The agreement covers observation, navigation, medicine and biology in space, advanced materials and launchings.
The Israel Space Agency and the Russian Federal Space Agency today signed a framework agreement in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.
The agreement, which was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, enhances cooperation between the Israeli and Russian space agencies in the fields of space research, observation, navigation, medicine and biology in space, and research in advanced materials and launchings.
Puppet Masters
Tripoli, Libya -- Moammar Gadhafi's snipers and tanks are terrorizing civilians in the coastal city of Misrata, a resident said, and the U.S. military warned Tuesday it was "considering all options" in response to dire conditions there that have left people cowering in darkened homes and scrounging for food and rainwater.
The U.S. is days away from turning over control of the air assault on Libya to other countries, President Barack Obama said. Just how that will be accomplished remains in dispute: Obama spoke Tuesday with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in hopes of quickly resolving the squabble over the transition.
The U.S. is days away from turning over control of the air assault on Libya to other countries, President Barack Obama said. Just how that will be accomplished remains in dispute: Obama spoke Tuesday with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in hopes of quickly resolving the squabble over the transition.
© Unknown
An abnormal dolphin mortality this year along the Gulf coast has become part of a federal criminal investigation over last year's BP oil spill disaster and as a result, has led the US government to clamp down on biologists' findings, with orders to keep the results confidential.
The dolphin die-off, labeled an "unusual mortality event (UME)," resulted in wildlife biologists being contracted by the National Marine Fisheries Service to record the recent spike in dolphin deaths by collecting tissue samples and specimens for the agency, but late last month were privately ordered to keep their results under wraps.
Iman al-Obeidi is overcome by security officials
It was just another breakfast time at Tripoli's smart Rixos Al Nasr hotel, sleepy foreign journalists helping themselves to cereals, rolls and terrible coffee in the restaurant, looking out over a neat garden unusual in the dour capital city.
But the Groundhog Day conversations - more overnight coalition air strikes against Muammar Gaddafi's forces, rebel advances in the east, how to escape the minders - were suddenly interrupted when a distraught woman burst in to describe how she had been repeatedly raped by government militiamen.
It was just another breakfast time at Tripoli's smart Rixos Al Nasr hotel, sleepy foreign journalists helping themselves to cereals, rolls and terrible coffee in the restaurant, looking out over a neat garden unusual in the dour capital city.
But the Groundhog Day conversations - more overnight coalition air strikes against Muammar Gaddafi's forces, rebel advances in the east, how to escape the minders - were suddenly interrupted when a distraught woman burst in to describe how she had been repeatedly raped by government militiamen.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
Syria has been hit with a fresh wave of anti-government protests during the past week that left scores of people dead.
"The attack on Syria has begun, there have been some supposed peaceful protests and some deaths (...) and they are accusing the president [Assad] of killing his people," AFP quoted Chavez as saying on Saturday at a political event.
"And then the Yankees come in to bomb the people in order to save them. What cynicism on the empire's part," he noted.
The southern Syrian city of Daraa -- located close to Jordan's border -- has emerged as the center of Syria's unrest and the scene of demonstrations for the past week.
Unrest in the area was reportedly triggered by the arrest of young students for spraying graffiti last week.
Amnesty International reported that at least 55 people have been killed in and around Daraa during the protests in the past two weeks.
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A Palestinian youth inspects a destroyed Hamas compound after an Israeli strike overnight in Gaza City on March 22, 2011.
A Palestinian youth inspects a destroyed Hamas compound after an Israeli strike overnight in Gaza City on March 22, 2011.
"Two Palestinians were killed and another wounded Sunday morning in an Israeli air raid on targets east of Jabaliya," Adham Abu Senmya, a spokesman for the Gaza emergency services, told AFP.
The attack came a day after several Palestinian factions, including the Hamas resistance movement, expressed commitment to a national agreement to restore calm with Tel Aviv.
After a week of deadly bombardments of the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tel Aviv was ready to act with "great force" against Palestinians.
Hamas announced on Saturday that it was committed like other factions to calm and that it would not give Israel "any pretext to launch another war against Gaza."
"Palestinian factions have discussed the recent surge in Israeli attacks on Gaza. They are all committed to remaining calm in order to prevent the occupation [Israeli] forces from committing any more crimes against humanity," said Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas official.
