Clinton: Position of Syrian Leader Less Tenable by the Day

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has not engaged in serious reform efforts and its position becomes “less tenable” every day. There have been more deaths in a Syrian crackdown on protesters that human rights groups say has now claimed one thousand lives.

Clinton’s comments, triggered by reports of the torture death of a 13-year-old Syrian boy in police custody, were some of the strongest to date by an Obama administration official about the Syrian crackdown.

At a press conference with Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin, Clinton said the mutilation killing of the Syrian youngster, Hamza Ali al-Khatib, may have once and for all dashed hopes by everyday Syrians that the government will be responsive to reform demands.

“I think what that symbolizes for many Syrians is the total collapse of any effort by the Syrian government to work with and listen to their own people. And I think that as the President [Obama] said in his speech last week, President Assad has a choice. And every day that goes by the choice is made by default. He has not called an end to the violence to his own people. And he has not engaged seriously in any kind of reform effort,” Clinton said.

Clinton sidestepped a question about whether Mr. Assad has lost his legitimacy, saying that is up to the Syrian people to decide. But she said  the standing of the Syrian government, in the face of international sanctions and condemnation, is steadily eroding.

“I think that every day that goes by, the position of the government become less tenable and the demands of the Syrian people for change only grow stronger. Therefore we continue to urge an end to the violence and a commencement of a real process that can lead to the kinds of changes that are called for,” Clinton said.

Earlier the State Department dismissed an announcement of a general amnesty by the Syrian leader, saying Mr. Assad has talked about reform but there has been little in the way of action.

Clinton’s press event capped a day-long high-level U.S.-Colombian dialogue focusing on human rights, trade and joint efforts against regional drug trafficking.

The Secretary publicly assured her Colombian counterpart of the Obama administration’s commitment to getting final Congressional approval this year for the long-delayed U.S.-Colombia free trade accord.

“I hope that the people of Colombia do not lose heart watching the activities of our Congress. Because there always is a lot of rhetoric and skirmishing between the parties before they finally hit the deadline to get the work done. And so I am absolutely sure we’re going to get it passed,” Clinton said.

Clinton hailed Colombia’s lead effort to have Honduras readmitted to the Organization of American States after its 2009 constitutional crisis, a process expected to be climaxed by an OAS vote Wednesday.

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Mladic in The Hague for War Crimes Trial

Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic is in prison in The Hague, Netherlands, where he will stand trial before the International War Crimes Tribunal.

Serbian authorities put Mladic on a plane Tuesday after judges turned down his appeal against extradition. Another court ruled earlier that Mladic is healthy enough to face a trial, rejecting his lawyer's argument that he is too sick.

Before leaving Serbia, police escorted him to a Belgrade cemetery so he could visit the grave of his daughter Ana, who committed suicide in 1994.

Mladic was the head of the Bosnian Serb military during Bosnia's civil war in the early 1990s. The Hague tribunal has charged him with genocide, terrorism, and other crimes against humanity.

He is accused of the massacre of 8,000 Muslim males at what was supposed to be the U.N. safe haven of Srebrenica in 1995.

Serbian police arrested Mladic last week in the village of Lazarevo after 16 years on the run. Serbian President Boris Tadic said Tuesday his government is investigating whether Serbian officials helped hide Mladic.

Tadic said police arrested Mladic as soon as they were informed where he was.

At least 10,000 Bosnian Serb nationalists who regard Mladic as a hero marched Tuesday in the Bosnian Serb capital of Banja Luka to protest his arrest.

Meanwhile, the trial war crimes trial of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic resumed Tuesday in the Hague after a two-month recess. Karadzic is also charged with genocide and other crimes against humanity.

