South Africa marks 20th anniversary of democracy

April 27, 2014

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans on Sunday celebrated 20 years of democracy with song, prayer and praise for those who guided their country into a more peaceful, tolerant era, although some noted that economic inequality and other problems have undermined the nation's promise since the first all-race elections ended white rule on April 27, 1994.

The focus of the Freedom Day commemorations was in Pretoria at the Union Buildings, the century-old government offices where President Jacob Zuma and dignitaries, including foreign diplomats, gathered to reflect on the long struggle against apartheid and ensuing efforts to build a better country.

The anniversary precedes elections on May 7 that are likely to see the ruling African National Congress return to power with a smaller majority, reflecting discontent with the movement that opposed white domination before its candidate, Nelson Mandela, became South Africa's first black president.

In a speech, Zuma said South Africa had a good story to tell, referring to its stable electoral system, its constitutional commitment to human rights as well as advancements in health care, welfare grants and water and electricity in the past 20 years. Close to 3 million houses have been built since 1994, women play a far more prominent role in public life, and crime has declined, even it remains an issue of "serious concern," he said.

"We must not deny or downplay these achievements, regardless of our political differences or contestation at any given time, including the election period," said Zuma, who has been criticized because more than $20 million in state funds were spent on upgrading his private rural home. The scandal comes amid a troubling inequality between rich and poor that the government says is partly a legacy of old racial divisions, noting that the income of the average white household is six times that of a black household.

Election candidate Julius Malema, the expelled head of the ruling party's youth league and now leader of an upstart party that wants to redistribute wealth, has told supporters that events surrounding Freedom Day, which is a national holiday, are a sham because many poor South Africans still lack basic services.

"For as long as you don't have your dignity back, you have nothing to celebrate," Malema said this week, according to local media. The mood was festive at the Pretoria ceremony, where balloons were on display and many people waved small South African flags. Women ululated and the crowd sang the national anthem, which incorporates several of South Africa's official languages in a show of unity. Some spectators wore African National Congress T-shirts, and danced the so-called "Freedom Dance," which features a raised fist associated with Mandela's show of defiance when he was freed in 1990 after 27 years in jail during apartheid.

There was a military gun salute and a fly-over by air force planes. Messages of congratulations to South Africa for the 20th anniversary of democracy came from around the world. "My family and I have enjoyed a special and significant relationship with South Africa over the years," Queen Elizabeth II of Britain said in a statement. "The links between our two countries have deepened and matured since South Africa's transition in 1994, and long may that continue."

Many of the messages delivered in South Africa on Sunday reflected the rough-and-tumble of an election season, rather than the lofty rhetoric surrounding the advent of democracy. The South African Press Association quoted prepared remarks from a speech by Bantu Holomisa, head of the opposition United Democratic Movement and a former member of the African National Congress.

"We cannot allow the country to slide further down this slippery slope of corruption, maladministration and ineptitude," Holomisa said. On Thursday, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe spoke in London about the 20th anniversary of democracy, noting the challenges that lie ahead as South Africa struggles to overcome unemployment, poverty and inequality. He said: "This celebration does not represent the end of the journey, but the beginning."

1,300 Muslims leave C. African Republic capital

April 27, 2014

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Heavily armed peacekeepers escorted some of the last remaining Muslims out of Central African Republic's volatile capital on Sunday, trucking more than 1,300 people who for months had been trapped by violent Christian militants.

Within minutes of the convoy's departure, an angry swarm of neighbors descended upon the mosque in a scene of total anarchy. Tools in hand, they swiftly dismantled and stole the loudspeaker once used for the call to prayer and soon stripped the house of worship of even its ceiling fan blades.

One man quickly scrawled "Youth Center" in black marker across the front of the mosque. Others mockingly swept the dirt from the ground in front of the building with brooms and shouted "We have cleaned Central African Republic of the Muslims!"

"We didn't want the Muslims here and we don't want their mosque here anymore either," said Guy Richard, 36, who loads baggage onto trucks for a living, as he and his friends made off with pieces of the mosque.

Armed Congolese peacekeepers stood watch but did not fire into the air or attempt to stop the looting. Soon teams of thieves were stripping the metal roofs of nearby abandoned Muslim businesses in the PK12 neighborhood of Bangui. "Pillage! Pillage!" children cried as they helped cart away wood and metal.

"The Central Africans have gone crazy, pillaging a holy place," said Congolese peacekeeper Staff Sgt. Pety-Pety, who refused to give his first name, as the mosque came under attack from militants. The anti-Balaka fighters showed up in their trademark wigs and hats with animal horns, donned in the amulets they believe protect them from the enemy's bullets.

Sunday's exodus further partitions the country, a process that has been underway since January, when a Muslim rebel government gave up power nearly a year after overthrowing the president of a decade.

The United Nations has described the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Muslims as "ethnic cleansing." While previous groups have been taken to neighboring Chad, Sunday's convoys were headed to two towns in the north on the Central African Republic side of the border.

Joanne Mariner, a senior crisis adviser for Amnesty International, said the people evacuated Sunday had lived in daily fear for months. "It's tragic and inexcusable that the situation was allowed to fall apart so that in the end evacuation was the only way to save people's lives," she said. "Much more should have been done to prevent ethnic cleansing in December and January, before tens of thousands of Muslims had fled."

The long-chaotic country's political crisis has prompted fears of genocide since it first intensified in December when Christian militants stormed the capital in an attempt to overthrow the Muslim rebel government. They soon began attacking Muslim civilians accused of having collaborated with the much despised rebels.

The rebel leader-turned-president ultimately resigned, and mob killings of Muslims and mutilation of their bodies took place on a near-daily basis in Bangui earlier this year. Tens of thousands of Muslims were escorted to safety in neighboring Chad, though earlier convoys were fraught with violence. Militants lined the streets and attacked departing trucks, at one point beating a man to death after he fell from his vehicle.

The violence against Muslims has drawn international concern, prompting the world's largest bloc of Islamic countries to send a 14-delegate fact-finding mission to Central African Republic. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation says delegates will be in the capital for three days starting Tuesday.

In an effort to avoid chaos, Sunday's convoy had been scheduled to depart at dawn, not long after men prayed in the mosque for the last time and lightning flickered in the dark sky. It took hours, though, for the families to load up their wares, from plastic jugs for water to bicycles, and even satellite dishes and chairs. In starting a new life in an unknown city, many said they were bringing anything of value that they could sell there to make money.

Tonga Djobo, 75, in a long flowing gown, prayer cap and orthopedic shoes, steadied himself with a stick he used to prod cattle that also doubled as a cane. He said he first came to Central African Republic 47 years ago from neighboring Chad.

Today would be the last day of his life he would spend in Bangui, he declared, joyously pumping his fists in the air. Meanwhile, his wife and family carted their wares all wrapped in bright wax-print fabrics to their assigned truck and waited to board.

With his teeth caked in slivers of cola nuts, the elderly cattle herder said he had tried to climb aboard earlier departing convoys but there had not been enough space. "I leave with a heavy heart but we have been chased from here," he said. "The things I have seen these last few months — even an unborn baby cut from his dead mother's womb. These Christian militia fighters are barbarians."

Each family was assigned a truck number and given a pass that they handed over as their names were called from the list. One by one, the families climbed up wooden ladders into the open air transport trucks where they sat on their belongings. Some of the men sat closest to the edge and sported bows and arrows for self-defense, while others wore machete sheaths slung across their backs.

African peacekeepers from the mission, known as MISCA, along with French forces stood watch along the route out of Bangui. Adama Djilda, 45, said her 7-month-old son Zakariah had now spent more than half his life trapped inside the PK12 neighborhood. As she breastfed him early Sunday while awaiting a truck to board, she said she didn't care which town the peacekeepers took her as long as she got out of Bangui.

