SpaceX rocket lands at sea after satellite launch

An unmanned SpaceX rocket has landed back on Earth after a successful commercial mission to put a satellite into orbit. Expectations for the mission had been low, with the craft carrying a minimal amount of fuel. 

The Falcon 9 rocket landed successfully on a floating launch pad, having launched a Japanese telecommunications satellite into space.

A live web broadcast showed the first stage of the rocket touching down vertically on a floating sea platform.

The rocket lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1.21 a.m. local time (0521 UTC). The lower segment of the rocket broke away less than three minutes later, landing on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean, some 400 miles (650 kilometers) from the launch spot.

SpaceX owner Elon Musk was unable to contain his excitement on social media.

"The Falcon has landed," said one of the landing commentators.

The company, which successfully achieved a first landing at sea in April, had played down expectations about the latest mission. The rocket's controlled descent was conducted on a minimal amount of fuel, from a higher altitude than previously, having delivered the Japanese JCSAT-14 telecommunications satellite into orbit as part of its commercial mission.

SpaceX says the reusability of its rockets is the key to making space launches cheaper and more accessible.

Dream of Red Planet

The launch was the fourth of more than a dozen flights scheduled this year, with SpaceX contracted to deliver satellites for a range of clients including NASA. Last week, the company won its first contract to launch a military satellite, breaking the monopoly of a company joint-owed by Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

SpaceX is the only company so far to recover a rocket after an orbital launch, having achieved its first landing - on solid ground - back in December.

The company hopes to begin delivering US astronauts to the International Space Station - using its Dragon capsules - by the end of next year. However, its ultimate goal is to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars by 2018, with Musk aiming for a human mission in the 2030s.

rc/msh (AP, AFP, Reuters)

What is happening between Turkey's Davutoglu and Erdogan 'resembles a horror film'

The winds of a possible new election have been blowing around Ankara. Hilal Koylu reports from Ankara about how the prime minister's departure has raised speculation about President Erdogan's machinations. 

During the 20 months that Ahmet Davutoglu has served as Turkey's prime minister and leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), there have been ongoing rumors of a rift between himself and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Rumors which Erdogan himself repeatedly quashed.

But, the prime minister's announcement this week that he would likely give up his post showed - like other recent events - how these rumors might have been true all along.

Signs of discord between the two leaders began to appear late last month when Davutoglu's authority to appoint district and local party leaders was revoked at a meeting of the Central Decision and Executive Board.

Days later, a blog analyzing the relationship between Prime Minister Davutoglu and President Erdogan appeared online. Entitled "The Pelican files," the blog pointed out what the anonymous writer described as moves the premier had made against the head of state. The author's identity remains unknown, but some believe the blog stems from an Erdogan supporter, while others believe it was written by a party outsider.

Davutoglu's announcement on Thursday came within a week of both of these events. Davutoglu made a point of emphasizing his loyalty to the president, in a bid to contradict those claiming that there was a rupture within the AKP. He also put to rest questions of his resignation by announcing that he would remain prime minister until the extraordinary congress on May 22.

But his departure raises questions about how President Erdogan will use it to expand his presidential powers, as well as what political change is occurring both within the government and in the opposition.

'A horror film'

In Ankara, both the political ramifications of Davutoglu's announcement and what exactly occurred between Erdogan and Davutoglu are topics of much curiosity.

According to Ayse Ayata, who teaches political science in Turkey, what is happening "resembles a horror film" and amounts to a "presidential coup" by Erdogan.

"We are talking about a prime minister who saw the fall in votes during the June 7 general election and worked to increase them in the November 1 election. Davutoglu is a prime minister who received 50 percent of the national vote," the Middle East Technical University professor told DW.

Erdogan will throw out the opposition HDP and call new elections, Ayata says, leading the country into a situation that will damage democracy and society, and, ultimately, "will end badly."

"It is clear that Erdogan sees nothing preventing his path to the presidential system," Ayata said. "It also involves protecting himself and his family. That is clear."

'The conflicts will escalate'

Ankara University political scientist Baskin Oran also thinks that Turkey is headed toward another election.

"Erdogan took the latest step in installing a presidential system by waging a coup and casting off the Davutoglu government, because Davutoglu didn't do everything that he said," Oran told DW.

According to the political scientist, Erdogan will pursue a strategy of provoking the Kurds and keeping his coalition of the AKP, the military and neo-nationalists.

"Erdogan, until the end, will escalate the conflicts in this country. In order to win an election, he will benefit from an atmosphere of fear and chaos," he said.

But, Oran says, the real question is how long Erdogan will benefit from this strategy - and whether it might ultimately lead to his own downfall.

