LIBYA - The Day After

Last Barking of an Ugly Dog



كلمة مسجلة للعقيد الليبي معمر القذافي تنقلها قناتا العروبة و الرأي
"Recorded speech from Libya's Colonel Muamar Gadafi passing by [TV] channel Al-Aruba and Al-Rai."



Above: The man in charge of a planned embassy bombing in Tunis and that should be directed against members of the Arab League.



Above: Mahmoud Jibril, president of the National Transitional Council NTC of Libya, holding a speech considered to be important after the victorious end of siege of the Gadafi compound in Tripolis:
جبريل يثمن دور دولة قطر خلال الأشهر الستة الماضية و يشكر الدور الذي قامت به دولة الإمارات
"Jibril appreciates the role the state of Qatar [was playing] during the six passed months and is grateful to the part the [United] Emirates had taken."



Above: Tribal areas of Libya, each area shown in a different color. Some tribes in the Southern regions are still in favor of Gadafi's regime.

الرئيس الروسي يرى أن في ليبيا سلطتين و يدعوهما إلى التحاور
"The Russian president remarks that there are two powers in Libya and calls them to enter into a dialogue."

News Summary on latest events in Tripolis:

LIBYA - Gadafi Compound Invaded

Breaking news of the hour: Rebels just took over Col. Gadafi's heavily embattled home at Bab Aziziya in Tripolis. Scenes of celebration on the compound.





كاميرا الجزيرة داخل "بيت الصمود" حيث منزل القذافي في باب العزيزية
A camera of Al-Jazeera entered the "House of Determination", the residence of Gadafi at Bab Al-Aziziya.



عبد الحكيم بلحاج
رئيس المجلس العسكري لثوار طرابلس
Abad al-Hakim Balakhaadj, presiding the military council for the rebel [forces] of Tripolis.



قائد قوات الثواق بطرابلس: 90% من باب العزيزية مؤمن تماما
The leader of rebel forces in Tripolis [said]: 90% of Bab Al-Aziziya are entirely secured.
قائد قوات الثوار بطرابلس: هجمنا على باب العزيزية من 4 محاور و انهارت دفاعاته فجاة
The leader of rebel forces in Tripolis [added]: Our attack on Bab Al-Aziziya [was directed along] 4 axes and proceeded as a sudden eruption.

LIBYA - Street War in Tripolis

Here is a series of images that describe the current situation in Tripolis:

- Smoke over the Gadafi compound after intensive shelling.



- Map of the vast Gadafi compound near Bab Aziziya, including housing for the Gadafi family and government members, bunkers etc..



- Map of Rixos hotel near the Gadafi compound and where many international journalists are being trapped at the moment. Matthew Chance, senior international correspondent for CNN reports:"I am in my hotel room, lying on my belly to avoid being hit by shelling."




- Scenes of extensive shelling as shown by Al-Jazeera.



- An Al-Jazeera correspondent trying to transmit his report.



- Civilians fleeing urban warfare.



Additional remarks:
This morning, after I made a short update based on material provided by Al-Jazeera, it came to my attention that Saif al-Islam Gadafi and his brother Mohammed managed to escape from rebel custody. Saif al-Islam, the more dangerous one, even took a "ride of triumph" through the tiny area held by loyal troops. Eager to get more information, I tried Al-Jazeera and CNN, but both TV stations seemed to have other problems than to report on the news of yesterday. I point this out in order to give my visitors an idea how fast things are changing now in Tripolis and how fast priorities might change as well in a fierce urban warfare.

LIBYA - The Fall of Tripolis

UPDATE August 23, Morning News:

اشتباكات متقطعة بين الثوار و كتائب تابعة للقذافي في بعض جيوب المقاومة في طرابلس
Occasional confrontations between rebels and units of Gadafi followers in certain pockets of resistance in Tripolis.

الثوار ينصبون حواجز تفتيش في طرابلس لمنع أي خرق أمني في ظل وجود بعض جيوب المقاومة
Rebels are installing fortified checkpoints in Tripolis to avoid any security breach in the shadow of such existing pockets of resistance.

