Month: July 2014

NASA puts out call for satellite communication services – on Mars

July 24, 2014 0
Tourists take pictures of a NASA sign at the Kennedy Space Center visitors complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) – In what may be the ultimate in long-distance telephone service, NASA on Wednesday put out a call for a commercially owned and operated satellite network on Mars. The robotic probes, however, are useless if they cannot relay their results, and the two communication satellites currently in orbit are getting old. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter followed in 2005. The aging of NASA’s Mars communications system comes as the United States, Europe, Russia and India mount a fresh wave of science campaigns, including two atmospheric probes slated to arrive at Mars in September and two life-hunting rovers due to launch in 2018 and 2020.

Israeli minister: Gaza truce unlikely “in coming days”

July 24, 2014 0
Palestinian looks at a neighboring house which witnesses said was damaged in an Israeli air strike that killed two children, in the northern Gaza Strip

An Israeli cabinet minister said on Thursday that a pullout of troops from Gaza was not imminent and that Israel’s army would continue hunting Palestinian cross-border tunnels under any humanitarian truce. Egyptians mediating between Israel and Gaza’s dominant Hamas Islamists have said hostilities could be suspended, perhaps by the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival early next week, to allow aid to reach the territory and to faciliate more permanent truce talks. “I do not see a ceasefire in the coming days where the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) leave,” Science Minister Yaakov Peri, a former security chief, told the Walla news site, adding that troops needed more time to complete their mission of destroying cross-border tunnels used by Gaza guerrillas.

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NDA Govt. doing same things which UPA tried to do: Rajiv Shukla

July 24, 2014 0

New Delhi, July 24 (ANI): Reacting to Union Cabinet’s approval to the proposal to raise FDI cap in Insurance sector from 26 percent to 49 percent, Congress leader Rajiv Shukla on Thursday said that the government is doing the same thing which the erstwhile UPA Government was trying to do. When we were mooting this idea, then the standing committee headed by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha had opposed it. Now they are doing the same thing which the Congress was trying to push at that time,” said Shukla. Meanwhile, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Jay Pandan said, “The FDI in insurance has been announced pending for a long time.

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Kiran Bedi, Brinda Karat come out in support of Sania Mirza

July 24, 2014 0

New Delhi, July 24 (ANI): Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi today said that the elected representatives who are opposing Sania Mirza’s appointment as the brand ambassador of Telangana are involved in small talk and wasting everyone’s time. Bedi told ANI, “These elected representatives are involved in very small talk. Is that not great?” The tennis player also found support from CPI leader Brinda Karat who said that only a perverted and twisted mind can give such statements adding that the comments must be dismissed outright. Sania Mirza, too, has expressed her hurt and anguish over her being branded an outsider by some elements in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) post her appointment as a brand ambassador for the state of Telangana.

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Denzel Washington to receive Lifetime honor at San Sebastian Film Fest

July 24, 2014 0

Washington, July 24 (ANI): Denzel Washington will be receiving the Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, which will be held in September. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the ‘Flight’ star will also open the Spanish festival with the European premiere of his latest movie ‘The Equalizer’, which is directed by Antoine Fuqua. The festival organizers cited Washington’s past roles in such films as ‘Glory’, ‘Malcolm X’, ‘Philadelphia’, ‘Inside Man’ and ‘Flight’, as well as his many acting awards and nominations while announcing the lifetime achievement award. Other events at the 62nd San Sebastian Film Festival will be announced soon.

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Pettiness on BJP’s part to give such statement: Nilotpal Basu

July 24, 2014 0

New Delhi, July 24 (ANI): Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Nilotpal Basu on Thursday said that it is pettiness on Bhartiya Janta Party’s part to comment on Sania Mirza and comment on the basis of her marriage. Basu said, “I think it is the prerogative of the concerned state government and they in their wisdom have decided that she would be best representing the state.” “As because she is the daughter of the state, she hails from it, so to counter post that with whomsoever she might have married is I think pettiness and nothing else,” he added. Earlier today, Laxman called Sania Mirza the daughter-in-law of Pakistan while questioning the Telangana Government of her appointment as the state’s brand ambassador.