JK Rowling to pen new magic movie for Warner Bros

September 12, 2013

LONDON (AP) — J.K. Rowling's world of wizardry is coming back to the big screen — but without Harry Potter.

Film studio Warner Bros. announced Thursday that Rowling will write the screenplay for a movie based on "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," her textbook to the magical universe she created in the boy wizard's stories.

The story will focus on the book's fictitious author, Newt Scamander, and is anticipated to be the first in a series. Rowling said in a statement the movie "is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world."

She said the story would begin in New York 70 years before the start of Harry Potter's tale. Screenwriting is the latest in a string of new ventures for Rowling since she finished writing the Harry Potter series, which has sold more than 450 million copies around the world.

She has published a novel for adults, "The Casual Vacancy," and written detective thriller "The Cuckoo's Calling" under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Rowling said the idea for a "Fantastic Beasts" film had come from Warner Bros., and she soon realized she could not entrust another writer with her creation.

"Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it," she said. "I already knew a lot about Newt." "As I considered Warner's proposal, an idea took shape that I couldn't dislodge. That is how I ended up pitching my own idea for a film to Warner Bros."

As well as movies, Warner Bros. said "Fantastic Beasts" would be "developed across the studio's video game, consumer products and digital initiatives businesses." Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc., was behind eight Harry Potter movies, released between 2001 and 2011. Rowling did not write the screenplays for those films, which Warner Bros. says took in $7.7 billion at the global box office.

Since the film series wrapped up, the company has been involved in related ventures including a Harry Potter studio tour near London, Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, Florida, and the Pottermore website.

Warner Bros. also said Thursday it would be the worldwide distributor for a television adaptation of "The Casual Vacancy." The BBC is due to film the miniseries next year.

China's space station to open for foreign peers

Beijing (XNA)
Sep 23, 2013

China is willing to provide training and open the Chinese space station to foreign astronauts, senior space flight officials said.

"We would like to train astronauts from other countries and organizations that have such a demand, and we would be glad to provide trips to foreign astronauts," said Yang Liwei, deputy director of China Manned Space Agency. We will also welcome foreign astronauts who have received our training to work in our future space station."

Yang, China's first astronaut, who went into space in 2003, said many countries submitted proposals to the Chinese government during the development of the space station, hoping China would help train their astronauts and then send them to the station to conduct scientific experiments.

The effect of including foreign participants in our space programs is not only that these nations can send their people to outer space, but also that we will enable them to develop their own space projects."

Yang made the remarks during the five-day United Nations/China Workshop on Human Space Technology, which opened in Beijing on Monday.

A total of 150 participants from more than 20 nations and regions attended the conference. They are expected to discuss new space projects, microgravity research, international cooperation as well as awareness education for the public.

China has been involved in a host of cooperative projects with other nations, according to Yang.

China and Russia have collaborated on astronaut training, spacecraft technology and extra-vehicular suits, and we are cooperating with our French counterparts on a variety of experiments in astrobiology and space medicine," he said, adding that Chinese and German scientists also performed astrobiological experiments during the unmanned Shenzhou VIII mission in 2011.

Astronauts from the European Space Agency and their Chinese peers have visited each other's training facilities, laying a solid foundation for further communication.

The exchanges with other countries and organizations will make us familiar with their techniques and experiences, hence boosting our research and development of the space station."

Receiving congratulations on the 10th anniversary of his space mission, Yang said China is also determined to assist other developing economies in the space flight, noting that existing cooperative projects between China and developing economies focus on the application of astronautic and space technologies, and training for professionals.

He also said his agency has signed many agreements with universities in Hong Kong to conduct joint research on space technology, and they also have taken part in previous space activities.

Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's manned space program, said the country will be able to rendezvous with other countries' spacecraft at the space station. China is also exploring the possibility of carrying out a joint rescue operation, according to Zhou.

China is now in an appropriate position to assist developing countries in building the capacity and capability of conducting space activities," said Mazlan Othman, director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

Many nations have realized that space is very important in the context of development, both globally and nationally, and China is a good example of how space can become a vital and crucial aspect of economic development."

