Jumaat, 18 Januari 2013

Middle East News

Middle East

- Jan 19, 2013
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Despite a defense attorney's complaints, a judge in Nevada set bail at $1.22 million Friday for a Saudi Arabia air force sergeant jailed since New Year's Eve after he was accused of pulling a 13-year-old boy into a Las Vegas Strip ...
- Jan 19, 2013
A former attaché at the Saudi embassy in The Hague risks imprisonment and torture if he is deported back to Saudi Arabia from his current home in Qatar. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International says Mishal bin Zaar Hamad al-Mutiry would be in ...
- Jan 19, 2013
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A defense attorney is arguing for the release from jail of a 23-year-old Saudi Arabia air force sergeant arrested on New Year's Eve and accused of raping a 13-year-old boy in a Las Vegas Strip hotel room. Defense attorney Don Chairez ...
- Jan 19, 2013
JEDDAH – A recent report issued by the Ministry of Justice shows that 28 percent of narcotics cases being looked into in the Kingdom's courts involve Saudi women while non-Saudi women form 68.1 percent of total women's narcotics cases including ...

Asian News

Asia

- Jan 18, 2013
People cross a flooded street while holding a cord for safety in Jakarta, Indonesia Friday, Jan. 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim). A taxi wades through a flooded street in Jakarta, Indonesia Friday, Jan. 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim). Traffic ...
- Jan 19, 2013
Coastal areas in parts of Australia, Indonesia and Antarctica will be hard-hit by stronger winds and waves in a warming world, according to an open letter published January 13 in the journal Nature Climate Change. On the opposite side of the world ...
- Jan 18, 2013
Indonesia's central bank said it saw the weather disrupting food distribution, which in turn was likely to push up inflation this month. However, officials said rain across the country had not damaged key crops such as palm oil. The listed palm oil ...
- Jan 18, 2013
“The growing use of transport fuels from crops has driven up food prices, led to more deforestation in places like Indonesia to grow palm oil for fuel, and made climate change worse as a result.” But he warned that the EU's proposals needed to be ...

Selasa, 15 Januari 2013

Pakistani Court More Powerfull then the PM


ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's leaders received a powerful one-two punch Tuesday as the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister in a corruption case and a firebrand cleric led thousands of protesters in a second day of anti-government demonstrations in the capital.
The events set the stage for renewed political crisis in Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the fight against Islamic militants and efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan. They sparked accusations that Pakistan's top judge and powerful generals were working to destabilize the government ahead of parliamentary elections expected in the spring, and possibly delay the vote.
The upcoming elections would mark the first time a civilian government completed a full five-year term and transferred power through the ballot box. Past governments have been toppled in military coups or dismissed by presidents allied with top generals.
A coup isn't expected this time around, but there is widespread unhappiness within the military, judiciary and the public about the government's performance at a time when the country is plagued by high unemployment, rampant energy shortages and frequent attacks by Islamic militants.
Many claim the country's politicians are more interested in lining their pockets through corrupt dealings than addressing problems facing Pakistani citizens. That perception is likely to be reinforced by the Supreme Court's order to arrest Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
The court ruling relates to a case involving private power stations set up to provide electricity to energy-starved Pakistan. The judges are investigating allegations that the bidding process was marred by corruption. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry ordered the arrest of 16 people involved in the case, including Ashraf, who previously served as minister for water and power, according to a written court order.
An adviser to the prime minister, Fawad Chaudhry, said any attempt to arrest the prime minister would be unconstitutional since he enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office.
"We consider it a judicial coup, and it is part of a greater plan to derail democracy," Chaudhry said.
The Supreme Court clashed repeatedly with the government during the past year, especially over an old corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari in Swiss court. Pakistan's Supreme Court convicted Ashraf's predecessor, Yousuf Raza Gilani, of contempt of court for refusing to reopen the case and ousted him from office.
The judges pressured Ashraf as well, and the government finally agreed to the court's demand to ask the Swiss to pursue the case — which Swiss authorities have said privately they have no intention of doing because Zardari enjoys immunity while in office.
Some observers have accused the chief justice of harassing the government because of bad blood between him and Zardari. Others believe the judges are working in concert with the country's generals, although the court has pressured the army over alleged abuses as well.
"Tuesday's developments at the Supreme Court are enough to believe that the judiciary and the establishment are working together against the government," said Chaudhry, the prime minister's adviser.
Many suspect the military is also behind Tahir-ul-Qadri, a 61-year-old cleric who returned from Canada last year and has rocketed to national prominence with a mass movement against Pakistan's leaders.
He led an estimated 30,000 supporters Tuesday in a second day of protests in Islamabad to press for the removal of the government, which he criticized as corrupt and incompetent. Political leaders condemned his demands as unconstitutional.
It was unclear whether the Supreme Court's order and Qadri's rally were connected. But some speculated it was a scripted plan by the chief justice and the cleric to strike at their opponents in the government, with the support of the army.
"There is a connection, and it is very obvious. The boots are behind it," Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jehangir said, referring to the military.
Qadri's message has galvanized many Pakistanis who say the government has brought them only misery. But critics fear Qadri is bent on derailing the country's upcoming elections at the behest of army by pushing for a military-backed caretaker administration — allegations denied by the cleric.
Those concerns could intensify following a fiery speech he delivered to protesters, condemning the country's politicians as corrupt thieves and lavishing praise on both the Supreme Court and the military.
He said only two institutions in Pakistan, the judiciary and the armed forces, were "performing their duties to fulfill the needs of the people."

