Gas-giant exoplanets seen clinging close to their parent stars

Honolulu (UPI)
Jun 27, 2013

U.S. astronomers say they've found distant gas-giant planets are rare around many types of stars and prefer to cling close to their parent stars.

Astronomers at the Gemini Observatory and the University of Hawaii's Institute of Astronomy say the finding could have a significant impact on theories of planetary formation.

Gemini Observatory's recently completed Planet-Finding Campaign found the vast outlying orbital space around many types of stars is largely devoid of gas-giant planets, which apparently tend to dwell close to their parent stars, a university release said Thursday.

"It seems that gas-giant exoplanets are like clinging offspring," Michael Liu, UH astronomer and leader of the Planet-Finding Campaign said.

"Most tend to shun orbital zones far from their parents," he said. "In our search, we could have found gas giants beyond orbital distances corresponding to Uranus and Neptune in our own Solar System, but we didn't find any."

The Gemini Observatory is an international collaboration with two identical 8-meter telescopes, one in Hawaii and one in Chile.

The results from the Gemini South telescope in Chile will help scientists better understand how gas-giant planets form, as the orbital distances of planets are a key signature that astronomers use to test exoplanet formation theories, Liu said.

The findings are mirrored in our own solar system, the researchers said.

"The two largest planets in our Solar System, Jupiter and Saturn, are huddled close to our Sun, within 10 times the distance between the Earth and sun," Eric Nielsen of the University of Hawaii points out. "We found that this lack of gas-giant planets in more distant orbits is typical for nearby stars over a wide range of masses."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Gas-giant_exoplanets_seen_clinging_close_to_their_parent_stars_999.html.

8 Russians convicted over 2012 anti-Putin protest

February 21, 2014

MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow judge on Friday convicted eight anti-government protesters of rioting during a 2012 protest against Vladimir Putin, following a trial seen as part of the Kremlin's efforts to stifle dissent.

The judge pronounced the defendants guilty of a wide range of charges at the start of her verdict statement Friday. Sentencing was postponed until Monday. Outside the court building, several hundred people, including two freed members of the punk band Pussy Riot, rallied in support of the defendants, and cries of "Freedom!" and "Shame!" wafted into the courtroom. Police arrested about 50 people.

The May 6, 2012, protest on the eve of Putin's inauguration for a third presidential term turned violent after police restricted access to Bolotnaya Square, across the river from the Kremlin, where the protesters had planned to gather. Some of the blocked demonstrators hurled bottles and pieces of asphalt at police, who struck protesters with clubs and arrested more than 400.

The Bolotnaya protest followed bigger rallies against Putin that attracted an estimated 100,000 onto the streets of Moscow, the largest show of discontent since the collapse of the Soviet Union. After his inauguration, Putin introduced tough anti-protest laws that sharply hiked fines for participants in unapproved demonstrations and imposed restrictions on non-government organizations.

"I came here because I was there too on May 6," said Diana Tishino, a manager in an IT firm who was standing outside the court. "I hope this (the verdict) will be some kind of impetus — maybe not for a ton of people, but for the most active ones."

Twenty-nine Bolotnaya protesters faced criminal charges, but 11 were released as part of a December amnesty that was widely seen as an attempt by Putin to improve Russia's image before the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Others have already been convicted or are still facing trial.

Al-Qaida militants kill 38 troops in Yemen attack

September 20, 2013

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Taking advantage of heavy fog, al-Qaida militants disguised in military uniforms carried out three coordinated car bomb attacks on a security barracks and military posts in a southern Yemeni province Friday, killing at least 38 troops and wounding dozens others, military and security officials said.

The attacks were the largest since a U.S.-backed military offensive last year routed militants from significant swaths of territory they had seized during Yemen's 2011 political turmoil. The assaults also underscored the fragility of the Yemeni military and the failure of the current leadership to meet longtime demands to restructure the military.

Yemen's Supreme Security Committee, headed by the country's president, issued a statement listing 10 al-Qaida militants as top perpetrators of the attacks, and vowing to bring "criminal, coward and terrorist elements to justice."

Yemen, the Arab world's most impoverished country, has been struggling for years with al-Qaida's local branch, also known as the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The group has been waging a campaign of violence against Yemen's military, including assassinations of security officers and government officials in suicide attacks or drive-by shootings.

The branch came to be considered by Washington as one of the world's most dangerous terror groups after a series of attempted attacks on American soil. After being uprooted from southern town its took over in 2011, the group has suffered some heavy blows, with a U.S. campaign of drone strikes killing a string of its prominent figures. Near-daily U.S. drone attacks in the first week of August killed 34 suspected al-Qaida militants.