Four months ago, she said, the Christian militia fighters gunned down her husband while he was farming in his field, leaving her a widow and mother of seven. For months now the family has slept restlessly in constant fear of grenade attacks in the neighborhood.

Awaiting her departure, she said: "Only God knows how much we have suffered here."

Associated Press writer Steve Niko contributed to this report.

US, Philippines reach deal on military accord

April 27, 2014

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The U.S. military will have greater access to bases across the Philippines under a new 10-year agreement set to be signed Monday in conjunction with President Barack Obama's visit and seen as an effort by Washington to counter Chinese aggression in the region.

U.S. and Filipino officials confirmed the deal ahead of Obama's stop and portrayed it is as a central part of his weeklong Asia swing. The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement would give American forces temporary access to selected military camps and allow them to preposition fighter jets and ships.

It was to be signed Monday at the main military camp in the Philippine capital, Manila, before Obama arrived on the last leg of a four-country Asian tour, following stops in Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.

A Philippine government primer on the defense accord that was seen by The Associated Press did not indicate how many additional U.S. troops would be deployed "on temporary and rotational basis." It said that the number would depend on the scale of joint military activities to be held in the camps.

The size and duration of that presence has to be worked out with the Philippine government, said Evan Medeiros, senior director for Asian affairs at the White House's National Security Council. Medeiros declined to say which specific areas in the Philippines are being considered under the agreement, but said the long-shuttered U.S. facility at Subic Bay could be one of the locations.

Two Philippine officials confirmed the agreement to the AP before the White House announcement. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the pact before it was signed.

The defense accord would help the allies achieve different goals. With its anemic military, the Philippines has struggled to bolster its territorial defense amid China's increasingly assertive behavior in the disputed South China Sea.

Manila's effort has dovetailed with Washington's intention to pivot away from years of heavy military engagement in the Middle East to Asia, partly as a counterweight to China's rising clout. "The Philippines' immediate and urgent motivation is to strengthen itself and look for a security shield with its pitiful military," Manila-based political analyst Ramon Casiple said. "The U.S. is looking for a re-entry to Asia, where its superpower status has been put in doubt."

The convergence would work to deter China's increasingly assertive stance in disputed territories, Casiple said. But it could further antagonize Beijing, which sees such tactical alliance as a U.S. strategy to contain its rise, and encourage China to intensify its massive military buildup, he said.

Hundreds of American military personnel have been deployed in the southern Philippines since 2002 to provide counterterrorism training and serve as advisers to Filipino soldiers, who have battled Muslim militants for decades.

The agreement states that the U.S. would "not establish a permanent military presence or base in the Philippines" in compliance with Manila's constitution. A Filipino base commander would have access to entire areas to be shared with American forces, according to the primer.

There will be "utmost respect for Philippine sovereignty," it said. Disagreements over Philippine access to designated U.S. areas within local camps had hampered the negotiations for the agreement last year.

The agreement would promote better coordination between U.S. and Filipino forces, boost the 120,000-strong Philippine military's capability to monitor and secure the country's territory and respond more rapidly to natural disasters and other emergencies.

"Pre-positioned materiel will allow for timely responses in the event of disasters — natural or otherwise," the primer said. While the U.S. military would not be required to pay rent for local camp areas, the Philippines would own buildings and infrastructure to be built or improved by the Americans and reap economic gains from the U.S. presence, it said, adding the pact was an executive agreement that would not need to be ratified by the Philippine Senate.

The presence of foreign troops is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, a former American colony. Left-wing activists have protested against Obama's visit and the new defense pact in small but lively demonstrations. They say the agreement reverses democratic gains achieved when huge U.S. military bases were shut down in the early 1990s, ending nearly a century of American military presence in the Philippines.

