Recent congressional and public attention has focused on access problems at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, which provides medical care to servicemen and women once they have left active duty in a time of war or an official period of hostility. Although investigators note that improvements are under way, they say the VA has a long way to go.

(Content Read ‘Pharmacy online Rss news.’…)

(Content Read ‘Earth’s Moon a rare species’…)

(Content Read ‘Strange new white dwarf discovered’…)

GSFC Buyout Update

NASA Internal Memo: Goddard’s Buyout/Early Out Incentive Plan

“As you are aware, NASA is in the process of a major transformation designed to realign the Agency and implement the Vision for Space Exploration. To achieve this vision, NASA faces many challenges including re-shaping the NASA workforce to successfully meet changing mission requirements.

(Content Read ‘GSFC Buyout Update’…)

Today’s Video: Ares V launch of large monolithic telescope

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this video depicting an Ares V launch of large monolithic telescope was included on NASA Watch a few weeks ago. The video has since been updated.

Thanksgiving

NASA Internal Memo: Message from the Administrator

“How many of us could take a lesson from these folks at MAF and apply it to our own work?

(Content Read ‘Thanksgiving’…)

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News

'Hot chip' endures extreme temperatures

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 by John Pickrell Cosmos Online Taking the heat: A close-up of the circuitry on NASA chip that can work at temperatures high enough to melt lead. It may have applications in future missions to Venus. (Content Read ”Hot chip’ endures extreme temperatures’…)

Cambodia’s U.N.-backed genocide tribunal arrested the former Khmer Rouge head of state and charged him Monday with crimes against humanity and war crimes, a spokesman said.

Khieu Samphan was the last of five senior officials of the brutal regime to be taken in custody ahead of a long-delayed genocide trial.

Police arrested Khieu Samphan, 76, at a Phnom Penh hospital where he had been undergoing treatment since Nov. (Content Read ‘Ex-Khmer Rouge Head Facing Genocide Trial’…)

The body of a former Washington State University basketball player was found in a dense thicket in central Brazil, police said on Monday, two weeks after he was reported missing.

Police spokesman Norton Luiz said by telephone that police found the body of Tony Harris on Sunday after an anonymous tip. Harris was playing for Universo, a professional team based in Brasilia, the country’s capital. (Content Read ‘Body Of American Athlete Found In Brazil’…)

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) pulled its ministers out of the coalition government last month, accusing Khartoum of stalling on the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended Africa's longest civil war.

On Sunday, the SPLM accused President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of "threatening and calling for war" in a speech he gave in honor of a government-allied militia charged with a string of atrocities.

Pagan Amum, Secretary-General of the SPLM, said he deplored the comments by Bashir at celebrations organized by the Popular Defense Forces (PDF) militia on Saturday.

In his televised speech, Bashir called on the PDF "to open training camps and to gather mujahideen not for the sake of war but to be ready for anything," without giving details of their purpose.

Asked about Bashir's comments on rearming, Ban urged all parties to implement the peace agreement faithfully.

"It is not desirable for the parties concerned in (the) Darfur situation, particularly parties to the CPA, to make such kind of unilateral statement," Ban told reporters.

"I hope again that the parties concerned should make a faithful implementation (of the peace agreement)," he said.

African Union and UN-brokered peace talks aimed at ending the separate civil war in the west of the country between Khartoum and Darfuri rebels have fizzled out after most insurgent groups boycotted them.

AU and UN mediators met Darfuri rebel groups in Juba in southern Sudan on Monday to try to encourage them to unify their positions ahead of direct negotiations with the government, Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

Ban said he was in talks with industrialized countries in a bid to secure critical helicopters and trucks needed for a 26,000-strong U.N./African Union peacekeeping force due to start operating in Darfur at the start of next year.

Sudan has resisted non-African participation in the hybrid force in what Western countries see as a delaying tactic to hold up deployment of the force, which is due to replace a hard-pressed African Union force already on the ground.

Ban said he hoped to resolve the issues of the composition of the force so it could deploy as planned.

(Editing by Stuart Grudgings)