North Korea in plutonium threat

North Korea has said it will weaponise its plutonium stocks amid threats to take military action over United Nations sanctions, state media said.
Pyongyang would view any US-led attempts to "blockade" it as an "act of war", the Associated Press (AP) said.
The warning from North Korea's foreign ministry was carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Saturday.
It follows a toughening of UN sanctions against the communist state.
'Unacceptable behaviour'
On Friday, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to impose tougher sanctions on communist North Korea, after its nuclear test on 25 May.
The North also tested a rocket thought to be capable of carrying a warhead, though Pyongyang said it was designed to carry a satellite.
The UN sanctions include the inspection of North Korean ships, a wider ban on arms sales and other financial measures.
The US deputy ambassador at the UN, Rosemary DiCarlo, said the new vote was a strong and united response to North Korea's "unacceptable behaviour".
The North Korean foreign ministry statement said: "Firstly, all plutonium to be extracted will be weaponised. One third of used fuel rods have so far been reprocessed.
"Secondly, we will start uranium enrichment," the statement added.
North Korea is thought to possess enough reprocessed plutonium for between six and eight nuclear weapons.
However, analysts say Pyongyang has not yet mastered the technology to make a nuclear warhead small enough to place on a missile.
Pyongyang has stated its nuclear weapons programme is purely a defensive measure to protect it against a US attack.
Washington has said it does not intend to attack the North, and is concerned Pyongyang's nuclear knowledge could be passed to other states.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nears Iran election win

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on course to be re-elected as president of Iran with a resounding poll win, according to electoral commission figures.
With 80% of the vote counted, the commission said Mr Ahmadinejad had 65% support. He has claimed victory in an election marked by high turnout.
His main rival, reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi, also claimed victory and has complained of voting irregularities.
A candidate must secure 50% in the first round to avoid a run-off vote.
However, the Iranian election commission said Mr Mousavi's share of the vote was around 32%.
The state news agency Irna has declared Mr Ahmadinejad the "definite winner".
His campaign manager Mojtaba Samareh Hachemi was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying: "According to the votes counted so far, the distance between Ahmadinejad and his rivals is so great that any doubts cast on this victory will be treated as a joke by the public."
This election brought hope to millions of people that they could change the direction of the country through the ballot box, and those people are going to be deeply disappointed
Sadeq SabaBBC Iranian affairs analyst
The president's supporters celebrated by taking to motorbikes on the streets of Tehran, chanting "God is Great", while there were reports that a rally for Mr Mousavi was broken up.
Those backing Mr Mousavi are waiting to hear from their candidate, who was reported to have cancelled a news conference scheduled for Saturday morning.
The BBC's Tehran correspondent, Jon Leyne, says Mr Mousavi's next move is extremely important, adding that the reaction of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will also be telling.
Mr Mousavi could dispute the expected result and may feel it could only be possible with massive vote-rigging. Earlier, he said there was a shortage of ballot papers and alleged that millions of people had been denied the right to vote.
His election monitors were not allowed enough access to polling stations, he added, saying he would deal seriously with any fraud.
Rival claims
BBC Iranian affairs analyst Sadeq Saba says nobody expected the margin of Mr Ahmadinejad's apparent victory to be so big.
He says supporters of Mr Mousavi have expressed shock and disbelief.
IRANIAN ELECTION
Voting age 18 years; electorate of 42.5m people
President to serve maximum of two consecutive four-year terms (or three non-consecutive)
Election won by absolute majority
Second round held between top two if no candidate wins majority
Overall, he adds, a victory for Mr Ahmadinejad would mean no significant change in Iran's foreign and domestic policy.
However, this election brought hope to millions of people that they could change the direction of the country through the ballot box, and those people are going to be deeply disappointed, our correspondent says.
The hope for peaceful reform in Iran may die for a long time to come, he adds.
Shortly after polling ended, both Mr Ahmadinejad and Mr Mousavi had declared victory.
But as the results began to come in, Iranian TV began putting out calls for calm. One opposition newspaper has been closed down and BBC websites appear to have been blocked by the Iranian authorities.
There was no evidence of major demonstrations or protests throughout Saturday morning, with our correspondent in Tehran saying the city appeared to have returned to the pattern of two months ago, before election campaigning brought thousands of people onto the streets.
Large turnout
There had been a surge of interest in Iran's presidential election, with unprecedented live television debates between the candidates and rallies attended by thousands.
Mr Mousavi has alleged widespread electoral fraud
There were long queues of voters at polling stations, with officials predicting an "unprecedented" turnout as they extended voting hours by several hours to accommodate the queues on Friday.
Election officials said the turnout was possibly higher than 80%.
Four candidates contested the election, with Mohsen Razai and Mehdi Karroubi only registering a small percentage of votes.
Police have increased security to try to head off trouble from supporters of the losing candidates and all gatherings have been banned until the official results have been published.
A report by the AFP news agency said that a group of Mousavi supporters had been dispersed from outside his campaign office by baton-wielding police.
US President Barack Obama said as the polling drew to a close that he was "excited" by the robust debate taking place in the country.
President Ahmadinejad draws support mainly from the urban poor and rural areas, while his rivals have support among the middle classes and the educated urban population.
Iran is ruled under a system known as Velayat-e Faqih, or "Rule by the Supreme Jurist", who is currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It was adopted by an overwhelming majority in 1979 following the Islamic revolution which overthrew the autocratic Western-backed Shah.
But the constitution also stipulates that the people are the source of power and the country holds phased presidential and parliamentary elections every four years.
All candidates are vetted by the powerful conservative-controlled Guardian Council, which also has the power to veto legislation it deems inconsistent with revolutionary principles.

Latvian minister speaks for better relations with Russia

RIGA, June 12 (RIA Novosti) - Latvia is interested in the constructive development of cooperation with Russia, but does not plan to turn to Moscow for financial assistance, the Latvian economy minister said on Friday.
"The relations between our countries are developing constructively. We [Latvia] are interested that the relations between Latvia and Russia will be further developing in this constructive manner," Artis Kampars said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
But the minister said that Latvia, which recently suffered a sharp economic decline, is not planning to turn to Russia asking for financial assistance.
"I do not believe that Latvia needs any direct aid from Russia. But I believe that cooperation between our countries could be beneficial both for us and for them," the minister added.
Latvia has been one of the hardest hit of all EU states by the global financial crisis. The former Soviet republic's government resigned in February after a wave of street protests against a planned increase in VAT and other unpopular measures to help the budget meet EU commitments.
International financial organizations are due to grant Latvia 7.5 billion euros in a rescue package before 2011.

NATO defense ministers agree to continue fighting Somali pirates

BRUSSELS, June 12 (RIA Novosti) - Defense ministers of the NATO 28 member states have agreed at their two-day meeting in Brussels to continue anti-piracy efforts off Somalia, the alliance's secretary general said on Friday.
"NATO will continue to play its role in the fight against piracy," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after the meeting.
The current NATO operation to tackle pirates off the coast of Somalia ends later in June.
Somalia has been without an effective government since the Revolutionary Socialist Party was overthrown in 1991. The internationally recognized federal government controls only the capital city of Mogadishu and part of central Somalia.
The United Nations said Somali pirates carried out at least 120 attacks on ships in 2008, collecting $150 million in ransom payments from ship owners. Total losses from piracy were estimated at $13-16 billion, including the soaring cost of insurance and protection for vessels, as well as sending ships on longer routes to avoid high-risk areas.
Around 35 warships from the navies of 16 countries are involved in anti-piracy operations off Somalia.

Russia to make WTO bid jointly with Belarus and Kazakhstan

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti economic commentator Oleg Mityayev) – After 16 years of touch-and-go accession talks with the WTO, the Russian authorities have decided to stop the process of individual accession and make a joint bid with Belarus and Kazakhstan instead.
The decision was announced at a meeting of their Customs Union on June 9.
Later that day, the meeting of the Eurasian Economic Community established Eurasec’s Anti-crisis Fund to the amount of $10 billion.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on June 9 after a meeting of the Customs Union’s Supreme Body that Russia would no longer have to negotiate accession to the World Trade Organization as an independent state.
“WTO accession remains a joint priority for us,” he said. Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are still seeking WTO entry, “but as a united customs union, not as separate countries.”
However, they first need to formalize their union, which is to become operational on January 1, 2010, when its common customs tariff will be applied.
Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said the tariff had been fully coordinated, with a transition period established for sensitive groups of goods during which the three countries will apply their own tariffs for such goods.
By July 1, 2011, customs control will be moved to the three countries’ common border and the customs borders between them will be liquidated.
The possibility of a joint bid by several countries is stipulated in the WTO procedure. However, Russia has covered 95% of the road as an independent state. Since 1993, it has coordinated with the WTO member states the most complicated terms and conditions for its entry, such as the mechanism of foreign banks’ access to the Russian banking system.
However, President Dmitry Medvedev said the accession process was taking too long and looked more like insincere promises than a genuine desire to admit Russia in the past few years.
Moscow has likely come to see that some Western countries are using the WTO accession talks for political bargaining.
Moreover, accession benefits are questionable especially since the global energy markets are already open to Russia’s main export commodity – energy. Metallurgy is one of the few Russian industries that may benefit from WTO accession, while other sectors will most likely lose. Besides, a crisis is not the best time for opening one’s market.
Russia’s intention to bid for WTO accession jointly with Belarus and Kazakhstan will put off accession for years. But Moscow has apparently decided that strengthening economic ties with its closest neighbors is more important than the WTO entry.
On June 9, Moscow also hosted a meeting of Eurasec’s Interstate Council.
Eurasec comprises Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, while Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia have observer status.
It was announced after the meeting that Eurasec and Armenia had set up an Anti-crisis Fund to the amount of $10 billion. Since Russia will contribute $7.5 billion, its finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, was elected chairman of the fund.
The money will be used to issue sovereign loans to the member states and finance interstate investment projects.
The Fund will become a regional analogue of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which issues stabilization loans, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which finances investment projects.
Russia has recently refused to increase its IMF fees, which are used to issue stabilization loans to countries worldwide. It is now using the money to set up a regional fund for assistance to its allies.

Clifford Kupchan: The race will be close, but Mousavi has the upper hand

The head of the Russia and CIS team at Washington-based Eurasia Group and an analyst on Iranian issues, Cliff Kupchan shared his opinions with RIA Novosti on Iran's presidential elections scheduled for Friday.

What are your predictions for the presidential elections in Iran on June 12 between the two main candidates, current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi?
Iranian elections are extremely hard to predict because they are very competitive, but there is no reliable polling. That said, my instinct is that Mousavi will win in a second round runoff on 19 June. The Mousavi campaign has surged in the past two weeks, which is very important. [Mohammad] Khatami's win in 1997 and Ahmadinejad's victory in 2005 were both the result of late surges of support. Mousavi's "wave" is coming mainly from young voters, who comprise roughly 45% of the electorate. The vote is being delivered to Mousavi in large part by former President Khatami, who retains his extraordinary popularity with young voters. Also, Ahmadinejad in my view made serious mistakes in his 3 June debate with Mousavi, when he accused former President Rafsanjani of corruption and advisor to the Leader Nateq Nuri of living a lavish lifestyle. He also accused Mousavi's wife of improprieties in obtaining her academic degrees. Many Iranian voters and elites were offended by Ahmadinejad's remarks. But Ahmadinejad could win if [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei decides to strongly support Ahmadinejad, and mobilizes voters who support him. And many Iranian experts believe the vote may be affected by some ballot stuffing and fraud, which would benefit Ahmadinejad. -- The race will be close, but Mousavi has the upper hand.
Does Mousavi have a chance at getting the office? If so, do you expect to see protests and disorder in the country?
I do think Mousavi has a good chance. If he wins, there may be some protests and violence by the paramilitary Basij and other radical conservative groups. I would not expect the protests to seriously interfere with Mousavi's ability to govern.
Do you think it will be a fair election?
That is a key question. The Leader or conservative forces can produce an unfair election -- by mobilizing certain constituencies, by ballot stuffing, and possibly by fraud.
What benefits would Mousavi bring to the world if he were to become president?
Mousavi would bring a number of important benefits. First, while he strongly supports the Iranian nuclear program, Mousavi would probably be at least somewhat more flexible on the issue -- and he would likely appoint more open-minded and creative nuclear negotiators. Iran will not cease uranium enrichment. But the chances of a deal on the nuclear program go up under Mousavi. Second, he espouses a policy of detente in foreign relations, which would help relax tensions in the Persian Gulf region and perhaps the entire Middle East. Third, he would not voice Ahmadinejad's comments about the Holocaust and Israel, which have offended the international community.
Since the U.S. has stated that it plans to move toward dialogue with Iran, could you argue or support both candidates' approach to such a dialogue? Will dialogue move forward with Ahmadinejad or will it be stagnant and a lot of tongue wagging? Will Mousavi be able to break ground in dialogue with Obama?
I believe that the US and Iran will engage in a dialogue regardless of who wins the election. The talks would be more promising if Mousavi wins. He will be beholden to Khatami, and is likely to appoint more liberal Khatami-era diplomats to key positions. I'd say there's a reasonable chance of a deal on the nuclear issue under Mousavi, though Iran's policy toward Israel and support for Hizbullah and Hamas will remain problems for some time. If Ahamdinejad wins, the talks will be tougher. My sense is that Ahmadinejad and his circle would like better relations with the US on selected issues -- Afghanistan and possibly Iraq. But I think Ahmadinejad will be less flexible on the nuclear issue.
How much power does the Iranian president really have? Or does much depend on the Leader?
The Leader makes final decisions in Iran. Ultimate power rests with Khamenei. But the president sets the tone of Iranian policy, and he has significant power on economic and social issues. The president also has an effect on the atmospherics of foreign policy, and plays an important advisory role. Iran's very different images under Khatami and Ahmadinejad show that who is president matters. Also, Ahmadinejad's aggressive style has in effect expanded the powers of the presidency -- he has carved out more freedom of maneuver for that office. Still, the Leader makes decisions on nuclear and foreign policy issues, not the president.
Could you discuss the "triangle" of misunderstandings with Iran in regard to U.S.-Russian-Iranian commitments? Especially in the US's demands in regard to Iran's nuclear program and Russia's support for Iran's program for peaceful purposes.
I think the main difference between the US and Russia on Iran is over the use of sanctions. The US thinks they can work, Russia believes sanctions won't work on Iran and could induce a belligerent reaction. I think that's an honest policy difference.
I also think both countries are comfortable with a purely civilian Iranian nuclear program. The US did not object very strongly to Bushehr, and the US together with the EU have offered to help Iran obtain light-water, energy-producing reactors.
Beyond that, I don't think the US and Russia are that far apart on the threat posed by Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program. Both countries recognize that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon in the not distant future, and that Iran is making progress on ballistic missile technology -- just having successfully launched a multi-stage, solid fuel missile. Increased bilateral cooperation on Iran is possible.
Interview by David Burghardt, RIA Novosti

1st Day for France Back in NATO Military Command

BRUSSELS - France returned June 11 to NATO's command fold, taking a seat for the first time in more than 40 years at the military alliance's defense planning committee.
At a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, French Defense Minister Herve Morin took his place alongside the 28 NATO allies, along with ministers from new members Albania and Croatia.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed Morin's participation as a symbol of "France's decision to recover its full place within the structures of NATO."
At a NATO summit in April, French President Nicolas Sarkozy reversed former leader Charles de Gaulle's 1966 decision to pull out of NATO's integrated military command.
France was a founder of NATO and has always remained a member, contributing to missions around the world including in Kosovo and Afghanistan, but de Gaulle pulled out of the integrated military command over perceived U.S. dominance.

Sarkozy, Merkel Agree To Delay Decision on A400M

PARIS - France and Germany have decided to delay for six months a decision on the future of the problem-plagued Airbus A400M military transport plane, President Nicolas Sarkozy said June 11.
Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the fate of the plane being built by Airbus, a subsidiary of European aerospace giant EADS, during a meeting at the Elysee presidential palace.
"We talked about the A400M and decided that it would be good to give ourselves a small delay of six months to continue discussions and to find the best possible solution," said Sarkozy at a joint news conference.
The A400M was initially scheduled to start being delivered at the end of 2009 but the program has suffered from a delay of at least three years and clients have threatened to cancel their orders.
The military transport plane was unveiled last year but it has been hit by delays in building its massive turbo-prop engines, putting the 20-billion-euro ($28 billion) project at risk.
Spain, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Turkey are participating in the A400M program.
"We are in full agreement. ... We will give ourselves a few more months and then we will see," said Merkel, who added that France and Germany "need a transport plane in any case."
French Defense Minister Herve Morin said this month that there would likely be a meeting of ministers from the seven participating countries and EADS to renegotiate the delivery contracts.

India To Sell 3 Helos to Namibia

NEW DELHI - India's state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. has won an order from the Namibian armed forces for two Chetak and one Cheetah light utility helicopter for $10 million, an Indian Defence Ministry source confirmed.
The sale of the three helicopters comes after the Indian Foreign Affairs Ministry last year withheld the export of the Indian-made Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) to Bolivia because its end use was for military purposes. The Indian government has allowed the sale of the ALH to Mauritius, Nepal, Ecuador, Peru and Turkey since 2004.
India's defense exports are marginal, totaling about $80 million annually, compared with about $6 billion in defense imports each year.
The Chetak is a multipurpose, seven-seat helicopter; the Cheetah is a light observation helicopter. Both are used by the Indian Air Force and the Army's Aviation Corps, especially in the upper reaches of the Himalayas.

Trackers of Orbiting Junk Sound Warning

There are 19,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. They travel at about 17,000 miles per hour, fast enough for a relatively small piece of junk to destroy a satellite or even the space shuttle.
There are 300,000 pieces of debris the size of a marble or larger, according to Paul Graziani, chief executive of Analytical Graphics, Exton, Pa., a maker of software for the space and defense industries.
There are 3,000 "payloads" in space - sensors, transponders and other equipment used by the communications industry, the military, scientists and others, Graziani said. And 1,400 times each week, a payload comes within three miles of a piece of debris that could damage or kill it.
Graziani knows. His company produces the software that the U.S. government uses to track space debris.
With so much junk and so many near misses, there have been surprisingly few disastrous collisions - about eight, according to Andrew Palowitch, director of the U.S. Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office Space Protection Program.
In 1996, a French satellite was hit and damaged by debris from a French rocket that had exploded a decade earlier.
In 2007, a spacecraft built by China and Brazil suddenly broke apart, likely the result of a collision with space junk.
The most spectacular space crash occurred Feb. 10, when a defunct Russian satellite collided with and destroyed a functioning U.S. Iridium commercial satellite. The collision added 1,131 pieces of trackable debris to the inventory of space junk.
China's 2007 anti-satellite test, which used a missile to destroy an old weather satellite, added 2,500 pieces to the debris problem.
A similar demonstration by the United States in 2008 was conducted at a much lower altitude - about 180 miles compared with China's 500 miles - so the debris re-entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up within about two weeks, Graziani said.
The increase in space debris has greatly increased danger to the space shuttle and astronauts at certain altitudes, Palowitch said.
During the recent mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis faced a 1-in-229 chance of suffering a disastrous collision with space junk. The risk was high enough to prompt NASA to prepare a backup shuttle for a rescue mission.
Astronauts working in space on the Hubble faced a 1-in-89 chance of being killed by space debris, Palowitch said.
Over the next five years, 2,200 additional satellites are scheduled to be launched, and there are likely to be at least 10 more major collisions in space, he said.
Palowitch and Graziani explained the problem of space debris to a gathering of congressional staffers and news reporters June 10.
Palowitch's Space Protection Program was created last year to search for solutions to the problem of space debris.
The first step is to prevent it, Palowitch said. Spacefaring nations must agree to limit the number of rocket parts that they leave in space, he said.
Second, there is a need for better tracking and identification of debris and for calculating the likelihood of collisions. The United States has no debris-tracking capabilities in the southern hemisphere.
Third, there is a possibility that some space debris could be cleaned up, Palowitch said.
U.S. government research laboratories are experimenting with the possibility of using ground-based lasers to burn the surfaces of space debris to create more drag as the pieces fly through space, causing them to re-enter the atmosphere sooner and burn up.
"But lasers and space are very touchy," Palowitch said. U.S. adversaries - and some allies - are likely to take a dim view of the United States firing lasers into space. Lasers might also be used as anti-satellite weapons.
Space could be partially cleared if dead satellites could be repositioned, either to re-enter the atmosphere or to be placed in "garbage orbits," where they are out of the way of working spacecraft, Palowitch said.
The United States is spending $3.2 billion this year and $7 billion over the next five years on "space situational awareness" programs to improve the ability to track debris.
"It's a good start," he said, but in the long run, it might not be enough.

Commission Finds U.S. Paid For Shoddy Work in Iraq, Afghanistan

The Commission on Wartime Contracting released its interim report June 10, telling U.S. lawmakers of cases of shoddy construction, redundant work and a general lack of oversight of construction and support contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Examples included substandard work on the future headquarters for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the New Kabul Compound. Members of the commission toured the facility in April and found unusable bathrooms, cracks in the structure, sinking sidewalks and broken pipes. In another example, the Army awarded a $30 million contract for the construction of a dining facility at Camp Delta, Iraq. The request for that contract was based on outdated paperwork that didn't take into account that an existing dining facility at the camp was being remodeled and expanded. Though the final report is to outline recommendations for fixing contracting problems, the issues are so pressing that the commission urged corrective action well ahead of its final report, which is due next year, Michael Thibault, co-chairman of the commission and a former deputy director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, told congressmen on Capitol Hill. Members of the commission described their findings at a hearing of the House Oversight Committee's national security panel in conjunction with the report's release.
There are more than 240,000 contractors supporting U.S. activities in Iraq and Afghanistan - more than the number of U.S. military personnel in those areas, Thibault said. About 80 percent of those contractors are foreign nationals, according to the report.
Congress has appropriated about $830 billion to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. As of May 27, 1,360 contractor employees have died in Iraq and Afghanistan; 4,973 military personnel have died in the two war zones.
The bipartisan, congressionally mandated committee was created last year and has gathered information from visits to bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, and dozens of meetings with military, contractors and employees from the State Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
One worry voiced repeatedly during the hearing was that the military will have to depend on contractors even more, and with even less oversight, with a drawdown of troops from Iraq.
As troops are withdrawn, "we're probably going to have to rely on contractors who remain there to close down those bases" and transfer appropriate equipment to Iraqis, said Grant Green, a member of the commission and a former undersecretary of state for management and assistant secretary of defense.
One contract that got a lot of attention at the hearing is the massive Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP), which covers a wide range of logistics and support activities. The current iteration of the program, LOGCAP III, is a 10-year, multibillion-dollar sole-source contract held by KBR. The Army is in the midst of transitioning to the next iteration, LOGCAP IV, under which KBR, DynCorp International and Fluor International compete for task orders, but commissioners told the congressmen that the transition isn't happening quickly enough. Moreover, the addition of two contractors to the program will exacerbate the shortage of military personnel picked to oversee contracts in addition to their regular duties.
The military's LOGCAP management office is handling the transition to the next LOGCAP program with not more than 13 personnel on its staff at a time and has augmented its staff with personnel from another contractor, Serco, according to the report.

Top U.K. Defense Associations Set To Merge

LONDON - Britain's top aerospace and defense trade associations are to merge following final approvals from the members of both organizations in the last few days.
The Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) and the Defence Manufacturers Association (DMA) announced June 10 they are set to form an as-yet-unnamed trade organization in October.
The new association will represent around 800 companies in the defense, civil aviation, space and homeland security industries. Rees Ward, director general of the DMA, is set to become chief executive of the merged organization; Ian Godden, the SBAC chief executive, is chairman-designate.
News of the merger came the same day as the SBAC released performance figures for the British aerospace industry for 2008, showing overall sales were flat at 20.57 billion pounds ($33.7 billion).
The SBAC survey said, however, that with the pound down substantially against the U.S. dollar and the euro, they would have expected "a more substantial gain in turnover."
There was further bad news on orders and employment for the aerospace sector.
The SBAC reported a 23 percent slump in orders to 35 billion pounds last year and an 11 percent drop in employment numbers across the defense and civil aerospace sectors.
In the defense sector three performance figures stood out.
Domestic sales in defense fell 13.2 percent while exports headed in the opposite direction with a 21 percent rise during the year.
On June 9, the United Kingdom Trade & Investment's Defence and Security Organisation, Britain's government-run export sales operation, issued figures for 2008 showing that the air sector accounted for about three quarters of the 4.2 billion pounds overseas sales total last year.
Potentially the most worrying figure from the SBAC survey was that research and development spending by defense companies in the U.K. plummeted by 30 percent.
The SBAC cautioned that a good chunk of the fall was represented by a number of large defense programs moving out of their research and development phase.
A spokesman for the trade body said figures in research and development were volatile and officials would have to see whether the downturn was replicated in future years before drawing any conclusions. Godden said the figures on aerospace performance would come as no surprise in the current economic climate: "There has been a slowdown in the sector but compared to the rest of the economy, aerospace has held up well thus far. Our industry is in for a difficult period in the immediate future, but the degree of that difficulty is yet to become clear.
"Of particular concern is the decline in the domestic market for civil and defense products as well as the large fall in R&D spending and employment," Godden said. "One year's results do not make a trend, but the danger to the future of what is a successful manufacturing and engineering industry for the U.K. from this fall in investment is all too obvious. In partnership with the government, we will have to address this urgently, despite the current pressure on budgets, to maintain our position as the second-largest nation in the global aerospace industry behind the USA."

Russia Will Protect Interests in Arctic: Official

MOSCOW - Russia will defend its interests in the Arctic amid the race for the region's energy riches, a Russian official said June 10, while dismissing the possibility of open conflict over the far north.
"We will protect our interests in the future, but I don't see that it will lead to a conflict in the near future," said Artur Chilingarov, the Kremlin's representative for international cooperation in the Arctic and Antarctic.
"We will build up our scientific, economic and research interest in the Arctic, but not our military," he told reporters in Moscow.
Moscow raised the stakes this year in the diplomatic tug-of-war with the four other Arctic states - Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States - by declaring plans to station more troops in Russia's northern regions by 2020.
Chilingarov, a celebrated polar explorer and lawmaker, himself spearheaded a highly-publicized expedition in 2007 to plant the Russian flag on the Arctic seabed in a not-too-subtle demonstration of Russia's territorial ambitions.
Interest in the economic exploitation of the Arctic has snowballed in recent years as the melting of the polar icecap has increased access to oil reserves and energy firms have sought to diversify away from older, depleted fields.
The Arctic likely holds 30 percent of the world's untapped gas and about 13 percent of its oil, a U.S. geological survey published last month in Science magazine said.
"Everyone has their own national interests. I'll say again that Russia's interests in the far north, in the Arctic Ocean, are tied to the region's economic potential for Russia: gas, oil, gold, diamonds," Chilingarov said.
"These are all in Russia's economic interests and we will protect them."
Moscow has lodged a claim with a United Nations commission on a huge swath of Arctic seabed, arguing that the underwater Lomonosov Ridge, a geological structure which stretches across much of the pole, is a continuation of its continental shelf.

S. Korea Completes Space Center For Rocket Launch

SEOUL - South Korea has completed a space center which will be used to send a satellite into orbit from its own territory for the first time, officials said June 10.
Education, Science and Technology Minister Ahn Byong-Man said the government would hold a ceremony on June 11 to celebrate the opening of the Naro Space Center in Goheung, 475 kilometers (300 miles) south of Seoul.
The center, which cost 312 billion won ($250 million), will on July 30 launch the KSLV-1 rocket, which will put a satellite into orbit.
South Korea has already launched 10 satellites using overseas launch sites.
The rocket, which cost 502.5 billion won, will be the first space vehicle launched from South Korean soil.
Its Russian-built first-stage thruster will arrive next week, Ahn said.
Russia also helped design the launch pad. South Korean engineers built the rocket's second stage and the satellite.
"The Naro center will be the hub for our space development," Ahn told reporters.
Seoul's rival North Korea in April fired a long-range rocket for what it called a peaceful satellite launch.
Other nations said no satellite was detected and the exercise was a disguised test of a long-range missile.
The United Nations Security Council condemned the launch and tightened sanctions, prompting Pyongyang to quit a nuclear disarmament deal and to stage its second atomic test.

Malaysia calls for calm over border dispute with Indonesia

Malaysia's deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin called for calm Thursday amid reports that Malaysian warships had entered oil-rich waters off northeastern Borneo also claimed by Indonesia.
Indonesia says Malaysian warships entered the disputed Ambalat area in the Sulawesi sea last week and that an Indonesian navy ship came within moments of firing at a Malaysian vessel.
"We want to avoid any form of provocation that can cause unpleasantness. We must handle the matter with caution," Muhyiddin was quoted as saying by Bernama, the Malaysian news agency.
Muhyiddin was also quoted as saying that Malaysia had good relations with Indonesia and that it did not want to cause any problem that could hurt ties.
In Jakarta, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesia would never back down from a fight but that dialogue was the best way to resolve the dispute.
"The government has never been lenient on the border violations committed by Malaysian warships in Ambalat waters," Yudhoyono said during a talk show on Anteve TV station.
"Although we have to drive intruders away, we don't need to open fire on them unless absolutely necessary," he added.
International borders in the area off Borneo island have yet to be determined, with each country claiming the area as its own.
Malaysia claims the area based on a 1979 maritime chart, while Indonesia bases its claims on the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which states the area belongs to Indonesia.
Muhyiddin said the Malaysian security forces patrolling the Ambalat waters had performed their duties responsibly and in accordance with regulations.
"Both parties must avoid any action that can raise controversy," he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's military chief Abdul Aziz Zainal denied that Malaysian warships had entered the waters around Ambalat, adding that he would visit Jakarta Tuesday to discuss the issue.

Outrage over Russian claim that Poland started war

Poland and Russia headed Thursday toward a new row over history following an article on the Russian defence ministry website claiming Poland was responsible for starting World War II.
The extraordinary piece -- which flies in the face of conventional wisdom that the expansionist ambitions of Nazi Germany caused the war -- was published in a historical section of the official ministry website.
"Any person who studies the history of World War II in an impartial manner knows that it started because of Poland's refusal to give into German demands," wrote Sergei Kovalyev, head of historical research for the defence ministry's northwestern branch.
"The German demands were quite moderate," he added, saying the Third Reich in 1939 was merely seeking to annex the Baltic city of Gdansk and construct roads and railways on Polish territory towards East Prussia.
"It is difficult to say that these demands were without foundation," he said.
The Russian daily Vremya Novostei said that the article -- published in a section titled "History: against lies and falsifications" -- was "harmful" for Russia.
Arseny Roginsky, a historian who heads the Memorial rights group said: "This vision of events profoundly disgusts me. The author is simplifying the facts, is deforming them in order to arrive at the desired conclusion."
"The danger is that this was published on the ministry defence website. If people believe that this is the opinion of the ministry, then this is a step towards a dangerous aggravation in international relations" he told AFP.
The Polish foreign ministry said it had demanded an explanation from the Russian ambassador in Warsaw.
Polish foreign ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski said that after the request, a Russian official told Warsaw that the piece "does not reflect the Russian federation's position in any way."
The article was no longer seen on the defence ministry's website late Thursday.
The controversy came after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's order to form a commission to defend Russia from historical "falsifications" sparked warnings from historians of a return to Soviet-style propaganda.
Russian defence ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said the articles did not necessarily reflect the ministry's official position, Interfax reported.
"This section publishes various, including controversial, articles on military history and military science. These articles should not be viewed as the defence ministry's official viewpoint," he said.
Russia has had an edgy relationship with Poland in recent years, especially since Poland, a close US ally, joined NATO and agreed to host controversial US missile defence facilities inside the country.
Historical issues also continue to shadow relations between the two countries, often relating to the Soviet Union's initial wartime cooperation with Nazi Germany through the Nazi-Soviet pact.
Russia's high court in January threw out a bid by campaigners to reopen an enquiry into a 1940 massacre of Polish officers by Soviet secret police at Katyn.
In 2004, Russia's military prosecutor shut down an enquiry into the massacre of some 22,000 Polish officers that for decades was blamed by Soviet authorities on Nazi troops but was carried out by Stalin's secret police.

NATO endorses drawdown of Kosovo force

NATO defence ministers on Thursday endorsed a plan for thousands of peacekeepers to leave Kosovo if security conditions can be assured, a decade after the air war against Serbia.
The plan, NATO diplomats say, would see the KFOR mission cut to 10,000 troops from the current 13,800 by January, and fall to some 2,500 personnel over two years if a series of benchmarks are met.
"Ministers decided today that the political and security conditions are right for a move towards a gradual adjustment of KFOR's force posture," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters.
He said the contingent would move to a "deterrence presence", stepping back from the front-line security role it has held in Kosovo since 1999 to allow local forces to take the lead, backed by a European Union mission.
Scheffer said the reduction, for which he declined to set any timeframe, will happen "in a gradual and phased manner, and each step will be decided by the North Atlantic Council (of NATO nations) based on military advice."
The first cut "will be to around 10,000" troops, he said, and KFOR would in future be "a smaller force, relying more on flexibility and intelligence."
As security concerns in Kosovo ease, and pressure mounts on the 28-member alliance to deploy to places like Afghanistan while faced with an economic crisis biting into budgets, nations have called for KFOR to be scaled back.
But members remain deeply concerned about a possible rise in tensions in Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in February last year, and NATO officials insist that they are not going to abandon it.
"We will have at all times the manoeuvre forces and reserves at all times when we need them," Scheffer told reporters after chairing a working-lunch with the defence ministers.
Danish Defence Minister Soren Gade also underlined that "there will still be a NATO presence and that's very important."
NATO has been tasked by UN Security Council resolution 1244 to provide security since it launched a 78-day air war in 1999 -- a decade ago as of Wednesday -- to stop a Serbian crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians.
Albanian-majority Kosovo's independence is recognised by some 60 countries including the United States and 22 of the 27 EU nations. Serbia, backed by Russia, opposes the move, which they consider a breach of international law.
One hurdle NATO faces is the fact that Belgrade and ethnic Serbs in Kosovo do not appreciate the 2,000-strong EU law-enforcement presence there: EULEX.
The EULEX contingent is made up of more than 2,000 personnel, with legal, police and customs expertise.
Spain, Britain and Lithuania have recently announced troop cuts in Kosovo.
Denmark followed suit Thursday, announcing it would cut its presence from 354 soldiers to between 150 and 200 soldiers after February 2010.
Madrid has not recognised Pristina's independence concerned that the precedent might encourage some of Spain's separatist-minded regions.
NATO and particularly the United States continue to hold strong symbolic significance for the ethnic Albanians.
"We owe gratitude to the officers and soldiers of the biggest military alliance, NATO, who by entering villages and towns of Kosovo 10 years ago, saved people's lives," Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu said in Pristina.
"Therefore, the uniform of KFOR's soldiers is loved and respected by all citizens of the Republic of Kosovo regardless of ethnicity," he said, in an address marking NATO's deployment a decade ago.
The NATO ministers, meeting over two days, will focus Friday on the alliance's troubled mission in Afghanistan, where troops from more than 40 nations are battling a tenacious Taliban-led insurgency.

Analysis: U.S. pulls back troops in Iraq

U.S. forces are steadily closing or transitioning bases around the country and repositioning manpower to meet a pullback deadline set by the new Strategic Framework Agreement governing continued American presence in the country.
In mainly rural Diyala province, north of Baghdad, only about five of 14 facilities in use at the beginning of the year will remain under U.S. authority come July 1. Gone are bases and outposts such as Hatoon and Tahrir in Baquba, the provincial capital. Remaining are Forward Operating Base War Horse outside Baquba; FOB Normandy, near the major market town of Muqdadiyah; Caldwell, in the eastern portion of the province towards the Iranian border; and Cobra, which is located in an area rife with Arab-Kurd ethnic tension.
In the City of Baghdad about 33 FOBS, COPS (combat operating posts) and Joint Security Stations have been formally handed over to Iraqi Security Forces in recent months, according to the 1st Cavalry Division, the main U.S. force in the Baghdad qada (super country).
Among them: Ford, Shaab and Callahan, which played key roles in last year's battles in and around Sadr City against anti-American Shiite militias and Iranian-backed Special Groups.
Seven more facilities will be handed over to Iraqis by the June 30 deadline.
The exact number of U.S. facilities in Iraq is not immediately available, but there were far more than 200 bases early last year, including Camp Liberty by Baghdad's international airport, which is not being closed or transferred to Iraqi authority.
"It's all part of the security agreement," said Sameer Alhaddad, an official in the Receivership Secretariat in the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "It means Iraqi Security Forces are capable of taking responsibility for the (security of) the whole country."
Under the Strategic Framework hammered out last year in tough negotiations between Washington and Baghdad, U.S. combat forces must pull back from cities, towns and villages in the country by midnight June 30.
U.S. troops will continue to conduct routine operations, but with few exceptions they will be mounted from facilities outside the populated areas and with the advance approval of Iraqi authorities. Those operations must also be conducted in concert with Iraqi Security Forces, which will play the lead role in them.
In the Baghdad qada, the switch out of about 24,000 American troops to bases in what could be called outer suburbs and communities means security in the city itself will be the primary responsibility of 100,000 Iraqi Security Force personnel, which includes paramilitary police, while U.S. troops will guard and control approaches to the city of 6 million.
"Think of it (greater Baghdad) as a doughnut," said 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs officer Maj. Davic Shoupe. "They will be responsible for the doughnut hole and we'll be responsible for the rest."
The transfer process is far from simple, U.S. officers said. After deciding in consultation with Iraqi authorities on which facilities should be closed or transferred, site inspections take place and inventories are made of equipment and site fixtures to take or leave for the new Iraqi owners. Environmental studies are then conducted and problems encountered -- from oil and chemical spills to sanitation concerns -- are corrected.
"We give it back to them in the condition we'd like to receive it," said Maj. Kevin Wallace, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment.
Wallace's battalion is in charge of the greater Adhamiyah District of Northeast Baghdad, which features both Sunni and Shiite communities. Within its map markings are sectors that featured prominently during the 2007-2008 U.S. surge of forces. Bases such as Ford and Callahan were the "hold" portion of the "clear-hold-rebuild" counterinsurgency strategy. By establishing a permanent presence in communities, terrorists driven out would find it difficult to return and residents would gain a sense of increasing security and stability.
The strategy has apparently worked.
According to U.S. figures, significant acts of violence in greater Baghdad now number about five or six a day. Exact figures for a comparable timeframe last year were not immediately available, but U.S. authorities say the new figures represent a major drop.
In the Adhamiyah District the number of significant acts is one every other day on average, said 1-5's commander, Lt. Col. Scott Jackson.
In Iraq as a whole, significant acts of violence last year totaled 3,258 compared with more than 6,000 the year before.
Jackson said terror and insurgent group cells -- al-Qaida, 1920s Revolutionary Brigade, Jaish al-Mehdi and Special Groups -- remain in his sector but have been severely degraded as the current sigact tally indicates.
He and other American officers, however, believe there may be an uptick -- at least temporarily -- in attacks immediately following the June 30 pullback date as the cells try to challenge government forces, embarrass the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and shake public confidence.
"On the Iraq side of the house (the challenge is) the transition -- the perception of security. Â… If there is an increase (in attacks) people are going to blame it on the transition, and we have to assume there will be some kind of increase," Jackson said.
U.S. and Iraqi military commanders express confidence that any challenges from gunmen can and will be dealt with. Iraqis on the street spoken to by this reporter expressed confidence in the new abilities of their U.S.-mentored security forces, but they are also anxious of Baghdad without a highly visible U.S. footprint.
"I tell them (Iraqis) that the bottom line is that our desire is that you still have Americans on the street," said Jackson. "The changes of 30 June are that the frequency (of U.S. forces on the streets) would decrease and the size of our patrols would decrease.
"Instead of an entire patrol of Americans, now you will see a patrol of Iraqis with some of our soldiers. Our desire is not to abandon our partnership with the government, not to abandon our partnership with the Iraqi forces, not to abandon our partnership with the people."
Under terms of the security agreement, which governs continued U.S. presence in the country and the transition of security responsibilities, all U.S. troops must leave Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011. President Barack Obama, in a separate decision, says all combat troops will be out of Iraq by the end of next August, leaving only advisers and other key support personnel in the country until the date certain specified in the bilateral pact.

US envoy hopeful for diplomacy with NKorea

The US envoy on North Korea voiced hope Thursday for a diplomatic solution with the communist state and predicted it would eventually return to the table despite an escalating nuclear showdown.
Special envoy Stephen Bosworth said the United States was committed to diplomacy even as the UN Security Council moved to expand sanctions on impoverished North Korea over its nuclear test last month.
Bosworth told a Senate hearing that the United States was using a variety of tools with North Korea, ranging from sanctions to diplomatic engagement -- "if North Korea shows seriousness of purpose."
"The United States and our allies and partners in the region will need to take the necessary steps to assure our security in the face of this growing threat," Bosworth told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
But he added: "In the interest of all concerned, we very much hope that North Korea will choose the path of diplomacy rather than confrontation," he said.
He said the United States had no hostility toward North Korea -- as is frequently charged by Pyongyang to justify building its "nuclear deterrent."
"As we have stated repeatedly, the United States has no hostile intent toward the people of North Korea nor are we threatening to change the North Korean regime through force," he said.
Bosworth said the ultimate goal of President Barack Obama's administration was the "verifiable denuclearization" of North Korea. He renewed US insistence not to recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear weapons state.
North Korea last month tested a nuclear bomb, heightening a showdown after in April testing a long-range missile and withdrawing from a US-backed six-nation denuclearization deal.
But Bosworth said he was hopeful for a resumption of the six-party talks, which involved China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States.
"There is no evidence they are prepared to do that now but I believe they will eventually come back to the table," Bosworth said.
Bosworth said the United States eventually hoped to negotiate denuclearization measures with North Korea that are "more irreversible," saying that previous agreements were too easy to undo.
Former president George W. Bush had held out hope into his last days of office for a breakthrough with Pyongyang.
Despite criticism from Japan some conservatives in his Republican Party, Bush removed North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a longtime demand of Pyongyang because it paves the way for US aid and loans from multilateral lenders.
Bosworth hinted that the Obama administration was not looking to put North Korea back on the list.
"The secretary of state is only authorized to make a designation based on a determination that the government of a given country has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism," Bosworth said.
"Now, I can say, unequivocally, we will follow the provisions of that law completely," he said.
He was facing questions from Republican Senator Jim DeMint, who said that putting North Korea back on the list was one of the few ways to pressure it.
"It makes absolutely no sense to continue with this, and I think it basically amplifies a growing sense that Americans are a paper tiger, full of talk and no action," DeMint said.

Russia warns of obstacles to missile shield agreement with US

Russia said on Thursday that the United States must halt its plans to deploy a missile shield in eastern Europe before the two countries can start a full-fledged dialogue on missile defence.
A Russian foreign ministry spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, also insisted that Moscow would not cooperate in the Pentagon's plans to site an anti-missile radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland.
"We cannot agree to cooperate on the creation of sites which in their essence are designed to oppose Russia's strategic deterrent forces. No one will do something that harms himself," Nesterenko said.
"Only a US withdrawal from plans to place the so-called third position area of strategic missile defence in Europe can allow full-fledged dialogue to start on issues of cooperation in the reaction to probable missile threats."
The term "third position area" refers to the US plans in eastern Europe. The previous two areas of the planned multibillion-dollar missile shield are in the US states of Alaska and California.
However Nesterenko also voiced hope that a deal could eventually be reached: "We expect that on matters of missile defence, in the end it will be possible to find a common denominator and reach a mutually agreeable decision."
Nesterenko's comments on Thursday were in response to Russian media reports that the two countries had made progress on the issue and that the United States might even situate elements of its missile shield in Russia.
The reports, which appeared in multiple Russian newspapers, were based on testimony by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates this week before US senators.
But a spokesperson for Gates told AFP that the Pentagon chief's comments had been misconstrued and that the reported plans to put US missile-shield facilities in Russia were a misinterpretation.
Moscow has reacted angrily to the US missile defence plans, saying they are a threat to Russian security, although Washington says they are not directed against Russia and are meant to protect against "rogue states" like Iran.
Former US president George W. Bush strongly backed the missile shield, but the new administration of President Barack Obama has slowed down implementation of the project.