The Philippine Senate voted in 1991 to close down U.S. bases at Subic and Clark, northwest of Manila. However, it ratified a pact with the United States allowing temporary visits by American forces in 1999, four years after China seized a reef the Philippines contests.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, hundreds of U.S. forces descended in the southern Philippines under that accord to hold counterterrorism exercises with Filipino troops fighting Muslim militants.

This time, the focus of the Philippines and its underfunded military has increasingly turned to external threats as territorial spats with China in the potentially oil- and gas-rich South China Sea heated up in recent years. The Philippines has turned to Washington, its longtime defense treaty ally, to help modernize its navy and air force, which are among Asia's weakest.

Chinese paramilitary ships took effective control of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground off the northwestern Philippines, in 2012. Last year, Chinese coast guard ships surrounded another contested offshore South China Sea territory, the Second Thomas Shoal, where they have been trying to block food supplies and rotation of Filipino marines aboard a grounded Philippine navy ship in the remote coral outcrops.

The dangerous standoff has alarmed Washington, which called China's actions provocative. China has ignored Philippine diplomatic protests and Manila's move last year to challenge Beijing's expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea before an international arbitration tribunal. It has warned the U.S. to stay out of the Asian dispute.

AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

Mission to Mars

Bethesda MD (SPX)
Apr 27, 2014

In recent news reports the discussion of sending astronauts to Mars has been a hot topic. Certain private individuals and companies have indicated interest in a variety of missions designed to take people from Earth to Mars.

One company wants to send a couple on a free-return close-fly-by of the Red Planet. Others want to land a crew on the surface of the planet. Still others have suggested that a colony be formed on Mars. Just last week, NASA's advisers suggested that a human expeditions to Mars remains unachievable in the near term due to a lack of needed technologies and the high price tag.

All this begs the question: "Why is a Mars mission so difficult?" Certainly, a successful expedition would be a phenomenal achievement for mankind and extremely prestigious for the national and team that reached this goal.

Most of the people interested in spaceflight would agree that this could be the next big space event, topping even Apollo 11's successful manned lunar landing in 1969. Although no one has visited the moon since 1972, there appears to be little doubt that one day the Moon will be colonized. It is also logical that Mars will be colonized one day.

Let's project ahead and speculate about such a colonization. NASA has been conceptualizing a typical exploration mission that would take a crew of astronauts on a round trip to Mars. However, in order to colonize the planet, one or more astronauts would have to make such a journey "one-way."

In other words, one or more explorers would have to occupy a colony on a permanent or rotating basis. In the case of the ISS, there is a continuous crew presence onboard to maintain the station and to carry out research and engineering feats. As we already know the cost of rotating a crew, typically every 90 days, is extremely high. A similar scenario for a staffed Mars ground station would be orders of magnitude higher in cost and complexity.

In view of the lack of technology for low-cost crew rotations on Mars, it appears obvious that early colonization would require the crew to stay on the planet. This scenario presents obvious technical and cost advantages. There are also obvious disadvantages such as spending the rest of their lives on a distant, hostile planet, where a simple phone call to home requires a seven-minute voice delay each way.

Nevertheless, recent surveys indicate that hundreds, if not thousands, of volunteers are ready to commit to such a trip. Of course, not all of these people would be willing to follow through. However, there surely are a few who would make up a small Mars expeditionary crew.

Once a selection is made, each astronaut would be put through a required several-year training program. Such a program would include being isolated for long periods in small groups, developing expertise and work experience in areas such as mechanical and electrical equipment repairs, cultivating crops in confined spaces and addressing a variety of medical issues.

The typical flight to Mars takes between seven and eight months, depending on the selected launch window, which opens every 26 months. The astronauts would likely have to use a spacecraft that is sufficiently large to endure the trip, i.e., much larger than Orion.

Life support would be provided in the form of freeze-dried and canned food and water, and recycled air. Daily routines would include several hours of exercise in order to maintain muscle mass. In addition, since interplanetary space is exposed to attack by solar storms, the crew would require a designated solar-shelter within the spacecraft for protection.

