EUROPEAN GP: Fernando Alonso wins brilliantly in Valencia

 

Fernando Alonso became the first man to win two races this year with a spectacular victory in the European GP.

The Spaniard won his home race at Valencia after a series of overtakes and Sebastian Vettel's retirement.

Lewis Hamilton was set to finish second after Romain Grosjean's retirement, but crashed out with three laps remaining.

The McLaren driver was pitched into the barriers after a tussle with Williams's Pastor Maldonado, handing second to Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen.

Alonso started 11th and fought his way up to fourth place before a safety car was deployed.

He gained third after a pit-stop problem for Lewis Hamilton, passed Romain Grosjean on the restart and saw leader Vettel retire with alternator failure on lap 35.

Battling fading tyres, Hamilton was passed by Raikkonen before Maldonado crashed into the side of him having rejoined the race track after running wide trying to pass the Briton around the outside.

Grosjean retired from second with 16 laps to go with alternator failure - the same problem that caused Vettel to retire.

The frantic action promoted Mercedes's Michael Schumacher to third place - the first podium since his comeback in 2010 - and Red Bull's Mark Webber to fourth from 19th on the grid.

It was by far the most exciting race the Valencia street circuit has ever produced and it was won by a top-drawer performance from Alonso

LONDON 2012 Olympics

A statement from the Saudi Embassy in London says the country's Olympic Committee will "oversee participation of women athletes who can qualify".

The decision will end recent speculation as to whether the entire Saudi team could have been disqualified on grounds of gender discrimination.

The public participation of women in sport is still fiercely opposed by many Saudi religious conservatives.

There is almost no public tradition of women participating in sport in the country.

Saudi officials say that with the Games now just a few weeks away, the only female competitor at Olympic standard is showjumper Dalma Rushdi Malhas.

US, N.Korea hold first talks after Kim’s death

Pyongyang and Washington began their first official contact since the death of Kim Jong-il, as senior diplomats from the two countries met in Beijing yesterday to discuss North Korea's nuclear activities.

After meeting on denuclearization, non-proliferation and humanitarian aid with North Korea's negotiator Kim Kye-gwan, Glyn Davies, coordinator for US policy on North Korea, marked the talks as serious and substantive.

"We covered a number of issues," AFP quoted Davies as saying, since "we are in mid-talks. I expect we will wrap up tomorrow (Friday)."

China yesterday supported the efforts of the US and North Korea for resuming the talks, as Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that "China has always believed that it is in accordance with the interests of all parties to resume the Six-Party Talks at an early date and implement the September 19 joint statement," according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Relevant parties should continue to follow the direction and objectives of the six-party talks and create conditions for the early resumption of the six-party talks, Hong said.

The process of negotiating between the two sides, in which the US is demanding North Korea end its nuclear activities, halted after the unexpected passing of Kim Jong-il.

It is the third round of negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, which began last year, aiming to break a deadlock for the relations between the two Koreas and for an early resumption of the Six-Party Talks.

"The resumption of contact is hard for achieving substantial results, because Pyongyang willl not meet the requirements set by the US on dismantling its nuclear activities," Jeung Young-tae, director of the North Korea Studies Center at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told the Global Times.

However, it is a good sign that Pyongyang would like to take a step on contributing to the early resumption of the Six-Party Talks, he said.

Wang Junsheng, a Korean affairs expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, agreed with Jeung, saying that the process of the Talks depends on the development of US-North Korea negotiations, and the improvement of relations between the two Koreas.

During the ongoing dialogue, Washington is trying to clear Pyongyang's attitude toward US demands on ending nuclear activities, since North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un just took over power at the end of last year, Wang said.

He said the US also wants to see if North Korea is abiding by its 2005 agreement on abandoning nuclear activities in exchange for food aid and security guarantees, adding the bilateral negotiations showed their efforts on pushing forward the Six-Party Talks.

Since Kim Jong-il died in December, the friction between the two Koreas has been growing. North Korea has announced it would no longer deal with the South, and has repeatedly denounced the "inhuman" response by Seoul following Kim Jong-il's death.

Yesterday, South Korea's unification ministry authorized two charitable groups to send medical instruments and drugs worth about $70,000 to the western provinces of North Korea, AFP reported.

South Korea is trying to ease tensions, because the US doesn't want to see any military clash between the two, which would not be consistent with US interests in the region, Wang said.

Agencies contributed to this story

Astronomers reveal new type of planet

 

Using Hubble space telescope, an international team of astronomers have come up with a new class of planet, according to a report published online Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal.

By analyzing the previously discovered world GJ1214b, the team led by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) astronomer Zachory Berta proved that it is a water world enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere.

Our solar system contains three types of planets: rocky, terrestrial worlds (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), gas giants ( Jupiter and Saturn), and ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). Planets orbiting distant stars come in an even wider variety, including lava worlds and "hot Jupiters".