Friday's attack suggested the group was trying to surge back. The simultaneous, 6 a.m. attacks in the southern province of Shabwa, a one-time al-Qaida stronghold, caught the security forces unprepared, said Maj. Nasser Mohammed, who is with a unit in the area. The attacks took place in a remote region, about 500 kilometers (312 miles) southeast of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, he said.

Militants were dressed up in military uniforms and drove cars with army license plates, another military official said. They struck just at the transition between guard shifts, indicated they had information on the force's work schedules, the official said.

The militants targeted three military and Central Security encampments and posts, two in the town of al-Mayfaa, and the third in the al-Ain area several miles away. The area is close to the Balhaf liquefied gas export terminal on the Arabian Sea coast, a second military official said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

The military officials said 38 people were killed in the attacks. One suicide car bomber in al-Mayfaa rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the Interior Ministry's al-Kamp Central Security camp, after militants overpowered the guards. Most of the causalities were in this camp, which serves as a base for forces in charge of guarding oil wells and the gas terminal. Clashes at the other al-Mayfaa site left at least five troops wounded, Nasser added.

Meanwhile, a car bomb was detonated prematurely outside the gates of the third site, the post in al-Ain. The blast was followed by heavy clashes during which militants seized six soldiers and a number of military vehicles. Eight militants were killed in the fighting at al-Ain, Nasser said.

Friday's attacks came just days after Yemeni authorities warned of more al-Qaida attacks and suicide bombings. Over the past two weeks, security was beefed up in the capital after tips that militants planned attacks on vital installations and foreigners.

Al-Qaida-linked militants took advantage of the political unrest in Yemen following the 2011 uprising against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, to reinforce their presence in the country's mostly lawless south and seize several cities and towns there.

In a major offensive backed by the U.S. military, Yemen's army was able to regain control of large parts of the south last year. Militants scattered into different mountainous areas. Saleh was ousted in 2012. His successor, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, removed Saleh's relatives in the Republican Guard forces and other key units in the military. But he has so far failed to carry out broader reforms purging Saleh loyalists from the military and other government posts, a move experts say is needed to improve the armed forces sand security.

Sanaa-based researcher in Islamic movements, Ziad al-Salami, said Friday's attacks were a "strong message" from al-Qaida. "Al-Qaida is trying to show that it still carries weight on the ground," he said. "Yemen needs to speed up reforms of the military and break the current political stalemate."

Al-Salami said al-Qaida militants are now present in four major Yemeni provinces — Shabwa, Abyan, Hadramawt and Jouf, bordering Saudi Arabia. "This belt is a strategic one because it's the region where oil is concentrated, and where Yemen has a long coastal line," al-Salami said. "All of Yemen's wealth is there. The military must be in control."

Yemen's al-Qaida franchise has also been blamed for directing a string of unsuccessful bomb plots against Americans. Those included a foiled plan to down a U.S.-bound airliner using a new, sophisticated explosive to be hidden in the bomber's underwear, and a plot to send mail bombs on planes to the U.S. hidden in the toner cartridges of computer printers.

Two Dead, 24 Injured As Security Forces Fire On Demonstrators in Central Darfur

17 FEBRUARY 2014

Zalingei — Two men were killed and 24 injured when security forces fired live bullets at a demonstration of displaced people in Zalingei in Central Darfur on Monday morning.

They went to the streets to protest against the Social Peace Conference in Central Darfur's capital, organized by the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA).

The three-day Social Peace Conference convened in Zalingei held its closing session on Monday in a tent on a distance of half a kilometer east of El Hamidia camp.

The coordinator of the Zalingei camps for the displaced explained to Radio Dabanga that residents of El Hamidia, Khamsa Degaig, Hasaheesa, and El Salam camps went out on Monday at 8am to demonstrate against the Social Peace Conference and the "falsification of the will of the displaced".

They not only protested against the "government-backed militias attending the conference and speaking on their behalf as leaders of the displaced", but also against the security forces' assault of Koran scholar and activist, sheikh Matar Younis Ali Hussein, and the abduction of El Hamidia camp residents Yagoub Abdallah and Younis Ibrahim by militiamen on Sunday.

The demonstrators gathered east of El Hamidiya camp, where they were addressed by the organizers who read them their statement. They then headed towards the site of the World Food Program. "Then", the coordinator said, "nine Land Cruisers approached, six of them mounted with a Dushka machinegun, carrying a large number of Central Reserve Police (known as Abu Tira), Unified Police and security forces troops. They began firing at the demonstrators, killing Muhamed Ali Yagoub (17) and Mohamed Ibrahim Karkab instantly and 24 people were injured, nine of them critically.

