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Monday, October 13, 2014

Turkey may need to go green, director says

by Daniel J. Graeber
Ankara, Turkey (UPI)
Oct 6, 2014

A project started nearly 40 years ago could help ensure energy security in Turkey through renewable reserves, a director said Monday.

Sadrettin Karahocagil, director of the Southeastern Anatolia Project, said renewable energy could stave off a future energy crisis in Turkey.

"There will be times when we can't find energy," he said. "[This project] is a solution, a preparation for those times."

The project, known by its Turkish acronym GAP, started life in 1977 as an agricultural project, but has since morphed into an energy and water project meant to stimulate the economies of Turkey's southeastern provinces.

Turkey is working to expand the use of renewable energy through projects backed by the U.N. Development Program. UNDP provides technical support for the $4.3 million GAP program.

Energy demand is on the rise in a Turkish economy that was shielded from much of the damage of the global economic recession. The International Energy Agency expects Turkish energy demand will double during the next decade.

Source: Wind Daily.
Link: http://www.winddaily.com/reports/Turkey_may_need_to_go_green_director_says_999.html.

Turkey to offer 2,000 buffaloes in aid to Cameroon

04 October 2014 Saturday

Turkey will offer 2,000 buffaloes in food aid to the poor in Cameroon through a number of Turkish non-governmental organizations, Turkish ambassador Omar Faruk Dogan said Saturday.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Dogan said the aid will be distributed during the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast, which started on Saturday.

"Turkey is keen on offering food assistance to the needy on the Eid occasion," the Turkish diplomat said.

Dogan said his country strives to offer help to the distressed peoples to alleviate their suffering and accentuate solidarity with them.

He said the 2,000 buffaloes would be sent to refugee camps, prisons, disability centers and mosques that house refugees.

The ambassador noted that the Turkish food aid comes at a time when Cameroonian authorities are offering aid to the needy in the northernmost part of the country.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/145666/turkey-to-offer-2000-buffalos-in-aid-to-cameroon.

Turkey ponders new powers to fight IS militants

October 02, 2014

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's parliament was debating a motion Thursday to give the government new powers to launch military incursions into Syria and Iraq and to allow foreign forces to use its territory for possible operations against the Islamic State group.

As lawmakers debate in Ankara, the militants pressed their offensive against a beleaguered Kurdish town along the Syria-Turkey border. The assault, which has forced about 160,000 people to flee across the frontier in recent days, left Kurdish militiamen scrambling Thursday to repel Islamic State extremists pushing into the outskirts of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab.

Turkey, a NATO member with a large and modern military, has yet to define what role it intends to play in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group. The motion before lawmakers sets the legal groundwork for any Turkish military involvement or the use of Turkish bases by foreign troops.

Parliament had previously approved operations into Iraq and Syria to attack Kurdish separatists or to thwart threats from the Syrian regime. Thursday's motion would expand those powers to address threats from the Islamic State militants who control a large cross-border swath of Iraq and Syria, in some parts right up to the Turkish border.

Asked what measures Turkey would take after the motion is approved, Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz said: "don't expect any immediate steps." "The motion prepares the legal ground for possible interventions, but it is too early to say what those interventions will be," said Dogu Ergil, a professor of political science and columnist for Today's Zaman newspaper.

Ergil said the motion could allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters, for example to use Turkey's territory to safely cross into Syria, to help Syrian Kurdish forces there, or the deployment of coalition forces' drones.

The government enjoys a majority in parliament and the bill was expected to pass despite opposition from two parties. The motion comes as the Islamic State group moved closer into the northern Syrian town of Kobani, right across the border from Turkey, despite renewed U.S.-led airstrikes in the area overnight, according to senior fighter and activist. The United States has been bombing the Islamic State group across Syria since last week and in neighboring Iraq since early August.

Ismet Sheikh Hasan, a senior fighter, said the Kurdish forces were preparing for urban clashes in Kobani in a desperate attempt to repel the militants. The fight for Kobani has raged since mid-September, sending over 160,000 Syrian Kurds streaming across the Turkish border in one of the worst refugee crisis since the war began over three and a half years ago.

"We are preparing outsides for street battles," Hasan said. "They still haven't entered Kobani, but we are preparing ourselves." Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group tracking the Syrian conflict, reported that the Islamic State group fighters were, in some cases, just "hundreds of meters (yards)" from Kobani on its eastern and southeast side. The militants were about a mile away on the southern side of town.

In a statement, the Observatory said it had "real fears" that the militants would storm Kobani and "butcher civilians remaining in the city." Last week, a U.S.-led coalition seeking to destroy the extremist Islamic State group began bombing the militants' locations around Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab in Arabic. But the airstrikes haven't halted the militants' advance, said Hasan.

That included explosions heard overnight around the Kobani area, believed to be caused by U.S. strikes, said Hasan. There was no immediate confirmation from Washington on the latest airstrikes. The strikes were also reported the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group tracking the Syrian conflict.

Turkey had been reluctant to join its NATO allies in a coalition against the Islamic State militants, citing worries about the safety of Turkish hostages held by the group. It reversed its decision after the hostages' release earlier this month.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for the creation of a buffer zone inside Syria as well as a no-fly zone to secure Turkey's borders and stem the flow of refugees. He has also called for military training and equipment for the Syrian opposition fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"In the struggle against terrorism, we are open and ready for every kind of cooperation. However, Turkey is not a country that will allow itself to be used for temporary solutions," Erdogan said Wednesday.

"An effective struggle against ISIL or other terror organizations will be our priority," Erdogan said. "The immediate removal of the administration in Damascus, Syria's territorial unity and the installation of an administration which embraces all will continue to be our priority. "

The motion cites also cites a potential threat to a revered mausoleum inside Syria that is considered Turkish territory. The tiny plot of land that is a memorial to Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, is guarded by Turkish troops.

__ Diaa Hadid reported from Beirut.

Hostage tale suggests IS wary of upsetting Turkey

September 30, 2014

SILOPI, Turkey (AP) — Turkish truck driver Ozgur Simsek was sleeping off a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) fuel run to the Qayara power station in Iraq, he said, when he heard banging on his vehicle's door.