"GJ1214b is like no planet we know of," said Berta in a statement issued Tuesday. "A huge fraction of its mass is made up of water."

GJ1214b was discovered in 2009 by the ground-based MEarth Project. This super-Earth is about 2.7 times Earth's diameter and weighs almost seven times as much. It orbits a red-dwarf star every 38 hours at a distance of 1.3 million miles, giving it an estimated temperature of 230 degree Celsius.

In 2010, CfA scientist Jacob Bean and colleagues reported that they had measured the atmosphere of GJ1214b, finding it likely that the atmosphere was composed mainly of water. However, their observations could also be explained by the presence of a world- wide haze in GJ1214b's atmosphere.

Berta and his co-authors used Hubble's WFC3 instrument to study GJ1214b when it crossed in front of its host star. During such a transit, the star's light is filtered through the planet's atmosphere, giving clues to the mix of gases. Hazes are more transparent to infrared light than to visible light, so the Hubble observations help tell the difference between a steamy and a hazy atmosphere.

They found the spectrum of GJ1214b to be featureless over a wide range of wave lengths, or colors. The atmospheric model most consistent with the Hubble data is a dense atmosphere of water vapor.

"The Hubble measurements really tip the balance in favor of a steamy atmosphere," said Berta.

Since the planet's mass and size are known, astronomers can calculate the density, which works out to about two grams per cubic centimeter. Water has a density of one gram per cubic centimeter, while Earth's average density is 5.5 gram per cubic centimeter. This suggests that GJ1214b has much more water than Earth, and much less rock. As a result, the internal structure of GJ1214b would be very different than our world.

Theorists expect that GJ1214b formed farther out from its star, where water ice was plentiful, and migrated inward early in the system's history. In the process, it would have passed through the star's habitable zone.

GJ1214b is located in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus, and just 40 light years from Earth. It's a prime candidate for study by the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope.

Al-shabab commanders flee towards Yemen

Reports from southern Somalia says that close to 100 members of the militant group Al-Shabab streamed out of the port town of Kismayu, directing towards Yemen, a sign the militant group is under increasing pressure.

Residents say at least three speed boats have docked at the port of Kismayu on Wednesday alone to carry 100 militants — mostly foreign fighters — fleeing to Yemen, only weeks after the Al-shabab and Al-Qaeda announced their merger.

Senior Al-shabab commanders ordered local residents in Kismayu town, which is just 500km away south of Mogadishu to come out in the streets and squares in the city, urging people to join the battlefields of the militants in Somalia.

Al-Shabab has formally merged with Al-Qaeda — a move that analysts say was an attempt to give a boost of confidence to an insurgent force that is losing power.

Only 42% of applicants for certificates in teaching admitted

DURING 2011/12 academic year, only 42.41 per cent of students who applied for certificates in teaching were admitted, the National Assembly was told on Friday.

Deputy Minister for Education and Vocational Training Mr Philipo Mulugo pointed out that out of 41,787 students who applied for admission, only 17,722 were admitted.

According to the deputy minister, out of the selected students, 7,138 were admitted at government teaching colleges and 10,594 at private ones.

Mr Mulugo also pointed out that 8,876 (85.79 per cent) out of 10,345 students who applied for diploma in teaching were admitted in private and public colleges.

“For those who fail to secure admission chances in public colleges, our ministry advises them to apply to private teaching colleges,” he explained.

Mr Mulugo was responding to a question by Jenista Mhagama (Peramiho-CCM), who wanted the number of students, who failed to be admitted and efforts done to address the problem. The legislator claimed that most of the youth who completed secondary schools and who were eligible for admission for teaching at certificate and diploma levels missed the chance for sometimes two consecutive years. Besides the problem, Mr Mulugo said that the students were admitted on merits and criteria for each course. “For a certificate course, priority is given to students who passed in Mathematics, Science and English and got between Division One and Four. “For diploma, priority is given to students who have attained Division Three (One principal and One subsidiary) in Form Six. But admission also depends on available chances and the budget,” he stated. In her supplementary question, Ms Mhagama wondered why the government did not admit all applicants considering acute shortage of teachers. She also complained that most of the admitted students were based in urban areas while applicants from rural areas were left in the cold. Ms Mhagama therefore advised the government to help these youth by opening more vocational and technical colleges. Responding to her, the Minister for Education and Vocational Training Dr Shukuru Kawambwa said that the government was at the time setting slots for each region to have their youth admitted at public colleges. “Plans to build vocational training colleges in every region will be effective from this year and the government will also make maximum use of Field District Colleges (FDCs),” the minister stated. There are about 103 teaching colleges in the country, out of which, 34 are public ones.

