South Sudan rebel chief vows to seize oil fields

Tue Apr 15, 2014

The leader of South Sudanese rebels has vowed to attack the capital Juba to take control of oil fields.

Riek Machar said that war in South Sudan would not end unless President Salva Kiir was removed from power, AFP reported on Tuesday.

"If we are to remove the dictator, Juba is a target, oil fields are a target," Machar said, referring to Kiir.

"We are only resisting a regime that wants to destroy us," added the rebel leader, who was speaking at a secret location in Upper Nile state late on Monday.

The 62-year-old former vice president said he was ready to hold direct talks with Kiir but questioned the idea himself, saying, "What would we discuss? You are a discredited leader, you have committed massacres. I hope he accepts that."

He also accused the South Sudanese president of "corruption by exploiting our resources," claiming, "He is buying more arms, more ammunition."

The political crisis in South Sudan began after Kiir accused the rebel leader of attempting a coup in December 2013.

The conflict soon turned into an all-out war between the army and defectors, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president’s tribe against Machar's.

South Sudan gained independence in July 2011 after its people overwhelmingly voted in a referendum for a split from the North.

The government in Juba is grappling with rampant corruption, unrest and conflict in the deeply impoverished but oil-rich nation left devastated by decades of war.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/15/358708/s-sudan-rebels-vow-to-take-oil-fields/.

Rebels recapture key oil town in South Sudan

Tue Apr 15, 2014

Rebels in South Sudan say they have recaptured the oil-rich Unity state capital Bentiu from government troops.

The spokesperson for rebel leader Riek Machar, James Gatdet Dak, made announcement in the volatile region on Tuesday

“I could hear the ululations of people in the background celebrating its recapture and I couldn’t hear gun shots which suggested that the fighting was over inside the town,” the spokesman said, adding, “To me, the town has fallen to our forces.”

The rebels say they have given oil companies an ultimatum to shut down production and evacuate their staff within a week.

This is while the UN peacekeepers say they have rescued ten staff members from the Russian oil company Safinat.

Five oil workers were wounded during the rescue operation, with two said to be in critical condition.

A rebel commander says recapturing the oil-rich-state is the first phase of taking control of all oil fields.

The fighting between troops of South Sudan President Salva Kiir, who is from the Dinka ethnic group, and his former deputy, Machar, a Nuer, erupted around the capital, Juba, on December 15, 2013.

The conflict soon turned into an all-out war between the army and defectors, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president’s tribe against Machar’s.

The fighting comes despite a ceasefire signed on January 23 to end weeks of heavy fighting which led to the death of thousands of people in the world’s youngest nation.

The international community has repeatedly urged both sides to respect the ceasefire.

The ongoing violence in South Sudan has claimed thousands of lives and forced over a million to flee their homes.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/15/358691/rebels-seize-key-oil-town-in-south-sudan/.

Israeli killed in West Bank shooting

Jerusalem (AFP)
April 14, 2014

An Israeli was killed and two others wounded in a shooting near the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Monday, the army said.

The incident at the start of the Jewish Passover holiday was the first deadly attack on an Israeli in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year, and came as tensions were soaring over the near-breakdown of US-brokered peace talks.

"Fire was opened at Israeli civilian vehicles on Route 35, near Hebron, and we're conducting widespread searches for the perpetrators... An Israeli civilian was killed in the attack," a spokeswoman told AFP.

A separate army statement said two other Israelis were wounded.

The man who was killed was a police officer from the town of Modiin in central Israel, an Israeli security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The policeman's wife and nine-year-old child were wounded and transferred to hospital. Three other children were in the vehicle, according to Israeli military radio.

Israelis in another car said they saw a man wearing a helmet and firing a Kalashnikov assault rifle on the side of the road, it said.

Dozens of army vehicles fanned out into nearby Palestinian villages, and a security barrier was erected at the main entrance to Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, according to an AFP photographer.

The flashpoint city of Hebron is home to nearly 200,000 Palestinians. There are some 80 settler homes in the center of town housing about 700 Jews who live under Israeli army protection.

The Palestinian Hamas movement ruling Gaza, and fellow Islamist movement Islamic Jihad praised the attack, linking it to recent unrest in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem's Old City.

"Hamas praises the heroic Hebron operation and considers it a result of the (Israeli) occupation's oppression and crimes against our people and holy places, including the Al-Aqsa mosque," a statement said.

Islamic Jihad released a similar statement, hailing the attack and linking it to "settlers appropriating the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque."

