Fleeing war and crumbling economy, Ukrainians flock to Europe

04 December 2014 Thursday

Andriy left his home town in western Ukraine earlier this year on a journey that brought him through the hands of shady traders in Poland to one of the world's booming markets for illegal immigrants - London.

Fleeing the strife of war with Russian-backed fighters and a shattered economy, Andriy is following a path similar to one taken by thousands of his fellow Ukrainians who have travelled either eastwards to Russia or westwards to the European Union.

"I don't want to fight in any war," said Andriy, who spoke on the condition neither his surname nor home town would be published because of fear that he could be deported.

The nineteen-year-old, speaking in Russian because his English is limited, added: "I don't want to die - I want to live. I just want a normal life."

More than 4,300 combatants and civilians have been killed in eastern Ukraine since pro-Russian rebels seized border regions in April. Nearly a million people have fled the area, with a surge in the past two months.

Most have fled to other areas of Ukraine but some have gone further afield, with thousands seeking a new life in Russia and, increasingly, Europe.

According to several legal and illegal migrants who spoke to Reuters, many are coming via gangs in Poland, the Baltics and Ukraine that offer fake or doctored EU documents for several thousand dollars, plus the option of transport to Western Europe where spot document checks are extremely rare.

The nature of illegal immigration means it yields little data but legal flows show Ukrainians were the biggest single group of non-EU citizens granted residency permits by EU members in 2013.

According to Eurostat, 236,700 Ukrainians were granted residency permits by EU states last year, and 171,800 of those permits were granted in Poland, one of the main routes for Ukrainians to travel to Western Europe.

The flows abroad are modest compared to the exodus during the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union or the Jewish emigration that helped populate New York's Brighton Beach, but stories such as Andriy's give a sense of the turmoil sowed by the crisis.

SILENT WORKERS

Some men are driven to leave by the fear of being called up into the poorly equipped Ukrainian army that is fighting the Russian-backed rebels.

For many other migrants, finding acceptably paid work is the overriding reason to travel.

Their voices are silent in European discourse, but illegal migrants such as Andriy are cast by some politicians as the enemies of hardworking European voters.

The migrants thrive in a taxless underworld that is flush with demand and cash: Andriy has no intention of returning to Ukraine because demand for his decorating and repair services is high in London's booming property market.

The cash he can earn in Britain - often more than several hundred pounds a week - far outstrips what he could earn in Ukraine's near-bankrupt $135 billion economy.

For some Ukrainians the turmoil stoked by the Russian-backed insurgents is the final straw in a wider disenchantment with the day-to-day reality of corrupt elites, economic collapse and violence that has followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Popular destinations for Ukrainians include Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Britain's attractiveness is dampened by more stringent border controls than other EU countries.

Reuters has seen one of the doctored documents used as identification by migrants, who said Poland was the door to freedom for many.

"Lots of people go illegally," said a Ukrainian woman living legally in Poland, who did not want to be identified. "Lots of people go through Poland... it's where Europe starts."

'SKYPE PARENTS'

With the correct documents, a Ukrainian living in the European Union could legally seek work, pay tax, open a bank account and travel home.

Without the correct documents, migrants in Europe are forced to work around the law.

As a result many spend years apart from their children who benefit from their earnings but not their presence.

"Migrants come for a better life but there are some heartbreaking situations: Mothers who have left their children in Ukraine and communicate by Skype," said Andy Hunder, director of the Ukrainian Institute in London.

"They feed their children but to feed them they must leave them," he said.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/149854/fleeing-war-and-crumbling-economy-ukrainians-flock-to-europe.

Work on Rome subway digs up ancient farm, tools

December 03, 2014

ROME (AP) — Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient commercial farm in the heart of modern Rome, taking advantage of subway construction to explore deeply in urban settings.

They worked some 20 meters down (some six stories deep) near St. John in Lateran Basilica. Today's Rome rests upon medieval layers and, under those, more ancient strata of life. Rossella Rea, the dig's leader and a culture ministry official, said Wednesday that archaeologists discovered a first-century agricultural business, the closest to Rome's ancient center ever found, an irrigation basin measuring 35 by 70 meters (115 feet by 230 feet), and an extensive drainage system near the ancient Aqua Crabra water source.

Notable finds included a three-pronged iron pitchfork, storage baskets, leather fragments possibly from a farmhand's glove or shoe, and traces carved into stone by a waterwheel's repeated turning. Also extraordinary are well-preserved vestiges of willow and other tree roots and stumps.

Peach pits, presumably from the farm's orchard, also were found. Peaches were still a novelty, first imported from the Middle East. "They were almost luxury items," Rea told The Associated Press at the American Academy in Rome, where a conference discussed the findings.

Ancient Romans recycled. Amphorae, the jars they favored to transport and store food, were lined up with their ends cut open to double as water conduits. Other older signs of life were carriage ruts from as long ago as the 6th century B.C.

Rea said some discoveries will eventually be integrated into the St. John's subway station so the public can see then, while other artifacts will go on display in Rome museums. Visitors will have a long wait for that subway station. Metro C line construction is running years behind schedule.

US criticism boosts Hungary's dissent movement

December 03, 2014

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Buoyed by pressure from the United States, throngs of ordinary Hungarians are fighting back against Prime Minister Viktor Orban's drive to consolidate power through a perceived crackdown on civil liberties.

