World

OTTAWA — Canada announced Wednesday the first H5N1 avian flu death in North America, of a patient who had just returned from China, and said it was urgently contacting airline passengers on the victim’s flights.

It was also the first known instance of someone in North America contracting the illness, Canada Health Minister Rona Ambrose told a press conference, stressing it was an “isolated case”.

The victim, who had recently returned from a trip to Beijing and had been otherwise completely healthy, was from the western plains province of Alberta, officials said, adding they were withholding the person’s gender and other identifying details to protect the family’s privacy.

“I am here to confirm North America’s first human case of H5N1, also known as avian flu,” Ambrose said, confirming the patient died on January 3.

“I want to reassure the public this is an isolated case and the risk of H5N1 to Canadians is very low. There is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission,” the minister added.

The virus is contracted directly from birds, mainly poultry. The illness it causes in humans is severe and 60 percent of human cases are fatal.

The victim began to feel ill during the December 27 flight home to Alberta province, developing a fever and headache. They were admitted to hospital on January 1 when the symptoms worsened suddenly and they began falling in and out of consciousness.

The patient died two days later.

The federal microbiology laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, identified the H5N1 virus overnight from a specimen that had been taken while the victim was still alive.

Doctors said the deceased had travelled with two companions who are not sick but will be kept under observation as a precaution for 10 days — double the usual time it takes for the virus to manifest itself.

“The patient’s family is not showing any sign of illness. There is no evidence of human-to-human transmission on airplanes. All evidence indicates this is one isolated case in an individual who is infected following exposure in China,” said Alberta Chief Medical Officer James Talbot.

“Although we don’t know at this time how the individual contracted the virus,” he added.

Talbot said the victim had not travelled outside Beijing to the regions of China, and had not visited a farm, nor a public market.

Canadian officials have notified China and the World Health Organisation, but said they are at a loss to explain where or how the person caught the illness. Beijing had been believed to be free of the bird flu virus.

Search for airline passengers

Authorities have also secured passenger lists and were contacting others on the same flights as the victim to reassure them of the “extremely low” chance of contagion.

The victim flew from Beijing to Vancouver on Air Canada flight 030 on December 27, then went on to Edmonton, Alberta, aboard Air Canada flight 244.

The person’s final destination was not revealed, again for privacy reasons, but he or she was treated at an Edmonton hospital.

Other recent fatal cases have been reported in Indonesia and Cambodia, in November.

Avian flu viruses have been around for a long time in wild birds but do not generally cause disease in humans, though in rare cases they mutate and jump species.

Strains of the H5, H7 and H9 avian influenza subtypes have caused human infections, mainly following direct contact with infected poultry. None of the strains have yet mutated to become easily transmissible from person to person — the epidemiologists nightmare.

The H5N1 virus is the best-known of the strains, having caused 633 confirmed flu cases in humans in 15 countries from 2003 to July this year, of whom 377 died.

ISTANBUL — Europe voiced its concern Wednesday about the independence of the judiciary in crisis-wracked Turkey as the government embarked on a new purge of the police and moved to curb the powers of the country’s top legal body.

In its strongest comments yet on the deepening corruption scandal, the EU warned that a wave of police sackings could undermine the investigations and called on the authorities to ensure any wrongdoing was looked into in a “transparent and impartial” manner.

The political turmoil has rocked Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted government to its very core just weeks before crucial local elections in March and has sent Turkish financial markets tumbling.

In the latest development, 16 police chiefs in several major cities as well as the deputy head of national security were fired Wednesday.

The latest purge came just a day after the government fired 350 police in Ankara — bringing the total number sacked to over 700 since mid-December when the graft scandal broke, according to local media tallies.

And in a new twist to the increasingly complex powerplay, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) submitted a bill Tuesday seeking constitutional changes to restructure the top independent judicial body, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK).

Justice Minister Beckir Bozdag also said the government would block an HSYK investigation into alleged political pressure on police and prosecutors involved in the widening investigation that has targeted several key Erdogan allies.

“Proposals to curb powers of HSYK represent serious setback for the independence of the judiciary in Turkey,” the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, said on Twitter.

The crisis has raised questions about the political survival of the prime minister, arguably one of the most powerful figures in modern Turkey who took office in 2002 after years of government instability and an economic meltdown.

“Turkey is going through one of the deepest crisis in its history. If the allegations are true, it means that the government is rotten to the core,” wrote Mehmet Tezkan, a columnist with the liberal Milliyet newspaper.