مضادات النيتو تسقط صاروخ سكود أطلقته كتائب القذافي من مدينة سرت الليبية
Gadafi units in the town of Sirt al-Libia launched a Skud missile directed against Nato [forces].

---

The Fall of Tripolis

سقوط طرابلس

Rebels at Bab Aziziya in Tripolis last night. The ancient fortress
became only recently known when Gadafi held his most militant
and often quoted speech there at the beginning of the uprising.
Nevertheless, the nearby complex where Gadafi's living quarters
are being expected, is still under control of government troops.
Moreover, heavily armed loyalist troops are being expected
heading for the area. The Arabic subtitle on the above picture
is reading:
"[News agency] Reuters referring to sources from among the
rebels: High death scores of rebels during battles with Gadafi
units in Tripolis."



This morning, both, Al-Jazeera and CNN reported about
the capture of three Gadafi sons, including Saif Al-Islam
(left side of above picture), recently referred to as the
"de facto prime minister of Libya". Another one, Mohammed
Gadafi (right side) and who has been rather less involved
in politics, managed to phone Al-Jazeera TV at the time
when rebels stormed into his home. Any pictures that might
have been taken during or immediately after the arrests
have not been released by the rebels up to now (i.e.
12:00 am GMT).

As to Colonel Muammar Gadafi himself, his whereabouts
are still being unknown. There are rumours that his camp
might negotiate with African states, especially with South
Africa, to find asylum there, but this has not been confirmed
by any side.

LIBYA - Latest News

UPDATE August 21:

Rebels On the Way to Tripolis

الثوار في الطريق إلى طرابلس

سيطرة جزئية للثوار بطرابلس
Local domination of protesters in Tripolis

مراسل الجزيرة: الثوار الليبيون يعلنون أنهم وصلوا إلى الساحة الخضراء في وسط طرابلس
According to a correspondent of Al-Jazeera, Libyan rebels declare they have reached Green Square in the center of Tripolis.
[Editor's remark: Since, Green Square has been renamed into Martyr's Square.]

ثوار ليبيا يدخلون قاعدة معيتيقة و يشتبكون مع كتائب القذافي المتحصنة فيها
Libyan rebels are entering the [air]base of [Maeitika] and are meeting with Gadafi units that are barricaded there. [Refer to the above image!]

---

مراسل الجزيرة نقلا عن الثوار: بدء عملية تحرير طرابلس بانتفاضة من داخل العاصمة
A correspondent of Al-Jazeera reported from the rebels: Beginning of an operation for the liberation of Tripolis with an uprising from within the capital. [Al-Jazeera, Arabic Service - Late Evening News]



الثوار الليبيون ينسحبون من المنطقة الصناعية في البريقة بعد يوم من السيطرة عليها
Libyan rebels retreat from the region of al-Sanayia in Brega the day after they got control of it.

The oil refinery of Brega has been taken over by rebel units.

Gadafi's hometown of Sirte is still in the hands of government troops. Rebels are trying to cut off their supply line into Sirte.

While parts of al-Zaouiya are still under fire, rebels encircled Gadafi troops near the Tunisian border. Official Tunisian sources reported a movement of unidentified Libyan units on Tunisian territory.

Most important victory of the day is the fall of Zlitan township into the hands of the rebels. Zlitan (shown as a highlighted point at the right side of the map) is situated at the coastal road to Tripolis.

Source: Al-Jazeera, Arabic Service

LIBYA - Chinese Military Analysis

The following text has been extracted from a review written by an editor of Beijing's People's Daily Newspaper (online edition), a semi-official source of PR China. As Chinese commentators are usually competent and well informed when it comes to the development of a military conflict abroad, it is worth to consider what they are saying. Therefore, I chose some characteristic quotations from the Chinese article and made a translation. In order to facilitate reading, I added three own subtitles:

利比亚首都遭战略包围卡扎菲政权或挺不过8月底？
The Libyan capital is suffering from a strategy of besieging
the Gadafi regime. Can it resist until the end of August ?



