UN rights chief renews call for access to China's Xinjiang

Geneva (AFP)
March 6, 2019

The UN rights chief on Wednesday renewed her request to access China's Xinjiang region, where large numbers of the Uighur ethnic minority are reportedly being held in re-education camps.

In her annual address to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Michelle Bachelet said her office was seeking to "engage" with China on conditions in Xinjiang.

She also re-issued her requests for "full access to carry out an independent assessment of the continuing reports pointing to wide patterns of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region".

A UN panel of independent experts has said there are credible reports that nearly one million Uighurs and other Turkic language-speaking minorities are being held in Xinjiang.

Beijing at first denied the allegation, but later admitted putting people into "vocational education centers".

Xinjiang has long suffered from violent unrest, which China claims is orchestrated by an organized "terrorist" movement seeking the region's independence. It has implemented a massive, high-tech security crackdown in recent years.

But many Uighurs and Xinjiang experts say the violent episodes stem largely from spontaneous outbursts of anger at Chinese cultural and religious repression, and that Beijing plays up terrorism to justify tight control of the resource-rich region.

Bachelet said she was confident that "stability and security in this region can be facilitated by policies which demonstrate the authorities' respect of all people's rights."

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/UN_rights_chief_renews_call_for_access_to_Chinas_Xinjiang_999.html.

IAI unveils improved anti-jamming GPS

Washington (UPI)
Mar 6, 2019

Israel Aerospace Industries has unveiled an upgrade to its satellite operational navigation systems, which it says repels attempts at jamming.

While most navigation, communication and electronic warfare systems rely on continuous availability of multiple satellites for navigation, the majority of worldwide avionics systems are vulnerable to localized, low-power jamming emitters.

"In the Army, we have recognized that PNT [Positioning Navigation Timing] is a critical enabler of our warfighting capability, and that GPS is the predominant materiel solution that we rely upon," the U.S. Army said in a 2015 statement.

IAI said its ADA-O development features an advanced architecture and can defeat jamming efforts. The system can be installed on armored vehicles, communications carriers and other land-based platforms.

The ADA approach to Assured PNT [Positioning Navigation Timing] involves the use of advanced digital processing techniques that provide a high-level of immunity in severe and dynamic multi-jammer scenarios, the IAI statement said.

The company said it recently sold an ADA package for "tens of millions of dollars" to an unnamed Asian-Pacific nation's military.

Source: GPS Daily.
Link: http://www.gpsdaily.com/reports/IAI_unveils_improved_anti-jamming_GPS_999.html.

Israel awaits decision on Netanyahu corruption indictment

February 28, 2019

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's attorney general was expected to deliver a much-anticipated decision Thursday on whether to indict Benjamin Netanyahu on a series of corruption allegations, a momentous move that looks to shake up Israel's election campaign and potentially spell the end of the prime minister's illustrious political career.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's aides said he was prepared to announce his decision after more than two years of intense investigations and deliberations. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.

Police have recommended indicting Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three different cases. Mandelblit is expected to inform Netanyahu's lawyers he intends to indict pending a final hearing, though the exact charges are not yet clear. The hearing is expected to take place after the April 9 elections.

An indictment would mark the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert served time in prison for corruption, but had already resigned by the time he was charged.

Netanyahu doesn't look to go that quietly. He denies any wrongdoing and calls the various allegations a media-orchestrated witch hunt aimed at removing him from office. He has vowed to carry on and is deadlocked in the polls, 40 days before Israelis go to vote.

In a last-ditch effort to prevent the public release of an indictment, Netanyahu's Likud party petitioned the Supreme Court to have it delayed until after the elections. But the court rejected the request Thursday afternoon, potentially clearing the way for an announcement from the attorney general.

Despite opposition calls for Netanyahu to step down, Likud and his other nationalist coalition partners have lined up behind him thus far, all but ruling out sitting in a government led by his primary opponent, retired military chief Benny Gantz.

While Israeli prime ministers are not required by law to resign if charged, the prospect of a prime minister standing trial while simultaneously running the country would be unchartered territory. Mandelblit's decision could either galvanize Netanyahu's hard-line supporters who see him as a victim of an overzealous prosecution or turn more moderate backers against him who have tired of his lengthy rule tainted by long-standing accusations of corruption and hedonism.

Either way, the upcoming elections appear to be morphing into a referendum on Netanyahu as he seeks to become the longest serving premier in Israeli history. Netanyahu have been prime minister since 2009 and served a previous term between 1996 and 1999.

President Donald Trump, with whom Netanyahu has forged a close connection, offered the Israeli leader a boost ahead of the expected announcement. "I just think he's been a great prime minister and I don't know about his difficulty but you tell me something people have been hearing about, but I don't know about that," he said in response to a question in Hanoi, where he was holding a summit with the leader of North Korea.

"I can say this: that he's done a great job as prime minister. He's tough, he's smart, he's strong," Trump said. Netanyahu rushed back Wednesday from a diplomatic mission to Moscow, and a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, to prepare for his expected rebuttal to the charges on Thursday.

The most serious allegations against Netanyahu involve his relationship with Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of Israel's telecom giant Bezeq. Police recommended an indictment in the case based on evidence collected that confidants of Netanyahu promoted regulatory changes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Bezeq. In exchange, they believe Netanyahu used his connections with Elovitch to receive positive press coverage on Bezeq's popular subsidiary news site Walla. Police have said their investigation concluded that Netanyahu and Elovitch engaged in a "bribe-based relationship."

Police say they believe there is sufficient evidence to charge Netanyahu and his wife Sara with accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust. They also recommended charges be brought against Elovitch, members of his family and members of his Bezeq management team.

Police have previously recommended indicting Netanyahu on corruption charges in two other cases. One involves accepting gifts from billionaire friends, and the second revolves around alleged offers of advantageous legislation for a major newspaper in return for favorable coverage.

Alan Dershowitz, a prominent American lawyer, has come to Netanyahu's defense, publishing an open letter to Mandelblit in which he warns that an indictment against the prime minister ahead of elections would undermine the democratic process.

"I'm very worried for freedom of the press and freedom of government in Israel if they start indicting people for trying to get good coverage from the media," he told Israel's Army Radio. "I don't know of any other country that has criminalized trying to get good coverage and make that a basis of bribery or any other corruption investigation."

Top centrist Netanyahu rivals unite for Israeli election run

February 21, 2019

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's primary centrist challengers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday they were joining forces ahead of April elections — a dramatic move that shook up the country's political system and created the first credible alternative to Netanyahu's decade-long rule.

Retired military chief Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, said they would present a joint list for the upcoming vote that "will constitute the new Israeli ruling party." In a joint statement, the two said they were "motivated by national responsibility."

"The new ruling party will bring forth a cadre of security and social leaders to ensure Israel's security and to reconnect its people and heal the divide within Israeli society," they said, in a dig at Netanyahu.

A formal announcement was expected later in the day, with the two naming their full list and new name for their joint party. The development instantly injected a threat to topple the long-serving Netanyahu. Recent polls suggest that together, Gantz and Lapid could surpass Netanyahu's ruling Likud to become Israel's largest faction after the April 9 vote. Under their unity arrangement, the two agreed to a rotation leadership should they come to power under which Gantz would first serve as prime minister and would then be replaced by Lapid after two and a half years.

