Suicidal planet seems on death spiral into star

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON – Astronomers have found what appears to be a gigantic suicidal planet.

The odd, fiery planet is so close to its star and so large that it is triggering tremendous plasma tides on the star. Those powerful tides are in turn warping the planet's zippy less-than-a-day orbit around its star.

The result: an ever-closer tango of death, with the planet eventually spiraling into the star.

It's a slow death. The planet WASP-18b has maybe a million years to live, said planet discoverer Coel Hellier, a professor of astrophysics at the Keele University in England. Hellier's report on the suicidal planet is in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

"It's causing its own destruction by creating these tides," Hellier said.

The star is called WASP-18 and the planet is WASP-18b because of the Wide Angle Search for Planets team that found them.

The planet circles a star that is in the constellation Phoenix and is about 325 light-years away from Earth, which means it is in our galactic neighborhood. A light-year is about 5.8 trillion miles.

The planet is 1.9 million miles from its star, 1/50th of the distance between Earth and the sun, our star. And because of that the temperature is about 3,800 degrees.

Its size — 10 times bigger than Jupiter — and its proximity to its star make it likely to die, Hellier said.

Think of how the distant moon pulls Earth's oceans to form twice-daily tides. The effect the odd planet has on its star is thousands of times stronger, Hellier said. The star's tidal bulge of plasma may extend hundreds of miles, he said.

Like most planets outside our solar system, this planet was not seen directly by a telescope. Astronomers found it by seeing dips in light from the star every time the planet came between the star and Earth.

So far astronomers have found more than 370 planets outside the solar system. This one is "yet another weird one in the exoplanet menagerie," said planet specialist Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

It's so unusual to find a suicidal planet that University of Maryland astronomer Douglas Hamilton questioned whether there was another explanation. While it is likely that this is a suicidal planet, Hamilton said it is also possible that some basic physics calculations that all astronomers rely on could be dead wrong.

The answer will become apparent in less than a decade if the planet seems to be further in a death spiral, he said.

Mubarak Sees Rival In Intel Chief

LONDON [MENL] -- President Hosni Mubarak has deemed his intelligence chief a rival in Egypt's succession struggle.

Arab diplomatic sources said Mubarak has been dismayed by the increasing popularity of his intelligence chief, Gen. Omar Suleiman. They said private polls taken in Egypt show Suleiman to be the leading candidate to succeed the 81-year-old Mubarak, said to be ailing and increasingly withdrawn.

Fatah Plans Separate Military

RAMALLAH [MENL] -- The ruling Fatah movement has decided to organize a military separate from that of the Palestinian Authority.

Fatah sources said the Fatah Central Committee voted to launch efforts to form a military wing. The sources said the military would comprise a modern force unlike that of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, formed in 2000 during the war with Israel.

Somalia: Islamists Ban Selling Explosive Things, Warn People Not Sell Cooked Food

Kismayu — The Islamic administration of Kismayu town 500 kilometers south of the Somali capital Mogadishu has banned selling the explosive things that the children play and warned to the people not to sell cooked food in the town for the sake of the holy Ramadan month, officials said on Wednesday.

Sheik Abu Hureira Osma'il, a deputy chairman of Kismayu administration warned to the businessmen in the town selling the explosive substances that the children play for the festival days and celebrations like the pistols and small arms saying that who ever is seen ignoring the order will be taken the right steps pointing out that those things are good things for the Muslims.

On the other hand Abu Hureira Isma'il also said that there are people who secretly cook food around the streets and neighborhoods of the town at the daytime as the people are fast warning them not to cook or sell food or will be punished.

However, the statement of the Islamic administration of Kismayu town comes as the people are fasting and in the holy Ramadan month which all Muslims in over the world abstain from the eating, smoking and drinking at the daylight.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200908260826.html.

Analysis: Afghan summer brings reversals

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – It's been a summer of setbacks in Afghanistan — with rising casualties, a divisive election and growing public doubts about the war in the United States and among key allies.

The year began with President Barack Obama promising a new beginning for an old war — long ignored and under-resourced by the Bush administration as the spotlight fell on the conflict in Iraq.

As part of a new emphasis, Obama ordered 21,000 troops to Afghanistan and replaced the top U.S. commander with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who unveiled a strategy shifting the focus from killing insurgents to protecting Afghan civilians, a mindset that helped turn the tide of the Iraq conflict.

