World

BENGALURU, India — India on Wednesday became the first nation to land a craft near the Moon’s south pole, a historic triumph for the world’s most populous nation and its ambitious, cut-price space programme.

The unmanned Chandrayaan-3, which means “Mooncraft” in Sanskrit, touched down at 6:04 pm India time (12:34GMT) as mission control technicians cheered wildly and embraced their colleagues.

Its landing comes days after a Russian probe crashed in the same region and four years since the previous Indian attempt failed at the last moment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi smiled broadly and waved an Indian flag on a live broadcast to announce the mission’s success as a triumph that extended beyond his country’s borders.

“On this joyous occasion I would like to address the people of the world,” said Modi from the sidelines of the BRICS diplomatic summit in South Africa.

“India’s successful moon mission is not just India’s alone,” he added. “This success belongs to all of humanity.”

The Chandrayaan-3 mission has captivated public attention since launching nearly six weeks ago in front of thousands of cheering spectators.

Politicians staged Hindu prayer rituals to wish for the mission’s success and schoolchildren followed the final moments of its descent from live broadcasts in classrooms.

‘So happy’ 

“I’m so happy, nothing else has given me more happiness,” Anil Kumar, a contract employee for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told AFP as his colleagues celebrated.

“I was praying for the last 48 hours for a safe landing.”

Chandrayaan-3 took much longer to reach the Moon than the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived in a matter of days.

India used rockets much less powerful than the ones the United States used back then, meaning the probe had to orbit the Earth several times to gain speed before embarking on its month-long journey.

The lander, Vikram, which means “valour” in Sanskrit, detached from its propulsion module last week and has been sending images of the Moon’s surface since entering lunar orbit on August 5.

Now that Vikram has landed, a solar-powered rover will explore the surface and transmit data to Earth over its two-week lifespan.

India is closing in on milestones set by global space powers such as the United States and Russia, conducting many of its missions at much lower price tags.

The South Asian nation has a comparatively low-budget space programme, but one that has grown considerably in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the Moon in 2008.

The latest mission has a cost of $74.6 million — far lower than those of other countries, and a testament to India’s frugal space engineering.

Experts say India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing technology, and thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts’ wages.

In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to put a craft into orbit around Mars and is slated to launch a three-day crewed mission into Earth’s orbit by next year.

‘So much agony’ 

Wednesday’s landing had been eagerly awaited by ISRO after the frustrating failure of its previous mission at the last hurdle in 2019.

Back then, mission control lost contact with the Chandrayaan-2 lunar module moments before its slated landing.

ISRO chief S. Somanath said that many of those who worked on the 2019 mission were involved in the current endeavour, and that the successful touchdown had vindicated their years of effort.

“They went through so much agony to find out what went wrong,” he said. “My salutations to all of those unsung heroes today.”

Former ISRO chief K. Sivan told AFP that India’s efforts to explore the relatively unmapped lunar south pole would make a “very, very important” contribution to scientific knowledge.

Only Russia, the United States and China have previously achieved controlled landings on the Moon.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan praised the “historic landing”, while both NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency offered their congratulations.

Russia launched a lunar probe in August — its first in nearly half a century.

If successful, it would have beaten Chandrayaan-3 by a matter of days to become the first mission from any nation to make a controlled landing around the south pole.

But Luna-25 crashed on Saturday after an unspecified incident as it prepared to descend.

SEOUL — North Korea is planning to launch another satellite just three months after its first attempt to put a military eye in the sky failed, prompting condemnation from Tokyo and Seoul on Tuesday and demands to call it off.

The launch is set to take place between August 24 and 31, Pyongyang told Japan’s coast guard on Tuesday, with Tokyo mobilising ships and its PAC-3 missile defence system in case it lands in their territory.

Seoul said the launch would be “an illegal act” because it violates UN sanctions prohibiting the North from tests using ballistic technology, which is used for both space launches and missiles.

“North Korea’s so-called ‘satellite launch’ is a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions... No matter what excuses North Korea tries to make, it cannot justify this illegal act,” South Korea’s Unification Ministry said in a statement.

The foreign ministry said Seoul would “respond sternly to the North’s illicit provocation with close trilateral Korea-US-Japan cooperation”.

Pyongyang’s announcement came days after leaders from Washington, Seoul and Tokyo met at Camp David in the United States, with North Korea’s growing nuclear threats a key item on the agenda.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urged Pyongyang to call off the launch, saying Japan was taking “all possible measures to prepare for any unforeseen eventuality”.

Japan’s Coast Guard said Pyongyang had informed it of three designated danger areas: the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and waters east of the Philippines’ Luzon Island.

In May, Pyongyang launched what it described as its first military reconnaissance satellite but the rocket carrying it, the “Chollima-1” — named after a mythical horse that often features in official propaganda — plunged into the sea minutes after takeoff.

Soon after, Kim Jong -un’s government vowed to successfully launch its spy satellite “in the near future”, saying it was a necessary counterbalance to the growing US military presence in the region.

