Russia's strategic partnernships with the world ..[ 1502 ]

Russia rethinking its strategic partnernships with the world

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 11:11 am TWN, 

By Frank Ching 

In a dramatic but little noticed shift, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has announced that Russia will give top priority to the country's economic modernization and identified the leading members of the European Union and the United States as countries with which Moscow needs to forge “special modernization alliances.”

While China, too, is important, the Russian leader made it clear in his speech that what Russia needs are partnerships with such countries as Germany, France and Italy in Europe and, of course, the United States.
 

Medvedev outlined Moscow's new direction in a speech July 12 to the country's ambassadors and its representatives to international organizations.
Russia's new foreign policy emphasis had been foreshadowed in a confidential report prepared by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that was leaked in May and published in the Russian Newsweek.
The Medvedev speech confirms the authenticity of that report, which contained details missing from the president's public remarks.
 

Quite strikingly, Medvedev warned of Iran's nuclear program in words that could have come from the mouth of an American official. “It is essential to abandon simplistic approaches to this issue,” he said. “It is obvious that Iran is getting close to acquiring nuclear capability that can be used, in theory, to create nuclear weapons.”
 

In the past, China had some degree of cover from Russia on issues such as Iran so it was not the only voice opposing harsh sanctions. Thus, in a note to President Medvedev attached to the confidential report, Foreign Minister Lavrov says:
 

“Particular attention should be paid to monitoring the growing role of China in international affairs [and] proceed from the fundamental importance of consolidating China's position on joint action with us — with due regard to the evolving situation — in the G-20, BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India and China] and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as well as the U.N. Security Council (where our support is often more useful to the Chinese than theirs to us).”
 

Aside from economic modernization, Medvedev said Russia's second biggest challenge was strengthening democratic and civil society institutions in the country.
 

In words that may sound alarming to Chinese officials, the president said, “We must promote the humanization of social systems around the world and especially at home. ... It is in the interests of Russian democracy for as many nations as possible to follow democratic standards in their domestic policy.”

Strike disrupts European travel..[ 1501 ]

France air controllers' strike disrupts European travel

 

Passengers wait at Paris Orly airport, where half of domestic flights were cancelled on Wednesday

BBC., 21 July 2010 Last updated at 10:25 GMT

A strike by air traffic controllers in France is causing serious disruption to domestic and European flights.

In Paris, one in five flights from Charles de Gaulle airport were cancelled on Wednesday, while half of flights from Orly are grounded.

Air France said the flights affected are short and medium haul only. Long haul should take off as normal.

Disruption is expected at most French airports due to the strike, according to the civil aviation authority DGAC.

The action - the third major airport strike in France this year - is scheduled to run until Thursday morning.

Stranded overnight Unions representing air traffic controllers called the strike to protest against plans to merge France's 4,000 controllers and 8,000 other DGAC personnel into a European-wide system.

Budget airline Easyjet has cancelled about a third of its departures from Charles de Gaulle and Orly to destinations across Europe, according to its website.

Queues began forming on Tuesday evening at Orly, where Simone Battaglia, 30, was stranded overnight after his Easyjet flight home to Naples was scrapped.

"The company is just offering us a flight for Milan tomorrow," he told the AFP news agency. "But Milan is hundreds of kilometres from Naples. That means we will have to take the train. It is a waste of time and money."

Ties to yakuza for Osaka sumo tournaments..[ 1500 ]

Stablemaster rents building with ties to yakuza for Osaka sumo tournaments

The building in Osaka that was used by the Matsugane stable, pictured on July 21. (Mainichi)

 

(Mainichi Japan) July 21, 2010

Sumo stablemaster Matsugane has been renting a building connected to a front company for an organized crime group for spring tournaments in Osaka, it was learned on July 21.

Matsugane, 53, rented the building, located within the city of Osaka, from the company president, 61, and has used it for lodging and training purposes.

Registration records show that the building belonged to the company until 2002, and it is now owned by a partner company. Police say the company managed by the president is a front for the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate. 

The company president was arrested in March of 2008 for engaging in negotiations over an eviction from the building despite not having a license to practice law. In January of last year, he was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for four years, by the Tokyo District Court.

