Τhe Antares rocket...[ 2950 ]

'' Antares Rolls Out''

Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket rolls out to the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the morning of Oct. 1, 2012. 
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Over the next several months, Orbital plans a hot-fire test of the Antares first stage, the maiden flight of an Antares rocket, and a cargo delivery demonstration mission to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services.

Image Credit: NASA

Iraq's Security Forces ...[ 2949 ]

Deadly Blasts Target Iraq's Security Forces

• MIDDLE EAST NEWS
• Updated September 30, 2012, 7:33 p.m. ET

By ALI A. NABHAN in Baghdad and SAM DAGHER in Beirut

Dozens of Iraqis were killed or wounded in a series of bombings that shook the capital Baghdad and adjacent provinces, security officials said, replicating a pattern of multiple attacks on a single day that have been occurring every few weeks.

Associated Press

Iraqi policemen help an injured colleague after an attack in Baghdad, one of a series of bombings on Sunday.

As in previous attacks, including a barrage of bombings and assassinations three weeks ago, most of Sunday's bombings targeted Iraq's security forces and the Shiite majority.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the violence, but the al Qaeda-linked Sunni militant group known as the Islamic State of Iraq vowed over the summer to topple the current Shiite-led government.
An Interior Ministry official said the perpetrators detonated at least nine bombs attached to parked cars in Baghdad in the path of police and army patrols and a suicide bomber drove an explosives-packed car into a security checkpoint in the predominantly Shiite city of Kut southeast of Baghdad. He said at least 26 people were killed and 59 others wounded in the attacks, which also included a car bomb at a Shiite shrine on the outskirts of the capital.
The latest round of bloodletting follows a major security lapse Friday in which dozens of inmates, including convicted extremists suspected of ties to al Qaeda, escaped from a prison in the predominantly Sunni Muslim city of Tikrit north of Baghdad after overpowering and killing some of their guards.
Sabhan Mullah Jiyad, a deputy provincial council chief in Tikrit, said some of the fugitives were captured or killed but more than 75 inmates remain on the run, adding that their escape was facilitated by some members of the police force responsible for the prison. "Of course there was collusion," he said.
He said the incident began Thursday when some prison wardens unexpectedly opened some cells hours after lawmakers in Baghdad failed to reach agreement on an amnesty law that could see thousands of prisoners pardoned for the sake of national reconciliation.

Reuters

Iraqi security personnel stand at the site of a bomb attack in Kut, 95 miles southeast of Baghdad, Sunday.

Some inmates then gained access to weapons stored in the armory and a firefight ensued in which more than a dozen security officers were killed, said provincial officials. The government was only able to regain control over the prison early Friday after military reinforcements arrived from Baghdad.
Tensions between the Shiite-led government and Sunni communities across Iraq have increased since the departure of U.S. troops from the country in December. The conflict in neighboring Syria, where Sunni rebels are battling a Shiite-linked regime with the help of regional Sunni states such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, has also invigorated Sunni insurgents in Iraq.
Sunni grievances are also compounded by what they view as trumped up and politically motivated charges against Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni vice president. Three weeks ago, he was sentenced in absentia to death by hanging for allegedly ordering and funding attacks against Shiite officials. Mr. Hashemi has denied the charges, but he remains outside the country and has been sheltered by the Turkish government since April.
In a move bound to fan further tensions between Turkish leaders and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a defiant Mr. Hashemi on Sunday addressed an annual congress for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party in Ankara in the presence of Arab and Muslim leaders.

Euro Going Into 'Crucial' Month...[ 2948 ]

Euro Leaders Face Unrest Going Into 'Crucial' Month

 

A group of Spanish police officers face a crowd of protestors during a demonstration against the government's austerity measures in the city centre of Madrid, Spain. Photograph: Angel Navarrete

Bloomberg News//By Patrick Donahue on September 30, 2012

• ....

Europe faces a month that may decide the success of the European Central Bank’s bid to end the debt crisis as leaders navigate a tougher approach from creditor countries, unrest in Spain and a looming report on Greece. 
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With the first of three summit meetings that European Union President Herman Van Rompuy has called “crucial” taking place in Brussels on Oct. 18-19, investor sentiment toward the euro area that surged in September is on the wane.
“People are beginning to look at this in a more sober way” after the ECB bond-buying plan and a German high-court decision releasing bailout financing spurred optimism over the past month, Clemens Fuest, an economist at Oxford University’s Said Business School, said in an interview yesterday. 
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October, which marks the third anniversary of the debt crisis, will showcase euro-area leaders fighting out their differences. The discord underscores the inadequacy so far of ECB President Mario Draghi’s bid to calm the crisis through a pledge on sovereign-debt purchases. 
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Spain’s 10-year bonds fell last week, with the yield rising 18 basis points, amid turmoil in the country. The euro, which surged 4.4 percent in the first two weeks of September, had its second weekly decline against the U.S. dollar last week, sliding 0.4 percent to $1.2860 on Sept. 28. 
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Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, under pressure to trigger the ECB’s new financial weaponry by requesting assistance, pleaded over the weekend for national unity as he hit out at nationalists for hampering crisis-fighting efforts.