At the same time, the administration promised to build up the capabilities of the Afghan government, accelerate the training of Afghan soldiers and police and help the Afghan leadership combat corruption and the flourishing drug trade, which helps finance the insurgency.

Months later, the American effort appears to be faltering.

Hopes that the Afghan presidential election would produce a leader with a strong national mandate have been cast into doubt by allegations of widespread fraud in the Aug. 20 balloting.

Early returns point to a possible runoff between President Hamid Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, probably in October. Final returns are not expected before the middle of next month, but figures released Wednesday show Karzai leading with 44.8 percent of ballots counted to 35.1 percent for Abdullah.

Karzai needs more than 50 percent to avoid a runoff. Many ballots from Karzai's southern strongholds have yet to be counted, and it is possible Karzai may yet surpass the 50 percent mark and claim a first round victory.

Even if he does, however, fraud allegations — not only from Abdullah but some of the other 34 candidates — have so poisoned the political atmosphere that it will be difficult to bring together social and political groups opposed to the Taliban. At the worst, the controversy may trigger street riots and splinter the country along ethnic lines.

The image of Afghan politicians squabbling in Kabul at a time when American and other international soldiers are dying on the battlefield is grimly reminiscent of the darkest days of the Iraq war, when political stagnation in Baghdad helped turn U.S. public opinion against the Bush administration's policy in the 2006 congressional election.

Nearly 300 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year, making this the deadliest year since the conflict began in 2001. Two U.S. service members were killed Wednesday in separate attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan, raising the August death toll to 43 — one short of the July figure which was the highest monthly total of the war.

At the same time, the insurgents show no sign of shrinking from the fight. With U.S. and British troops focusing operations in Helmand province, the Taliban have quietly tightened their grip in neighboring Kandahar, where a vehicle bomb attack Tuesday killed at least 41 people in an assault that appeared directed at foreign interests in the city.

Taliban intimidation kept many Afghans from the polls in the south last week — despite major U.S. and British military operations aimed at making the vote secure.

U.S. officials have made little effort to gloss over the problems, perhaps mindful of the backlash that stung the Bush administration after years of false optimism in Iraq.

Last weekend, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the situation in Afghanistan as "serious and deteriorating" and told CNN that "I don't think that threat's going to go away."

All this comes as public support for the war both in the United States and Britain is wavering.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that just over half the respondents said the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting. A survey last month in Britain found that 58 percent of the respondents believe the war is unwinnable and 52 percent wanted British troops withdrawn immediately.

All these negatives are coming together as McChrystal is preparing to submit a report to the president next week that may include a recommendation for thousands more troops.

Republican Sen. John McCain has urged McChrystal to ask for more, citing the success of the troop surge in bringing down violence in Iraq. McCain has said that doubling the Marine force from three to six battalions would bring "significantly more success."

But sending more troops to an unpopular, meat-grinder war could be a hard sell among many of Obama's fellow Democrats.

Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who supported the U.S. move into Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said the U.S. needs a timeline for its departure from the country. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio expressed frustration with the Afghan government and said he is "concerned that this war not last a whole lot longer."

"We've got to begin seeing changes," Brown said. "We don't stay forever if they don't meet the goals they need to meet."

Netanyahu in Europe: Hopes for Renewed Peace Talks

By BRUCE CRUMLEY

It certainly doesn't qualify as a breakthrough, but after months of deadlock and mutual recrimination it appears the leaders of Israel and Palestine may be slowly getting closer to restarting peace talks. Word of creeping movement toward possible renewed negotiations arose from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Britain and Germany this week, sparking fragile hope - and guarded optimism.

After his meeting with British Premier Gordon Brown on Tuesday, Netanyahu spent Wednesday huddling with U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell in London. Central to both discussions were European and American efforts to get Netanyahu to agree to a freeze on the construction of West Bank settlements - one of the main conditions Palestine has set for resuming talks with Israel.

Though under severe pressure from hard-right partners in his coalition government to concede nothing, Netanyahu's comments in London suggested he might nevertheless be considering modifying his hostility to a building freeze. "We are making headway," Netanyahu said ahead of his meeting with Mitchell. "My government has taken steps in both words and deeds to move forward." Later that day, he left for Germany to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel on the last leg of his European jaunt. Though Merkel has always been careful to avoid pressuring Israel in public on the issue, German officials have said the Chancellor will remind Netanyahu during their meeting on Thursday of Berlin's position that all settlement activity in the West Bank be halted, and that a final peace agreement be based on a two-state solution.

