An artist illustration of a meteor impacting the moon and resulting in an explosion that can be visible from Earth skies. // Credit: NASA

by Andrew Fazekas
National Geographic

A boulder-sized meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at the right moment might have spotted it, NASA announced Friday.

NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is reporting the discovery of the brightest impact seen on the moon in the eight year history of the monitoring program.

Some 300 lunar impact events have been logged over the years but this latest impact, from March 17, is considered many orders of magnitude brighter than anything else observed.

“We have seen a couple of others in the ‘wow’ category but not this bright,” said Robert Suggs, manager of NASA’s Lunar Impact Monitoring Program at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The blast lasted only about a single second and shone like a 4th magnitude star—making it bright enough to see with just the unaided eye.

The NASA monitoring program’s 14-inch telescope was the first to snag an image of the lunar explosion. Analyzing the images, researchers estimate that the object probably weighed in at 40 kg (88 pounds) and was about 0.4 meters (1.4 feet) wide. It crashed into the moon at speeds of 56,000 miles (90,000 km) per hour, releasing as much energy as five tons of TNT.

Scientists hope to corroborate the impact with close-up photography from a NASA spacecraft  orbiting the moon.

Click here to continue reading…

A Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system on display in an undisclosed location in Russia (photo credit: AP)

The Times of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that Moscow’s sale of a sophisticated missile defense system to President Bashar Assad could push the Middle East into war.

Netanyahu, who flew to meet Putin for emergency talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, told the Russian president that the S-300 had no relevance to Assad’s civil-war battles against rebel groups, and urged Moscow not to deliver the systems, Channel 2 reported on Wednesday night.

He said that if acquired by Assad, the S-300 — a state-of-the-art system that can intercept fighter jets and cruise missiles — “is likely to draw us into a response, and could send the region deteriorating into war,” the Channel 2 report said.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, asked last week about possible sales of the S-300 to Assad, said cagily: “Russia is not planning to sell. Russia has been selling for a long time, has signed contracts and is completing deliveries of technology that consists of anti-aircraft systems.”

Lavrov said the weapons were to help Syria defend itself against air attacks. Israel suspects that Russia plans to sell Damascus six S-300 missile batteries, as well as 144 missiles, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Netanyahu, who flew to meet Putin despite have only just returned from a trip to China, took with him his National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror and the head of military intelligence in the IDF Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi. Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin went too, to help with translations.

Netanyahu also briefed Putin on Israel’s intel assessment of Assad’s alleged chemical weapons use. He also filled the president in on Israel’s information concerning Syria’s transfer of arms to Hezbollah.

At a brief joint press conference, the Russian president said that the only way to resolve the crisis was via “the soonest end to armed conflict and the beginning of political settlement.”

He added: “At this sensitive moment, it’s particularly important to avoid any action that could destabilize the situation.”

Netanyahu, however, said that the volatile situation in the Middle East requires action to improve security. “The region around us is very unstable and explosive, and therefore I am glad for the opportunity to examine together new ways to stabilize the area and bring security and stability to the area,” he said. The prime minister’s bottom line was that “Israel will do whatever it takes to defend its citizens.”

Russia has continued to ship weapons to Syria, despite the civil war there, but it so far has refrained from providing Damascus with the S-300s, which has a range of up to 200 kilometers (125 miles), and the capability to track down and strike multiple targets simultaneously with lethal efficiency.

The weapon would mean a quantum leap in Syria’s air defense capability, including against neighboring countries.

Israel reportedly attacked suspected shipments of advanced Iranian weaponry — the Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missile — in Syria with back-to-back airstrikes this month. Israeli officials signaled there would be more attacks unless Syria refrains from trying to deliver such “game-changing” missiles to Hezbollah. Hezbollah said weapons shipments won’t cease.

On Monday, Israeli Tourism Minister Uzi Landau accused Russia of destabilizing the Middle East by selling weapons to Assad’s regime. “Anyone who provides weaponry to terror organizations is siding with terror,” Landau said.

North Korean missiles on display during a military parade in Pyongyang, on April 15, 2012 (AFP/File, Ed Jones)

by Choe Sang-Hun
The New York Times

North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea off its east coast on Saturday, the South Korean Defense Ministry said.

Two missiles were launched in the morning, followed by another in the afternoon, said Kim Min-seok, a ministry spokesman.