Since mid-October, Hungarians have waged a string of street rallies in Budapest and other cities to protest a range of alleged misdeeds by Orban, including a violation of democratic norms, suspected tolerance to corruption and an increasingly pro-Russian stance that is harming ties with the West.

U.S. criticism has played a strong supporting role, with the latest salvo coming this week from Sen. John McCain, who called Orban a "neofascist dictator." Hungary's foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned the top American diplomat in Budapest over McCain's comments. Last month Washington imposed entry bans on six Hungarian officials suspected of corruption, while both President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton have criticized Orban's authoritarian course.

Tamas Mellar, a former Orban ally who spoke at his first anti-Orban rally in late October, said the U.S. corruption allegations were a catalyst for him, giving him hope that change is possible. "At that moment I also began to feel that we are not completely alone and that this whole issue is not hopeless," said Mellar, a onetime economic adviser to Orban who now teaches at university. "I believe many of us began to think this way and many people who had not been politically active went out to the streets."

Julia Lakatos, an analyst with the Center for Fair Political Analysis in Budapest, said she considers the protests "a tipping point." "While the protests will not bring early elections or a change of government, they have shown that there is pent up frustration on all sides of the political spectrum," Lakatos said. This frustration, she argued, is "giving an impetus to civil society, which may eventually lead a group of activists to step into the limelight."

The rising social mood against Orban has been sparked largely by repressive measures against civil society, including laws to stifle critical journalists and constitutional protections of conservative Christian values. A defining moment in his tenure came in July, when he gave a speech saying he wants to turn Hungary into an "illiberal state" and cited Russia, China, Turkey and Singapore as successful models.

Many Hungarians are angry over Orban's apparent lurch toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, manifested by the inking of key energy deals with Moscow. "Hungary belongs in the West," said delivery man Antal Pinter during a recent protest. "Enough already with all this winking toward Russia."

The issue that sparked the largest protests in October was a plan by Orban to impose a tax on Internet usage, a perceived violation of free speech. The show of opposition by large numbers of young middle class people in protests in October forced Orban to shelve the idea in its current form, though he says he might revisit the matter next year.

Thousands also turned out at a pair of rallies in November to protest corruption, while about 2,000 people marched on Nov. 22 to protest planned spending cuts and centralization in the educational system. The changes include plans to urge more students to leave university-track schools in favor of vocational-track programs. Orban's critics view it as another attempt to weaken civil society.

"The government does not want too many thinking people who can form an independent image of the world," said Mellar. Except for the shift in the Internet tax, the government has not substantially addressed the criticisms.

And the government has brushed off Washington's denunciations, saying it want the U.S. to provide proof of the alleged corruption by the six banned officials so it can launch an investigation. In particular, Hungary refuses to the remove Ildiko Vida, the head of the tax office who has acknowledged being among those barred — while also denying corruption allegations.

McCain's comments Tuesday were made while unsuccessfully trying to persuade the Senate to reject President Obama's nominee to fill the vacant U.S. ambassador post in Hungary. McCain said soap opera producer Colleen Bell was "totally unqualified" for the task.

McCain, who met Orban in February, said Hungary was "on the verge of ceding its sovereignty to a neo-fascist dictator getting in bed with Vladimir Putin." Levente Magyar, state secretary for economic diplomacy at the Foreign Ministry, said the Hungarian government rejected McCain's remarks about Orban and the relationship between Hungary and Russia, describing the senator's comments as "unacceptable."

The tensions between Orban's government and the U.S. have played out over Twitter. The U.S. Embassy's charge d'affaires, Andre Goodfriend, attended one of the protests against the Internet tax, drawing a rebuke from government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs, who criticized him for joining a rally led by the opposition liberals and Socialists and accused him of trying to influence Hungarian affairs.

Goodfriend, who was summoned Wednesday as the most senior U.S. diplomat in Budapest, said he was just trying to see what was happening in the country. He later posted a picture of himself on Twitter at an earlier pro-Orban rally, saying: "I try to see the full range of life in Hungary."

Orban, 51, won his second stint as prime minister in 2010 with a two-thirds majority in parliament that allowed him to start centralizing power. He overwhelmingly won re-election earlier this year after changing the elections laws to favor his party.

Balazs Nemes, an organizer of anti-corruption protests, said the rallies needed to "serve as an incubator so civil society can start to organize itself." "Our desire is for a new arrangement, an inclusive, democratic and transparent political system," said the 22-year-old economics student.

Belgium to recognize Palestine statehood -report

04 December 2014 Thursday

Belgium’s main political parties are reportedly working on a resolution to recognize Palestine as a state, a Belgian daily reported Wednesday.

Le Soir reported that Belgium’s coalition government reached an agreement earlier this week. The Belgian parliament will reportedly debate a resolution on the subject as early as next week.

However, the draft text for the planned motion to recognize Palestine as a state does not set a date. The recognition will happen when “deemed appropriate,” according to the Belgian daily.

If the motion is adopted then Belgium will become the second EU member country after Sweden to recognize Palestine as a state.

Sweden recognized Palestine statehood on Oct. 20, a move followed by the French parliament's lower house which passed a non-binding motion last Tuesday encouraging the French government to do the same.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/149853/belgium-to-recognize-palestine-statehood-report.

Belarus bans headscarved photos for IDs and passports

19 November 2014 Wednesday

Muslim women’s in Belarus are now banned from having any photos on ID cards showing them with the headscarf.