Othman said China is doing well in sharing its experiences with other nations and declaring its intentions, leaving no doubt that its space endeavors are for peaceful purposes.

Othman said she is convinced that China will promote space exploration for all mankind with its resolve and huge investment.

I think China can lead in the international community's exploration of space. It has the political will to expand its manned space endeavors, and based on that will, China has ensured and set aside enough resources."

Cooperation to be expanded

Foreign delegates at a manned space conference said they look forward to expanding cooperation with China in the manned space initiatives.

China has developed and launched satellites for us, and we expect China could do more to help us develop our own space programs," Babatunda Rabin, from the Nigerian Space Agency, said on the sidelines of the United Nations/China Workshop on Human Space Technology.

Rabin said Nigeria is trying to use aerospace technologies to solve problems such as food security and prevalent diseases, which are areas where China can use its advanced technologies and rich experience to help his nation.

If China starts taking foreign astronauts to outer space, we would like to be the first candidate," said Ahmed Bilal, chairman of the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission. We also want to cooperate with China in remote sensing technology and educating the public about space."

Folk Horheck, an astrobiologist from Germany, said the event enables people like him whose work deals with space to learn more about China's astronautic and space research.

China has a long-range plan of building a space station, and this provides huge opportunities for the world to cooperate with China in space exploration," said Takao Doi, a space applications expert from the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinas_space_station_to_open_for_foreign_peers_999.html.

European countries to join in building particle accelerator in Russia

Moscow (UPI)
Aug 8, 2013

Germany, Bulgaria and three former Soviet republics say they have agreed to help Russia construct a heavy-ion collider in a Moscow suburb.

The parties signed a letter of intent Thursday to cooperate on building the collider, planned for 2017, on the premises of the already existing Nuclotron particle accelerator in the town of Dubna, RIA Novosti reported.

The collider is intended to accelerate and collide protons and relatively heavy ions such as gold to study a recently discovered phase of matter, a plasma of fundamental particles quarks and gluons, officials said.

The collider, dubbed NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility), will involve scientists equipment and financing from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Germany, Viktor Matveyev, director of Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, said.

The new collider would be housed in the institute, he said.

The letter of intent "is a formal expression of interest of these countries in working out legal, organizational, scientific and financial issues that must be resolved to ensure the participation of these countries in the implementation of the NICA megaproject," Matveyev said.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/European_countries_to_join_in_building_particle_accelerator_in_Russia_999.html.

Russia re-opens railway link with North Korea

RAJIN, North Korea
Sun Sep 22, 2013

(Reuters) - Russia re-opened a railway link with North Korea on Sunday, holding out the prospect of increased trade for the reclusive nation with its biggest neighbors after years of international sanctions.

Impoverished and squeezed by sanctions for conducting a series of nuclear and missile tests, North Korea has reached out to Moscow and Beijing for help to fill the gap left by the drying up of South Korean and U.S. economic assistance.

The head of Russia's state railway monopoly said the 54-km (34-mile) track from the Russian eastern border town of Khasan to the North Korean port of Rajin would export coal and import goods from South Korea and other Asian countries.

The link is part of a more ambitious plan for a railway line from Europe to Asia, which could offer faster freight transportation than alternative sea routes.

"This is part of a trans-Korean transport line that will link ... this region with Europe via Russian territory," Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin said on a visit to Rajin to mark the completion of the railway line.

Russia's renovation of the line, which began in 2008, and construction of a container terminal in Rajin, hub of North Korea's Rason Special Economic Zone, are part of a deal reached in 2001 when late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited Russia.

Yakunin said the railway and container terminal, a project worth 9 billion roubles ($283 million), would work at a capacity of 4 million metric tons a year within two years.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Mark Potter)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/22/us-nkorea-rail-russia-idUSBRE98L0BB20130922.