But neither group claimed responsibility for the attack.

-- Clashes in Jerusalem --

On Sunday, Israeli police arrested five people after Palestinians clashed with security forces at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Police said "stones and Molotov cocktails" were thrown at officers, who responded using stun grenades and entered the compound.

An AFP journalist said Hamas members were among the protesters.

The compound, in the walled Old City, houses the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques, and is the third most sacred site in Islam.

It is also the holiest place in Judaism, venerated as the site where King Herod's temple stood before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Clashes frequently break out there between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

Muslims are intensely sensitive to any perceived threat to the status of the compound and many believe Jews are determined to build a new temple on the wide esplanade.

Jews are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, but often try to enter the compound.

Monday's shooting took place as the seven-day Jewish Passover holiday began.

In September, an Israeli soldier was shot dead by a suspected Palestinian gunman in the center of Hebron during the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Nine Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since January 1 in the West Bank, where around 350,000 Israelis live in settlements considered illegal by the international community.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have meanwhile been trying to save collapsing US-backed peace talks, and were scheduled to meet again Wednesday with US envoy Martin Indyk.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Israeli_killed_in_West_Bank_shooting_999.html.

From Red Mars To Green Earth

Paris (ESA)
Apr 15, 2014

How can a sensor for analyzing the atmosphere of Mars help us to cut greenhouse emissions on Earth? By going where no human or machine has been before. Parts of our planet are so hostile they are unreachable. But if we are to understand Earth's atmosphere it is vital we monitor factors such as gases around industrial chimneys and erupting volcanoes.

A new portable device created by the young space scientist Hugh Mortimer promises a greener future by readily analyzing the composition of gases, solids and liquids using the light they emit.

Hugh and his partner Jolyon Tidmarsh are now hosted at ESA's Business Incubation Center in Harwell, UK, while they turn the invention into a commercial business.

Originally designed to fly on future Mars probes, this little device is so sturdy it can withstand some of the harshest conditions on Earth, making it ideal for measuring air quality and roadside vehicle emissions, detecting gas leaks and monitoring industrial chemical processes. Its size makes it especially suited to fly on aerial drones for mapping the ground below or monitoring color variations in crops for more efficient use of pesticides and fertilizers.

Over the rainbow

Such 'spectroscopes' split up incoming light into its individual colors, with the unique pattern revealing the composition of the source. On Earth, they are already commonplace in food production and industry to determine the composition and purity of substances, as well as in the medical world to 'sniff' a patient and help diagnose illness.

The problem is that they are bulky. In space, where weight equals money, this makes them expensive. Add their complex system of mirrors and moving parts and they are vulnerable to damage during launch, with plenty to go wrong in the hostile environment of space.

It was this need for a smaller, lighter device with fewer moving parts that drove a team at the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to find a new design for analyzing planetary atmospheres. In a lightbulb moment, PhD graduate Hugh came up with a ground-breaking approach.

"I had been working with a spectrometer design that used a very complex optical arrangement and I really wanted to create something simpler," he recalled. "I was sitting at the back of a meeting doodling when the idea came to me. I quickly sketched the new device and took it to colleagues in the Innovation Team of the Science and Technology Facilities Council."

They could immediately see the potential of the design with only three static parts: two mirrors and an optical element that splits the light beam in two.

It was this lightweight and simple approach that made Hugh's device unique, says Kate Ronayne, head of the Innovation Team. "Most Earth-based instruments are fixed in place because they're large and fragile - you have to take your sample to the lab for analysis. This one, on the other hand, comes to you.

"You can take it anywhere and as long as it can 'see' its target, it can analyse it even from a distance." It can measure all kinds of light from ultraviolet to infrared. It is particularly sensitive because it was built to detect tiny traces of many different gases in the martian atmosphere in one sweep.

The team then began researching which businesses might benefit, with the support of STFC Innovation, the commercial arm of STFC and the UK broker for ESA's Technology Transfer Program. In 2013 the KEIT company was created to investigate the commercial potential further.

KEIT is now hosted in ESA's Harwell incubator, part of its Technology Transfer Program. This support was instrumental in inspiring others to invest and the company has now received early funding from Longwall Ventures and the UK Rainbow Seed Fund to support the transition towards full commercialization. Working in the incubator also meant the start-up company has access to STFC and ESA technical expertise.

The first unit is likely to be commercially available by July, promising a growing list of applications.