In the capital city of Minsk, the Religious and National Interfaith Commissioner Council that is tied to the government in their annual general meeting came to some agreements. Amongst these was the decision that will affect Muslim women whereby the headscarf will be banned in all official photos.

Dmitry Levchenko, the President of the Domestic Residency Department said that no photographs of scarves or hats will be accepted on identification cards or passports. Levchenko also pointed that in 2008 a decision was made that photographs of women with their headscarves will no longer be accepted on passports.

The Mufti of Belarus Ali Varanovich who participated in the meeting stated that Muslim women must wear their headscarf and that this was something that all sects within the Islamic community agreed upon, that this issue of photographs would be a serious issue that cannot be resolved any other way and that this ban will effectively  give way to distrust between the Muslim community and the government.

This view was not supported by other members in the council. Council President Leonid Gulyako confirmed that they will comply with the decision of the Residency Department.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/148762/belarus-bans-headscarved-photos-for-ids-and-passports.

Swedish premier to call for new vote on March 22

December 03, 2014

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden's prime minister said Wednesday he will call for new elections on March 22 after an anti-immigration party helped opposition lawmakers reject the left-leaning minority government's budget proposal.

Social Democrat Stefan Lofven, who took office just over two months ago, saw his first budget dismissed as the far-right Sweden Democrats Party sided with the center-right opposition. 182 lawmakers voted against and 153 in favor of the budget in Parliament Wednesday, prompting the first call for early elections in Sweden in over 50 years.

The Sweden Democrats, the only party that opposes the Scandinavian country's famed liberal immigration laws, had sworn to topple the government and said the next election would hinge on immigration issues.

"We will do our best to ensure the early elections become a referendum for or against immigration," Sweden Democrats spokesman Matthias Karlsson told a news conference, adding the party thinks immigration swallows too much of Sweden's resources.

The Sweden Democrats' opposition to the budget proposal was considered a major political breakthrough for the group that became the country's third-largest party in the 349-seat Parliament two months ago. With right-wing extremist roots, the party stands alone in Swedish politics and despite efforts to soften its image all other groups have refused to work with it.

"The Sweden Democrats really have played tough. They want to steer Swedish politics," said Drude Dahlerup, a political science professor at Stockholm University. A leading local daily, Dagens Nyheter, on Wednesday wrote in an editorial that "racism has taken Sweden hostage."

"That says a lot about what is happening," Dahlerup said, adding that the party, which has sworn to vote against any grouping that favors immigration, could suffer a setback in the March elections. In 2012, some 20 percent of Sweden's 10 million inhabitants had foreign roots, including people from western countries, according to official figures. In recent years, immigrants have come mainly from Iraq, Poland, Afghanistan and Syria.

Lofven, who became prime minister as head of a coalition with the Greens after the September elections, has to wait until at least Dec. 29 to officially call the new election according to Sweden's Constitution.

He has indicated he will remain in office until the new elections are held, but voiced disappointment after prolonged talks with various parties, including the center-right opposition, broke down late Tuesday.

He said the ruling coalition had been willing to cooperate with several parties, except the Sweden Democrats. "I cannot let the Sweden Democrats dictate the conditions," he said after the Parliament vote, describing the anti-immigration group as "irresponsible."

Lofven came to power promising to reverse many reforms by the previous center-right government, including pro-market policies and tax cuts that many feared have undermined the country's welfare system.

He promised to raise income tax for high earners, increase benefits for the unemployed and sick, and boost the defense budget. From the start, his minority government — which holds 138 seats in parliament — was expected to struggle to push its agenda through. With the support of the former Communist Left Party, which stands outside the Cabinet, it controls 159 seats.

The center-right opposition, made up of four parties, has 141 seats, but the extra votes — from the 49 Sweden Democrats — were enough to topple the ruling coalition.

Associated Press reporter Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki contributed to this report.

Venezuela indicts opposition leader Machado

04 December 2014 Thursday

Venezuela has indicted hardline opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on charges that she took part in an alleged plot to kill President Nicolas Maduro, the state prosecutor's office said on Wednesday.

Machado, who was at the forefront of major street protests against Maduro's socialist government earlier this year, has dismissed the accusations as a charade meant to silence her and distract Venezuelans from a growing economic crisis.

If found guilty, the former legislator could be sentenced to between 8 and 16 years in jail.

"Our only option is to fight for democracy and freedom," Machado said after she was indicted at the state prosecutor's office in Caracas on Wednesday.

"We're at the doors of a transition period," she said, , draped in a yellow, blue, and red Venezuelan flag as dozens of supporters chanted their support.

One of Machado's advisers said authorities had not ordered her immediate detention. There were no immediate indications the case could spark the same type of street demonstrations that rocked Venezuela for three months earlier this year.

Fellow opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who with Machado kickstarted the anti-government protests, has been behind bars since February in what government critics blast as a crackdown on political foes.

They say Maduro, who was elected to succeed late socialist leader Hugo Chavez in office last year, has tightened the state's grip on the judiciary and the electoral system, and wants to sideline political opponents ahead of key legislative elections in 2015.

Maduro, a former union leader and bus driver, dismissed this year's protests as part of a U.S.-backed plot to destabilize his government. His popularity has tumbled since he took office, stung by shortages of consumer goods and soaring inflation.