"IS took over last night," the power plant's foreman shouted, referring to the Islamic State group. "Empty your trucks and run!" Simsek rushed to unload his tanker's fuel, he said, but it was too late. A battered pickup bearing the black-and-white logo of the Islamic State group rolled across the tarmac. Qayara's security guards, who only moments before had been joking around with the truckers, turned on the men, donning black masks and brandishing weapons — taking all 32 Turkish men hostage.

For many foreigners, being caught by the group's fanatical fighters has meant months of uncertainty, torture and, in some cases, a gruesome death. For Simsek and his colleagues, captivity would last just over three weeks. Their trucks were confiscated, but no one was harmed and no ransom was paid, according to a narrative of the June 10 attack and its aftermath pieced together by The Associated Press from interviews with drivers and a company executive.

The episode paints a picture of a militant group unusually careful not to anger Turkey's government, and may offer insights into the mysterious release of 49 hostages from Turkey's consulate in Mosul, Iraq, just over a week ago.

"The Islamic State treated these hostages in the way they did because they don't want to provoke Ankara," said George Readings, of London-based risk consultancy Stirling Assynt. "If Turkey decided to crack down on the Islamic State's support, recruitment, fundraising and oil-selling networks that run through Turkey, that would have a major impact on Islamic State's ability to take and hold territory in Syria and Iraq."

Turkey has been a reluctant member of the coalition fighting the Islamic State group. Until the latest hostage release, Turkish leaders had said they would not consider joining the coalition. In recent days, under intense pressure from NATO allies, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he is mulling unspecified military cooperation.

Turkish officials reject the suggestion that they've tiptoed around the terror group, and appear to have recently made strides in intercepting foreign fighters and cracking down on oil smuggling. When asked whether Turkey is ambivalent toward the Islamic State militants, an adviser to the Turkish prime minister told AP: "Absolutely no."

"We as a country have been the subject of terrorist activities for the past 30 years," Cemalettin Hasimi said. "We know what it means." Whatever the Turkish position, the Islamic State group's actions seem to reflect a certain pragmatism regarding Turkey.

For one thing, it's not clear whether the Turkish truckers were meant to have been captured. Vehbi Demir, one of the few truckers who spoke Arabic, said the atmosphere at a safe house where the Islamic State militants took some of them that morning was one of confusion and panic. He said he overheard a conversation between the kidnappers' leader, an Iraqi going by the name of Abu Abdullah, and his superiors. Demir said Abu Abdullah's voice went flat after informing them that he had kidnapped a bunch of Turks.

"It seems they weren't happy about it," Demir said. For a while, two groups of truckers were kept separately — some at the safe house, the others at the power plant — but four days after the kidnapping the truckers and their vehicles were driven, under guard, to a U.S.-built airfield between Mosul and Qayara.

There, they were parked in a semi-enclosed engineering bay surrounded by four-meter-high concrete walls. The place was hot, dusty and crawling with scorpions, but despite the uncomfortable conditions the Turks said they were treated well.

The guard was relaxed. Drivers kept the keys to their trucks and could occasionally retreat to their air-conditioned cabs to watch satellite television and even use the batteries to recharge smartphones, which a few had kept hidden from their captors.

Food deliveries were irregular but included bread, cucumbers, watermelon and meat, which the truckers cooked with camping cylinders and bits of wood. Sometimes their Islamic State guards brought so much to eat that the truckers had to watch their leftover chicken and tomatoes wilt in the 50-degree-Celsius (120 F) heat.

Although the militants forbade the truckers to play "sinful" music from their cabs, the captives were largely left to their own devices. They were even allowed to smoke — an unusual concession for the Islamic State group, which has outlawed smoking and publicly flogs violators.

Video shot from inside their makeshift prison shows a group of truckers watching television together on a carpets and mattresses laid out on the floor. They all smile for the camera. Turkish driver Serdar Bayrak described his ordeal to the AP in his top-floor apartment in Cizre, an arid and unsettled transit town in Turkey across from the Syrian border. After a terrifying capture in which friendly guards "turned into monsters in five minutes," he said, it took less than a week for him to feel like "we were guests there."

The truckers believed that their Islamic State captors "would take care of Turkey's citizens in the best way possible and would not harm them in any way," he said. "They wanted their relationship to last with Turkey."

It isn't clear why the Islamic State group kept its Turkish captives for so long or why it released them when it did. Half-hearted ransom negotiations had gone nowhere, according to Mehmet Kizil, the CEO of Kizil Lojistik, which owned many of the captured tankers.

Kizil said Abu Abdullah initially phoned demanding a $5 million ransom — which Kizil agreed to — and then a $10 million ransom — which Kizil also said he would pay — before refusing to take his calls. The truckers described the negotiations as a farce, saying Abu Abdullah rarely even bothered to keep his phone on.

"It was a tactic to gain time," Bayrak said. The truckers were released on July 4 after a night at an Islamic State base near the airport. Bayrak described the experience as frightening, saying he witnessed children as young as 8 or 9 holding weapons and encountered four suicide bombers with explosive vests getting ready to leave to target Iraqi forces.

That morning, a man the truckers knew as Sheikh Musa bid the 32 captives farewell, apologizing for having kept them hostage and insisting that no ransom had been paid. Video covertly shot by one of the truckers shows his worn but happy-looking comrades being carried in pickup trucks under a giant Islamic State flag later that day. The men were eventually dropped at the side of the road and had to walk the rest of the way in the desert to Makhmour, near the Kurdish capital of Irbil. From there, a Turkish plane flew them home.

The truckers' low-key homecoming was in contrast to the rapturous welcome afforded to the 49 Turkish consulate workers. In both cases, however, the reason behind the release seems linked to maintaining the status quo with Turkey.

"Turks are our brothers," Simsek recalled one militant telling him just before he was released. Readings said the release of both sets of hostages "reflects the fact that it's not in Islamic State's interests right now to enter into confrontation with Turkey."