“We remain vigilant and prepared in case the launching of these missiles might be followed by a military provocation by the North,” Mr. Kim said.

Tests of short-range missiles by North Korea are fairly routine. The last such tests were reported in March.

Tensions have been high on the Korean Peninsula since the North’s launching of a three-stage rocket in December and its third nuclear test in February. The United Nations Security Council responded by tightening sanctions against Pyongyang, which drastically escalated its usual bellicose rhetoric, threatening nuclear strikes.

Officials in the region have been watching for North Korean missile tests since South Korea detected mobile launch vehicles deployed on the North’s east coast early last month. The vehicles carried intermediate-range missiles known as Musudan, which have never been tested and are believed to be the closest the North has to a missile capable of striking American bases on the Pacific island of Guam, as Pyongyang has threatened to do.

The missiles launched on Saturday did not include a Musudan, officials here said.

Tensions on the peninsula appear to have decreased in recent weeks, since the United States and South Korea completed their major annual military drills at the end of last month. The drills had angered the North.

Earlier this month, American officials said that North Korea had withdrawn the Musudan mobile launch vehicles, triggering speculation that Pyongyang wanted to de-escalate tensions or, perhaps, was moving the missiles out of view of spy satellites.

Glyn T. Davies, Washington’s top envoy on North Korea, this week completed a trip to Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo, where he discussed how to deal with the North’s nuclear and missile threats.

CIA Director John Brennan (photo credit: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

by Ron Friedman
The Times of Israel

CIA Director John Brennan arrived in Israel Thursday evening and held consultations on the situation in Syria, amid fears that Israel could get drawn into the fighting there.

Upon landing in the country, Brennan, whose visit was not announced ahead of time, went directly to the army headquarters in Tel Aviv for a meeting with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Channel 10 reported. During the meeting, the two shared intelligence assessments, and Ya’alon reiterated Israel’s refusal to let advanced weapons make their way from Syria to Hezbollah, vowing to continue carrying out strikes against arms shipments.

According to Israel Radio, the two also discussed Iran’s nuclear program and other regional threats.

Twice this month, Israel carried out air attacks in the Damascus area to blow up Fateh-110 ground-to-ground missile consignments en route to Hezbollah via Syria from Iran.

The meeting followed on the heels of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to Russia, during which he met with President Vladimir Putin and told him that Moscow’s sale of the S-300 missile defense system to Syrian President Bashar Assad could push the Middle East into war.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, evidently unmoved by the dramatic Israeli warning, declared on Thursday that while Moscow was “not signing any new deals,” it would honor existing contracts with Syria, including for the transfer of the S-300 air-defense systems. “We’ve already carried out some of the deal,” Lavrov said, “and we will carry the rest of it out in full.”

In their talks, Netanyahu reportedly told the Russian president that the S-300 had no relevance to Assad’s civil-war battles against rebel groups, and implored Moscow not to deliver the systems, Channel 2 reported.

He said that if acquired by Assad, the S-300 — a state-of-the-art system that can intercept fighter jets and cruise missiles — “is likely to draw us into a response, and could send the region deteriorating into war,” the Channel 2 report said Tuesday.

An Israeli source was quoted Thursday as saying that Netanyahu had told Putin the S-300s represent a weapons system that “shatters [Israel's] qualitative edge,” presumably since it would greatly constrain the Israeli Air Force’s freedom of movement above Syria and neighboring Lebanon.

The Israeli source was also quoted as saying that Israel would “firmly oppose” the transfer of S-300s to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Israel reportedly warned Assad that further attacks were being considered, and that it would “bring down” his regime if he retaliated.

Also on Wednesday, Israel Radio reported that Tehran had approached Damascus about letting Hezbollah open a new front against Israel from Syrian territory.

The Lebanese daily al-Akhbar suggested last week that Iran had “reached a final decision” to respond to reported Israeli airstrikes on a weapons transfer in Syria by “turning the Golan into a new Fatah-land. The front has become open to Syrians and Palestinians and anyone who wants to fight Israel.”

May 17, 2013: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, left, accompanied by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, gestures as he speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon. The Obama administration is criticizing Russia’s decision to provide Syria with anti-ship missiles, which it says will only worsen the civil war. (AP)

The Associated Press

The Obama administration denounced Russia on Friday for providing Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime with anti-ship missiles, saying the weapons would only worsen a war that Washington and Moscow have been promising to work together on stopping.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, criticized what he called an “unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering.” He spoke at a news conference after the New York Times reported that Russia recently delivered an advanced version of Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria.