Following them in the joint list would be a pair of other former military chiefs, Moshe Yaalon and Gabi Ashkenazi. Ashkenazi has long been working behind the scenes to make the union happen, urging the major players to put their egos aside in favor of the bigger challenge ahead. He announced he was joining the new party himself because of the "pivotal moment and the national task at hand."

Even if the joint list surpasses Likud at the ballot box, it is not guaranteed to form the next government unless it can garner a parliamentary majority by forming a collation with other parties. But the dramatic merger seems enough to make the election a real fight for Netanyahu.

"For the first time since 2009, we have a competitive race for the premiership and this is the result of the emergence of this new centrist force," said Yohanan Plesner, a former lawmaker and president of the non-partisan Israel Democracy Institute.

"There are now, as a result of this unification, two, I would say, legitimate major parties ... (but) it's not a done deal," Plesner said. "I think Netanyahu is still more likely to win and to emerge as prime minister at the end of this election campaign, but it is a competitive race."

Netanyahu, who is embroiled in multiple corruption allegations and faces a potential impending indictment, has taken a hard turn to the right in recent days to shore up his nationalistic base. On Wednesday, he postponed a trip to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin to stay home and reach a preliminary election deal with two fringe religious-nationalist parties in a bid to unify his hard-line bloc.

Netanyahu's Likud party announced it would reserve the 28th spot on its parliamentary list for the pro-settler Jewish Home party and grant it two Cabinet ministries in a future government if it merges with the extremist Jewish Power party. Jewish Power is comprised of hard-line religious nationalists who have cast themselves as successors to the banned Kahanist movement, which dreamed of turning Israel into a Jewish theocracy and advocated forced removal of Palestinians.

Among the prominent figures in the joint Jewish Home-Jewish Power list are Bezalel Smotrich, a self-avowed "proud homophobe," Itamar Ben Gvir, an attorney who has made a career defending radical Israeli settlers implicated in West Bank violence, and Benzi Gopstein, leader of an extremist anti-assimilation group whose Twitter handle translates to "Kahane was right."

The late American-born Rabbi Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League is considered a terrorist organization by the FBI. Netanyahu's courting of such forces drew sharp condemnations from much of the Israeli mainstream, with Gantz accusing him of losing touch "with his Zionism and with his dignity."

The flurry of developments comes ahead of a Thursday night deadline for parties running for the April 9 parliamentary elections to submit their lineups. The maneuvers seemed to have spurred others to pursue unification moves as well, as a previously fragmented political landscape begins to come together, six and half weeks before election day.

Tamar Zandberg, head of the dovish Meretz party, called on the Labor party to merge with it to create a united front on the left as well. "Congratulations to the union in the center that will provide an alternative to Likud," she said. "Opposite the prospect of a Likud-Kahanist government we need a center-left government."

Amid loss of leaders, unknown militant rises in Philippines

February 22, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Unlike many of his slain comrades, the touted new leader of the Islamic State group in the southern Philippines lacks the bravado, clan name or foreign training. Not much is known about Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, but the attacks attributed to him heralding his rise are distinctly savage: A deadly bombing, which authorities say was a suicide attack by a foreign militant couple, blasted through a packed Roman Catholic cathedral in the middle of a Mass.

The Jan. 27 attack, which killed 23 people and wounded about 100 others on southern Jolo Island, and another suspected suicide bombing on nearby Basilan Island last July that officials said he masterminded, put Sawadjaan in the crosshairs of the U.S.-led global campaign against terrorism. It also comes at a time when the Islamic State group's last enclave in eastern Syria is near its imminent downfall, signaling an end to the territorial rule of the self-declared "caliphate" that once stretched across much of Syria and Iraq.

A recent U.S. Department of Defense report to Congress said without elaborating that it believed Sawadjaan was the "acting emir," or leader, in the Philippines of the Islamic State group, also known by its acronym ISIS. It added that no actual leader is confirmed to have been designated by the main ISIS command in the Middle East as of late last year.

Philippine Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano, however, said intelligence indicated that Sawadjaan, a Jolo-based commander of the brutal Abu Sayyaf extremist group, was installed as ISIS chief in a ceremony last year. Three other extremist groups were recognized as ISIS allies, he said.

Founded in the early 1990s as an offshoot of the decadeslong Muslim separatist rebellion in the south, the Abu Sayyaf lost its commanders early in battle, sending it to a violent path of terrorism and criminality. It has been blacklisted, along with ISIS-linked local groups, as a terrorist organization by the United States.

Now in his 60s, Sawadjaan is a late bloomer in the terrorism underworld. His turn at the helm came after dozens of commanders, some initially aligned with the al-Qaida movement and later with ISIS, were killed or captured in decades of military offensives. The biggest battle loss came in 2017 when several foreign and local commanders were killed as troops quelled a five-month siege by hundreds of militants in southern Marawi city.

Among those killed was Isnilon Hapilon, a fierce Abu Sayyaf leader, who was the first ISIS-designated leader in the Philippines. "I think Sawadjaan rose in rank because of seniority and there were no other leaders left. Almost everyone had been wiped out," said Ano, a former military chief who oversaw the Marawi offensives and now supervises the national police as interior secretary.

Largely confined to Jolo's poverty-wracked mountain settlements all his life, Sawadjaan was not the well-connected and media-savvy strategist foreign groups would normally ally with to expand their reach. His rise shows how ISIS would latch on desperately to any militant who could provide a sanctuary and armed fighters as its last strongholds crumble in Syria, Ano said.

"For the ISIS to perpetuate their terror actions, they need a base, they need people. That's the role of Sawadjaan," Ano told The Associated Press in an interview. He estimated that Sawadjaan commands about 200 combatants and followers.

Sawadjaan was born to a peasant family in predominantly Muslim Jolo and only likely finished grade school. Poverty drove him to work as a lumberjack in the jungles off Patikul town, where he married a woman from Tanum, the mountain village where he would base his Abu Sayyaf faction years later, a military officer, who has closely monitored the Abu Sayyaf, told the AP on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his work.

As an elderly villager, he served as a local mosque preacher, earning him the religious sobriquet "hatib," or sermon leader in Arabic, the officer said. Sawadjaan first took up arms as a member of the Moro National Liberation Front, the largest Muslim secessionist group in the south of the largely Roman Catholic country, which went on to sign a 1996 Muslim autonomy deal with the government, according to the officer.

His commander was Radulan Sahiron, the locally popular one-armed rebel who broke away from the MNLF in 1992. They joined the Abu Sayyaf, which had just been organized by a Libyan-educated local militant, said MNLF leader Yusop Jikiri.

Sawadjaan would later part ways with Sahiron, including over Sahiron's refusal to accomodate foreign militants for fear they're a magnet for military airstrikes, said Abu Jihad, a former militant who has met Sawadjaan and was captured by troops. Abu Jihad described Sawadjaan as a folksy village elderly, who constantly lugged an M-16 rifle in his hinterland community but was friendly to visitors.

When fellow militants kidnapped a visiting American Muslim convert, Jeffrey Schilling, for ransom in August 2000, Sawadjaan stayed in the background but helped gather bamboos that were used to build huts for the militants and their hostage, Abu Jihad said.

"He can discuss local issues but didn't have any wisdom on jihad," he told AP by phone, referring to the militants' concept of holy war. "He's very accommodating. He's the type who will not be hard to sway."

Sawadjaan collaborated with diverse outlaws, both Islamic extremists and brigands, Ano said. He harbored the foreign couple, believed by Philippine officials to be Indonesians, who detonated the bombs in the Jolo cathedral last month, as well as a militant believed to be an Arab known as Abu Kathir al-Maghribi, who died in the van blast that also killed 10 government militiamen and villagers in Basilan last year, Ano added.

A video obtained by police officials showed al-Maghribi in Sawadjaan's camp last year before the foreign militant reportedly carried out the suicide attack in Basilan. The video was seen by The AP. His daughter married a Malaysian militant known as Amin Baco, who has ISIS connections. His younger brother, Asman, also belonged to the Abu Sayyaf, according to a confidential police profile of Sawadjaan.

Sawadjaan and his men would later be implicated in the kidnappings of a German couple, two Canadian men, Schilling and a Jordanian journalist, Baker Atyani. Most were ransomed off or escaped but the Canadian men were separately beheaded on video by one of Sawadjaan's militant nephews, Ben Yadah, according to military and police officials.

In the more than a year of jungle captivity under Sawadjaan's group starting in June 2012, Atyani got a deep insight into the Abu Sayyaf and the man who sheltered other militants from Indonesia and Malaysia and fostered banditry in the blurry underworld of Islamic extremism in the volatile south. Atyani is believed to have been freed in exchange for ransom.

"It's all money-driven, it's not an ideology," Atyani said. "However, he has sympathy for those who are allegedly fighting for a cause."

FIFA's record finances reignites World Cup pay parity debate

March 07, 2019

LONDON (AP) — When world soccer executives receive FIFA's annual report this year, they will see that $753,000 is funding a women's league in Colombia, $588,197 is helping female players in New Zealand and girls in Botswana are benefiting from $341,600.

That's merely a snapshot of the $270.3 million that the body that governs world soccer has invested in projects worldwide between 2016 and 2018. Four years since police raided the hotel and offices of soccer officials and FIFA's Zurich headquarters in 2015 in a scandal that threatened the organization's existence, FIFA is awash with cash. People with knowledge of FIFA's finances told The Associated Press that in the four-year period covering the 2018 World Cup, FIFA's reserves soared to $2.74 billion and revenue rose to $6.4 billion. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the financial results remain confidential.

Now, the organization is eager to show that handouts no longer line the pockets of its top managers. Rather, the money is being used to build stadiums, train coaches and provide more playing opportunities. But while the annual report underscores FIFA's financial vitality, it also highlights the glaring disparity between men and women's soccer.

Last summer's World Cup is a good example: France banked $38 million from FIFA for winning the championship, but the women's champion this July will earn just $4 million. U.S. coach Jill Ellis, who is leading her team's title defense in France, said she is disappointed with the financial rewards.

"You want to make sure there is a fair apportionment of winnings going out," Ellis said. Most upsetting to critics is the fact that the financial gulf appears to be growing. FIFA has doubled the overall prize money fund to $30 million since the last Women's World Cup in Canada in 2015. But that total amount is less than the $40 million increase that men's World Cup prize money will get in 2022 — for a total of $440 million in prize money.

"The difference between the men's and women's prize money is ridiculous," said Tatjana Haenni, who stepped down as FIFA head of women's soccer in 2017. "It's really disappointing the gap between the men's and women's World Cups got bigger. It sends the wrong message."

The world players' union said the disparity is a reflection of FIFA's priorities as well as of the status of women's soccer . "In most countries, the pace of change has not been fast enough nor the changes progressive enough to make up for decades of neglect of the women's game," FIFPRO said in a statement to the AP. "Even today women's football remains an afterthought for many of football's male administrators and the game lags embarrassingly behind other more progressive sports and industries.

"Most troubling of all is that the gender gap in football is even widening in some areas, including the share of FIFA World Cup prize money." FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said critics are "perfectly justified" and have a "fair point."

"We need to try to find what is the most balanced way and I think we made a step and there will be many more steps going ahead," Infantino said in October before his ruling council approved the 2019 Women's World Cup prize scale. "Maybe one day women's football will generate more than men's football."

Exactly how much money women's soccer generates is unclear, as much of FIFA's revenue comes from top sponsors who are signed up for both World Cups. "That's something never really analyzed," said Haenni, who spent 19 years at FIFA. "What is the potential value of the Women's World Cup? Nobody knows the Women's World Cup commercial value because it's not sold separately. This is something that should at least be discussed."

One of FIFA's main sponsors is listening. Credit card giant Visa said last week that it would support "women's football with a marketing investment equal to our support of the men's FIFA World Cup in Russia." It did not disclose any figures.

Visa is one of the sponsors that stuck with FIFA through its corruption scandal, calling for the departure in 2015 of Sepp Blatter, FIFA's then-president who was eventually banned for financial misconduct.

After being elected as Blatter's successor in 2016, Infantino said "FIFA was clinically dead as an organization." Now, the Swiss-Italian has the budget is in a healthy state, and is due to be re-elected unopposed in June to a four-year term.

The 2015-18 finances exceed the forecasts that were presented to the FIFA Congress in June. While FIFA projected cash reserves to increase to $1.653 billion in the 2018 World Cup cycle, they had grown to $2.74 billion at the end of 2018, according to the people with knowledge of the finances.

Following the corruption scandal of 2015, FIFA had modestly aimed to raise $5 billion by the end of last summer's World Cup in Russia — a projection later increased to $6.1 billion. Those expectations were eclipsed when the four-year cycle ended with revenues of $6.4 billion, according to the people with knowledge of the financial report, which shows a profit of around $1 billion.

Haenni noted the challenge lies in ensuring that FIFA's riches don't all go to men's soccer. "Some federations won't have proper structures for the women's teams," Haenni said. "You want to know where the money is going and linked to creating a more balanced environment for women's teams."

IOC revokes shooting event status over Pakistan visa refusal

February 22, 2019

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The International Olympic Committee has revoked the Olympic qualification status of a 25-meter shooting event in New Delhi because Indian officials refused to grant entry visas to two Pakistani athletes and an official.

The IOC said Thursday it was informed on Monday that the Indian government authorities did not grant entry visas to the Pakistani delegation for the 25-meter rapid-fire pistol event at the ISSF World Cup, where two places at next year's Tokyo Olympics were meant to be at stake.

The IOC said it only withdrew the Olympic qualification status from the competition in which the two Pakistani athletes were supposed to participate. There are 500 athletes from 61 countries who are already in India for other World Cup events.

"Since becoming aware of the issue, and in spite of intense last-minute joint efforts by the IOC, the ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation) and the Indian NOC (National Olympic Committee), and discussions with the Indian government authorities, no solution has been found to allow the Pakistani delegation to enter India in time to compete," the IOC said in a statement.