Simsek said that while he is pleased that the consular workers were released, he remains angry at the theft of the trucks, which had left him and others saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt.

"We know that their loss will be compensated," Simsek said of the consular staff. "The only ones who will end up losing out are us."

Contributors to this report included Mucahit Ceylan and Mohammed Rasool in Sanliurfa, Turkey; Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; and Martin Benedyk in London.

Turks leave for "family-friendly" IS group

September 24, 2014

ISTANBUL (AP) — Asiya Ummi Abdullah doesn't share the view that the Islamic State group rules over a terrorist dystopia and she isn't scared by the American bombs falling on Raqqa, its power center in Syria.

As far as she's concerned, it's the ideal place to raise a family. In interviews with The Associated Press, the 24-year-old Muslim convert explained her decision to move with her toddler to the territory controlled by the militant group, saying it offers them protection from the sex, drugs and alcohol that she sees as rampant in largely secular Turkey.

"The children of that country see all this and become either murderers or delinquents or homosexuals or thieves," Umi Abdullah wrote in one of several Facebook messages. Living under Shariah, the Islamic legal code, means that her 3-year-old boy's spiritual life is secure, she said.

"He will know God and live under His rules," she said. Ummi Abdullah's experience illustrates the pull of the Islamic State group, the self-styled caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria. It also shows how, even in modern Turkey entire families are dropping everything to find salvation.

Ummi Abdullah, originally from Kyrgyzstan, reached the Islamic State group only last month, and her disappearance became front-page news in Turkey after her ex-husband, a 44-year-old car salesman named Sahin Aktan, went to the press.

Legions of others in Turkey have carted away family to the Islamic State group under less public scrutiny and in greater numbers. Earlier this month, more than 50 families slipped across the border to live under Islamic State, according to opposition legislator Atilla Kart.

Kart's figure appears high, but his account is backed by a villager from Cumra, in central Turkey, who told AP that his son and his daughter-in-law are among the group. The villager spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he fears reprisals.

The movement of foreign fighters to the Islamic State group has been covered extensively since the group tore across Iraq in June. The arrival of entire families, many but not all of them Turkish, has received less attention.

"It's about fundamentalism," said Ahmet Kasim Han, a professor of international relations at Istanbul's Kadir Has University. "It kind of becomes a false heaven." Like many others, Ummi Abdullah's journey to radical Islam was born out of loneliness. Born Svetlana Hasanova, she converted to Islam after marrying Aktan six years ago. The pair met in Turkey when Hasanova, still a teenager, came to Istanbul with her mother to buy textiles.

Aktan said the relationship worked at first. "Before we were married we were swimming in the sea, in the pool, and in the evening we would sit down and eat fish and drink wine," he said. Aktan said his wife became increasingly devout after the birth of their son, covering her hair and praying frequently. In her messages to the AP, Ummi Abdullah accused her husband of treating her "like a slave."

"I was constantly belittled by him and his family," she said. "I was nobody in their eyes." Ummi Abdullah found the companionship she yearned for online, chatting with jihadists and filling her Facebook page with religious exhortations. In June, she and Aktan divorced. The next month, she took their child to a Turkish town near the Syrian border, before leaving for the Islamic State group.

Aktan says he hasn't seen his son since. The Islamic State group appears eager to advertise itself as a family-friendly place. One promotional video shows a montage of Muslim fighters from around the world holding their children in Raqqa against the backdrop of an amusement park.

A man, identified in the footage as an American named Abu Abdurahman al-Trinidadi, holds an infant who has a toy machine gun strapped to his back. "Look at all the little children," al-Trinidadi says. "They're having fun."

Suzan Fraser contributed from Ankara, Turkey.

Kurds struggle to defend besieged Syrian town

October 11, 2014

SURUC, Turkey (AP) — Syrian activists and Kurdish officials say fierce fighting is underway in a Syrian border town where Kurdish militiamen are struggling to repel advances by the Islamic State group.

The battle for Kobani is raging despite airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition targeting the militants. A Kurdish official, Ismet Sheikh Hasan, says Saturday's clashes are focused in the southern and eastern parts of the town. He says the situation is dire.

The director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdurrahman, says the town's Kurdish fighters are putting up a fierce fight but are outgunned by the militants Since the militants launched their onslaught on Kobani in mid-September, at least 500 people have been killed and more than 200,000 have been forced to flee across the border into Turkey.

Syrian women find independence in embroidery

Florence Massena
September 11, 2014

Of the nearly 1.2 million Syrian refugees currently sheltered in Lebanon, 52.3% are women, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Coming alone or with their families, they are often subject to violence, but some have been able to find help from the many nongovernmental organizations in the country. One of them, Basmeh wa Zeitooneh, helps Syrians find stability and dignity in sewing and embroidery.

"Women are strong," proclaims Rihab, a Palestinian Syrian who fled Yarmouk a year and a half ago with her family. "My husband doesn’t work. He only eats and sleeps all day." Like the 60 other women assisted by Basmeh wa Zeitooneh, she became the breadwinner out of necessity. "Now, Syrian women bring money home. It's harder for men." UNHCR provides only $30 a month for each registered refugee in Lebanon, forcing families to scramble to find other sources of income.

Fifty-five women share the studio and equipment in shifts of three hours daily to give everyone a chance to work. Mariam, from Homs, considers herself lucky: Her husband was able to find a "precarious job as a daily worker in construction," which is enough to pay the one-bedroom apartment’s $250 rent, the most affordable to be found in Beirut. For her part, she has embroidered for 10 months, earning as much as $150 per month, enough for her to take care of the rest, "although three hours a day are not enough."

The initiative is the creation of Basmeh wa Zeitooneh in the Shatila Palestinian camp in Beirut’s suburb. The Syrian organization was founded in March 2013 and has since spread to Bourj el Barajneh and the Bekaa Valley. "At first, we went door to door in the camp to see what the families needed, and we provided them with what they asked for," recalls Reem Al-Haswani, an architect from Yabroud. George Talamas and Fadi Hallisso, the other two co-founders, soon developed long term programs: a medical clinic for women and children; a cultural center; lessons for children and adults in reading, writing and computer skills and an embroidery workshop. "We found a trainer and managed over time to bring women to work. We pay them monthly for each piece produced, and then try to sell them."