The opposition's radical wing praises the fiery Machado, 47, for standing up to what they consider a dictatorship.

But she is loathed by many government supporters, who see her as an out-of-touch aristocrat intent on toppling the government.

They frequently point out she signed a decree that dissolved state institutions during a de facto government that ruled for less than two days in a botched 2002 coup against Chavez.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/149833/venezuela-indicts-opposition-leader-machado.

New England's oldest mosque celebrates 50th anniversary

21 November 2014 Friday

New England’s oldest mosque, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary Saturday with a ceremony in Quincy followed by a banquet at Lombardo’s in Randolph, The Patriot Ledger reported.

As America’s Muslim population grew rapidly, since opening in 1964, so did the size of the Islamic Center.

According to the Patrick Ronan report, the mosque started with seven founding families and has expanded to more than 1,000 member families from all over the South Shore and Greater Boston. The original members hailed from one country – Lebanon – while today’s congregation represents 36 different nationalities.

And what started with a humble $50,000 structure in Quincy Point has since blossomed into two mosques, one in Quincy and one in Sharon. Both house a school and are on the verge of major expansion projects.

Arson fires in 1990 and 2003 caused significant damage to the Quincy mosque, but the biggest challenge came following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Islamic Center got its start a half-century ago when seven immigrant families living near the Fore River Shipyard joined to build the mosque at 470 South St. The seven founding families were: Abrahams, Allies, Ameens, Derbeses, El-Deebs, Hassans and Omars.

The Islamic Center is trying to raise money for a proposed $1.5 million expansion of the Quincy mosque and a $6 million-plus expansion of the Sharon mosque, projects that would include bigger prayer rooms, more classrooms and other improvements.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/148941/new-englands-oldest-mosque-celebrates-50th-anniversary.

How a giant impact formed asteroid Vesta's 'belt'

Providence RI (SPX)
Nov 04, 2014

When NASA's Dawn spacecraft visited the asteroid Vesta in 2011, it showed that deep grooves that circle the asteroid's equator like a cosmic belt were probably caused by a massive impact on Vesta's south pole.

Now, using a super high-speed cannon at NASA's Ames Research Center, Brown University researchers have shed new light on the violent chain of events deep in Vesta's interior that formed those surface grooves, some of which are wider than the Grand Canyon.

"Vesta got hammered," said Peter Schultz, professor of earth, environmental, and planetary sciences at Brown and the paper's senior author. "The whole interior was reverberating, and what we see on the surface is the manifestation of what happened in the interior."

The research suggests that the Rheasilvia basin on Vesta's south pole was created by an impactor that came in at an angle, rather than straight on. But that glancing blow still did an almost unimaginable amount of damage.

The study shows that just seconds after the collision, rocks deep inside the asteroid began to crack and crumble under the stress. Within two minutes major faults reached near the surface, forming deep the canyons seen today near Vesta's equator, far from the impact point.

The research, led by Angela Stickle, a former graduate student at Brown and now a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, will appear in the February issue of the journal Icarus and is now available online.

"As soon as Pete and I saw the images coming down from the Dawn mission at Vesta, we were really excited," Stickle said. "The large fractures looked just like things we saw in our experiments. So we decided to look into them in more detail, and run the models, and we found really interesting relationships."

For the study, the researchers used the Ames Vertical Gun Range, a cannon with a 14-foot barrel used to simulate collisions on celestial bodies. The gun uses gunpowder and compressed hydrogen gas to launch projectiles at blinding speed, up to 16,000 miles per hour. For this latest research, Schultz and his colleagues launched small projectiles at softball-sized spheres made of an acrylic material called PMMA.

When struck, the normally clear material turns opaque at points of high stress. By watching the impact with high-speed cameras that take a million shots per second, the researchers can see how these stresses propagate through the material.

The experiments showed that that damage from the impact starts where one would expect: at the impact point. But shortly after, failure patterns begin to form inside the sphere, opposite the point of impact. Those failures grow inward toward the sphere's center and then propagate outward toward the edges of the sphere like a blooming flower.

Using numerical models to scale the lab collision up to the size of Vesta, the second-largest object in the asteroid belt, the researchers showed that the outward-blooming "rosette" of damage extending to the surface is responsible for the troughs that form a belt around Vesta's equator.

The results answer some questions about Vesta's belt that had long been puzzling. Chief among them is the orientation of the belt with respect to the crater. The belt's angle isn't exactly what would be expected if it were caused by the Rheasilvia impact.

"The belt is askew," Schultz said, "as if Vesta were making a fashion statement."

These new experiments suggest that the crooked belt is the result of the angle of impact. An oblique impact causes the damage plane to be tilted with respect the crater.

The orientation of Vesta's belt sheds light on the nature of the impact. The researchers conclude that the object that created Rheasilvia came in at an angle less than 40 degrees, traveling at about 11,000 miles per hour.

"Vesta was lucky," Schultz said. "If this collision had been straight on, there would have been one less large asteroid and only a family of fragments left behind."

The research shows that even a glancing blow can have tremendous consequences.

"When big things happen to small bodies," Schultz said, "it shakes them to the core."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/How_a_giant_impact_formed_asteroid_Vestas_belt_999.html.