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Scholarships drill, Abu Dhabi Police Learning Intention to Indonesia

Government of Indonesia, together with superpowers like the United States and Japan, offers a variety of scholarship programs to students United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Scholarships are offered scholarship and fellowship programs Indonesian arts and culture, each of which held by Kemdiknas and RI foreign ministry, according to a press release Embassy in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
In addition, the Embassy also offers the "Summer programs" organized by the University of Gadjah Mada and Universitas Indonesia.
Over the past two days from 29 to 30 May 2011, Abu Dhabi Embassy participated in the exhibition "scholarship exhibition" organized by Zayed University and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development in Abu Dhabi.
An officer lieutenant of Abu Dhabi Police Headquarters asking for help to find a university that has a field of study the Indonesian language for undergraduate level.
Abu Dhabi Police Department plans to send five to six person staff to learn Indonesian language and making them as a translator because many cases of citizens, especially migrant workers who need a translator in the process of investigation in the police.
A manager of career development from the "Abu Dhabi National Tanker Co." also requested information on "Marine Academy" in Indonesia to explore the possibility of providing training to the students who had been educated in various countries, like Australia, America, Britain and Singapore.
Exhibition of new scholarship was first established in Abu Dhabi, followed by the ministry, leading universities in Abu Dhabi, among others, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi University, Khalifa University, New York University, Al Kwarizmi College, foreign embassies in the UAE (United States, Japan and Indonesia), and large companies in the UAE such as Etihad Airways, ADNOC Group, Emirates Nuclear Energy Co., which on occasion do the campaign for the recruitment of local staff.
The exhibition was opened by Minister for Higher Education Sheikh Nahayan Mubarak Al Nahayan. Sheikh Nahayan specifically expressed his appreciation to the Embassy for their participation in the exhibition which was held for the first time.
Ambassador to the UAE M. Wahid Supriyadi separately stated that Indonesia's participation in the exhibition is intended to change the negative image of Indonesia which has been known as one of the sending country's largest domestic servants in the world.
He added that Indonesia not only send the maids, but also able to provide scholarships to more than 900 people per year to foreign students.

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Toxic Cucumber kills 14 in Germany

As many as 14 people in Germany were reported killed by consuming imported cucumbers. Cucumbers are reported toxic and found the bacteria in it.

For nearly 2 weeks more deaths from this cucumber growing. The two latest victims were women aged 50 years and men 75 years. Total so far the death toll reached 14 people, while hundreds of others complained of pain.

Approximately 1200 cases were reported during the epidemic lie in northern Germany. Institute of Epidemic Disease Control and Prevention Europe illustrates that E. coli bacteria found in cucumber toxic material. So reported AFP on Tuesday (05/31/2011).

German authorities have warned citizens not to consume raw vegetables after track the presence of bacteria that originated from cucumber imported from Spain. Immediately after the cucumber was declared poisonous, Belgium and Russia banned imports of Interior Matador cucumber was similar.

But until now the German Health Office has not been able to confirm the exact cause of the spread of the bacteria E. Coli. This bacterium is dangerous, because it can cause diarrhea and damage to the liver up to the threat of death.

This plague has struck several countries in Europe including Britain, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. Most of the victims were spent traveling in Germany.

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NATO and the Karzai Will "Divorce"?

Air strike North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Sunday (05/29/2011) has angered Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Because the attacks that killed at least 14 people in southern Afghanistan was actually killed many civilians. "NATO is not allowed to attack the houses owned by civilians," he said Karzai.
According to Karzai, if violated, NATO risks becoming the occupation forces. In saving Karzai then, he has repeatedly warned it. "This is the last warning," he added.
"NATO must know that the air strikes against Afghanistan are not allowed housing and Afghans can not take it anymore," Karzai said in a press conference in Kabul as hinted he would "divorce" with NATO.
"If they do not stop air strikes against Afghan houses, then their presence in Afghanistan is seen as an occupation force and it is against the wishes of the Afghan people," he said.
Air raid on Sunday, which target the resistance forces in Helmand province, about two houses of civilians. Afghan officials say that all the victims who died were women and children. NATO apologized on the air attack.
A senior general said that NATO's first priority was to prevent civilian casualties, and it will handle this matter very seriously. NATO said the air strikes carried out after a member of the U.S. Marines were killed and five members of the opposition forces took refuge in a complex in the area Nazwad and continue the attack. Nine civilians were killed in an attack on the compound.Murder Afghans by foreign forces to make people angrier. In the past, this sparked angry protests across Afghanistan. A group of villagers where the attack happened to visit the capital of Helmand, Lashkar Gah, bringing with them the bodies of eight children. The youngest was two years old.