It's a way for them to earn some money, but also to talk safely and privately about their daily issues. "Women are the first victims of the conflict," says Haswani. "Here, we provide a space for expression, where they can complain of abuses in the family, for example, but also [find] support."

Women seem to have suffered more than their share of pain since the beginning of the war in Syria. Researches from Yale University found that Syrian women in north Lebanon face serious health issues, including domestic violence and pregnancy complications due to stress. Sexual violence emerged as a deadly epidemic early on in the Syrian conflict.

Jean-Basptiste Pesquet, a French doctoral student in the Middle East French Institute, has conducted interviews in the Syrian refugee camps for over a year. He told Al-Monitor, "Women are the containers of violence for the other family members that suffered arrests and bombings. Often, the husband can neither work nor fight, and thus loses his status. He doesn’t have the capacity to ensure financial independence for his family anymore, and has no function in the household. Therefore, violence can illegitimately compensate a social function’s loss through physical domination."

It’s hard to picture the NGO's embroiderers as victims. They show an impressive strength and ability to overcome their difficult situations. Pesquet added, "We must be careful not to [think of] women as passive victims of their circumstances, because they are also actors and can choose to harness situations for other purposes, as well as commit violence themselves."

We will never know what the women in Basmeh wa Zeitooneh go through daily, or if they use violence at home, too. But one thing is sure: This work within the organization is indeed a foot in the door to a new life for the refugees.

"When I finish a piece and take the money, I really feel that I achieved something. It gives meaning to my life. I do something other than cooking and cleaning the house,” said Mariam. She had worked on her family's farm before leaving Syria, but for no wages. The Syrian women living in Shatila often come from very conservative circles, Rihab explained with a glint in her eye. "We were only working a little bit, sometimes never. Our husbands didn’t want us to leave the house and see people. Now we are the ones bringing home the money!”

Source: al-Monitor.
Link: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/lebanon-syria-refugees-women-work-ngos.html.

Taiwan's Ma voices support for Hong Kong protesters

Taipei (AFP)
Oct 10, 2014

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou on Friday called on Beijing to "let some people go democratic first" as he expressed support for protesters who have paralyzed parts of Hong Kong for nearly two weeks.

Taiwan has been watching closely the events in Hong Kong, where democracy activists are planning a fresh show of force Friday evening after talks with the city's government collapsed, deepening the political crisis in the Asian financial hub.

Ma, in a speech marking Taiwan's National Day, urged Beijing to "convert a crisis into opportunity" by fulfilling its promise to grant civil liberties in Hong Kong when former colonial power Britain handed the city back in 1997.

"Thirty years ago, when Deng Xiaoping was pushing for reform and opening up in the mainland, he famously proposed letting some people get rich first. So why couldn't they do the same thing in Hong Kong, and let some people go democratic first?"

Ma said that in so doing, "China would simply be making good on a pledge made 17 years ago, when they said that for 50 years they would allow rule of Hong Kong by the people of Hong Kong, a high degree of autonomy, and election of the chief executive through universal suffrage".

This would definitely be a "win-win scenario" for both China and Hong Kong, as well as a huge boost for the development of relations between Taipei and Beijing, Ma added.

Taiwan in particular is concerned about the situation in Hong Kong, as China wants to reunite the island under a "one country, two systems" deal similar to Hong Kong.

Ma has sought to boost ties with China since he took office in 2008, but has rejected reunification under a Hong Kong-style arrangement.

He recently renewed the rejection after Chinese President Xi Jinping told a visiting Taiwanese delegation that "one country, two systems" was the best way to realize reunification.

In Friday's speech, Ma said that "now is the most appropriate time" for China to move toward constitutional democracy, as the mainland experiences rapid economic growth and its people lead affluent lives.

"Now that the 1.3 billion people on the mainland have become moderately wealthy, they will of course wish to enjoy greater democracy and rule of law. Such a desire has never been a monopoly of the West, but is the right of all humankind."

China still considers Taiwan part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, even though the island has ruled itself since splitting from the mainland in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

Source: Sino Daily.
Link: http://www.sinodaily.com/reports/Taiwans_Ma_voices_support_for_Hong_Kong_protesters_999.html.

Fincantieri announces submarine launch, new collaborative agreement

by Richard Tomkins
Trieste, Italy (UPI)
Oct 10, 2014

The third of four Todaro-class submarines for the Italian Navy has been launched at a Fincantieri shipyard.

The submarine Pietro Venuti is about 183 feet in length. It has a surface displacement of more than 1,600 tons and a submerged speed of more than 16 knots.

It is built entirely of amagnetic material and uses fuel cell technology for its propulsion system, which enables a submerged range three to four times greater than that of conventional battery-based systems, the company said.

The launch of the Pietro Venuti this week coincided with an announcement that Fincantieri and Finmeccanica are enhancing their collaboration in the maritime sector.

Under the agreement, Fincantieri and Finmeccanica will investigate creation of a common net of suppliers for base products and components.

"Today's (Monday's) agreement, in addition to making the collaboration between two Italian industries of historical significance to the naval sector more effective, represents an important opportunity to strengthen the global position of technological excellence of the two groups," said Mauro Moretti, chief executive officer and general manager of Finmeccanica. "Finmeccanica will provide the skills, products and technologies in combat, weapons and surveillance systems, with the aim of offering an integrated and competitive range of products capable of fully meeting a wide variety of customer requirements.

"The submarine launched today, which integrates some of the most advanced WASS systems, is another strong example of the already profitable collaboration between Fincantieri and Finmeccanica."

WASS is a torpedo and counter-measures torpedo system from a Finmeccanica company.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Fincantieri_announces_submarine_launch_new_collaborative_agreement_999.html.

20,000 Kurds protest against IS in Germany

October 11, 2014

BERLIN (AP) — More than 20,000 Kurdish immigrants have protested in Germany against the Islamic State group.

