S. KOREA SETS NEW WINDOW FOR ROCKET LAUNCH
SEOUL: South Korea said on Monday that it would make another attempt to send a satellite into space next month after a scheduled rocket launch last week was cancelled because of a technical glitch.

A Science Ministry statement said that the 140-tonne Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) would blast off sometime during a November 9-24 window from the Naro Space Center on the south coast. The launch had been slated for last Friday, but was cancelled after engineers detected a broken rubber seal in the connector between the launch pad and the rocket’s first stage. After two previous failures in 2009 and 2010, the current launch is considered crucial for South Korea’s efforts to join an elite space club that includes Asian powers China, Japan and India.

ASIA LANGUAGE PLAN ‘CENTRAL’ TO AUSTRALIA REFORMS
SYDNEY: Australia will make “Asia literacy” a key plank of its future education strategy with the goal of every local school being partnered online with one from the region by 2025, the government said on Monday. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that she was going to prioritize Asian languages as part of an ambitious plan to get Australia into the world’s top 10 wealthy economies in the next 13 years by boosting links to China and its neighbors. The plan, unveiled on Sunday and titled “Australia in the Asian Century”, contains a number of lofty goals focused on education and business with key Asian partners China, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and India. Gillard said that Australian students would have “priority” access throughout their schooling to Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese languages, vowing to link every school with an Asian partner for online classes by 2025.

EGYPT’S COPTS CHOOSE NEW POPE
CAIRO: Egypt’s Coptic Christians vote on Monday for a new leader to succeed Pope Shenuda III, who died in March leaving behind a community anxious about its status under an Islamist-led government. The death of Shenuda, who headed the church for four decades, set in motion the process to elect a new patriarch to lead the community through the post-revolution era in Egypt, which is marked by increased sectarian tension. Five candidates—two bishops and three monks—are vying to become the 118th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa in the Holy See of St. Mark the Apostle.

UKRAINE RULING PARTY CLAIMS ELECTION WIN
KIEV: Ukraine’s ruling party on Monday claimed victory in weekend elections as early results showed it withstanding the challenge by allies of ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko whose jailing last year sparked global concern. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov expressed confidence that the ruling Regions Party would win the majority of seats in the new parliament after Sunday’s vote that the West saw as a huge test for Ukraine’s democracy amid the furor caused by the imprisonment of Tymoshenko. AFP