Japan launches satellite for better GPS coverage Tokyo: Japan on Saturday launched a rocket carrying a satellite intended to improve global positioning systems. The H-IIA rocket blasted off at 8.17pm from the Tanegashima space centre in southern Japan,according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). About 30 minutes after the launch,the rocket successfully released the Michibiki satellite,whose name means showing the way. Protests in Greece over economy Thessaloniki: Thousands of Greeks took to the streets on Saturday in union-led protests against the countrys harsh austerity programme,before a keynote speech on the economy by the Prime Minister. Some 11,000 people joined in marches in Thessaloniki. Meanwhile,a man threw a shoe at PM George Papandreou,who had just inaugurated an annual trade fair. The shoe landed wide of its target,and the shoe-thrower was arrested but later freed as Papandreou declined to press charges. Iranian diplomat resigns in Finland PARIS: A senior diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Finland said on Saturday he had resigned to join the political Opposition movement against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Hossein Alizadeh,who said he was second in command at Irans embassy in Helsinki,became the second Iranian diplomat in Europe to join the Opposition movement this year. Gillard names Rudd Foreign Minister Melbourne: Months after ousting him in a ruthless coup,Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has appointed her former leader,Kevin Rudd as the new Foreign Minister. Gillard,Australias first woman Prime Minister,who has returned to power on a wafer thin majority of just a lawmaker named Rudd in sweeping changes to her Cabinet in which she shifted the incumbent Foreign Minister Stephen Smith to Defence. No LeT training camp in Lanka Colombo: Sri Lanka has said that no militant group was operating on its soil,dismissing reported claims of an LeT terror suspect and key accused in the Pune German Bakery blast that he was trained in Colombo. Sri Lanka is free of terrorists and there is no ground for militants to receive training in the island nation,said Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
