Outgoing German defense minister in parting shot at France, Britain

Berlin (AFP)
Jan 08, 2014

Germany's former defense minister on Wednesday took an unusually undiplomatic parting shot at allies France and Britain, saying Berlin had met its responsibilities when it came to overseas military operations.

Thomas de Maiziere, seen as a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, told a military ceremony marking his departure from the ministry that "Germany has no lessons to take from anyone in Europe on how to organize its military interventions. Not even from France or Britain."

"When it comes to international engagements, we have several times been more involved than France," he said in an apparent reference to the Nato-led operation in Afghanistan where Germany contributes the third most troops behind the United States and Britain.

"Germany does its duty, even when the domestic political situation is difficult. No German government has suffered a defeat on a vote to approve military intervention," he added, in a veiled swipe at British Prime Minister David Cameron's defeat in parliament over possible action in Syria.

"I might not have said this when I was minister of defense, but I thought it," he said to applause and laughter from the crowd.

"When I was a serving defense minister, I sometimes had to hold back in what I was saying. Now, I don't have the same impediment," added the politician from Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats.

De Maiziere held the post of defense minister for two and a half years in Merkel's previous coalition government, during which time Berlin sometimes frustrated its traditional allies with an apparent reticence in foreign and defense policy.

This frustration reached its height in 2011 when Berlin abstained in a United Nations vote on international intervention in Libya.

De Maiziere's replacement as defense minister is Ursula von der Leyen -- the first woman to hold the job in the history of Germany -- who is seen as a possible successor to Merkel herself.

De Maiziere has been appointed interior minister in the new Merkel government.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Outgoing_German_defence_minister_in_parting_shot_at_France_Britain_999.html.

Hollande drives for arms deals in Persian Gulf as U.S. power wanes

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UPI)
Jan 7, 2013

French President Francois Hollande is pushing hard to restore Paris' once-thriving defense links with the Persian Gulf monarchies, especially the major military power Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with the aim of securing major arms deals.

He concluded a two-day visit to Riyadh Dec. 31 designed to restore France's diplomatic clout in the strategic, oil-rich region clearly exploiting Saudi Arabia's growing differences with the long-dominant Americans over their refusal to help topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, and the Obama administration's new strategic objective of a rapprochement with Iran, the kingdom's bitter rival for leadership of the region and the Muslim world.

And so far, Hollande's plan seems to be working: Witness the Dec. 29 announcement that Riyadh has pledged $3 billion to buy weapons from France to strengthen Lebanon's military against Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed movement that's helping Assad, a key Iranian ally, hold onto power against Saudi-backed Syrian rebels.

That should be a major shot in the arm for France's defense industry, which has had a lean time in terms of arms deals in recent months.

Dassault Aviation, one of France's major defense contractors, has a lot riding on its efforts to sell 60 Rafale multi-role combat jets to the Emirates, a contract worth upwards of $10 billion.

Dassault has lost out in several big combat fighter contests in recent years, including a $4.5 billion 36-jet deal with Brazil, and is desperate to secure the gulf contract that would be Rafale's first confirmed export sale.

In 2012, Rafale was tipped as the winner in an Indian competition for 126 combat aircraft worth more than $120 billion, but disagreement with New Delhi over the cost of building 108 of them in India has left the whole deal hanging, with no sign of an early resolution.

If the Emirate contract fizzles, Dassault will have to seriously cut back the Rafale production line amid French defense budget reductions.

France slashed its Rafale order in mid-2013, from 11 per year to 26 over six years, and now the assembly line will be threatened if Dassault can't make a big Rafale export sale in the gulf.

"Rafale relies on the French government for its survival, but Paris can no longer afford to shoulder the $2.02 billion-$2.7 billion annual cost of keeping up production," observed British defense analyst Carola Hoyos.

"Ending Rafale's production ... would maim France's military aerospace industry and undermine the diplomatic and military influence it gains from being one of the few countries able to rely entirely on its own equipment."