U.S. and Russian position in the battle for Libya

　连日来，利比亚反对派不断推进的反攻，似乎也令西方看到了某种希望。
For some days, the counterattack of the Libyan opposition, while continuously pressing forward, seemingly led the West to foster certain hopes.

美国白宫新闻发言人杰伊15日坦言：“越来越清楚的一点是，卡扎菲政权（的倒台）指日可待。”多名美国官员也表示，现在完全有理由相信，利比亚反对派武装“肯定有能力控制全国”。
A press spokesman [...] for the U.S. White House admitted: " One point becomes steadily clearer: The ouster of Gadafi's regime will mark a longed-for day. " (*) Many U.S. officials express [their opinion] that now all those are right who initially believed that arming the Libyan opposition [gave them]" without any doubt the ability to get the whole country under control ".
(*) = A more common word construction than 可待 uses the Chinese character 苛 instead of 可 which represents the same syllable. If the original character was replaced, the phrase would change its meaning to:
"(The ouster of) Gadafi's regime will mark a day of rigorous treatment."

最让国际社会感到意外的是，原本支持卡扎菲的俄罗斯也突然转变立场。俄罗斯总统新闻局12日表示，俄总统梅德韦杰夫已签署总统令，落实联合国安理会第1973号决议，全面禁止与利比亚的空中交通，冻结利比亚领导人卡扎菲亲属及亲信的资产，并禁止其中部分人员进入俄罗斯境内。
Namely the international community felt the unexpected when Russia ( that was originally supporting Gadafi ) suddenly changed its position. On [August] 12, the Russian president's press office declared that Russian president Medvedyev just signed a presidential order to carry out UN Security Council's resolution No. 1973 dealing with a total inhibition of air traffic over Libya, the freezing of assets from Libya's leader Gadafi, his family, his relatives and his nearest followers and, furthermore, the prohibition of entrance into Russia's territory for the mentioned persons.

Gadafi's military position and the resulting consequences

The following is a quotation of two U.S. officials' evaluation after the failed launch of a Scud missile at rebel positions in the oil port of Brega:
… 还是标志着战争进入新阶段。因为这枚“飞毛腿”导弹的射程达800公里，“说明卡扎菲手中可能还有些存货，甚至还有生化武器”。
... [The use of a Scud missile] can mark as well the war entering into a new phase. Because of the Scud missile's range of fire amounting to 800 km, " it is clear that Gadafi possibly holds in his hand as well further 'goods in stock', even comprising biological and chemical weapons."

除了导弹威胁外，即便利比亚反对派武装兵临的黎波里城下，这些训练不足的武装人员要想以巷战的方式拿下首都，还得付出相当的生命与时间代价。
The missile threat left beside: Even if armed soldiers of the Libyan opposition are getting close to Tripolis, these insufficiently trained fighters have to consider the art of street fighting in order to take over the capital. They have to deliver the corresponding amount of lives according to the 'cost' [i.e. death toll] per time unit.

有消息称，由卡扎菲儿子亲自指挥的近卫部队眼下已全面收缩到的黎波里城内，如果再加上忠于卡扎菲的民众，那么，双方在首都的武力争夺前景将不容乐观。
News are saying that those Special Guards, personally commanded by Gadafi's son, are retreating from all sides into Tripolis, just under [his] eyes. If then such masses loyal to Gadafi are increasing even more to [an enormous] extent, both sides in the capital's militant fighting must not [be guided by] an optimistic view.

此外，西方国家与利比亚反对派武装之间松散的作战协作也是一个大考验。分析人士指出，一旦交战双方开始近距离的地面厮杀，那么，拥有空中力量的北约反而失去了技术与军事优势，只能坐等双方地面战的结果。
Furthermore, the arming of Libya's opposition, a rather slack way of waging war and cooperating, is also some kind of a testing procedure. Analysts are pointing out that once war has started between two parties as a short distance and earth-bound man-to-man fighting to such an extent, then NATO [forces] with all their power [to control] airspace, nevertheless will lose technical equipment [in an effort to achieve] military predominance. All they can do is to sit and wait for the outcome of both parties' ground war.

