Category: World

UN urges Israel to renounce nuclear arms, join NPT

The UN General Assembly has passed an Arab-introduced resolution calling on Israel not to develop, produce or possess nuclear arms and criticizing the country for not being part to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

The resolution calls on Israel to “accede to that treaty without further delay, not to develop, produce test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons, to renounce possession of nuclear weapons,” and put its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, AP reports.

The UN would like to see the whole of the Middle East a nuclear weapons-free zone, according to the text of the document, which specifies Israel is the only country in the region which has not signed the non-proliferation treaty.

Israel, which is believed to have nuclear arms but has never admitted to it, has long been under fire from Arab countries in the region for not putting its alleged stockpile under international supervision.

The resolution, initiated by Egypt, was approved by 161 nations with only five voting against it and 18 abstentions.

The United States and Canada were among the minority opposing the measure.

US representative Robert Wood, earlier condemned the resolution for failing “to meet the fundamental tests of fairness and balance.”

“It confines itself to expressions of concern about the activities of a single country,” he said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted in September on a resolution, expressing concern over Israel’s assumed nuclear arsenal. That time the resolution was rejected by 58 votes to 45.

In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding call on Tel Aviv to join the NPT “without further delay.”

Israel then rebuffed the call with the Foreign Ministry saying in a statement that the UN “lost all its credibility regarding Israel with these types of routine votes that are ensured passage by an automatic majority and which single out Israel.”

Israel has repeatedly called Iran as the real nuclear threat in the region.

Tehran, according to various US security reports, is not pursuing weapons but peaceful nuclear applications.

China sneers at Britain’s ‘moral responsibility’

China said on Wednesday Britain has had no moral responsibility for what happens in Hong Kong since its return to China, as the two countries argue about Beijing’s ban on a group of British members of parliament visiting the city.

The British parliament held a three-hour emergency debate over the ban on Tuesday, with members warning it would damage relations between London and Beijing.

The row has escalated since Sunday, when the chairman of the British parliament’s foreign affairs committee said he had been told by Chinese embassy officials that his delegation would be refused entry to Hong Kong to monitor progress towards democracy.

Protesters have been on the streets of Hong Kong for more than two months, calling for greater democracy in their city, a British territory which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula that allowed it to keep wide-ranging freedoms and autonomy.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying, asked to comment on whether Britain still had any responsibility for Hong Kong as a signatory to the agreement to hand it back to China, said that was not the case.

“Britain has no sovereignty over a Hong Kong that has returned to China, no authority and no right to oversight. There is no such thing as a moral responsibility,” she told a daily news briefing in Beijing.

“The real aim of a small minority of British people trying to use so-called moral responsibility to obscure the facts is to interfere in China’s internal affairs. Such an attempt cannot succeed, and is something China certainly cannot accept.”

Moves by Beijing to control nominations for a 2017 vote for Hong Kong’s leader have prompted the weeks of protests.

On Monday, thousands of democracy activists forced the temporary closure of the city’s government headquarters and clashed with police.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited London in June to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties, which had been frosty since 2012 when British Prime Minister David Cameron met the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader who Beijing says is a dangerous separatist.

Source: Reuters

Heroin trafficking handed to Islamic State

According to the UN, world heroin production stands at 430-450 tons, of which only 340 tons actually reach the market, the rest being seized or destroyed.

Top heroin producing countries are: Afghanistan (at least 380 tonnes), Myanmar and Laos (at least 50 tonnes).

According to John F. Sopko, the US government’s special inspector general for Afghanistan, the reconstruction efforts undertaken by Afghanistan have collapsed in the face of the continued expansion of drug cultivation drugs and criminal organizations. Afghan farmers reportedly earned some $ 3 billion in 2013.

Since 2010, the Russian authorities have consistently accused NATO of exporting Afghan heroin to Europe.

The switch from using drugs planes run by NATO to those controlled by the Islamic Emirate confirms the links between the two organizations. This came just after President Hamid Karzai left office, September 29, 2014.

The Islamic Emirate uses a cocktails of drugs to condition its fighters according to protocols that appear to have been prescribed by the CIA.

According to the Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), more than half of the heroin consumed in Europe currently comes from Afghanistan via the Islamic State.

Source: Reseau Voltaire

ISIS supplies run through NATO country

Germany’s international broadcaster published a video report of immense geopolitical implications.

This is possibly the first national broadcaster in the West to admit that the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) is supplied not by “black market oil” or “hostage ransoms” but billions of dollars worth of supplies carried into Syria across NATO member’s borders.

Every day, trucks laden with food, clothing, and other supplies cross the border from Turkey to Syria. Turkey is a NATO member.

It is unclear who is picking up the goods, Deutsche Welle reports.

The haulers believe most of the cargo is going to the “Islamic State” militia.

Oil, weapons, and soldiers are also being smuggled over the border, and Kurdish volunteers are now patrolling the area in a bid to stem the supplies.

NATO has feigned a desire to defeat ISIS but has failed to expose and uproot ISIS’ multinational sponsorship and more importantly, has refused to cut its supply lines – an elementary prerequisite of any military strategy.

Murdoch assures all that Arabs hate blacks too

Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter tonight to defend 20th Century Fox’s new movie “Exodus” that casts Christian Bale as Moses, and a variety of white actors as Egyptians.

There’s been scuffle on Twitter ever since Murdoch made his observations. And a lot of this stems from a quote director Ridley Scott gave Variety about why he didn’t use Egyptian or Arab actors for the film.

He said: “I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such,” Scott says. “I’m just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn’t even come up.”

The other main characters are played by Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro, and Aaron Paul. It’s a little odd that, according to the imdb, black actors only seem to be playing “lower class civilians and a thief. But this is Hollywood. And this from the same company that released “12 Years a Slave.”

SA family killed in Afghanistan ahead of NATO donor meeting

The death of a South African father and his two teenage children come in the wake of a secret order that was signed by president Barack Obama just last week to strengthen the combat role of American troops in Afghanistan.

Insurgents have targeted foreign guesthouses, embassy vehicles, US troops and a female member of parliament in recent weeks.

Werner Groenewald, 46, his son Jean-Pierre, 17, and daughter Rode, 15, were killed in Saturday’s attack on the compound of Partnership in Academics and Development (PAD), a small California-based education group.

Obama has secretly signed an order that expands the United States’ direct combat role in Afghanistan throughout 2015, the New York Times reported.

The secret order permits American forces to continue to battle the Taliban and other militants that pose a threat to either the Afghan government or US personnel.

According to the Times, US jets, bombers, and drones will be able to aid ground troops – be they Afghan or US forces – in whatever mission they undertake.

This marks a significant expansion of America’s role in Afghanistan in 2015. The new revelation that the U.S. is quietly planning to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan above publicly pledged levels is just the latest indication that the end of the war is, in fact, nowhere near.

Meanwhile, new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has a much softer position on the US presence in his country compared to his predecessor Hamid Karzai.

Ghani removed restrictions against US airstrikes and joint raids that were implemented by Karzai.

Werner’s wife Hannelie, a doctor, was working at a hospital when the attack began, Hannelie’s sister Riana du Plessis, who is acting as family spokeswoman, told AFP.

Explosions and gunfire erupted for three hours as Afghan elite commandos battled three militants who were eventually killed.

“Their house was burned down,” Ms du Plessis said, speaking in South Africa. “Hannelie went back there this morning to try to recover some of their goods, but there was nothing to recover.

“She lost everything — her children, her husband, her cats, her dogs.” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed on Twitter that the compound was that of a secret Christian missionary group.

According to South African sources the Groenewalds recieved a warning ahead of the attack. The three victims suffered immensely, as they bled to death while being suffocated, the source said.

Werner was previously a Christian pastor in Pretoria, while Hannelie is a qualified doctor who answered the call “to help the sick in Afghanistan”.

Kabul police chief General Zahir Zahir stepped down on Sunday shortly after he confirmed the attack.

The killing of the Groenewald family occured just days ahead of a NATO donor meeting in Brussels and London.

President Ashraf Ghani, who came to power in September after signing a power-sharing deal with his poll rival Abdullah Abdullah.