Apart from their environmental role in monitoring gas emissions from chimneys and helping industries adhere to environmental regulations, the devices could be instrumental in analyzing water quality, or assisting industrial or laboratory-based research and development.

Food companies already use spectrometers but the versatility, stability and simplicity of the new design mean they could sit on any food or pharmaceutical production line to check, for example, the fat content of milk, or the origin and quality of whisky.

With its long list of applications here on Earth, there's no question that the future of the sturdy little interferometer looks rosy.

For a young scientist with a sketchpad, this is journey is just beginning. Although the focus right now is on the terrestrial applications, Hugh still reflects, "It's my ambition to see this instrument used in space. Maybe on a future ESA or NASA mission to Mars. That would be great".

Source: Space Mart.
Link: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/From_Red_Mars_To_Green_Earth_999.html.

Dragon Cargo Craft Launch Scrubbed; Station Crew Preps for Spacewalk

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX)
Apr 15, 2014

Monday's launch attempt of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft, loaded with nearly 5,000 pounds of supplies for the International Space Station's Expedition 39 crew, was scrubbed due to a helium leak on the Falcon 9 first stage. The next launch opportunity would be Friday, April 18 at 3:25 p.m. EDT if the issue can be resolved.

The launch of the third SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply services mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida will send the vehicle on course to rendezvous with the station several days later. Commander Koichi Wakata and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio will capture the space freighter using the Canadarm2 robotic arm to set it up for its berthing to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module.

Mission managers and SpaceX had agreed Sunday to proceed with Monday's launch attempt despite the loss Friday of a multiplexer demultiplexer (MDM) backup computer relay system in the S0 truss that assists in providing insight into truss systems, the operation of the external cooling loops, the operations of the Solar Alpha Rotary joints and the Mobile Transporter rail car.

The International Space Station Mission Management Team met throughout the weekend to assess the work of the teams of engineers analyzing the problem and determined that the station has enough redundancy to permit the SpaceX Dragon launch to proceed. A contingency spacewalk is now scheduled for no earlier than April 22 to replace the failed backup computer relay unit in the S0 truss.

On Sunday, the Mobile Transporter was moved to a worksite to provide spacewalking astronauts the access they will need to replace the MDM during the contingency spacewalk. The Solar Alpha Rotary joints will be placed at the correct angle following the launch of the Dragon cargo vehicle in advance of its arrival.

Aboard the station Monday, Mastracchio and Flight Engineer Steve Swanson spent most of the day inside the Quest airlock working on the replacement of a fan pump separator in one of the two spacesuits they will wear during the planned 2 0.5 hour contingency spacewalk. This will be the 179th spacewalk in support of station assembly and maintenance.

Mastracchio and Swanson also reviewed training materials for the Dragon spacecraft and studied the plan for unloading the cargo. Wakata conducted another session of the Hybrid Training experiment. This Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency study takes a look the health benefits of applying electric stimulation to a muscle opposing the voluntary contraction of an active muscle.

In addition to providing a backup to the traditional exercise devices aboard the station, Hybrid Training may be useful in keeping astronauts fit as they travel beyond low Earth orbit aboard smaller spacecraft

The Japanese commander also began the first RaDI-N radiation detection session for Expedition 39. After Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin initialized the detectors, Wakata deployed the neutron monitors in the Columbus module.

Results from RaDI-N will help researchers accurately measure the risk assessment of neutron radiation in space and reduce the astronauts' exposure to radiation on future missions.

Wakata rounded out his day flushing the cooling loops of the U.S. spacesuits. On the Russian side of the complex, Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev conducted the Relaxation experiment, which studies chemical luminescent reactions in the Earth's atmosphere.

Flight Engineer Alexander Skvortsov continued unloading cargo from the ISS Progress 55 cargo ship, which delivered nearly three tons of cargo to the orbital laboratory when it launched and docked with the station on April 9. Tyurin participated in a routine hearing assessment and performed routine maintenance on the life-support system in the Zvezda service module.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Dragon_Cargo_Craft_Launch_Scrubbed_Station_Crew_Preps_for_Spacewalk_999.html.

Meteorite studies suggest hidden water on Mars

Tokyo, Japan (SPX)
Apr 15, 2014

Geochemical calculations by researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology to determine how the water content of Mars has changed over the past 4.5 billion years suggest as yet unidentified reservoirs of water on the planet.

