Israel warns of further strikes on Gaza targets

ISRAELI AIRCRAFT hit targets across Gaza yesterday, as Israeli officials threatened more military action.

Palestinian medical sources said three children were hurt in the fiercest attacks since the three-week Israeli military offensive in December 2008.

The Israeli military reported that metal workshops used for producing weapons and arms caches were destroyed, saying the actions were in response to the firing of a rocket from Gaza on Thursday that landed close to the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Palestinians said a dairy factory, caravans and military look-out posts were also hit in the air strikes.

The latest upsurge in violence follows the killing of two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian gunmen during clashes just over the border in Gaza last weekend.

Israeli planes dropped pamphlets over parts of Gaza before the air strikes, warning residents that attacks to avenge the killing of the soldiers were imminent.

Rocket attacks by militants and Israeli strikes have once again become an almost daily occurrence, shattering the relative calm that has existed since the war in Gaza last winter.

Israel’s deputy prime minister Silvan Shalom warned that Israel may be forced to launch a new ground offensive if the rocket fire continued.

“If this rocket fire against Israel does not stop, it seems we will have to raise the level of our activity and step up our actions against Hamas,” he said. “We won’t allow frightened children to again be raised in bomb shelters and so, in the end, it will force us to launch another military operation.”

Most of the rocket fire has come from smaller militant factions, although Israel holds Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in the summer of 2007, solely responsible.

Hamas prime minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh called on the international community to intervene to stop the “Israeli escalation and aggression”. He said Hamas was in contact with the smaller factions to maintain quiet.

On Thursday, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov spoke by phone with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal and asked that Hamas end the rocket fire against Israel. He said Mr Meshaal had promised to act, telling him that Hamas sought to restore calm.

Israel believes that Hamas is continuing to build up its military capabilities by smuggling advanced weapons via tunnels under Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.

On Wednesday, Egyptian security forces uncovered a large weapons cache in the Sinai. The Egyptians believe that the arms, which included 100 anti-aircraft missiles and 40 rocket rocket-propelled grenades, were destined for Gaza.

Tension was already high over Israel’s decision to build more homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, in areas captured during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

US president Barack Obama is still waiting for Israel’s response to a list of demands he presented to Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu last month for Israeli actions, including a freeze on construction in Arab areas of Jerusalem, designed to get the peace talks with the Palestinians back on track.

3 Children Among 4 Killed In Rocket Attack:

Four people including 3 siblings and their aunt died while nine others injured when a rocket fell at a house in Bahamari area, Peshawar.
According to SHO PS Bahamari, some unidentified miscreants fired the rocket, which fell on the house of one Rehman Ullah. Resultantly, four persons including Rehman’s three children aged between 9 to 12 and his 16-year-old sister died on the spot while nine others received serious burn injuries. The wounded were shifted to hospital, of whom four are stated to be in a critical condition, while rescue teams are busy in removing the debris.

Pakistan Dismisses Indian Claims of Rocket Fire

Pakistan Dismisses Indian Claims of Rocket Fire, Pakistan registered a strong protest with Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) authorities against indiscriminate firing at Punjab Rangers’ checkposts at Wagah Border by Indian forces, which was continued for the whole Friday night. According to sources, Indian army has started firing at Pakistan border checkposts at 12:30pm.Earlier, three blasts were also heard, ensued by firing which was continued for long. Rangers Punjab spokesman ruled out Indian allegations, saying that Pakistan had not fired any rockets nor fired at Indian border. Meanwhile, Pakistan India Flagstaff meeting has also been summoned.

Ares I-X rocket ready to launch

NASA’s new Ares rocket started its slow journey to the launch pad in Florida on Tuesday. The Ares I-X rocket left the vehicle assembly building early on Tuesday morning standing on a slow-moving crawler-transporter headed for Launch Pad 39-b at the Kennedy Space Center.

Moving at a top speed of 0.8 miles per hour, the re-scheduled deployment will take approximately seven hours to cover the 4.2 miles to the pad. The rollout of Ares I-X was set originally for Monday, however during testing on October 14, engineers detected a nitrogen gas leak in an accumulator located in the aft skirt of the rocket. The accumulator, which absorbs hydraulic pressure spikes as the system operates, was replaced and successfully retested. NASA management is assessing what effect, if any, this delayed rollout will have on the targeted launch date. The 327-foot rocket is scheduled to lift off on October 27 for its first suborbital test flight.

NASA officials will use this flight to gauge flight characteristics, examine hardware and observe ground operations associated with the launch. The Ares will carry no payload during this first flight.

If the U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration gives the green light to the Ares programme, the rocket is expected to replace the Space Shuttle payload system and could begin carrying astronauts and equipment to the International Space Station within five years, with plans to act as the delivery system for any manned lunar attempts or further space exploration.

Ares I-X rocket ready to launch was first posted on October 21, 2009 at 12:00 am.

Space Rocket Launch Suspended By South Korea

SEOUL: South Korea’s rocket launch was suspended 7 minutes and 56 seconds before its scheduled time, local media reported Wednesday.
South Korea Space Rocket Launch SuspendedThe Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said mission controllers decided to suspend the launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), which was scheduled at local time 05:00 p.m. (0800 GMT).

“There was a problem in the automatic launch sequence that caused the launch to be called off,” said KARI head Lee Joo-jin, without clarifying the exact reason of the stoppage.

He did not further go into details to identify whether the launch was a success or a failure.

He said that no launch will take place within the day and that a new date will be set after consultation with experts from Russia, which made the first stage rocket.

According to local media, fuel injected into the rocket has been dumped, while the launch pad has been erected, which together is hinting that the blast was unlikely to take place on Wednesday.

Release of already-injected fuel makes it impossible to launch the rocket within the day, only enabling a next blastoff at least 72 hours later, the media said.

The delay is the seventh time since the project started in 2002 under a cooperative arrangement with Russia.