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world news Diasabra 8 Mei 2021

China discounts possibility of harm from falling rocket

BEIJING (AP) — China ground," Wang said at a regu- posing an extremely remote
says the upper stage of larly scheduled briefing. risk to people.
its Long March 5B rocket
that launched the core The largest section of the The U.S. Defense Depart-
module of its space station rocket that launched the main ment expects the rocket stage
will mostly burn up on re- module of China's first per- to fall to Earth on Saturday.
entry, posing little threat manent space station into or-
to people and property on bit is expected to plunge back Where it will hit "cannot
the ground. to Earth as early as Saturday be pinpointed until within
at an unknown location. hours of its reentry," the
Foreign Ministry spokesper- Pentagon said in a statement
son Wang Wenbing said Chi- Usually, discarded rocket Tuesday.
nese authorities will release stages re-enter the atmo-
information about the -re- sphere soon after liftoff, nor- White House press secretary
entry of the rocket, expected mally over water, and don't Jen Psaki said at a Wednesday
over the weekend, in a "time- go into orbit. briefing that the U.S. Space
ly manner." Command was "aware of and mony, into orbit on April 29. China's first space station,
China's space agency has yet tracking the location" of the China plans 10 more launch- Tiangong-1, crashed into the
Wang said China "pays great to say whether the main stage Chinese rocket. es to carry additional parts of Pacific Ocean in 2016 after
attention to the re-entry of of the huge Long March 5B the space station into orbit. Beijing confirmed it had lost
the upper stage of the rocket rocket is being controlled or The nonprofit Aerospace control. In 2019, the space
into the atmosphere." will make an out-of-control Corp. expects the debris to The roughly 30-meter (100- agency controlled the demo-
descent. Last May, another hit the Pacific near the Equa- foot) -long stage would be lition of its second station,
"As far as I understand, this Chinese rocket fell uncon- tor after passing over eastern among the biggest space de- Tiangong-2, in the atmo-
type of rocket adopts a special trolled into the Atlantic U.S. cities. Its orbit covers bris to fall to Earth. sphere.
technical design, and the vast Ocean off West Africa. a swath of the planet from
majority of the devices will New Zealand to Newfound- The 18-ton rocket that fell In March, debris from a Fal-
be burnt up and destructed The Communist Party news- land. last May was the heaviest de- con 9 rocket launched by
during the re-entry process, paper Global Times said the bris to fall uncontrolled since U.S. aeronautics company
which has a very low prob- stage's "thin-skinned" alumi- The Long March 5B rocket the former Soviet space sta- SpaceX fell to Earth in Wash-
ability of causing harm to num-alloy exterior will easily carried the main module of tion Salyut 7 in 1991. ington and on the Oregon
aviation activities and the burn up in the atmosphere, Tianhe, or Heavenly Har- coast.

Palestinians, Israel police clash at Jerusalem site, 53 hurt

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian worship- Israeli forces shoot and kill two Palestinians after of Destiny," the most sacred in the Muslim holy
pers clashed with Israeli police on Friday eve- three men opened fire on an Israeli base in the oc- month of Ramadan. Worshippers will gather for
ning at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old cupied West Bank. intense nighttime prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque
City as weeks-long tensions between Israel compound in Jerusalem's Old City, a flashpoint
and the Palestinians over Jerusalem soared They erupted when Israeli police deployed heav- site sacred to both Muslims and Jews, who refer to
again. ily as Muslims were performing evening prayers it as the Temple Mount.
at Al-Aqsa during the holy month of Ramadan.
The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service Video footage from the scene shows worshippers Sunday night is also the start of Jerusalem Day, a
said 53 people were wounded in clashes with po- throwing chairs, shoes and rocks toward the police national holiday in which Israel celebrates its an-
lice there and elsewhere in Jerusalem, including 23 and officers responding by opening fire. Israeli po- nexation of east Jerusalem and religious national-
who were hospitalized. It says most were wounded lice also closed gates leading to Al-Aqsa inside the ists hold parades and other celebrations in the city.
in the face and eyes by rubber-coated bullets and walled Old City. On Monday, an Israeli court is expected to issue a
shrapnel from stun grenades. verdict on the evictions.
Dozens of Palestinians in an east Jerusalem neigh-
The clashes were the latest in a deadly day that saw borhood are at risk of being evicted following a Israel's archenemy Iran was meanwhile marking its
long legal battle with Israeli settlers, and Palestin- own Quds, or Jerusalem, Day on Friday. The na-
ian protesters have clashed with Israeli police in the tional holiday typically features anti-Israel protests
city on a nightly basis since the start of the Muslim and fiery speeches by Iranian leaders predicting Is-
holy month of Ramadan. rael's demise.

The unrest has drawn attention from across the This year, Ramadan has coincided with an uptick
region, with neighboring Jordan warning Israel in Israeli-Palestinian violence focused on Jerusa-
against further "provocative" steps, and Iran seizing lem, where Palestinian protesters have repeatedly
on the sensitivities around Jerusalem and encour- clashed with Israeli police over restrictions on out-
aging the violence. door gatherings at the Damascus Gate leading into
the Old City.
In the attack on Friday morning, Israeli police said
three attackers fired on the base near the northern The Palestinians view east Jerusalem — which in-
West Bank town of Jenin. The Border Police and cludes major holy sites for Jews, Christians and
an Israeli soldier returned fire, killing two of the Muslims — as their capital, and its fate is one of
men and wounding the third, who was evacuated the most sensitive issues in the conflict.
to a hospital.
The Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules the
Some 70,000 worshippers attended the final Fri- Gaza Strip, has egged on the violence, and Palestin-
day prayers of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa, the Islamic ian militants in Gaza have fired rockets in support
endowment that oversees the site said. Thousands of the protesters.
protested afterwards, waving the green flags of the
Islamic militant group Hamas and chanting pro- Earlier this week, the shadowy commander of
Hamas slogans before dispersing peacefully. Hamas' armed wing, Mohammed Deif, released
Israelis and Palestinians are bracing for more vio- his first public statement in seven years, in which
lence in the coming days. he warned Israel it would pay a "heavy price" if it
Sunday night is "Laylat al-Qadr" or the "Night evicts Palestinians from their homes.