US troops to stay in Uganda until Kony is found

The head of the US military''s Africa Command, Army General Carter Ham

WASHINGTON: About 100 US troops that President Barack Obama ordered to Uganda last month to help crush the Lord's Resistance Army will probably remain deployed until the group's leader is captured or dead, the top US commander for Africa has said.

The head of the US military's Africa Command, Army General Carter Ham, said most of the American forces have landed in Uganda and are starting to co-ordinate the efforts of four central African countries as they comb a huge expanse of jungle for Joseph Kony, the messianic founder of the Lord's Resistance Army.

Kony and his rebels are accused of killing, maiming, kidnapping and raping thousands of civilians in Uganda, the Central African Republic, Congo and South Sudan.

Obama administration officials have been vague about how long US forces will remain in central Africa. In congressional testimony recently, a senior defence official said that the mission would last for a matter of 'months' but that it would be reviewed over time.

General Ham said the plan is to keep troops in the region until Kony is killed or brought to justice.

'That's the mission,' General Ham said in an interview during a visit to Washington last week.

The Lord's Resistance Army has been fighting the Ugandan government and attacking civilians for nearly 25 years, but General Ham predicted that the group 'will probably wither' if Kony is apprehended.

'This is not like another organisation where if you take the top guy out somebody else can step in,' General Ham said. 'It really is about him personally.'

Kony is a self-proclaimed prophet whose group emerged from northern Uganda in the late 1980s. The Lord's Resistance Army is known for its brutality and for conscripting children as soldiers and sex slaves.

The International Criminal Court indicted Kony and four other commanders in 2005 on war crimes charges. Kony and his core group of about 250 fighters have dodged their pursuers by retreating to jungle hideouts across central Africa.

A smaller group of US military advisers assisted a previous Ugandan-led offensive against the Lord's Resistance Army in late 2008 and early 2009. That operation backfired as Kony's group escaped and massacred hundreds of civilians.

Congress and human rights groups have pressed the White House to try again, prompting Mr Obama last month to send about 100 Special Operations Forces troops to the region.

It is the largest deployment of US forces to an African conflict zone since marines landed in Liberia in 2003.

MPs blow Shs 2.2bn on trips

Ugandan taxpayers have forked out an astronomical Shs 2.2bn to fund foreign travel for lawmakers for just four months, at a time the economy has come agonisingly close to a shuddering halt.

This financial year, Parliament received a total expenditure vote of Shs 162bn. Of this, Shs 8.5bn has been allocated to facilitate at least 300 of the 344 legislators on foreign

 travel for the financial year 2011/2012.

The Shs 2.2 billion spent so far on MPs’ foreign travel in four months translates into an average of Shs 550m being spent per month. If this rate is to be maintained in the course of its five-year lifespan, it means the 9th Parliament will spend Shs 33bn on allowances for foreign travel alone.

Even then, the figure is likely to rise significantly due to unforeseeable circumstances. For instance, by the time the parliamentary budget was drawn up, it had not been anticipated that an ad hoc committee would be set up to investigate the oil bribery allegations leveled against some government officials.

Parliament’s spokesperson, Helen Kawesa, admitted that the expenditure might appear high to the public, but she put it into perspective, telling The Observer on phone yesterday, that MPs are VIPs who travel Business Class and enjoy relatively high per diems. Kawesa also said that Parliament is sensitive of the current economic situation and thus insists on strict accountability for the money spent on foreign travel, including presentation of reports and boarding passes.

Besides the usual sitting allowances, Parliament will spend money to fund the seven-man committee to travel to London and Malta to verify information that the accused ministers held bank accounts there on which the bribe money was wired. With runaway inflation dampening hopes of economic growth and a majority of Ugandans beginning to feel the knock-on effects, the expenditures appear to be out of touch with the economic outlook.

While presenting the 2011/2012 national budget in June, Finance, Planning and Economic Development minister Maria Kiwanuka said amongst the austerity measures the government would undertake was limiting inland and foreign travel. According to travel records The Observer has obtained, covering the months of August, September, October and November, it appears Kiwanuka and the lawmakers are singing from a different hymn book.

Already overburdened by the high cost of providing other perks for Parliament, like purchasing fuel-guzzling four-wheel vehicles, this travel bill is the last thing taxpayers would want to learn of. MPs are entitled to an allowance of Shs 1.4 million ($550) for each day they spend out of the country on official duty.

An MP is expected to use part of this money to cater for his/her accommodation in case the host does not provide this service. However, the Speaker, deputy Speaker and Leader of the Opposition earn a higher per diem because they are entitled to other perks, like travelling with a spouse and support staff. They also occasionally meet delegations while abroad and need facilitation for this.

Yet, the allowances the legislators carry from home notwithstanding, on many occasions, they also receive a per diem from their foreign hosts. In neighbouring Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy, the MPs’ per diem for travel abroad has been increased from about $525 to $1,000 (Uganda Shs 2.6 million) per day, a decision that met stiff flak from the public before it was approved.