Libya under the influence of Al-Qaeda

更让国际社会担心的是，“基地”组织北非分支最新发布的录像和其他宣传资料显示，利比亚战争和其他“阿拉伯之春”已经让该组织找到了“扩大地盘，加强影响力”的基础，利比亚及其邻国都已开始出现“基地”组织成员的身影。
What is worrying Western societies even more are those recently propagated videos and other propaganda material from the North African branch of Al-Qaeda organization, demonstrating [one fact]: The Libyan war and other [manifestations] of the "Arabic Spring" are already urging the organization to search for a [tactical] base to "increase its domain and strengthen its influential power". In Libya and its neighbouring states the shadow of Al-Qaeda and its members already emerged.

Link to the original source, published on August 17, 2011.

LIBYA - Rebels on the Road to Victory

ثوار ليبيا يصعدون هجماتهم في البريقة و الزاوية و انتشار أمني مكثف لقوات القذافي في طرابلس
Libyan rebels intensify their assaults in Brega and al-Zaouiya and deployment of intense security [measures] among Gadafi forces in Tripolis. [Al-JAZEERA]


利比亚首都遭战略包围 卡扎菲政权或挺不过8月底？
The Libyan capital is suffering from a strategy of besieging
the Gadafi regime. Can it resist until the end of August ?
[Question discussed by People's Daily - Online Edition (Renmin Wang)
on August 17, 2011, after recent proceedings of the Libyan rebels.]


Video and Map: Latest advances of the Rebel Army in Western Libya. The most important coastal road, linking Tripolis with Eastern Libya and the Tunisian border in the West, is now being blocked at Misrata in the East and al-Zaouiya in the West. Al-Jazeera, Arabic Service, on August 16, 2011.

=> Misrata

Map: The blue arrow in the map of Western Libya is pointing at the most probable position of the above traffic sign. The important coastal town of Misrata, now in the hands of the rebels like al-Zaouiya, is situated at the right side of the map but has not been included.
- Click to the maps for a better resolution ! -
For comparison, another map of North-Western Libya has been added and which is dating back to March 5, 2011. On this map, three places are marked by red stars as war zones where continuous military resistance against the Gadafi regime took place. These places are (from left to right) Sabrata, al-Zaouiya and Misrata. At that time, especially the people of Misrata suffered much hardship as their town had been shelled by Gadafi troops from both sides, i.e. from land and sea. NATO bombardment finally put an end to that shelling. The Southern parts of Western Libya were still under control of the regime. Some time later, the Rebel Army got access to the Tunisian border and established a badly needed line of supply for ammunition and material.



According to Egyptian sources, the Libyan deputy minister of the interior has arrived in Kairo together with all of his family. When questioned, Ibrahim Moussa, the speaker of Gadafi's government, denied the deputy minister might have fled his country saying instead that he recently suffered from too much stress and needed some time to come to terms with himself. [Different Sources]

U.S. Fears - Pakistan and China

Only some hours ago, German National TV - Channel 1 had the news that U.S. authorities accuse Pakistan of letting Chinese specialists take a closer look at the debris of one "Black Hawk" helicopter that crashed during the Bin-Laden operation in Abottabad. As the helicopter had been equipped with latest stealth technology, this seemed to be a good opportunity to spy on U.S. stealth research. It was even propagated that those Chinese experts took some material with them.

Now, there are two items to be distinguished. First are the individual construction features of the Black Hawk that surprised even some U.S. pilots who were trained on this type. "There are parts added, we never saw before", was their comment after photos of the helicopter's rear part had been published one day after the Bin-Laden operation. Now, this item of "stealth" technology might be related to sound absorption or better propelling performance and would present a real danger to U.S. defence security only then when a fully equipped and undamaged helicopter would fall into the hands of the Chinese. Even though there might be strong hints at what U.S. engineers are trying to achieve with all those additional rotors, it might turn out that Chinese engineers are having the same on their minds. Such, there should be no practical benefit to the Chinese at all, even if they carried away all the undestroyed parts of the Black Hawk but which was not the case as far as we know.



