Global News Post: Weather

Rain Deficit Hits India's Leading Rice Producing State

Rain Deficit Hits India's Leading Rice Producing State

HYDERABAD (NNN-Bernama) -- Deficient rainfall and severe drought have adversely affected agricultural activities across south Indian sta...

INDIA: Poor Monsoon to Pull Down Economic Growth to 6%

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<div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI) -- Deficient monsoon is likely to pull down the Indian economic growth in the current fiscal to about six%, from 6.5% a year ago, the Planning Commission said on Friday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"If we factor in that agriculture which would not be strong ... (growth) would be closer to 6%. I don't think we have sufficiently strong industrial turn around yet," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters in New Delhi.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In case of 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17), he said the annual average economic growth could be around 8.2% as against the earlier estimate of 9% envisaged in the Approach Paper to the policy document.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As regards 2012-13, the Reserve Bank of India has recently lowered the growth projection to 6.5% from 7.3% in the wake of deficient monsoon and global economic problems.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On whether special schemes were needed to tide over the drought like situation, Ahluwalia said, "I don't think you need an incentive. These are all issues that state governments have to tackle. They are usually very keen to take corrective measures".<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He further said that rural employment guarantee scheme MNREGA can deal with the problem of unemployment in rural areas.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The growth rate in agriculture will be lower and that means that certain amount of income and employment stress in rural areas will have to be countered. In that perspective the existence of the MNREGA scheme provides a kind of automatic stabliser. If people need work because of the drought, they will get work through MNREGA", Ahluwalia said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The country had faced several monsoon failures, Ahluwalia said, adding there are possibilities that the situation would improve in the coming months.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"They (Indian Meteorological Department) have actually said that the overall monsoon position in the next two months would be better than the previous two months but the overall would be deficient. There is nothing new in this. We have known that it would be deficient in first two months," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ahluwalia further said that "this is not the first drought we have had. Droughts do create a problem and we know what to do when they happen".<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On the impact of drought on price situation, he said, "it is true that inflation has been a problem. It has come down from the double digit but virtually all the government forecast says that it will remain around 7% for sometime and that is not good enough".<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He further said that inflation is under control if it is between 5-6% but "inflation is above that... it is a matter of concern."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The headline or Wholesale Price Index-based inflation in June was 7.25%, while at the retail level it was at an alarming 10.02%. -- NNN-PTI<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
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INDIA: Poor Monsoon to Pull Down Economic Growth to 6%

NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI) -- Deficient monsoon is likely to pull down the Indian economic growth in the current fiscal to about six%, from 6.5% ...

Earth Just Decades From Doomsday – Scientists

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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">MOSCOW (RIA Novosti)--- The Earth is threatened with an abrupt change in the global ecosystem that may cause "a state shift," in as soon as a few decades, a report published on Thursday in the scientific Nature magazine says.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The research by a group of 22 international scientists, including biologists, geologists, paleontologists, ecologists and theoreticians claimed the global ecosystem could soon reach a tipping point as the human population and consumption rates continue to grow. A global “state shift” occurs when from 50 to 90 percent of ecosystems are disrupted, the study says.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">   </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Humans now dominate Earth, changing it in ways that threaten its ability to sustain us and other species," Nature quoted the report as saying.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The consequences of such a global change in the ecosystem are unknown, but the researchers think it could trigger severe changes in world's agriculture, forests, water resources and fisheries, Nature said, adding all these effects could lead to the “widespread social unrest, economic instability and loss of human life.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The scientists deliberately avoided the word “doomsday” in their findings, calling it a “tipping point.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"It really will be a new world, biologically, at that point," Nature quoted Anthony Barnosky, professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley as saying.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Barnosky suggested half of the Earth's land would be altered by humans by 2025, adding it would be "disturbingly close" to a potential global tipping point.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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Earth Just Decades From Doomsday – Scientists

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti)--- The Earth is threatened with an abrupt change in the global ecosystem that may cause "a state shift," in ...

