Japanese Robots to Build Station for Human on Moon by 2020

Japan has developed a strategy of the national space mission. The new strategy stipulates the landing of robots on the Moon by 2020. The robots will build an unmanned station on the south pole of Earth’s satellite. The station will be functioning automatically to generate power for equipment. A wheeled rover is to land on the Moon already in 2015.

Japan ’s Yomiuri newspaper wrote that the total amount of investments in the lunar project was evaluated at 200 billion yens ($2.2 billion). Japan had to considerably cut the budget of the program because of the financial crisis.

The program to explore the lunar surface is divided into two parts. A wheeled rover equipped with a seismograph will be launched to the moon before 2015. The rover will analyze the inner structure of the moon and will transmit image and video files to Earth.

The lunar base will be built and equipped during the next five years. The base will allow to supervise a group of lunar robots within the radius of 100 kilometers.

The construction of Japan’s first base on the moon will mark a new step on the way to new technologies in the field of space exploration.

Japanese scientists said that the robotic devices would be able to generate electric power autonomously.

The previous government of Japan with Taro Aso at the head actively discussed the lunar exploration program. However, the appearance of the new administration in the United States made Japan pay more attention to the exploration of Mars and smaller planets. The Japanese administration has changed too, but the new government of the nation still considers the strategy of the lunar exploration a priority.

It is worthy of note that India and China have recently been promoting their own programs of space exploration too. Therefore, Japan tries to keep leadership in the field of peaceful exploration of Earth’s satellite.

Viktor Kirichenko of Russia’s Institute for Robotic Science and Engineering Cybernetics said in an interview with Pravda.Ru that the robotic exploration of the solar system planets and the Moon was one of the top priorities in the development of space robotic science.

“The goals, which can be achieved in this direction, can be divided in three groups. The first one is connected with autonomous surface research robots. Such robots will provide information about the structure of the surface of a celestial body, the availability of mineral resources, climate conditions and other natural factors which can be very important for would-be manned missions.

“The robots will act like reconnaissance men who will help humans understand the nature of a planet. The second group is the robots designed to create and maintain objects of on-planet infrastructure. Mobile robotic devices equipped with mechanic arms and visual facilities will be able to conduct a whole range of works to build power-generating stations complete with communication and life support systems for humans an many other things.

“The third group is helper robots who will deal with routine operations to maintain the planetary base and provide everything else that humans may need there,” the scientist said.

Turkey's Gandhi' to lead main center-left opposition party

A man dubbed Turkey's Gandhi' is set to be come the leader of the country's opposition people's Republic Party (CHP) after the resignation of the center-left party's longstanding leader.


The new leader of the Turkey's main opposition is being heralded by much of the media as the Turkish 'Gandhi' Kemel Kiliacdaroglu earned his nickedname because of his slight frame and mild demeanor and tendency to reject ostentation. His election is being heralded as a potential earthquake in Turkish politics.

Sixty-one year-old Kiliacdaroglu was elected leader of the center-left Republican People's party(CHP) with a massive majority. In his first speech Kiliacdaroglu promised to bring his party back to its roots.

"We will fight corruption in a real sense and bring injustice to an end" Kiliacdaroglu said. "We will combat unemployment and poverty from the very begining."

Kemel Kiliacdaroglu's background, too, is very different for turkey politics. He is an Aleui-which means he is a member of a progressive Islamic sect which is often discriminated against by orthodox Muslims in Turkey. He also comes from a predominantly Kurdish region of the country.

In his first speech the committed his party to reducing the ten percent electoral threshold which effectively bars kurdish regional parties from gaining entry in parliament.

Kemel Kiliacdaroglu also has a humble reputation, dressing modestly and preferring public transport to chauffeur-driven limousines. And crueially, in a country continually hit by corruption scandals, he has made his political name exposing high-level government graft, forcing two senior resignations from the ruling justice and development Party(AKP).

NATIONAL ELECTION

An opinion poll published last week suggested that Kiliacdaroglu's appointment would attract more votes. With national elections due next year the ruling A K Party is facing its first serious contender since it came to power eight years ago. Turkish media say that's good for democracy.

It remarks unclear whether Kiliacdaroglu can maintain his political momentum, and critics point out he has given few policy details. Moreover, his quite demeanor could mean he'll wither in the cut and thrust of Turkish politics. But with just over a year to go to general elections, he has a momentum and has given belief back to his party, on which has been out of power for more than 3 decades.