Iranian president makes debut on world stage

September 25, 2013

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran's new president told world leaders Tuesday that the biggest danger in the Middle East is chemical weapons falling into the hands of "extremist terrorist groups" in Syria and he blamed the countries backing the opposition for fueling the civil war there.

The comment by Hasan Rouhani, in his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, closely mirrored language used by the Iranian-allied Syrian regime, which refers to the opposition as terrorists. The U.S. and its allies, including Gulf nations Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been supplying the Syrian opposition with weapons, aid and training.

Rouhani praised Syria's willingness to accept the international treaty barring the use of chemical weapons. And without naming nations, he warned that the "illegitimate and ineffective threat" to use military force in Syria "will only lead to further exacerbation of violence and crisis in the region."

Just a few weeks ago, President Barack Obama was considering launching a military strike on Syria to retaliate for a chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21 that the U.S. blamed on Bashar Assad's regime. But a U.S.-Russia deal to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control averted military action, at least for now.

Even as he sided with the Assad's regime, Rouhani also sent signals that Iran might be ready to negotiate with the West on its disputed nuclear program and talk to the United States after decades of frozen relations. He said "peace is within reach."

Rouhani spoke hours after Obama also addressed the General Assembly, saying the U.S. prefers to resolve its concerns over Iran's nuclear program peacefully but is determined to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Obama said he was "encouraged" that Rouhani received a mandate from the Iranian people to pursue a more moderate course, but added that "the diplomatic road must be tested." Rouhani's "conciliatory words will have to be matched by actions that are transparent and verifiable," Obama said.

Rouhani called his election over the summer a "wise choice of hope, rationality and moderation" and said every issue can be resolved through mutual respect and rejection of violence and extremism. He is considered a relative moderate amid the hard-line clerics who control Iran. But Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei holds the real power, deciding all important matters of state including the nuclear program.

Elements of Rouhani's speech were reminiscent of the anti-American rhetoric of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was critical of how America projects power and called for a new world order without the U.S. as a superpower.

Like Ahmadenijad, Rouhani called for a new world order and criticized "the persistence of Cold War mentality and bi-polar division of the world into 'superior us' and 'inferior others." He criticized "the prevalent international discourse" that favors rich countries over poor.

This has led to the prevalence of "violent forms of xenophobia," Rouhani said, adding that "propagandistic and unfounded faith-phobic, Islamo-phobic, Shia-phobic, and Iran-phobic discourses do indeed represent serious threats against world peace and human security."

There had been some expectations that with both Obama and Rouhani addressing the U.N. on the same day, the two might meet briefly and even exchange handshakes and pleasantries — something that may have been seen as a dramatic step forward in relations that have been frozen since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution

That didn't happen. But Rouhani said he listened to Obama's speech to the General Assembly and is open to talks. "Commensurate with the political will of the leadership in the United States and hoping that they will refrain from following the short-sighted interest of warmongering pressure groups, we can arrive at a framework to manage differences," he said.

"To this end, equal footing, mutual respect, and the recognized principles of international law should govern the interactions," he said, repeating themes often heard in Iranian political discourse. Unlike Ahmadinejad, who denied the Holocaust and called for Israel's destruction, Rouhani never mentioned Israel by name in his speech. But he was highly critical of the "occupation" of Palestine, saying: "Apartheid as a concept can hardly describe the crimes and the institutionalized aggression against the innocent Palestinian people."

Israel's delegation walked out of Rouhani's speech in protest, as it had done in previous years when Ahmadinejad spoke at the U.N. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Rouhani of "hypocrisy." He said in a statement after the speech that Iran participates in the slaughter of civilians in Syria — a reference to its support of Assad's regime — and in carrying out terrorist attacks around the world.

The United Nations has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment — a process that can be used to make fuel for both nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. The U.S. and its allies have taken even more devastating measures targeting Iran's ability to conduct international bank transfers and to export oil.

"Unjust sanctions ... are intrinsically inhumane and against peace," Rouhani said. "It is not the states and the political elite that are targeted, but rather, it is the common people who are victimized by these sanctions."

