C. African militias seek president's overthrow

December 15, 2013

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — The Christian militiamen fighting to oust Central African Republic's Muslim president from power hide in the hills far on the edge of the capital. Out of the forest of banana trees, about two dozen young men slowly emerge to meet their visitors — armed with clubs, machetes and hunting rifles.

These 20- and 30-somethings don't look much different from the young men who sell air time for mobile phones in town, apart from their weapons and the spiritual protection they wear. On top of their soccer jerseys and t-shirts, they sport long rope necklaces with leather pieces and charms known as gri-gri that they say will save them from the bullets and machetes of their enemy.

As ragtag as they may appear, they pose the greatest threat to the Muslim ex-rebels now ruling the country since they seized power in the majority Christian country nearly nine months ago. And in interviews with The Associated Press, both the militiamen and a former officer in the national army before the March 2013 coup confirmed they are working together to topple rebel leader-turned-President Michel Djotodia.

"We are revolting so that Djotodia and his fighters leave, and the country can live in peace," said Richard Bejouane, 27, who used to harvest manioc root and peanuts before taking up arms against the rebels known as Seleka earlier this year.

Though the militia movement's hierarchy is unclear and there are divisions in its leadership, the collaboration is evidence that the opposition movement to Djotodia and his fighters is growing, and could set the stage for a protracted sectarian conflict even as 1,600 French troops on the ground in Bangui try to secure the peace. French forces are supposed to be disarming Muslim and Christian fighters, though the Christian militia hideouts in the bush have made them harder to find.

Central African Republic's Muslims and Christians had lived together in relative harmony until the northern rebels backed by mercenary fighters from neighboring Sudan and Chad overtook the capital in March. Christians felt the rebels — particularly the foreign fighters — had targeted them in indiscriminate attack, fueling the resentment that has given rise to an armed movement.

In a show of force, Christian militiamen stormed the capital on Dec. 5, after hiding in a cemetery on the edge of town to launch their assault. Ultimately Djotodia's forces pushed them back into bush, and in the violent aftermath more than 600 people were killed in just over a week as Christians and Muslims battled each other on the streets. More than a quarter of the capital's population has fled their homes in fear.

The Christian militiamen are known here as the anti-balaka, or "those against the machete" in the local Sango language. For months they have been living in the remote bush, surviving on weeds and handouts from local villages, venturing out of the forest only to buy cigarettes and phone credit. The AP made contact with anti-balaka militiamen through an intermediary, who brought the journalists to the clearing to meet them.

The anti-balaka's power base is in and around Bossangoa, the hometown of Francois Bozize, the ousted president. As the movement has grown in strength and numbers, it set its sight on Bangui, the seat of government in the south of the country.

Douze Puissance says he joined the forces of anti-balaka after the Seleka forces attacked his home in April and destroyed his life. His wife and two children — 8-year-old daughter Ornela and 10-year-old son Josias — were burned alive, he says.

"We want the French to force Djotodia out of office, but if not we will do it with our machetes," he says. "We are farmers. We don't generally get involved in politics. But he sent his men to our villages to kill our families and chase us into the forest."

The anti-balaka movement grew in the aftermath of Seleka attacks on villages across the country's northwest in July and August, said Lewis Mudge, a researcher with Human Rights Watch's Africa division.

By September, though, the anti-balaka themselves were accused of killing civilians and burning down hundreds of homes in predominantly Muslim communities. Just days before the anti-balaka forces attacked the capital, a vicious morning attack on a village near Boali left nearly a dozen Muslim women and children slaughtered.

Puissance insists their fighters were not involved in that attack, saying his militiamen only kill armed Muslims. The anti-balaka are working in tandem with members of Bozize's national army, known as FACA. Under the command of Alfred Rombhot (pronounced Rambo), some 2,000 men are ready to fight Djotodia's forces with everything from machetes to poisoned bow-and-arrows, Rombhot said.

"We are not mercenaries — we have formed to defend our country," Rombhot told the AP. "We have the population behind us." The forces live on the grounds of an abandoned school. On Sunday afternoon, groups of young men sat in the shade of trees while they cleaned their weapons.

Still, the leadership of their Christian militia allies remains disparate and divided. On Saturday, another group of anti-balaka leaders released a handwritten statement to journalists urging its fighters to give peace talks a chance.

It was impossible to determine how much support any one faction held. But the sheer volume of armed men suggested the negotiators were in the minority. The fighters in the hills near Bangui said Sunday these men did not represent the true anti-balaka.

"There will be no reconciliation!" Bejouane said forcefully.

Chaos, gunbattles, hungry kids in C. African Rep.

December 13, 2013

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — French troops backed by a helicopter traded fire with suspected rebels in a tense Bangui neighborhood on Friday, as France's military chief arrived in Central African Republic to see how his troops are doing trying to stabilize the lawless country.

The violence that has left the country verging on anarchy showed few signs of abating Friday in the capital's Miskine neighborhood, where about a dozen Muslim men with machetes faced off against a group of Christian youths.

Anger boiled over in the neighborhood after the overnight death of a Christian taxi driver at the hands of the mostly Muslim former rebels. Violence outside the capital included a massacre Thursday of 27 Muslims in the village of Bohong in the western part of the country, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. In a statement, Ravina Shamdasani said the situation is also tense in the towns of Bouca, Bossangoa and Bozoum.