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Qaddafi Appear Again on TV

Libyan leader, Moammar Qaddafi, appearing again on state television on Monday (5/30/2011) night, after the last appearance on 11 May. He appeared with President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, who mengunkapkan that Qaddafi is ready for a truce.

Zuma told the media that Qaddafi Libya wants a ceasefire, including an end to NATO bombing, the terms that have been rejected last month after a previous mediation mission by Zuma. When speaking in Tripoli, Zuma added: "We discussed the need to provide opportunities for the Libyan people to solve their own problems."

State television broadcast pictures when Qaddafi welcomes Zuma and walk along the corridor into a large room. In that space, Qaddafi who sat in the chair looks great white is talking. But not reported, where the meeting lasted.

Qaddafi, who does not appear in public since 11 May, seen clenching his hands into the air when he said goodbye to Mr Zuma. It was the second visit Libya since the conflict broke out Zuma last February.

Zuma's first visit made ​​little progress because of Qaddafi refused to end the 41 year rule, while opposition leaders said there was no ceasefire before Qaddafi resign from office.

Recent developments come as a group of Libyan army officers defected from the Qaddafi regime and joined the opposition. Eight high-ranking officers, including five generals, on Tuesday submitted their appeal from the Italian for Libyan soldiers who else to turn away from Qaddafi, in an effort to end the 40-year rule Qaddafi.

Italian Foreign Ministry officials to introduce the generals, two colonels and a major, told reporters in Rome, three days after they fled from Libya

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Embed ASEAN Biodiversity Champion Defender

ASEAN gives awards to those who maintain the values ​​of biodiversity to support research in order to garner information on the impacts of climate change on forests. This event diselanggarakan in Manila, Philippines.
ASEAN Champions of Biodiversity is a special program of a series of projects on biodiversity conservation and advocacy in the ASEAN region which aims to produce better leadership, public and media awareness about the problems faced by the region's biodiversity is very rich but it is threatened and requires good cooperation in conservation efforts and advocacy on Biological diversity.
The award winner for 'ASEAN Champions of Biodiversity' has shown diligence from start to mobilize students and teaching them about the values ​​of biodiversity to support research in order to garner information on the impacts of climate change on forests.
 The winners of this has made them the champions in the nets of life within its environment influence each other.
In a ceremony held in Manila, Philippines on May 31, 2011, the HSBC Brunei has received a business award category, from the Philippines by GMA Network television program titled "Born to be Wild" for the category of Media and the Youth Organization of Indonesia "Green Community" for Youth category.
ASEAN Champions of Biodiversity Program is organized by the Center for Biological Diversity, ASEAN or the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity and supported jointly by the ASEAN Foundation, the European Union, GIZ, the Government of Japan, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, UNESCO and the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication.
According to the ASEAN Foundation Executive Director Dr. Makarim Wibisono, the winners truly an example of a cadre of champions who will become ambassadors of goodwill for biodiversity conservation and advocacy in the ASEAN region.
"The ASEAN Champions of Biodiversity" is expected to give an awareness of ASEAN, especially among youth, and overcome the lack of information about biodiversity in the ASEAN region, "in a press statement sent to the Legal Foundation of ASEAN, in Jakarta, Tuesday (05/31/2011 .)
"We expect a strong commitment to preserving the biodiversity of the ASEAN champions can inspire others to give attention and support various efforts in preserving the rich biodiversity in this region" said Makarim.
PTT Public Company Ltd.. from Thailand and Chevron Philippines, Inc. won the second and third place for the Business category, while The Brune Timesi and The Philippines' Business Mirror ranked second and third in the category of Media.The second and third place for the Youth Category were pocketed by Sahabat Alam from Indonesia and the Association of Students of Architecture from the University of the Philippines Diliman Chapter (ASAPhil-UP).