Ghani was due to give a televised address on Sunday evening to announce that a deal had been reached over cabinet positions in the new government.

Ghani and Abdullah will fly to Brussels on Monday for NATO meetings, and to London on Wednesday for a donor conference designed to showcase the “national unity government” and demonstrate continuing international support for Afghanistan.

American news sources did not disclose the nationality of the Groenewalds.

 

Whites asked to stay away from rallies for Brown in Canada

Organizers of pro-Ferguson events in Ottawa and Toronto, asked white people not to appropriate vigils for Michael Brown, sparking intense debate on social media.

White people were told by organizers to not appropriate a recent vigil for Michael Brown and Ferguson in Canada, sparking intense debate on social media.

Hundreds of protesters chanted and carried signs through the streets of Washington, DC, Tuesday night to show solidarity with Michael Brown, a black teen offender shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson in August and other victims of police violence.

In a post, published on the Facebook page of the Ottawa vigil, she stressed that fair-skinned people “are there in support of black folks, so should never be at the centre of anything,” adding that “black voices are crucial” to the movement at the moment.

The same suggestion was posted on the Facebook page of a similar event in Toronto.

Arte’s post attracted nearly 300 comments, prompting one user, Hamdi Loukoum, to ask: “Wow, is this an anti-racist rally or a pro-segregation one?”

In response to the appeal Darian Parsons, stated: “I’m not sure why white people would have to refrain from taking up space…. won’t that push them away from coming to support and won’t it help to have support from the whole world, not just the black community…? I think it would be a terrible idea to ask non-black people to not talk to the media.”

Other participants were sympathetic with Arte’s message. “For us, it’s really important to come up and show our solidarity and make sure black voices are leading this — that their feelings and opinions are front and centre for everything happening here. We’re just here to show support and be allies,” Paige Jackson and Rebecca Macintyre, both white, told CBC News. “It’s not about us. It’s about showing solidarity with people whose lives are affected by Ferguson — and that’s not really us. That’s not really white people,” Macintyre added.

The peaceful rallies were held in Ottawa and Toronto under the banner “BlackLivesMatter” following a night of rioting in Ferguson, sparked by the grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer who fatally shot the African-American teenager. Thousands have reportedly participated in the two vigils braving cold weather.

“Those folks who are here tonight don’t believe that’s OK,” said Lena Peters, the leader of the protests, as quoted by the Huffington Post. “We believe that it is part of a larger system that doesn’t value black life,” she added during the rally held outside the US Consulate in Toronto.

“Our message is that black lives matter,” said Janaya Khan, one of the organizers of the Toronto vigil, as quoted by the Global News. “Our message is that we unequivocally stand against the no indictment ruled in favour of Darren Wilson and that we completely support Mike Brown and Mike Brown’s family. We support any kind of actions against state sanctioned violence and police brutality and we want to draw parallels to what is happening here in Canada to black and African peoples.”

The grand jury’s decision came after nearly three months of deliberation over a case that has highlighted issues of race and police brutality throughout the United States, inciting massive protests around the country over the summer.

Thirty-eight US states, Washington DC and over 140 other US cities have organized demonstrations throughout the day on Tuesday under the banner of “Emergency Response Protests to Ferguson Grand Jury Decision”.

France to vote on Palestinian state recognition

A symbolic vote planned in the French parliament on December 2 will call on the government to “use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict” and follows a similar motion adopted by Spain last week.

Earlier the UK adopted a similar non-binding resolution calling for recognition of the Palestinian state as a step to securing a two-state solution.

Meanwhile Sweden has become the first West-European EU state to officially recognize the occupied state of Palestine, infuriating Israel who recalled its ambassador in Sweden.

A vote at the UN General Assembly in 2012 secured de facto Palestinian statehood, although a ‘yes’ vote from most EU members is still pending. While Sweden is the first EU member in Western Europe to have recognized the state, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic have already done so.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has warned it would be a “grave mistake” for the French parliament to follow the suit of several other European nations in recognizing a Palestinian state in a vote scheduled early December.

