Six In The Morning Saturday 2 September 2023

Aditya-L1: India successfully launches its first mission to the Sun

By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

India has launched its first observation mission to the Sun, just days after the country made history by becoming the first to land near the Moon’s south pole.

Aditya-L1 lifted off from the launch pad at Sriharikota on Saturday at 11:50 India time (06:20 GMT).

It will travel 1.5 million km (932,000 miles) from the Earth – 1% of the Earth-Sun distance.

India’s space agency says it will take four months to travel that far.

India’s first space-based mission to study the solar system’s biggest object is named after Surya – the Hindu god of Sun who is also known as Aditya.

And L1 stands for Lagrange point 1 – the exact place between Sun and Earth where the Indian spacecraft is heading.

Possibility of arrest grows for Bolsonaro over jewellery scandal

Friends and foes of Brazil’s former president believe it is only a matter of time before he is detained

Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has never shown much sympathy for prisoners.

“Why should we give those dirtbags a good life? … They should just get f—d, full-f—ing-stop. That’s what I reckon,” he once ranted.

Many in Brazil believe those words may soon come back to haunt the far-right populist, amid growing speculation Bolsonaro could be close to arrest thanks to a tangle of criminal investigations and scandals involving luxury watches, phoney vaccination records, a four-star general, a computer hacker and a botched military coup.

Cyprus riots over migrant influx: 13 arrested

Cyprus police made arrests after a right-wing anti-migrant protest that turned violent in the port city of Limassol. The Cypriot president condemned the riots.

Cypriot leaders met on Saturday to discuss a violent right-wing protest against refugees and migrants that erupted on Friday evening in the port city of Limassol.

Police arrested 13 people after a mob vandalized shop fronts and set fire to scores of rubbish bins during an anti-immigration march. Among those arrested was the alleged organizer of the march.

An emergency meeting was held in the presidential building with the relevant ministers and heads of the police, civil defense and fire service.

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides condemned “images of shame” and suggested that the violence was the product of a group of petty criminals who had no real connection to the migration situation.

Gabon’s military rulers to reopen borders with ‘immediate effect’

Gabon’s army said on Saturday that it would reopen the country’s borders, closed in the wake of the military coup that ousted ex-president Ali Bongo

A spokesman for Gabon‘s military rulers said on state TV that they had “decided with immediate effect to reopen the land, sea and air borders as of this Saturday”.

A group of 12 Gabonese soldiers had announced on Wednesday that the country’s borders were closed until further notice, in a statement broadcast on the Gabon 24 television channel.

General Brice Oligui Nguema, the head of the elite Republican Guard, on Wednesday led officers in a coup against President Ali Bongo Ondimba, scion of a family that had ruled for 55 years.

His ousting came just moments after Bongo, 64, was proclaimed victor in presidential elections at the weekend — a result branded a fraud by the opposition.

Nihon University suspends football team again over cannabis allegations

Nihon University said Friday that it has indefinitely suspended its American football team again and closed its dormitory over the suspected possession of cannabis by more team members.

A team member was arrested for alleged possession of cannabis and an illegal stimulant on Aug. 5 following a police search of the football team’s dormitory in Tokyo.

The university then ordered the team to suspend practice indefinitely but said on Aug. 10 that it had lifted the suspension as “many students’ efforts will come to nothing if they are forced to assume joint responsibility.”

 

Blue-water ambitions: Is China looking beyond its neighborhood now it has the world’s largest navy


China has built the world’s largest naval fleet, more than 340 warships, and until recently it has been regarded as a green-water navy, operating mostly near the country’s shores.

But China’s shipbuilding reveals blue-water ambitions. In recent years it has launched large guided-missile destroyers, amphibious assault ships and aircraft carriers with the ability to operate in the open ocean and project power thousands of miles from Beijing.