In December, the Emirates dropped the Eurofighter Typhoon, built by a European consortium headed by Britain's BAE Systems, boosting Rafale's prospects. But Dassault, which has been negotiating with the Emiratis for years, could still lose to Boeing's F/A-18.

"France will pursue its efforts to increase its defense market share in the gulf despite the commercial tensions this will create with its U.S. and U.K. allies," observed Oxford Analytica.

"Defense ties should become stronger as France responds to further requests for security assistance from the gulf states. Yet its quest for renewed diplomatic influence in the region cannot be pursued alone, and will require U.S. and U.K. support."

Restoring defense and trade ties with the gulf has been one of Hollande's priorities since his May 2012 election.

"Hollande's new team was eager to turn the page after the Sarkozy presidency's inconclusive partnership with Qatar and distant relations with the Saudis and the Emiratis," Oxford Analytica noted.

"Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has invested considerable time and energy to fulfill that objective, resulting in a major improvement in ties."

Indeed, Le Drian has visited Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and gas-rich Qatar, which seeks 72 new strike jets and could become a Rafale customer, no less than 13 times since mid-2012. Hollande's visit to Riyadh was his second in a year.

In the 1980s France supplied Saudi Arabia with several frigates and other warships under the Sawari naval program and these now need to be replaced. Paris hopes to secure the contract, worth around $13.8 billion, for six advanced frigates and 5-6 submarines.

France is also hoping to secure a $2.72 billion contract to upgrade the kingdom's air defense system, known as the Mark 3 Program.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Hollande_drives_for_arms_deals_in_Persian_Gulf_as_US_power_wanes_999.html.

C. African Republic leader is subject of summit

January 09, 2014

N'DJAMENA, Chad (AP) — The rebel leader-turned-president of Central African Republic is at a regional summit where he's expected to face renewed pressure to step aside less than a year after he seized power.

Michel Djotodia was installed as president after his rebel fighters stormed the capital of Bangui in March. The country has since deteriorated into near anarchy. Violence between Christians and Muslims left more than 1,000 people dead in December, and nearly 1 million have fled their homes in fear.

Djotodia is attending a regional summit Thursday in the Chadian capital along with presidents from Chad, Congo and Gabon. His spokesman has issued a statement denying rumors that Djotodia will step down at the meeting.

Djotodia's critics say he has failed to stem the attacks blamed on his fighters. In a message to the summit, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "'The danger of further upheaval along religious lines is real and poses a long-term danger to the country."

Ban also said that the United Nations intends to establish a commission to "document abuses and human rights violations. Together, we must send a strong message that those committing atrocities will be held accountable."

Associated Press writer Peter James Spielmann contributed from the United Nations.

African migrants march in Israel demanding rights

January 05, 2014

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — About 10,000 African migrants marched in Israel's financial center of Tel Aviv Sunday and gathered in front of City Hall in their largest demonstration yet to demand work rights and better treatment from the Israeli government.

Over the past eight years, roughly 60,000 African migrants, mostly Sudanese and Eritreans, have crossed into Israel from Egypt either to escape war and hardship or to seek work. The influx has placed Israel in a tough situation with many believing that the Jewish state, founded in part as a refuge for Holocaust survivors after World War II, has a responsibility to help the downtrodden, while others fear that taking in so many Africans will threaten the country's Jewish character.

Chanting "we are refugees, we need asylum," the protesters asked the government to allow them to stay. Organizers announced that they have embarked on a three-day strike to protest a crackdown on migrants and called on the government to allow them to work legally.

"This protest is over our rights as human beings. We are not treated like humans," Muttasem Ali from the Darfur region of Sudan said in Hebrew in an interview with Channel 2 TV. Many migrants have found their way to the impoverished neighborhoods of south Tel Aviv. The area has so many migrants that Israelis have renamed it "little Africa" and the influx has caused tension with locals who accuse them of being responsible for rising crime rates.

