The release of new images of Jupiter's largest moon by NASA is allowing the world to get a close-up look at another world.

Images of Ganymede were taken from the space agency's unmanned spacecraft, Juno. And more are coming in the days ahead.

Juno's flyby of Ganymede is providing the closest images of the moon in two decades, and the images are clearer than ever.

Like Earth's moon, the photographs show Ganymede with dark patches on its lighter, overall dull color.

But it appears less pock-marked by craters than the Earth's moon, with long lines, or ridges, that crisscross the icy orb, almost looking like rows of farm fields from above.

NASA said the ridges are possibly linked to tectonic faults.

Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system and, at a radius of 2,635 kilometers (1,637 miles) across, is a bit smaller than Earth. It holds particular interest for NASA since it is encrusted by water and ice.

Juno was able to use two cameras to take images of the sun-facing part of the moon and the dark side.

Heidi Becker, who helps lead the team that manages the solar-powered Juno, said, "It will be fun to see what the two teams can piece together," when the images are combined and eventually incorporated with technology that will deliver photos in color.

As for the very detailed images of Ganymede now being delivered, "We are going to take our time before we draw any scientific conclusions," said Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator. "But until then, we can simply marvel at this celestial wonder."/aa

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that a UN court in The Hague’s upholding of a life sentence for Ratko Mladic for his part in the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the right call, although it would not reduce the pain of the relatives of the victims.

The ministry said in a written statement that judges for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Mladic – also known as the “butcher of Bosnia” – to life in prison in 2017 for the genocide he committed and atrocities against humanity along with violation of the law of war.

Noting that he unsuccessfully appealed his conviction and the court upheld his life sentence Tuesday, the statement said the court made the right decision in the interest of justice.

The statement said Turkey wished the ruling would serve the peace and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region and contribute to the prevention of such crimes in the future.

-Butcher of Bosnia

Mladic was once Europe's most wanted man after his role in the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.

He was commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, which was established in Bosnia-Herzegovina at the beginning of the country’s civil war amid the breakup of Yugoslavia.

He and the forces under his command were linked to the genocide committed in Bosnia, particularly in Srebrenica, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, after Serb forces overran an enclave that was supposed to be under the protection of UN peacekeepers.

However, Mladic is also known for his forces’ bloody 1,425-day siege of Sarajevo, the longest of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.

After the end of the war with the Dayton Accords of Nov. 21, 1995, Mladic became a fugitive for over a decade.

A 15-year manhunt ended in 2011 when Mladic was found and handed over to the Hague Tribunal for trial.

Mladic's trial began on May 16, 2012 and ended with summations in December 2016.

The more-than-500-day trial called 591 witnesses and saw nearly 10,000 pieces of evidence accepted by the court.

-Fugitive faced justice

Mladic was born on March 12, 1942 in the Kalinovik area of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

He trained at the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) Military Academy in Belgrade. He first served in the JNA, then in the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), which was established in Bosnia-Herzegovina as Yugoslavia broke apart.

The VRS was founded at the beginning of the war in Bosnia on May 12, 1992, and Mladic was its commander. JNA forces in Bosnia were also converted to VRS units.

After the end of the war, Mladic became a fugitive for over a decade before his capture and trial from 2012 to 2016./aa

Paris court has indicted Renault Group for "deception" in a case of modifying the pollutant emissions measurements of older models of diesel vehicles, the French automobile giant said Tuesday, refuting the indictment. 

In a press statement, the group denied the charge of installing car models with “fraudulent software for pollution control devices," French media reports said. 

The court also directed Renault to pay a deposit of 20 million euros ($24.3 million), including 18 million euros for the possible payment of damages and fines, and provide a bank guarantee of 60 million euros in cash as compensation.

In January 2017, the Paris court opened a judicial investigation into Renault’s suspected cheating involving diesel vehicles following a report by the General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control pointing out a significant high level of emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in violation of Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards. To reduce the rate of NOx pollutant emissions, it installed NOx traps in the engines to trap nitrogen oxides, chemically treat them and reject them as "neutral" gases.

The device detected the approval phases of the polluting emissions and distorted them.

Gilles Le Borgne, director of engineering at Renault, said “the indictment mentions a device making it possible to detect certain phases of homologation tests."