Foreign media left in the cold as North Korean congress starts

North Korea is staging the first full congress of its ruling party for nearly 40 years. But foreign journalists invited to attend have had to practice patience. 

Thousands of delegates from across the communist nation gathered in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on Friday for what has been billed as the North's most important political show in decades.

The country's leader, 33-year-old Kim Jong-Un, was expected to deliver a keynote address at the gathering, the first since a 1980 congress that saw his father, Kim Jong-Il, in his turn the son of North Korea's founding leader, Kim Il-Sung, designated as heir apparent.

North Korea's information committee said the congress began on Friday morning. But more than 100 foreign journalists invited to cover the event were not immediately allowed inside the venue, the April 25 House of Culture. After being made to wait outside for more than an hour, they were taken back to their hotels.

State television also provided no live coverage of the congress, whose agenda and duration remain unknown.

'Nuclear prestige'

However, observers say the main aim of the meeting is to cement Kim Jong-un's absolute rule as legitimate inheritor of the Kim family legacy, and to showcase the country's status as a nuclear power in face of international disapproval that has taken tangible form in heavy sanctions.

The UN has imposed its toughest penalties in 20 years following the country's fourth nuclear test, which was carried out in January, and a rocket launch that followed soon after.

Ahead of the event, state media hailed the most recent nuclear test as proof of the North's "greatness and prestige as a nuclear power state."

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, in its turn, vigorously criticized the international community for objecting to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

"Regardless of whether someone recognizes it or not, our status as a nuclear state that is armed with H-bombs cannot change," it said in a statement.

The congress is likely to see Kim Jong Un's dual policy - known as "byungjin" - of developing North Korea's nuclear weapons capacity in tandem with its domestic economy enshrined as formal party doctrine.

There has been some speculation as to whether the North might carry out another nuclear test during the congress. However, the US-Korea Institute at the US Johns Hopkins University said on Thursday it was not possible to say either way if an underground test was imminent, basing its opinion on analysis of recent satellite pictures of the test site at Punggye-ri.

tj/msh (AP, AFP)

Ready for the apocalypse in Poland

Fears are rising in Poland - fears of Russian President Vladimir Putin, of terrorism and the specter of another war. One symptom is the growing numbers of preppers - people who stock up on provisions to be ready for tough times ahead. 

Syria airstrikes on refugee shelter 'could amount to war crime,' UN warns

The United Nations (UN) has said that, if found to be deliberate, the airstrikes on two Syrian refugee camps "could be a war crime." At least 30 people were killed and more than 80 others injured. 

UN humanitarian affairs chief Stephen O'Brien said on Friday that he was "horrified and sickened" by the attacks that targeted camps of internally displaced Syrians in Idlib province near Syria's border with Turkey.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, first reported on the attacks on Thursday, after airstrikes targeted a camp in Sarmada. The town lies in rebel-held territory in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of divided Aleppo. At least seven children, were among the 30 victims, the watchdog said.

The refugees targeted in the strikes had reportedly been sheltering from fighting in Syria's northern hub of Aleppo and Palmyra, the heritage city recaptured by Syrian government forces with Russian air support.

"If this obscene attack is found to be a deliberate targeting of a civilian structure, it could amount to a war crime," O'Brien said.

It was not immediately who was responsible for the strikes, although some unconfirmed reports said they belonged to regime forces.

"We've seen early claims that this was regime strike, but we just want to be absolutely sure before we level blame at somebody," US State Department Mark Toner said in Washington. "But it's totally in keeping with the types of ... airstrikes that regime has carried out ... against innocent civilians."

Truce in Aleppo

A temporary ceasefire in the northern city of Aleppo was also reportedly breached on Friday after insurgent groups captured a strategically important village from Syrian government forces.

The al Qaeda-linked al Nusra Front and allied Islamists seized Khan Tuman and surrounding villages after less than 24 hours of clashes, killing at least 70 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syria's central province of Homs was also targeted in a twin bombing on Thursday in the village of Mukharam al-Fawkani. According to Syria state media and the regional governor, Talal Barrazi, at least 10 people were killed, including four children.

Similar deadly attacks in the Homs area in the past have been claimed by the "Islamic State" (IS) militant group, which earlier this week overran an adjacent gas field.

ksb/msh (AP, Reuters, dpa)

Japan PM Abe visits Putin looking to warm ties

SOCHI (RUSSIA) (AFP) - 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in a bid to bolster ties and seek to resolve a decades-long territorial dispute.

Tokyo-Moscow relations have been hamstrung by the row dating back to the end of World War II when Soviet troops seized the four southernmost islands in the Pacific Kuril chain, known as the Northern Territories in Japan.

Japan and Russia's lingering tensions have prevented them ever signing a peace treaty to formally end World War II hostilities, hindering trade and investment ties.