UFOs Start to Appear in Moscow on Regular Basis

Lately, Russian media has been reporting on unidentified flying objects seen in Moscow skies. Recently a video was posted online showing a huge triangle 1.5 km wide soaring above the Moscow Kremlin. It was sitting above Red Square and shot by amateurs twice.

The video was widely discussed in foreign communities interested in ufology. According to a former UFO analyst of the British Defense Ministry, this is the most bizarre and unusual video of a UFO he has ever seen.
On October 7, 2009 a strange round cloud resembling a saucer was shot above Moscow Ring Road. At first it was noticed above Leninsky Prospect metro station, which is in downtown Moscow.
According to employees of the independent group “Heritage,” the object probably wanted to provide encoded information that Earth is threatened by asteroids. On October 27, two days after the researchers presented at the 14th Ufology Conference, the media, referring to NASA, released belated information about a meteorite explosion above Sulawesi Island.
In the evening of December 21, 2009, a reporter of Komsomolskaya Pravda who was shooting the panorama of Red Square unexpectedly shot something that looked like a stick with six wings. He did not see anything while he was shooting and only saw it on his pictures, as it often happens with UFOs.
The “hero” of the shoot was identified by the chair of Ufology committee with the Russian Geographical society Michael Gernstein. “This is a skyfish, flying rod, or solar entitiy. Ufology websites are filled with similar pictures.”
Some hot heads stated that these are live beings unknown to science. Others think these are creatures that came from plasma world inhibited by souls and ghosts.
UFOs above Moscow are not a frequent event, but not exclusive one either. In winter of 1584, a cross-shaped object with a lit up bubble in the center was seen in Moscow sky in day light.
Ivan the Terrible, who was then the Tsar, came outside as soon as he heard about it to “see the miracle with his own eyes.” The witnesses said he watched it for a while and then said, his face pale, that it was a sign of his death. It was indeed his last year.
Fireballs are also frequently seen in downtown Moscow. On August 5, 1977, three fireballs were seen. One came down on Ivanovskaya square, another one disappeared in Tainitsky garden, and the third one flew into the Archangelsk cathedral.
It moved along an S-shaped trajectory because the entrance to the cathedral consists of two pairs of doors. From the entrance the fireball moved to the altar, banged against the Tsar gates and exploded. A black spot remained on the altar from the explosion. It is hard to believe that this was an accident.
Some scientists believe such phenomena to be signs of the future. But what do they indicate? Some extraordinary future events? Or, maybe, aliens are trying to tell us that they support us in tough times? We shall see.

China: Sri Lanka's 'unconditional' ally

China's influence in Sri Lanka has increased immensely in recent years. The East Asian nation has not only become one of Sri Lanka's key trade partners and a major military ally, but it has helped the South Asian country counter Western pressure on issues such as human rights.

It has been a year since Sri Lanka's army secured victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels or LTTE and the decades' old civil war came to an end. This wouldn't have become possible without the support of Sri Lanka's key ally China, many in the South Asian nation think.
"China helped the Sri Lankan state immensely with the war with the LTTE when the Sri Lankan government needed assistance in terms of weapons and ammunition etc," says SI Keethaponcalan, an expert from the University of Colombo.

Diplomatic support 

The People's Republic's support came on the diplomatic front as well. When the West sharply criticized the Sri Lankan government's handling of the conflict, particularly the final stages of the war, and the US stopped its military aid over human rights issues, Beijing threw its weight behind Colombo by blocking a resolution censuring Sri Lanka at the UN Security Council. After that the relations between the two traditional allies strengthened further.

Experts say the basis for the close bilateral ties between the two sides is the fact that China’s support to Sri Lanka is unconditional. "Unlike the Western countries and organizations which impose conditions when they give us aid, whether it is the World Bank or IMF or bilateral aid, the Chinese have been giving us aid without asking questions," says Kalyananda Godage, a former Sri Lankan ambassador to the EU.

 Countering India

 Another major reason why Sri Lanka values this relationship is that China acts as a counterweight to its long-term ally India, says Jehan Perera, the executive director of the National Peace Council, a civil rights body in Colombo:

 "India has had a major impact on Sri Lanka and has pressurized Sri Lanka in various ways in the past. So Sri Lanka would like to have a counterweight of equal size and stature to India to balance it off," says Perera.