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Afghan Militia Attack NATO Office

Afghan militia group attacked the office of the NATO reconstruction teams in western Afghanistan. According to AP and AFP news on Monday (5/30/2011), violence incident that killed two people. Violence was also injured several people. The Taliban recently declared the launching of a series of spring offensive in Afghanistan.

"At this stage, a preliminary report mentions the attack on the complex PRT in Herat," said a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) of NATO-led Kabul.
Eyewitnesses also reported two explosions in the area next to the sound of gunfire. Italian troops are the largest group of ISAF in the place. The office is headed by the Italian, a member of NATO. Across Afghanistan, there are 3880 Italian troops, mostly stationed in the west. Soldiers of this country is the fifth largest group of NATO troops in Afghanistan.

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Gaddafi abandoned 5-General

Just hours after receiving the visit of South African President Jacob Zuma, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi got bad news. The five generals announced the defection. Defection was followed by two colonels, a major, and more than 100 Libyan soldiers.
"What happened to the people make us afraid," said one officer who called himself General Oun Al Oun when announcing their defection in Rome, Italy, on Monday (5/30/2011).
"Lots of murder, genocide, and violence against women. Bahakn no-one wise and rational with the lowest dignity can do the things we saw myself and was told by Qaddafi," he continued.
Pengumman defection could be rekindled hopes of the opponents of Qaddafi. One officer, Gen. Massoud Melud Halasa, said military force Qaddafi now live 20 percent from when the revolution broke out in mid-February. "Not more than 10" generals who are still loyal to Qaddafi.
The Italian government claims that thanks to the defection of "the work of our intelligence that careful and competent." "You've made the right decision to leave the regime that has no future," said Italian Foreign Minister Maurizio Massar when introducing eighth Libyan officer said in a press conference in Rome.
According to Abdul Rahman Shalgham, former foreign minister who defected before Tripoli representative at the United Nations, the officers were part of the 120 military members who leave the Qaddafi and Libya in recent days. "We hope more people join us," he said.
While General One Giuma Yahmed states, the continuing defection means of military force no longer can support the Qaddafi regime. "NATO's strength continues to stifle Qaddafi soldiers and their strength is now living 20 percent," said Yahmed. He explained, very difficult conditions in Tripoli. People's hard to get food and gas supplies were running low.
General Oun asked all officers to join the revolution. "Glory is near," he said.
Separately, the National Transitional Council spokesman said Mahmoud Shammam, the rebels have not received money promised to them. "So far we have not received funding. We were supposed to get about 180 million dollars from Kuwait within a day or two, as a gift" he explained.
Until now, this is not possible to verify the identity of the officers defectors and the way they left Libya. Friday (27/05/2011), a number of Libyan troops, including several senior officers and civilians, arrived in Tunisia by sea, reports the Tunisian news agency, TAP.

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Yemen Opposition Accuses President of Handing City to al-Qaida

Top Yemeni opposition leaders are accusing embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh of handing the provincial capital of Zinjibar to al-Qaida militants, after fighters from the group seized the town overnight.

Several-hundred fighters loyal to al-Qaida seized the southern coastal Yemen city of Zinjibar, after gunbattles with security forces.  Al Arabiya TV reported the militants seized munitions and weaponry from the government, provoking hundreds of residents to flee for the nearby city of Aden. The TV report says at least 18 people were killed in the fighting.

Witnesses say supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh abandoned government buildings to al-Qaida militants, except for an army camp that is now under siege.  Witnesses add gunbattles continued there Sunday.