It did not say whether Pakistani athletes were entered in any other events at the competition. In a statement to the Press Trust of India news agency, Rajeev Mehta, the secretary general of the Indian Olympic Association, said Friday the IOA would approach the government again about the visas.

"It is a dangerous situation for all sport in the county," Mehta was quoted as saying. "In addition to not being able to host events in India, there may be problems for our athletes to take part in international events."

The IOC said the situation goes against the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter to not discriminate against any athlete. The visa refusal comes amid escalated tensions between the two countries following last week's deadly suicide bombing in Kashmir against Indian paramilitary troops. At least 40 Indian soldiers were killed in Thursday's attack, which New Delhi blamed on Islamabad.

Since independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which is divided between the two but claimed by each in its entirety.

China's Largest Solid-Fuel Rocket Scheduled for First Launch in 2019

Beijing (Sputnik)
Mar 07, 2019

Chinese legislators have urged the country to formulate its own space law to boost the development of commercial space and pay more attention to the outflow of talent.

China's private space sector will embrace more opportunities in 2019. The country should complete its laws and regulations on the private space sector to support its commercial development, Hu Shengyun, a senior rocket engineer at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation and deputy to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) from Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, told the Global Times.

The value of commercial space travel in China is projected to reach 30 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) annually by 2020, Hu said.

Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun, who is also an NPC deputy, told media that China is the only space power without its own space law, suggesting that promoting legislation on space will guarantee the rights of private companies on utilizing space resources.

Lei also suggested the government relax its market access to private companies and promote the sharing of space infrastructure. Around 29 countries have space laws or regulations.

Space agencies used to be sponsored by governments. Commercial upstarts have joined the competition since the beginning of the century. In 2017, among the 443 satellites launched globally, 267 were commercial satellites, and 26 out of the 91 rockets used to launch these satellites were from private companies, Bingdian Weekly reported in September 2018.

Hu also said the Kuaizhou-11, China's largest solid-fuel carrier rocket is scheduled to make its maiden launch this year.

The new type solid-fuel carrier rocket series Kuaizhou is the country's first carrier rocket for commercial purposes, and the Kuaizhou-11 is much larger than the Kuaizhou-1.

Kuaizhou is a low-cost solid-fuel carrier rocket with high reliability and a short preparation period. With a lift-off mass of 78 tons, the rocket was designed to launch low-Earth and Sun-synchronous orbit satellites.

Hu also suggested the country pay more attention to the exodus of space talent. State-owned space enterprises are losing a large number of scientific and technological talent, which should be given more attention, Hu said.

The China Association for Science and Technology recently released a report on people working in the science and technology fields in China. The report found that the average annual salary was 91,000 yuan in 2016. Some 33.5 percent of them are living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Although their average salary has increased by 22.7 percent compared with 2012, their satisfaction with their salary has dropped. That's because their salary has not kept pace with those in other fields, the report said.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinas_Largest_Solid_Fuel_Rocket_Scheduled_for_First_Launch_in_2019_999.html.

SpaceX set for historic Crew Dragon test flight

MARCH 1, 2019
By Brooks Hays

March 1 (UPI) -- SpaceX is ready for Saturday's inaugural test flight of the Crew Dragon, the next step in a mission to carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 2:49 a.m. ET Saturday.

According to the latest update from the meteorologists at the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing, there is an 80 percent chance of favorable weather conditions for Saturday morning's launch window.

On Wednesday night, program officials announced a successful initial safety check and confirmed the timing of the historic test flight.

"Our Demo-1 launch readiness review is complete, and we are still 'go' for launch," the commercial crew program announced on Twitter.

The uncrewed flight, or Demo-1 mission, will provide SpaceX an opportunity the demonstrate the reliability of its rocket launch system and the safety of its crew module.

"The uncrewed flight tests are a great dry run for not only our hardware, but for our team to get ready for our crewed flight tests," Kathy Lueders, manager of the commercial crew program, said in a news release. "NASA has been working together with SpaceX and Boeing to make sure we are ready to conduct these test flights and get ready to learn critical information that will further help us to fly our crews safely. We always learn from tests."

NASA contracted SpaceX and Boeing to build spacecraft to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Because both companies are behind schedule, there is added pressure for a flawless test flight.

At the beginning of last year, NASA announced SpaceX and Boeing would complete test flights for their commercial crew spacecraft, Crew Dragon and Starliner, in August.

NASA said then the first Crew Dragon test flight would happen in November, with Starliner's maiden voyage happening in late 2018 or early 2019.

Summer and fall came and went with neither spacecraft leaving the ground.

Spacecraft building and launch delays are common but any more setbacks and NASA might find itself without a way to get its astronauts to the ISS and back.

Crew Dragon and Starliner were commissioned to replace the Space Shuttle, which was retired in 2011. NASA and its astronauts rely on Russian rockets and crew capsules to get to and from the ISS -- an agreement with Roscosmos that ends in early 2020.

"We believe it's a national imperative to return the flight of American astronauts on American rockets on American soil," NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs told The Atlantic earlier this year.

Though uncrewed, Saturday's Demo-1 test flight will feature a single spacesuit-wearing astronaut dummy. The weighted dummy will help engineers replicate the conditions of a crewed flight and measure the physical experience of the ride aboard the Crew Dragon.

"We'll measure the responses on the human body, obviously, and measure the environment. We want to make sure that everything is perfect for the safety of the astronauts," Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX, told reporters last week.

After launching and separating from the rocket, Crew Dragon will travel to the space station, where it will dock and remain for five days. During the flight, engineers will test a variety of systems and components: the module's environmental control systems, solar arrays, electrical power systems, communication systems, propulsion systems and more.

After five days at its docking port, the module will be released. Next week, the craft will de-orbit and splash down into the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast, where it will be promptly retrieved by SpaceX.

The launch, docking and return will all be streamed live on NASA TV.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2019/03/01/SpaceX-set-for-historic-Crew-Dragon-test-flight/6861551313169/.

Israel's first Moon mission blasts off from Florida

By Ivan Couronne
Washington (AFP)
Feb 22, 2019

An unmanned rocket took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday night carrying Israel's Beresheet spacecraft, aiming to make history twice: as the first private-sector landing on the Moon, and the first from the Jewish state.

The 585-kilogram (1,290-pound) Beresheet, which means "Genesis" in Hebrew, lifted off at 8:45 pm (0145 GMT Friday) atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the private US-based SpaceX company of entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Take-off was followed live back in Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu watching alongside engineers from the control center of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

The Israeli craft was placed in Earth orbit, from where it will use its own engine to undertake a seven-week trip to reach the Moon and touch down on April 11 in a large plain.

The rocket also contains an Indonesian satellite and a satellite of the US Air Force Research Laboratory.

The mission is part of renewed global interest in the Moon, sometimes called the "eighth continent" of the Earth, and comes 50 years after American astronauts first walked on the lunar surface.

"This is history in the making - and it's live! Israel is aiming for the #moon and you're all invited to watch," said a Twitter message from SpaceIL, the non-profit organization that designed the Israeli craft.

It was backed notably by businessman and philanthropist Morris Kahn, who financed the development of a craft. "Make us proud," he said Thursday.

Entrepreneurs, not government space agencies, financed the mission, which was initially projected at $10 million but eventually grew to $100 million.