The impoverished country has descended into chaos since March, when rebel groups overthrew the Christian-led government. Some 1,600 French forces are trying to disarm Bangui, but face a backlash from residents too terrified to give up the weapons they fear they need to defend themselves.

"They are looting our shops and homes. We have the right to intervene and protect ourselves," said Hassan Annour, a 36-year-old Muslim wielding a machete. People on both sides have carried out retaliatory violence across Central African Republic, an overwhelmingly Christian country that until March had seen little sectarian strife.

More than 500 people have been killed in the last week, and the U.N. has warned that toll is expected to rise as teams venture out further into hard-hit neighborhoods. Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye issued a new warning about the rising violence, urging a rapid disarming of all sides.

"Religious communities that have always lived together in perfect harmony are now massacring each other. The situation must be stopped as soon as possible," Tiangaye said. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian arrived Friday to meet with troops and commanders who are bolstering regional African peacekeepers in the country, the French military said.

Even as the French worked to secure the city of 700,000, the U.N. said more than 160,000 people had fled their homes in Bangui alone. At least 30,000 of them are living around the airport guarded by French troops, afraid of returning to homes where former Muslim rebels have attacked civilians each night.

On Friday, officials from the U.N. World Food Program began a chaotic distribution of rice, oil and split peas to several thousand people. Aid workers used megaphones to call out names of displaced people who had registered, but the names could hardly be heard over the shouts of frustration.

"We've been here for seven days and have not been able to find food," said Sophie Matias, 45, who was sleeping at the airport with her 10 children. "The kids are so hungry — they keep asking for food but we have nothing. "

A UNICEF cargo plane was expected to bring 77 metric tons of humanitarian supplies later Friday, including blankets and plastic sheeting for nearly 38,000 people. The charity group Doctors Without Borders has criticized the U.N. response to the growing humanitarian crisis here. In an open letter, the aid group said it "deplores the appalling performance of U.N. humanitarian agencies."

"Repeated evaluations in the face of glaring needs and numerous coordination meetings have not led to any concrete action around the main hotspots," the group said. At Bangui's airport, tens of thousands are sleeping without shelter, although some have sought refuge inside the shells of abandoned bush planes and airport hangars. Some women laid out laundry to dry on the wings of rusty planes Friday while others waited in long lines for water.

Soon the morning commotion was interrupted by screams of grief. A 27-year-old mother of two, Prudence Seresona, had succumbed to malaria. As she lay wrapped in a white cloth on a woven mat, her little girls began sobbing over her body.

Ten-year-old Loika looked down at her little sister Adora and wiped the tears running down her face. Then Prudence's sister came in and threw herself over the body in grief. "Wake up! Wake up!" she sobbed. "Who is going to raise your children? How can you leave us?"

Associated Press writers Lori Hinnant and Greg Keller in Paris contributed to this report.

French troops meet resistance in Central African Republic

Bangui, Central African Republic (UPI)
Dec 11, 2013

Some 1,600 French troops are struggling to disarm militia fighters in the violence-torn Central African Republic as they run into heavier resistance than they expected in the former French colony.

There are indications that the French force, already beefed up from the original strength of 1,200 announced last week, might not be large enough to pacify the entire country that's been gripped by largely Muslim-Christian bloodletting for weeks.

Even with some 3,000 African Union peacekeepers, who like the French are concentrated around the riverside capital, Bangui, the intervention force has limited capabilities even with the support of French air force Rafale fighter jets based in neighboring Chad, another former French colony, and helicopters stationed at French bases across Africa.

"French forces ... will be more active in securing select population centers than they had been willing to be in the past, but it is still unlikely that they will rid the country of rebels," observed the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor.

The French force suffered its first casualties in Operation Sangaris -- named after a local butterfly -- Monday with two marine infantry paratroopers fatally wounded in a night-time skirmish with gunmen near Bangui's airport.

But the French military spokesman, Col. Gilles Jaron, said Tuesday the troops had begun disarming former rebels and militias who have clashed repeatedly in recent weeks, spreading terror among the poverty-stricken country's 4.6 million people.

The violence began in March, when five Muslim rebel groups joined forces in a coalition known as Seleka and toppled the government of Christian President Francois Bozize, who fled the country.

The Seleka leader, Michel Djotodia, took over the presidency, the first Muslim to rule the predominantly Christian country since independence from France in 1960.

Although Djotodia disbanded the Seleka, many militiamen went rogue and he lost control of them. Warlords imposed a reign of terror across much of the country, burning villages, killing indiscriminately and engaging in mass rapes.

Christians formed their own vigilante "self-defense groups" as central authority, never strong, collapsed altogether amid the widening Christian-Muslim atrocities.

Some 400 people were killed in several days of frenzied bloodletting in Bangui alone before the French began deploying last week.

The deployment accelerated after the U.N. Security Council authorized the intervention to restore order "by all necessary measures."

French President Francois Hollande, who flew to Bangui Tuesday after attending the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa, has said Djotodia should step down or be replaced.

"I don't want to point fingers, but we cannot keep in place a president who was not able to do anything, or worse, let things happen," Hollande declared. "The idea is to head as fast as possible toward elections. "

Hollande's intervention in the Central African Republic marks France's second military excursion into its former colonial empire in Africa this year.

