Free Republic

With Europe's first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) due to deliver supplies to the International Space Station this fall, NASA has begun training U.S. civil servants to help trouble-shoot if needed during what is supposed to be a largely Russian-European operation. Ordinarily, those problem-solving duties would fall primarily on NASA's contractors. But U.S. export controls governing the exchange of technical data have complicated matters for NASA and its partners as they prepare for ATV's debut. NASA asked the U.S. State Department in December for some space station-specific relief from U.S. International Traffic in Arms regulations that govern many space-related products and...

KIEV - The last time The Times saw Viktor Yanukovych, the burly former convict and then Prime Minister of Ukraine looked like a broken man. His victory in a presidential election had just been overturned after a fortnight of massive protests centred on Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. Viktor Yushchenko, who led the Orange Revolution and went on to win the election re-run, was being hailed around the world as a democratic hero who had wrenched the country of 47 million people out of Russia’s stifling embrace. Mr Yanukovych was vilified as a Kremlin stooge. Just over a year later, however,...

Could we have race riots in west Dublin, Parnell Street or Shandon? What lessons should we learn from France, and what does the violence in the French suburbs tell us about Europe, Ireland and the future? In the past week, three broad explanations have been advanced to rationalise the chaos raging in France. The first is the ‘official' line, which borrows heavily from soft-focus economics and sociology. It can also be described as the left-liberal analysis, and claims that the problem is one of social exclusion. The solution therefore, is fairly straightforward - more jobs, more income and a greater...