‘Sackings a

matter of concern’

And the European Union — which predominantly Muslim Turkey has long aspired to join — weighed into the crisis on Wednesday.

The European Commission said Turkey should ensure that allegations of wrongdoing “are addressed without discrimination or preference in a transparent and impartial manner”.

The firing of police officers and investigators was also a “matter of concern”, it added in a statement.

“These steps could undermine the current investigations and capacity of the judiciary, and the police to investigate matters in an independent manner.”

The government insisted it would overcome the crisis, which Erdogan has described as a “dirty” plot to topple his 11-year-old administration.

“The government is in charge. We will never let the political and economic stability of Turkey be harmed,” Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said.

Erdogan last year faced massive street demonstrations as Turks protested against a government critics say has become increasingly authoritarian and is seeking to impose its conservative Islamic values on many aspects of society in the staunchly secular state.

He and his allies say the probe was instigated by supporters of exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen who wields considerable influence in Turkey’s judiciary and police.

The crisis erupted in December when dozens of leading businessmen and political figures — including the sons of three ministers — were detained over alleged bribery in construction projects and illicit money transfers by a state-owned bank to sanctions-hit Iran.

News reports said Tuesday another 25 people including civil servants had been rounded up.

Bill seeks to clip judiciary’s wings

Erdogan was forced into a major cabinet reshuffle last month and the government has since gone on the offensive to root out foes in the police and judiciary.

The bill targeting the HSYK is due to be discussed by a parliamentary commission on Friday, Turkish media reported.

The HSYK had said Tuesday it planned to look into allegations that new Istanbul police chief Selami Altinok was blocking prosecutors from carrying out further arrests in the graft probe.

But Bozdag said the government would not allow a probe into Altinok or several top prosecutors, including one who was barred from expanding the corruption investigation amid reports it may target Erdogan’s son.

Erdogan’s critics accuse him of desperately trying to protect cronies caught up in the investigation, which has tarnished the government’s previously clean image.

“If there are unlawful actions, corruption or bribery, this will eventually be revealed,” AKP spokesman Huseyin Celik told reporters.

Erdogan has vowed to battle what he terms “a state within a state” — an apparent reference to Gulen loyalists, once staunch AKP supporters.

He is now seeking to mend fences with the once all-powerful army by speaking out in favour of fresh trials for hundreds of military officers jailed in 2012 and 2013 for allegedly plotting coups against his government.

Turkey’s financial markets remain jittery, with the lira at 2.18 to the dollar compared to its all time low of 2.19 on Monday while the stock market was down 1.85 per cent.

MADRID — A Spanish court summoned King Juan Carlos' youngest daughter Cristina over suspected tax and money-laundering crimes Tuesday, a first for a direct relative of the monarch.

Cristina, 48, has been linked to the business affairs of her husband, former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin, who is under investigation for alleged embezzlement of public funds.

The decision by a court in Majorca is a major blow to the prestige of the 76-year-old Spanish king, who became head of state after the death in 1975 of General Francisco Franco and helped guide the country's transition to democracy.

Battling scandal and ill health, Juan Carlos appeared tired as he presided over a military parade while on crutches Monday in his first public appearance since undergoing an operation to replace his left hip on November 21.

The judge in Majorca, Jose Castro, has been investigating the corruption allegations against Cristina's husband since 2010. In summoning Cristina, he overruled opposition by the public prosecutor.

In a written ruling, the judge said he had decided to hear Cristina's testimony "about alleged tax and money laundering crimes", summoning her to appear on March 8 as part of an investigation that could lead to formal charges.

A palace spokesman told AFP he wanted to express his "respect for judicial decisions". He declined further comment.

Manos Limpias, a litigious far-right pressure group, lodged the suit against Cristina alleging tax evasion and money laundering, although tax authorities have not brought any charges and public prosecutors have said there is no case to answer.

The judge in the Majorca court is investigating allegations that Urdangarin and a former business partner embezzled six million euros ($8 million) in public funds via the Noos Institute, a charitable foundation that he chaired.

Cristina was a member of the board of Noos and with her husband jointly owned another company, Aizoon, which investigators suspect served as a front for laundering the embezzled funds.

The Majorca judge had summoned Cristina on suspicion of corruption once before, in spring 2013, but that decision was overruled following an appeal by the prosecutor.

Juan Carlos is widely respected for his role in Spain's transition to democracy after the death of Franco.

But his standing among Spaniards has been damaged by the corruption scandal, and outrage over a luxury African elephant-hunting safari he took in 2012.

His health problems together with the scandals have raised speculation about the future of his reign.

The number of people with a high or very high opinion of the king fell nine points over 2013 to 41 per cent, according to a poll published on Sunday in daily newspaper El Mundo.

The number of people wanting him to abdicate in favour of Prince Felipe, 45, surged by 17 per cent to 62 per cent, according to the study by pollster Sigma Dos carried out in late December.

Sixty-six per cent had a positive view of the prince and 56 per cent thought he could improve the royals' image if he took over.

General support for the monarchy as an institution, however, fell below half to 49.9 per cent, according to the poll.

The royal palace and the king have firmly denied any thoughts of an abdication.

"I want to express to you, as king of Spain, my determination to continue the faithful fulfilment of the mandate and the powers attributed to me," the king said in his annual televised Christmas Eve address last month.

CHICAGO — A blast of bone-chilling cold snarled air travel, closed schools and prompted calls Tuesday for people to stay inside in the United States and Canada, as temperatures plunged to lows not seen in two decades.

Superlatives of cold-talk abounded, even in midwestern states used to chest-high snow and bitter cold, as the National Weather Service said the deep freeze was making its way east.

Air travel was a nightmare, stranding many travellers trying to head home from year's end holidays.

More than 4,300 US flights were cancelled Monday — nearly half of those in Chicago — and more than 6,500 were delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight-monitoring site.

Toronto's Pearson Airport halted ground operations early Tuesday because of "equipment freezing" and out of concern for the safety of airport personnel, it said on its Twitter account.

Flights were scheduled to resume at 09:00am local time (14:00 GMT), but police were reinforced at the airport amid rising tension among stranded travellers.

Airline JetBlue said it was reducing operations at four airports in the bustling northeast corridor — JFK, La Guardia, Newark and Boston — until 10:00am (03:00GMT) Tuesday.

More than a dozen deaths were blamed on the frigid weather.

A shift in a weather pattern known as the "polar vortex" triggered a drastic drop in temperatures to lows not seen in two decades.

It coincided with wind chill warnings in much of the eastern United States.

Comertown, Montana recorded the lowest wind chill value so far at minus 53oC Celsius while North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota were not much warmer.

That was significantly colder than the South Pole, which recorded a wind chill reading of -34oC.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, where people scoff when cities like Washington, DC panic and shut down with even a moderate snowfall, the newspaper The Star Tribune gave a graphic description of what happens when, for instance, the overnight temperature Monday hit -31oC.

"The wind chill and cold are freezing exposed flesh in five minutes," it said.

The paper said life has "slowed to a crawl across the state”.

"It's a blistering cold spell destined for Minnesota winter weather lore," it added.

Even the typically temperate Deep South was feeling the chill with a hard freeze warning threatening crops and livestock.

Early Tuesday in Washington, DC the temperature was a relatively mild 11oC minus early Tuesday, but blustery winds blew leaves and trash swirling in the air.

Deaths blamed on the frigid weather included a 71-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease who froze to death after getting lost in New York state.

The body of a 90-year-old woman was found face down in the snow next to her car in Ohio on Monday morning, the Toledo Blade reported.

At least a dozen other people were reportedly killed in crashes on icy roads, including four people whose sport utility vehicle slid off a rural Minnesota highway and fell into the Mississippi River.

Four Chicago men aged 48 to 63 died of apparent heart attacks while shovelling snow over the weekend, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The cold snap came after two massive winter storms snarled travel, grounded thousands of flights and dumped as much as 60 centimetres of snow in the first few days of the year.

Chicago was among scores of towns and cities, which told parents to keep their children at home rather than risk sending them out into winds so bitter that skin could freeze in a matter of minutes.

The governor of Minnesota cancelled school across the entire state on Monday.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn declared a state of emergency and called up the National Guard to help rescue stranded motorists as high winds whipped up blinding snow.

"We are facing a dangerous combination of low temperatures, black ice and snow drifts," Quinn said, as he urged people to stay off the roads.

Quinn praised the "heroic" efforts of National Guard troops who cleared a 375-vehicle backup and a forestry officer who rescued seven stranded people and two of their pets using a snowmobile.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, officials warned residents to stay indoors and urged schools to shut down as temperatures dropped to -24oC with the wind chill making it feel like -38oC.

"Police are reaching out to homeless citizens in order to help them find the nearest shelter," city spokeswoman Sarah DeRoo told AFP.

Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard barred everyone except emergency workers from driving at the height of the storm Sunday and urged residents to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary on Monday.

"This extreme cold poses a serious health and safety risk," he warned.

But with thousands of people without power after electrical lines were felled, home was not always the best option.

Those who couldn't stay with family or friends were urged to seek out community centres, which were opened as temporary shelters.

The extreme cold disrupted flights and classes in Canada as well. The Atlantic island province of Newfoundland had more than 30,000 people without power.

Nationwide, officials warned of "treacherous" travel conditions, but meteorologists said a warming trend would begin mid-week.

NEW YORK — Millions of people across the United States on Monday braced for a “life-threatening” bitter Arctic blast that could send temperatures plummeting to their coldest in 20 years.

The northeastern United States and parts of Canada have endured heavy snow and deadly sub-zero conditions since the start of the year, but the deep freeze is now moving through much of the country east of the Rocky Mountains.

The wind chill from the rare “polar vortex” could make it feel as cold as -51oC in places, weather forecasters say, prompting authorities to warn residents to stay indoors and stock up on food.

“Cold temperatures and gusty winds associated with an arctic air mass will continue dangerously cold wind chills as far south as Brownsville, Texas [on the border with Mexico] and central Florida,” the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

“This arctic air mass will affect the eastern two-thirds of the country on Monday as a sharp cold front moves towards the East Coast.”

Exposed skin could suffer frostbite in as little as five minutes in such conditions, experts warn.

The NWS described the weather as “life-threatening” and “the coldest temperatures in almost two decades”.

Combined with wind gusts, the low temperatures in some areas “will result in life-threatening wind-chill values as low as 60oC [Celsius] below zero,” it said.

Authorities are warning people that they could face issues like cars that won’t start and flooded roads that quickly ice over caused by water pipes that freeze and burst.

Thousands of flights out of major airports like Chicago O’Hare International and New York’s John F. Kennedy were delayed or cancelled Sunday due to weather-related problems.

A Delta passenger airplane skidded into a snowbank at JFK on Sunday. Nobody was hurt, but the plane had to be towed to its gate.

At O’Hare, one of the country’s busiest airports, officials said that more than 1,300 flights were cancelled.

The states of Minnesota and North Dakota were expected to experience the worst weather.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton announced that schools will be closed Monday “to protect all our children from the dangerously cold temperatures”.

In Wisconsin, Sunday’s National Football League playoff showdown between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers at the open-air Lambeau Field was one of the coldest NFL games in history.

The Packers helped the more than 70,000 football fans at the stadium battle the freeze by handing out free coffee, hot chocolate and hand warmers. Despite fan support, the Packers lost the game to the San Francisco 49ers.

In Indianapolis, Indiana, Mayor Greg Ballard urged residents to simply stay indoors.

Freezing rain is forecast to hit the south and east, affecting the New England region, New York and Washington, with the extreme weather expected to continue into the early part of the week in many places.

“The heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures have combined to create hazardous conditions in many areas of the state,” said Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. “Residents should heed advisories and stay off the roads if at all possible.”

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn described the storm as “one for the record books, and we want to make sure everyone stays safe and warm until it passes”.

The southern city of Atlanta will likely experience record low temperatures, while in normally balmy Florida, the NWS issued a hard freeze warning for much of the northern part of the state.

The NWS said that across the country “the cold temperatures will remain in place through mid-week before a warming trend begins”.

Deaths blamed on the frigid weather include a worker crushed by a 30-metre pile of salt being prepared to treat roads in the Philadelphia area on Friday, and a 71-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease who froze to death after getting lost in New York state, officials said.

In Colorado, a small passenger plane burst into flames upon landing at a snow-blanketed airport near Aspen on Sunday, though it was unclear if the accident was weather related.

CIERNY BALOG, Slovakia — The people of this peaceful village at the foot of the Slovak mountains vented their anger by electing as their regional governor a man who calls his Roma compatriots “parasites” and admires a wartime figure who collaborated with the Nazis.

Marian Kotleba’s landslide victory in November exposed pent-up frustration over unemployment and neglect by mainstream parties, together with a deep-seated animosity towards the Roma, factors that have built support for extremist politicians in Slovakia and elsewhere in central Europe.

Still, many were shocked when Kotleba — a former high school teacher who looks back fondly on the Slovak state that was allied with the Nazis during World War Two — came from nowhere to win 77 per cent of the vote in Balog, 260 km northeast of Bratislava, the capital.

Overall, in the central Slovak region of Banska Bystrica, he won 55 per cent, enough to become regional governor and a further sign that some European voters frustrated with the economic crisis were willing to take chances with extremists.

Nationalist sentiment is increasingly directed against Slovakia’s Roma, a minority of 400,000 in the country of 5.4 million who live on the fringes of society, suffering from poverty, poor education and limited job prospects. In some settlements they have no access to running water.

With European Union expansion opening borders, deprived regions have seen waves of departures, including some of Europe’s 10 million Roma, to countries such as Canada and Britain, where immigration has again become a hot issue.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has imposed new regulations on migrants amid fears of an influx of poor people from Romania and Bulgaria, for whom restrictions on free movement within the EU expired at the end of December.

Kotleba, who did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article, ran on a platform that derided “Gypsy parasites”. Some Roma, whose forebears arrived in central Europe from India in the Middle Ages, see Gypsy as a derogatory term.

Kotleba once ran a party that was disbanded for racial hatred. The 36-year-old has organised marches in military-style uniforms and praised Jozef Tiso, the wartime leader of Nazi-allied Slovakia.

His party’s newsletters talk about “desperate villages and towns suffering from crime and terror from Gypsy extremists”.

“We voted for him out of desperation,” said Martina Strorcova, a pub owner in Cierny Balog.

She says local people on low incomes often accuse Roma of drawing welfare benefits while not being willing to work.

“It is bad to see how some of us toil and others take social support,” Strorcova said.

The pub in the village centre only has two customers at lunchtime, and Strorcova says business is tough. People who work at the local iron works bring home just 430 euros ($590) a month.

The Slovak minimum wage is 337 euros a month, less than 2 euros an hour, against the equivalent of 7.50 euros in Britain.

Cierny Balog’s 5,000 inhabitants include about 700 out of work during the winter, said social worker Lubomira Pancikova.

“The problem is unemployment, not only among the Roma but overall. Young people run away, men and women in their most productive years,” Pancikova said.

The official jobless rate in the region is 18.1 per cent, although in some areas it tops 30 per cent. It is the second worst in the country and far above the national average of 13.7 per cent.

Kotleba promises to create jobs through public works schemes, setting up public companies and farms.

“He wants to give normal people, and the Roma, a pick-axe in their hands and make them work,” said Ivana Galusova, who voted for Kotleba.

In fact, Kotleba may not be able to do much. He will be isolated in a regional assembly dominated by Smer, the leftist party of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Tension around

eastern europe

In some places, tension has been high between the Roma and the rest of the population.

The European Commissioner for education, Androulla Vassiliou, called on authorities in Kosice in August to tear down a wall separating a Roma neighbourhood from the rest of the eastern Slovak city — a means of segregation used by local authorities in several places in eastern Europe.

In Hungary, a court jailed four neo-Nazis for killing members of Roma families in a spree of racist violence in 2008 and 2009. The gang killed six Roma in carefully planned attacks.

Around the region, anti-Roma sentiment has helped the far-right to win votes. In Hungary, the Jobbik Party has vilified the Roma, in addition to employing anti-Semitic language.

In Romania, mayor Catalin Chereches of the northern town of Baia Mare scored more than 86 per cent in local elections in 2012 after relocating Roma families — and building a concrete wall around their neighbourhood.

Some members of Bulgaria’s nationalist Attack Party, which has seats in parliament, wear swastikas on their shirts and make Nazi salutes at rallies.

Czech riot police had to intervene repeatedly this year to halt marches by hundreds of people on Roma neighbourhoods, in places where communities have swollen due to a government housing subsidy programme.

In Balog, where several hundred Roma live in impoverished settlements around the village, there are no open clashes.

But Jozef Bartos, a 20-year-old Roma, fears Kotleba’s victory might lead to trouble.

“We do not have problems here... but we have to be ready to protect ourselves, be prepared if someone comes at us,” said Bartos, who shares a two-room shack with no running water or sewerage with his wife, 18-month-old baby and parents.

He said he can make 17 euros a day, but only finds work a few days a month.

Uneven success

Slovakia is a post-communist success story, having joined the euro in 2009 and going through the global economic crisis almost unscathed. Gross domestic product per head is at 76 per cent of the EU average, up from 54 per cent a decade ago.

But economic development, based mainly on car exports, has been uneven. Mountain ranges separate the richer west, connected to Austria and the Czech Republic, from the poorer centre and east, traditionally home to most Slovak Roma.

“Companies focused on heavy industry and arms manufacture there collapsed and there has been no substitution,” said sociologist Lubomir Faltan of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Successive governments on right and left have done little to address social and ethnic problems, he said, and the economic crisis has made things worse.

“The Roma community has a double disadvantage. They do not have any qualifications, they can be used only for manual work, if they are willing to work,” he said. “There are villages where unemployment is 80 per cent, and Roma populations with almost 100 per cent unemployment.”

Communities with high unemployment, Roma or majority Slovak, are prone to crime — mostly petty theft, Faltan said. The long-term unemployed often become resigned and settle for handouts and casual work.

The government has been running inclusion programmes, some with the help of EU money.

“This is a warning sign. People and politicians in this country must realise that it is no longer possible to hide away from the Roma problem,” Pete r Pollak, the Slovak government representative for the Roma community, told local media.

The government is responding to public resentment over welfare abuse with legislation that will deduct any court fines from handouts and also link the payments to participation in public works programmes.

A plan drafted last year also calls for tying welfare payments to children’s school attendance, and for expanding pre-school education.

Prime Minister Fico, whose incumbent candidate Vladimir Manka lost the election to Kotleba, however blamed the media and the centre-right parties for Kotleba’s victory.

“I do not feel responsibility for the result,” he told a news conference. “For you, anything that is against Smer is good.”

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), a Hungarian-based non-governmental advocacy group, said the Roma in Slovakia are discriminated against in all aspects of life.

“They are likely to be forcibly evicted from their homes, face segregated or low quality education and find it much harder to get work,” said ERRC’s Marek Szilvasi.

But Kotleba’s victory merely reflected what a lot of the political class had been thinking in Slovakia, he said.

BANGALORE, India — India on Sunday successfully launched its first rocket using domestically produced booster technology after several previous missions had failed, taking another step forward in its ambitious space programme.

The Indian-made cryogenically-powered rocket blasted off from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota as scheduled, as Delhi tries to join an elite club of countries which have mastered the complex technology.

The 415-tonne rocket deployed a two-tonne advanced communications satellite some 17 minutes after blast-off, said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Dr K. Radhakrishnan.

“I am extremely proud and happy to say that Team ISRO has done it,” Radhakrishnan announced at mission control in Andhra Pradesh state, sparking a roar of applause from colleagues.

“Team ISRO and the project directors all have put their heart and soul in making this proud moment for the country,” he said.

India has for years been trying to develop its own cryogenic rocket engines that are designed to put heavier satellites into high orbits, about 36,000 kilometres from Earth.

The powerful booster technology, using super-cooled liquid fuel, is a much needed tool to help India capture a larger share of the lucrative global market for launching commercial satellites.

But the technology has only been successfully developed by a handful of countries including the United States, Russia, France, Japan and China as well as the European Space Agency.

India’s project has had to overcome a string of hurdles and mishaps, including an aborted launch in August last year several hours before lift-off after fuel was found to be leaking from one of the rocket’s engines.

The first India-built rocket crashed into the Bay of Bengal just minutes after take-off in April 2010 after the cryogenic engines failed to ignite.

“If we succeed this time, India will join a select club of space-faring nations with indigenous cryogenic engine capability to launch above two-tonne class satellites,” ISRO director Deviprasad Karnik told AFP before the launch.

“The twin purpose of this launch mission is to flight-test once again our own cryogenic engine and put into the geostationary orbit a heavy communication satellite,” Karnik added.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated the team on Sunday’s mission, which cost 3.65 billion rupees ($58 million) — 2.2 billion rupees for the rocket and 1.45 billion rupees for the satellite.

“It is yet another important step that the country has taken in the area of science and technology,” Singh said in a tweet.

In November, India successfully lifted into orbit a spacecraft bound for Mars as it tries to become the first Asian nation to reach the Red Planet.

It has taken ISRO scientists years to develop cryogenic motors after India’s attempt to import the technology from Russia in 1992 failed because of opposition from the United States.

Since 2001 India has bought cryogenic engines from Russia and seven of them have been used on missions.

An Indian space rocket using a Russian-built booster exploded shortly after launch in December 2010, also during a mission to put an advanced communications satellite into space.