In January, he sent a 1,400-man task force into northern Mali to drive out jihadist forces linked to al-Qaida who had established a sanctuary there with weapons largely plundered in Libya during its 2011 civil war.

The French forced the jihadists to disperse, but did not crush them. The militants spread out across the region, and now proliferate all the way east to Egypt and south to Nigeria.

There's no hard evidence to suggest al-Qaida's involved in the CAR bloodletting, but the religion-based violence is a situation the jihadists could exploit.

The limited number of French and AU troops currently deployed in the Central African Republic may well prove to be too small to effectively control the whole of the vast country.

Some 400 French troops are pushing in from Cameroon, the CAR's western neighbor, giving the intervention force control of key highways linking the capital to the Cameroonian border and an area that includes the important cities of Bossangoa and Bouca, where the killing's been widespread.

These are centers of Seleka activity so more troops may be needed. France, not wishing to stuck with sole responsibility for pacifying the CAR, has been pushing for increasing AU force strength to 6,000.

But in the medium term, Hollande, facing mounting economic woes at home, could find himself embroiled in a risky military adventure in central Africa as he seeks to boost France's economic links with its former African empire.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/French_troops_meet_resistance_in_Central_African_Republic_999.html.

Thai protesters cut off power to PM's offices

December 12, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — Protesters announced they cut off electricity to the prime minister's office compound on Thursday and demanded that police abandon the premises, piling fresh pressure on the government amid a political crisis that has dragged on for weeks.

The protesters, seeking to force the replacement of caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government before a Feb. 2 election, have threatened to force their way in if police don't leave. Police attempts to negotiate were rebuffed, but they did not withdraw immediately.

An Associated Press photographer inside one of the buildings said electricity had been shut off to the press office. Police confirmed that power had been cut to some buildings in the compound, collectively called Government House.

Protesters also cut barbed wire placed on top of the steel fence surrounding the compound while police stationed nearby looked on. Yingluck was not in her offices at the time and shortly afterward gave a televised address from an unidentified location in which she announced a Dec. 15 meeting of all sections of society to try to find a solution to the crisis.

The protest leadership has demanded a meeting with senior military and police officials, a call which has so far been rejected, at least publicly. Protest leaders did meet at a hotel with business leaders in what was billed as an effort to explain their goals.

In a previous confrontation, police withdrew from the prime minister's compound to allow the demonstrators in without a fight. That withdrawal came after two days of increasingly violent standoffs. Since the latest unrest began last month that left five people dead and nearly 300 injured.

The street fighting was suspended when both sides agreed it would dishonor the occasion of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday last week. Looking for a way out of the crisis, Yingluck dissolved the lower house of Parliament on Monday and called for early elections. Her foes, however, insist she step aside to make way for an interim appointed government, an action that cannot be taken under the country's constitution.

They claim that Thai politics is hopelessly corrupt under the influence of Yingluck's billionaire brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup after being accused of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect for the country's constitutional monarch.

To carry out reforms, they want to institute a less democratic system where the concept of one-man, one vote would no longer apply because they believe the masses are not well enough educated to choose responsible leaders. They also say the poor sell their votes.

Thaksin's supporters say he is disliked because he has shifted power away from Thailand's traditional ruling class. Thaksin and his allies have easily won every national election since 2001, relying on the support of the rural majority and urban poor, who benefited from his populist policies. The opposition Democrat Party, which has allied itself with the protests, has not won an election since 1992.

Yingluck's ruling party won the last vote two years ago in a landslide, and is likely to be victorious in any new ballot. Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban this week has been declaring that his movement has more legitimacy than the government, which he claims has acted against the constitution.

In a series of bizarre "orders," he has called for police not to report to their posts and demanded that Yingluck be prosecuted for insurrection, a charge that has already been laid against him for his movement's temporary occupation of government offices and call for civil servants to not report for their jobs but instead join the protest movement.

The orders are not taken seriously by anyone outside of the protesters, but are meant to project an image of power among supporters and the public at large. Earlier Thursday, former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva appeared in court to be charged with murder in connection with the 2010 deaths of two protesters killed during a crackdown on demonstrators against what was then his government.

Abhisit, who was charged with the deaths of a 43-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, denied all the charges in the brief court hearing, and was released on bail. Th, with the date for his rial set for March 24. About 90 people were killed in the crackdown, and it was not clear why Abhisit faced charges in those particular two deaths.

Protest leader Suthep, who served as Abhisit's deputy prime minister, was supposed to face the same charges, but did not show up in court. He had asked his hearing to be postponed until January. In 2010, "Red Shirt" protesters occupied downtown Bangkok for more than two months until being dispersed in the crackdown. The Red Shirts are Thaksin's supporters, who were seeking to have Abhisit call early elections.

Abhisit's government approved the use of live ammunition under limited conditions and deployed sharpshooters and snipers during the demonstrations.

China plans to launch Chang'e-5 in 2017

Beijing (XNA)
Dec 17, 2013

China plans to launch lunar probe Chang'e-5 in 2017, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. "The development of Chang'e-5 is proceeding smoothly," said the administration's spokesman Wu Zhijian at a press conference on Monday.

The just-concluded Chang'e-3 mission marked completion of the second phase of the country's lunar program, which includes orbiting, landing and returning to Earth.

The lunar program will enter the next stage of unmanned sampling and returning, which will include Chang'e-5 and 6 missions, according to Wu.

