Chennai, Sep 10,2023: The third earth-bound manoeuvre of the Aditya-L1, India’s maiden solar exploratory mission to study the sun, was successfully performed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The orbit raising was performed at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru at 0230 hrs early on Sunday morning.
ISRO’s ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation.
The new orbit attained was 296 km x 71767 km.
The next manoeuvre (EBN#4) is scheduled for September 15, 2023, around 02:00 Hrs IST.
In an update ISRO said “Aditya-L1 Mission: The third Earth-bound manoeuvre(EBN#3) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. ISRO’s ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR and Port Blair tracked the
satellite during this operation.”
“The new orbit attained is 296 km x 71767 km. The next manoeuvre (EBN#4) is scheduled for September 15, 2023, around 02:00 Hrs. IST”, it said.
Srinagar, Sep 8,2023: The polls for Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Kargil (LAHDC-K) would be held on October 4, according to the latest notification issued by the Union Territory of Ladakh.
The administration also reserved the “plough” symbol for the National Conference(NC).
The announcement comes after the Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the August 5 notification of the election department for the Ladakh hill council polls and directed the issuance of a fresh notification within seven days for it.
The apex court had also rejected the appeal filed by the Union Territory of Ladakh against the Jammu and Kashmir High Court order allotting the “plough” symbol to the National Conference.
Ladakh Union Territory reserved the “plough” symbol for NC.
“In pursuance to the order of the Supreme Court dated September 6, 2023, in Civil Appeal No. 5707 of 2023 (SLP No. 18727 of 2023), the symbol “Plough” is hereby reserved for the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference Party for the ensuing elections to the 5th Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil,” reads a notification issued by the Administration of the Union Territory of Ladakh.
The administration also announced new dates for the polls as per the SC orders.
In compliance with the SC judgement, the Administration of the Union Territory of Ladakh announced the polls for LAHDC-K would be held on October 4. The counting would be held on October 8.
The LAHDC-K polls will be the first such elections in Kargil since Ladakh was carved out as a Union Territory from Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
Sept 06,2023: A top White House official has said North Korea would pay “a price” if it sells weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, after Washington warned that Pyongyang was in talks with Moscow about a potential arms deal.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that the United States believes the negotiations between North Korea and Russia are “actively advancing”.
“Providing weapons to Russia for use on the battlefield to attack grain silos and the heating infrastructure of major cities as we head into winter, to try to conquer territory that belongs to a modern sovereign nation – this is not going to reflect well on North Korea, and they will pay a price for this in the international community,” Sullivan told reporters.
His comments come after another official in US President Joe Biden’s administration said on Monday that Washington expected North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to hold a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin has refused to comment on the US claims, stressing that it has “nothing to say” about reports of potential direct talks between the two leaders.
Tokyo, Sep 6,2023:The Japanese government will be closely monitoring the situation and working with the international community and the United States against the background of media reports of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s possible visit to Russia, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Wednesday.
“We are aware of such reports. [The United Nations] Security Council resolutions completely prohibit the transfer of arms or materials for their production from North Korea. We plan to monitor this issue closely with a high degree of concern, including the possibility that violations [of the resolutions] may take place,” Matsuno told a news conference when asked to comment on the reports.
He added that Tokyo “will continue to maintain close contact with the international community and primarily with the US on this issue.”
The New York Times reported Monday, citing US and allied officials, that North Korea’s leader plans to visit Russia in September to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss military cooperation.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that he could not confirm media reports about the possible meeting between Kim and Putin in Russia in the near future, adding that he had “nothing to say on this topic.”
Aug 31,2023:Malaysia has rejected the latest edition of the ‘standard map of China’ that lays claim to almost the entire South China Sea, including areas lying off the coast of Malaysian Borneo.
Tensions have been rising in the strategically important waters as China has become increasingly assertive in its claim despite a 2016 international court ruling that its so-called ‘nine-dash line’ was without merit and superseded by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
In recent years, it has built military outposts on rocky outcrops and deployed its coast guard and maritime militia, which has sometimes led to confrontations with other claimants, including Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to the sea.
Malaysia noted the new map, which clearly depicts the nine-dash line, showed China’s “unilateral maritime claims” and that they overlapped with Malaysia’s claims of its states of Sabah and Sarawak.
“Malaysia does not recognise China’s claims in the South China Sea as outlined in the ‘2023 edition of the standard map of China’ which extends into Malaysian maritime area,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday night. “The map has no binding effect on Malaysia.”
The tongue-shaped nine-dash line is based on Chinese historical records dating to the Xia dynasty, nearly 4,000 years ago.
India has already lodged a strong protest over China’s new map, which it said showed the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin plateau as official Chinese territory. The two have been in dispute over their mutual border for decades with clashes reported as recently as 2020.
“We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question,” India’s foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a statement.
Asked about India’s criticisms, Beijing said the map reflected China’s “exercise of sovereignty in accordance with the law”.
“We hope relevant sides can stay objective and calm, and refrain from over-interpreting the issue,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told the media at a briefing on Wednesday.
TRIPOLI/JERUSALEM, Aug 29,2023: Libya’s prime minister sacked Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush on Monday in an effort to contain a growing furore over Mangoush’s meeting with her Israeli counterpart last week, which prompted protests overnight in several Libyan cities.
Mangoush had said her meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Rome was unplanned and informal, but an Israeli official told Reuters it had lasted two hours and was approved “at the highest levels in Libya”.
The meeting is contentious because Libya does not formally recognise Israel and there is widespread public support across the Libyan political spectrum for the Palestinian cause of creating an independent state in territory Israel occupies.
The dispute over the meeting has fed into Libya’s internal political crisis, giving ammunition to Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah’s internal critics at a moment when the future of his interim government was already in question.
Libya has been without a stable central government since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Dbeibah’s interim government, in office since 2021, is not recognised by some major factions and there is growing political momentum to replace it with a new unified administration aimed at holding national elections.