Police said the demonstration Saturday in the western German city of Duesseldorf was peaceful with people marching through the city's downtown area and waving large Kurdish flags. The protesters are seeking to draw attention to the Islamic State group's onslaught against the Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria.

Similar protests last week turned violent in some German cities when Kurds clashed with supporters of a hard-line Islamic movement. Around 1 million Kurds live in Germany. Most of them immigrated in the 1960s when Germany was recruiting guest workers from Turkey.

Thousands of Kurdish protesters also marched in Paris on Saturday to demonstrate against the Islamic State group.

Panama, a Country and a Canal with Development at Two Speeds

By Fabiola Ortiz

PANAMA CITY, Oct 3 2014 (IPS) - With the expansion of the canal, Panama hopes to see its share of global maritime trade rise threefold. And many Panamanians hope the mega-engineering project will reduce social inequalities in a country where development is moving ahead at two different speeds.

The expansion is happening one hundred years after the inauguration of the canal that links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. At the heart of the project is a third set of locks, larger than the current two, which will accommodate ships with a maximum length of 400 meters, a maximum width of 52 meters and a draught of 15 meters.

Currently the 12,000 ships going through the canal every year have a maximum length of 294 meters, a maximum width of 32 meters and a draught of 12 meters, which means the canal handles only about five percent of global seaborne trade.

The construction work, which began in 2007 and is to be completed in December 2015, is 80 percent done, Ilya de Marotta, the engineer in charge of the expansion works in the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), the government agency responsible for the management of the canal, told IPS.

The aim of the expansion is to boost the canal’s share of global shipping traffic to 15 percent, Olmedo García, director of the University of Panama’s Canal Institute, explained in an interview with IPS.

The 5.2-billion-dollar project will mean the 79-km canal will be able to handle larger vessels capable of carrying nearly three times as many containers.

“The canal now contributes 1.1 billion dollars a year to the national budget. Gross revenues are 2.3 billion dollars, but operating the canal absorbs 1.2 billion,” the academic explained.

“As soon as we finish the expansion, we have to think of building a fourth set of locks, which would cost 12 billion dollars,” said García, because the canal “is and will be the country’s main economic and commercial activity.”

De Marotta said “the expansion was indispensable because the canal was reaching the maximum capacity of boats that could go through. The demand for bigger ships is a global tendency, for bulk carriers and liquefied natural gas carriers – a client we don’t have because they are bigger vessels.”

“This is a good business that we’ll be able to attract now,” she said. “The idea is to avoid falling behind in global trade; with the new locks a container ship could carry 12,000 to 14,000 containers,” the engineer said.

According to projections, the country’s canal revenue will have climbed to 2.5 billion dollars by 2019 and to six billion by 2025, García said.

“The big advantage is that we not only have the Panama Canal, but also the logistics centre; together they represent 40 percent of our GDP. We have the best logistics connectivity in Latin America, with ports on each ocean, railways and the free trade zone,” he said.

“We can create multimodal trade with the merchandise distribution ports,” he added.

Social development at another level

But Panama’s priorities must change in order for the promising economic prospects engendered by the expansion of the canal to translate into benefits for the poorest segments of the population.

Despite annual GDP growth of around seven percent, because of the high levels of inequality, 27.6 percent of the population is poor according to figures from Sept. 28, although García and other academic sources told IPS the poverty rate is actually nine percentage points higher.

In rural areas of this country of 3.8 million people poverty stands at 49.4 percent, compared to 12 percent in urban areas. Worst off are the country’s small indigenous minority, who suffer from a poverty rate of 70 to 90 percent.

And according to official figures from August, 38.6 percent of the economically active population is engaged in the informal sector of the economy.

Thousands of families lack piped water and services such as health care and transportation.

Alfredo Herazo, 29, lives in the capital but takes a bus every day to the city of Colón, where he works in a soldering workshop that he and his father set up. “I don’t like this life but I don’t have any other options,” he told IPS at the end of a long day of work, as he got ready for the 79-km commute back to Panama City.

Colón, the second largest city in Panama, is a port near the Caribbean Sea entrance to the canal and is surrounded by the area that was the Panama Canal Zone when it was under U.S. control.

The canal was fully handed over to Panama on Jan. 1, 2000, as stipulated by the “Torrijos- Carter” treaties signed by the two countries in 1977.

The 450-hectare Colón Free Trade Zone is the world’s second largest free trade area after Hong Kong, with 2,500 companies that import and re-export with a total annual business volume of 30 billion dollars – although business dipped in 2013 because of disputes with Colombia and Venezuela, its biggest clients.

The Colón Free Trade Zone receives 250,000 visitors a year from all over the world.

“Like any Panamanian, I would like to work on the canal or in the duty free zone, because of the salaries paid there. The canal is our pride and joy. If I get the chance, I would be a solderer there,” Herazo said.

The young man said “the problem with the canal, from the point of view of the ordinary citizen, is that we don’t see the profits, which aren’t distributed among the population.”

The neglect of the rundown historic buildings in Colón contrasts sharply with the modern free trade zone, illustrating the gap between the vibrant growth of the canal and the country’s financial and trade centers and the desperation of those included from the boom.

Cesar Santos, 32, has been living in Colón for seven years, making a living selling fruit and vegetables in the Municipal Market in the city centre. He sets up his stand early every morning across from the Municipal Park.

“With this I only have enough to live as a poor man. Life in Colón isn’t good,” he told IPS.

He lists the problems in the city, stressing the lack of sanitation and decent drainage systems. “When it rains, everything floods, the streets are impassable, the city is paralyzed. After a downpour, everything is flooded,” he said.

Besides the lack of urban infrastructure, what bothers him the most is the living conditions of most of the people living in the city.

“People here are really poor,” he said. “People live in condemned houses. Besides all the assaults and thefts, this is a city that has been forgotten by the governments; good thing we have the free trade zone, otherwise there would be even worse poverty,” Santos said, while three customers nodded their heads in agreement.

