Saturday, November 28, 2009 TOKYO: Japan on Saturday launched a next-generation spy satellite as part of efforts to beef up its surveillance system against the threat of North Korea's missiles, officials said.An H-2A rocket carrying the nation's No. 3 Information Gathering Satellite was launched Saturday morning from Tanegashima Space Centre on Tanegashima island, southwestern Japan, the officials said."We successfully separated the satellite from the rocket and put it into orbit," said Toshimitsu Ozeki, an official of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which built the rocket.The government-run satellite will replace the first model, with an advanced optical device to distinguish objects on the ground with a resolution of some 60 centimetres (24 inches), the officials and local media said.The new satellite will undergo a performance trial for about three months before starting fully-fledged operations, Kyodo News reported.The launch is the nation's latest effort to build an intelligence-gathering system following North Korea's missile launch in 1998 over the Japanese archipelago.In defiance of international pressure, North Korea launched again what was believed to be a three-stage Taepodong-2 missile in April, with an estimated range of 6,700 kilometers (4,100 miles).Japan currently operates two optical satellites and a radar satellite, while planning to add another radar satellite by March 2013 to complete the system so that it will be able to monitor designated places on the Earth once a day.The satellite launched Saturday cost about 48.7 billion yen (580 million dollars) for research and development and around 9.4 billion yen for manufacturing and the launch, Kyodo said.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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