The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon. But Iran insists its nuclear program is purely peaceful — a point Rouhani reiterated by saying: "This has been, and will always be, the objective of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Nuclear negotiations between Iran and six world powers have been stalled for months but Iran agreed to a new meeting this Thursday on the sidelines of the General Assembly. Rouhani reiterated Iran's right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium.

On the conditions that world powers recognize that right and insist that all nations' nuclear programs are for peace purposes only and Iran "is prepared to engage immediately in time-bound and result-oriented talks," he said.

"Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran's security and defense doctrine, and contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions," he claimed. "Our national interests make it imperative that we remove any and all reasonable concerns about Iran's peaceful nuclear program."

Syrian refugees land in Italy

(By Emily Backus) (ANSA) - Rome, August 26 - More Syrian refugees landed on Italian shores over the weekend in a humanitarian crisis that appears to be spilling even into Europe's lap.

Ninety-eight refugees from Syria on Saturday were intercepted by a patrol of Frontex, the European agency for cooperation and management of EU borders. They were aboard a ship at sea about 40 miles south of the Sicilian coastal town of Porto Palo. Twenty-five children and eight women were aboard. The Syrian refugees were among hundreds this weekend alone from distressed countries - Tunisia, Eritrea and Somalia - who risked their lives in dodgy vessels to be rescued near or found on Italian shores. Syrians have featured all summer long among migrants daring the sea from various parts of the Middle East and Africa, who are generally placed by Italian authorities in migrant detention centers for identification, processing, and possible expulsion. On a visit to the migrant island of Lampedusa last month, Pope Francis asked God to forgive European policy makers' indifference while hailing immigrants' efforts to seek better lives.

He also asked to mourn the many lives lost at sea.

Last week the UNHCR and UNICEF in Geneva said one million children have fled fighting in Syria, about three quarters of whom are under age 11. In the words of UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, the survival and well-being of an entire generation of innocent children is at stake.

"The youth of Syria are losing their homes, their family members and their futures.

Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatized, depressed and in need of a reason for hope," he added. Children account for over half of the two million refugees who have fled Syria to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.

Syrians are arriving in North Africa and, embarking across the sea to Europe ever more often.

The price paid by Syrian children in the conflict - now in its third year - is enormous.

In addition to the one million child refugees, there are some two million displaced children in Syria. The UN estimates that at least 7,000 children have been killed in the conflict, while child refugees are often exposed to threats such as forced labor, early marriage and sexual exploitation.

Source: La Gazzeta.
Link: http://www.lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it/english/syrian-refugees-land-in-italy-no647898/.

Bulgarian Govt 'Fans' Call for President's Impeachment

August 26, 2013, Monday

People who support Bulgaria's Socialist-led government pledged Monday to continue to stage counter protest rallies until President, Rosen Plevneliev, resigns.

The statement was made before bTV by one of their representatives, Lenko Petkanin.

The demonstrators gathered once again Monday on Independence Square, near the Office of the President and his Administration, shouting "Resignation," "Impeachment," and "Go Away!"

They are outraged by what they deem verbal support on Plevneliev's part for those who want the resignation of the Cabinet of Prime Minister, Plamen Oresharski.

Petkanin further stated he harbored strong doubts the President will change his behavior as he has had scores of opportunities to do so until now.

"I have not seen anything from him, beyond tarnishing Bulgaria and the presidential institution, so, the only solution is to have him step back and be replaced by a dignified person to represent Bulgaria and its citizens," said the government's supporter.

Another protester asked Plevneliev to come outside and talk to the people who are rallying every day under his windows and to organize a round table to work on a new public contract.

Bulgaria's ruling Socialist-led coalition was, however, exposed recently in organizing dozens of chartered buses carrying people from all over the country to Sofia.

Over 40 chartered buses arrived in the capital early on August 16, carrying 4000 to 5000 government supporters. The move resulted in tensions, as anti-government protesters from Sofia also gathered in the city's center to rally against a controversial budget revision.

Source: Sofia News Agency.
Link: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=153145.