“It’s ill-timed and very unfortunate,” Dempsey said.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also urged Russia to rethink its military aid, saying that the U.S. and Russia both wanted to stabilize Syria after more than two years of civil war but that the Kremlin’s military support makes the situation even more dangerous.

“What we don’t want to see happen, the Russians don’t want to see happen, is for Syria to erupt to the point where we may well find a regional war in the Middle East,” Hagel said.

“So we continue to work with the Russians on their interests and everything we can do to convince the powers that are involved in the region to be careful with escalation of military options and equipment,” he said, adding  that the U.S. was planning for every military contingency.

Dempsey’s comments, in particular, seemed to contradict that of the State Department, where spokeswoman Jen Psaki said earlier Friday that the U.S. was aware of no “new shipments” of the weapons.

For the Obama administration, the anti-ship missiles are the second such worrying report in as many weeks at a time when Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov say they are coordinating closely to try to get Syria’s government and rebels into the start of a peace negotiation. They are hoping the talks begin next month in Geneva.

Almost immediately after last week’s announcement by Kerry and Lavrov of a new peace push, Israeli officials warned that Moscow was preparing to give Assad state-of-the-art ground-to-air missile systems in the coming months.

Both sets of missiles would only add to the administration’s reservations as it evaluates a range of options, including military ones, to break the stalemate in Syria’s civil war and respond to evidence that Assad’s forces used small amounts of chemical weapons in two attacks in March. Obama previously declared chemical weapons use his “red line” for a more forceful American intervention, though Kerry and other U.S. officials have since suggested that no such step would be taken while the new peace push still has hope.

The cruise missiles and the new surface-to-air batteries would significantly upgrade the Assad regime’s capacity to target manned planes, drones and incoming missiles after its systems were easily circumvented in 2007 when Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site along the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria.

Apparently successful Israeli strikes in recent weeks on weapons convoys to Hezbollah show the Syrian defenses are still far from impregnable, but the new weaponry would make it harder for United States to consider enforcing a no-fly zone in the country or otherwise intervening militarily.

Dempsey also warned specifically about the surface-to-air missiles, saying they provide Syria with defenses at higher altitude and longer range, and with better tracking capability.

“It pushes the standoff distance a little more, increases risk, but not impossible to overcome,” he told reporters. “What I really worry about is that Assad will decide that since he’s got these systems, he’s somehow safer and more prone to a miscalculation.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/17/us-slams-russia-for-sending-anti-ship-missiles-to-syria/?test=latestnews#ixzz2Te6OH9Hh

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (photo credit: Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90)

The Associated Press

Canada’s prime minister Stephen Harper expressed dismay Thursday at the growing lack of support for Israel across the world and criticized international leaders for failing to back the Jewish state.

“There’s nothing more shortsighted in Western capitals in our time than the softening of support we’ve seen for Israel around the globe,” he said, calling the country “the one stable, democratic ally in this part of the world.”

Speaking during a visit to New York City, Harper also touched on Syria as he urged “extraordinary caution” on the idea of arming the opposition.

“We should not fool ourselves about what’s happening in Syria,” he said, saying there is “brutality and extremism on both sides.”

“To start talking about arming unnamed people whose objectives we don’t understand, I think, is extremely risky,” Harper said.

Earthquake hits Canada

The Associated Press

Earthquakes Canada is reporting a 5.1-magnitude earthquake just west of Ottawa that was felt as far away as Toronto.

The federal agency that monitors earthquakes revised its original report, saying it registered a 5.1-magnitude temblor with an epicenter located about 21 kilometers (13 miles) northeast of Shawville, Quebec, about an hour’s drive outside Ottawa.

It was felt as far west as Toronto, Canada’s largest city, but no damage was immediately reported.

Twitter erupted with reports of buildings shaking in Ottawa for several seconds. Ontario’s premier, who lives in Toronto, tweeted that her house was shaking.

Ontario Provincial Police in Arnprior, Ontario, not far from the epicenter, say they have received no reports of damage.

The original report said a 4.8-magnitude quake was centered near the town of Braeside, Ontario.