"The program's third phase will be more difficult because many breakthroughs must be made in key technologies such as moon surface takeoff, sampling encapsulation, rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, and high-speed Earth reentry, which are all new to China," Wu said.

As the backup probe of Chang'e-3, Chang'e-4 will be adapted to verify technologies for Chang'e-5, according to Wu.

China's Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2 missions were in 2007 and 2010.

Launched on Oct. 1, 2010, Chang'e-2 is about 65 million km from Earth and is China's first man-made asteroid. It is heading for deep space.

"The completion of the third phase will not mean an end of China's lunar probe program," Wu said. "It should be a new starting point."

Wu, however, said follow-up plans for lunar exploration after the third phase is completed are still being studied.

As for deep space exploration, Wu said, "Experts have reached some consensuses and scientists are studying and drawing up integrated plans."

Chang'e-3 lunar probe succeeded in soft landing on the moon Saturday evening. The country's first moon rover, which was on board the probe, separated from the lander early on Sunday. The two photographed each other on the moon's surface Sunday night.

Under the program, China has made breakthroughs in key technologies, which have enabled the lunar probe to land on the moon and deploy a moon rover, Wu said.

"We have also laid a solid foundation for future exploration of deep space," he said.

In response to questions about working with other countries in this field, Wu said China is always positive about international cooperation in lunar exploration.

"We have had very good cooperation with other countries and international organizations in previous missions," he said.

Data collected through the Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2 probes are open to scientists across the world, according to Wu.

China shared information collected by Chang'e-1 with the European Space Agency (ESA), and an ESA aerospace control center and three of its telecommand telemetry control stations took part in the Chang'e-3 mission, he said.

"In the next stage of the lunar program, there will be more international cooperation," he said.

"Despite current progress, China still lags behind space giants like the United States and Russia in many aspects," he said. "We need to work harder and move faster."

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/China_plans_to_launch_Change_5_in_2017_999.html.

Asia's year in space triggers applause but also worry

Paris (AFP)
Dec 17, 2013

The past 12 months will be remembered as the year when Asia's economic powerhouses barged their way into the elite club of spacefarers.

South Korea placed its first satellite in orbit, Japan launched a new three-stage rocket and India set its eyes on Mars, dispatching its first scout to the Red Planet.

Heading the pack in 2013, though, was China. It carried out another manned trip as a prelude to assembling a space station by 2020, announced plans to launch an orbital laboratory around 2015 and sent a rover to the Moon, in mankind's first "soft" lunar landing in 37 years.

Analysts say the long string of feats reflects the growing financial clout and prowess of Asia's foremost economies.

But they also sound a note of caution. Alarm bells are starting to ring in the established but cash-strapped space powers, and a dangerous intra-Asian rivalry in space could lie ahead.

Militarization of space, rather than damaged prestige or injured pride, is the biggest worry, they say.

"Both Russia and the US are concerned about the ongoing shift in the state of play," said Marco Aliberti of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna, Austria.

"In particular, they are haunted by the rise of China as a space power, and the implications of this rise for their positions and global security."

Russia, which helped China in the earlier stages of its space program, "has now started to perceive China as a potential threat," Aliberti said in an email.

"As for the US, it can be said that their triumphant history and current position in space make them extremely sensitive to any potential challengers... China looks to have replaced the USSR in American security calculations."

A modern-day space race

Russian analyst Vadim Lukashevich said Russia, after helping China in its space development a dozen or so years ago, had "badly under-estimated" the Chinese program.

There was a tendency among Russian experts to joke that China's exploits were almost a carbon copy of the Soviet glory era half a century ago.

"Every new launch of a Chinese rocket, every new flight is a huge step forward," said Lukashevich.

"If we don't change our mocking attitude towards what China is doing, in five to 10 years' time, it will be a two-horse race in space between Beijing and Washington, and Russia will be nowhere."

US expert John Logsdon, professor emeritus at the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said the United States fretted over what lay beneath China's much-trumpeted civilian activities in space.

In 2007, China tested an anti-satellite weapon, destroying an old satellite in orbit with an interceptor, triggering an outcry about the huge addition to perilous space junk.

According to several specialist websites, China in May this year also tested part of a new anti-satellite ballistic missile.

"This country is very concerned about China's growing military space capabilities, since they could threaten the ability of the United States to operate its national security space systems free from threat of interference," said Logsdon.

"I would imagine that Europe and Russia have the same concern."

They are not the only ones looking anxiously at China.

"I think that China has provoked a major space race in Asia," said Morris Jones, an independent space analyst based in Australia.

"You've got India watching what the Chinese do very carefully. You've also recently had the fact that even the South Koreans have accelerated plans."

Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, at India's Observer Research Foundation, said India was having to respond to the "inherently destabilizing" show of anti-satellite weapons by China.

"While India has reiterated its policy of opposing weaponisation of outer space, it has had to factor in the advanced nature of military space capabilities in its neighborhood.

"Accordingly, India launched its first dedicated military satellite (for the Indian Navy) this year in August," she said.

The experts also note, though, that Asian nations are still years away, possibly as much as a decade at current rates, from becoming dominators of space.

Some also see a desire to avert a dangerous and unsustainably costly arms race -- Russia and China in 2008 jointly proposed a treaty on banning the weaponisation of space at the UN's Conference on Disarmament.