© Agence France-Presse
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) shakes hands with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) shakes hands with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates
Israel had been "subjected to bouts of terror and rocket attacks," Netanyahu told reporters before going into a meeting with Gates.
"We stand ready to act with great force and great determination to put a stop to it," he added, with officials saying Israel had not been hit by any projectiles Friday morning.
"Any civilised society will not tolerate such wanton attacks on its civilians," he said.
However, as Netanyahu spoke, Defence Minister Ehud Barak toured the Gaza border with army chief Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, saying that the situation seemed to be calming down.
"In the last 24 hours there has been no fire into our territory, but we continue to monitor the situation," Barak said, according to a statement from his office.
And Barak indicated that if the rocket attacks stopped, Israel would also halt its strikes into the Gaza Strip.
"We don't intend to let the terror organizations again disturb the order but we will do all we need to to return the (military) activity to the border line itself," he said.
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Robert Gates
Robert Gates
Mr Gates made his comments - some of the toughest remarks to date by a US official about the rule of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president - on a day of further upheaval in the Middle East and beyond.
The White House signalled it was preparing for a change in power in Yemen, where it has been allied with the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, president. Nato allies reached a deal in which the alliance will take over command of the Libyan no-fly zone, although responsibility for strikes on forces loyal to Col Muammer Gaddafi will not immediately come under the Nato umbrella.
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Several hundred people gather at a funeral. The latter is dismissed as Qadhafi propaganda.
Several hundred people gather at a funeral. The latter is dismissed as Qadhafi propaganda.
The objective is not to come to the rescue of civilians.
Quite the opposite. Both military as well as civilian targets have been pre-selected.
Civilian casualties are intentional. They are not the result of "collateral damage".
Early reports confirm that hospitals, civilian airports and government buildings have been bombed.
Within hours of the air attacks, a Libyan government health official "said the death toll from the Western air strikes had risen to 64 on Sunday after some of the wounded died." The number of wounded was of the order of 150. (Montreal Gazette, Gadhafi hurls defiance as allied forces strike Libya, March 19, 2011).
The death toll resulting from aerial bombings and missile attacks (March 24) is of the order of 100 civilians, according to Libyan government sources ( UN Chief Expects Int'l Community to Avoid Civilian Casualties in Libya, March 25, 2011)
Media Disinformation
These deaths resulting from US-NATO missiles and aerial bombings are either denied or casually dismissed as 'collateral damage'. According to British Foreign Secretary William Hague modern humanitarian warfare does result in civilian deaths, a totally absurd proposition:
"This operation has been doing what it was meant to do, protect the civilian population of Libya, and there is no confirmed evidence of any casualties at all, civilian casualties, caused by the coalition strikes on the Gaddafi regime," (British Foreign Secretary William Hague, No evidence of civilian casualties in Libya strikes: UK | Reuters, March 25, 2011)US Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirms that "The coalition is going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties and most of the targets are air defence targets isolated from populated areas." (West trying to avoid Libyan civilian deaths: Robert Gates - World - DNA, March 22, 2011)
The objective of the media disinformation campaign is to blatantly obfuscate the loss of life of civilians. Western media reports on casualties are heavily convoluted. Tomahawk missiles and aerial bombings are upheld as instruments of peace and democracy. They do not result in civilian deaths.
Without media disinformation, the legitimacy of the military operation under R2P would collapse like a deck of card.
© Philipp Ebeling for the Guardian
Mark Kennedy, psychopath.
Mark Kennedy, psychopath.
In an interview with the Guardian Weekend magazine, Kennedy, who went "rogue" and offered to help environmental campaigners accused of planning to break into a power station, says he has suffered severe post-traumatic stress disorder and has been suicidal. His lawyers have been instructed to consider legal action against the police.
Comment: Ah yes, the pity ploy. It's very important to crank it up to the max whenever you've been unmasked.
The latest officer was reported to have been embedded in an anti-capitalist group for four years under the fake name of Simon Wellings. Newsnight on BBC2 reported that his true identity was discovered through a police blunder.
Wellings inadvertently phoned a campaigner with the Globalise Resistance anti-capitalist group on his mobile phone while discussing photographs of demonstrators with another officer at a police station.