Upon arrival at Mars, the spacecraft will have to provide a means of making a soft landing on the planet's surface. Immediately upon landing, the astronauts would begin development of living quarters that are probably inflatable structures capable of holding a breathable atmosphere for the crew.

Any outside activities require the use of Mars-type EVA pressure suits. Surface rovers could be used for travel and exploration. It is possible that some structures would have been sent ahead of the crew and robotically assembled. Additional equipment could be sent after the crew arrives.

Sometime after the first crew has settled, a second crew could be sent, then a third, and so on. Eventually, a small community would evolve and reach a size sufficient for continuous self-contained sustainment.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mission_to_Mars_999.html.

Curiosity spots asteroids from the surface of Mars

Greenbelt, Md. (UPI)
Apr 25, 2014

For the first time, NASA's Curiosity rover has captured images of an asteroid from the surface of Mars -- two of them, in fact.

The imagery recorded by Curiosity and beamed back to Earth feature Ceres and Vesta, two of the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt that runs between between Mars and Jupiter. This Curiosity first was also a bit of a coincidence, as the SUV-sized rover had aimed its cameras at the Martian sky in order to snap shots of the Red Planet's two moons, not hunt for asteroids whizzing by.

"This imaging was part of an experiment checking the opacity of the atmosphere at night in Curiosity's location on Mars, where water-ice clouds and hazes develop during this season," camera team member Mark Lemmon, of Texas A&M University, explained in a statement. "The two Martian moons were the main targets that night, but we chose a time when one of the moons was near Ceres and Vesta in the sky."

NASA is currently on its way to get an even closer look at this two giant space rocks. NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited the 350-mile-wide Vesta asteroid in 2011 and 2012, and it is preparing to orbit the 590-mile-wide Ceres in 2015.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Curiosity_spots_asteroids_from_the_surface_of_Mars_999.html.

SpaceX sues US Air Force over satellite contracts

Washington (AFP)
April 25, 2014

SpaceX on Friday filed suit against the US Air Force for awarding billions of dollars to a single company for national security launches, and said the contracts might even violate sanctions against Russia.

The US military spends billions yearly with United Launch Alliance, a joint operation of aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to launch government satellites.

The Atlas V and Delta IV rockets are powered by Russian engines, which have raised concern among some lawmakers that such reliance is dangerous in a time of escalating tensions over Ukraine.

"This is not right," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told reporters, describing the policy of "uncompeted procurement" by the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.

"SpaceX has decided to file suit and protest the Air Force EELV block buy," Musk said.

The process "essentially blocks companies like SpaceX from competing for national security launches," said Musk at a press conference in the US capital.

The suit was filed in the US Court of Federal Claims, he added.

Musk said ULA rockets cost four times the amount of SpaceX's.

"To add insult to the wound, the primary engine is made in Russia," said Musk.

"The person who heads Russian space activities is (deputy prime minister) Dmitry Rogozin, who is on the sanctions list. So it seems pretty strange, like, you know how is it that we are sending hundreds of millions of US taxpayer money at a time when Russia is in the process of invading Ukraine?" Musk asked.

"It would be hard to imagine some way in which Dmitry Rogozin is not benefiting personally from the dollars that are being sent there," he added.

"On the surface of it is seems there is a good probability of some sanctions violation."

An Internet entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal, Musk has gained a high profile in the business world with SpaceX and his electric car company, Tesla.

In 2012, SpaceX's Dragon capsule became the first unmanned spaceship made by a private US company to reach the International Space Station. A version that could carry crew is expected by 2017.

"This is not SpaceX protesting and saying these launches should be awarded to us. We are just protesting and saying these launches should be competed," Musk said.

"If we compete and lose that's fine."

His California-based firm is also working on a novel rocket, called the Falcon 9 reusable that could return to Earth from a space launch intact and be used again and again for space launches.