China's Lunar Orbiter Makes Safe Landing, First in 40 Years

Moscow (RIA Novosti)
Nov 04, 2014

China's maiden lunar orbiter has successfully flown around the far side of the Moon and made a safe landing on Saturday, in what is the first mission of the kind in some 40 years, Xinhua news agency said.

The unmanned test orbiter came down in a designated area, in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the agency said, adding that Chinese researchers had retrieved the spacecraft's capsule to examine its re-entry data which will be used for a planned lunar mission.

The landing marks almost half a century since the last orbiter mission by the Soviet Union in the 1970s, making China the third nation after the former Soviet Union and the United States to do so.

The spacecraft was launched into orbit last Friday. During its eight-day mission the space vehicle - dubbed "Xiaofei" ("Little Flier") on the Chinese social media - covered 840,000 kilometers and took some photos of both the Earth and the Moon.

The program has been described as a "test run" for the three-stage Chinese lunar program, Chang'e, to collect samples. The program, named after the Moon Goddess, includes the orbiting (Chang'e 1 and 2), landing (Chang'e 3 and 4) and sample return (Chang'e 5 and 6).

In December, China put a 140-kilogram lunar rover into orbit.

The Yutu rover, whose name translates as Jade Rabbit, made the first soft landing of any probe on the moon in nearly four decades. On January 25, China said the space vehicle had experienced a mechanical control abnormality because of the "complicated lunar surface environment."

The problem occurred shortly before the rover, which was meant to roam the lunar surface for three months while surveying natural resources, went into automatic shutdown for the two-week lunar night.

The landing of the Jade Rabbit on the moon was hailed as a major success of the ambitious Chinese space program, which also includes a permanent space station and manned flights to the moon and Mars.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinas_Lunar_Orbiter_Makes_Safe_Landing_First_in_40_Years_999.html.

India to launch unmanned crew module in December

Bangalore, India (IANS)
Nov 04, 2014

India will launch an unmanned crew module in December onboard a heavy rocket to test its re-entry into the atmosphere for the country's future maiden human space flight, the space agency chief said Thursday.

"We will send an unmanned crew module on the experimental GSLV-Mark III rocket in December and test its re-entry into the earth's atmosphere for a human space flight plan in future," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters here on the margins of an engineers conclave.

Weighing 3.6 tonnes, the crew module will be put into space orbit 100-120 km away in a satellite and brought back to earth for checking its re-entry characteristics when carrying two Indian astronauts in the proposed human space flight.

"Though the actual human space flight will be in an orbit around earth at a height of 270 km for a week, the experimental flight with the crew module in a spacecraft will go up to 100-120 km above earth to test its heat shield survive very high temperatures (about 1, 500 degrees Celsius) during the re-entry into the atmosphere," Radhakrishnan noted.

The crew module will have a parachute that will open up after re-entry into the atmosphere and fall into sea for retrieval.

"The parachute will open up for soft landing of the spacecraft carrying the crew module in the Bay of Bengal, about 450 km away from Andamans (islands), and will be retrieved by a boat," Radhakrishnan said.

The previous UPA government had sanctioned Rs.145 crore to ISRO for developing a crew module that will fly two Indian astronauts into space, space suits, life support systems and related technologies for the human space flight program.

The heavy rocket (GSLV) will, however, have a passive cryogenic stage - liquid nitrogen at super cooled temperature and gaseous nitrogen instead of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

The space agency is integrating the rocket with the crew module at its Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, about 90 km northeast of Chennai.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/India_to_launch_unmanned_crew_module_in_December_999.html.

India to test fly bigger space vehicle next month

New Delhi (XNA)
Nov 04, 2014

India will conduct a partial test flight of a bigger and better space vehicle next month, a top official of the state-owned space agency has reportedly said.

The landmark test flight of GSLV Mark-III will lead to "a future workhorse vehicle that will stay with us for many years," Indian Space Research Organization chief K. Radhakrishnan was quoted by the media as saying in the southern city of Bengaluru Friday.

GSLV Mark-III will enable India to send larger national communication satellites into space.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/India_to_test_fly_bigger_space_vehicle_next_month_999.html.

China gears up for lunar mission after round-trip success

Beijing (XNA)
Nov 04, 2014

The head of China's lunar probe program has called for a thorough analysis of data collected from the test lunar orbiter, which returned Saturday, to speed up work on Chang'e-5, the star of the 2017 lunar mission.

With the test lunar orbiter landing early Saturday in north China after an eight-day flight, China joined the Soviet Union and the United States and became the third nation to realize a return mission to the Moon.

"The mission was realized with stable flight and precision in launch timing, orbit entry, recovery, and all pre-set goals were achieved," said Xu Daze, also head of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, on Sunday at a ceremony for the reception of the orbiter.

According to Xu, the mission marked a "breakthrough" in the third and final phase of the lunar schedule -- orbiting, landing and return -- and had heighened understanding of high-velocity re-entry mechanisms, development of new materials and innovative space equipment design.

Chang'e-5 will collect samples from the lunar surface in a mission planned for 2017.

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/China_gears_up_for_lunar_mission_after_round_trip_success_999.html.

China completes first mission to moon and back

Beijing (AFP)
Nov 01, 2014

China completed its first return mission to the moon early Saturday with the successful re-entry and landing of an unmanned probe, state media reported, in the latest step forward for Beijing's ambitious space program.

The probe landed safely in northern China's Inner Mongolia region, state news agency Xinhua said, citing the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

Xinhua said the probe took "some incredible pictures" of the Earth and the moon.