Christianity in the UK is declining 50pc faster than thought. // Photo: ALAMY

Christianity could be facing a catastrophic collapse in Britain according to official figures suggesting it is declining 50 per cent faster than previously thought.

by John Bingham
The Telegraph 

For several hours on Wednesday, Israel closed Mount Hermon, above, a popular tourist site in Golan Heights, after mortar shells fired from Syria landed there. (Atef Safadi/European Pressphoto Agency)

by  Mark Landler
The New York Times

In a clear warning to Syria to stop the transfer of advanced weapons to Islamic militants in the region, a senior Israeli official signaled on Wednesday that Israel was considering additional military strikes to prevent that from happening and that the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, would face crippling consequences if he retaliated.

“Israel is determined to continue to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah,” the Israeli official said. “The transfer of such weapons to Hezbollah will destabilize and endanger the entire region.”

“If Syrian President Assad reacts by attacking Israel, or tries to strike Israel through his terrorist proxies,” the official said, “he will risk forfeiting his regime, for Israel will retaliate.”

The Israeli official, who had been briefed by high-level officials on Israel’s assessment of the situation in Syria, declined to be identified, citing the need to protect internal Israeli government deliberations. He contacted The New York Times on Wednesday.

The precise motives for Israel’s warning were uncertain: Israel could be seeking to restrain Syria’s behavior to avoid taking further military action, or alerting other countries to another military strike. That would increase the tension in an already fraught situation in Syria, where a civil war has been raging for more than two years.

There could be a secondary audience for the warning, analysts said, in Hezbollah and its primary supporter, Iran. Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, has said in recent days it could use weapons supplied by Iran to retaliate for recent Israeli strikes on Syria.

Click here to continue reading…

Western powers are concerned that Russia might supply Syria with its high-tech S-300 missile system (AFP/File, Kirill Kudryavtsev)

by Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt
The New York Times

Russia has sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, American officials said Thursday.

Russia has previously provided a version of the missiles, called Yakhonts, to Syria. But those delivered recently are outfitted with an advanced radar that makes them more effective, according to American officials who are familiar with classified intelligence reports and would only discuss the shipment on the basis of anonymity.

Unlike Scud and other longer-range surface-to-surface missiles that the Assad government has used against opposition forces, the Yakhont antiship missile system provides the Syrian military a formidable weapon to counter any effort by international forces to reinforce Syrian opposition fighters by imposing a naval embargo, establishing a no-fly zone or carrying out limited airstrikes.

“It enables the regime to deter foreign forces looking to supply the opposition from the sea, or from undertaking a more active role if a no-fly zone or shipping embargo were to be declared at some point,” said Nick Brown, editor in chief of IHS Jane’s International Defense Review. “It’s a real ship killer.”

Jeffrey White, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former senior American intelligence official, said Syria’s strengthened arsenal would “tend to push Western or allied naval activity further off the coast” and was also “a signal of the Russian commitment to the Syrian government.”

The disclosure of the delivery comes as Russia and the United States are planning to convene an international conference that is aimed at ending the brutal conflict in Syria, which has killed more than 70,000. That conference is expected to be held in early June and to include representatives of the Assad government and the Syrian opposition.

Secretary of State John Kerry has repeatedly said that it is the United States’ hope to change Mr. Assad’s “calculations” about his ability to hold on to power so that he will allow negotiations for a political solution to the conflict. Mr. Kerry indicated that he had raised the issue of Russian arms deliveries to Syria during his recent visit to Moscow, but declined to provide details.

Click here to continue reading…

AP Photo: Arturo Andrade. Lava flows from the Popocatepetl volcano after an eruption early Wednesday, May 15, as seen from Tlamacas, Mexico.

The Associated Press

Seismic activity is continuing at the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City, and authorities say they have readied shelters and identified evacuation routes in case they are needed.

Mexico’s National Disaster Prevention Center says there were two explosions at the white-capped volcano between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The center says the volcano spewed a plume of steam about a mile into the sky.

Authorities continue to monitor the volcano’s activity but have not ordered any evacuations. Rain has been forecast for the area, however, and authorities say towns nearby could be flooded with ash mud.

Popocatepetl has put out small eruptions of ash almost daily since a round of activity began in 1994. The eruptions started strengthening two weeks ago and increased over the weekend.