In Uganda, the lucrative side of foreign travel for MPs came to the fore recently when Kanungu Woman MP, Elizabeth Karungi, questioned the criteria used for choosing who travels.

“Madam Speaker, what criteria are used to select MPs for foreign trips? Some of us have not got a chance to travel outside,” Karungi said in a feat of rage.

Lawmakers indebted to banks and shylocks, and others buffeted by various demands like contributing to funerals in their constituencies, have used the opportunity of foreign travel to offset their debts.

Next week, some lawmakers are scheduled to travel to Bujumbura, the Burundi capital, for the East African inter-parliamentary football games.

Sources have told us that many of those travelling will prefer to use the free bus service provided by Parliament rather than purchase a return air-ticket, which costs about Shs 910,000, to enhance team spirit but also save on their travel allowance. For the ten days that they will spend in Bujumbura, the over 20 MPs will each pocket Shs 14 million.

The costly trips

As others wait for their turn, some have already made the much coveted foreign trips –– but at a heavy cost to the taxpayer.

For instance from October 10 to 15, MPs Odonga Otto, Peter Omollo, Olivia Kwagala, James Mbahimba and Amos Lugolobi, and a parliamentary staff, Alice Nyamwenge, visited the United Kingdom for six days on a study trip. Shs 103 million ($37,025) –– roughly Shs 15m per day — was spent on this trip alone.

From November 22 to 26, MPs Dr Kasiruvu Atwooki, Jennifer Egunyu, Boaz Kafuda, Lucy Ajok and Margaret Kiboijana, and a parliamentary worker, John Jones Ssentumbwe, travelled to Ethiopia to attend a workshop on regional best practices for a textile policy to be implemented in Uganda. This trip cost Shs 67.4million ($24,086), including air-tickets and accommodation.

Earlier this month, Kasirivu Atwooki attended a two-day regional parliamentarians’ dialogue on enhancing competitiveness through increased investment in Nigeria. His trip cost Shs 7m ($2,534).

Before him, Tororo county MP, Geoffrey Ekanya, attended a global conference on the role of Parliament in the governance of oil, gas and mineral resources in Ghana between November 1 and 2. His package for the trip amounted to Shs 12m ($4,330).

But the cost that eclipses all the other travel expenses so far this year was Speaker Rebecca Kadaga’s trip to Bern, Switzerland, to attend the 125th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly that took place between October 13 and 19. The seven-day trip cost taxpayers a whopping Shs 755m ($269,547), an average of Shs 107 million per day.

Kadaga’s delegation included MPs Emmanuel Dombo, Paula Turyahikayo, Reagan Okumu, Elijah Okupa, Lulume Bayiga, Rona Ninsiima, Ruth Achieng, Peter Abrahams Loki, Sulaiman Balyejjusa, William Nockrach and Maj Gen Julius Oketta.

Some of the parliamentary staff that attended the conference include: clerks Paul Wabwire and Emmanuel Bakwega; Sergeant at Arms, Ahmed Kagoye; and Parliament’s publicist, Helen Kawesa. Other parliamentary staff that travelled were: Ignatius Kasirye, JB Kagoro, Maria Nassali, Martha Kaganzi, Kenneth Nyiiro, Moses Matovu, Bernard Mubazi, Lillian Nsubuga, Jackson Abigaba and Rebecca Konso.

Between September I and 4, Kadaga, alongside other lawmakers, spent another Shs 175m ($62,613) during the Uganda North American Association (UNAA) convention in the USA.

The MPs who travelled with her were: Sam Otada, Edward Baliddawa, Florence Mutyabule, Ann Maria Nankabirwa, Richard Todwong and Ali Kasule Kabuye.

Last week, the deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah, was facilitated to a tune of Shs 112 million ($40,162) to attend the African Caribbean Pacific/European Union joint parliamentary assembly in Togo. The week-long conference, which began last Wednesday, November 16, ends this Wednesday, November 23.

Oulanyah is accompanied by MPs Rose Akullo Akol and Yowasi Bihande, and parliamentary workers Jennifer Mujungu, Martha Kaganzi and Mr R. Kaweesa.

Before he travelled to Togo, Oulanyah, on November 2 to 4, attended the Global majority 3rd International Conference on Genocide, a three-day trip that cost Shs 48m ($17,148).

In defence of Parliament, spokesperson Kawesa noted that foreign travel is governed by thorough procedures to avoid abuse, including approval by the Legal committee, the Parliamentary Commission, the Speaker, and even the Office of the Prime Minister.

Justifiable or not, the travel bill of Uganda’s lawmakers is in sharp contrast with the plight of majority of their constituents, who live on less than Shs 2,600 ($1) a day.