Putin Back Again: Russia counters United States Credit Ratings

The Kremlin has alleged that the US credit ratings is not completely fair. With that, Russia has begun to publish its own sovereign debt ratings in a move that is widely seen as a challenge to the grade given by US rating agencies.

Russia using its domestic Expert RA issued its first sovereign debt ratings this week, with Russia getting an A- grade – higher than its current BBB rating assigned by US majors Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

"It's already abundantly clear that the work of all three American agencies is directed toward inflating the US rating and lowering ratings for emerging economies," President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser Sergei Glazyev, said at the presentation of the rating, Bloomberg reported.

 He pointed out that Russia should stop relying on the ratings issued by the three US agencies, since domestic analysts are no worse than foreign ones.

"Expert RA has analyzed the main problems of  ratings, based on the example of the latest two economic crises, and offered an approach minimizing the effects of those problems on the grades," the rating agency said on its website.

The key difference in approach is giving separate assessments to a country's government as a borrower and its credit climate – the overall credit risk level, the agency said.

Expert RA assigned the United States an AA+ grade, below its top AAA and Aaa grades by Fitch Ratings and Moody's, respectively. America saw its triple-A rating by Standard & Poor's cut a notch to AA+ in 2011. Austria and Canada earned the same assessment.

The highest AAA grade was assigned by Expert RA to Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Coup Attempt Foiled in Benin Republic

While Africa waits for the election in Mali to have a logical and positively conclusive end, some blindfolded soldiers in Benin Republic, a stable West African state were planning a shocker.

A coup attempt to oust the President and install a military regime in the African nation was foiled according to authorities on Sunday.

Colonel Pamphile Zomahoun and businessman, Johannes Dagnon, have been arrested for a conspiracy "to block the head of state from returning to Cotonou after his trip and to institute a military regime," state prosecutor Justin Gbenameto Yayi told the press.

The investigation is continuing into the alleged coup. If successful, the coup would have cast a deep dark shadow on democracy and governance in West Africa as the region still battles Mali which became what it is today as a result of a coup also. It could also reverberate in Kenya too.

Search for an Alternative to Fossil Fuel: The Rising Power of Solar Energy

Royal Dutch Company prognosticates that world demand for oil will reach its peak between 2035-2040, after which solar power or gas will take the lead according to a study.

After research into global energy prospects, Shell came up with two possible scenarios called ‘Mountains’ and ‘Oceans’.

The first one predicts slow international economic development and the markets largely controlled governments that will stimulate nuclear energy exploitation.

It also suggests that ecology-friendly natural gas will become the backbone of the world’s energy system substituting coal as the main fuel in electricity generation. In this case, there will be some changes in transportation, with trucks and cars largely powered by electricity and hydrogen, and CO2 emissions will be reduced.

‘Oceans', which is the second forecast considers a more dynamic and ‘fluid’ global economy where reforms trigger a productivity growth and whose development will be determined largely by market forces and civil society, with a smaller role of government.

This scenario focuses on solar power that can become the dominant energy source outsmarting the traditionally known ones in 2060s-2070s as high energy prices unlock more expensive resources and technologies based on the in-depth analysis .

Nuclear energy development will be restrained by the popular concern while coal will continue to be widely used in electricity generation, Shell experts predict.

The demand for oil has been declining every month and at the end of the year will have decreased by 2.08% which is 18.56 million barrels per day according to global oil report.

China Wants More in Space Market; Moving Towards Hegemony

China is really keen to boost its share of the global commercial space-launching business, with the target of owning 15 percent of the market by 2020.

Deputy head of China's Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology Liang Xiaohong told Xinhua News Agency that to achieve this goal, the country plans to build strategic alliances with major launch service providers and satellite manufacturers, and to develop its own technology.

China currently owns only 3 percent of the market but it hopes to become a major player in space in the near future. According to Liang, China's first solid-fuel rocket will be ready to make its first flight by 2016.

Chinese rockets' venture has been overshadowed by the achievements of rival Japanese and Indian aerospace industries, as well as private aerospace enterprises from Europe and the US in cost-efficiency advantage, Liang explained.

Russia continues to maintain the world champion in the space launch market, according to Russian federal space agency Roscosmos. Company head Vladimir Popovkin said that Russia conducted 24 space launches in 2012, sending 33 vehicles into space, accounting for 38 percent of all launches worldwide.

China has several types of 'Long March' rockets for use in commercial launches, all of which now mainly burn liquid fuel that must be pumped in just prior to launch, according to AP.

"The development of the Long March 11 will greatly improve China's capabilities to rapidly enter space and meet the emergency launching demand in case of disasters and emergencies," Xinhua quoted Liang as saying.

Earlier this week, China's space programme unveiled plans to send three astronauts to its orbiting space station this summer as part of preparations to establish an even larger permanent presence above Earth.

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft, which will carry one female astronaut, will spend two weeks aboard the Tiangong 1 space station, during which time a team of astronauts will conduct a variety of experiments. This will be China's second manned docking of two spacecraft in orbit.

The station will be replaced around 2020 with a permanent one weighing about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s, and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station, according to AP.

Advancing Cancer Research Through Smartphone Game

Scientists from a British Cancer charity are teaming up with technology giants Amazon, Facebook and Google to design and develop a mobile game aimed at speeding the search for new cancer drugs.

The project, led by the charity Cancer Research UK will design applications that anyone with a smart phone and five minutes to spare will be able to investigate vital scientific data at the same time as playing a mobile game.

A preceding phase is for 40 computer programmers, gamers, graphic designers and other specialists to take part in a weekend "GameJam" to turn the charity's raw genetic data into a game format for future so-called "citizen scientists".

"We're making great progress in understanding the genetic reasons cancer develops. But the clues to why some drugs will work and some won't are held in data which need to be analysed by the human eye - and this could take years," said Carlos Caldas at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Institute while speaking to Aljazeera.

"By harnessing the collective power of citizen scientists we'll accelerate the discovery of new ways to diagnose and treat cancer much more precisely."

Cancer already kills more than 7.5 million people a year and the number of people with the disease worldwide is expected to surge by more than 75 percent by 2030, according to the World Health Organisation's cancer agency IARC.

The objectives of the CRUK's scientists are to identify the genetic faults that drive cancer to try to find new ways of diagnosing and treating patients in a more targeted way based on their genetic profile and that of their tumours.

US has deployed Intelligence Machinery to Support Nigeria; 'Drone Diplomacy' Coming --Gen Carter Ham

Gradually, the drones are coming to Africa with Niger as the first point of contact. Britain tested her Apache helicopters in Libya and America wants to start testing new versions of the drones in Africa now. The admission of Gen Carter Ham, a man who had once noted the ruthless acts of US army in Africa  shows the drones are coming big time.

It is noteworthy that commander of the United States Africa Command US AFRICOM, Gen. Carter Ham, confirmed that the US has deployed its intelligence machinery to support Nigeria in fighting the threat posed by Boko Haram.

Ham, who spoke in an interview session with a Nigerian media delegation in Stuttgart recently, said the support followed a request from the Nigerian authorities. The AFRICOM commander, who assumed the post in 2011, however, declined to give the details of the partnership with the Nigerian military against the terrorist group.

Gen. Carter Ham was at the Nigerian Defence College (NDC) where he expressed concern over the increasing connectivity and collaboration between the network of Al Qaeda affiliates and adherents in Africa, including the Boko Haram sect.

Gen Ham reiterated: 'Our core concern in the big picture is that if the US "drone diplomacy" must enter Nigerian sovereign territory, it must be a clearly defined collaborative arrangement, not a mish-mash of hazy cooperation without specific rules of engagement. Our weight and clout on the continent must be properly reflected in this matter. Our foreign policy priorities and internal security imperatives must take centre stage.'