Netanyahu has conformed to the latter half of that German request - sort of. Three months after winning Israel's general election in March, he altered his earlier rejection of an independent Palestine by endorsing the U.S.- and Europe-backed two-state proposal - though only under conditions the Palestinians considered non-starters, such as no Palestinian army or air space control and limitations on the return of exiles. He has also dismissed demands that Jerusalem be the seat of the Palestinian state, calling the city "Israel's undivided capital." But having ignored most other demands forwarded by Palestinian authorities in their peace proposal, Netanyahu now finds himself under pressure from Western nations to give in to almost universal calls outside Israel that settlement on the West Bank be halted.

But by making significant concessions on West Bank construction, Netanyahu risks infuriating his hard-right coalition partners, who could bring the government down by quitting in protest. So, he now seems to be shopping the idea of a compromise deal: a freeze on all new building, but the right to see through construction which is already under way. In exchange, Israel may be extended various goodwill measures from Arab states, like reopening trade offices, initiating cultural exchanges and opening airspace to Israeli commercial planes, to further encourage movement toward renewed talks - and conditions for stable peace in the region.

None of that is enough for the Palestinians, and may prove too much for Netanyahu's government partners - which is one reason why signs that the Israeli leader is considering giving up even a little ground in the middle are inspiring some hope. "Politics is often the art of finding ladders tall enough to provide leaders who've climbed trees too tall for them with a face-saving manner of climbing down," says Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow at British think tank Chatham House and Program Director of International Relations at Regents College in London. "That climb-down requires that small, careful steps be taken at a consistent pace. Today we're talking about settlement freezes, which is nothing compared to questions like Jerusalem, border placement, or the fate of refugees. But you have to start somewhere."

Were even imperfect movement to be made on the settlement issue, it would probably be enough to clear the way for Netanyahu to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the margins of next month's United Nations General Assembly. That resumption of direct contacts would be a major boost for Obama's stated foreign policy priority of laying the foundation of lasting peace in the Middle East. And it would also reverse the dramatically deteriorating Israeli-Palestinian relations that helped lift hard-line, mutually hostile governments to power on both sides of the divide.

Still, those small, careful steps may be too slow for a situation already favoring extremes. A survey released on Wednesday by Israel's Maagar Mohot polling company indicates that two-thirds of respondents say they share the hard-right's refusal of any freeze on West Bank settlement - even if Arab nations reward such a move. Meanwhile, the hardship and anger produced in Palestine - and in Gaza particularly - is so great that slow but sure peace progress may not be enough in the end.

"The risk is that the hopelessness and helplessness has become so great by the time you reach the final destination that people on both sides say 'All that, just for this? Forget it'," Mekelberg says. "On the other hand, really big breakthroughs clearly aren't in the cards right now, so small steps are really the only choice you have. When things are this tight, small movement is big compared to no movement."

Which is why American and European diplomats this week are sounding hopeful about Netanyahu swapping his reputation as "Mr. No" for a stint as "Mr. Maybe."

Kennedy to be buried at Arlington Cemetery

OAK BLUFFS, Massachusetts (Reuters) – Senator Edward Kennedy will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday near his two brothers who were assassinated in the prime of their political careers.

Kennedy died late on Tuesday in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, at age 77 after battling brain cancer for more than a year. He will be buried at 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Saturday near his brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, in a private service at the cemetery outside Washington.

Only two U.S. presidents are buried at the site in Virginia: Kennedy and William Howard Taft who died in 1930.

Senator Edward Kennedy was eligible for burial at the cemetery because he both served in the U.S. military and was an elected official.

On Thursday, a motorcade from the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port will take the senator's body to his brother's presidential library in Boston.

The senator will lie in repose on Friday at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library that he had helped to develop over years into a forum for debating issues.

It will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. followed by a private "Celebration of Life Memorial Service" from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

A Roman Catholic, Kennedy's funeral Mass is planned for Saturday at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston where he prayed daily while his daughter, Kara, was struggling with lung cancer.

President Barack Obama, who is on vacation at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, was expected to attend.