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Russian_android_may_take_on_outer_space_operations_at_ISS_999.html.

The State of Super Earths

by Elizabeth Howell for Astrobiology Magazine
Moffett Field CA (SPX)
Dec 03, 2013

Our solar system hosts a cornucopia of worlds, from the hellfire of Venus to the frozen plains of Mars to the mighty winds of Uranus. In that range, the Earth stands alone, with no planet coming close to its life-friendly position near the Sun.

Outside our solar system, however, it's a different story. Observations using space-based and ground-based telescopes have indicated that a new class of objects dubbed super-Earths - worlds that are about two to 10 times our planet's mass and up to two times its radius - could be among the most common type of planets orbiting other stars.

That's because during the past few years, astronomers have found plenty of these super-sized rocky bodies orbiting different types of stars. Among these planetary systems, those around M-class stars, which are cooler and fainter than our Sun, are particularly important.

Because of the low surface temperatures of these stars, the regions around them where an Earth-like planet can maintain liquid water on its surface (also known as the Habitable Zone) are closer to them -- making such potentially habitable super-Earths in those regions more detectable.

Scientists also believe that these smaller stars are the most abundant in the Sun's corner of the universe, implying super-Earths would be plentiful in our solar neighborhood, as well.

Nader Haghighipour is a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute and the University of Hawaii-Manoa's Institute for Astronomy. Among his research interests is figuring out how these worlds form, and most importantly, how they arrive in their current orbits.

Some of his work hints that migrating giant planets could be responsible for the close-in orbits of smaller bodies. Their massive gravity could excite the rocks and protoplanetary debris on their paths and cause them to be scattered out of the system or coalesce into smaller planets such as super-Earths.

"When giant planets approach the central star, especially around an M-dwarf, I'm interested in how they affect accretion of small planetesimals in a disc in front of them and how that will result in the formation of super-Earths, particularly in the habitable zone," Haghighipour said.

Faster discovery pace for super-Earths
Haghighipour recently surveyed the state of super-Earth research in a paper that appeared in the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. The first super-Earths were discovered in 1992 around pulsar star PSR B1257+12, but it's only in the past five years that the pace of discovery picked up.

This was in large part due to the arrival of the NASA Kepler space telescope, which spent close to four years hunting planets in a small region of the sky in the constellation Cygnus. Kepler ended its primary mission in 2013 after the telescope exceeded its design lifetime. During this time, it provided a treasure trove of extremely high quality data that has revolutionized the field of exoplanetary science.

Short period super-Earths are easier to detect around smaller stars than those that are the Sun's size or larger. This is because smaller stars show larger reactions to the tug of the planet as the planet orbits the star. If the planet happens to go across the face of the star from Earth's perspective, a super-Earth blocks out more of a small star's light, making it easier to detect.

"That super-Earths in short-period orbits around cooler and smaller stars are easier to detect has set the ground for this becoming fashionable, and now there's a great deal of attention in using radial velocity and transit photometry techniques to find such planets in the habitable zones of M stars," Haghighipour said.

These planets are both detectable by the Kepler telescope and also ground-based ones. Most commonly, discoveries from the ground take place with two instruments. One of them is the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) on a European Southern Observatory 3.6m telescope at La Silla, Chile. The other is the W. M. Keck Observatory's High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph (HiRES) in Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

While NASA scientists re-examine Kepler's mission - its science work is on hold after two of its four reaction wheels failed - they are hard at work planning its successor mission, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TESS will have both advantages and disadvantages while searching for super-Earths, Haghighipour said.

"Because TESS is going to cover the entire sky, as opposed to Kepler that focused on only one portion of the sky, it may be able to find more [exoplanets]," he said. "As far as accuracy and precision, because it's not going to stay on one region of the sky for as long as the Kepler did, the accuracy may not be as high as that of the Kepler."

Habitability?
One particular star system of interest to Haghighipour is Gliese 667, a triple star system which lies about 22 light-years from Earth. Haghighipour was part of a team that identified at least one super-Earth in the habitable zone of GJ 667C in 2012.

This year, another group led by the University of Gottingen in Germany revealed that where there was one super-Earth, there may actually be many. The new analysis found that the M-star in the GJ 677 system (known as GJ 677c) has about six or seven planets, including anywhere from three to five "super-Earths" in the habitable zone.

Because the star is so faint and dim, to be in its habitable zone these planets must crowd in close. The researchers estimated that the planets have very short years, between 20 and 50 days, and may even have one side perpetually facing their host star. Even in this state, however, the astronomers believe it is possible that life could survive there.

"It's the most reliable detection [of potentially habitable exoplanets] that we've had," Haghighipour said. The challenge, he added, is to understand the planets' habitable environments from a distance.

While calculating the location of the habitable zone of a star is relatively straightforward, modelling the planets' dynamics and climate is far trickier. It is unknown if these worlds have plate tectonics, for example - a geophysical processes that regulates the abundance of CO2 and H2O in Earth's atmosphere. Their interiors remain masked to astronomers, and understanding exoplanet atmosphere composition is something that some teams are only starting to accomplish.

Identification efforts continue, however. Haghighipour has been working on detecting super-Earths in the habitable zones of M-stars since 2009 along with observers at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Gliese 667Cc is the most cited discovery from this collaboration, but there are others.

On the theoretical side, Haghighipour has two papers published in the Astrophysical Journal about habitability in binary star systems. He also has been trying to figure out how super-Earths form at different distances from their stars.

"It's possible each system has had its own history, and its own way of formation. There is no reason to believe that one way of formation for planets in a system, or for super-Earths in habitable zones, can be applied to all systems," he said.