Prior to re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, the unnamed probe was travelling at 11.2 kilometers per second (25,000 miles per hour), a speed that can generate temperatures of more than 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,700 degrees Fahrenheit), the news agency reported.

To slow it down, scientists let the craft "bounce" off Earth's atmosphere before re-entering again and landing.

The probe's mission was to travel to the moon, fly around it and head back to Earth, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) said in a statement at its launch eight days ago.

The module would have been 413,000 kilometers from Earth at its furthest point on the mission, SASTIND said at the time.

The mission was launched to test technology to be used in the Chang'e-5, China's fourth lunar probe, which aims to gather samples from the moon's surface and will be launched around 2017, SASTIND previously said.

Beijing sees its multi-billion-dollar space program as a marker of its rising global stature and mounting technical expertise.

The military-run space project, which has plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually to send a human to the moon, is also seen as evidence of the ruling Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.

China currently has a rover on the surface of the moon.

The craft, called the Jade Rabbit and launched as part of the Chang'e-3 lunar mission late last year, has been declared a success by Chinese authorities, although it has been beset by mechanical troubles...

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_completes_first_mission_to_moon_and_back_999.html.

Yale finds a planet that won't stick to a schedule

New Haven CT (SPX)
Oct 31, 2014

For their latest discovery, Yale astronomers and the Planet Hunters program have found a low-mass, low-density planet with a punctuality problem.

The new planet, called PH3c, is located 2,300 light years from Earth and has an atmosphere loaded with hydrogen and helium. It is described in the Oct. 29 online edition of The Astrophysical Journal.

The elusive orb nearly avoided detection. This is because PH3c has a highly inconsistent orbit time around its sun, due to the gravitational influence of other planets in its system.

"On Earth, these effects are very small, only on the scale of one second or so," said Joseph Schmitt, a Yale graduate student and first author of the paper. "PH3c's orbital period changed by 10.5 hours in just 10 orbits."

That inconsistency kept it from being picked up by automated computer algorithms that search stellar light curves and identify regular dips caused by objects passing in front of stars.

Luckily, Planet Hunters came to the rescue. The program, which has found more than 60 planet candidates since 2010, enlists citizen scientists to check survey data from the Kepler spacecraft. Planet Hunters recently unveiled a new website and an expanded scientific mission.

"It harnesses the human dimension of science," said Debra Fischer, who leads the exoplanets group at Yale and is a co-author of the paper. "Computers can't find the unexpected, but people can, when they eyeball the data."

More than 300,000 volunteers are part of Planet Hunters, which is coordinated by Yale and the University of Oxford. The program's revamped website will allow Planet Hunters to analyze data more quickly than before, Fischer said. In addition, Planet Hunters is launching an effort to see if there is a correlation between types of stars and the planets that form around them.

"I think we'll be able to contribute some really unique science this way," Fischer said.

Not only did Planet Hunters spot PH3c, but the discovery also enabled astronomers to better characterize two other planets - one on each side of PH3c. An outer planet, PH3d, is slightly larger and heavier than Saturn, for example. An inner planet, PH3b, may have a rocky composition, like Earth.

"Finding the middle planet was key to confirming the others and allowing us to find their masses," Schmitt said. "The outer planet's orbital period also changes slightly, by about 10 minutes. You need to see both planets' changing orbital periods in order to find out the masses of the planets. One planet doesn't give enough information."

There's also a quirky aspect of the planetary trio, Schmitt added. The outer planet's year is 1.91 times longer than the middle planet's year, and the middle planet's year is 1.91 times longer than the inner planet's year.

"We're not sure if this is just a coincidence or whether this might tell us something about how the planets were formed," Schmitt said.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Yale_finds_a_planet_that_wont_stick_to_a_schedule_999.html.

Virgin spaceship crashes in US desert, one pilot dead

by Michael Thurston
Los Angeles (AFP)
Oct 31, 2014

Virgin Galactic's pioneering spacecraft designed to take tourists into space crashed Friday in California, killing one of its two pilots and scattering debris across the desert.

Television images showed the wreckage of SpaceShipTwo, a test vehicle that flies to the edge of space, amid brush east of Mojave, a few hours' drive northeast of Los Angeles.

"Space is hard and today was a tough day," George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic told reporters at a media briefing a few hours after the crash.

"When we have a mishap from the test community, we find the test community is very small ... and we are human, and it hurts," added Stuart Witt, head of the Mojave Air and Space Port.

The incident is the econd disaster involving a US spacecraft this week, after an unmanned Orbital Science rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded after launch on Tuesday.

It is also a huge blow to British tycoon Richard Branson's long-held dream of offering the first passenger space flights, which have been snapped up by celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio.

The Virgin chief said he was heading straight to the site, as the California Highway Patrol confirmed that one pilot had died and another was seriously injured and taken to hospital.

"Thoughts with all @virgingalactic ... I'm flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team," he wrote on Twitter. Whitesides later said that the globe-trotting tycoon was due in Mojave by Saturday morning.

Reserved seats

The spaceship had been carried aloft on a bigger aircraft known as WhiteKnightTwo and then released for a test of its rocket engine above the Mojave desert, the latest in a series of tests.

Witt told reporters that WhiteKnightTwo took off at 9:20 am, and released SpaceShipTwo at an altitude of 45,000 feet, at 10:10 am, after 50 minutes of flight.