 Growing Chinese investment

With almost $1 billion in development aid, Beijing surpassed Tokyo as Colombo's largest foreign donor last year.

The Chinese are also building a massive port worth almost a billion US dollars in Hambantota on Sri Lanka's southeastern coast. Some Western media have reported that China would like to use it as a naval base. But the Sri Lankan government has insisted that the purpose of the port is purely commercial.

 "China has a huge navy. It is now an emerging superpower and its trade is huge with the West. China needs energy supplies from the Middle East. And all of this passes via Sri Lanka because of our location in the Indian Ocean. So that has become very important," says former diplomat Godage.

 Exciting market

 The emerging superpower has also become an increasingly important trading partner for the Sri Lankans. Gems, jewelry, tea and natural rubber are areas where Colombo sees potential for the bilateral trade to grow further.

 "It is a market that is going to mature," says Shezard Careem, one of the leading gem traders in Colombo. "It is tremendously wealthy and a luxury market as well. It provides a whole gamut of opportunities."

 Human rights: an 'internal issue'

 While China and its western partners have differences over issues such as human rights in China, many in Sri Lanka consider this as China's internal matter.

 "We are not going to be concerned about China's human rights record, they can look after that," says Godage. "We are interested in a good mutually beneficial relationship which also looks after our security, economic and political interests. So we are very happy with our relationship with China."

 The urge to not to lose or upset this 'valuable' partner is so huge that Sri Lanka, a predominantly Buddhist country, even stopped two of its cricket players from meeting the Dalai Lama in India recently.

Pakistan and China - unlikely friends

China is quite possibly the closest international ally of Pakistan. Defense cooperation in particular has a long history. Most Western experts are convinced that even Pakistan's nuclear bomb is based on Chinese designs.

China and Pakistan are unlikely partners. A communist country with a deep suspicion of religion, and a staunchly Islamic Republic, which at the same time is a multi-party democracy, don't seem to make an ideal match - and they wouldn't, were it not for a shared distrust of their common neighbor, India. Former Pakistani Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad explains the special relationship with China in this way:

"I think it's the geopolitics of the region and common interests because of geopolitics. It is, essentially, the mutuality of benefits and the commonality of interests. There is no emotion involved. I don't think in international politics, there is any emotion."

Disappointed with the West

However, when many in Pakistan's foreign policy circles start talking about international relations, they can become very emotional. That is when they talk about Pakistan's disillusionment with the West, who left the region alone after the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan; left it alone with scores of fundamentalist militants groomed by the West, only to return suddenly after 9/11, demanding Pakistan eliminate militancy. Now again, the West is pouring a lot of money into the country, but only a tiny corrupt elite benefits from this, says Shamshad Ahmad. Now, compare that with China:

"They did not ask us to fight any war. They did not use us for any purpose. And the people here know China only by the symbols of well-being that they have erected in our country. You know, whatever assistance they gave to Pakistan has benefited directly the people. They have built projects like the Karakoram Highway, which provides a linkage between Pakistan and China itself, but it has helped the people of Pakistan in terms of trade and interaction."

There is a long list of similar projects that combine a certain strategic value with tangible benefits for millions of Pakistanis - from nuclear power plants to the new deep-water sea port at Gwadar.

Trade can be tricky

And of course, there are the Chinese goods that have swamped the markets in Pakistan just as anywhere else.

They are a tough competition for Pakistani industrialists. And Sadiq-ur-Rehman Rana, a consultant who has been working with China for decades, has good experience with Chinese producers, but says handling the thousands of Chinese trade houses that dominate bilateral trade can be quite a challenge for a Pakistani trader:
"In China, there is no branded production. So the trade house doesn't tell him who is the manufacturer, and he signs the agreement, and then later on he is sent a low-tech item sometimes."

Pakistani businessman Almas Haider says, "there is a tremendous language barrier, which actually has to be somehow managed. Because whatever you are saying may be misunderstood and you might get a wrong thing from them."