‘More Problems’

“The worst that can be done about the economic crisis that we are in at the moment is to break economic stability,” Rajoy told a Sept. 29 rally in Vitoria in Spain’s Basque region. Nationalists are trying to “cause more problems for people than we have at the moment as if there weren’t already enough.” 
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Rajoy suffered a setback last week when the president of the Catalan region, Artur Mas, called elections to seek greater self-determination for the regional government. Basque leader Inigo Urkullu, set to claim the regional presidency in an Oct. 21 vote, also said his party wants more autonomy.
With protesters crowding the streets of Madrid on Sept. 25, Rajoy’s government two days later unveiled a fifth austerity package in nine months along with measures designed to boost economic growth. EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said these go beyond recommendation for Spain’s overhaul. Spain’s Budget Ministry announced plans over the weekend to borrow 207.2 billion euros ($267 billion) next year, widening the country’s debt to 90.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Bailout Funds

“I don’t think we’re moving toward disaster, but it will become increasingly clear that regaining competitiveness will last a long time for these countries.” Fuest, who sits on an advisory panel for the German Finance Ministry, said by phone.
The EU’s Rehn said that leaders need to put aside 
disagreements, particularly on how the euro-area’s bailout funds can be deployed to recapitalize struggling banks. 
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A statement last week by finance ministers from Germany, Finland and the Netherlands that such funds can’t be used to cover past capital gaps marked a retreat from a key June agreement. 
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“It seems there have been different interpretations about the June decision,” Rehn said in an interview yesterday in Haemeenlinna, Finland. Rehn also warned Finland not to prolong the crisis with its “hard-line stance on many issues.”

Finance Ministers

The resistance by the three ministers to covering “legacy assets” with bailout funds would potentially upend the objective of most European governments to unburden states’ balance sheets of bank-rescue funding -- severing the destructive link between bank and sovereign debt. It would also deal a blow to Ireland’s campaign to reduce its debt load.
The issue, along with the ECB bond-buying plan, will be discussed when European finance ministers meet on Oct. 8-9 in Luxembourg. 
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Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti waded into the fray as well last week, saying that the ECB shouldn’t impose additional conditions on nations seeking assistance. Concern about what extra conditions might entail has contributed to the reluctance of countries such as Italy and Spain to tap the bond buying that they themselves championed. 
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Oversight should be limited to establishing “checks so the countries continue to behave in that positive way,” Monti told Bloomberg Television in New York on Sept. 28. “If this is the conditionality that will be finally delivered, should a country be in a market situation suggesting its use, there would be nothing dishonorable.”

Algeria : Our Beloved Prophet is our Honour...[ 2947 ]

Algeria at UN: Limit free speech, protect Islam
By David Stringer on September 29, 2012


UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Algeria demanded new efforts Saturday to limit freedom of expression to prevent denigrating attacks on Islam, appealing to the United Nations to take a lead as nations engaged in new debate on the tensions between free speech and religious tolerance.
In an address to the General Assembly, Algeria's foreign minister Mourad Medelci called for global action under the auspices of the United Nations to respond to violent demonstrations provoked by a U.S.-produced video that mocks Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad.

While Medelci didn't offer precise details of how he believed the U.N. could intervene, his call follows similar demands at the General Assembly from scores of leaders in the Muslim world who want new laws to ban insults against Islam.

On the sidelines of the annual forum, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, told The Associated Press Saturday in an interview that the deaths of two dozen people in violent protests against the anti-Islam film underscored the need for new legislation.

Malaysia's foreign minister Anifah Aman told the General Assembly that the creators of the anti-Islam film — an amateurish, privately produced U.S. video that mocked Muhammad's image — and those behind the publication of lewd caricatures of the prophet by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo had shown "blatant malicious intent" toward Muslims.

"When we discriminate against gender, it is called sexism. When African Americans are criticized and vilified, it is called racism. When the same is done to the Jews, people call it Anti-Semitism. But why is it when Muslims are stigmatized and defamed, it is defended as 'freedom of expression'?" Aman told the General Assembly.

Aman he believed it was "time to dwell deeper into the heart of the problem and the real debate — the relationship between freedom of expression and social responsibilities, duties and obligations."

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari had called in his speech Tuesday to the General Assembly for action led by the U.N. to address a "widening rift" between the Muslim world and the West.

Italy and Jordan said Thursday at a meeting on the sidelines of the forum that they were already working on an initiative to promote religious tolerance, which had begun before the anti-Islam video went public. The drive to push better understanding will involve a conference of experts and academics in the coming months.

Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi also called for limits on free speech, to help protect "the world from instability and hatred."

Morsi said Wednesday his country would respect freedom of expression, but only when it "is not used to incite hatred against anyone, one that is not directed towards one specific religion or culture."