Other partners are IAI, Israel's space agency its Ministry of Science and Technology.

So far, only Russia, the United States and China have made the 384,000-kilometer (239,000-mile) journey and landed spacecraft on the Moon.

China's Chang'e-4 made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon on January 3, after a probe sent by Beijing made a Lunar landing elsewhere in 2013.

Americans are the only ones to have walked on the lunar surface, but have not been there since 1972.

For Israel, the landing itself is the main mission, but the spacecraft also carries a scientific instrument to measure the lunar magnetic field, which will help understanding of the Moon's formation.

Technically, it is far from a trivial mission.

After its initial boost from the Falcon 9, the Beresheet's British engine will have to make several ignitions to place the spacecraft on the correct trajectory to the Moon.

When it arrives, its landing gear must cushion the descent onto the lunar surface to prevent Beresheet from crashing.

- India plans to follow -

Beresheet carries a "time capsule" loaded with digital files containing a Bible, children's drawings, Israeli songs, memories of a Holocaust survivor and the blue-and-white Israeli flag.

At a cost of $100 million, "this is the lowest-budget spacecraft to ever undertake such a mission. The superpowers who managed to land a spacecraft on the Moon have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding," IAI said in an earlier statement.

"Beresheet is the first spacecraft to land on the Moon as a result of a private initiative, rather than a government."

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine congratulated the Israeli team for carrying out the mission, saying, "this is a historic step for all nations and commercial space as we look to extend our collaborations beyond low-Earth orbit and on to the Moon."

After China earlier this year, and now Israel, India hopes to become the fifth lunar country in the spring with its Chandrayaan-2 mission. It aims to put a craft with a rover onto the Moon's surface to collect data.

Japan plans to send a small lunar lander, called SLIM, to study a volcanic area around 2020-2021.

As for the Americans, a return to the Moon is now the official policy of NASA, according to guidelines issued by President Donald Trump in 2017.

"This time, when we go to the Moon, we're actually going to stay," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said last week.

To achieve this, the US space agency is changing its model and no longer wants to design the missions itself.

NASA, which has installed equipment on Beresheet to upload its signals from the Moon, said last week it aims to land instruments later this year or next year and that it is inviting private sector bids to build and launch the US probes.

The US space agency plans to build a small space station, dubbed Gateway, in the Moon's orbit by 2026, and envisages a manned mission to Mars in the following decade.

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Israels_first_Moon_mission_blasts_off_from_Florida_999.html.

Touchdown: Japan probe Hayabusa2 lands on distant asteroid

By Kyoko Hasegawa
Tokyo (AFP)
Feb 22, 2019

A Japanese probe sent to collect samples from an asteroid 300 million kilometers away for clues about the origin of life and the solar system landed successfully on Friday, scientists said.

Hayabusa2 touched down briefly on the Ryugu asteroid, fired a bullet into the surface to puff up dust for collection and blasted back to its holding position, said officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

A live webcast of the control room showed dozens of JAXA staff members nervously monitoring data ahead of the touchdown before exploding into applause after receiving a signal from Hayabusa2 that it had landed.

"We made a successful touchdown, including firing a bullet" into the Ryugu asteroid, Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa2 project manager, told reporters.

"We made the ideal touchdown in the best conditions," he said.

The complicated procedure took less time than expected and appeared to go without a hitch, said Hayabusa2 mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa.

"I'm really relieved now. It felt very long until the moment the touchdown happened," he said.

He said the firing of the bullet -- the first of three planned in this mission -- "will lead to a leap, or new discoveries, in planetary science."

The asteroid is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic matter and water from some 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system was born.

During a later mission, Hayabusa2 will eventually fire an "impactor" to blast out material from underneath Ryugu's surface, allowing the collection of "fresh" materials unexposed to millennia of wind and radiation.

Scientists hope those samples may provide answers to some fundamental questions about life and the universe, including whether elements from space helped give rise to life on Earth.

Former Queen rocker and space fan Brian May tweeted: "Hurrah. Brilliant success in touchdown on Ryugu."

- Spinning-top shape -

Communication with Hayabusa2 is cut off at times because its antennas are not always pointed towards Earth and it could take several more days to confirm the bullet was actually fired to allow the collection of samples.

The mission has not been completely plain sailing and the probe's landing was originally scheduled for last year.

But it was pushed back after surveys found the asteroid's surface was more rugged than initially thought, forcing JAXA to take more time to find a suitable landing site.

The Hayabusa2 mission, with a price tag of around 30 billion yen ($270 million), was launched in December 2014 and is scheduled to return to Earth with its samples in 2020.

Photos of Ryugu -- which means "Dragon Palace" in Japanese and refers to a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an ancient Japanese tale -- show an asteroid shaped a bit like a spinning top with a rough surface.

Hayabusa2 observes the surface of the asteroid with its camera and sensing equipment but has also dispatched two tiny MINERVA-II rover robots as well as the French-German robot MASCOT to help surface observation.

Scientists have already received data from these probes deployed on the surface of the asteroid.

At about the size of a large fridge, Hayabusa2 is equipped with solar panels and is the successor to JAXA's first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa -- Japanese for falcon.

That probe returned from a smaller, potato-shaped, asteroid in 2010 with dust samples despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year Odyssey and was hailed as a scientific triumph.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Touchdown_Japan_probe_Hayabusa2_lands_on_distant_asteroid_999.html.

NASA is aboard first private moon landing attempt

by Lonnie Shekhtman for GSFC News
Greenbelt MD (SPX)
Feb 21, 2019

The last screw is tightened and a private Moon lander is packed in the fairing atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It took eight years to get there, plus significant dedication by a small group of scientists and engineers building Israel's first machine to leave Earth's orbit. Now, the highly anticipated moment is here: a shot at the first private Moon landing, and NASA is contributing to the experiment.

An Israeli spacecraft from SpaceIL is scheduled to launch Thursday, Feb. 21 and is aiming to touch down on Mare Serenitatis two months later. NASA installed a small laser retroreflector aboard the lander to test its potential as a navigation tool. The agency also provided images of the Moon's surface to help the engineers identify a landing site for the mission. NASA will also use its deep space telecommunications network to transmit images and science data home to SpaceIL and its partners.

Administrator Bridenstine signed an agreement with the Israel Space Agency (ISA) in July 2018 in order to collaborate with SpaceIL on the mission. SpaceIL will provide NASA scientific data from the spacecraft's magnetometer as part of the collaboration.

"This is the type of collaboration that will become more frequent as NASA looks to expand opportunities with a greater variety of partners to continue the exploration of the Moon and Mars," said Steve Clarke, NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration. "NASA is proud to work with the Israel Space Agency (ISA) and SpaceIL and we look forward to the landing and the science data that will be gained from this important mission."

It takes a village

SpaceIL was established in 2010 to tackle the Lunar X Prize, a competition sponsored by Google that challenged private companies to land a spacecraft on the Moon. Though no company was able to meet the competition deadline, prompting Google to end it with no winner in March 2018, the Israeli team pressed on.