The names of 21 of the wounded are: Madiha Hussein Ibrahim (8 months), Mani Yagoub (4), Halima Mohamed Ali (7), Idris Hassan Ismail (9), Inaam Abdel Rahman Ismail (9), Fatima Abdel Rahman Abdallah (12), Jawahir Suleiman Idris Arbab (14), Dar El Naeem Salih Adam (14), Halima Mohamed Ali (16), Shadia Adam Ismail (16), Halima Adam Mohamed (16), Adam Hamid Idris (18), Rumana Yagoub Daoud (20), Yagoub Adam Yahya (22), Samia Sadeeg Haroun (22), Fateen Mohamed Osman (25), Kaltoum Mohamed Juma Karkab (25), Halima Abdallah Mohamed (25), Haja Daoud Mahmoud Omar (32), Noura Bakhit Ibrahim (36), and Halima Abakir Ali (70).

The shooting also ignited a fire at the El Hamidia camp, wiping out 15 shelters.

The Zalingei camps coordinator said that he holds Dr Tijani Sese, head of the DRA, Yusif Tibin, the Governor of Central Darfur State, responsible for the violence against the displaced. He also holds Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the head of Unamid, responsible, who came to attend the Social Peace Conference.

He appealed to Unamid and health care organizations to intervene immediately to rescue the nine critically wounded.

The Central Darfur State government, however, strongly denied the version of the displaced, and accused "people with a hidden agenda" to be behind the demonstration. Muhamed Abakar Hassan Mohamedein, spokesman for the National Congress Party in Central Darfur, told Radio Dabanga that the security troops were forced to intervene to protect the University of Zalingei's buildings and secure the conference. The demonstrators, he explained, were young instigators from the El Hamidia camp, and adherents of the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Abdel Wahid El Nur.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201402180213.html.

Moqtada Sadr quits Iraq politics

Sun Feb 16, 2014

Iraq’s prominent cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, has announced his exit from the political arena.

“I announce my non-intervention in all political affairs,” the leader of Sadr Shia movement said in a handwritten note posted on his website on Sunday.

He added that “there is no bloc that represents us from now on, nor any position inside or outside the government, nor parliament.”

The 40-year-old Shia cleric also said the Sadr movement will shut down all of its offices except for some charities.

Sadr movement currently holds six cabinet posts as well as 40 seats in the 325-member Iraqi parliament.

Sadr and his Mehdi Army were against the US-led military presence in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein eleven years ago.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/350939.html.

Erdogan vows to fight 'parallel state'

Sunday, 16 February 2014

Turkey's Prime Minister vowed on Saturday to fight all parallel entities in Turkey and to hold them accountable for their actions before the law and the Turkish people. "We will find the parallel state wherever it is hiding," said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "and we will bring its members before the courts and the people." He was speaking at the Love Festival in Istanbul.

Erdogan claimed that members of the parallel state in the police and judiciary receive their instructions from foreign elements and not from the Turkish people. He alleged that they are ordered to "damage Turkey" if necessary to achieve their goals.

The prime minister criticized those members of the Turkish gendarme and police who forced intelligence officers to lie on the ground before beating them while inspecting a truck they were driving earlier this week. According to Erdogan, the policemen were members of the parallel state.

The Turkish people set the Turkish government's agenda and course of action, he insisted, amid chants of support from the audience. "Turkey will stand tall and we will not bow our heads to foreign agendas, the media or Turkey's enemies," stressed Erdogan. "Turkey is not a puppet state. Turkey is strong with your support and the support of the oppressed people of Egypt, Palestine and Syria."

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/9775-erdogan-vows-to-fight-parallel-state.

Turkish legislators brawl over disputed bill

February 15, 2014

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's parliament has approved a bill that would tighten the government's grip on a judicial body after a tense, all-night session that saw two legislators injured in a brawl.

The legislation, which would give the Justice Ministry increased control over a council which appoints and oversees judges and prosecutors, was endorsed Saturday. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government proposed the bill as it fights a corruption scandal that implicated people close to him.

Erdogan claims the corruption charges are a conspiracy orchestrated by followers of an Islamic movement which he insists has infiltrated the police and judiciary. The opposition says the bill, which still needs the president's approval, limits the judiciary's independence.

Media reports said one legislator was hospitalized with a broken nose. Another broke a finger.