Discovery
Soyuz rocket blasts off: A Russianmade Soyuz rocket blasted off from French Guiana on Saturday and placed into orbit an Earth observation satellite for France, space officials said.
It is the fourth time that Soyuz, which first flew in 1966 and traces its roots back even further to the earliest Cold War intercontinental ballistic missiles, has been launched from outside its former Soviet bases.
The rocket lifted off at 11:02 pm (0202 GMT on Sunday) from a launch pad at Europe’s space base near Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America.
A first launch attempt on Friday was scrubbed due to a technical problem.
After a 55-minute flight, the Pleiades 1B, a one-ton observation satellite ordered by the French Space Agency (CNES) that will used extensively by the French defense ministry, separated from the rocket.
It will also be used by Spain’s defense ministry as well as by civilian and commercial customers.
Billed by CNES as “a significant improvement in technology over previous generation satellites,” Pleiades 1B is designed to relay to Earth high-resolution images as small as 70 centimeters (27 inches) from a 20-km (12-mile) wide Earth scan.
“It (Pleiades) is an innovative concept in that we share resources but we are able to separate the content for confidentiality,” Lionel Peret, head of the Pleiades program for CNES, told Reuters.
It is the second of two satellites in the Pleiades series. The first was launched in Dec 2011.
European aerospace giant EADS Astrium was the prime contractor for the satellite. (RTRS) ‘Retract Monsanto GM study’: The publisher of a much-criticised study suggest- ing genetically modified corn caused tumours in rats has come under heavy pressure from scientists to retract the paper and explain why it was ever printed.
The calls follow a report by Europe’s food safety watchdog this week dismissing the study’s findings.
Reed Elsevier, which published the study in its Food and Chemical Toxicology journal in September, said last week it was considering the criticisms and would let readers know if it concluded it needed to change the way it checked research.
In a statement on its website, the journal said “the paper was published after being objectively and anonymously peer reviewed, with a series of revisions made by the authors and the corrected paper then accepted by the editor.”
Hundreds of scientists from around the world have questioned the research, which
AsiaPacific fishing experts Sunday warned against depleting tuna stocks, saying the region needs to reduce its catch of the vulnerable bigeye species by 30 percent.
Participants at the conference of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) said action must be taken not only to preserve tuna resources but also other marine life that are accidentally caught with them.
Some tuna varieties are overfished while others are near their limits, participants at the meeting said. Additionally, tuna fishers often catch sharks, rays and other fish in their nets, depleting their numbers as well.
The area covered by the WCPFC provides more than 50 percent of all the tuna catch in the world, said Asis Perez, head of the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries.
The commission, which groups over 30 countries and territories ranging from the United States, China and Australia to small Pacific island nations, has a special role in protecting tuna, he added.
Because tuna is a migratory species that moves from one country’s territory to another, cooperation is crucial to sustaining the resource.
WCPFC executive director Glenn Hurry said bigeye tuna, one of the most caught species, was reaching its limits and measures must be taken to limit the catching of this species.
“This is the one we’re worried about. The catch is too big. We need to find a way to reduce that,” he told reporters.
Hurry said the region was producing about 151,000 tonnes of bigeye tuna annually which was too high.
“We need to reduce that catch by 30 percent,” he said.
But the catching of the other popular varieties like skipjack, yellowfin and Pacific albacore — should not increase either, Hurry warned. (AFP) Quake rattles Vanuatu: A strong 6.4magnitude earthquake struck off the the South Pacific island of Vanuatu on Sunday, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued.
The quake struck at 11:54 am (0054 GMT), 108 kms (67 miles) northwest of the capital Port Vila at a depth of 34 kms, the United States Geological Survey said.
Vanuatu lies on the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a zone of frequent seismic activity caused by friction between shifting tectonic plates.
It has been rocked by several large quakes in recent years, averaging about three magnitude 7.0 or above incidents every year without any major damage. (AFP)