The government has scrambled to stop the flood of migrants by erecting a fence along the 130-mile (220-kilometer) Egyptian border and a massive detention center in the remote southern desert. The government has offered incentives for them to leave but is unable to deport most of them because they would face harm if they returned to their countries of origin.

Orbital to attempt launch to space station Thursday

Washington (AFP)
Jan 09, 2014

Orbital Sciences Corporation is aiming to launch its unmanned Cygnus cargo ship Thursday on the company's first regular supply mission to the International Space Station.

The decision to go ahead with a launch -- its third attempt -- was confirmed late Wednesday, hours after turbulent space weather caused by potent solar flares forced the delay of a planned liftoff.

The postponement was made over fears that high levels of space radiation from the solar flares might interfere with the Antares rocket's electronics, but those concerns have since been allayed, company officials said.

"Orbital Sciences has confirmed it will proceed with a 1:07 pm (1807 GMT) launch attempt of the Orbital-1 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, Jan. 9, pending closeout of all remaining pre-launch reviews and tests," said a statement.

"Upon a deeper examination of the current space weather environment, Orbital's engineering team, in consultation with NASA, has determined that the risk to launch success is within acceptable limits established at the outset of the Antares program."

Solar flares are bursts of magnetic energy that originate on the Sun, unleashing radiation that can briefly disrupt radio signals, GPS and satellite communications.

However, the radiation from a flare is unable to pass through Earth's atmosphere and therefore cannot harm humans on the ground.

A Thursday liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, would allow the cargo ship to reach the ISS by January 12.

Orbital's attempt was previously delayed in December due to a cooling system breakdown at the ISS which required American astronauts to make two spacewalks to replace an ammonia cooling pump.

When the launch finally goes ahead, it will mark the company's first regularly contracted mission and its second trip to the orbiting outpost, coming on the heels of a successful demonstration launch in September.

That mission proved "that the company can reliably carry out regularly scheduled operational missions to the ISS for NASA," said David Thompson, Orbital's chairman and chief executive officer.

Orbital has a contract with NASA worth $1.9 billion for eight cargo resupply missions to the global space lab.

Orbital and SpaceX are two private companies that have stepped in to ensure the United States' ability to reach the ISS, after the retirement of the 30-year space shuttle program in 2011.

SpaceX, owned by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, became the first commercial entity to reach the space station with its Dragon cargo ship in 2012, and has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

Unlike SpaceX's Dragon capsule, Cygnus cannot return to Earth intact, but will burn up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, disposing of any unwanted cargo.

This time around, the Cygnus is saddled with 2,780 pounds (1,260 kilograms) of gear including science experiments, supplies and hardware.

It is ferrying some unusual science experiments for the astronauts aboard the station in cooperation with students back on Earth.

One is an experiment called "Ants in Space" that aims to help students compare the behavior of ants in orbit -- recorded by video cameras at the ISS -- to ants on Earth.

Another is an experiment aimed at helping understand drug-resistant superbugs. It includes 128 test tubes that will measure 38 different concentrations of antibiotic on E. coli bacteria.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Orbital_to_attempt_launch_to_space_station_Thursday_999.html.

NASA extends space station life to 2024

Washington (AFP)
Jan 08, 2014

The $100-billion International Space Station will be extended by four years, or until at least 2024, allowing for more global research and scientific collaboration, NASA said Wednesday.

The orbiting outpost, the largest space lab ever built, was launched to fanfare in 1998 and had been expected to remain in operation until 2020.

"What a tremendous gift the administration has given us to go look at extending this space station," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.

Science on the station ranges from studying drug-resistant bacteria, to probing the origins of the universe, to examining how people may one day venture deeper into space, perhaps to Mars, he said.

"We want to push out beyond low-Earth orbit. We are going to have to use this small foothold called the International Space Station to go do that. This is our only opportunity."