A warmer more watery primordial Martian landscape more closely resembling Earth has long been suggested from geochemical and geological observations. However, as Hiroyuki Kurakawa and colleagues in Japan point out in their recent report "the timing, processes, and the amount of the water loss have been poorly constrained."

Their latest studies using geochemical meteorite data to understand how the volume of water has changed on Mars over its history suggest there is more water present there now than has so far been observed.

Today Martian water is considered to exist chiefly as ice at the poles of the planet. However geological observations of rocks containing water laid sediments suggest that lakes and oceans once existed. Previous studies have focused on the volumes of lake-like geological structures to extrapolate how much water was previously present on Mars.

In contrast the researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology and colleagues at Nagoya University and Kyushu University in Japan determined the water quantities over the course of the planet's history from ratios of the isotopes deuterium and hydrogen (D/H) in ancient meteorites.

Deuterium and hydrogen exist in water at a standard ratio at equilibrium. However hydrogen is lighter and escapes more readily so that the changes in the D/H ratio over the course of time can be used to determine how much water has been lost.

They compared their results with previous geological estimates of the primordial water volume and found discrepancies in the figures that suggest the existence of as yet unidentified reservoirs of water on Mars at present. They hypothesize that these may be in the form of mid-latitude ice mantles or underground reservoirs.

As hydrogen from water molecules escape oxygen is left behind. These latest results also suggest greater quantities of this oxygen than current models account for.

Water has been hypothesized to exist on Mars since ancient times when the white caps at the poles were correctly thought to be ice. Today the observed water content of Mars is low and in the form of ice. However the existence of geological structures resembling lakes and oceans and water lain residues and sediments suggest that Mars was once warm enough to host liquid water.

Current ratios of hydrogen and its heavier isotope deuterium (D/H) on Mars are six times those on Earth. The D/H ratio during different eras was determined from analyzing meteorite samples. Recent technical developments have allowed more accurate determination of D/H ratios with this approach.

In addition while most meteorites have been aged as comparatively young - less than 1.3 billion years old, the recently analysed meteorite ALH84001 is aged 4.1 billion years old. For even older D/H ratios, the meteorite Yamato 980459 contains mineral inclusions from crystallized mantle that represents the Martian mantle around 4.5 billion years ago.

The water loss between two periods was calculated using the D/H ratios for different periods, the current estimated water on Mars and the so-called fractionation factor, which gives the equilibrium value for deuterium versus hydrogen content in the Martian water.

The researchers calculated the water loss for two periods: 4.5-4.1 billion years ago and 4.1 billion years ago to the current day. The model gives greatly increased values for water loss between 4.5 and 4.1 billion years ago relative to the water lost since regardless of the value used to estimate the amount of water on Mars at present.

As hydrogen escapes the oxygen from the water molecules is left behind. Existing mechanisms for oxygen loss include interaction with solar winds, which is also linked to the magnetic fields present, and oxidation of surface minerals. However according to observations of mineral abundance and residual magnetism these mechanisms cannot account for the total oxygen lost over the course of Martian history.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Meteorite_studies_suggest_hidden_water_on_Mars_999.html.

India's opposition rules out major change to nuke policy

New Delhi (AFP)
April 14, 2014

The head of India's opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), tipped to win ongoing national elections, has ruled out any change in the country's "no-first-use" nuclear weapons policy.

The BJP sparked speculation about an end to the doctrine last week when its manifesto said that the party would "revise and update" India's policy.

"The no-first-use policy for nuclear weapons was a well thought out stand... We don't intend to reverse it," BJP President Rajnath Singh told the Hindustan Times newspaper in an interview published Monday.

The policy was adopted after a series of nuclear tests in 1998 during the last BJP-led coalition government which led to international condemnation and an embargo being placed on the country by Western powers.

The policy was intended to gain India greater acceptability as a nuclear power, despite it not being a signatory of the 1970 UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

The BJP is predicted to clinch power under elections which began on April 7 and end with results on May 16.

Any BJP government under hardline prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, a proud nationalist promising strong leadership, is expected to have a more muscular foreign policy.

Any change in nuclear policy would be of most significance to India's rivals Pakistan and China.

Neither reacted to news of the possible review and analysts have pointed out that the "no-first-use" policy is a mere promise that could be ignored by New Delhi in a conflict situation.

China was the first country to adopt the "no-first-use" nuclear policy in 1964, but nuclear-rival Pakistan, with whom India has fought three wars, does not have a similar position.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Indias_opposition_rules_out_major_change_to_nuke_policy_999.html.