And, say these sources, the extraordinarily high cost of operating in space is in itself an invitation for nations to work together, especially for big-ticket items such as a space station, a lunar colony or a trip to Mars.

"Space cooperation can ultimately build bridges among nations, promote mutual understanding and create means of confidence-building," said Aliberti.

In addition, "space is an important foreign policy tool that could for instance be jointly applied by Asian and Western countries to address environmental protection and climate change issues, as well as security-related concerns."

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Asias_year_in_space_triggers_applause_but_also_worry_999.html.

Worker dies at World Cup stadium construction site

December 14, 2013

SAO PAULO (AP) — A construction worker fell to his death Saturday from the roof of a World Cup stadium being built in the jungle city of Manaus, marking the latest setback to hit Brazil before it hosts football's showcase event next year.

It was the second death at the Arena Amazonia this year, and the third fatality in a World Cup stadium in less than a month. A few hours after Saturday's death, another worker died of a heart attack while working outside the venue in Manaus, and a local union threatened to start a strike there on Monday to complain about inadequate conditions offered to laborers.

In late November, two workers were killed when a crane collapsed as it was hoisting a 500-ton piece of roofing at the Sao Paulo stadium that will host the tournament's June 12 opener. Last year, a worker died at the construction site of the stadium in the nation's capital, Brasilia.

Another worker died in April at the new Palmeiras stadium, which may be used for teams training for games in Sao Paulo. Brazil had already made headlines a week ago because of fan violence in the final round of the Brazilian league, and again earlier this month after World Cup organizers announced that none of the six stadiums that had to be finalized by the end of the year would be delivered on time.

Andrade Gutierrez, the construction company building the Arena Amazonia, said in a statement Saturday that 22-year-old Marcleudo de Melo Ferreira fell some 115 feet (35 meters) in the early morning accident — the second fatality at the venue since construction began in 2010. Another man died there in March.

The 49-year-old man who had a heart attack was paving an area outside the venue when he died. He was working for a construction company hired by local officials, and local media reported that family members complained that he was working seven days a week and there was pressure from his superiors to finish the work on time.

After the worker's fall earlier in the day, a local union said it was considering a strike to call attention to inappropriate working conditions. "We need a strike to show what is really happening inside the arena," Cicero Custodio, president of Amazonas state civil construction workers' union, told GloboEsporte.com.

The Manaus stadium will host four World Cup matches, beginning with England vs. Italy on June 14. It will also host the United States vs. Portugal on June 22. Most teams were hoping to avoid playing in Manaus because of humid and hot conditions in the jungle city, as well as the increased travel distance. After complaints from England coach Roy Hodgson before the World Cup draw earlier this month, Manaus Mayor Arthur Virgilio said he hoped "to get a better team and a coach who is more sensible and polite."

When The Associated Press visited the stadium this week, workers were installing diamond shaped panels to the latticework of steel girders that form part of the stadium roof. Dozens of laborers were balanced on the girders as they worked. When complete, the panels on the roof are meant to resemble snake scales.

Andrade Gutierrez said the causes of the accident would be investigated but reiterated its commitment to worker safety. The local World Cup organizing committee said work on the Manaus stadium was halted for a period of mourning and will resume on Sunday.

"FIFA and the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) learned of the death of the worker on Saturday at the Arena Amazonia site with great sadness," World Cup organizers said in a statement. "We would like to send our most sincere condolences to his family, relatives, colleagues and friends."

Manaus officials said they aim to hold the first match to test the stadium on Jan. 15, with the 10,000 or so workers who participated in the stadium's construction serving as spectators. Delays in the unblocking of federal financing for the venue slowed construction, causing FIFA to push back its original December deadline for stadium delivery.

After the deaths in Sao Paulo in late November, FIFA said "the safety of workers is the top priority" for football's governing body and local organizers. In early October, a Brazilian labor judge halted work at the Arena da Baixada in Curitiba for nearly a week because of safety concerns. Workers there went on strike this week over late pay. The stadium in the southern Brazilian city is one of the most delayed among the six that still need to be delivered to FIFA.

Associated Press writer Stan Lehman contributed to this report from Sao Paulo and AP Sports Writer John Leicester contributed from Curitiba, Brazil.

Astronomers solve temperature mystery of planetary atmospheres

by Peter Kelley for UW News
Seattle WA (SPX)
Dec 16, 2013

An atmospheric peculiarity the Earth shares with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune is likely common to billions of planets, University of Washington astronomers have found, and knowing that may help in the search for potentially habitable worlds.

First, some history: It's known that air grows colder and thinner with altitude, but in 1902 a scientist named Leon Teisserenc de Bort, using instrument-equipped balloons, found a point in Earth's atmosphere at about 40,000 to 50,000 feet where the air stops cooling and begins growing warmer.

He called this invisible turnaround a "tropopause," and coined the terms "stratosphere" for the atmosphere above, and "troposphere" for the layer below, where we live - terms still used today.

Then, in the 1980s, NASA spacecraft discovered that tropopauses are also present in the atmospheres of the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, as well as Saturn's largest moon, Titan. And remarkably, these turnaround points all occur at roughly the same level in the atmosphere of each of these different worlds - at a pressure of about 0.1 bar, or about one-tenth of the air pressure at Earth's surface.