Military drills 

Pyongyang’s new launch plan follows Seoul and Washington kicking off their major annual joint military drills on Monday.

Known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, the exercises, which are aimed at countering growing threats from the nuclear-armed North, will run through August 31.

Pyongyang views all such drills as rehearsals for an invasion and has repeatedly warned it would take “overwhelming” action in response.

Suspected North Korean hackers have already targeted the exercises, with email attacks on South Korean contractors working at the allies’ combined exercise war simulation centre.

On Tuesday, North Korea’s state news agency condemned “the aggressive character” of the US-South Korea drills.

KCNA warned in a commentary that if the drills involve a “nuclear provocation”, the possibility “of a thermonuclear war on the Korean Peninsula will become more realistic”.

Launch soon 

South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers last week that Pyongyang could launch a reconnaissance satellite ahead of the 75th anniversary of the North’s founding on September 9, member of parliament Yoo Sang-bum told reporters after the briefing.

Choi Gi-il, professor of national security at Sangji University, told AFP: “Pyongyang appears to be timing its next satellite launch with the ongoing joint Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, having improved and supplemented technical aspects of the launch over the past three months.”

“Given the nature of the North Korean regime, three months seems sufficient enough to find flaws from its failed May launch and apply fixes — though we have to see whether it can pull it off this time,” he said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong -un has made the development of a military spy satellite a top priority.

The crash of the satellite in May sparked a complex, 36-day South Korean salvage operation involving a fleet of naval rescue ships, mine sweepers and deep-sea divers.

The retrieved parts of the rocket and the satellite were analysed by experts in South Korea and the United States, with Seoul’s defence ministry subsequently saying the satellite had no military utility.

ALEXANDROUPOLI, Greece — Eighteen suspected migrants were found dead on Tuesday in a Greece forest fire near the Turkish border as scores of firefighters battled to contain the second deadly wave of blazes to hit the country in a month.

Fire department spokesman Yiannis Artopios said the victims were found north of the city of Alexandroupoli.

As no local residents had been reported missing "the possibility that they are people who entered our country illegally is under investigation", Artopios said in a televised address.

The area is a frequent entry point for irregular migrants.

The latest deaths pushed the overall toll from this week's fires to 20, after another suspected migrant was found dead in the area Monday.

An elderly shepherd had also been found dead north of Athens on Monday.

Flames continued to spread unchecked in northeastern Greece as well as the islands of Evia and Kythnos and the region of Boeotia north of Athens, amid a dangerous mix of gale-force winds and temperatures of up to 41°C.

"It's a similar situation to July," a fire department spokeswoman told AFP, referring to a wave in several parts of the country that left five people dead.

Over 60 fires had erupted in the last 24 hours, and six countries were sending help via the European Union's civil protection mechanism, the fire department said.

Some 120 firefighters from Cyprus, Romania, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany and Serbia will pitch in, fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told state TV ERT.

A new fire broke out on Tuesday at a landfill in the industrial zone of Aspropyrgos near Athens, covering the area in a noxious black cloud.

Officials shut down the nearest section of the Athens ring road, and advised residents to stay indoors.

Another fire broke out in the foothills of Mount Parnitha near the capitals, prompting evacuations.

Late Monday, an evacuation was ordered at the hospital of Alexandroupolis, a northeastern Greek port city located in an area where fires were raging for a fourth day.

The coastguard said it had moved 65 patients to a waiting ferry at the city harbour.

On the island of Evia, near the capital, officials late Monday evacuated the industrial town of Nea Artaki, where the fire has damaged poultry and pork farms.

The fire near Alexandroupolis is also threatening the national park of Dadia, one of the most important protected areas in Europe that is home to rare birds.

The very hot and dry conditions which increase the fire risk will persist until Friday, according to meteorologists.

Amid a heatwave, a fire that started on July 18 and was fanned by strong winds ravaged almost 17,770 hectares in 10 days in the south of Rhodes, a popular tourist island in the southeastern Aegean Sea.

Around 20,000 people, mostly tourists, had to be evacuated.

GUATEMALA CITY — Dark horse candidate Bernardo Arevalo scored a landslide victory in Guatemala’s presidential election, final results showed on Monday, as he vowed to crack down on pervasive corruption.

The bespectacled 64-year-old sociologist swept from obscurity in what observers see as a stinging rebuke of a government that has cracked down on efforts to fight graft in the Central American country.

“The people of Guatemala have spoken forcefully,” Arevalo told the media in his first comments after winning with 58 per cent of the vote, with all ballots counted.

“Enough with so much corruption.”

He added that outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei had called to congratulate him and together they had agreed “to draw up a timetable for the transition plan”.

His rival in the runoff, former first lady Sandra Torres -- who enjoyed the backing of the incumbent as well as the elite -- came in second with 37 per cent of the vote.

She has yet to admit defeat, and said she would “take a definitive position when results are clarified with total transparency”.