China as a model

For Sadiq-ur-Rehman Rana, who studied Chinese in China in the 1970s, there is no language barrier. Like most Pakistanis, the consultant admires China's pace of development:

"I feel that in Pakistan also fast-paced; widespread industrialization is the solution for countering the fundamentalism. If we have this fast-paced and widespread industrialization in Pakistan, a lot of things can change. Minds can open up. I have seen China in the last days of the Cultural Revolution, the planned economy in 1974-76. But then, the commune system dissolved and the fast-paced industrialization made a big change of mindset. It's a different society!"

With China's cheap technology becoming more and more advanced, the mainly defense-related strategic alliance with Pakistan is becoming more broad-based. Although economic cooperation has its difficulties, more and more Pakistanis are interested in benefiting from China's growth.

A Bangladeshi-Chinese love affair

China’s importance is growing day by day in Bangladesh. It is emerging as Bangladesh’s largest trade and development partner. But it wasn't always that way.

It seems the people of Bangladesh no longer think of the negative role China played for the country in its War of Independence in 1971, when China supported Pakistan. Instead, they have accepted China as a great friend.
Imtiaz Ahmed is an analyst of international relations and a professor of Dhaka University. He says China's policy of not mixing politics with trade has helped the situation. He says today, people have forgotten about China's role in the 70s. "Now over the years, China has emerged as the largest trading partner of Bangladesh, it has surpassed even India for quite some years. And is heavily engaged in developing infrastructure, particularly bridges and highways. So I think there has been a radical transformation when it comes to Bangladesh and China's relationship in the last 30 to 35 years."
Tousia Islam is a student at Dhaka University and she is a great fan of China. She thinks China has a lot to offer Bangladeshi people. She says, "Chinese food is so popular here. The most popular thing of China I think is their electronics – they're very cheap and especially like mobile phones or mp3 players so popular in Bangladesh. I personally like one thing of China, that is  their social culture and their family bonding nature. Our country should have a more friendly relation with China because economically they are so developed, they are one of the biggest countries in the world and they are so friendly to all the neighboring countries."
China's image "very positive"
The Chinese have not only impressed the people of Bangladesh with their food and culture, but also with their advancements in science and technology. Young Bangladeshis want to learn from the Middle Kingdom and gain the same technical know-how. Journalist Arif Mahmud says these are the reasons China is welcome: "China has developed in science and technology in the world and especially in the Asia-Pacific region."
China and Bangladesh have come a long way since the 1970s. Now there is a Bangladesh-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bangladesh China Friendship Society promotes cultural exchange.
Shahjahan Mirdha is the head of both organizations. He praises the two countries' historic ties and says China has always been important for Bangladesh, which is why "all the prime ministers and presidents of Bangladesh paid official visits to China – even Bangladesh's founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Now 70 percent of our imports come from China. Not only that, but Chinese martial arts and dragon dances are now popular in Bangladesh as well."
The Bangladesh government seems keen to avoid tensions with China. Last year, a photo exhibition on Tibet in Dhaka was closed by the authorities after complaints by the Chinese embassy.

Why Don't They Publish Us?

From The Guardian and The New York Times to The Washington Post and Reuters, I've submitted several op-ed pieces and articles to the world's mainstream media outlets and newspapers over the past years. All of my submissions were responded identically: "Rejected"!

Intrinsically, it's an ambition of every journalist to reach out to a greater audience, achieve more exposure, make progress and improve his portfolio. Putting aside the primary motive of being renowned as a reference of public attention, the journalist aims to elevate his own viewpoint and advertise the way he looks into different matters as a precise and rectified account. The journalist is primarily looking for ways to exalt his own interpretation of stories and inculcate the reader a supposedly reliable, accurate analysis of a certain incident which is presumably "what he believes".

Thinking of methods to expand his coverage, journalist's principal purpose is to get in touch with the global audiences, instruct them on the basis of his own mindset, advocate a certain philosophy and denounce the other scopes of thought. This is actually how the journalist accomplishes his mission regardless of his ideological and reflective belongingness.

The inherent mission of a journalist is to enlighten the public opinions, help them distinguish the right from wrong and encourage the value of critical thinking. Although the journalism of 21st century has become an instrumental mechanism of disseminating falsehood, launching black propaganda and psychological warfare, the foremost responsibility of a journalist is to tell the truth even at the cost of his own defeat.

Anyway, I haven't come this long way to advocate the principles and fundamentals of journalism and sermonize about the basis of ethnic journalism; neither have I come to enumerate the responsibilities of a decent journalist and itemize his duties in respect of the public opinions. What I would like to discuss is the reasons why "they" don't publish "us". So who are these "they" and who are those "us"?