Now, a paper by UW astronomer Tyler Robinson and planetary scientist David Catling published online Dec. 8 in the journal Nature Geoscience uses basic physics to show why this happens, and suggests that tropopauses are probably common to billions of thick-atmosphere planets and moons throughout the galaxy.

"The explanation lies in the physics of infrared radiation," said Robinson. Atmospheric gases gain energy by absorbing infrared light from the sunlit surface of a rocky planet or from the deeper parts of the atmosphere of a planet like Jupiter, which has no surface.

Using an analytic model, Catling, professor of Earth and space sciences, and Robinson, a postdoctoral researcher in astronomy, show that at high altitudes atmospheres become transparent to thermal radiation due to the low pressure. Above the level where the pressure is about 0.1 bar, the absorption of visible, or ultraviolet, light causes the atmospheres of the giant planets - and Earth and Titan - to grow warmer as altitude increases.

The physics, they write, provides a rule of thumb - that the pressure is around 0.1 bar at the tropopause turnaround - which should apply to the vast number of planetary atmospheres with stratospheric gases that absorb ultraviolet or visible light.

Astronomers could use the finding to extrapolate temperature and pressure conditions on the surface of planets and work out whether the worlds are potentially habitable - the key being whether pressure and temperature conditions allow liquid water on the surface of a rocky planet.

"Then we have somewhere we can start to characterize that world," Robinson said. "We know that temperatures are going to increase below the tropopause, and we have some models for how we think those temperatures increase - so given that leg up, we can start to extrapolate downward toward the surface."

He added, "It's neat that common physics not only explains what's going on in solar system atmospheres, but also might help with the search for life elsewhere."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Astronomers_solve_temperature_mystery_of_planetary_atmospheres_999.html.

Russia to send woman to space in 2014

Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Dec 16, 2013

Russia will send a female cosmonaut into space for the first time in two decades next year, an official at the space training center said Wednesday. Yelena Serova, 36 and a professional cosmonaut, "is getting ready for a space flight in the second half of 2014," said Alexei Temerov, an official at Russia's Star City space training center.

Russia will this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first woman's trip to space. The feat was accomplished by Valentina Tereshkova on June 16, 1963, and was followed by that of another Soviet cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, who became the first woman to do a space walk.

But while NASA regularly sends female astronauts to work at the International Space Station (ISS), there has been only one Russian woman to fly to space since the early 1980s, Yelena Kondakova.

Kondakova spent five months in space on the since-retired Mir station in 1994-1995. She also traveled aboard the US Space Shuttle in 1997.

Yelena Serova will spend six months at the ISS, Temerov said.

"Her work program at the ISS will not be anything extraordinary. It will be the usual research program. A space walk is not planned," he added.

A second woman currently in training, 28-year-old Anna Kikina, has joined the cosmonaut program after becoming one of eight people selected in last year's recruitment drive.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_to_send_woman_to_space_in_2014_999.html.

China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover sends first photos from moon

Beijing (AFP)
Dec 16, 2013

China's Jade Rabbit rover vehicle sent back photos from the moon Sunday after the first lunar soft landing in nearly four decades marked a huge advance in the country's ambitious space program.

The Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, was deployed at 4:35 am (2035 GMT Saturday), several hours after the Chang'e-3 probe landed on the moon, said the official news agency Xinhua.

The rover and lander began taking photos of each other late Sunday, including one that showed the bright red and yellow stars of the Chinese flag on the Jade Rabbit as it stands on the moon's surface.

Xinhua said the photographing began at about 11:42 pm after the rover moved to a spot a few meters away from the lander.

The color images were transmitted live to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, where Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang watched the broadcast.

China is the third country to complete a lunar rover mission after the United States and the former Soviet Union -- a decade after it first sent an astronaut into space.

Beijing plans to establish a permanent space station by 2020 and eventually send a human to the moon.

The mission is seen as a symbol of China's rising global stature and technological advancement, as well as the Communist Party's success in reversing the fortunes of the once-impoverished nation.

Ma Xingrui, chief commander of China's lunar program, declared the mission a "complete success" after the photographs showed the lander and rover were working, Xinhua said.

A message from the party's Central Committee, the State Council -- China's cabinet -- and the Central Military Commission branded the touchdown a "milestone" in China's space program, as cited by Xinhua late Sunday.

"One Giant Leap for China," read the headline in Hong Kong's Sunday Morning Post, evoking the words in 1969 of American astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon.

The landing, nearly two weeks after blast-off, was the first of its kind since the former Soviet Union's mission in 1976.

State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) featured extensive coverage of the mission and China's wider space ambitions.

Rover to look for natural resources

The potential to extract the moon's resources has been touted as a key reason behind Beijing's space program, with the moon believed to hold uranium, titanium, and other mineral resources, as well as offering the possibility of solar power generation.

"China wants to go to the moon for geostrategic reasons and domestic legitimacy," said China space expert Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

"With the US exploration moribund at best, that opens a window for China to be perceived as the global technology leader -- though the US still has more, and more advanced, assets in space."

News of the landing quickly made an impact on China's hugely popular Internet message boards, topping the list of searched items.

"The China dream has finally progressed one step forward!" wrote one user.

On its Sunday afternoon broadcast, CCTV aired video taken by the lander showing the rover leaving tracks in the dust as it gently coasted onto the moon's surface and rolled away.

The probe touched down on a 400-kilometre (250-mile) wide plain known in Latin as Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows.