The station has more living space than a six-bedroom house and comes complete with Internet access, a gym, two bathrooms and a 360-degree bay window offering spectacular views of Earth.

Partnering agencies are NASA, the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The entire structure of the ISS is made up of various working and sleeping modules, and extends the length of a football field (357 feet, 109 meters), making it four times bigger than the Russian space station Mir and about five times as large as the US Skylab.

Although it is near-weightless in space, the space station has a mass of 924,739 pounds (420,000 kilograms).

It is maintained by a rotating crew of six astronauts and cosmonauts who have hailed from 14 countries, NASA said.

"People love the International Space Station," said David Weaver, NASA's associate administrator for the Office of Communications.

He said this is the second time the life of the station had been extended under the administration of President Barack Obama, and was done based on the science promise that could come from more years in orbit.

"We need a longer planning horizon than we currently have," Weaver said.

Gerstenmaier said the decision to extend goes until "at least 2024," and noted "the hardware can last to 2028."

From the US perspective, he said, the decision would not require any immediate funds or Congressional approval, since the NASA budget has already allowed for ISS activity through 2020.

Funds that were to be used for de-commissioning the station after 2020 will be reapplied for the extension of its life, he said.

The NASA announcement was not immediately echoed by the other global space agencies that are engaged with the ISS, and Gerstenmaier said that might take time.

"This really isn't a US-only decision. We have talked to our partners about this," he said.

"They want to go forward with this, it is just working through the government approval, through their individual groups to get where they want to be."

Gerstenmaier said the costs of maintaining and servicing the station are about three billion dollars per year.

Asked what would happen if other space agencies were unable to contribute, he said: "We are prepared to do what we have to do in case the partners need to take a different path."

Astronauts and cosmonauts currently gain access to the lab by launching three at a time aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The Americans' ability to reach the lab ended in 2011 with the retirement of the 30-year space shuttle program.

However, US companies SpaceX and Orbital Sciences have since succeeded in sending unmanned cargo capsules to the outpost, and new US crew ships are expected to launch in 2017.

The aging structure requires regular maintenance, which is done by astronauts who don spacesuits and venture outside the lab.

One such repair was completed on Christmas Eve when two Americans stepped out to replace a failed ammonia pump that served to cool equipment at the ISS.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/NASA_extends_space_station_life_to_2024_999.html.

Political swipes in India show rape a voter issue

January 07, 2014

NEW DELHI (AP) — The 16-year-old reported that she had been gang raped, only to be raped again by the same men the next day and later threatened for going to the police in eastern India. By the time charges were filed more than two months later, she had been set on fire and died from her injuries.

The girl's death on New Year's Eve in West Bengal came more than a year after a deadly gang rape in New Delhi raised awareness and outrage over chronic sexual violence in India and government failures to protect women. The New Delhi rape was considered a major reason for why voters ousted the capital's government last month, and a furious response to the West Bengal case suggests that with general elections just months away, politicians are anxious to impress voters who are demanding that women's safety become a police priority.

The teen's family, allegedly run out of town by her assailants, accuses police of trying to cover up the crimes. Improving sensitivity by police officers and medical workers is crucial to improving women's safety in this country of 1.2 billion, activists say. Even as the government has promised to improve justice for rape victims, some trying to report sexual crimes have said they were harassed by officers making lewd comments, demanding bribes or simply shooing them away.

The girl reported being gang raped on Oct. 25 and 26, but Kolkata police did not arrest anyone until the girl ended up in a hospital Dec. 23 with severe burn injuries. Doctors then determined she was pregnant. Police initially told reporters she had attempted suicide, but the girl's family disputed that, saying she was set on fire by associates of those who had gang raped her.

After the girl's death led to a public uproar, police arrested and charged six suspects in the gang rapes and another two accused by the girl of setting her alight. A fast-track court will hold a first hearing in the both cases Jan. 15. Meanwhile, a forensic laboratory is determining the age of the girl's fetus in order to establish whether she became pregnant from the rapes.