Largest Structure in Universe

Largest Structure in Universe Discovered
Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe, a clump of active galactic cores that stretches 4 billion light-years from end to end.
The structure is a large quasar group (LQG), a collection of extremely luminous galactic nuclei powered by supermassive central black holes. This particular group is so large that it challenges modern cosmological theory, researchers said.
"While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe," lead author Roger Clowes, of the University of Central Lancashire in England, said in a statement. "This is hugely exciting, not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe."

Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe. For decades, astronomers have known that they tend to assemble in huge groups, some of which are more than 600 million light-years wide.
But the record-breaking quasar group, which Clowes and his team spotted in data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, is on another scale altogether. The newfound LQC is composed of 73 quasars and spans about 1.6 billion light-years in most directions, though it is 4 billion light-years across at its widest point.
To put that mind-boggling size into perspective, the disk of the Milky Way galaxy — home of Earth's solar system — is about 100,000 light-years wide. And the Milky Way is separated from its nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda, by about 2.5 million light-years.
The newly discovered LQC is so enormous, in fact, that theory predicts it shouldn't exist, researchers said. The quasar group appears to violate a widely accepted assumption known as the cosmological principle, which holds that the universe is essentially homogeneous when viewed at a sufficiently large scale.
Calculations suggest that structures larger than about 1.2 billion light-years should not exist, researchers said.
"Our team has been looking at similar cases which add further weight to this challenge, and we will be continuing to investigate these fascinating phenomena," Clowes said.
The new study was published today (Jan. 11) in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+

Two explosions at Aleppo University killed 80


 

File photo shows the entrance to Aleppo University.
File photo shows the entrance to Aleppo University.
Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:57PM GMT
At least 80 people have been killed and scores of others injured after two explosions hit Aleppo University in Syria’s second largest city, Press TV reports.


An opposition watchdog said one of the explosions has hit an area between the university dormitories and the Faculty of Architecture. It was not immediately clear where the second blast had happened.

State television said "terrorists launched two rockets" at the university complex.

Press TV has learned that women and children are among the dead.

"The explosion caused casualties among both students on their first day of exams, and people displaced from areas of the city damaged by terrorist attacks and who have sought refuge in the university complex," state news agency SANA reported.

Aleppo University is the second largest university in Syria after the University of Damascus. It is also considered as the top academic institution in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

There were no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions, but the Damascus has accused foreign-backed terrorists fighting against the Syrian government of similar incidents.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the turmoil.

A recent UN report has revealed that militants from 29 countries have so far infiltrated into Syria to fight against the Damascus government, most of whom are extremist Salafists.

The Syrian government has repeatedly said that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and that a very large number of the militants operating in the country are foreign nationals.

HM/PKH/SS

Rabu, 9 Januari 2013

Asteroid 2012 DA14 on February 15, 2012 Could Hit Earth






Asteroid 2012 DA14 on February 15, 2012

It’ll pass within the moon’s distance from Earth – closer than the orbits of geosynchronous satellites. But it won’t strike us in 2013.



So, no, 2012 DA14 won’t strike us in 2013. There was a remote possibility it might strike us in 2020, but that possibility has been ruled out also.


Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass closest on February 15, 2013. As the image above shows, it will pass much closer than the orbit of the moon - closer even that orbiting geosynchronous satellites (22,000 miles). View larger. Image Credit: NASA

What will happen when Asteroid 2012 DA14 passes closely in 2013?