"This is a complex, multi-faceted issue that can only be resolved in a manner acceptable to both sides through an even deeper partnership between the two countries," Putin's chief foreign policy advisor Yury Ushakov said ahead of the visit.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said in April that Russia and Japan had agreed to start negotiations on signing a peace treaty "as soon as possible" after the meeting.

His Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on a visit to Tokyo last month said Russia wants to "move forward" in relations, but is not prepared to budge on the "result of World War II".

Putin said during a public phone-in in April that he thinks "a compromise could be found at some point -- and it will be found" on the territorial dispute.

Moscow hopes the meeting will help create a "constructive atmosphere in bilateral relations", but "immediate serious progress" is unlikely, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned.

- Lingering tensions -

Despite the warmer words from the Kremlin, tensions between the two sides continue to surface and Japan has hit Russia with sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

Russia has in turn angered Japan recently by building new modern compounds for its troops stationed on two of the disputed islands.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also infuriated Tokyo by visiting one of the islands, home to some 19,000 Russians, last year.

Putin said last month he welcomed Abe's visit as it comes despite "pressure from (Japan's) partners, particularly the United States".

Abe will later this month host a summit of the Group of Seven advanced industrial countries, from which Russia has been excluded over its annexation of Crimea.

"Evidently Japan will try to act as a kind of middleman in the talks process between Russia and the US," Russia's government newspaper the Rossiiskaya Gazeta said Thursday.

US President Barack Obama reportedly asking Abe in February to postpone his trip to Russia, according to sources quoted by Japan's Kyodo news agency.

Writing in pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia on Thursday, a former deputy foreign minister and ambassador to Tokyo, Alexander Panov, suggested the meeting could see "Japan drop a number of sanctions" it imposed on Russia over Ukraine.

The leaders are expected to discuss a long-planned visit by Putin to Japan this year, after Lavrov last month urged Tokyo to give a firm date.

The Kremlin said they were also set to discuss economic ties, with Moscow saying their trade turnover last year fell 31 percent due to low oil prices.

"Japanese business and banks are not in a rush to invest in the Russian economy, preferring to wait for better times," wrote the Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

by Anna Malpas

© 2016 AFP

Asian markets down ahead of US jobs report

HONG KONG (AFP) - 

Asian markets tumbled on Friday as lingering worries over global growth sent traders running from higher-risk assets, while attention turns to the release of US jobs data later in the day.

Japan's Nikkei suffered big losses as it reopened from a three-day holiday to play catch-up with a global sell-off. However, analysts said the losses were tempered owing to a fall in the yen against the dollar from 18-month highs.

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Confidence on trading floors has been sparse the past two weeks following disappointing data and announcements from China to the United States that tore a hole in hopes the global economy was showing signs of recovery.

The US Labor Department later Friday will release jobs figures for April, with expectations of a slowdown in new posts.

But while the report is forecast to show the world's number two economy is not as strong as hoped, the dollar has managed to hold its gains after two Federal Reserve bosses argued the case for an interest rate hike as early as June.

The comments from the two presidents helped lift the dollar from the 105.50 yen trough touched on Tuesday to levels above 107 yen Friday. In early Japanese trade the greenback was at 107.15 yen.

The rally shielded Japanese stocks from a sharp sell-off Friday, with the Nikkei down 0.7 percent by the break.

Hong Kong fell one percent, while Shanghai shed 0.1 percent and Sydney gave up 0.1 percent. Singapore lost 1.2 percent and Taipei 0.5 percent.

"It's not as bad as it could have been with Japan coming back and that's been helped by a bit of weakening in the yen during the past couple of days," Angus Nicholson, a market analyst at IG Ltd. in Melbourne, told Bloomberg News.

"If we see a strong non-farm payrolls number tonight it will help the dollar move in the right direction."

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe looked to staunch a yen rally Thursday by hinting at possible interventions.

He said "drastic fluctuations" in the unit risked having a major impact on his nation's exporters, adding: "We need to carefully watch these movements of exchange rate and as necessary we would like to respond."

The flight to safety also hit Asian emerging market currencies, with the South Korean won down 0.5 percent against the dollar and Indonesia's rupiah 0.1 percent lower. The Australian dollar was down one percent as it continues to feel the effects of this week's shock interest rate cut by the country's central bank.

- Key figures around 0230 GMT -

Tokyo: Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.7 percent at 16,031.72 (break)

Hong Kong: DOWN 1.0 percent at 20,255.34

Shanghai: DOWN 0.1 percent at 2,993.62

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1403 from $1.1404 Thursday

Dollar/yen: UP at 107.15 yen from 107.26 yen

New York - Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 17,660.71 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 6,117.25 (close)

© 2016 AFP