Yemen's President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi told the General Assembly on Wednesday "there should be limits for the freedom of expression, especially if such freedom blasphemes the beliefs of nations and defames their figures."

Zardari warned that the "international community must not become silent observers." In a speech Tuesday he called for the criminalization of "acts that destroy the peace of the world and endanger world security by misusing freedom of expression."

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudnoyne — head of the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation — told the General Assembly on Tuesday that previous initiatives at the U.N. had failed to halt intolerance. The "defamation of religion persists, we have seen yet another one of its ugly faces in the film 'Innocence of Muslims'," he said.

In his speech Tuesday to the General Assembly, President Barack Obama described the anti-Islam film as "crude and disgusting," but mounted a defense of freedom of expression.

He warned that "in a diverse society, efforts to restrict speech can become a tool to silence critics, or oppress minorities."

"The strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech — the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect," Obama said.

Speaking Saturday, Liechtenstein's Foreign Minister Aurelia Frick said that the "hateful slander of people on the basis of their culture or religion is unacceptable," but did not join calls for new laws. She urged nations instead to promote values of "tolerance, understanding and mutual respect."
___

Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer and Diaa Hadid contributed to this report

Iran : Talks Will Progress After U.S. Election..[ 2946 ]

Iran’s Ahmadinejad Says Talks Will Progress After U.S. Election

By Susan Decker on September 29, 2012/ Bloomberg News

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's President gives his address to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on September 26, 2012. Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said talks over his country’s development of enriched uranium will be more productive after the U.S. election and expressed optimism the two sides will “be able to take some steps forward.”
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“We have seen during many years that as we approach the United States presidential election, no important decisions are made,” Ahmadinejad said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” according to a transcript. “Following the election, certainly the atmosphere will be much more stable, and important decisions can be made and announced.” 
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Ahmadinejad, who is completing his second and last term as president, said meetings over Iran’s nuclear program with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, will result in “a very important decision” following the U.S. November election. Iran contends its nuclear facilities are for peaceful civilian purposes. 
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“We have set forth proposals, we are holding dialogue,” he said. “We do hope to be able to take some steps forward.”
U.S. President Barack Obama, in Sept. 25 speech before the General Assembly, said that time “is not unlimited” to reach a diplomatic resolution and vowed that the U.S. “will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

‘Hell to Pay’

Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Democrat Obama’s efforts to work with U.S. allies and impose strict sanctions on Iran is the correct policy. In an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” Lugar said that there “will be hell to pay” if those calling for war with Iran are successful.
“The implications for the Israeli people here are very severe,” said Luger, 80, who is leaving the Senate after 36 years following his defeat in a primary in May. “The idea of moving with our allies, as many as we can find, on effective sanctions on the country has been the right move.”
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has criticized Obama’s position, saying the president hasn’t been tough enough and that military action shouldn’t be ruled out. Romney said he would seek an international indictment of Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide and would treat Iran’s diplomats “like the pariah they are.”

Red Lines

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, using a cartoon drawing of a bomb, told the UN Sept. 27 that the international community should impose “red lines” on Iran’s program to prevent the country from building nuclear weapons.
Ahmadinejad said he wasn’t concerned that action by Israel would alter Iranian policies. He likened any attacks to those by terrorists who explode bombs or assassinate officials.
“Will the country be destroyed? No,” Ahmadinejad said. “We see the Zionist regime at the same level of the bombers and criminals and the terrorists. Even if they do something, hypothetically, it will not affect us fundamentally.”
Ahmadinejad denied reports that the Iranian economy is faltering and said the sanctions haven’t hurt foreign trade.
“Many of the European companies are currently, as we speak, conducting trade with us,” he said. “Some of them do it in hiding. They do secretly, but they do conduct that trade. You hear some news and you believe that Iran’s economy is now in chaos. It is not so.”

Iran’s Economy

Foreign investment in Iran jumped 83 percent to $6.8 billion in the first half of the current Iranian year, which began on March 20, the Tehran Times reported Sept. 27, citing Deputy Economy Minister Behrouz Alishiri.
Iran’s Central Bank on Sept. 5 said the country’s inflation rate was 23.5 percent in the month that ended Aug. 20. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani was quoted by Shargh newspaper Sept. 26 as saying it was actually 29 percent.
Iran‘s currency, the rial, hit a record low against the U.S. dollar today in the country‘s capital, Tehran, where the street traders were selling dollars at 28,100 rials, the state- Run Mehr news agency reported.
On Syria, Ahmadinejad again refused to call on President Bashar al-Assad to step down. He said a group whose members include representatives from Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia could help negotiate a peace, including setting up a national election.
Syrian troops are battling with rebels in the commercial hub of Aleppo, the country’s largest city. International efforts to end the 18-month conflict have failed to stop the violence as rebels continue the fight to overthrow Assad that began March of last year. The conflict has killed 30,000 people, according to estimates by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group.
To contact the reporter on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net