What will happen when it passes us? The short answer is … nothing. On the day it passes, most of us won’t see it or be aware of its passage, in any way. The asteroid won’t alter the tides. It won’t cause volcanoes. It’ll just sweep closely past us – as millions of asteroids have done throughout Earth’s four-and-a-half-billion-year history – some in your own lifetime.


The asteroid will be within range for small telescopes and solidly mounted binoculars, used by experienced observers who have access to appropriate stars charts. Here’s what NASA says about its visibility:


On [February 15, 2013], the asteroid will travel rapidly from the southern evening sky into the northern morning sky with its closest Earth approach occurring about 19:26 UTC when it will achieve a magnitude of less than seven, which is somewhat fainter than naked eye visibility. About 4 minutes after its Earth close approach, there is a good chance it will pass into the Earth’s shadow for about 18 minutes or so before reappearing from the eclipse. When traveling rapidly into the northern morning sky, 2012 DA14 will quickly fade in brightness.


What do we know about asteroid 2012 DA14?


Asteroid 2012 DA14 is a little guy, compared to some asteroids, although its size has not been pinned down precisely. It is thought to be about 45 meters across (nearly 150 feet across), with an estimated mass of about 130,000 metric tons.



If a space object 150 feet wide were to strike our planet, it wouldn’t be Earth-destroying. But it has been estimated that it would produce the equivalent of 2.4 megatons of TNT. How does that compare with other known impact events on Earth? In 1908, in a remote part of Russia, an explosion killed reindeer and flattened trees. But no crater was ever found. Scientists now believe a small comet struck Earth. That event has been estimated at 3 to 20 megatons. So 2012 DA14 is in the same approximate realm as the Tunguska comet (which, actually, might have been an asteroid instead). It would not destroy Earth, but it could flatten a city.



Of course, about 70% of our world is covered by oceans. That means the most likely landing spot of any incoming asteroid is in the water – not on a city or other populated area.



Astronomers at the Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra in Spain discovered 2012 DA14 in early 2012. We know 2012 DA14′s orbit is similar to that of Earth. That is one reason the asteroid eluded astronomers until recently. You can be sure that many astronomers are carefully tracking 2012 DA14 now.



The orbit of 2012 DA14 is an inclined ellipse. In other words, it’s tilted sightly with respect to Earth’s orbit around the sun, and, like Earth’s orbit, it’s not circular but elliptical – like a circle that someone sat down on. According to Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, who appears to have used a computer program to look at its orbit:



The asteroid spends most of its time well away from our planet. However, the path of the rock does bring it somewhat close to the Earth twice per orbit, or about every six months. The last time it passed us was on February 16 [2012], when it was about 2.5 million km (1.5 million miles) away, equal to about 6 times the distance to the moon. That’s usually about the scale of these encounters — it misses us by quite a margin.



If we know it will miss us in 2013 and in 2020, why are astronomers still watching? In fact, the orbit of 2012 DA14 is not entirely pinned down, although it is known well enough to say for sure: it will not hit us next year, or in 2020.



But it will come close on February 15, 2013! It should be close enough to catch the attention of virtually everyone on Earth in February 2013, on what’s sure to be a media field day.



Will 2012 DA14 strike Earth in 2020?



No. In March 2012, when a collision between 2012 DA14 and Earth in 2020 was still remotely possible, I asked astronomer Donald Yeomans to clarify the risk. Yeomans is, among other things, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In March 2012, he told EarthSky that a 2020 collision between Earth and asteroid 2012 DA14 was …



… approximately one chance in 83,000, with additional remote possibilities beyond 2020. However, by far the most likely scenario is that additional observations, especially in 2013, will allow a dramatic reduction in the orbit uncertainties and the complete elimination of the 2020 impact possibility.



It turned out they didn’t have to wait until 2013. By May, 2012, astronomers had ruled out even the remote possibility of a 2020 collision.



Still, 2012 DA14 and asteroids like it are sobering.



Bottom line: The near Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will have a very close pass near Earth on February 15, 2013. It will sweep approximately 21,000 miles from us – much closer than the moon’s orbit and closer than geosynchronous satellites. It will not strike Earth. Its orbit around the sun can bring it no closer to the Earth’s surface on February 15, 2013 than 3.2 Earth radii.



What happened at Tunguska in 1908?

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