Indian rocket launch flops

BANGALORE: Indian space engineers lost contact with a rocket showcasing new indigenously built booster technology on Thursday soon after launch, in a major blow to the country”s space ambitions.

The launch of the first India-made rocket powered by cryogenic motors, a complex technology mastered by just five countries, failed soon after lift-off from India”s space centre at Sriharikota in southeast Andhra Pradesh state.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters that the rocket began tumbling soon after launch “indicating the controllability was lost.”

Cryogenic boosters use supercooled liquid fuel and the technology has only been successfully developed by the US, Russia, France, Japan and China.

India had previously imported seven cryogenic engines from Russia, using five of them to launch heavy satellites over the last decade.

The technology is intended to launch heavier satellites into high orbits, about 36,000 kilometres (22,000 miles) from the earth, ISRO has said.

Iran bars Khatami from leaving country: website

TEHRAN: Iran has barred former president Mohammad Khatami from leaving the country ahead of a trip he planned to make to Japan for a nuclear disarmament conference, a pro-reform website said Thursday.

The Parlemannews.ir website of the reformist bloc in parliament did not provide details of any reasons given for the travel ban.

Khatami, whose 1997-2005 presidency saw a thaw with the West under his “dialogue of civilisations”, had been invited to attend the annual nuclear disarmament conference in Hiroshima.

The former president has been the target of virulent criticism by regime hardliners since he backed former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi against incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in last June”s presidential election.

New Year 2010

New Year 2010, As the New Year approaches, New York City gets ready for its annual .
Rehearsal was being held for dropping pieces of confetti from 42nd storey of a building in Times Square as traditionally around 0.10million confetti pieces are being dropped on New Year’s Eve inscribed with New Year’s goodwill messages.
A temporary wall has also been erected in Times Square on which hundreds of people are pasting their messages daily.

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New Year 2010 was first posted on December 31, 2009 at 1:01 pm.

Iran Leaders ‘Flee Tehran’ Due to Death Threats by Govt Mobs

Irani government has forced the two opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, to leave Tehran.
According to Iran’s state news agency two leaders of “sedition” in the country have fled to a northern Iranian province. The top opposition leaders are Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi had fled the capital. According to the officials, these two leaders who played a major role in igniting tension in Iran following presidential vote, fled Tehran and went to a northern province because they were scared of people, who demanded their punishment. However an opposition website said the two men had been taken into custody by members of the elite Revolutionary Guards and intelligence ministry for their own protection.

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Iran Leaders ‘Flee Tehran’ Due to Death Threats by Govt Mobs was first posted on December 31, 2009 at 2:27 pm.

Ahmadinejad Sworn in As President of Iran For 2nd Time

TEHRAN: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as Iranian president on Wednesday as riot police broke up an opposition protest over an election that triggered the worst turmoil in the Islamic republic’s history.

The 52-year-old Ahmadinejad took the oath of office for another four-year term at a ceremony in parliament, defiantly vowing to resist “oppressive powers” and saying his June election marked a major change in Iran.

But prominent opposition leaders were absent from the ceremony, and outside riot police and Basij volunteer Islamic militiamen used pepper gas against demonstrators who claim his landslide victory was fraudulent, witnesses said.

Wednesday’s ceremony was attended by about 240 of Iran’s 290 MPs as well as clerics, but prominent opposition leaders including Ahmadinejad’s main defeated challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi were absent, as was powerful cleric and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

After taking the oath, Ahmadinejad has a two-week deadline to form a new government that is likely to remain on a collision course with the West, particularly over Iran’s controversial nuclear drive.

Ahmadinejad Endorsed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set to endorse Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president on Monday, two days before the re-elected president is sworn in for a second amid intense political turmoil in the Islamic republic.

Ahmadinejad’s confirmation by Khamenei comes as Iran grapples with its worst turbulence since the 1979 Islamic revolution, with deadly street protests, a raft of political trials and an escalating feud between rival factions.

Ahmadinejad, 52, is himself under fire from his own hardline camp, which questions his loyalty to Khamenei who publicly backed the hardliner’s victory in the June 12 poll.

The announcement of Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory was met with a vast outpouring of anger from opposition supporters who claim their votes were stolen.

Massive street protests left at least 30 people dead and saw several thousand protesters rounded up, among them prominent pro-reform figures and journalists.

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who stood against Ahmadinejad, have accused the authorities of massive vote rigging and branded Ahmadinejad’s presidency illegitimate.

Ahmadinejad’s re-election has also created a rift among the clergy, with several senior clerics siding with the opposition and condemning the post-election violence and the regime’s treatment of its critics.

The authorities hit back with a heavy-handed crackdown on protesters, whom they accuse of seeking to overthrow the regime.

On Saturday, around 100 moderates and reformists were put on trial in a revolutionary court in Tehran, a move slammed by opposition leaders but welcomed by hardliners who accused Mousavi and former president Mohammad Khatami of treason.

Another 10 went on trial on Sunday.

In a keynote speech on June 19 after a week of bitter protests, Khamenei strongly backed Ahmadinejad and dismissed the vote-rigging allegations, accusing Western governments, Britain in particular, of instigating the unrest.

London dismissed the allegation and tensions rose after Iran detained nine local British embassy staffers on accusations of provoking riots. All have since been released.

Iran’s relations with the West worsened during Ahmadinejad’s first term because of his frequent verbal attacks on Israel and his uncompromising stance on Tehran’s nuclear drive, which world powers fear is a cover for weapons development.

Although key policy issues are decided by Khamenei, critics point the finger of blame at Ahmadinejad for three sets of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

Opponents also accuse Ahmadinejad, who enjoyed windfall oil revenues in his first term, of mismanaging the economy, stoking inflation, wasting resources and manipulating statistics to cover his failures.

Ahmadinejad crossed swords with the all-powerful Khamenei after he appointed a controversial aide as his first vice president.

Khamenei intervened and ordered the sacking of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, an outspoken politician who had enraged hardliners by saying Iran was a friend of the Israeli people.

The fact it took Ahmadinejad a week to finally carry out Khamenei’s order angered the conservative wing of the regime, who warned him to obey the supreme leader.

The hardline camp was further irked when Ahmadinejad sacked intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie following a reported “quarrel” over Rahim Mashaie’s appointment.

Ahmadinejad denies any rift with Khamenei, characterising his relationship with the supreme leader as one of “father and son.” Iran’s crackdown on protesters drew international condemnation, including from arch-foe the United States.

After three decades of severed diplomatic ties, Washington earlier this year made overtures to Tehran, offering talks over their long-standing disputes, including the nuclear issue.

Iran has yet to respond but has ruled out negotiations on the nuclear programme, insisting the work is for solely peaceful ends.

Should Ahmadinejad stick to his guns on the nuclear programme, his second term is likely to be characterised by greater tension with the West, which has warned of even tougher sanctions.

Iran’s stance towards staunch US ally Israel is also likely to harden further with Ahmadinejad — who has repeatedly said the Jewish state is doomed to disappear — at the helm for a further four years.

Israel, the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear armed state, has not ruled out military actin to curb Tehran’s atomic ambitions.

Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali Takes Oath as SC Judge

ISLAMABAD: Former chief justice of the Sindh High Court, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali took oath as a judge of the Supreme Court (SC) after which number of SC judges reaches to 17.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has administered the oath. The oath-taking ceremony was held at the SC ceremonial hall and attended by SC judges, the attorney general, federal law secretary and members of bar associations. The president elevated Justice Jamali to the Supreme Court on Saturday.