Before landing, the probe slowed down from 1,700 meters (5,610 feet) per second and then hovered for about 20 seconds, using sensors and 3D imaging to identify a flat area.

Thrusters were then deployed 100 meters from the lunar surface to gently guide the craft into position. The landing process started at 9:00 pm on Saturday and lasted for about 12 minutes.

Four minutes after landing, the Chang'e-3 unfolded solar panels that will provide energy to the lander and rover, the China Daily reported.

The landing had been considered the most difficult part of the mission.

The rover will spend about three months exploring the moon's surface and looking for natural resources.

It can climb slopes of up to 30 degrees and travel at 200 meters per hour, according to the Shanghai Aerospace Systems Engineering Research Institute.

The Chang'e-3 mission is named after the goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology, and the rover vehicle is called Yutu after her pet. Yutu's name was chosen in an online poll of 3.4 million voters.

Among those beyond China's borders offering their congratulations on the landing was former US vice president Al Gore, who wrote via Twitter: "Congratulations to China on reaching the moon with its rover -- an impressive soft landing!"

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinas_Jade_Rabbit_lunar_rover_sends_first_photos_from_moon_999.html.

SpaceX to bid for rights to historic NASA launch pad

Washington (AFP)
Dec 13, 2013

In a battle of technology titans for the right to lease a historic NASA launch pad in Florida, SpaceX has beat out competitor Blue Origin, the US space agency said Friday.

The California-based SpaceX is owned by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, and Blue Origin is a venture of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.

"NASA will begin working with SpaceX to negotiate the terms of its lease for LC-39A," the space agency said in a statement, referring to the name of the launchpad.

"During those ongoing negotiations, NASA will not be able to discuss details of the pending lease agreement."

SpaceX became the first private company to send an unmanned cargo capsule to the International Space Station in 2012, and has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for 12 ISS supply trips.

Blue Origin is working on a rocket-propelled vehicle designed to fly people just to the edge of space, in suborbit. It also has plans to develop a reusable booster rocket and a space vehicle that could reach orbit.

Blue Origin filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office that claimed NASA was unfairly favoring one proposed use of the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center over others.

The GAO denial of that protest means SpaceX can now move ahead with NASA negotiations to lease the Cape Canaveral launch pad from where the iconic Apollo moon missions and space shuttle flights both blasted off.

NASA will reserve its other key launch pad, 39B, for its own use as it develops a deep space launch system and multipurpose vehicle that will someday carry humans to an asteroid and even Mars, the space agency said.

The pad SpaceX will bid on, LC-39A, was the launch spot for the Apollo 11 on its first manned mission to land on the Moon in 1969, the first space shuttle mission in 1981 and the last shuttle mission in 2011.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/SpaceX_to_bid_for_rights_to_historic_NASA_launch_pad_999.html.

The Dragon Has Landed

by Morris Jones
Sydney, Australia (SPX)
Dec 14, 2013

The successful landing of China's Chang'e-3 spacecraft on the Moon is significant for several reasons. This is China's first landing on another heavenly body, and represents an important step forward for their space program. It's also the first object to safely land on the Moon in 36 years, breaking a mission drought that has gone longer than most analysts would have expected.

Like the launch of India's first Mars mission a few weeks ago, the landing of Chang'e-3 also serves as a wake-up call to the world at large. China's space program cannot be ignored or dismissed as a half-hearted effort. China has scored again, and has demonstrated the ability to keep scoring.

This may be China's first lunar landing, but it's hardly a modest try. The Chang'e-3 spacecraft is large, complex and very capable. The rover it carries is the most sophisticated robot ever to operate on the surface of the Moon. The mission will perform scientific experiments that have never been previously attempted on the Moon. The scientific returns will be bountiful.

It's only fair and accurate that the world should pay more attention to China's steadily advancing capabilities in spaceflight. But the reaction to this mission must also be kept in perspective.

This analyst has long suggested that China is steadily developing the technologies to send astronauts to the Moon, and will launch such a mission at some time in the future. But don't hold your breath. Chinese astronauts will not land on the Moon any time soon. A decade from now, they still won't be there. And nobody really knows how long it will take.

The spacecraft used in this mission is another step forward in working towards this ultimate goal. It has demonstrated the basic technologies and capabilities that could be incorporated into a future Chinese astronaut lander.

But there's still a lot of work to do before China can even contemplate such a mission. In any case, China's astronauts will be busy over the next few years flying to a new space laboratory, then a new Chinese Space Station that will appear with the turn of the decade.

The landing of Chang'e-3 is the first in a sequence of four robot lunar landings that China has officially announced. Another rover-carrying mission is next. Later, China will launch two missions to retrieve samples of lunar rocks and return them to Earth. These missions should all be completed over the course of this decade.

As China develops more capabilities in spaceflight, the stage will eventually be set for a human lunar program. China may decide to send astronauts on circumlunar flights that will take them around the Moon without landing.

Eventually, the footpads and rover tracks left by China's robot spacecraft will be joined by human footprints. Naysayers and critics of China's ambitions would do well to inspect the logo of the China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP), which has operated all of China's three robot lunar missions to date.

The CLEP logo features the Chinese picrographic character for "Moon" tweaked with a dragon's head and peace doves. It also features another graphic at its very center: Two human footprints in space boots. The long-term goal of this first landing is graphically clear.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/The_Dragon_Has_Landed_999.html.