The second item might be more serious as it concerns real state of the art technology. Some debris of the helicopter's outer coating might lead Chinese scientists to the strategy, U.S. stealth research is trying to reach its goal. As there is more than one way to approach this goal of rejecting treacherous electromagnetic emission from all kinds of sophisticated military equipment by using metamaterial coatings, the Chinese might get some basic information. Nevertheless, they would be unable to "rebuild" that kind of metamaterial within a reasonable time without knowing how to exactly proceed. In fact, material design and production technology seem to be a very complicated subject which requires much more information than a smaller or greater piece of stealth coating could ever provide. Even more, stealth technology is steadily being developed for any kind of electromagnetic radiation and steadily making progress which makes it even harder for any spy to deliver reliable information that remains up to date long enough while the next series of U.S. stealth fighters is already being planned.

By the way, it should be remembered that in January 2011, a 66-year old U.S. engineer of Indian extraction already became known for having sold U.S. stealth technology for the B-2 bomber to the Chinese and being rewarded by them with 110.000 U.S. dollars hard cash. In comparison to such kind of scandal, the Abottabad proceedings are only of minor importance. All they are showing is an increasing tension between U.S. and Pakistani authorities and a steady mistrust towards Chinese efforts to modernize their armed forces. Even the restoration of an old Soviet aircraft carrier for the Chinese navy is feeding that mistrust. Of course, China is a potential competitor to the U.S. that should be counted with, but all those huge military budgets that served U.S. administrations since the decay of the Soviet Union have taught Chinese leaders to fear U.S. military power and incited them to put some of their extra money from China's booming economy into their own military projects.

Financial Markets - No Black Monday Yet

Latest UPDATE further down !

Far Eastern markets still sliding, but no "Black Monday" in sight. First reports from Asia after the opening of stock markets in Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney on Monday morning, August 8, 2011, 01:00 GMT, after a turbulent week characterized by U.S. debt crisis and European rescue actions for Greece, Spain and Italy.



By the way, the Chinese got really sour about U.S. handling of their own debt crisis, which can be understood in the frame of China's vast storage of U.S. treasury bonds. After the downgrading of U.S. rating, such papers naturally lost value.



UPDATE on August 8, 20:00 GMT:



In the frame of a dramatic decay of German DAX values during the last days and hours, BMW lost 8,8% and its competitor DAIMLER 7,1% compared to last week's stock market quotations. Even though, both German premium car manufacturers just presented another record of sound profits for the last year, they are now among such companies whose share prices are suffering most from the actual financial crisis. Share prices of Germany's giant producers of raw and processed chemicals as well as pharmaceuticals followed the trend. BASF lost 5,6% and BAYER 4,1% of their share prices. Clients are obviously selling all those premium values out of an uncertainty about the efficiency of handling national debt problems in the U.S. and Europe by those politicians in charge of solving such problems and whose ability to perform adequately seems to be doubtful. Such fear and mistrust towards the political establishment has been increasing steadily.



In South Korea, as well, a sound economy is suffering from eruptions of the stock market due to the meanwhile global debt crisis. At the end of the day, it turned out that Japan, so much shaken by earthquake and tsunami and severely hit by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, remained the sad "winner" among all those "losers" of the actual crisis.

U.S. Debt Crisis - View from China

Comment on the U.S. debt crisis by Tan Ya Ling, director of the
Chinese Institute of Research on Foreign Currency Investment.
The author seems to be, as well, a high-ranking analyst within
the Bank of China.谭雅玲—中国外汇投资研究院院长

The title of his article, published on the internet platform of
China's semi-official paper People's Daily is as follows:

美债背后的“阳谋“:彻底打垮欧元确保美一国独霸
The "strategy" behind U.S. debt: Completely smash the Euro,
thus assuring America's predominant position.