Nigerian leaders will be gullible enough to allow rhetoric becloud their sense of reasoning. Drones have done more harms and damages to Pakistan, killing innocent youths and children yet Niger accepted them and they are now with us in West Africa, close to Nigeria while Nigeria will soon domicile them in her territory too.

The prediction of a possible break-up of Nigeria in 2015 predicted by the US as far back as 2005 is what all these point to beginning from the so-called SSS report on Iran. This is just a way to infuriate the people of the North and the reactions will heat and boil up the already fragile disunited and disjointed unity.

Iran and Syria blast the United States for Declaring Support for Syrian Rebels

 The Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, left, and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, in Tehran. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

Iran and Syria are blasted the United States for providing funds, food and medical supplies to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Secretary of State John Kerry had announced in the week that, for the first time, the United States would provide non-lethal aid directly to anti-Assad forces. The linkage between non-lethal aid and sophisticated weapons transfer in such scenario is very thin, hence the condemnation by Iran and Syria.

At a joint press conference in Tehran, the Syrian and Iranian foreign ministers called the policy a "double-standard."

"If you really feel sorry about the ongoing situation in Syria you should force the opposition to sit at the [negotiating] table with the Syrian government and put an end to bloodshed," said the Iranian official, Ali Akbar Salehi. "Why do you encourage the opposition to continue these acts of violence?"

"I do not understand how the United States can give support to groups that kill the Syrian people," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said. "This is nothing but a double-standard policy ... One who seeks a political solution does not punish the Syrian people."

The first US aid is designed to boost the rebels and pave the way for a peaceful political transition. It includes $60 million for opposition groups.

Bashar al Assad has been defiant since the uprising began and he is enjoying the support of Russia mostly and in a way China. Russia continues to call for diplomacy and negotiation to end the crisis. The war has also got to the Iraqi border in a province called Yaarabiya. The Syrian civil war has killed 70,000 since it began in 2011.

Rwanda: A Real Model for Africa

20 percent of Rwanda's population was killed in the 1994 genocide and two million of its people were displaced. The violent episode took a heavy toll on its economy and health service.

Close to two decades after Rwanda’s darkest hour, the country is being hailed as a model for recovery and reinvention and praised as a spectacular public health success story.

Danielle Beswick, a lecturer and specialist on Rwanda at the University of Birmingham speaking to Aljazeera stated: "Rwanda has been able to develop quite an innovative relationship with the donors. Rwanda as a government has quite  unique approach, a strongly nationally-owned approach to development which is a thing that we don't often see in Africa .... Donors don't just feel guilty and therefore they pour money into Rwanda. They also recognise that the Rwandan government has a strong vision for development."

United States health experts in a study say Rwanda has improved the quality of life in almost all walks of life. One year after the genocide life expectancy stood at 30 years; latest figures show it has now almost doubled to 59.

To fully get the Rwandan picture, a comparison would be necessary. Ethiopia has an average life expectancy of 54 and in the conflict-stricken Democratic Republic of Congo, it is 49.

In 1994, 78 percent of the population in Rwanda lived below the poverty line. By 2010 that figure had dropped to 45 percent, and in the five years up to 2010, one million Rwandans were lifted out of poverty. Rwanda is also winning the fight against infectious diseases.

Deaths from HIV, TB and malaria have each dropped by around 80 percent over the past 10 years. For tuberculosis, Rwanda has a rate of around 128 sufferers per 100,000 people. In Ethiopia it is close to 400 people, and in the DRC it is well over 500 for every 100,000 people.

Selam Hailemichael, Care International in Norway also speaking to Aljazeera stated: "The vision and the framework first needs to be in place for aid to make sense.... For the country to reach the level that it's at now, I would say what has contributed is the shared vision .... It's quite a mixed information that's coming out of Rwanda, that's a fact. But [what we are seeing] is a very inclusive development in Rwanda".

The African nation has emerged from a failed state, to break the cycle of poverty, despair and disease. Paul Kagame has also being described as the model for African leaders.