García, in Panama City, said “The financial centers have to transfer part of their wealth. There is a serious social fracture. The canal can’t just be a channel for trade, communication and world peace. Panamanians need the social debts to be repaid, and part of the wealth should be transferred to the people.”

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/10/panama-a-country-and-a-canal-with-development-at-two-speeds/.

First space weather forecast center opens in Britain

London (XNA)
Oct 11, 2014

The first space weather forecast center opened Wednesday in Exeter, southwestern England. With a funding of 4.6 million pounds (7.4 million U.S. dollars) from the British government, the Met Office Space Weather Center in Devon also houses the Met Office's headquarters.

It will provide space weather forecasts and develop an early warning system aimed at protecting critical infrastructure from the impacts of space weather.

"The Met Office Space Weather Center is a clear demonstration of how the UK is a world leader in space weather. Not only will it help us to guard against the impact of space weather, but its capabilities will mean benefits for British businesses like those in the space industry and the wider economy," Greg Clark, Minister of University, Science and Cities said.

The center is the culmination of more than three years of work drawing on the collective resources and expertise of Britain and the United States.

"Space weather is an all encompassing term covering the near-Earth impact of solar flares, geomagnetic storms and coronal mass ejections from the sun. The impact these have on Earth is becoming ever more important as we become more reliant on technology," said Mark Gibbs, Met Office Space Weather business manager.

Space weather has been identified as one of the most important risks listed on Britain's national risk register. It could cause power grid outages, global positioning system disruption, high frequency radio communications outages, satellite damage and increase radiation threat at high altitude.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/First_space_weather_forecast_center_opens_in_Britain_999.html.

UK Space Agency report reveals continued growth of UK space sector

London, UK (SPX)
Oct 11, 2014

The UK Space Agency has published its biennial study into the progress of the UK space sector.

'The Size and Health of the UK Space Industry' reveals that the sector continues to soar and is currently worth Pounds 11.3 billion to the UK economy, growing at over 7% per year, employing over 34,000 people and supporting a further 65,000 jobs in other sectors.

Speaking at the Royal Aeronautical Society Strategic Choices for Space - President's Conference 2014, Minister for Universities, Science and Cities Greg Clark announced the publication of the report and said:

"The UK space sector makes an impressive contribution to the UK economy and has consistently done so over the last decade, virtually doubling in size in financial terms since 2006.

"These figures show that the UK is well placed to meet our ambitious target of 10 per cent of the global space market by 2030. Co-operation between the public and private sector is the foundation for this continued success."

'The Size and Health of the UK Space Industry' allows the UK Space Agency to track the progress of the sector and serves as a metric against its ambitions and the targets set in the Space Innovation and Growth Strategy. The latest figures reflect well on the past two years of strategic investment by government in key technological innovations.

Through strategic investment, improved policy and stronger international collaboration in areas with the potential for further growth and high economic return, The UK Space Agency is working to build a supportive environment for the commercial space sector and enabling the UK to fully exploit a growing market for space data and technologies.

Source: Space Mart.
Link: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/UK_Space_Agency_report_reveals_continued_growth_of_UK_space_sector_999.html.

Asteroid named for University of Utah makes public debut

Salt Lake City UT (SPX)
Sep 24, 2014

What's rocky, about a mile wide, orbits between Mars and Jupiter and poses no threat to Earth? An asteroid named "Univofutah" after the University of Utah.

Discovered on Sept. 8, 2008, by longtime Utah astronomy educator Patrick Wiggins, the asteroid also known as 391795 (2008 RV77) this month was renamed Univofutah by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"It's neat," Wiggins says. "There aren't too many other universities on the whole planet with asteroids named after them. So that puts the U in rather rarified company."

"We are very honored," says Carleton Detar, the university's chairman of physics and astronomy. "Patrick Wiggins has been a dedicated champion of Utah amateur astronomy. Next, we'll need student volunteers to install a large block U on our asteroid."

Wiggins, who now works as a part-time public education assistant in the university's Department of Physics and Astronomy, had submitted the naming request in July as "Univ of Utah" but the naming agency changed it to Univofutah - much to the dismay of university marketing officials, who would have preferred "U of Utah." Wiggins says names must be limited to 16 characters, ruling out the university's full name.

The asteroid "is no more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) across," Wiggins says. Because of its small size and distance, it is "too far away for even the Hubble Space Telescope to determine the shape."

"Thankfully, this one will not be coming anywhere near the Earth," he adds. "It's a loooong way out. It is in the main asteroid belt. It stays between the orbits or Mars and Jupiter."

As a NASA solar system ambassador to Utah since 2002, Wiggins this year won NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal, the space agency's highest civilian honor.

More than 655,500 Asteroids Now in the Main Belt

Thousands of asteroids are discovered each year, with the total now exceeding 655,500. More than 52,000 have been found so far this year and more than 5,000 so far this month, according to the Minor Planet Center. Near-Earth asteroids, which have orbits that can bring them near Earth, are much less common, with more than 40 discovered so far this year, 897 so far this month and 11,473 found in total.

Wiggins discovered Univofutah using a 35-centimeter (18.8-inch) optical telescope at his home observatory in Toole, Utah.

On the night it was discovered, asteroid Univofutah was about 137 million miles from Earth, almost 1.5 times the distance between the Earth and sun.

Univofutah is the fourth of five asteroids discovered by Wiggins. He also has spotted a number of previously known asteroids, and also thought he discovered a near-Earth asteroid - the kind that can threaten Earth - but it wasn't seen again. This year, he discovered his first supernova, or exploding star.

The other asteroids Wiggins discovered (the first one with his then wife) are Elko and Timerskine in 1999, Laurelanmaurer in 2007 and Nevaruth in 2008. Elko was named for his hometown in Nevada. Timerskine was named by his former wife for her second husband. Laurelanmaurer was named for a friend of a person who won the naming rights during a fundraising auction, and Nevaruth for the grandmother of Wiggins' former wife.

Asteroid Univofutah initially was numbered 391795 because it was the 391,795th minor planet - the term that astronomers use for asteroids - to be discovered and receive a number.