Heat Wave Sweeps North, East India; Claims 16 Lives

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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">NEW DELHI, India (NNN-Bernama) -- Sixteen people succumbed to the heat wave in West Bengal as vast swathes of the country's northern and eastern plains continued to swelter, with temperatures settling above the normal mark at several places, Press Trust of India reported. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The national capital Delhi, however, had some respite from the heat with the the mercury dropping marginally from Sunday's 42.4 degrees Celsius to 41.9 degrees Celsius and the minimum from 29.7 to 29 degrees Celsius. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As many as 16 people succumbed to the blistering heat over the last three days in east Indian state of West Bengal, where the average temperature hovered around 45 degrees Celsius. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">While nine people died in Burdwan district, three each succumbed to sunstroke in Kolkata and Purulia district. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The midsummer sun continued to scorch north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh as well, with the mercury breaching the 45 degrees Celsius mark at several places in the state. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A brief spell of light rain, however, brought some respite to Aligarh. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Day temperatures rose appreciably above normal in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Faizabad, Lucknow, Meerut and Moradabad divisions and above normal in Kanpur and Jhansi divisions. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Allahabad remained the hottest place in the state, recording 46.9 degrees Celsius, followed by Hamirpur at 46.2 degrees Celsius, Varanasi 45.8 degrees Celsius and Banda 45.6 degrees Celsius. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh sizzled under an unrelenting heat wave despite a slight dip in maximum temperatures at a few places in the region. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Chandigarh was hot and humid, recording a high of 41.2 degrees Celsius -- two degrees above normal, while Amritsar and Ludhiana in Punjab recorded above normal maximums of 43.3 degrees and 43.5 degrees Celsius respectively. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A sudden thunderstorm accompanied by sharp showers lashed Himachal Pradesh's capital Shimla and its surrounding areas, causing a sharp fall in mercury. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The storm lasted for about half-an-hour but the showers did little to bring own the mercury level in the lower hills of Himachal, which continued to reel under temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Una in the Shivalik hills remained the hottest in the region with maximum temperature at 42.4 degrees Celsius, four degrees above normal. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Some parts of north Indian state Uttarakhand witnessed dust storm and scattered rains, but the brief spell failed to provide relief from the searing heat conditions prevailing in the hill state. --NNN-BERNAMA</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Heat Wave Sweeps North, East India; Claims 16 Lives

NEW DELHI, India (NNN-Bernama) -- Sixteen people succumbed to the heat wave in West Bengal as vast swathes of the country's northern an...

India Launches All-Weather Earth Observation Satellite Risat-1

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<div class="Section0"><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt;">  </span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">SRIHARIKOTA (AP)</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">(NNN-PTI): Achieving yet another milestone in its space programme, India has successfully launched its first indigenous all-weather radar imaging satellite RISAT-1 that will boost its remote sensing capabilities and facilitate agriculture and disaster management. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br />
</span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The launch of the satellite today catapulted India into a select band of countries having indigenous radar imaging technology. " </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br />
</span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Only the US, Canada, Japan and the European consortium have the technology so far," P S Veeraraghavan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram said. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br />
</span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Hailing the launch, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it was an important milestone in India's space programme and congratulated the ISRO scientists for displaying mastery of the complex launch vehicle technology. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br />
</span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">In a textbook launch, the 1,858 kg spacecraft, the country's first microwave remote sensing satellite, was injected into precise orbit by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV C-19 about 19 minutes after a lift off at 5.47 AM at the end of the 71-hour countdown from Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, around 90 km from Chennai. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br />
</span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">PSLV, the workhorse launch vehicle of Indian Space Research Organisation, achieved its 20th consecutive successful flight when it launched RISAT-1, the heaviest satellite ever lifted by it, in a mission described as a "grand success" by the space agency chief K Radhakrishanan. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br />
</span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">RISAT-1, culmination of nearly 10 years of effort by SRO, has the capability to take images of Earth during day and night, as well as in cloudy conditions. Till now, India depended on images from a Canadian satellite as existing domestic remote sensing spacecraft cannot take pictures of Earth during cloud cover. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br />
</span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">"The satellite can give valuable data like soil moisture, glacier positions and other details," the ISRO chairman said. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br />
</span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The satellite has been successfully deployed at an altitude of 480 km, Radhakrishnan said, adding it would be raised to its desired altitude of 536 km of Polar Sunsynchronous Orbit in the next three days. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br />
</span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The four stages of heavy-duty PSLV-XL variant, used for the third time, performed without any glitch and scientists at the mission control centre broke into cheers when the rocket injected the satellite into orbit, marking the first launch this year a success for ISRO. -NNN-PTI </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div>

India Launches All-Weather Earth Observation Satellite Risat-1

SRIHARIKOTA (AP) (NNN-PTI): Achieving yet another milestone in its space programme, India has successfully launched its first indigeno...

Rare October Snowstorm in Eastern US Causes Deaths, Power Outages

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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">A rare October snowstorm has caused three deaths and cut power to more than 3 million homes and businesses in several northeastern <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> states.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">As much as 30 centimeters of snow fell in parts of <st1:state w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:state>, <st1:state w:st="on">Connecticut</st1:state> and <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Jersey</st1:place></st1:state>, setting records and forcing officials to declare states of emergency.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The storm also severely affected transportation with scores of flights canceled, roads closed and rail services disrupted.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">More than 100 passengers on a JetBlue Airlines flight were stranded on the tarmac in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Connecticut</st1:state></st1:place> for more than seven hours Saturday without food, water or working lavatories. They were on a flight from <st1:state w:st="on">Florida</st1:state> to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">New Jersey</st1:state></st1:place> that was diverted due to the storm.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The deaths were caused by storm-related accidents in <st1:state w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:state>, <st1:state w:st="on">Connecticut</st1:state> and <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Massachusetts</st1:place></st1:state>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">One of the hardest hit areas was <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">New   Jersey</st1:state></st1:place> where more than 650,000 customers are without power. It could be several days before all services are restored throughout the multi-state region. ---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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Rare October Snowstorm in Eastern US Causes Deaths, Power Outages

A rare October snowstorm has caused three deaths and cut power to more than 3 million homes and businesses in several northeastern U.S. s...