“Recognition of a Palestinian state by France would be a grave mistake,” Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem. “Do they have nothing better to do at a time of beheadings across the Middle East, including that of a French citizen?” apparently referring to Herve Gourdel executed by Algerian jihadists in September.

“The State of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, the only state that we have, and the Palestinians demanding a state do not want to recognize the right to have a state for the Jewish people,” Netanyahu added.

‘Israel’s attempts to change Jerusalem status should be annulled’

Israel’s attempts to change Jerusalem status should be annulled, the Palestinian ambassador urged.

The State of Palestine asked the UN General Assembly to get Israel to annul all measures to change the status of Jerusalem which under international accords should remain a capital of two states.

All Israeli measures, including the extension of the so-called ‘basic law’ should be cancelled immediately, Palestinian permanent observer at the UN Riyad Mansour said.

‘The basic law’ which Israel’s unicameral national legislature Knesset adopted in 1980 proclaims united Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

Several countries have expressed deep concern over the rising tensions in Arab-dominated East Jerusalem, stressing the need for restraint and avoidance of provocation.

Marking the International day of solidarity with the Palestinian People, India called for dialogue as the “only viable option” for a durable, comprehensive and peaceful solution to the Palestinian issue.

“We hope that both sides will demonstrate the necessary political will to return to the negotiating table and resume dialogue,” he said, adding that India supports a negotiated solution, resulting in a sovereign, independent, viable and united State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, living within secure and recognized borders, side by side and at peace with Israel.

India called for the blockade on Gaza to be fully lifted and humanitarian supplies and desperately-needed materials for reconstruction be allowed in without restrictions.

The fighting, which raged from July 8 to August 26, saw entire neighbourhoods in the Strip flattened, and almost one-third of Gaza’s population uprooted.

The violence killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, including more than 500 children, and more than 70 Israelis while also damaging or destroying over 100,000 homes.

India is implementing development projects in Palestine, jointly with Brazil and South Africa within the framework of IBSA, and has pledged a million dollars for a new project to reconstruct the Atta Habib medical centre in Gaza.

World’s most advanced hacking spyware unleashed

A cyber snooping operation reminiscent of the Stuxnet worm and billed as the world’s most sophisticated computer malware is targeting Russian and Saudi Arabian telecoms companies.

Cyber security company Symantec said the malware, called “Regin”, is probably run by a western intelligence agency and in some respects is more advanced in engineering terms than Stuxnet, which was developed by US and Israel government hackers in 2010 to target the Iranian nuclear programme.

The discovery of the latest hacking software comes as the head of Kaspersky Labs, the Russian company that helped uncover Stuxnet, told the Financial Times that criminals are now also hacking industrial control systems for financial gain.

Organised criminals tapping into the networks that run industrial companies, alongside the development of the latest online snooping worm, are signs of the increasingly sophisticated nature of cyber attacks.

“Nothing else comes close to this . . . nothing else we look at compares,” said Orla Cox, director of security response at Symantec, who described Regin as one of the most “extraordinary” pieces of hacking software developed, and probably “months or years in the making”.

However, a western security official said it was difficult to draw conclusions about the origins or purpose of Regin. “It’s dangerous to assume that because the malware has apparently been used in a given country, it did not originate there,” the person said. “Certain states and agencies may well use tools of this sort domestically.”

Symantec said it was not yet clear how Regin infected systems but it had been deployed against internet service providers and telecoms companies mainly in Russia and Saudi Arabia as well as Mexico, Ireland and Iran.

The security software group said Regin could be customised to target different organisations and had hacked Microsoft email exchange servers and mobile phone conversations on major international networks.

“We are probably looking at some sort of western agency,” Ms Cox said. “Sometimes there is virtually nothing left behind – no clues. Sometimes an infection can disappear completely almost as soon as you start looking at it, it’s gone. That shows you what you are dealing with.”

Meanwhile, Eugene Kaspersky, chief executive of Kaspersky Labs, warned that the computer networks that control energy plants and factories are becoming targets for organised crime gangs armed with skilled hackers. He said there was evidence of “more and more very targeted attacks” of the networks that run industrial companies.

The attacks go beyond recent data breaches at US bank JPMorgan and US retailer Home Depot, in which criminals sought credit card details or personal data to attempt false transactions. Mr Kaspersky said criminals have used hacking for everything from bypassing security at ports to stealing grain from a Ukrainian factory by adjusting the digital scales to read a lower weight.

The most public incident of cyber industrial crime was exposed when Europol smashed a drugs ring last year that was hacking into the control systems of the Belgian port of Antwerp, to move containers holding drugs away from the prying eyes of customs inspectors.

Source: FT

 

‘Dating expert’ discovers the limits of free speech

Julien Blanc boasts about shoving Asian women’s faces into his crotch in Japan: “You can do what you want. I’m just romping through the streets, just grabbing girls’ heads, just like, head, pfft on the dick.”

The dating expert has just been denied permission to enter the UK, where he planned to run a series of seminars sharing his “seduction” techniques. For some, Blanc’s case is a “free speech issue” and the government has no business limiting him.

Blanc, 25, uses the hashtag #ChokingGirlsAroundTheWorld on social media, and tours the world giving seminars and $2,000 bootcamps. He was due to arrive in Britain in February for a series of events.

But there is no requirement to tolerate speech that unambiguously directs violence, and thus no “free speech” defence for Blanc.

This month Blanc was also forced to cut short an Australian tour after widespread protests led to his visa being cancelled. The Australian immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said his government’s decision was in reaction to justified public outrage.

“This guy wasn’t putting forward political ideas. He was putting forward abuse that was derogatory to women and those values are abhorred in this country,” he said.

Blanc has already described himself as “the most hated man in the world”. He could be banned from entering Ireland too, the Department of Justice confirmed.

Thousands of people have signed petitions in Australia, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Canada, the UK and Brazil to ban Blanc and his seminars.

Fear grips India after announcement of first ebola case

Fear has gripped India after an Indian national, returning from Liberia, tested positive for the Ebola virus. The person was isolated at the Health Organization Quarantine Center at Delhi Airport.

India’s Union Health Minister JP Nadda has said that things are under control and there is no need to panic after the first case of the Ebola virus has been detected in the country.

“I want to appeal to everybody that there is no need to panic. Things are well in control,” Nadda told reporters on Tuesday.

The first reported case of the Ebola virus has caused serious concern in India, especially because a lot of Indians live in the Ebola-affected West Africa, which may result in the deadly virus reaching India if these nationals decide to return.

The current Ebola outbreak occurred in southern Guinea at the end of 2013 and soon spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. The latter two countries have recently been announced free of the virus.

According to estimates by the World Health organization (WHO), the virus resulted in the deaths of over 5,000 people and in over 14,000 confirmed, likely and suspected cases.

Spain’s parliament calls for recognition of Palestine

The Spanish parliament supported Palestine’s recognition in a symbolic vote Tuesday.

Spanish Congress of Deputies (lower chamber of the parliament) has called on the government to recognize Palestine as a state in a non-binding motion.

According to a member of parliament and former Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez, the “formal and symbolic recognition” of Palestine by the parliament should spur peace talks, RIA Novosti reporter said.

In late October Britain held a similar vote that recognized the Palestinian state. France is to have symbolic voting on November 28.

Sweden officially recognized the state of Palestine on October 30, becoming the first EU country to do so.

Palestinians seek the creation of an independent state on the territories of the West Bank in East Jerusalem, partially occupied by Israel, as well as on the Gaza Strip territory controlled by Hamas militants. Palestine has designated Jerusalem as its capital and calls on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories it took after the 1967 war.

Britain stokes fear over ‘mysterious object’

Britain has warned that a “mysterious object was launched by the Russian military”.

The FT’s Sam Jones, Defence and Security Editor, reported that the Object 2014-28E is being tracked by western space agencies, “stoking fears over the revival of a defunct Kremlin project to destroy satellites”.

Jones, who specialises in anti-Russian propaganda, has numerous sources inside MI6.

 

For the past few weeks, amateur astronomers and satellite-trackers in Russia and the west have followed the unusual manoeuvres of Object 2014-28E, watching it guide itself towards other Russian space objects. The pattern appeared to culminate last weekend in a rendezvous with the remains of the rocket stage that launched it.

The object had originally been classed as space debris, propelled into orbit as part of a Russian rocket launch in May to add three Rodnik communications satellites to an existing military constellation. The US military is now tracking it under the Norad designation 39765.

Its purpose is unknown, and could be civilian: a project to hoover up space junk, for example. Or a vehicle to repair or refuel existing satellites. But interest has been piqued because Russia did not declare its launch – and by the object’s peculiar, and very active, precision movements across the skies.

Russia officially mothballed its anti-satellite weaponry programme – Istrebitel Sputnikov or satellite killer – after the fall of the iron curtain, though its expertise has not entirely disappeared. Indeed, military officials have publicly stated in the past that they would restart research in the event of a deterioration in relations with the US over anti-missile defence treaties. In 2010, Oleg Ostapenko, commander of Russia’s space forces, and now head of its space agency, said Russia was again developing “inspection” and “strike” satellites.

Moscow’s ministry of defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Whatever it is, [Object 2014-28E] looks experimental,” said Patricia Lewis, research director at think-tank Chatham House and an expert in space security. “It could have a number of functions, some civilian and some military. One possibility is for some kind of grabber bar. Another would be kinetic pellets which shoot out at another satellite. Or possibly there could be a satellite-to-satellite cyber attack or jamming.”

In a week when the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft landed a probe on a comet, the peregrinations of 2014-28E could seem insignificant, but they highlight an area of growing – if so far little publicised – concern for defence strategists: the weaponisation of space.

Having the ability to destroy or degrade an opponent’s satellite communications has been regarded as a powerful military capability since the space race began but, after the collapse of the iron curtain, many of the secret research projects Soviet and US engineers were working on were quietly shelved. In the past few years, however, interest in space weapons has revived.

“It would be odd if space were to remain the one area that [militaries] don’t get their hands on,” says Ms Lewis. Cyber attacks on satellites are already a reality, she points out: last week, hackers linked to the Chinese government infiltrated US federal weather satellites.

Russia has in the past been at the forefront of efforts to try to secure an international treaty to prevent weapons being deployed in space, but its efforts have fallen on stony ground.

Amid rapid advances by other foreign powers, and the recent deterioration in relations between Moscow and the west, plans to revive the IS programme would make strategic sense, said one Russian military expert.

As far back as 2007, the Chinese showed they had the ability to shoot down satellites with rockets and in 2008 the US demonstrated it had the same capability.

More recently, in May this year, a Chinese satellite known as Shijian 15 began to exhibit unusual propulsion capabilities and eventually intercepted another Chinese satellite, Shijian 7.

“The experiment was linked to the possible use of a remote capture arm and close proximity operations,” said Max White, a member of the Kettering group of astronomers, which made a name for itself in the 1960s by pinpointing the location of Soviet spy satellite launches. “Both can have peaceful as well as military nuances, with the former for refuelling in space, and the latter for disabling an active payload belonging to a foreign nation, potentially without causing a debris cloud.

“Whether the Russians feel they need to demonstrate such capability is a matter for debate,” Mr White added. He, too, has been following the activities of object 2014-28E.

In a signal of international sensitivities over the prospect of anti-satellite technologies being rapidly developed, a Chinese missile test this year drew an unusually fiery response from the Pentagon. US authorities said they had “high confidence” that a July launch was a test for a ground-based weapon to strike a satellite, accusing the Chinese of “destabilising actions”. China’s test was later also condemned by the EU.

Russia will start deploying its own orbital space station in 2017, using part of the modules constructed for the International Space Station (ISS), Kommersant newspaper reported Monday, citing a space engineering source.

“The new station will be located geometrically more advantageous, allowing an extended field of view of the Earth’s surface. As much as 90 percent of Russia’s territory and the Arctic offshore area will be visible from the station,” the source said, noting that the ISS’ field of view covers no more than 5 percent of the region.

In May, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced that Moscow was not planning to use the International Space Station after 2020 and would instead re-focus its funding on more promising new space projects.