Phew! Shuttle makes rocketing return to Earth

Space Shuttle Discovery touched down at 2:11 p.m. Tuesday at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The landing site was switched following poor weather at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, where lightning storms had been expected. The shuttle made a perfect landing, steered home by Commander Eileen Collins as most Los Angelinos were still getting their beauty sleep.

When the shuttle hit the atmosphere, it was traveling at 17,000 mph but slowed to a more comfortable 200 mph by the time it touched down. Nasa Mission Control was relieved to see their craft and crew return safely to earth. Questions will now be asked again as to how large pieces of insulation debris came apart from Discovery during the launch, after millions of dollars had been invested to prevent exactly that problem. (2:30 p.m. CET)

New elections for Japan

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called snap elections Monday after his postal reform plans were rejected by the country's Upper House. Members of his own Liberal Democratic Party voted down measures designed to transform Japan's postal service and rather than resign, Mr Koizumi called for the dissolution of the Lower House and for fresh elections to be held on September 11.

The bill to reform Japan Post -- effectively the world's largest savings bank -- was rejected in the Upper House by 125 votes to 108, having only narrowly been passed by the lower chamber. The plans exposed painful divisions in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which were further accentuated by the decision to call new elections.

Agricultural Minister Yoshinobu Shimamura tendered his resignation from the cabinet following Mr Koizumi's announcement and claimed he was not alone in opposing a move which could see the defeat of the LDP in September. The party has held a near continuous grip on power since its foundation in 1955 but divisions now threaten an embarrassing electoral defeat.

Indeed, many LDP members fear a loss of power. "There is no justification. It's like a suicide bombing," one party member told Reuters.

Mr Koizumi had made reform of Japan's unwieldy postal service a central plank of his agenda. Japan Post has a network of 25,000 post offices, employs around 270,000 people and holds $3 trillion in assets, mainly in public savings. The postal service is the largest buyer of government bonds and helps to finance Japan's weighty public debt.

But although Japan Post's deposits allow the government to finance popular large-scale public works, Mr Koizumi feels that if the assets were held in private hands, there would be a greater benefit to Japan's economy. His plans are controversial as many feel the move will lead to job losses and a less efficient postal service. The Prime Minister was unrepentant yesterday however.

"This election is about accepting or rejecting postal privatization, and I believe many Japanese people will show they accept privatization," Mr Koizumi said.

Japan's Prime Minister is not the first premier to call surprise elections this year. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder announced snap elections in May, claiming he no longer had the requisite support to carry through his reform agenda. Schröder was also charged with anti-democratic and apparently selfish motives after he, too, refused to resign even though the party's defeat in premature elections appears all but assured.

Mr Koizumi can at least claim that 22 members of his own party rejected the postal bill, and that he had therefore lost the support of his own government. Mr Schröder by contrast had to precipitate a vote of no confidence in order to bring about new elections. It's a move many in Germany view as a manipulation of the democratic process.

London bombings: An intelligence failure?

British intelligence services are coming under scrutiny this week following revealations that both French and Saudi Arabian security agencies warned them before July 7 that an attack on British soil was imminent.

A leaked classified report, published in the French daily Le Figaro, warned of impending attacks by "operatives drawing on pro-jihad sympathies within the large Pakistani community in the UK." British intelligence services drew different conclusions, and had lowered the threat status in the weeks prior to the bombings.

British diplomats have since denied that the 20-page report prepared by the Renseignements Généraux -- France's special operations unit -- was ever passed on to British authorities. The report warned of plans "decided at the highest level of al-Qaida" which might be carried out by Britons of Pakistani origin. Three of the four July 7 bombers were from Britain's Pakistani community.

The report emphasized the extreme importance of monitoring France's own Pakistani community to prevent a possible attack. France "is not immune to these violent groupings, when you realize the close links between the Pakistani community in Britain and many of their compatriots in France," the report stated.

Saudi authorities are also thought to have warned the UK of the danger of attacks this summer. Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador in London, confirmed in a statement, "There was certainly close liaison between the Saudi Arabian intelligence authorities and British intelligence some months ago, when information was passed to Britain about a heightened terrorist threat to London." No specific information is thought to have been shared, though.

Yesterday, British intelligence services issued their own warnings, this time on the potential for imminent attacks in Saudi Arabia. A message posted on the British Embassy Web site warned of a "continuing high threat of terrorism in Saudi Arabia" and that "there are credible reports terrorists are in the final stages of planning attacks." Underlining the current confusion and sensitivity of intelligence services, the Saudi Interior Ministry issued a statement on August 7 claiming to have no information on an impending attack in the kingdom. The US Embassy temporarily closed its three Saudi missions this week because of credible threats to US targets.

German chief of foreign intelligence, August Hanning, warned yesterday that attacks in the Middle East were inevitable and said he feared that terrorism was "radiating" across Iraq's borders into neighbouring countries in the Middle East. (1 p.m. CET)

"Honest" prisoners who survived tsunami to be rewarded

When the tsunami struck the Indonesian province of Banda Aceh on December 26, 2004, hundreds of prisoners were among the dead. Many were trapped in their cells or unable to escape over prison walls. All 280 inmates of Banda Aceh prison are thought to have died, even though a warden allowed prisoners out of their cells following the earthquake. They left only to drown in the courtyard when the tsunami hit.

But hundreds of prisoners from other jails across the province did survive and rather than thinking of themselves and escaping, many pitched in with the humanitarian relief operation, and even willingly registered with local authorities.

To reward their deeds and honesty, Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin said this week that such "good" prisoners would be given special consideration and would even get their sentences shortened by up to half. "We are proposing a special remission for prison inmates in order that they get sentence reduction by half of the length of their punishment period," the minister said.