Here are some quotations from the article that demonstrate the
author's evaluation of U.S. financial politics. As such high-grade
expert opinion on crucial national matters like foreign currency
investment and foreign nation's debt rating cannot be realized
without the silent approval of the author's superiors, i.e. Chinese
government circles, the following theses of his should be considered
as semi-official.

美危机的核心是美国利益
The crucial point of the U.S. crisis is America's benefit.

美国国家利益的核心在于美元霸权
The core of America's national benefit depends on the U.S. dollar's
predominant position.

欧美债务危机具有本质上的差别
The European and the U.S. debt crises possess a different character.

美债危机的实质是确保美元霸权、美国霸权
The intrinsic character of the U.S. debt crisis is to assure, both,
the U.S. dollar's predominant position and America's hegemony.

According to the author, it is therefore necessary to think over all
aspects of the U.S. debt crisis:

历史上美债问题有惊无险，最终结果的基点在于美国非常独特的国家资质以及美元非常强势的霸权地位。自1960年以来，美国曾经78次提高债务上限，并且都是在最后一刻完成，本次美国两党很可能复制之前的表演惯例和经验之见，美国不会自己打自己的脸，在利益博弈之后最终将会达成妥协以提高债务上限，这种可能性较大，只是方式和步骤的落实问题。因此，美国党派、国会之争并不会动摇美国国家战略，最终将回归美国国家利益需要。

During its history, the subject of U.S. debt has frightened, yet not
endangered. The crucial point of the latest outcome can be related
to America's extremely marked national predisposition as well as
the U.S. dollar's extremely powerful and predominant position.

Since 1960, the U.S.A. have already raised the upper limit of debt
for 78 times, furthermore, each case brought to an end in just a
moment. This time, both U.S. parties will most possibly demonstrate
a view of [established] practice and experience, as America doesn't
know that facade of " everyone beating himself ". After the [time
of] abundance, [they would] finally know how to reach a compromise
in order to raise the debt ceiling. The possibility for that being
relatively great, it remains but a question of procedures and [single]
steps to solve that problem.

Therefore, no controversy within America's political parties and the
Congress could ever shake America's national strategy. In the end,
it would return to America's national benefits and needs.

A PDF file of the cited website has been added in order to enable
interested readers to get access to the original text in Chinese.
All translations on this blogspot have been realized by Ulysses
(W.W.).

U.S. Debt Crisis - Debt Failure Avoided

Just happened on Capitol Hill / Washington DC:
After days of tough bargaining between Democrats and Republicans, House Speaker Boehner could finally present a debt plan that should avoid U.S. debt failure and global financial unrest. Even though considered as a "Sugar Coated Satan Sandwich" (Democratic Congressman Cleaver from Missouri), this deal will bring temporary relief to U.S. economy and help the Obama administration to carry on. As cuts to the social system are preferred to tax raises by the deal, many Democratic voters hesitated up to the last minutes of the vote to support it. The above picture shows the moment when members of the House acclaimed the reaching of a crucial number of votes. The final results are shown on the picture below.



Below the intrinsic consequences of the debt ceiling deal:



The following video is showing opinion statements on the subject shortly before the voting began. The essential role of the Republicans and their "allies" from the conservative Tea Party Movement:

U.S. Debt Crisis - Story in Pictures

Possible consequences of the debt crisis
if U.S. debt failure occurs on August 2.


Senate commission finalled reached a deal that
still remains to be voted on by both chambers of
the U.S. Senate.


Obama soothing not only Chinese creditors.
Even though military expenses are to be cut,
U.S. tax rates should remain unchanged.


Actual unemployment and economic growth.

Jordan Uprising

حديث الثورة
Subject of today's "Revolution Talk" on Al-Jazeera, Arabic channel,
are the latest events in Jordan:

آلاف المتظاهرين في مناطق من الأردن يخرجون في مسيرات سلمية تحت عنوان جمعة القسم
Thousands of supporters in the districts of Jordan [take to the streets
joining] peaceful marches on the occasion of the Friday prayers.

هتافات المتظاهرين في مسيرات جمعة القسم تطالب بإصلاح النظام و العدالة الإجتماعية
[Participants] on their marches of the Friday prayers acclaiming
the demands of a reformation of the regime and social justice.

المتظاهرون في مسيرات "جمعة القسم" يرفضون التعديلات الدستورية و يطالبون بدستور ديمقراطي
The supporters on the Friday prayers' marches reject modifications to
the [present] constitution and demand a [new] democratic constitution.

المتظاهرون أدوا قسما تعهدوا فيه بمواصلة حراكهم السلمي إلى حين تحقيق الإصلاح
The supporters swear to commit themselves to the continuation
of their peaceful movement until reforms are realized.



Above picture: Participants of today's "Revolution Talk"
- Amir Abu Rasae (left), coordinator of relations within the Coordination
of Youth Movements in Jordan.
- Hani al-Durani (right), director of the New Jordanian Center of Studies.

JAPAN - New Earthquake and Tsunami Warning

Tonight, an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude hit the north-eastern part of Japan, same region as effected by the Fukushima disaster. The shaking of the earth could be noticed even in Tokyo. There is danger of a Tsunami to arrive at the eastern coast of Japan's main island. Reported by CNN.

2011 - The World in Space

UPDATE: Atlantis lift-off on July 8, 11:30 local time.


U.S. space agency NASA announce their last space shuttle mission to take place on Friday this week. Space shuttle Atlantis will then take off for the final mission.

The United States, once leading in space research, are now being challenged by other countries, once regarded as rather poor developing nations. Here are the space contenders to the U.S.:

Russia $ 3.8 Billion Budget. / Responsible for 40% of all actual space launches. / Now in control of International Space Station ISS.

China $ 2 Billion Budget. / Carried out a manned space mission in 2003. / Plannings: Chinese Space Station, 2025 Man on Moon.

India $ 1.45 Billion Budget. / Carried out a Moon Mission in 2008. / Plannings: 2016 Man on Moon.


Brazil in Space


Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes (left) who took part in a mission to the International Space Station ISS in 2006, together with his Russian and U.S. colleagues whom he accompanied on a Russian spacecraft. Pontes came from a very poor Brazilian worker's family and had already to work at the age of 14. Now, he's a national hero.



China on its Way to Mars


"Mars - We are steadily getting closer".

Below: A shortcut of the actual Chinese Mars project, using the homebuilt "Glowworm" measuring device. The Glowworm project makes part of an international programm, called Mars 500. On some of the planned missions from 2011 to 2018, China and Russia are working together. [Click to the below picture for a better resolution of the Chinese text.]




Frozen Ocean on Mars - recorded by ESA's device "Mars Express".

SYRIA - Political Unrest and Economic Decay

الاقتصاد و السياسة في سوريا
Economy and Politics in Syria

After weeks of political uprising, accompanied by repeated military crackdown on protesters and waves of immigration into Turkey and Lebanon, the people of Syria will have to recognize that their country's economy, as well, is driving from bad to worse. Here some news from the Arabic service of Al-Jazeera TV.


رؤية الحكومة للوضع الاقتصادي
Reflection(s) of the Government on the Economic Situation:

سوريا غنية جدا و الحكومة تحاول تعبئة موارد الدولة
Syria is very rich and the government tries to mobilize national resources.

ما أشيع عن تهاوي الصادرات بنسب تفوق 40% أقوال تنطوي على مبالغات
It is unsatisfactory that the decline of exports is related to a predicted increase of 40% which is [already much] exaggerated.

---

مؤشرات سلبية
Negative Indicators:

صندوق النقد يتوقع انكماش معدل نمو الاقتصاد السورية إلى %3
The [international] monetary fund has predicted an overall reduction of economic growth of 3%.

يعني هذا الانكماش تسريح مئات الالاف من وظائفهم
In other words, that shrinking [of economy] will set free hundreds of thousands [of employees] from their jobs.

كما يعني ذلك الأمر تراجع القدرات الشرائية للمواطنية السوريين
That means, as well, it is in fact a regression of spending power within the Syrian population.