The case has reinforced the widespread view in India that police are a major part of India's chronic problem with sexual violence. Massive protests erupted in Kolkata, with critics including artists, rights activists and opposition politicians saying authorities ignored the family's complaints of harassment and moved too slowly to arrest the suspects.

Critics question why police filed a case over the first reported gang rape, but not the second. Both the opposition and the girl's taxi driver father are demanding that federal investigators take over the case.

"The fact that politicians and public figures are speaking in such strong terms is surprising," said Abhilasha Kumari, a New Delhi-based sociologist and women's right's activist. "Historically, the concerns of women have never mattered much to the political community, but in the past year safety and security of women have become a political issue, and it will be even more so now with elections coming."

The girl's family accused police of trying to cover up the crimes, and even of hijacking the hearse carrying his daughter's body in an attempt to take it for cremation against the family's wishes. A street brawl broke out as opposition supporters tried to block police from taking the body from the mortuary, where protesters had planned a rally to criticize a lack of sensitivity by authorities.

Police said they had taken the highly unusual step of seizing the body in an attempt to help the family during a difficult time and to spare the city any more upset from the case. The incident shocked Bengalis. Filmmaker Aparna Sen said she was "devastated." The girl's remains were eventually cremated Wednesday night with the family's consent.

"Those who have gang raped my daughter should be given death penalty," the grieving father told reporters last week after meeting with the state's governor to complain about a "tyrannical" police response. Neither the girl nor her father is being named by Indian media under laws guarding the identity of rape victims.

The father said police threatened him, demanding that he leave the state or else have his taxi business shut down. West Bengal's government, led by a woman chief minister, has said little about the case apart from defending its response.

Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra pledged financial aid for the family and reiterated "our commitment for zero tolerance to attacks on women." The state's urban development minister accused critics of politicizing a tragedy. "The state government has taken appropriate action in the case," Firhad Hakim said.

The nationwide outcry over the 2012 gang rape in New Delhi led the federal government to rush legislation doubling prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalizing voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of women. The law also makes it a crime for officers to refuse to open cases.

But the same gang rape case helped bring down New Delhi's local government in a ballot last month, with many Delhiites questioning how a so-called "fast-track" court took more than seven months to deliver a guilty verdict.

Police in Mumbai earned praise for quickly rounding up five teenagers accused of raping a photojournalist within a day of her reporting the attack, but the death of the girl in West Bengal stoked public demands that police be held accountable for their response to sexual violence.

"The girl should have been protected, and since there was no protection she was raped again and subsequently killed," said Mamta Sharma, chairwoman of the National Commission for Women. "The public anger on the incident is genuine. All parents want to see their daughters are safe," independent Kolkata political analyst Subir Bhowmik said. "The government wants to show that they are not at fault and working for the people. Opposition parties also want to reap benefit from this issue."

Some activists warn that political posturing could harm efforts to improve women's safety by turning particularly savage cases like the one in West Bengal into opportunities for media hounds and voyeurs.

Little publicity was given to the case in the weeks after the girl reported being gang raped in October and left in a field near her home in the Madhyamgram suburb of Kolkata, formerly Calcutta. A day later, while returning with her parents from reporting the crime to police, her family said she was abducted by the same men and gang raped again before being left unconscious by railway tracks.

When the family fled to a new home in another suburb called Dum Dum, they said they were visited on Dec. 23 by associates of the girl's attackers and threatened with violence if they didn't withdraw their police complaint. Later that day, the girl was set on fire in her home. She died from her injuries on Dec. 31.

"The West Bengal government is responsible for inaction, but the opposition is equally insensitive in terms of politicizing the rape of a child," said Ranjana Kumari, a women's activist with the Center for Social Research. "We need all parties to set politics aside and address an issue that affects us all."

Associated Press Writer Manik Banerjee contributed to this report from Kolkata.