Perhaps this research could shed some light on the formation of our own solar system. Both super-Earths and "hot Jupiters" - gas giant planets that closely orbit their parent stars - appear to be common in other systems, so why not ours?

"Honestly, we have no definite answer for that. There are many different models that present different ideas for why there are no super-Earths and hot Jupiters in our solar system. But in order for these models to be successful, they have to explain other properties of the solar system as well," he said.

For example, a giant gas planet close to our sun would likely have disturbed any rocky planets wanting to orbit nearby. It will be an interesting theoretical puzzle for astronomers to figure out as they continue classifying worlds outside of the solar system.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/The_State_of_Super_Earths_999.html.

Iran, Russia in talks on new Bushehr nuclear plant

Tehran (AFP)
Dec 01, 2013

Iran and Russia are in talks to build another nuclear plant at Bushehr, with construction set to begin in 2014, media Sunday reported nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.

"With the progress made in the Geneva talks, next year we will see the start of construction on another nuclear power plant in Bushehr," said Salehi of the landmark deal clinched with world powers on Tehran's disputed nuclear drive.

He did not elaborate on the new plant's power capacity, but Iran has planned to build 1,000-megawatt plants.

"We are negotiating with the Russians to produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity, and they have expressed their readiness to build," added Salehi, according to the website of state broadcaster IRIB.

He said that in the next phase, Iran sought to produce 5,000 megawatts in electricity output from nuclear power.

Iran's sole Bushehr nuclear power plant, which produces 1,000 megawatts, came into service in 2011 after several delays blamed on technical problems.

In September this year, Iranian engineers took complete control of the Bushehr facility.

Iran has said it aims to produce 20,000 megawatts of electricity from nuclear power, which would necessitate building 20 such reactors.

Western powers and Israel suspect that the Islamic republic's nuclear program masks a covert weapons drive, a charge Tehran denies, saying it is entirely for peaceful purposes.

Under the interim Geneva agreement, Iran agreed to roll back some parts of its nuclear program in exchange for partial easing of punitive sanctions choking its economy.

Source: Nuclear Power Daily.
Link: http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Iran_Russia_in_talks_on_new_Bushehr_nuclear_plant_999.html.

Iran readies for big oil production hike

December 04, 2013

VIENNA (AP) — Iran indirectly challenged OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, announcing it plans to pump as much oil as it can once sanctions on its crude exports are lifted, even if its extra output drives prices into the basement.

The comments by Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh reflected Tehran's determination to regain its global role as an oil power if it is freed of the sanctions under any nuclear deal with six world powers meant to ensure that its atomic activities cannot be used to make weapons.

It also raised the prospect of a production war inside the cartel, which is keen to project an image of unity among its 12 members. If Iran does ramp up its output — and Iraq and Libya make good on promises to do so as well — other OPEC members would have to reduce theirs to keep prices from dropping too much and hurting them all.

Iranian rival Saudi Arabia would be particularly under pressure. It is now producing about a third of OPEC's daily output of about 30 million barrels Under such a scenario, "it would be difficult for the Saudis to maintain production levels without risking lower prices," said analyst Jason Schenker of Prestige Economics.

That potential problem was not on the top of the agenda at Wednesday's meeting, where the oil ministers agreed to extend present output targets of 30 million barrels a day. But the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries may have to focus on the prospect of overproduction as early as their next meeting on June 11.

Iran's agreement to limit its nuclear program is still only a preliminary one. Sanctions on its oil exports are likely to stay in place until a final deal is reached, which— if it happens — is unlikely before mid-2014.

If and when the sanctions are lifted, Iran says it wants to ramp up production to pre-sanctions levels of 4 million barrels a day. Iraq also wants to reach that target within a year, while Libya hopes to increase output to 2 million barrels a day once unrest ebbs. In all, that would add close to 4 million barrels to total daily production, meaning some members would likely have to cut back.

OPEC has had little success in the past at asking member countries to respect individual targets. But OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Badry sought to downplay looming problems from any surplus production, saying his organization would deal with it if and when that happened.

"We are watching this situation very carefully," he told reporters. Zanganeh said ahead of Wednesday's meeting that his country was determined to regain its share "under all circumstances." "We will produce 4 million even if the price drops to $20," he told reporters. Benchmark Brent crude on international markets now sells for nearly six times as much, and a drop to anywhere near $20 would spark a crisis among oil exporters by leaving production costs far outstripping sales revenue.

Although the Iranian comments posed a potential challenge for Saudi Arabia, Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi sought to ease concerns, telling reporters he did not see a price war on the horizon. "I hope Iran comes back (and) produces all it can," he said. But he gave no sign that his country was ready to reduce output.

Zanganeh on Tuesday suggested oil sanctions may be incrementally relaxed even earlier than mid-2014. In a nod to the Saudis, he said he hoped OPEC members understand that "when a member country comes back ... they should open the doors for him and not fight with him."

Strong U.S. shale oil production could add to internal OPEC pressures beyond political tensions caused by Sunni Saudi Arabia vying with Shiite-led Iran and Iraq. As in the past meetings, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia all put forward candidates for the post of OPEC secretary general, who acts as the voice of the organization between meetings.

But with their rivalries strong and potentially harmful to OPEC unity, the meeting skirted the issue and extended Libya's Al-Badry for another year in the post — a move described as wise by analyst John Hall of Alfa Energy.

With an Iranian in that position, Tehran "will do its utmost to use OPEC as a political weapon, while Saudi (Arabia) will continue to run OPEC as it does anyway but in the foreground as opposed to the background," he said. "

Iraq in turn would push to have its output target upped to 4 million barrels a day, Hall added.

Margaret Childs contributed to this report.