“The operating limits in customer use are only dictated by safety or physicochemical constraints. These constraints were incorporated into the design of engines more than fifteen years ago. Any criticism of these devices would be anachronistic,” he was quoted in a report by the Le Monde newspaper as saying.

In the same report, Charles Constantin-Vallet, a lawyer for the National Association of Consumers and Users (CLCV), said "the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has specified that all devices modifying the exhaust gas recirculation settings during the test phase [are] illegal, contrary to the environmental standard."

Last year, the CJEU indicted Volkswagen for using software suspected of deceiving anti-pollution controls. ​​​​​​​

Apart from Renault, the Paris court is also conducting three separate judicial inquiries into similar pollution fraud by Volkswagen, Peugeot-Citroen and Fiat Chrysler./aa

The PKK terrorist organization recently increased its multifaceted terrorist acts by attacking Peshmerga forces and police officers, kidnapping civilians, targeting diplomatic missions, and inciting peaceful protests to violence in the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

The terrorist organization, disturbed by the Baghdad-Erbil agreement of Oct. 9, 2020, which will end its presence in Sinjar, is trying to spread the instability it has created in the occupied regions to the north of Iraq with terrorist acts and to divert attention from Sinjar.

The PKK also accuses the Erbil administration of collaborating with Turkey in its successful anti-terror operations in northern Iraq and attacks Peshmerga forces in the KRG.

Attacks on Peshmerga

PKK’s recent attack on Peshmerga forces took place early Tuesday in the Derkar district, northwest of Dohuk, the district head Adib Jafar said in a statement, adding: “A Peshmerga member was shot dead by a PKK sniper.”

On Monday, the PKK set up an ambush in the Hanesur region near the Sinjar district of Mosul, Iraq, and kidnapped two Peshmerga.

Five Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers were killed on Saturday in an attack by the PKK terror group in Iraq's northern Dohuk province. The fatalities occurred in an ambush set by PKK terrorists in the Amadiya district, Serbest Lezgin, the KRG deputy minister of Peshmerga affairs, said in a statement.

Lezgin also previously said the terrorist organization YPG/PKK attacked the Peshmerga forces with heavy weapons over the Syrian border on the night of Dec. 15, 2020, adding that the international coalition forces led by the US have been providing weapons and various aids to the YPG/PKK for years under the name of fighting the terrorist organization Daesh/ISIS.

Attacks on police officers

Last year in October, the General Directorate of Public Security in Erbil said in a statement that Gazi Salih Ilhan, the public security head at the Serzer border gate along the Iraq-Turkey border, was killed by the PKK.

The terrorist organization also injured two KRG police officers responsible for the security of oil and gas resources in its attack in Chamanke on Nov. 4, 2020.

Members of the terrorist organization PKK attacked the KRG police responsible for the security of oil and gas resources in the Chamanke district on Nov. 5, but no casualties or injuries were reported.

Kidnapped civilians

On April 18, a civilian in Erbil was injured in an explosion of a TNT placed on a road by the PKK.

On Nov. 17, 2020, PKK kidnapped two people in the Verte sub-district of Erbil's Revanduz district.

It was reported that the families whose children were kidnapped by the terror group in Halabja, Iraq, filed a lawsuit on Nov. 8, 2020 to save their children.

Ezidis in Sinjar also organized demonstrations to call for the Iraqi central government to save their kidnapped children from the PKK and end its presence in the region.

Attacks on diplomatic missions

The terrorist organization also targets diplomatic missions in the region to tarnish the KRG’s international image.

The KRG Security Agency reported on Oct. 26, 2020 that at least 12 suspects with links to the PKK were caught planning to attack a foreign diplomatic mission in Erbil and assassinate its members.

The PKK also killed Turkish diplomat Osman Kose in a restaurant in Erbil on July 17, 2019.

Village occupations

KRG Prime Minister Masrour ​​Barzani, in a statement on Feb. 27, said 800 villages could not be rebuilt due to the PKK’s occupation in those villages, and said they will not tolerate the PKK’s presence in the region.

“Sometimes farmers are denied access to their land. They are often even expelled from the villages. So, we hope this situation does not escalate. We hope that the PKK will understand that its military presence in this region will not serve anyone. We will certainly not tolerate this,” he said.

Attempt to make Sinjar a 'second Qandil'

It is stated that as the Sinjar agreement between Baghdad and Erbil has not been implemented, the PKK maintains its presence in the region and tries to turn the district into a "second Qandil."

