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NEWS   | MAY 15, 2019 NASA's MRO Completes 60,000 Trips Around Mars This still from an animation shows NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter soaring over Mars. The spacecraft has been in Mars orbit for 13 years, and just completed 60,000 trips around the planet.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech  › Larger view NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter hit a dizzying milestone this morning: It completed 60,000 loops around the Red Planet at 10:39 a.m. PDT (1:39 p.m. EDT). On average, MRO takes 112 minutes to circle Mars, whipping around at about 2 miles per second (3.4 kilometers per second). Since entering orbit on March 10, 2006, the spacecraft has been collecting daily science about the planet's surface and atmosphere, including  detailed views  with its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera ( HiRISE ). HiRISE is powerful enough to see surface features the size of a dining room table from 186 miles (300 kilometers)...

TEHRAN (FNA)- Asa'eb al-Haq Movement affiliated to the Iraqi popular forces of Hashd al-Shaabi reiterated its support for Iran and the necessity for the American forces to leave Iraq. Senior member of the politburo of Asa'eb al-Haq Laith al-Ozari underscored the Movement's support for Iran against the US in return for Tehran's assistance to the Iraqi nation in war against the terrorist groups. He also voiced opposition to the deployment of foreign forces in Iraq as "occupation", cautioning that all citizens are entitled to the right to fight these foreign occupiers. Al-Ozari said that the political fractions in Iraq would not allow their country's territory be used as a platform for attacks on the neighboring states. In a relevant development in February, Iraq’s two leading Shiite parliamentary coalitions of Sairoon (Marching Towards Reform) and al-Fatah (Conquest) renewed their calls for the withdrawal of American forces from the Arab country. ...

Russia becomes world's largest buyer of gold in 2019 Russia's gold reserves have been growing at a record pace lately. A recent report from the World Gold Council (WGC) said that the Bank of Russia purchased 55.3 tons of gold in the first quarter of 2019 and thus reached the level of 2,168.3 tons of gold. Russia, the report said, has been acquiring gold lately in an attempt to relieve the dependence of the Russian economy on the US dollar in the event the USA imposes more sanctions on the Russian Federation.  In 2018, the Bank of Russia also purchased a record amount of gold. Thus, in 2018, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation increased the reserves of monetary gold by 8.8 million troy ounces (273.7 tons) to 67.9 million ounces (2.1 thousand tons). The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has been buying gold since 2014, when the international community started imposing sanctions on Russia after the latter reunited with the Crimea. Russia purchased a tot...

NASA planned to conclude a deal with the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) for the purchase of two additional seats on Russian carrier rockets Soyuz in 2019-2020 MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/. Russia and the United States have agreed on two additional places on board of Soyuz carrier rockets for journeys of NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), Roscosmos Executive Director for Manned Programs Sergei Krikalyov told TASS. "The documents have been approved," Krikalyov said adding that it the procedure to sign the papers took place before a recently reported incident with Crew Dragon spacecraft. According to Krikalyov, there was no new draft of the document as it was "Simply an update to the previously signed contract, everything was in work order and there was no solemn ceremony to mark the signing of the documents." "We have agreed on all details, extended the term of the previous contract and this was all about it," he added. A...

North Korea censured the seizure of one of its cargo ships by the United States as an illegal move that violates the spirit of a summit deal between the leaders of the two countries in June 2018, demanding the ship’s immediate release. In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday , the North Korea’s foreign ministry also rejected United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions against Pyongyang — which the US cited to impound the vessel — as an infringement on its sovereignty. “The United States carried out an illegal act of robbery by seizing our cargo ship citing UN Security Council sanctions resolutions,” an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman said. “This act is an extension of the US-style calculation of trying to hold us in submission with its ‘maximum pressure’ and is a total denial of the fundamental spirit of the June 12 DPRK-US joint statement,” the spokesman added, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name. He st...

(CNN) One million of the planet's eight million species are threatened with extinction by humans, scientists warned Monday in what is described as the most comprehensive assessment of global nature loss ever.  Their landmark report paints a bleak picture of a planet ravaged by an ever-growing human population, whose insatiable consumption is destroying the natural world. The global rate of species extinction "is already tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been, on average, over the last 10 million years," according to the  Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) , a UN committee, whose report was written by 145 experts from 50 countries.  Read more:  Australian mammal becomes first to go extinct due to climate change Shrinking habitat, exploitation of natural resources, climate change and pollution are the main drivers of species loss and are threatening more than 40% of amphibians, 33% of coral re...

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/…/the-fall-of-malaya-jap…/  (Bike Blitz:The Will To Fight) In 1941, Japan launched blitzkreig (the timing of this shock and awe coincided with attacks on Pearl Habor, HongKong, Guam, Phillipines and Wake) in Malay peninsula, it took a little over (2) months to take over mineral rich Malaysia and the Singapore. British had more number of troops (about 80,000) and much more familiar with the terrain. Japan High Command asked German High Command (OKW) suggestions for that particular campaign before the war. Germans recommended superior manpower (10 times the size of defensive line forces per military doctrines formula), more divisions and also estimated that campaign would take at least (6) months, It actually needed only (3) divisions (about 60,000) under GEN Yamashita to complete the campaign just in (73) days. Japanese troops rode on bikes (credit to good roads), attacked, advanced, feasted on captured enemy's food (jokingly called Churchill...