Illustrative photo of the Russian warship Varyag (photo credit: CC BY randychiu, Flickr)

Deployment presumably a warning to Israeli and Western officials regarding military intervention against Assad

The Times of Israel

In a move considered aggressive by US and European officials, Russia has sent at least 12 warships to patrol waters near its naval base in Tartous, Syria.

The deployment appears to be a warning to Israeli and Western officials against military intervention in Syria’s bloody civil war, which has now claimed the lives of over 80,000 people.

Russia’s increased presence in the region — which began raising eyebrows in the US three months ago — represents one of its largest sustained naval deployments since the Cold War, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

“It’s a show of force. It’s muscle flexing,” a top US official told the Journal.

Russian news sources reported earlier Thursday that five warships had entered the Mediterranean Sea to bolster the country’s new regional task force. The vessels were scheduled to dock in Limassol, Cyprus.

In March, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the naval task force was needed in order to protect Russian interests in the region.

Also Thursday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Israeli pleas not to sell sophisticated S-300 air defense systems to Bashar Assad’s regime, saying Moscow would fulfill its contract with Damascus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, in emergency talks on Tuesday, that the sale could push the region toward war.

The speaker of Jordan’s Senate, Taher Al-Masry

Senate speaker Taher Al-Masri accuses Israel of striving to replace Al-Aqsa Mosque with Jewish temple

by Elhanan Miller
The Times  of Israel

Jordan has hardened its rhetoric regarding Israel, with a government spokesman threatening the Jewish state with “political, diplomatic and legal” measures in response to Israeli security restrictions on the Temple Mount ahead of Jerusalem Day last week.

Jordan’s government spokesman and communications minister Mohammed Al-Momani said Tuesday that Israeli ambassador Daniel Nevo left for Israel last week after being summoned by Jordan’s foreign ministry, which handed him a harshly worded letter for the Israeli government.

“He has not returned to Amman since that meeting,” reported independent Jordanian daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm.

Jordan’s lower house of parliament unanimously voted to banish the ambassador on May 8after Israel banned Muslim worshipers under the age of 50 from the Temple Mount and summoned Jerusalem Mufti Mohammed Hussein over his involvement in disturbances near the Al-Aqsa mosque that day. The vote had symbolic but little practical importance.

While acknowledging a palpable worsening in diplomatic relations with Jordan, an Israeli diplomatic source denied in a phone conversation Thursday with The Times of Israel that ambassador Nevo was given a reprimand by the Jordanian government, and said Nevo was back in Israel only to mourn the passing of his father.

“There is a raising of the tone lately,” the Israeli diplomat said. “We don’t know to what extent this is about us, or about internal Jordanian politics.”

“Our relationship with Jordan is very important to us,” the diplomat added.

Last month, 110 Jordanian parliament members signed a petition calling for the release of Ahmad Daqamseh, a Jordanian soldier who gunned down a group of Israeli schoolgirls on a field trip to the “Isle of Peace” border area of Naharayim in 1997, killing seven. A Jordanian MP, Muhammad Asha Dawaimeh, was sacked from his party after attending Israeli Independence Day celebrations at the residence of President Shimon Peres.

Meanwhile, the speaker of Jordan’s Senate, Taher Al-Masry, complained to independent Jordanian daily Al-Ghad on Thursday that the Arab and Islamic response to “Israel’s premeditated aggression” against the Temple Mount was insufficient to repel “the goals of this aggression.”

“The plan of Israel and the Jewish religious institutions to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque and build the temple in its place is well-known,” Masry told Al-Ghad. “Their plan in this regard is long-term, in preparation for that day. The recent aggression is a preliminary step in implementing that plan.”

Al-Masry added that Israel was also trying to undermine a recent agreement signed between Jordan and the Palestinian Authority,granting Jordan patronage over the Christian and Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.

“This agreement is a thorn in the flesh of the Israelis, challenging their entire policy of Judaizing Jerusalem,” he said.

The Bushehr nuclear facility in Iran (photo credit: AP/Mehr News Agency/Majid Asgaripour/File)

As Tehran gets set to chair the very disarmament forum it flouts, and former Obama officials suggest a bomb may not be preventable, signs are that diplomacy has run out of steam

by Haviv Rettig Gur
The Times of Israel

The Iranian nuclear program’s “known unknowns” are many: from the precise state of Tehran’s nuclear know-how to the reliability of Western intelligence assessments, from the innate difficulties in calculating an opponent’s perception of political risk to the unpredictable results of military intervention.

Yet while the details are complicated, in many ways the fundamental questions at the heart of the years-long standoff with the Islamic Republic are simple. Can Tehran be dissuaded from pursuing a nuclear weapon? Does the West have the political will to stop the program by force if the Iranians cannot be convinced to do so peacefully?

This week offered a series of signals, each a mere fragment of a wider diplomatic discourse that, taken together, might raise profound questions in any concerned observer.

On the diplomatic front, it’s been a busy week of running in place.

In Vienna, the 10th meeting in 18 months between the IAEA and Iranian negotiators ended Wednesday without an agreement on the international nuclear watchdog’s ability to investigate Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The IAEA’s investigation of these efforts has been stalled for more than five years because the Iranians won’t cooperate.

Herman Nackaerts, head of the IAEA team, showed remarkable diplomatic flair for understatement when he noted glumly, “Our best efforts have not been successful so far.”

Meanwhile in Istanbul, the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili on Wednesday without result, though Jalili helpfully noted on Thursday that there is a good chance there will be more talks next month.

Click here to continue reading…

Visitors tour the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China’s Sichuan province October 18, 2007. REUTERS/China Daily

by Andrea Shalal-Esa
Reuters

The U.S. government believes a Chinese missile launch this week was the first test of a new interceptor that could be used to destroy a satellite in orbit, one U.S. defense official told Reuters on Wednesday.

China launched a rocket into space on Monday but no objects were placed into orbit, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. The object re-entered Earth’s atmosphere above the Indian Ocean.

“We tracked several objects during the flight but did not observe the insertion of any objects into orbit and no objects associated with this launch remain in space,” said Lieutenant Colonel Monica Matoush, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

The rocket reached 10,000 km (6,250 miles) above Earth, the highest suborbital launch seen worldwide since 1976, according to Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

China has said the rocket, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in western China, carried a science payload to study the earth’s magnetosphere.

However, a U.S. defense official said U.S. intelligence showed that the rocket could be used in the future to carry an anti-satellite payload on a similar trajectory. Neither the U.S. official nor the Pentagon released details of what the Chinese rocket carried into space.

“It was a ground-based missile that we believe would be their first test of an interceptor that would be designed to go after a satellite that’s actually on orbit,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, declined to comment specifically on the rocket launch, but said China was clearly taking a more aggressive posture in space.

“Any time you have a nation-state looking to have a more aggressive posture in space, it’s very concerning,” Rogers said at a Reuters Cybersecurity Summit.

The United States remains concerned about China’s development of anti-satellite capabilities after Beijing shot a missile at one of its own defunct satellites in orbit in 2007, creating an enormous amount of debris in space.

Monday’s rocket launch was similar to launches using the Blue Scout Junior rocket that were conducted by the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s for research on Earth’s magnetosphere, McDowell said in an emailed response to questions.

He said all the previous suborbital launches above 10,000 km (6,250 miles) had been conducted by the United States. All China’s previous missile tests went to less than 2,000 km (1,250 miles), although Beijing had launched orbital vehicles higher, including to the Moon, he said.

Most scientific suborbital launches are at most 1,500 km (940 miles) or so, McDowell added. The 1976 launch was Gravity Probe A, when NASA and McDowell’s institute worked together to launch an atomic clock to 10,280 km (6,425 miles).

Monday’s launch came less than a week after U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter unveiled what he called a “long overdue” effort to safeguard U.S. national security satellites and develop ways to counter the space capabilities of potential adversaries.

U.S. military space officials are taking steps to improve the resilience of national security satellites in orbit, the defense official said. These include using new wave forms to make it more difficult for adversaries to jam signals from space, putting U.S. sensors on commercial satellites and using terrestrial high-frequency communications.

Last week, the Pentagon released an 83-page report on Chinese military developments that highlighted China’s increasing space capabilities and said Beijing was pursuing a variety of activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.

(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Cynthia Osterman)

Syrian President Bashar Assad heading a cabinet meeting in Damascus, February 12, 2013. Photo: REUTERS/SANA/Handout

The Jerusalem Post

Iran persuaded Syrian President Bashar Assad to allow Hezbollah to open a new front from which to attack Israel in the Golan Heights, Israel Radio reported Wednesday citing a report by the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat.

According the report, an Iranian source told the newspaper that Tehran is determined to prevent the fall of Assad’s regime in Damascus, because the Syrian president has been convinced to open the Golan to all Arabs and Muslim wanting to fight Israel.

The report follows similar claims last week that following alleged Israeli air strikes near Damascus, Syrian authorities considered allowing Palestinian armed groups to launch attacks against Israel across the Golan Heights border, as reported by Syrian daily Al Watan.

According to the report, the initiative was set to be discussed in upcoming meetings between Syria and Palestinian faction leaders, said Khalid Abd al-Majid, secretary-general of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front.

In light of recent developments, Syria has the “right and duty to respond using all available means,” Majid was reported as saying.

Majid’s faction is close to the Syrian regime, and the strength of the forces under his control is subject to dispute.

Prof. Eyal Zisser – an expert on Syria at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center – told The Jerusalem Post he doubts the report because there is no real presence of strong Palestinian forces that would be able to carry out such an attack.

However, Zisser did not rule out the possibility that  Assad might attack Israel in an indirect manner, via a third party.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the UN General Assembly was set to vote on a draft resolution that condemns Syrian authorities and accepts the opposition Syrian National Coalition as party to a potential political transition.

Ariel Ben Solomon, Michael Wilner, Reuters contributed to this report.

Palestinian protesters, police clash at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem on Nakba Day, May 15, 2013. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

75 injured in West Bank demonstrations; Abbas calls for sovereign state on pre-1967 lines; MK Ilatov: Palestinians do not want peace.

The Jerusalem Post

Palestinians on Wednesday marked the 65th anniversary of Nakba Day, the “catastrophe” of the founding of the State of Israel, with demonstrations and rallies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

UN and Lebanese officials posing with Israel-less map

Palestinian Media Watch

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) launched a German-funded project in southern Lebanon where the area’s Director of UNRWA Affairs, Ann Dismorr, posed with a map devoid of any trace of the State of Israel, instead presenting it as a map of “Palestine.”

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) captured the UN representatives’ egregious actions and noted that above the map is the Palestinian flag and the inscription: “Arab Palestine.” The text at the bottom of the map also reads just “Palestine.”

Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon are all identified on the map by name. Only Israel is erased from the U.N. map. What’s more, The Jewish State’s towns in the Negev desert, along with Be’er Sheva, Hebron, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Tiberias, and the Dead Sea are allocated to Palestine on the map.

The map was presented at the launch of anUNRWA project to improve the water supply and rehabilitate shelters in the Rashidieh Camp, according to PMW. The map was reportedly a gift from the “Palestinian Women’s Union.”

According to UNRWA’s website, Germany was represented at the ceremony by the Head of Economic Cooperation and Development at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lebanon.

High ranking Lebanese and Palestinian officials were also reportedly present at the event unveiling the Israel-less map.

Israeli infantry soldiers of the Golani brigade take part in exercises in the Israeli annexed Golan Heights, on May 6, 2013.

by Kareem Khadder and Laura Smith-Spark
CNN

Several Syrian rockets landed early Wednesday in the Mount Hermon area of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, on the border with Syria, the Israeli military said.

“Initial reports indicate that the rockets are a result of (the) domestic situation in Syria,” a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces said.

“As a result the Hermon side of the mountain will be temporarily closed for visitors.”

The Israel Defense Forces has been in touch with the U.N. force stationed between the two countries, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, over the incident, it said.

According to the website for Mount Hermon, it is the highest point in Israel and is visited by skiers in winter and hikers the rest of the year. A chair lift runs up the mountain, part of which is a designated military zone.

The Golan Heights, formerly Syrian territory, were seized by Israel in 1967. The two countries signed an armistice in 1974, following the Yom Kippur War, and U.N. forces have been stationed there since.

Is Syrian war escalating to wider conflict?

It’s not the first time Syria’s civil war has spilled over into the Golan Heights area.

Four U.N. peacekeepers were released Sunday, five days after they were seized by armed men while patrolling between Syria and the Israeli-occupied territory.

In March, 22 peacekeepers were held for four days by rebels. The United Nations called on Syrian and rebel troops at that time to honor the impartiality of the U.N. troops stationed in the Golan Heights.

Tensions in the area have been heightened recently and Israel has twice conducted strikes against Syria.