Two minutes later Witt, watching from the space port, said it became clear something had gone wrong, even though there was nothing obvious visually from the ground.

"If there was a huge explosion I didn't see it," he said, adding: "From my eyes and my ears I detected nothing that appeared abnormal."

The US air safety agency, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said it was sending a team to the site of the crash.

The flight -- the 35th by SpaceShipTwo, according to Virgin Galactic's Twitter feed -- involved the same configuration as previously, although the type of fuel was new, officials said.

More than 500 people have already reserved seats -- and paid a deposit on the $250,000 ticket price -- for a minutes-long suborbital flight on SpaceShipTwo, which can carry six passengers.

DiCaprio and fellow actors Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are among those already reported to have booked their place.

In May "Titanic" star DiCaprio auctioned off an invitation to join him on a trip with him into space, raising 700,000 euros ($876,000).

Private companies are rushing to fill the gap left by NASA, which ended its 30-year shuttle program in July with the completion of the final Atlantis mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Analysts said the accident is a huge blow to the nascent industry.

"It's a setback for the tourism industry," said Marco Caceres, an analyst and director of space studies for the Teal Group, a defense and aerospace consultancy just outside of Washington, DC.

"You are not going to see any commercial space tourism flight next year or probably several years after that," he told AFP.

But Witt said the commercial space industry, and all the young entrepreneurs working in it, must move beyond Friday's tragedy. "My message to theme is stay the course," he said.

Whitesides echoed the sentiment, saying: "We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today. And we're going to get through it.

The future rests in many ways on hard days like these.

Reality TV

"We believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles .. to understand this and to move forward, which is what we'll do," he said.

Friday's incident is the second involving an American spacecraft this week, after the Orbital Science rocket exploded six seconds after launch on a resupply mission to the ISS.

Initial investigations into that explosion centered on the pair of rocket engines providing its thrust, which were made during the Soviet era and refurbished.

The Virgin crash also raised questions over a reality TV show, "Space Race."

The show, which was commissioned last year, pits contenders against each other to win a flight on the Virgin Galactic spacecraft, according to entertainment industry journal Variety.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Virgin_spaceship_crashes_in_US_desert_one_pilot_dead_999.html.

Russia Ratifies Cuba Space Deal

Moscow (RIA Novosti)
Oct 30, 2014

Russia's Federation Council has ratified the intergovernmental agreement with Cuba on cooperation in exploring and using space for peaceful purposes on Wednesday.

The agreement was signed on February 21, 2013 in Havana, Cuba and is aimed at creating organizational and legal foundation for the formation and development of cooperation projects between Russia and Cuba in the field of satellite communications, broadcasting and satellite navigation.

The cooperation between the two countries will also relate to space geodesy and meteorology, and remote sensing of the Earth from space.

A number of issues on using the results of the joint activities towards the creation of new space equipment and technologies in other areas of economy are currently under discussion.

Issues, relating to the protection of intellectual rights, exchange of information, the procedures for resolving disputes between the parties as well as those pertaining to accountability and compensation for damage are also under discussion.

It has been reported that the goods to be specially designated for the purpose of cooperation within the agreement will be exempt from tariffs and taxes when transported through the Customs.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russias_Federation_Council_Ratifies_Space_Cooperation_Agreement_With_Cuba_999.html.

ISS Crew Has Enough Supplies Until March 2015

Washington DC (RIA Novosti)
Oct 30, 2014

In case no spacecraft makes it to the ISS (International Space Station) in the near future, the supplies will be enough until March 2015, Mike Suffredini, NASA's International Space Station Program Manager, said at the press briefing, dedicated to the Antares rocket explosion at the launchpad, which occurred in Virginia Tuesday.

"We keep the logistics on board the ISS to protect us from 4 to 6 month in case a logistic vehicle cannot make it to the ISS. So the logistics when there is no other spacecraft showed up, take us well into the next year," Suffredini said Tuesday night.

NASA representative added that there are plenty of supplies on board of the space station.

"The crew has all the food, water and other consumers necessary well into next year. I think if no other vehicle shows up we can go all way to about the March time frame," he stated.

The Antares rocket with the Cygnus spacecraft was supposed to be launched Tuesday from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to deliver more than 2 tons of cargo to the ISS.

The unmanned rocket, however, exploded six seconds after liftoff.

Apart from provisions for the crew, the cargo onboard the Cygnus included science experiments equipment and some spares, but according to Suffredini, the situation is not expected to be dramatic, as "the station is in a great shape".

"We have lost quite a bit of research hardware; we will work with different providers to recover and get them opportunity to get to the space station. In addition to that, we have lost some spares that will have to, of course, be replaced and we will do it over time," Suffredini said.

He concluded that a SpaceX vehicle flight to ISS is scheduled for December.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/ISS_Crew_Has_Enough_Supplies_Until_March_2015_999.html.

Russian space station resupply rocket launches, docks at ISS

by Brooks Hays
Washington (UPI)
Oct 29, 2014

A day after a space station resupply rocket exploded in midair only seconds after launching from Wallops Island, in Virginia, the Russian space agency made things look embarrassingly easy -- successfully linking up a ship full of precious cargo with the International Space Station.