The PKK takes the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq as its stronghold and is active in many cities and towns. It occupies a large number of villages in the region and launches attacks on Turkey's interior.

KRG officials, on the other hand, are criticizing that Ezidis cannot return to their homes due to the PKK's presence in the region and that the reconstruction of the region is prevented.

The PKK first started to deploy in the region, using the Daesh/ISIS attack on the Sinjar district as an excuse, where the majority of Ezidis live.

After 2014, it continued to exist in many regions, especially Mount Sinjar, with the terrorists it brought from Syria and Qandil.

Taking advantage of the power vacuum in the region, the PKK announced in January 2015 that it had declared a "canton" in Sinjar. Then the terrorist organization attempted to seize the local government through political organization with the so-called public assemblies it established in the region.

Although Peshmerga forces recaptured the Sinjar district center and its surroundings from Daesh/ISIS in November 2015, the PKK's activities in the region continued. The organization, which built camps for the terrorists it brought to the region, recruited Ezidi children it had kidnapped in these camps.

Provocations in peaceful protests

In December 2020, in Sulaymaniyah and Halabja, nine people, including a Peshmerga, lost their lives and dozens were injured in the demonstrations where the KRG government was protested due to the delay in civil servant salaries.

Masrour Barzani, in his statement on Dec. 9, said people from Syria and outside of the KRG were infiltrating the demonstrators, implying that the terrorist organization PKK was behind the violence.

Implying that those who resorted to violence during the demonstrations were members of the terrorist organization PKK, Barzani said: "There were Syrian citizens and people from outside the KRG among the demonstrators. A group infiltrated the demonstrators and changed the direction of the protests and attacked the party and public buildings. It's not a form of demand for rights and salary," he said.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants./aa

Authorities on Tuesday released the names of the four members of a Muslim family that were killed in a "cowardly terrorist attack" in Canada.

Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha, 15-year-old daughter Yumna and Salman's 74-year-old mother -- were killed when a half-ton truck driven by a 20-year-old deliberately jumped the curb and slammed into the victims who were out for a Sunday walk.

The couple's nine-year-old son, Fayez, survived but he is in the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

It occurred at about 8.40 p.m. in London, Ontario, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest of Toronto.

The killings sent shock waves across the country and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sorrow Tuesday in parliament as politicians paid tribute to the victims, first with a moment of silence and then with words.

“Lately, a lot of Canadians have been enjoying evening walks to get a bit of fresh air after long days at home during this pandemic," Trudeau said. "On Sunday, in London, Ontario, that’s what a grandmother, two parents, and two children went out to do … but unlike every other night, this family never made it home.

“Their lives were taken in a brutal, cowardly, and brazen act of violence. This killing was no accident. This was a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred, in the heart of one of our communities,” he said.

The leaders of the other three political parties also condemned the attack.

“Freedom to worship can’t exist without freedom from fear, and every Canadian has a right to that,” said Erin O’Toole, head of the Conservative Party.

More details about the Afzaal family have emerged since the killings.

Fayez attends the London Islamic School, while his sister, Yumna, graduated from the school last year and was a Grade 9 student at Oakridge Secondary School, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported.

Their mother, Madiha, completed post-graduate work in civil and environmental engineering so she could get a job and work on environmental issues. Salman was described as a humble man who was involved in projects at the local mosque.

A vigil is planned for 7 p.m. Tuesday in London. Trudeau and other political leaders are expected to attend.

The driver, Nathaniel Veltman, was taken into custody 10 minutes after the attack and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder./aa

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the international community on Tuesday to "end our war on nature" on World Oceans Day.

Guterres pointed to a glut of plastic waste filling seas "from the remotest atolls to the deepest ocean trenches" as overfishing results in mass waste, heightening "the vulnerability of women, who are vital to the survival of small-scale fishing businesses."

"Carbon emissions are driving ocean warming and acidification, destroying biodiversity and causing sea level rise that threatens heavily inhabited coastlines," Guterres said in a statement.

"As we strive to recover from COVID-19, let’s end our war on nature. This will be critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, keeping within reach the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement, and ensuring the health of our oceans for today’s and future generations," he added.

The UN chief was referring to the landmark 2015 climate change pact signed by 196 countries that seek to rein in the increasingly disastrous effects of carbon emissions on global weather patterns./aa