Before the vote, Torres, the ex-wife of late leftist president Alvaro Colom, accused the country’s electoral board of leaning towards Arevalo’s party.

Arevalo will become the first leftist president at the helm of Guatemala in 12 years when he takes office in January.

Ambassadors from the United States and European Union have expressed willingness to work with Arevalo, who said the presidents of neighbouring Mexico and El Salvador had already offered their congratulations.

Thousands of Arevalo’s supporters celebrated with rallies in squares in the capital and cities around the country.

“This triumph is a defeat of a corrupt system,” said sociologist Jorge Mendoza.

Defeat of the old politics 

Under Giammattei, several prosecutors fighting graft have been arrested or forced into exile. He had also cracked down on critical journalists.

“Arevalo’s victory means a defeat of the old politics, of the ruling party and those nostalgic for the Cold War. A different era is beginning for our country,” independent analyst Miguel Angel Sandoval told AFP.

Ahead of Sunday’s vote, observers and foreign allies sounded the alarm about meddling and efforts to undermine the electoral process, after a top prosecutor tried to have Arevalo disqualified and ordered raids on his party offices and the election body.

The supreme court on Friday overturned the order to disqualify Arevalo’s Semilla political party, which had prompted protests.

On the campaign trail, Arevalo claimed to be the victim of “political persecution by a corrupt minority that knows it is losing power by the day”.

Francisco Rojas, the rector of the UN-created University for Peace in Costa Rica, predicted “complex times” in the five months until Arevalo takes office.

In Sunday’s election, fed-up voters expressed despair over the poverty, violence and corruption that have gripped the Central American nation, pushing thousands of its citizens to emigrate in search of better lives, many to the United States.

“You can no longer live anywhere, because there is so much crime,” said 66-year-old housewife Maria Rac, an Indigenous Mayan who voted in the town of San Juan Sacatepequez, 30 kilometres northwest of the capital.

Guatemala has some of the worst poverty, malnutrition and child mortality rates in Latin America, according to the World Bank.

The murder rate is one of the highest in the world, with many killings attributed to gang violence related to drug trafficking.

‘New faces’ 

Arevalo is the son of reformist president Juan Jose Arevalo (1945-1951), who is fondly remembered as the first democratically elected leader of the country after the dictatorship of Jorge Ubico, an admirer of Adolf Hitler who imposed forced labour on the indigenous Mayan population.

However, eight decades after his father’s presidency he is considered a political outsider.

Mayan farmer Brigido Chavix, 57, said he did not support Arevalo, “but I voted for him because we want new faces”.

“That lady [Torres] has already been around for a long time talking about policies, policies, and she has never carried them out.”

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a navy unit and oversaw a strategic cruise missile test, state media reported on Monday, ahead of the start of joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.

Kim inspected one of his fleets in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, and watched as the crew staged a drill launching "strategic cruise missiles", state-run news agency KCNA reported.

The drill "aimed to reconfirm the combat function of the ship and the feature of its missile system and make the seamen skilled at carrying out the attack mission in actual war," the report said. 

It did not say when the visit took place, or give further details on the types of missiles launched — though it said they “rapidly hit target without even an error”.

But Seoul said the KCNA report was “exaggerated and contained many discrepancies from the truth”.

“Both South Korea and the United States had been monitoring any related signs, which we detected in advance, in real-time,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs-of-Staff said in a statement.

North Korea’s announcement came as the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, a major joint exercise between Seoul and Washington, kicked off Monday.

The exercises, which are aimed at countering growing threats from the nuclear-armed North, will run through August 31.

Pyongyang views all such exercises as rehearsals for an invasion and has repeatedly warned it would take “overwhelming” action in response to the drills.

Suspected North Korean hackers have already targeted the exercises, with email attacks on South Korean contractors working at the allies’ combined exercise war simulation centre, police have said. 

But “our military will continue to maintain a firm preparedness posture... conducting joint exercises and training with high intensity and thoroughness, and being able to overwhelmingly respond to any provocations by North Korea,” the JCS said on Monday.

‘New chapter’ 

The announcement of the cruise missile test also comes days after US President Joe Biden hosted South Korean leader Yoon Suk-yeol — along with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida — at Camp David.

At a press conference on Friday, the leaders said they saw a “new chapter” of close three-way security cooperation after the summit, which would have been unthinkable until recently due to the legacy of Japan’s harsh 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

It was the first time the three countries’ leaders have met for a standalone summit, and while China was a main topic, they also discussed North Korea.

The three leaders agreed to a multi-year plan of regular exercises in all domains, going beyond one-off drills in response to Pyongyang, and made a formal “commitment to consult” during crises, with Biden saying they would open a hotline.

The leaders also agreed to share real-time data on North Korea and to hold summits every year.

“Deepening US-Japan-South Korea trilateral cooperation can encourage diplomacy with Pyongyang by pressuring China to pressure North Korea to return to talks,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

“Until that happens, the Kim regime will continue amping up its nuclear threats and launching missiles.”