Launched early Wednesday morning, the Progress M-25M spacecraft (also known as 57P) docked and delivered supplies to ISS astronauts only hours after taking off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The cargo ship was carried into space by a Russian Soyuz rocket -- three tons of supplies in tow.

The successful launch and linkup completed a reversal of fortunes and upturned the recent narratives surrounding the space programs of the U.S. and Russia. A series of high profile mistakes have had Russian space officials blushing in recent months, while commercial space flight companies in the U.S. have forged ahead with expanding capabilities and new, improved technologies.

But with the explosion of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket Tuesday evening -- just a day after its the launch was postponed by the unexpected presence of a stray boat -- Russia's tried and true Soyuz rockets are looking a bit better.

Tuesday's explosion not only destroyed the robotic cargo ship and rocket built by the Virginia-based company, but also obliterated more than 2 1/2 tons of supply materials. NASA officials said they were investigating the mishap, but insisted ISS astronauts would manage fine without the delivery and that NASA's work with Orbital would be undeterred.

"Orbital has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities in its first two missions to the station earlier this year, and we know they can replicate that success," William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Directorate, said in a press release after the incident.

"Launching rockets is an incredibly difficult undertaking, and we learn from each success and each setback," Gerstenmaier added. "Today's launch attempt will not deter us from our work to expand our already successful capability to launch cargo from American shores to the International Space Station."

Ahead of Tuesday's rescheduled Antares rocket launch, NASA officials predicted the blastoff would be visible (weather permitting) up and down the Eastern Seaboard. They didn't expect, however, that it would be an exploding fireball lighting up the skies.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Russian_space_station_resupply_rocket_launches_doesnt_explode_999.html.

Australia exercises new security laws, bans Syria travel

04 December 2014 Thursday

Australia on Thursday for the first time exercised sweeping new security powers allowing it to block citizens from travelling to overseas conflict zones such as those in Iraq and Syria, where dozens of Australians have joined militant groups.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop designated the ISIL's stronghold of Raqqa province in Syria off limits as part of a push to combat what the government says is growing radicalization among young Australian Muslims.

It is the first use of new security powers obtained by conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott, under which Australian citizens travelling to any area overseas declared off limits can face up to a decade in prison.

"Under the provisions of our foreign fighters legislation, I have today declared Al Raqqa province an area where a listed terrorist organisation is engaging in hostile activity," Bishop told Parliament.

"This now makes it an offence under Australian law to enter or remain in the province of al-Raqqa without a legitimate reason. Anyone who enters or remains faces a penalty of up to 10 years' imprisonment."

In September, the United Nations demanded that all states make it a serious criminal offence for their citizens to travel abroad to fight with militant groups, or to recruit and fund others to do so, in a move sparked by the rise of ISIL.

Security analysts have put the number of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, travelling from scores of countries around the world, in the thousands.

Abbott has said that at least 70 Australians were fighting in Iraq and Syria backed by about 100 Australia-based "facilitators".

The government, which recently warned that the balance between freedom and security "may have to shift", is also introducing controversial data retention laws it says are needed to tackle security and criminal threats.

Critics say the data laws go too far in compromising privacy, will be too costly and could lay journalists and whistleblowers open to hefty prison sentences.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/149859/australia-exercises-new-security-laws-bans-syria-travel.

Australian mosque project shows divisions and unity

01 December 2014 Monday

Plans to construct a mosque in an Australian city has fueled strident Islamophobia and, conversely, equally fierce support for the project, a Muslim community leader has told The Anadolu Agency.

Dr Seyed Sheriffdeen, secretary of the Australian Islamic Mission in Victoria state, said those protesting against the plan were driven by “anti-Muslim” sentiment.

Sheriffdeen said opponents of the mosque, many of whom are not residents of Bendigo, irrationally associated a place of worship with terrorism and jihadists.

“It’s pure racism,” he told AA. “We have used the democratic, legal framework of this country. We are not asking for anything extraordinary. We put in an application to the council for it to accept or reject. We made some changes to the design as was requested and it was accepted.”

Bendigo council approved the town’s first mosque at a raucous meeting in June. Opponents of the planned mosque took their fight to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in Melbourne on Monday.

Initially, the planned $3 million mosque divided the historic town and led to angry criticism of the decision.

A Bendigo anti-mosque campaign was waged and intimidation tactics were employed, with black balloons being hung on trees and placed outside the homes of mosque supporters.

The campaign was orchestrated by a loosely affiliated network of groups that supplied cash and support for the fight to block the mosque's construction.

A pamphlet distributed at an anti-mosque meeting read: “A mosque is not like a church or a temple,” adding that mosques “are a seat of government, a command center, a court, and in some cases used as military training centers and arms depots.”

In response, Bendigo leaders called for tolerance and maintained they would not abide bigotry. The message spread and in June Bendigo residents carrying multi-colored balloons staged a pro-diversity march to demonstrate support for all religious faiths.

Speaking to AA, Sheriffdeen mentioned that a large ceremony had been held in Bendigo for the Islamic holiday of Eid. “Politicians, community leaders, the council, the public were all invited and they all came," he said. "They all said they wanted to see multiculturalism come to Bendigo."

He added that he was disturbed that most opposition had been generated by “outsiders.”

Sheriffdeen detailed plans to seek funding for the mosque’s construction from local sources such as government authorities and businesses.

The tribunal’s decision is expected by the end of the week.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/149643/australian-mosque-project-shows-divisions-and-unity.