Al-Qaida fighters also reportedly freed dozens of prisoners from Zinjibar’s main jail.

Opponents of Saleh took advantage of the fall of Zinjibar to attack the president.  Former Saleh ally General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who sided with anti-government protesters in March, accused the embattled president of handing over several provinces to al Qaida.

He said he strongly condemns the president for allegedly handing over several provinces to armed terrorist gangs, encouraging them to kill, destroy and capture, in a desperate attempt to damage Yemen's military.  But, he added, the tactic will not succeed because military officers remain vigilant and will stop such attempts.

Deputy Information Minister Abdou Jundi, a close ally of Saleh, disputed the claims, insisting the government would eventually retake Zinjibar, and defeat al-Qaida.

He said Saleh's forces are fighting a bitter war against al-Qaida, and if the militants win a small victory, it will be turned into defeat. He added that General al-Ahmar's rebellion has divided the army, and both al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood are using it to their advantage.

Former defense minister Ali Allawi repeated calls by the opposition for Saleh to step down, praising top politicians who have deserted the president to call for his resignation.

He said the Yemeni opposition thanks top political figures, including Vice President Abdrabou Hadi Mansour, Abdel Karim al Ariani, Foreign Minister Abou Bakr al Qurbi for their courageous positions in calling for President Saleh to hand over power and avoid sectarian strife. He went on to thank the Gulf states and the U.S. for exerting diplomatic efforts to try to avert civil war and courageously support, what he calls, the people's peaceful revolution.

In the capital Sana'a, a tenuous truce continued for second day, after tribal mediators negotiated a cease-fire between Saleh and top tribal leader Sadiq al Ahmar.

Meanwhile in Syria, news reports say government tanks stormed the restive towns of Rastan and Talbiseh, close to country’s third-largest city of Homs, amid heavy gunfire. Witnesses say a number of civilians were killed in the attacks aimed at stopping two months of demonstrations against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

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French Minister resigns over Sexual Abuse Cases

One junior minister in France, Georges Tron, resigned from his post after being accused of sexual harassment by two women who claimed to be victims. Although the state backed away, the minister of public service that, denied the allegations.
"Mr. Georges Tron, today's Prime Minister Francois Fillon informed dismissal of the government," declared the prime minister's office, as reported by Reuters on Monday (5/30/2011).
"The Prime Minister, together with the President of the Republic, take note of this decision, without prejudice to the judicial system next steps to be taken in connection with a complaint of Georges Tron, the legitimacy that he about," the statement said.
Tron called the charges against him as "incredible" and said the two women who accused him was ever fired from their posts at the town hall Draveil, south of Paris, where he was as mayor.
"In my capacity as an ordinary citizen, I will make this as my business to make known my innocence, with revenge against accusations from two former colleagues, the" Tron wrote in a letter to President Sarkozy.
Tron added, one of the accusers had been dismissed for misuse of public money, while others left the job because of inappropriate behavior.
In an interview by Le Parisien, one of the woman, using a false name, describe the reason why he spoke to the public.
He said the 53-year-old minister was never touched by not appropriate in some events during the two years he served in Draveil city hall, where he worked for some time at the reception desk in the office of Tron.
She said the incentive to not silence after former IMF boss Strauss-Kahn was arrested and accused of raping a hotel maid in New York in a case that has been mencengankan France and the world.
Told the newspaper Le Parisien, Tron justify his resignation. "I do not want to be embarrassing," he said.
Tron's lawyer, Olivier Schnerb been instructed to report complaints of defamation as a response of the allegations. Meanwhile, prosecutors have also begun to investigate allegations of harassment by Tron.

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Scientists Express Concern About More Big Japan Quakes

Significant aftershocks continue to shake Japan, more than two months after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that triggered massive tsunami, leaving 25,000 people dead or missing and creating a catastrophe at a coastal nuclear power plant.
Five tremors in excess of magnitude 5.0 on the Richter scale have shaken Japan just this week.  But scientists are warning that the largest expected aftershock has yet to hit.  And, new, devastating inland quakes can also be expected.