The latest test of the rocket showed it was able to land upright with all legs deployed, but SpaceX was unable to retrieve it intact from its ocean landing, due to stormy seas and lack of access to a big enough boat, he said.

Still, Musk said he hoped the next ocean test landing would go more smoothly, since it would splash down closer to land.

If that goes well, he said he was "optimistic" that the reusable rocket's first land-test return could happen at Florida's Cape Canaveral later this year.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/SpaceX_sues_US_Air_Force_over_satellite_contracts_999.html.

Arrests made in India after rebels kill 29 Muslims

May 03, 2014

GAUHATI, India (AP) — Police in India arrested 22 people after separatist rebels went on a rampage, burning homes and killing 29 Muslims in the worst outbreak of ethnic violence in the remote northeastern region in two years, officials said Saturday.

The arrests came after authorities called in the army to restore order in Assam state and imposed an indefinite curfew in the wake of the killings blamed on the rebels from the Bodo tribe, who have long accused Muslim residents of sneaking into India illegally from neighboring Bangladesh.

A state minister for border areas, Siddique Ahmed, said after visiting the violence-hit areas that his government and the ruling Congress party failed to protect the victims, who included at least eight women and as many children.

"Even 2-year-old children who could barely walk have been shot dead. I have never witnessed such scenes in my life," he told reporters. Police said they arrested 22 people who allegedly burned homes or provided shelter to the insurgents, according to regional police inspector general L. R. Bishnoi. He gave no other details.

He said the rebels belong to a faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, which has been fighting for a separate homeland for the ethnic Bodo people for decades. The Bodos are an indigenous tribe in Assam, making up 10 percent of the state's 33 million people.

However, the rebel faction in an email to reporters Saturday denied the charge and blamed the killings on the state government. The violence came at a time of heightened security during India's general election, with the voting taking place over six weeks. Tensions have been high since a Bodo lawmaker in India's Parliament criticized Muslims for not voting for the Bodo candidate, said Lafikul Islam Ahmed, leader of a Muslim youth organization called the All Bodoland Muslim Students' Union.

Local television reports showed hundreds of Muslim villagers fleeing their homes with belongings on pushcarts or in their hands. Most were headed to nearby Dubri district, which is near the border with Bangladesh. Nearly 400 people have fled so far, Bishnoi said.

In 2012, weekslong violence between Bodo people and Muslims killed as many as 100 people in the same area. Police said that in the third and most recent attack on Friday evening, militants entered a village in the western Baksa district and set at least 40 Muslim homes ablaze before opening fire. Assam's additional director general of police R.M. Singh said 11 bodies, all of them shot to death, were recovered from the attack.

Another seven bodies were recovered Saturday, Bishnoi said. The first attack took place in the same district late Thursday night when at least eight rebels opened fire on a group of villagers sitting in a courtyard. Four people were killed and two others were wounded, police said. The second attack happened around midnight in Kokrajhar district when more than 20 armed men, their faces covered with black hoods, broke open the doors of two homes and sprayed them with bullets, killing seven people, witnesses said.

Crying inconsolably, 28-year-old Mohammed Sheikh Ali said his mother, wife and daughter were killed in the attack. "I will curse myself forever because I failed to save them," Ali said in a telephone interview from a hospital where he was waiting for doctors to complete the autopsies on his family. "I am left all alone in this world. ... I want justice."

Dozens of rebel groups have been fighting the government and sometimes each other for years in seven states in northeast India. They demand greater regional autonomy or independent homelands for the indigenous groups they represent.

The rebels accuse the federal government of exploiting the region's rich mineral resources but neglecting the local people. At least 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Assam state alone in the last three decades.

Australia to buy 58 US F-35s for $11.6bn

Sydney (AFP)
April 23, 2014

Australia will purchase 58 more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters at a cost of Aus$12.4 billion ($11.6 billion) in a major upgrade to defense capabilities, the government said.

The new aircraft will bring Australia's total JSF force to 72 aircraft, with the first due to arrive in Australia in 2018 and enter service in 2020.

"The F-35 will provide a major boost to the Australian Defense Force's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a statement released late Tuesday.

"The fifth generation F-35 is the most advanced fighter in production anywhere in the world and will make a vital contribution to our national security."

The deal with US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin is in addition to 14 F-35s Australia already approved in 2009.

"The acquisition of F-35 aircraft will bring significant economic benefits to Australia, including regional areas and local defense industry," Abbott added.

The government, which was to make a detailed announcement on the deal later Wednesday, will also consider an option to buy another squadron of F-35s to replace the air force's fleet of ageing F/A-18 Super Hornets which are due for retirement from 2022.

The overall price tag includes weapons, spare parts and maintenance facilities, with Australia's defense industry reportedly set to benefit by up to Aus$1.5 billion in flow-on business.

The fighter program will see Aus$1.6 billion spent on upgrading air force bases at Williamtown in New South Wales and Tindal in the Northern Territory where the planes will be based.

Australia had originally indicated it would buy 100 of the jets, and that is still a target figure for air force chiefs, but budgetary constraints under the previous government saw it trim back and delay the order in 2012.

The JSF, costing US$160 million each on Pentagon figures and not due to enter service until 2016, has been touted as a technological wonder and the ultimate stealth attack plane able to evade radar detection.

However it has suffered setback after setback and is seven years behind schedule with a budget blow out of US$167 billion dollars to more than $390 billion, making it the costliest weapons program in US history.

South Korea has plans to finalize the purchase of 40 F-35 jet fighters from Lockheed Martin later this year.

Australia is one of eight countries, apart from the United States, taking part in the JSF program: Britain, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey.

Source: Space Mart.
Link: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Australia_to_buy_58_US_F-35s_for_116bn_999.html.

Ancient sea-levels give new clues on ice ages

Canberra, Australia (SPX)
Apr 25, 2014

International researchers, led by the Australian National University (ANU), have developed a new way to determine sea-level changes and deep-sea temperature variability over the past 5.3 million years.

The findings will help scientists better understand the climate surrounding ice ages over the past two million years, and could help determine the relationship between carbon dioxide levels, global temperatures and sea levels.

The team from ANU, the University of Southampton (UoS) and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in the United Kingdom, examined oxygen isotope levels in fossils of microscopic plankton recovered from the Mediterranean Sea, dating back as far as 5.3 million years.

"This is the first step for reconstructions from the Mediterranean records," says lead researcher Eelco Rohling from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences.

Professor Rohling said the team focused on the flow of water through Strait of Gibraltar, which was particularly sensitive to sea-level changes.

"As continental ice sheets grew during the ice ages, flow through the Strait of Gibraltar was reduced, causing measurable changes in oxygen isotope ratios in Mediterranean waters, which became preserved in the shells of the ancient plankton," he said.

Co-author Gavin Foster from UoS said the research for the first time found long-term trends in cooling and continental ice-volume build-up cycles over the past 5.3 Million years were not the same.

"In fact, for temperature the major step toward the ice ages of the past two million years was a cooling event at 2.7 million years ago," he said.

"But for ice-volume, the crucial step was the development of the first intense ice age at around 2.15 million years ago. Before our results, these were thought to have occurred together at about 2.5 million years ago."

Professor Rohling said the findings will help scientists better understand the nature of ice ages and development of coastal sediment.

"The observed decoupling of temperature and ice-volume changes provides crucial new information for our understanding of how the ice ages came about," he said.

"However, there are wider implications. For example, a more refined sea-level record over millions of years is commercially interesting because it allows a better understanding of coastal sediment sequences that are relevant to the petroleum industry.

"Our record is also of interest to climate policy developments, because it opens the door to detailed comparisons between past atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, global temperatures, and sea levels, which has enormous value to long-term future climate projections."

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ancient_sea_levels_give_new_clues_on_ice_ages_999.html.