The rest of its original name - 2008 RV77 - is a code for the year and time of year it was discovered, with "R" meaning the first half of September and V meaning it was the 21st asteroid discovered during that half-month. It took until earlier this year before the asteroid even qualified to be given a formal name.

That is because "after the initial discovery, it has to be tracked long enough to where its orbit is well known and the International Astronomical Union is certain it's not a previously discovered minor planet," Wiggins says. "In the case of this one, that took until several months ago."

Wiggins worked from 1975 to 2002 for at Salt Lake City's Hansen Planetarium before it closed and Clark Planetarium was built. He also has been with the Salt Lake Astronomical Society since 1975, and has worked part time at the U since the 1990s. He teaches physics and astronomy in museums, schools and public events.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Asteroid_named_for_University_of_Utah_makes_public_debut_999.html.

India Mars mission enters orbit

New Delhi (AFP)
Sept 24, 2014

India's Mars Orbiter Mission on Wednesday successfully entered orbit around the Red Planet on in its first attempt, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced.

"India has successfully reached Mars. Congratulations to all, to the entire country... history has been created today," Modi said from the Indian Space Research Organization's mission control in south India from where the mission was televised live nationwide.

The success of the mission after its 10-month journey was touted by Modi as a showcase for the country's home-grown and low-cost space technology.

"I have said it in the past too, the amount our scientists have spent on this mission is even less than what they spend in making Hollywood movies," he said in his televised addressed to the mission scientists.

At just $74 million, the mission less than the estimated $100 million budget of the sci-fi blockbuster "Gravity".

India's successful mission to the Red Planet sees it join an elite club that includes United States, Russia and Europe.

The mission plans to study the planet's surface and scan its atmosphere for methane, which could provide evidence of some sort of life form.

The probe is expected to circle Mars for six months, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) from its surface. Its scientific instruments will collect data and send it back to Earth.

"We have prevailed, not everyone gets success in their missions... we got it in our very first attempt. ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) put out this spacecraft in a record time of only three years, every Indian is proud of you," Modi said.

Experts say the mission's main aim is to showcase India's budget space technology and hopefully snatch a bigger share of the $300-billion global space market.

The mission cost just a fraction of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft which successfully began orbiting the fourth planet from the sun on Sunday.

India has so far launched 40 satellites for foreign nations, since kickstarting its space program five decades ago. But China launches bigger satellites.

Critics of the program say a country that struggles to feed its people adequately and where roughly half have no toilets should not be splurging on space travel.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/India_Mars_mission_enters_orbit_999.html.

India wins Asia's Mars race as spacecraft enters orbit

Bangalore, India (AFP)
Sept 24, 2014

India won Asia's race to Mars on Wednesday when its unmanned Mangalyaan spacecraft successfully entered the Red Planet's orbit after a 10-month journey on a tiny budget.

Scientists at mission control let up a wild cheer as the gold-colored craft maneuvered into the planet's orbit at 8:02am (0232 GMT) following a 660-million kilometer (410-million mile) voyage.

"History has been created. We have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near impossible," a jubilant Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) base near Bangalore.

"The success of our space program is a shining symbol of what we are capable of as a nation," Modi said, grinning broadly and hugging the ISRO's chairman.

The success of the mission, which is designed to search for evidence of life on the Red Planet, is a huge source of national pride for India as it competes with its Asian rivals for success in space.

India has been trying to keep up with neighboring giant China, which has poured billions of dollars into its program and plans to build a manned space station by the end of the decade.

At just $74 million, the mission cost is less than the estimated $100 million budget of the sci-fi blockbuster "Gravity". That figure also represents just a fraction of the cost of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft, which successfully began orbiting the fourth planet from the sun on Sunday.

India now joins an elite club of the United States, Russia and Europe who can boast of reaching Mars. More than half of all missions to the planet have ended in failure, including China's in 2011 and Japan's in 2003.

No single nation had previously succeeded at its first go, although the European Space Agency, which represents a consortium of countries, did also pull it off at its first attempt.

- NASA sends congratulations -

Now Mangalyaan has reached Mars, the probe is expected to study the planet's surface and scan its atmosphere for methane, which could provide evidence of some sort of life form.

Mangalyaan is carrying a camera, an imaging spectrometer, a methane sensor and two other scientific instruments.

NASA congratulated India on its "Mars arrival", welcoming Mangalyaan, which means Mars vehicle in Hindi, in a tweet to "the missions studying the Red Planet".

Indian engineers employed an unusual "slingshot" method for Mangalyaan's interplanetary journey, which began when it blasted off from India's southern spaceport on November 5 last year.

Lacking enough rocket power to blast directly out of Earth's atmosphere and gravitational pull, it orbited the Earth for several weeks while building up enough velocity to break free.

Critics of the program say a country that struggles to feed its people adequately and where roughly half have no toilets should not be splurging on space travel.

But supporters say it is the perfect opportunity to showcase India's technological prowess as well as a chance for some one-upmanship on its rival Asian superpower.

"It's a low-cost technology demonstration," said Pallava Bagla, who has written a book on India's space program.

"The rivalry between regional giants China and India exists in space too and this gives India the opportunity to inch ahead of China (and capture more of the market)," Bagla told AFP.

The decision to launch the mission was announced in a speech an Independence Day 2012, shortly after China's attempt flopped when it failed to leave Earth's atmosphere.

India has so far launched 40 satellites for foreign nations, since kick-starting its space program five decades ago. But China launches bigger satellites.

ISRO scientists said the Mars Orbiter Mission or MOM had "demonstrated and proved" India's "technological capabilities" and showed it was capable of venturing further.

"MOM is a major step towards our future missions in inter-planetary space," a beaming ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters.

The probe is expected to circle Mars for six months, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) from its surface. Its scientific instruments will collect information and send it back to Earth.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/India_wins_Asias_Mars_race_as_spacecraft_enters_orbit_999.html.

India to enter Mars orbit on September 24

New Delhi (IANS)
Sep 22, 2014

An Indian spacecraft will enter Mars on September 24 for scientific exploration of the red planet after a 300-day voyage through inter-planetary space, an ISRO official said on Monday.