"They" are the chained, corporate media outlets whose interests are intertwined with together. "They" are the news networks, websites, magazines and journals who are afraid of the other side of story, so "they" prefer to withhold it from the public or distort it the other way.

"They" are the media outlets who are wise enough to recognize the difference between "nuclear energy" and "nuclear bomb", and that's why they use them interchangeably while translating the speeches of Iranian President.

"They" are the media outlets who are courteous and considerate enough to refer to the American President as President Obama and call the Iranian President "the hardliner".

"They" are the media outlets who feel free to run the most insulting and offensive cartoons about the Prophet of Islam whom some 1.5 billion people around the world venerate and glorify, because the "freedom of speech" allows them to do so. Interestingly, the same "freedom of speech" disallows them to publish a cartoon questioning the veracity of holocaust or an interview with a German political prisoner who has been jailed for 7 years simply due to his "visa overstay"!

"They" are the media outlets who can ridicule a 70-million nation by calling them "terrorists" collectively. "They" are the media outlets who can equalize a divine religion with radical terrorism, simply because they're free to express whatever they think by the virtue of "freedom of expression". "They" are the media networks who can invite the government opponents in a Third World country to break out into the streets, vandalize the public properties and stage a color revolution, because they have the authority and influence to do so.

"They" are those who can disregard the massacre of 1300 Palestinians as "collateral damage" and conflate the vicious carnage of Gaza with Israel's right to self-defense. "They" are those who can't ever tolerate for Israel only five minutes of the disastrous incidents which the Palestinian people are undergoing.

"They" are those who are affluent enough to finance the Arab media outlets in the Middle East to drop the name "Persian" off the term "Persian Gulf" because they know that the magnificent civilization of Iran is interweaved with the honorable history of Persian Gulf and Iranians are sensitive about this.

So, who is this "us"? It is us, who can't turn a blind eye to the atrocities of a racist regime whose existence is hinged on killing, destroying and devastating. It's us, who can't keep silent, remain indifferent and unconcernedly tolerate the offensive massacre of Palestinian people in the most brutal way. It's us who can't digest the double standards of the hegemonic superpowers. Why should the United States who has dropped hundreds of nuclear bombs on the heads of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and seized the lives of millions of innocent people impose financial sanctions on Iran which is trying to develop nuclear energy for civilian purposes? What's the fault of millions of Iranian people who are in dire need of special types of medicine which should be imported from the European countries? It's us, who can't call these unilateral and crippling sanctions a respectful homage to the so-called virtue of human rights; if these medicines are not imported to the country, millions of "human beings" will be exposed to the risk of death; it's us who want to call the hegemonic powers to minimally respect the "human rights" which they've invented themselves.

It's "us", who don't classify people on the basis of their color, race, religion or nationality. We don't consider the black, impoverished Africans to be socially lower or less important than the sumptuous, well-off whites in the Northern Europe. We don't call the Muslims terrorist altogether simply because an irreligious, American-manufactured pawn named Osama Bin Laden carries out terrorist attacks all around the world. Who is unaware of the extensive relations between the families of George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden? Who can demonstrate that Bin Laden is a practicing Muslim? Who can demonstrate that he says prayers during the day and takes fast in the month of Ramadan? Who can rule out the possibility that Al-Qaeda is an American-funded group which is established to portray a brutal and inhuman image of the Muslims all around the world?

It's "us", who don't reiterate the obsolete threatening sentence of "all options are on the table". Unlike President Obama and his affiliated media outlets including, among others, Fox News and Voice of America we don't threaten any country of a nuclear strike and don't stage a propaganda project against any nation to demoralize them 24 hours a day.

There are countless differences between "they" and "us" and that's why they'll never publish something which is written by "us". The other side of story has to remain obscured and unrevealed routinely. It will not be a privilege for them to discuss something which is "out of context" or out of "popular interest", so it's not that much of a surprise to receive emails, telling us that "we receive many more submissions than we can publish; thank you this time, but we may regret that…"

In their eyes, our writings always contain a hoard of grammatical slips, factual errors, contextual deviations and whatever of the writing gaffes and inaccuracies you may visualize. That's why they don't publish us.