But no company can make it in space alone. SpaceIL will rely on the Swedish Space Corporation's network of antennas to communicate navigation commands to the spacecraft and to track its trajectory. Once the spacecraft lands, NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) will ferry data between it and Earth. DSN is a system of global antennas managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, that scientists use to communicate with spacecraft in deep space.

The SpaceIL mission advances a partnership between NASA and ISA as both agencies will share the resulting discoveries with the global scientific community.

"The team's tension level is high, but we're also very, very excited" said Eran Shmidt, deputy manager and head of the ground control team at SpaceIL, the Israeli nonprofit that built the Moon lander, called Beresheet, or "genesis" in Hebrew, in partnership with Israeli-government-owned defense contractor Israel Aerospace Industries.

Beresheet - about 5 feet (1 meter) tall by 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) wide with its landing gear and legs deployed - is one of two payloads that will hitch a ride aboard the Falcon 9 today. The other payload is an Earth telecommunications satellite. The lander will separate first from the rocket, taking the long route to the Moon to save fuel by employing gravitational forces to propel itself.

Thus, Beresheet will stay in Earth's orbit for about a month, slowly widening its ellipse until it reaches apogee, or its farthest point from here, at nearly 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away. The SpaceIL team will need to time Beresheet's apogee precisely to meet up with the Moon in its orbit about Earth. At this point, the navigators can slow the spacecraft to allow it to be captured by the Moon's gravity and thereby pulled into its orbit.

"Once we are captured by the Moon," said Shmidt, "we will orbit around it, perform a few maneuvers for about a week, and then start a 20- to 30-minute autonomous descent."

A few moments of precious science

Beresheet is due to touch down between April 11 and 12 in a dark patch of an ancient volcanic field visible from Earth, known as the Sea of Serenity (Mare Serenitatis in Latin). NASA's Apollo 17 astronauts landed near this region on Dec. 11, 1972.

Now, Beresheet will have an opportunity to mark a new first in space exploration with its landing. Though the primary goal of its mission is to land safely, the spacecraft will attempt to do science in orbit, during landing, and on the ground. The window of opportunity for research is small, though: just three Earth days maximum after landing that the spacecraft can withstand the crushing heat - 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) at local noon - of the lunar day (14 Earth days). But every second counts to scientists back on Earth.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), one of the agency's three spacecraft circling and studying the Moon, will analyze the gases released by Beresheet's decent engine as the lander approaches the surface.

"What we're trying to learn is how volatile compounds, such as water or other gases, are transported around the Moon," said John W. Keller, an LRO project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "If we can predict where these compounds will go and where they'll settle, we'll know in what regions of the Moon to look for water and other valuable resources."

Meanwhile, scientists from the University of California in Los Angeles, Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, and from other global organizations will rely on data from Beresheet's magnetometer to study whether Moon rocks contain a history of the magnetic field there.

An old, new instrument

Another experiment on Beresheet will involve a tiny but robust instrument called a Laser Retroreflector Array. Smaller than a computer mouse, this device features eight mirrors made of quartz cube corners that are set into a dome-shaped aluminum frame. This configuration allows the device to reflect light coming in from any direction back to its source.

LRO's laser altimeter, an instrument that measures altitude, will try to shoot laser pulses at Beresheet's retroreflector and then measure how long it takes the light to bounce back. By using this technique, engineers expect to be able to pinpoint Beresheet's location within 4 inches (10 centimeters).

One day, this simple technology, requiring neither power nor maintenance, may make it easier to navigate to locations on the Moon, asteroids, and other bodies. It could also be dropped from a spacecraft onto the surface of a celestial body where the reflector could help scientists track the object's spin rate or position in space.

"It's a fixed marker you may return to it any time," said David E. Smith, principal investigator of the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, or LOLA, on the LRO.

Laser retroreflectors have already been instrumental to space exploration. Apollo- astronauts left three large reflector panels at various Moon locations 50 years ago. They're still reflecting light today, with their 100 mirrors each, though they're reflecting light all the way back to Earth instead of a close-by orbiter. Using these mirrors, scientists have learned many things about the Moon, particularly that it is moving away from Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) per year.

These days, smaller laser reflectors are commonly used to track Earth-orbiting satellites from the ground and have been included on several recent space missions. NASA installed an Italian Space Agency-provided retroreflector on the deck of the InSight lander, which arrived on Mars in November 2018. Though there's no orbiter with a laser instrument at Mars today to shoot light to InSight's reflector, scientists expect that there will be one in the future.

In Beresheet's case, too, the reflector will live on forever, even though Beresheet is expected to stop working within a few days of landing. It may be a simple dome of mirrors, yet Beresheet's reflector may be one of the first flickers of light future explorers undertaking NASA's Moon to Mars exploration will see as they descend to the Moon in the coming decade.

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/NASA_is_aboard_first_private_moon_landing_attempt_999.html.

Iran's president rejects resignation of his foreign minister

February 27, 2019

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's president rejected the resignation of his foreign minister on Wednesday, throwing his full support behind the diplomat who negotiated the country's nuclear deal with world powers as both men face growing pressure from hard-liners as the accord unravels under American pressure.

President Hassan Rouhani earlier gave a speech praising Mohammad Javad Zarif after the foreign minister's sudden resignation shocked the Islamic Republic late on Monday night. His rejection of the resignation, reported by the state-run IRNA news agency, continued that praise.

"Since I consider you in the front line of resistance against broad pressures by the U.S., I consider acceptance of your resignation against the expedience of the country and I do not agree with it," Rouhani reportedly told Zarif.

It's unclear what will happen next. Zarif could stop going to work at the Foreign Ministry, forcing Rouhani's hand. But there's no precedent for that in the history of the Islamic Republic. Zarif more than likely will return to work. There was no immediate response from the 59-year-old diplomat.

It remains unclear what sparked Zarif's resignation. However, it came after Zarif was not present for a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday. Assad was warmly received by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as well as Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of an elite unit of the Revolutionary Guard.

The Guard's website later quoted Soleimani as offering his support to the foreign minister. "Definitely, Zarif is in charge of foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran and he has been always supported by top officials including the supreme leader," Soleimani reportedly said.

Analysts say Rouhani faces growing political pressure from hard-liners within the government as the nuclear deal unravels. Iranian presidents typically see their popularity erode during their second four-year term, but analysts say Rouhani is particularly vulnerable because of the economic crisis assailing the rial, which has hurt ordinary Iranians and emboldened critics to openly call for his ouster.

The son of a wealthy family, Zarif overcame hard-line objections and Western suspicions to strike the accord with world powers that saw Iran limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

But the deal was later challenged by the administration of President Donald Trump, which pulled America out of the accord. In doing so, Trump also fueled Iranian suspicions about U.S. intentions dating back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Zarif had faced withering criticism at home after he shook hands with President Barack Obama.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, long a critic of Iran, welcomed his departure. "Zarif is gone, good riddance. As long as I am here Iran will not get nuclear weapons," he wrote in Hebrew on Twitter. Iran has always said its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and U.N. inspectors say it is still complying with the 2015 nuclear accord.

Rouhani cited that Israeli response in his support of Zarif. "The happiness and rejoicing of the real enemies of the people such as the Zionist regime over your resignation is the best indication of success of Mohammad Javad Zarif and the biggest reason for continuation of your activity in the post of foreign minister," Rouhani said.

Pakistan-India train service resumes as border tensions ease

March 04, 2019

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A key train service with neighboring India resumed and schools in Pakistani Kashmir opened Monday in another sign of easing tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals since a major escalation last week over the disputed Kashmir region.

Pakistan Railways spokesman Ejaz Shah said the train service, known as the Samjhauta Express, left the eastern city of Lahore for India's border town of Atari, with some 180 passengers on board. Pakistan suspended the train service last week as tensions escalated following India's airstrike on Tuesday inside Pakistan. India said it targeted militants behind a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops.

Pakistan retaliated, shooting down a fighter jet the next day and detaining its pilot, who was returned to India two days later. Also Monday, schools in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir opened after seven days of closure amid the heightened tensions.

Raja Jaleel, head teacher at a secondary school in Chakothi, which is close to the Line of Control border in the disputed region, said classes resumed but attendance was thin. He lauded the courage of the students who attended, as many of the area's parents are keeping their children home for their safety.

"We have started our day with prayers for peace," said the head teacher, adding that the students also chanted slogans in support of the army. Schools were closed when Indian and Pakistani troops were trading fire across the Line of Control. At least eight civilians and two soldiers have been killed in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir since tensions soared following India's airstrike last Tuesday.

The reopening of schools on the Pakistani side of Kashmir and the resumption of the train service amid the lull in the crossfire for the second consecutive day suggests that the two nuclear-armed rivals have heeded international calls to exercise restraint. But Pakistan hasn't yet opened its airspace for flights to or from the east.

Senior civil aviation official Aamir Mahboob said that there was "no change yet in our aviation policy toward east but the west corridor is open for all flights." After the suicide bombing on Feb 14 in the Pulwama district of Indian-controlled Kashmir, Indian jets crossed into Pakistani Kashmir and then into the Balakot section of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where they dropped bombs. India claimed its jets struck the militants behind the Pulwama attack. Pakistan denied that any such militant base existed in the area or that was hit by jets. Next day Pakistan shot down two Indian jets and detained a pilot who landed on the Pakistani side. He was handed back to India in a gesture of peace two days later.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947. Both countries claim the territory in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars over it. The rivals struck a cease-fire deal in 2003 but regularly trade cross-border fire.

Mughal reported from Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. Associated Press writer Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Pakistan, India trade fire in Kashmir; villagers flee homes

February 28, 2019

MUZAFARABAD, Pakistan (AP) — India and Pakistan exchanged gunfire through the night into Thursday morning in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, a day after Islamabad said it shot down two Indian warplanes and captured a pilot.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, though jetfighters roared overhead through the mountainous region as villagers along the so-called Line of Control fled to safety. Meanwhile, members of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharitiya Janata Party called for more military action, suggesting the conflict still could worsen. Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan had called for talks between the two nuclear-armed rivals in a televised address Wednesday, saying: "Considering the nature of the weapons that both of us have, can we afford any miscalculation?"

World powers have called on the nations to de-escalate the tensions gripping the contested region since a Feb. 14 suicide car bombing killed over 40 Indian paramilitary personnel. India responded with an airstrike Tuesday inside Pakistan, the first such raid since the two nations' 1971 war over territory that later became Bangladesh.

The situation escalated with Wednesday's aerial skirmish, which saw Pakistan say it shot down two Indian aircraft, one of which crashed in Pakistan-held part of Kashmir and the other in India-controlled Kashmir.

India acknowledged one of its MiG-21s, a Soviet-era fighter jet, was "lost" in skirmishes with Pakistan and that its pilot was "missing in action." India also said it shot down a Pakistani warplane, something Islamabad denied.

Pakistan's military later circulated a video of a man with a mustache who identified himself as the Indian pilot, sipping tea and responding to questions, mostly by saying, "You know I can't answer that." He appeared in good health as he was questioned about his hometown, his aircraft and his mission.

Both Indian and Pakistani officials reported small-arms fire and shelling along the Kashmir region into Thursday. Government buildings in Muzafarabad, the capital of the Pakistan-controlled section of Kashmir, were used to provide shelter to those who fled from border towns.

Indian army spokesman Lt. Col. Devender Anand described the intensity of the firing as "lesser" than previous nights. Authorities in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir closed all schools and educational institutions in the region and are urged parents to keep their children at home amid mounting tension with neighboring India. Pakistan's airspace remained closed for a second day Thursday, snarling air traffic.

Meanwhile, India's finance minister, Arun Jaitley, suggested at a news conference Wednesday that Indian special forces carry out secret missions to capture terrorist leaders in Pakistan, invoking the 2011 U.S. Navy Seal operation to kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

"I remember when U.S. Navy Seals went to Abbottabad to kill Osama bin Laden, then why can't India?" he asked. "This used to be only an imagination, a wish, a frustration and disappointment. But it's possible today."

Just weeks before general elections are due in India, the head of Modi's party in India's Karnataka state, B.S. Yeddyurappa, said India's pre-dawn airstrikes in Pakistan on Tuesday would help the party at the polls.

The violence Wednesday marked the most serious escalation of the long-simmering conflict since 1999, when Pakistan's military sent a ground force into Indian-controlled Kashmir at Kargil. That year also saw an Indian fighter jet shoot down a Pakistani naval aircraft, killing all 16 on board.

Kashmir has been claimed by both India and Pakistan since almost immediately after their creation in 1947. The countries have fought three wars against each other, two directly dealing with the disputed region.

Hussain reported from Srinagar, India. Associated Press writers Ashok Sharma in New Delhi and Kathy Gannon and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Indonesia and Australia sign pact eliminating many tariffs

March 04, 2019

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia and Australia signed a free trade agreement Monday that will eliminate many tariffs, allow Australian-owned hospitals to be set up in the giant Southeast Asian country and increase work visas for young Indonesians.

Trade ministers from the two countries signed the agreement, negotiations for which first began in 2010, at a Jakarta hotel with Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla looking on. It is subject to ratification in both countries.

Annual trade between Australia and Indonesia is valued at $11.6 billion. Though they are neighbors, their trade is relatively small with Indonesia's exports to Australia just 1.5 percent of its total exports.

Major details of the agreement were announced by Australia last September after leaders of the two countries said negotiations had been completed. The text of the agreement is expected to be released after the signing.

Australia says 99 percent of its exports to Indonesia will be tariff free or have improved preferential access by 2020, up from 85 percent under an existing trade agreement between Australia, New Zealand and 10 Southeast Asian countries. Indonesia already enjoys substantially tariff-free access to the Australian market under that agreement.

The Australia-Indonesia agreement will allow Australian companies to have majority ownership of investments in various industries in Indonesia including healthcare, telecommunications, energy, mining and aged care.

Separately, Indonesia is considering allowing foreign companies to invest in higher education, which along with hospitals, is an area the country is lagging far behind international standards. Australia's live cattle exports are set to increase under the agreement with tariffs to be eliminated and the number of animal exported to Indonesia allowed to increase 4 percent a year until reaching 700,000.

Australian working holiday visas for young Indonesians will be increased to 6,000 a year from the current 1,000 over six years.