"After cruising through 666-million km across the solar orbit, for over nine months, our spacecraft will be inserted into the Martian orbit on September 24 at 7.30 a.m.," Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientific secretary V. Koteswara Rao said here at a preview of the mission's tryst with the celestial object.

The orbit insertion will take place when the spacecraft will be 423 km from the Martian surface and 215 million km away (radio distance) from the earth.

The ambitious Rs. 450-crore ($70 million) Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was launched November 5, 2013 on board a polar rocket from the spaceport Sriharikota off the Bay of Bengal, about 80 km north-east of Chennai.

"India will be the first country in the world to insert a spacecraft into the Martian orbit in its maiden attempt if the operation succeeds and also the first Asian country to reach the red planet's sphere," Mr. Rao said.

The ISRO will be the fourth space agency after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the U.S., Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) and European Space Agency (ESA) to have undertaken a mission to Mars.

Incidentally, NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Orbiter (MAVEN) will enter the red planet's orbit Sep 22.

In the run-up to the D-day, the mission scientists will do course (trajectory) correction on September 22.

As on Monday, the 475 kg (dry mass) spacecraft is 13 million km away from Mars, having cruised 98 per cent (201 million km) of the radio distance from the earth and 653 million km of the sun's 666 million km orbit.

"The course correction has been postponed to September 22 from Sunday (September 14) to conserve the precious liquid fuel weighing (852 kg) and ensure the orbital insertion takes place when the spacecraft is closer to Mars for smooth transition from the sun's orbit," Mr. Rao said.

Scientists at the spacecraft's control center have started uploading commands since Sunday and will verify them late Monday.

During the Orbiter's long journey, mid-course correction was carried twice - Dec 11 and June 11 - but skipped in April and August as it was cruising in the solar orbit as intended.

"The liquid apogee motor (LAM) or fuel engine at the bottom of the spacecraft will be fired on September 22 for four seconds to enter the Martian sphere of influence and the course correction will consume about 500gm of fuel," Mr. Rao said.

The speed of the spacecraft will also be reduced to 2.14 meter per second from 22.2 km per second for enabling smooth transition into the Martian orbit from the sun's orbit Sep 24.

The insertion operation will begin at 4.17 a.m. by first activating the spacecraft's three antennas for receiving and transmitting signals between earth and Mars.

At 6.56 a.m., the spacecraft will be rotated towards Mars and five minutes later when sunlight is not falling on the Martian surface causing eclipse, the thrusters beneath the engine will give the Orbiter altitude control.

"The liquid engine will start firing at 7.17 a.m. and at 7.21 a.m., Mars occult begins. A minute later at 7.22 a.m., telemetry (radio signals) will be off or out of receiving radars on the earth," Mr. Rao pointed out.

Scientists at the space agency's deep space network at Byalalu, about 40 km from Bangalore, NASA's Earth station at Goldstone on the U.S. west coast, the ESA's Earth station at Madrid will confirm the insertion into the Martian orbit 24 minutes later at 7.54 a.m.

"Telemetry signals resume and Doppler measurements will provide first signals about the successful insertion of the spacecraft into the Martian orbit," Mr. Rao added.

The spacecraft, with five scientific instruments, will be placed in an elliptical orbit, with the nearest distance from the Martian surface being 423 km and the furthest 80,000 km, to rotate around it in a duration equivalent to 3.2 earth days.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/India_to_enter_Mars_orbit_on_September_24_999.html.

NASA's MAVEN spacecraft enters Mars orbit

Washington (AFP)
Sept 22, 2014

NASA's MAVEN spacecraft began orbiting Mars on Sunday, on a mission to study how the Red Planet's climate changed over time from warm and wet to cold and dry.

The unmanned orbiter has traveled more than 10 months and 442 million miles (711 million kilometers) to reach Mars for a first-of-its kind look at the planet's upper atmosphere.

"Wow, what a night. You get one shot with Mars orbit insertion and MAVEN nailed it tonight," said project manager David Mitchell.

The data from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft aims to help scientists understand what happened to the water on Mars and the carbon dioxide in its atmosphere several billion years ago.

How Mars lost its atmosphere is one of science's biggest mysteries. The answers could shed light on the planet's potential to support life -- even if that was just microbial life -- long ago.

MAVEN's findings are also expected to help add to knowledge of how humans could survive on a future visit to the Red Planet, perhaps as early as 2030.

"Mars is a cool place, but there is not much atmosphere," said John Clarke of the MAVEN science team.

"It is very cold, it is well below zero. The atmosphere is about half a percent of what we are breathing," he added.

"But we know that Mars could change and it was probably different in the past. There is a lot of evidence of flowing water on the surface from Mars's ancient history."

- Mission begins -

Next, MAVEN will enter a six-week phase for tests.

It will then begin a one-year mission of studying the gases in Mars's upper atmosphere and how it interacts with the sun and solar wind.

"We are looking at early November as the official start of science," said MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky.

Much of MAVEN's year-long mission will be spent circling the planet 3,730 miles above the surface.

However, it will execute five deep dips to a distance of just 78 miles above the Martian landscape to get readings of the atmosphere at various levels.

NASA is the world's most successful space agency at sending rovers and probes to Mars, and past missions have included the Viking 1 and 2 in 1975 and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2005.

The US space agency's latest robotic vehicle, Curiosity, is exploring Gale Crater and Mount Sharp, looking for interesting rocks and returning data on whether the Martian environment shows evidence of a past ability to support life.

Later this week, an Indian spacecraft, the Mars Orbiter Mission, is expected to reach Mars.

The unmanned MOM probe is set to enter Mars's orbit in the coming days after 10 months in space, marking India's first mission to the Red Planet.

"We are anxiously awaiting the arrival in two days of the India MOM mission and we are hoping for their success," said Jakosky.

"We are sending them the best wishes from the entire MAVEN team for a successful orbit insertion and mission."

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/NASAs_MAVEN_spacecraft_enters_Mars_orbit_999.html.