1 Rare US-Arab assault on Muslim extremists (San
Francisco Chronicle) The one-two-three punch of American and Arab airstrikes
against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq was just the beginning,
President Barack Obama and other leaders have declared. They promised a
sustained campaign showcasing a rare US-Arab partnership aimed at Muslim
extremists.
At the same time, in fresh evidence of how the
terrorist threat continues to expand and mutate, the US on its own struck a new
al-Qaida cell that the Pentagon said was "nearing the execution
phase" of a direct attack on the US or Europe.
Obama said the US was "proud to stand
shoulder-to-shoulder" with Arab partners, and he called the roll: Saudi
Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar. Rear Adm. John
Kirby, the Pentagon's press secretary, said four of the five had participated
in the strikes, with Qatar playing a supporting role. US Secretary of State
John Kerry said more than 50 nations are allied in the fight.
It was a measure of the gravity of the threat and
the complex politics of the problem that Syrian President Bashar Assad gave an
indirect nod of approval to the airstrikes in his own country, saying he
supported "any international anti-terrorism effort." There has been
concern among US officials that any strikes against militants fighting Assad
could be seen as inadvertently helping the leader whom Obama wants to see
ousted from power.
2 India close to scripting Mars history (Jason Burke
in The Guardian) Those running India’s first Mars mission hope the satellite
will reach the orbit of Mars at 7.30am local time on Wednesday. Failure is
almost inconceivable. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, will be in the control
room of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the southern city of
Bangalore as the rocket bearing the satellite attempts to enter the orbit of
the red planet. Tens of millions of people across the country are expected to
follow the progress of the craft live.
However, there is a significant chance of failure.
Of 51 previous attempts to reach Mars, more than half failed, Bagla said. Mangalyaan,
which means “Mars craft” in Hindi, took off from the island of Shriharikota,
off India’s eastern coast, 10 months ago. The 1,350kg device first headed for
an elliptical orbit around Earth, after which a series of manoeuvres and short
burns of its rocket engines sent it on towards Mars.
Scientists from ISRO successfully tested the main
engine on Monday and performed a course correction that put the low-cost
project on track to enter the red planet’s orbit. Experts said reducing the
craft’s speed from its current rate of 22km (13.7 miles) per second would be a
key challenge. “It has covered 98% of the distance but the last 2% is the
tricky bit. If it is too fast it will fly by Mars and be lost in space. If it
is too slow it will crash into the planet,” said Bagla.
Some have questioned the $70m price tag for a
country still dealing with widespread hunger and poverty. But India defended
the Mars mission by noting its importance in providing hi-tech jobs for
scientists and engineers and practical applications in solving problems on
Earth.
Success would make India the fourth space power
after the US, Europe and Russia to orbit or land on the red planet. The cost of
the Indian effort is a tenth of that of an ongoing mission by Nasa that put a
satellite into the orbit of Mars two days ago.
3 Meeting etiquette matters much (Khaleej Times) Meetings
- and your meeting manners - are vitally important, especially in our
ever-changing business environment. For better or worse, we learn and make
judgments about our colleagues that are based on their behavior. Letitia
Baldrige, former Social Secretary at the White House and my mentor, chaired
superb meetings. She learned by sitting across from heads of state. Here is her
recipe for making meetings meaningful, productive, efficient, and enjoyable:
Choose a convenient time for the meeting and provide
necessary information. Invite the key people who will be involved or affected
by the meeting’s outcome. No cast of thousands; yet no omissions. Distribute
the agenda to everyone within a week of the meeting. Always arrive early to
greet the participants, shake hands, and direct them to the conference table or
coffee buffet. Begin the meeting on time, introduce everyone or ask each person
to introduce himself, then briefly state the purpose and goal of the meeting
and its time frame.
Always look good; dress authoritatively and
colorfully, with perfect grooming. Consider the big picture: One international
colleague of mine offered, “Try to predict the self interests of each
identifiable subgroup. Watch, during the time just prior to the meeting,
perhaps at water cooler or coffee, for the shy or unallied individuals who may
hold back. Try to draw them out, gently, when the meeting gets going.”
Most of us agree that getting undivided attention is
a relic. Frank Catalano, a tech consultant and columnist, addresses the issue
this way: “One of my favorite tricks is when the meeting chair asks everyone to
take out their tablets and smartphones, and put them face down on the table.
The first one to pick it up to check it has to put a dollar on the table beside
the device. The fact that they are upside down and visible to everyone else seems
to work. I’ve never seen anyone have to pay.”
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