Putin announces crackdown on offshore companies

December 12, 2013

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a set of initiatives to crack down on Russian companies who register and pay taxes in foreign offshore jurisdictions.

Cyprus, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have for years been destinations of choice for thousands of Russian companies, from small ones to industry giants, that sought more predictable legal and tax practices.

Putin said in a state of the nation address on Thursday that foreign-registered companies that operate in Russia and have Russian citizens as beneficiaries will now be obliged to pay taxes in Russia. Russian companies registered in offshore jurisdictions will not be allowed to bid at state tenders, Putin said. State tenders have been a major source of income for many Russian businesses.

Iran brings monkey back safely from space

December 14, 2013

Tehran (AFP) - Iran said on Saturday that it had safely returned a monkey to Earth after blasting it into space in the second such launch this year in its controversial ballistic program.

President Hassan Rouhani congratulated the scientists involved in the mission, in a message carried by the official IRNA news agency.

The report added that the rocket reached a height of 120 kilometers (75 miles).

In January, Iran said it had successfully brought a live monkey, which it named Pishgam (Pioneer), back to Earth from orbit.

But the experiment's success was disputed, when a different monkey was presented to the media after the landing.

An earlier attempt had failed in September 2011.

Iran's space program has prompted concern among Western governments, which fear Tehran is trying to master the technology required to deliver a nuclear warhead.

The Islamic republic insists that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

"By the grace of God and through the efforts of Iranian space scientists, the Pajohesh (research) rocket containing the second live space monkey, named Fargam (Auspicious), was sent into space and brought back to Earth safely," Rouhani said in his message.

State television broadcast footage of the rocket launch which state television said took place on Saturday morning.

A helicopter brought a capsule to the scene which the reporter said contained the monkey, and later footage of a monkey wearing a red shirt was shown.

Iran's space program was heavily promoted by Rouhani's controversial predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who quipped in February that he was "ready to be the first Iranian to be sacrificed by the scientists of my country and go into space, even though I know there are a lot of candidates".

To the dismay of animal welfare groups, Fargam was following in the footsteps of a menagerie of dogs and monkeys that were among the early stars of the US and Soviet space programs in the 1960s.

Earlier this year, Iranian space officials raised the prospect of sending a Persian cat into space.

"Iran's archaic experiment... is a throwback to the primitive techniques of the 1950s," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals spokesman Ben Williamson said at the time.

The stated aim of Iran's program is a manned launch by 2020.

The program deeply unsettles Western governments as the technology used in space rockets can also be used in ballistic missiles.

The UN Security Council has imposed an almost total embargo on the export of nuclear and space technology to Iran since 2007.

Tehran denies its space program has any link with its alleged nuclear ambitions.

Iran sends second monkey into space

December 14, 2013

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Saturday it has successfully sent a monkey into space for a second time, part of an ambitious program aimed at manned space flight.

Iran's state TV said that the launch of the rocket dubbed Pajohesh, or Research in Farsi, was Iran's first use of liquid fuel. It reached a height of 120 kilometers (72 miles). It said the monkey, named Fargam or Auspicious, was returned to earth safely.

TV footage showed the rocket blasting off and then showed the monkey, strapped snugly into a seat. The report said Fargam's capsule parachuted safely to earth after detaching from the rocket in a mission that lasted 15 minutes.

Iran frequently claims technological breakthroughs that are impossible to independently verify. The Islamic Republic has said it aims to send an astronaut into space. "The launch of Pajohesh is another long step getting the Islamic Republic of Iran closer to sending a man into space," the official IRNA news agency said.

Fargam is a male monkey of rhesus macaque race with brown fur and a pink face. The primate weighs three kilograms and has a height of 56 centimeters (22 inches). Iranian scientists say a bigger monkey or another animal will be tested in the next space flight.

State TV said the rocket was equipped with new features including sonic sensors and electronic devices that enabled scientists to monitor the monkey, its vital signs and voice. Mohammad Ebrahimi said Iran's first use of liquid fuel meant the rocket's speed was about half that of a rocket using solid fuel.

Iran said it sent its first monkey into space in January, reaching the same height of 120 kilometers (72 miles). "The rocket carrying the first monkey used solid fuel and had a high speed. But a liquid fuel rocket has a lower speed and is better for the safety and protection of the living creature because it causes less pressure," IRNA quoted him as saying. "The capsule was equipped with a shock absorber to provide better protection for the monkey."

Ebrahimi said the monkey's appetite showed it was in good health after the journey. Iran aerospace program is a source of national pride. It's also one of the pillars of its aspirations to be seen as the technological hub for Islamic and developing countries.

The U.S. and its allies worry that technology from the space program could also be used to develop long-range missiles that could potentially be armed with nuclear warheads. In the January mission, one of two official packages of photos of the simian space traveler depicted the wrong monkey, causing some international observers to wonder whether the monkey had died in space or that the launch didn't go well.

But Iranian officials later said one set of pictures showed an archive photo of one of the alternate monkeys. They said three to five monkeys are simultaneously tested for such a flight and two or three are chosen for the launch. Finally, the one that is best suited for the mission is chosen for the voyage.

The Islamic Republic has not revealed where the rocket launch took place, but it has a major satellite launch complex near Semnan, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Tehran. Iran says it wants to put its own satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation, improve telecommunications and expand military surveillance of the region.