Japan hopes to never again hear these chilling words. An NHK announcer describing the scene on March 11 as a huge tsunami washes away homes, fishing trawlers and vehicles in coastal communities.

But scientists are cautioning that a repeat for Japan - on a smaller scale - is not a matter of if, but when.

After analyzing the magnitude 9.0 quake, scientists in Japan and the United States are making that sobering conclusion.

Several studies indicate the descending Pacific Ocean plate and the overlying plate on which Japan sits, slipped past each other by up to 60 meters. The research indicates five portions of the fault - covering more than 600 kilometers - were ruptured in the quake. That forebodes more seismic activity.

And, because the March 11 quake seems to have transferred stress along the same fault, some scientists are cautioning about a magnitude 8.0 closer to the Tokyo metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people.

However, others offer a wider geographical target, as far to the north as Hokkaido.

A frequently cited time frame, by some of Japan’s most senior seismologists, is between now and the next ten months.

However, professor Takeshi Sagiya at Nagoya University’s Research Center for Seismology, Volcanology and Disaster Mitigation is cautious about that narrow chronology.

"I'm not quite sure about the basis of those specific kind of prediction about aftershocks," said Sagiya. "Those aftershocks happening are quite variable from place to place, from time to time.  It can happen with a month, or within days, from the main shock.  But also it can happen within some decades."

Geophysicist Seth Stein of Northwestern University in the U.S. state of Illinois says the forecast intensity is in line with historical data but, like professor Sagiya, he is more comfortable expressing an extended timeline.

"They are thinking of the possibility you could have a magnitude eight, which makes sense.  The largest aftershocks of an earthquake over the years around the world we've observed tend to be about one magnitude unit less than the main shock, more likely within months, but it could be years."

Professor Sagiya of Nagoya University says the March 11 quake also “activated” inland faults.

"They may be not as large as magnitude eight, but because they occur just beneath our cities, our house, they can be quite disastrous," said Sagiya.

Professor Stein - a former editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research - agrees that as a result of the March 11 temblor - the fourth most powerful ever recorded - the quake risk has increased for Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active places.

"We sometimes use this analogy of a kid's game called 'booby trap' where you have a bunch of little blocks and there's a spring piston and it pushes on them. And, once you disturb one piece then you increase the possibility that the other pieces are going to be pushed and slip also," said Stein. "So if you think of Japan in that way you can realize that once you've had a huge earthquake of this sort there's a chance that a lot of faults could have smaller earthquakes."

Seismologists caution the public that their work is still an inexact science.  They note improvements for indicating where a big quake approximately will occur, but not when.

They also acknowledge that this year’s huge magnitude 9.0 was not anticipated, looking at the historical data.

That was also the case with the December 2004 earthquake off western Indonesia, which measured magnitude 9.3.

That prompted seismologists and geologists to re-examine the world’s subduction zones, areas where oceanic plates slide beneath either a continental plate or another oceanic plate.

Some of the researchers, analyzing fresh data, are now challenging the conventional thinking and willing to state that most, if not all, of the world’s subduction zones (more  than a dozen are recognized) are able to generate quakes equal to or exceeding magnitude 9.0.

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'Man on the Moon' Challenge, 50 Years On

Fifty years ago, on May 25, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy issued a grand challenge that changed the world as humankind knew it - to send a man to the moon and bring him home again, and to do it by the end of the decade.

It is one of the most enduring images of all time - an earthling setting foot upon the moon for the first time.  The moment was immortalized by astronaut Neil Armstrong.

"One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind," he said.

The challenge to put a man on the moon had been issued only eight years earlier, on May 25, 1961, by newly elected President John F. Kennedy in a bold speech before Congress.

"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth," he said.

To set the stage for this speech, here is a bit of history:

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik - the first artificial object ever placed into orbit around Earth.