Australia says coal holdups at China ports are not a ban

February 22, 2019

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australia's trade minister said Friday that while there might be some delays in the processing of coal shipments at Chinese ports, he has no reason to believe China is banning Australian coal.

Simon Birmingham told reporters in Adelaide that he did not see any problem in the relationship between the two countries. His comments followed a report a day earlier by the Reuters news agency, citing an unnamed port official, that the northern Chinese port of Dalian had banned imports of Australian coal.

Coal is one of Australia's largest exports. The report caused the Australian dollar to briefly tumble, coal stocks to fall, and sent officials scrambling for answers. China's markets are vital for Australia and relations are sensitive after Australia last year blocked Chinese-owned telecommunications giant Huawei from involvement in its 5G network due to security concerns.

Birmingham said import quotas, combined with the testing of products for quality assurance, "may be slowing down the processing of coal in certain ports across China." But he said China was applying its rules equally to all countries and wasn't discriminating against Australia.

"I want to provide reassurance that we have no basis to believe that there is a ban on Australian coal exports into China or into any part of China," he said. Australia is working to clarify China's policies and to reassure Australian coal companies, Birmingham said.

He said the relationship with China was in good shape. "We can be confident as a country that our relationship, we believe, is strong, that our ability to work through these issues is strong, and that the economic ties we have, valued as they are by both parties, will continue to be strong into the future," he said.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was traveling in New Zealand, told reporters that people needed to be careful about jumping to conclusions. He said local ports make their own decisions. "This happens from time to time, and we will just work constructively with our partners in China about those issues," Morrison said.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Chinese customs conducts risk monitoring and analysis on the safety and quality of imported coal. "The purpose of this is to better maintain Chinese import enterprises' legitimate rights and interests and to ensure environmental safety," Geng said.

Wild carnivores are making a comeback in Britain

by Brooks Hays
Washington (UPI)
Feb 26, 2019

Most of Britain's native mammalian carnivores are rebounding, according to a new study.

Populations of badgers, foxes, otters, pine martens, polecats, stoats and weasels are all growing. Only wildcats continue to struggle.

Hunting, trapping, pollution and habitat destruction shrunk carnivore numbers across Britain during the 1900s and the first half of the 20th century. Most of the threats facing Britain's carnivores have been stopped or reduced. As a result, the mammals have made a comeback.

"Unlike most carnivores across the world, which are declining rapidly, British carnivores declined to their low points decades ago and are now bouncing back," Katie Sainsbury, an environmental scientist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Exeter, said in a news release. "Carnivores have recovered in a way that would have seemed incredibly unlikely in the 1970s, when extinction of some species looked like a real possibility."

Sainsbury and her research partners compiled the results of surveys documenting the health of local populations of badgers, foxes, otters, pine martens, polecats, stoats and weasels. The surveys revealed evidence of growing numbers and expanding ranges for badgers, foxes, otters, pine martens and polecats.

Though there is no evidence of decline among stoats and weasels, accurate population numbers are difficult to come by.

"These small and fast-moving predators are hard to see and to survey," said Robbie McDonald, wildlife scientist and Exeter professor. "Ironically, the best means of monitoring them is from the records of gamekeepers who trap them. People are key to carnivore recovery."

Only foxes have suffered a setback. Over the past decade, fox numbers are once again shrinking after several decades of recovery. Researchers estimate declining rabbit numbers are to blame.

Researchers shared the results of their research in the journal Mammal Review.

"Most of these animals declined in the 19th century, but they are coming back as a result of legal protection, conservation, removal of pollutants and restoration of habitats," McDonald said. "The recovery of predatory mammals in Britain shows what happens when you reduce the threats that animals face. For the most part these species have recovered by themselves."

As carnivore numbers increase, conservationists and wildlife officials will have to contend with how to manage their interactions with and effects on humans, especially gamekeepers, farmers and anglers.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Wild_carnivores_are_making_a_comeback_in_Britain_999.html.

Berlin's polar bear cub growing fast, public debut soon

February 26, 2019

BERLIN (AP) — Berlin's Tierpark zoo says its polar bear cub is almost ready to be introduced to visitors. The zoo on Tuesday released new photos of the as-yet-unnamed female cub and her mother, Tonja. The bear was born Dec. 1 and weighed 8.5 kilograms (18.7 pounds) by the time of her first medical checkup nearly two weeks ago.

Zoo director Andreas Knieriem says that keepers are very satisfied with the cub's development and Tonja is a good mother. Mother and daughter will probably make their first appearance in the bears' outside enclosure — and see visitors for the first time — in mid-March.

The Tierpark has the same management as Berlin's other zoo, which was home a decade ago to celebrity polar bear Knut.

Animal saved from icy Estonian river turns out to be a wolf

February 24, 2019

HELSINKI (AP) — Estonian construction workers got the shock of their lives when they found out the animal they saved from an icy river was not a dog but a wolf. Rando Kartsepp, Robin Sillamae and Erki Vali told the Postimees newspaper they were working at the Sindi dam on the frozen Parnu River in southwestern Estonia when they saw an animal frantically swimming in a maze of ice.

They rescued the ice-coated animal and took it to a shelter. A hunter told them it was about a one-year old male wolf suffering from shock and hypothermia. The young wolf recovered after a day and was released back into the wild with a GPS collar.

Estonia has an estimated 200 wolves. The grey wolf was voted Estonia's national animal by nature organizations in 2018.

Iceland to keep hunting up to 2,130 whales over 5 years

February 23, 2019

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Iceland's whaling industry will be allowed to keep hunting whales for at least another five years, killing up to 2,130 baleen whales under a new quota issued by the government.

The five-year whaling policy was up for renewal when Fisheries Minister Kristjan Juliusson announced this week an annual quota of 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales for the next five years. While many Icelanders support whale hunting, a growing number of businessmen and politicians are against it due to the North Atlantic island nation's dependence on tourism.

Whaling, they say, is bad for business and poses a threat to the country's reputation and the expanding international tourism that has become a mainstay of Iceland's national economy. "We risk damaging the tourism sector, our most important industry," legislator Bjarkey Gunnarsdottir said, referring to the international criticism and diplomatic pressure that Iceland faces for allowing the commercial hunting of whales.

The Icelandic Travel Industry Association issued a statement Friday saying the government was damaging the nation's "great interests" and the country's reputation to benefit a small whaling sector that is struggling to sell its products.

"Their market for whale meat is Japan, Norway and the Republic of Palau," the tourism statement said. "Our market is the entire globe." Iceland's Statistics Agency says tourism accounts for 8.6 percent of Iceland's economic production. In 2016, tourism produced more revenue than Iceland's fishing industry for the first time.

Iceland has four harpoon-equipped vessels, owned by three shipping companies reported to be running them at a loss or small profit. Last year, the industry killed 5 minke whales and 145 fin whales, according to the Directorate of Fisheries.

Since commercial whale hunting resumed in Iceland in 2006, whaling companies have never killed their full quota. As a result, it's considered unlikely that all 2,130 whales will be killed under this policy.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a ban on commercial whaling in the 1980s due to dwindling stocks. Japan in December said it was pulling out of the IWC due to its disagreement with that policy. Iceland is still a member of the IWC.