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Sunday, June 10, 2012

China to launch manned space capsule

China will launch this month three astronauts into space that are attached to an orbital space station and the crew may include a woman, said Saturday the official press. A rocket that will carry the Shenzhou module 9 was moved to a launch pad on Saturday in northwestern China for launch in mid-June, said the official Xinhua News Agency, according to a spokesman for the space program. The three-member crew will mate and live in the Tiangong 1 orbiter launched last year, Xinhua said. The government did not specify the duration of the mission. According to Xinhua, Niu Hongguang, deputy commander of the manned space program, the crew "could include women astronauts." The government said in 2010 that two women pilots joined the Air Force astronaut program but without giving details. China's space program has made ​​steady progress since the launch of 2003 and is the third nation to put a man in space on their own. Two other missions followed the first, including a space walk. China completed its first rendezvous in November when the unmanned Shenzhou 8 capsule docked with the Tiangong 1 remote control. Tiangong 1 was launched on September 29. the coming days, scientists tested the Shenzhou 9, the Long March 2F rocket and ground systems, Xinhua said based on the spokesperson. In the first flight, a crew will remain on the Shenzhou 9 "as a precaution in case of emergency" while others access the Tiangong 1, Xinhua said. China scheduled for this year two links and plans to complete a manned space station by 2020 to replace the Tiangong 1. With about 60 tons, the China station will be much less than the International Space Station from 16 nations. Beijing launched its independent of the space station after not having access to the International Space Station to U.S. objections. Washington fears that the Chinese program to share technology with economic and political rivals.

Dispute over anti-terror fight Pakistan has U.S. accusations back sharply

A response from Pakistan was to be expected, now it has turned out unusually sharp. "We believe that the U.S. defense of some very complex issues with which we have to do in the fight against extremism and terrorism, to simplify a lot," the Pakistani foreign minister said Saturday in Islamabad. Pentagon chief Leon Panetta had the Pakistani government on Thursday called upon in unusually strong words to rethink their behavior in the fight against terror. "We make it very clear: We're at the end of our patience," the defense minister said during a surprise visit to Afghanistan . It is extremely difficult to create safe conditions in Afghanistan, Pakistan and over again when a neighbor would offer terrorists. In the border area of ​​both countries believe the United States hideouts of the Taliban - which would apparently be tolerated by the Pakistani authorities. "It is very important that Pakistan is now initiating the right steps," said Panetta. The diplomatic response from Islamabad was just as clear: "We believe that such statements are out of place here and not very helpful in bringing peace and stability in the region." It is the response to a long-simmering dispute between the governments in Washington and Islamabad - Pakistan, the United States require a stronger role and a clearer position in the anti-terror fight. Thus, the United States require Pakistan to pursue the extremist Haqqani network harder. The group is said to have links with Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida and it is considered as the author of some of the deadliest attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan. "Pakistan has said repeatedly that it will not allow its territory to launch attacks against any other country is used. Also, the Government will tolerate no safe havens for terrorists, said the foreign minister. However'll Islamabad to" own terms "and its own strategy proceed.

Bloodshed continues in Syria


Despite all the warnings of a regional spillover of the conflict is the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continued violence against the opposition. The southern province of Daraa government troops attacked on Saturday while a birthplace of the rebellion that began 16 months ago. At least 25 people were killed, reported the organization of Syrian human rights monitors in London. A total of 40 people nationwide have been killed. To end the bloodshed in Russia is that China has blocked so far as a harder line against the Assad regime in the Security Council, and for an international peace conference involving Iran. The aim must be to enforce the peace plan of the Syrian Special Representative Kofi Annan. "We see no alternative to the plan," the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday in Moscow. A military intervention as in Libya would lead to a conflagration in the region with many more victims. Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle warned of the consequences of military intervention. "There is no silver bullet. We vote in a whole region for potentially explosive and difficult situation between options, of which, after joint evaluation of all our partners, the political is "by far the best, he said the" world "on Sunday. The danger is great that not only Lebanon, but also other neighboring countries could find themselves in the maelstrom. "We must prevent this," warned Westerwelle. The Russian government called on Westerwelle, the statements Annan, who sees the responsibility for the atrocities in Syria, mainly in the Assad regime to take this opportunity, "their attitude to reconsider and to implement a non-military solution to the threat of sanctions in the Security Council to participate. " In the fighting between government troops and rebels were in Daraa on Saturday, according to activists and even a family of ten women and three children killed. Dozens were injured, it said. Opposition further reported that all mobile calls are disconnected after Daraa. In the province of Homs, according to activists were twelve people in the artillery fire of the government troops were killed. Two soldiers died in Andan therefore also in the northern province of Aleppo. On Friday, were, according to the local coordination committees across the country came more than 50 people lost their lives fighting. Meanwhile, UN observers have begun to investigate the massacre in the village of Al-Kobeir in the province of Hama. The 25-member team arrived there on Friday after a first failed attempt was the day before. In Al-Kobeir on Wednesday, more than 80 people have been killed. After opposition, the information people were bludgeoned and slashed with knives. "We have seen that several houses were destroyed by fire," said Sausan Ghosbeh, a spokeswoman for the UN observers. "Other houses were burned down in it with charred bodies." The village was "almost deserted".