http://www.spacewar.com/index.html Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST en-us Iran on Friday rejected allegations by the US director of national intelligence James Clapper that the Islamic republic was more willing now to carry out attacks on American soil. "Iran categorically denies James Clapper's unfounded allegations," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. "Those who are themselves accused of supporting the assassination of Iranian scientists in ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Two plants to manufacture space-defense missiles will be built in central Russia, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said. The first facility, to be built in Nizhny Novgorod, will employ 5,000 workers and have a total manufacturing volume of about $200 million, while the second, in the city of Kirov, will employ 3,000, RIA Novosti reported. "I hope we will develop models that a]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST NATO agreed Friday to buy five reconnaissance drones to boost the alliance's surveillance capabilities after the Libyan air war exposed shortcomings among European forces in that field. The Global Hawk, a long-range, high-altitude aircraft made by US defence industry giant Northrop Grumman, will be the key component in NATO's long-delayed Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system. "This ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Iran on Friday launched an observation satellite into orbit above Earth, its third since 2009, the official IRNA news agency reported. "The Navid satellite was launched successfully.... It will be placed into an orbit (at an altitude) between 250 and 370 kilometres," IRNA quoted the head of Iran's Space Organisation, Hamid Fazeli, as saying. The launch comes as Iran is marking the annive]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST The US Air Force plans to spend $2.8 billion to keep old combat aircraft in the air because of major delays with the new F-35 fighter jet program, top officials said Friday. With the production schedule of the F-35 jet repeatedly postponed due to technical problems, the Pentagon will upgrade 350 aging F-16 fighters to fill the gap in the fleet, Air Force leaders told reporters. "The issu]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST French aircraft manufacturer Dassault has landed India's biggest military contract with a $10 billion order for 126 Rafale jet fighters. In a brief announcement on its Web site Dassault said it is "honored and grateful to the Indian government and the people of India to be given the opportunity to extend their long-lasting cooperation." Dassault Aviation and its partners "reitera]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST French military electronics giant Thales is negotiating with Saudi Arabia for a contract, worth up to $3 billion, to upgrade the kingdom's air-defense network, particularly those guarding key military and government sites. The French company's regional arm, Thales International Middle East, is well-established in the kingdom. Over the last three decades Thales has maintained the ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a "strong possibility" that Israel will strike Iran's nuclear installations this spring, the Washington Post said Thursday in an editorial. When asked about the opinion piece by reporters travelling with him to a NATO meeting in Brussels, Panetta brushed it aside. "I'm not going to comment on that. David Ignatius can write what he will ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Europe should not fear a renewed US focus on Asia and must increasingly look after its own backyard militarily without its historic ally, Germany's defence minister said on Friday. "Europeans should not look at the strategic re-orientation of the Americans with apprehension. There is every reason to be calm and confident," Thomas de Maiziere said, opening the Munich Security Conference. ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Sitting cross-legged on a blood-red Afghan carpet in a house perched on a Kabul hillside, the bearded man gazes out across the sprawling city where he was once one of the most feared men in town. Now, Maulavi Qalamuddin, former chief of the Taliban's "vice and virtue" squad which whipped women without burqas and jailed men without beards, lives behind a battered green door set in a mud wall ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST The US Army said in a statement Friday that it had approved a recommendation that Bradley Manning be court-martialed for allegedly funneling hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. The decision clears the way to set a date for Manning, a private with the Army, to face a host of charges, including that he aided the enemy and wrongfully caused intelligence to be openly publ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Hacker group Anonymous, in an embarrassment for law enforcement, released a recording Friday of a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard discussing operations against the hacking collective. The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed the authenticity of the nearly 17-minute recording posted on YouTube and other sites and said it was "intended for law enforcement officers only a]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST NATO military commanders will beef up security measures to prevent insurgents from infiltrating the Afghan army after French troops were killed by a renegade soldier, the alliance chief said Friday. NATO defence ministers endorsed a French proposal to task military authorities with devising new plans before the end of the month as they wrapped up two days of talks focused on the decade-old w]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Turkey's military jets on Friday hit Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq where members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) are holed up, the army said. "Three targets belonging to the separatist terrorist organisation in the Zap region... were effectively hit by Turkish air force planes," the General Staff said in a statement posted on its website. The army did not provide]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST The head North Korea's reunification negotiating committee called on ex-patriot Koreans to put aside their differences and work for reunification of the Korean Peninsula. But Kim Ryong Song, chairman of the North Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration, also urged Koreans to sweep aside the "Lee Myung-bak group of traitors" who run the South Korean government. ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST