India extends support to Nepal's peace process

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said India stands by the efforts of Nepal and its people towards logically concluding their peace process and the drafting of the constitution for a multi-party democracy, as he met a wide spectrum of political leaders in Kathmandu.

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Mukherjee, who is on a day-long visit to Nepal, met Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, besides all major political leaders, including Maoist supremo Prachanda, CPN-UML president Jhala Nath Khanal and Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala. He also called on President Ram Baran Yadav.
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After meeting Bhattarai, Mukherjee said: "India stands by the efforts of the people and government of Nepal to logically conclude the peace process and finalise drafting of the constitution".
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"We want that the peace process and the constitution drafting process should be finalised so that after long struggle people of Nepal have created an atmosphere where
multi-party democracy can function effectively," he said.
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Welcoming the seven-point agreement reached among the political parties under the initiative of Bhattarai, the Finance Minister said: "We are confident that people of Nepal would be in a position through the representation of their respective political parties to come to the logical end of the peace process and drafting of a new constitution."
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During his meeting with Nepali Congress president Koirala and former Prime Minister and NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, Mukherjee said India wants to see how Nepal's democratisation process can be consolidated and the constitution-making process be expedited.

"Mukherjee mentioned about good relations existing between Congress I and Nepali Congress parties saying that India wants to see how democratisation process could be strengthened in Nepal," according to Nepali Congress central member Bimalendra Nidhi, who was also present during the meeting.
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During the meeting, Nepali Congress leaders briefed him about the ongoing peace process, constitution making process and the current political situation.
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Nepalese leaders told Mukherjee that they were hopeful over concluding the constitution-drafting in the next six months period, when the Indian leader asked about the delay in constitution drafting despite the terms of the Constituent Assembly being extended several times.
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Koirala told Mukherjee that his party was still apprehensive about the Maoists' motive as they had not yet committed to political pluralism. He added that the Nepali Congress wants parliamentary form of governance along with federalism to be incorporated in the new constitution, Nidhi said.
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Mukherjee on his part clarified that India does not want to impose anything on Nepal, and will support the peace process in whatever way the Nepalese people want.
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Under the seven-point pact, the major parties -- the ruling UCPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML -- agreed to integrate up to 6,500 Maoist combatants into the country's security forces by forming a separate directorate under Nepal Army.
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Earlier, Mukherjee inked the DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) with Nepal and held bilateral talks with his Nepalese counterpart Barsha Man Pun.

Source: http://english.samaylive.com/world-news/676496748/india-extends-support-to-nepal-s-peace-process.html

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Mars explorer 'Curiosity' set for Saturday launch

NASA's Mars explorer Curiosity, the most capable robotic rover ever built for taking the measure of a planet, is to launch Saturday morning. Curiosity?will analyze the layered terrain in Gale Crater to read in its rocks the history of the environment there.

NASA's Mars explorer Curiosity, the most capable robotic rover ever built for taking the measure of a planet, is nestled snugly in its protective fairing atop an Atlas V rocket, awaiting a 10:02 launch this morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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Not since the twin Viking landers touched down on the Martian surface in 1976 has an advanced robotic chemistry lab been dispatched to the planet ? a sibling of Earth that has captured the human imagination for millenniums.

Unlike Vikings 1 and 2, Curiosity will not hunt for direct evidence of life on Mars. Instead, scientists fielding the Mini Cooper-sized rover with its seven foot "neck" will analyze the layered terrain in Gale Crater to read in its rocks the history of the environment there.

IN PICTURES:?Exploring Mars

The crater's rocks show evidence of water in their distant past. And the formations appear to record a progression from wet, to occasionally wet, to dry conditions. Now researchers are hunting for clues about the broader chemical and atmospheric processes affecting the planet during these changes, conditions that could have encouraged or inhibited the possible emergence of life on Mars.

Any life that exists on Mars "will be a function of its environment," says Pamela Conrad, an astrobiologist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and a deputy principal investigator for one of the soil-analysis instruments Curiosity carries.

"We can't say with any definitive knowledge that we could recognize life somewhere else in the solar system, or beyond the solar system, without being able to unbolt all the assumptions and all the experience we have" looking at life on Earth, Dr. Conrad says.

For Mars, Curiosity represents the tool that will suggest to astrobiologists how loose bolts have to be.??????

But first, Curiosity has to get there.

It's a 354-million-mile trip that begins with this morning's lift-off. Once Curiosity reaches space, the craft's Centaur upper stage will ignite and place the craft in a temporary parking orbit around Earth. Roughly 20 minutes later, the upper stage will ignite once more to send Curiosity on its way to Mars.

During the trip, scientists and engineers will make sure the 10 science instruments aboard the rover are working properly, make any course corrections that might be needed to keep Curiosity on the interplanetary not-so-straight but narrow, and plan the early stages of their exploration of Gale Crater.

Over the course of Curiosity's 98-week primary mission, the rover is expected to cover about 12 miles. But mission managers say they expect it to rack up far more than that if the mission receives extensions, according to Peter Theisinger, project manager for the Mars Science Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/3q2i_TUq0TM/Mars-explorer-Curiosity-set-for-Saturday-launch

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