Important news from Kathryne

UPDATE 1-Liberia opposition parties to reject poll results, official says

MONROVIA Oct 15 (Reuters) - Nine Liberian opposition parties, including President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s two main challengers, have said they will reject the results of this week’s presidential election, alleging massive fraud, an opposition official said.According to results released on Friday, Johnson-Sirleaf had extended her lead with 45.4 percent of the votes, ahead of Winston Tubman of the CDC party on 29.5 percent, but she was still short of the outright majority required for a first-round win.”We declare the results being reported by the National Election Commission as fraud and (they) are consequently declared null and void by all parties signatory to this release,” according to a statement read over the phone on Saturday to Reuters by a top CDC official.The official, who asked not to be named, said the statement had been signed by nine parties representing eight of the country’s 14 presidential candidates, including Tubman and third-placed former rebel Prince Johnson.An official from the Carter Center, an election watchdog, said they were aware of the statement and added that they had not seen any evidence of fraud.The election commission said on Friday that about half the ballots had been counted.The statement also called on opposition party representatives following counting to withdraw from the process and said that the parties would call on supporters to hold a peaceful rally on Sunday, the official said.There was no immediate reaction from the election commission.Voting on Tuesday passed generally peacefully and no observer missions have flagged any serious irregularities in the process so far.The election was Liberia’s first locally organised poll since an on-and-off 1989-2003 conflict, and if smooth could pave the way for billions of dollars in mining and oil investment.

NASA’s space shuttle operations chief heading to Virgin

By Irene KlotzCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Oct 11 (Reuters) - Deputy space shuttle program manager and former flight director Mike Moses is leaving NASA to oversee operations for Virgin Galactic, the commercial spaceflight company owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, the company said on Tuesday.Moses oversaw space shuttle operations during the final three years of the program, which ended this summer.NASA is working on a heavy-lift rocket and capsule to fly astronauts to the moon, asteroids, Mars and other destinations beyond the International Space Station’s 225-mile-high orbit.”I’m more than onboard with NASA’s plan,” Moses told Reuters. “It’s just that the operations of that system were still eight to 10 years away. I couldn’t just push paper around and write requirements for the next 10 years so I’m going to take another shot at it here in the commercial sector.”As Virgin Galactic’s vice president of operations, Moses will set up and oversee the company’s commercial suborbital spaceflight services. Virgin’s first ship, called SpaceShipTwo, is undergoing flight tests at manufacturer Scaled Composites’ Mojave, California, base. A trial run beyond the atmosphere is expected next year.About 450 people have made reservations for the $200,000 ride, a five-minute suborbital hop that will expose passengers to weightlessness and a view of the planet that so far only about 500 people have had.”If this works and we get commercial, regular, routine spaceflight, even if it’s suborbital operations, that expands the number of people who are involved in the space program, the number of people who get to go up in orbit and see the Earth from above and that should hopefully seed the whole culture of the country and world to start changing our attitudes toward how important space is,” Moses said.Moses, 43, will be relocating from Houston to Mojave, then to Virgin Galactic’s commercial space base near Las Cruces, N.M, where a spaceport is under construction.

Iranians charged in U.S. over assassination plot

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said one of two men charged in the plot, both originally from Iran, had been arrested and confessed.The other, who was still at large, was described in the criminal complaint as being a member of the elite Quds Force, which is part of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”High-up (Iranian) officials in those agencies … were responsible for this plot,” Holder told a news conference. “I think one has to be concerned about the chilling nature of what the Iranian government attempted to do here,” he said.Two men were charged in a U.S. court. Gholam Shakuri was described in the criminal complaint as a member of the Quds Force and is believed to be in Iran.U.S. authorities arrested the other man, Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and holds an Iranian passport, at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on September 29.The target of the plot was Saudi ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir, according to the criminal complaint.U.S. officials said there had also been initial discussions about other alleged plots, including attacking the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, however no charges for that were revealed on Tuesday.Iran swiftly rejected the allegation. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has rejected U.S. accusations of the country plotting to assassinate the Saudi envoy to Washington as a prefabricated scenario,” state English language Press TV said, without elaborating or giving a source.The United States slapped economic sanctions on five Iranians including four senior members of the Quds.Relations were already sour between the Islamic republic and Washington, which accuses Tehran of backing terrorism and pursuing nuclear arms, a charge Iran has denied.Last month hopes were raised of improved ties when Iran released two U.S. hikers accused of spying when they were arrested on the Iran-Iraq border in 2009. Holder said there was no link between the hikers’ case and the alleged plot.SAUDI AMBASSADOROfficials said that the Saudi ambassador, Adel Al-Jubeir, was never in danger. President Barack Obama was briefed in June about the alleged plot and through a spokesman expressed gratitude for it being disrupted.The assassination plot began to unfold in May 2011 when Arbabsiar approached an individual in Mexico to help, but that individual turned out to be an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.The confidential source, who was not identified, immediately tipped law enforcement agents, according to the criminal complaint. Arbabsiar paid $100,000 to the informant in July and August for the plot, a down payment on the $1.5 million requested.Shakuri approved the plan to kill the ambassador during telephone conversations with Arbabsiar, the complaint said.After Arbabsiar was arrested in New York, he allegedly confessed and provided U.S. authorities with more details about the Iranian government’s alleged involvement, Holder said.The men are charged with one count of conspiracy to murder a foreign official, two counts of foreign travel and use of interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire and one count each of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism.Authorities said no explosives were acquired for the plot and the weapon of mass destruction charge can range from a simple improvised device to a more significant weapon. They face up to life in prison if convicted.