Matsugane, formerly Ozeki Wakashimazu, was born in Tanegashima, Kagoshima Prefecture. He is married to former singer Mizue Takada. Matsugane won two championships during his active sumo days, and was known as the "nankai no kurohyo" (black leopard of the southern seas). He retired from active wrestling in 1987, and after the January sumo tournament in 1990, he left the Futagoyama stable and created his own successful stable. 

He has raised several wrestlers to high "sekitori" ranks. Currently, his wrestler Matsutani is performing well at the "juryo" rank. Matsugane is a referee for the Japan Sumo Association (JSA), and he is judging at the Nagoya tournament.

In 2009, high-ranking members of the Kodokai, a sub-group of the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate, were seen sitting at the Nagoya tournament in front-row seats reserved for big money donors. In response to the scandal, in May of this year, the JSA added an item to its fundamental rules forbidding "deals or providing of benefits with anti-social forces," referring to crime syndicates and those affiliated with them.

Click here for the original Japanese story

Russia ready to ex[port tactical missiles...[ 1499 ]

Russia ready to export Iskander tactical missiles

Ria Novosti., 21.07.2010 16:53

 Russia is ready to export Iskander tactical missile systems, a senior executive at state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.

"Rosoboronexport is marketing the Iskander, but no contracts have been signed yet," Deputy General Director Alexander Mikheyev said.

He added that customers abroad were showing interest in the missile system and that his company was in consultation with some of them.

British supersonic car., faster than 1,000mph.[ 1498 ]

Model of Bloodhound supersonic car unveiled

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

 

The full size, full length Bloodhound SSC model car unveiled at the Farnborough International Air Show

 

BBC., 19 July 2010 Last updated at 09:19 GMT

The British team hoping to drive a car faster than 1,000mph has unveiled a full-scale model of the

The 1:1 replica of the 12.8m-long (42ft) Bloodhound SuperSonic Car (SSC) is the result of three years of aerodynamic study.

The model is a star turn at this year's Farnborough International Air Show.

The team has announced that aerospace manufacturer Hampson Industries will begin building the rear of the real vehicle in the first quarter of 2011.

Another deal to construct the front end with a second company is very close.

"We now have a route to manufacture for the whole car," said chief engineer Mark Chapman.

"We would hope to be able to shake down the vehicle on a runway in the UK either at the end of 2011 or at the beginning of 2012," he told BBC News.

Assuming no major issues arise from those runway tests, Bloodhound will be shipped straight to a dried up lakebed known as Hakskeen Pan, in the Northern Cape of South Africa, to begin its assault on the world land speed record.

Wing Commander Andy Green gives a tour of the Bloodhound SSC model

To claim the record, the vehicle will have to better the mark of 763mph (1,228km/h) set by the Thrust SuperSonic Car in 1997.

But the team believes Bloodhound's superior aerodynamic shape, allied to the immense power of its Falcon hybrid rocket and Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, will take the blue and orange car beyond 1,000mph (1,610km/h).

Three people who worked on Thrust are also engaged in the Bloodhound project.

They are driver Wing Cdr Andy Green, project director Richard Noble and chief aerodynamicist Ron Ayres.

The trio envisaged Bloodhound not just as another record bid but as a project that could inspire children to engage in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects. And the Bloodhound Education Programme has announced here at Farnborough that some 1.5 million school children are now using curriculum resource materials based on the supersonic car.

Key modifications The model car is on display at the Farnborough air show this week. The real vehicle will weigh about six tonnes, but even the polystyrene and fibre-glass replica weighs 950kg.

Visitors will be able to see in the model the key aerodynamic advances made by the design team at the turn of the year which turned Bloodhound into a driveable car.

Before this point, the car was producing dangerous amounts of lift at high speed in the modelling.

But by playing with the position and shape of key elements of the car's rear end, the design team found a solution that will manage the shockwave passing around and under the vehicle when it goes supersonic.

The effort was assisted greatly by project sponsor Intel. It was able to bring colossal computing power to bear on the lift problem.

"It's called configuration 10," said Mr Chapman. "It's very angular at the back; it's got a very narrow rear-track. Between November and March, we reduced 11 tonnes of lift to zero lift at Mach 1.3. At that point, we had the aerodynamic shape which you see in the show car. It's very stable."

Ron Ayres added: "We're now working on things like the air brakes and engine-bay cooling - detail inside the car. There's a lot of engineering to do. But as far as the outside of the car is concerned, we're pretty much done. Some work still needs to be done on the wheel fairings, the fin, the shape and size of the winglets."

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk