World News of Sunday 24 March 2013
NASA,ISRO relationship holds promise for future: Bolden
"It
is wonderful to see how the relationship between NASA ISRO has grown
and evolved, the agreements we have signed since this group last
convened, and the great promise our relationship holds for the future,"
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in his address to the fourth
US-India Civil Space Joint Working Group meeting on Thursday.
The
value of bilateral cooperation was well reflected, for instance,
through the inclusion of two NASA instruments on the successful
Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission, which led to significant discoveries about
lunar surface characteristics, he said.
"Earth
observation data and information yield a broad range of societal
benefits, and through cooperation between our agencies, we've embarked
on a number of collaborative activities in this area," Bolden said in
his address to the top officials from both the countries to discuss the
ways and means to take the collaboration between the two countries to
the next phase.
"Our
active cooperation on Oceansat-2 data utilisation is certain to yield
deeper understanding of our world's oceans in all their complexity, and
cooperation in the Global Precipitation Measurement / Megha-Tropiques
mission, with the goal of better understanding tropical meteorology and
climate, will also advance our knowledge," Bolden said.
"We
applaud India's success in all its space endeavours, including new
activities in astrophysics, heliophysics, and other areas. From the
recent launch of the SARAL oceanographic satellite to your upcoming
planned first mission to Mars, you have our very best wishes for
continued success," said the NASA Administrator.
"I
know we've already been taking steps to bring together scientists and
mission developers to examine capabilities and potential approaches for
future collaborative missions, to look at ways we can work together in a
number of areas," he said in his address to the India and US officials.
Bolden
commended the US-India Civil Space Joint Working Group for its
continued focus on the many and varied issues before it and for keeping
this work alive across the years.
According
to the joint statement, existing cooperation, in the use of US and
Indian earth observation satellite data, has produced information
yielding a broad range of societal benefits including improved weather
and monsoon forecasting, disaster management and response, improved
agricultural and natural resource use and better understanding of
climate change.
Through
expanded cooperation between their technical agencies that operate
earth observing satellites, the two sides agreed on a number of measures
that will improve the use of this data to promote sustainable
development, it said.
Building
on NASA's collaboration in India's highly successful Chandrayaan-1
lunar mission in 2008, NASA and ISRO agreed to explore further
cooperative space exploration work, including future missions to the
moon and Mars.
To
this end the working group agreed to continue discussions in planetary
science and Heliophysics to identify areas of potential cooperation.
Noting
that continued progress is being made in promoting compatibility and
interoperability between the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and the
Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), the joint statement
said further work in this area will take place bilaterally and in
multilateral bodies such as the International Committee on Global
Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG).
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ONGC to invest Rs 4,051 cr in Mumbai High
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The company also said it has made three oil and gas discoveries in Krishna Godavari basin and Tripura.
ONGC
said it will invest Rs 2,913.10 crore in revamping 48 ageing platforms
at Mumbai High and Neelam & Heera oil and gas fields.
After
the recent redevelopment efforts, these fields are expected to be in
production till at least 2030 but the existing infrastructural
facilities will not last that long.
"Hence
revamping/retrofitting of these facilities in a phased manner is
essential to maintain the production of oil and gas from Mumbai High and
Heera fields," ONGC said in a statement on Thursday.
The company board in its meeting on Wednesday approved revamp of 48 platform on these fields by mid of 2016.
Also,
the board approved Rs 1,138.50 crore revamp of BPA and BPB process
complexes on the giant Bassein & Satellite gas fields in the western
offshore.
The
two process complexes, which handle and process acidic and corrosive
gas before the fuel is dispatched to Hazira Gas processing plant of
ONGC, were commissioned in 1987 and 1989 respectively.
"Both the complexes have already covered the normal design life of 25 years," ONGC said.
"As
per prevailing Refurbishment Policy based on recommendations of
statutory bodies, it is proposed to carry out revamping for various
static equipment and pipelines of these two complexes."
While
the revamping job of BPB is planned to be completed in 2013-14, the
same for BPA is scheduled for completion in 2014-15. ONGC said it has
made an oil discovery in a KG basin block in Andhra Pradesh.
Exploratory well
Vanaduru South-1 in West Godavari block of KG Onland Basin, 8 km
north-west of Bantumillli town of West Godavari district in Andhra
Pradesh found very high quality oil.
In shallow waters of KG basin, its exploratory well Saveri-1 in NELP block KG-OSN-2004 flowed gas and condensate.
"This
high potential discovery augments the hydrocarbon volumes established
through two earlier discoveries namely Chandrika South and Alankari in
the block and is a significant boost to ONGC's efforts towards attaining
critical hydrocarbon volumes for viability of a possible 'cluster based
development' for the block," the statement said.
In Tripura, gas was discovered in an exploratory well AD-37, 12 km south-west of Agartala in Tripura.
In Tripura, gas was discovered in an exploratory well AD-37, 12 km south-west of Agartala in Tripura.
"This
discovery results in consolidation of play met in earlier discovery in
AD-30 well and opens western flank of Agartala Dome up to Konaban for
further exploration," ONGC added.
Cyprus lawmakers approve key bills for bailout
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A
total of nine bills were approved, including a key one on restructuring
the country’s ailing banks, which lost billions on bad Greek debt; one
on restricting financial transactions in times of crisis; and one that
sets up a ‘solidarity fund’ into which investments and contributions
will flow.
More
bills to meet the total target of 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion)
Cyprus needs to secure an international bailout will be brought for a
vote over the weekend.
They
include a crucial one that would impose a tax of less than 1 percent on
all bank deposits, said Averof Neophytou, deputy head of the governing
DISY party.
“We
are voting for the least worst option,” Neophytou said in a speech. “We
owe an apology to the Cypriot people because we all share in the
responsibility of bringing this place to this state.”
Approval
of the tax would come just days after Parliament decisively turned down
a plan that would have seized up to 10 percent of people’s bank
deposits.
The
plan triggered an outcry from people who condemned it as an unfair grab
of their life savings, while politicians saw it as causing irreparable
damage to the country’s financial centre status.
Nonetheless,
ordinary Cypriots have said they would willingly sacrifice a portion of
their savings to save the country just as long as somebody doesn’t
impose it on them.
“If we have Europe’s
support so our banks won’t collapse, I wouldn’t have a problem with a
deposit tax,” said pensioner Demetrakis Papanicolaou, 64.
“But we need to hear this not only from our government, but from the Europeans.”
Cyprus’ president, Nicos Anastasiades, will travel to Brussels
on Saturday to present the revised package to the country’s prospective
creditors, its fellow countries that use the euro currency and the
International Monetary Fund. There has been no indication yet that they
will accept it.
Cyprus has been told to raise 5.8 billion euros to qualify for 10 billion euros in rescue loans from the eurozone and the IMF.
Passage
of the bills allows Cypriots to breathe a little easier as the country
faces a pressing Monday deadline, when the European Central Bank has
said it will stop providing emergency funding to the country’s banks if a
new plan is not in place.
Without
the ECB’s support, Cypriot banks would collapse on Tuesday, pushing the
country toward bankruptcy and a potential exit from the 17-country
eurozone.
But
eurozone officials said they had still not seen all the details and
would have to discuss whatever final plan Cyprus presents.
Government
spokesman Christos Stylianides said there had been “consultations all
day” with representatives of the IMF, European Central Bank and European
Commission collectively known as the troika who monitor and vet
adherence to bailout conditions.
The
most important bill passed Friday is aimed at restructuring the
country’s second largest and most troubled bank, Laiki, and restricting
some financial transactions once banks, which have been closed since
Saturday, reopen on Tuesday.
Worried
Laiki employees gathered near parliament for a second day to protest
the bank’s restructuring, which would break the lender in two.
“The bank is finished, we’ll lose our jobs and I’m worried about my kids,” Laiki employee Nikos Tsiangos said.
“They’ve brought us to the brink. The Europeans wanted to destroy our economy, and they’ve done it.”
The
restructuring of Laiki and the sale of the toxic—laden Greek branches
of Cypriot banks is expected to cut the amount the country needs to
raise to about 3 billion euros instead of 5.8, Neophytou said.
With
the deposit tax back in play, Neophytou said discussions were
continuing on what percentage of accounts above the guaranteed 100,000
euro ($130,000) limit would be seized, in exchange for bank bonds.
That
will happen for deposits in Laiki and other banks including the
country’s largest, the Bank of Cyprus, which also took significant
losses on Greek debt
Laiki
bank’s acting CEO, Takis Phidias, condemned the plan. “I’m certain that
there will be chaos after these bills are approved.”
Phidias
said the initial plan to seize deposits across all Cypriot accounts
“would have more evenly shared the burden and certainly, it would have
safeguarded both large banks. I’d like to believe that there’s still
time to carry out this negotiation.”
The
Bank of Cyprus said it backed the idea of confiscating some percentage
of all bank deposits over 100,000 euros because there were no immediate
alternatives.
The
bank warned Cypriots that “a potential collapse of the banking sector
could lead to the total loss of all deposits above 100,000 euros and the
immediate sale of all collateral accompanying non—performing loans.”
Meanwhile,
Cypriot efforts to clinch a contribution from Russia appeared to have
failed. Russia is a key player in the crisis, as Russian depositors have
parked around 20 billion euros ($25.8 billion) in the country.
Cyprus’
finance minister, Michalis Sarris, returned to Cyprus on Friday night
after spending three days in Moscow trying to drum up support.
“We
will only be ready to discuss various ways of support for that state
only after the EU nations and Cyprus work out a final settlement,”
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a news conference.
Russia’s
finance minister, Anton Siluanov, said the Cypriots were seeking
investment from Russian companies in a Cypriot state-owned firm that
will manage revenue from the island’s newfound offshore gas. The Russian
investors, however, were not interested.
Cyprus also offered stakes in some of its banks, but there were no takers in Moscow for that, either.
Siluanov
also said they were not discussing providing a new loan to Cyprus, as
the EU has set a debt limit for Cyprus.Europe also turned up the
pressure on Cyprus. Luxembourg’s finance Minister Luc Frieden told
Germany’s Inforadio that Cyprus
“certainly must change a very great deal in its financial sector..... I
see among some euro states little financial room for more concessions
to Cyprus.”
Bangladesh tornado claims 23 lives, injures 500
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The storm which hit the area yesterday, left a trail of destruction in 20 villages of Brahmanbaria sadar, Bijoynagar and Akhaura upazilas.
Three more bodies were recovered today
62 Myanmar refugees dead in Thailand fire
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Earlier, 30 refugees were reported killed when a fire broke out last evening at the Mae Surin refugee camp in Mae Hong Son province. 32 more bodies were found in the burnt camp and the death toll could rise further, chief of the Mae Hong Son Public Health Office Paisarn Thanyawinitchakul said Most of the victims died of suffocation and over 200 people were injured. More than 3,000 refugees, mostly from Myanmar's Karen minority, live at the camp. Over 100,000 refugees live in camps near the Myanmar border on the Thailand, mostly ethnic Karen who have fled fighting between Karen rebels and the government. The blaze was apparently sparked by an unattended cooking flame that razed hundreds of huts, mostly made of bamboo, before bringing it under control this morning. Most of the dead were women, the elderly and children, media reports said, quoting a senior national intelligence official
Myanmar imposes emergency in riot city
Myanmar declared a state of emergency on Friday for a riot-hit town where 20 people have been killed in Buddhist-Muslim violence that has sparked fears of spreading unrest.
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