And only one month before Kennedy's speech, the Soviets sent the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin.

Three weeks later an American followed suit - Alan Shepard, who admired the view from his Freedom 7 Mercury space capsule.

"On the periscope - what a beautiful view," said Shepard. "Cloud cover over Florida."

The space race was well underway.

Allan Needell, who works at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, where he curates the lunar-mission spacecraft collection, says attaining technological superiority in the space race was also about swaying new nations on Earth.

"The Soviet Union was providing a real challenge to American supremacy, and the fear was that most of these emerging countries, both in Latin America and in Asia, would choose the model of the [Communist] Soviet system rather than the free market, capitalist system that was favored by the United States," he said.

At the time of Mr. Kennedy's speech, there were also issues at home.

"It was the end of a recession, a recession which by recent standards wasn't as severe as the one we're just passing, but it was severe in the context of the 1950s, which had been a period of quite dramatic growth," said Needell.

There was also high unemployment and a number of aging Americans who could not afford adequate healthcare - challenges similar to those the country faces today.

Recently, President Barack Obama recalled the early days of the space race.

"After investing in better research and education, we didn't just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs," he said.

That wave of innovations sent men to the moon.

Other presidents have set out grand challenges for space innovation, such as Ronald Reagan in 1984.

"We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic and scientific gain," President Reagan said. "Tonight, I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade."

It took a little longer than planned, but people have lived continuously on the International Space Station for the past decade, and the ISS is seen as an advancement for all mankind.

Needell says that was also the case with the first moon landing.

"The vision of this being 'we come in peace for all mankind' was developed and actually accepted all around the world, that this was a human accomplishment as much as it was a demonstration of American superiority," he said.

And a giant leap for mankind.

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30 Reasons Not to Admit Non-Aligned Movement Member Countries Palestinian Independence

Terjemahan Bahasa Indonesia ke Inggris

A total of 30 countries from 120 countries members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) or the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) has recognized the independence of Palestine. Most of the reasons these countries are only internal procedural problems.

"I was just a few. Generally, they say only internal procedural only," said Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marty M. Natalegawa said after a press conference in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Friday (27 / 5).

Marty added that he only asked that to some countries of the 30 countries that have not recognized the independence of Palestine, particularly countries in Southeast Asia. They also argue there is no recognition to the Palestinians, not the main problem. "It just has not been accomplished," he said.

Regarding documents issued by the Palestinian Declaration of the NAM, it was not signed, so only the concept. But Palestinian document ratified by all member states, although not signed by all NAM countries that have not been admitted, but they receive.

"Members of the NAM will meet again in September at the UN, on the sidelines of the NAM ministerial meeting. It is expected that existing progress before September," he hoped.

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Gate Opening of Rafah, Egypt Reject Foreign Intervention

Ambassador of Egypt to the Palestinian Authority, Yaser Othman, stressed that the decision of opening the gates of the Rafah crossing, which borders the Gaza Strip is a permanent decision aims to support reconciliation and within the framework of Egypt's policy to alleviate the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Ambassador Othman stressed that Egypt rejected any foreign intervention and interference in the working mechanism of Rafah gate. He asserted that the Rafah gate work is to be decided Egypt Egyptian affairs in accordance with their interests and orientation of nationality against the Palestinian people.

He stated that the Egyptian embassy in Ramallah which will provide member facilities granting visas to a group of men from age 18 to 40 years. The rest do not need a visa to enter Egypt, but there are other facilities that will be submitted Palestinians who want bebergian through Rafah gate.

This explains that the Egyptian diplomat linked to Palestinian students and students who study in Egypt was in progress, whether they are rejected or not approved by security. He states in the near future there will be ease of the procedure to obtain approval of security for students and students within the framework of Egypt's policy to end the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Previously, Egypt has announced it will open Rafah permanently starting gate Saturday tomorrow for crossing all circles and people in addition to human cases, which previously only limited to humanitarian cases only.

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