Europe launches sat-nav tester

A demonstrator spacecraft for Europe's proposed Galileo satellite navigation system has launched from Kazakhstan.

The Giove-B satellite was taken into space atop a Soyuz rocket which left Earth at 2216 GMT, Saturday.

The demonstrator will test the key technologies which will eventually be built into the 30 operational platforms that form the Galileo network.

These include the atomic clocks which provide the precise timing that underpins all sat-nav applications.

Giove-B - a half-tonne, 2.4x1x1m box assembled by EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space - is the second demonstrator satellite to go into orbit following the launch of Giove-A in 2005.

The first mission met international obligations to claim the frequencies Galileo will use to transmit its signals to receivers on the ground.

This second mission flies a spacecraft which is, to a large degree, a template for the 30 operational platforms that will follow.

A fundamental focus for Giove-B will be the in-orbit behaviour of its passive hydrogen maser clock.

It is the most stable clock ever put in permanent orbit, and is designed to keep time with an accuracy of better than one nanosecond (billionth of a second) in 24 hours.

As well as its atomic clocks (Giove-B carries three clocks), the latest demonstrator will test the generation of signals across the full spectrum Galileo intends to use for its five sat-nav services.

Saturday's launch from the Baikonur spaceport was an important moment for Galileo which has experienced several delays.

Giove-B was held on the ground for a year because of a component failure during the final stages of its preparation for flight; but more generally, the Galileo programme itself has seen its timeline slip on a number of occasions, and has come close to being abandoned.

Europe has already spent 1.6bn euros ($2.5bn; £1.3bn) on the project and ministers have warned that the additional 3.4bn euros ($5.3bn; £2.7bn) recently approved for sat-nav investments will be the limit on expenditure.

GALILEO UNDER CONSTRUCTION A European Commission and European Space Agency project 30 satellites to be launched in batches by end of 2013 Will work alongside US GPS and Russian Glonass systems Promises real-time positioning down to less than a metre Guaranteed under all but most extreme circumstances Suitable for safety-critical roles where lives depend on service Q&A: Europe's Galileo project

Galileo is envisaged as being technologically complementary to GPS, and is touted as a key high-technology venture for the EU.

It is designed to improve substantially the availability and accuracy of timing signals delivered from space.

Users should get quicker, more reliable fixes and be able to locate their positions with an error of one metre compared with the current GPS error of several metres.

"One of the short-comings of GPS has been the ability to rely on it for safety-critical applications such as landing aircraft," said Richard Peckham from EADS Astrium.

"Galileo has a safety-of-life service which is basically an integrity, a monitoring service that checks the signal constantly. With this, we should be able to start relying on satellite navigation much more than we can today with GPS."

If all of the technologies in Giove-B work as predicted, engineers will be clear to launch the first four operational satellites in 2010.

Full capability has been set for the end of 2013.

Clintons' earnings exceed $100m

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and her husband, ex-President Bill Clinton, have revealed they earned more than $100m (£50m) in eight years.

Since 2000, the former first couple took in nearly $110m, with more than $20m made in 2007, and gave more than $10m to charity in the same period.

Almost half of the income was made from the former president's speeches.

Sen Clinton had been under pressure to release her returns since rival Barack Obama disclosed his for 2000-2006.

Both Sen Obama and John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, have said they will reveal their 2007 returns later this month.

Both Democratic candidates are keen to show they have nothing to hide from voters as they fight for their party's nomination, the BBC's Jack Izzard reports from Washington.

Many Americans will pore over these figures, which show just how much the Clintons are worth, he adds.

Lucrative books

"The Clintons have now made public 30 years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service," said Jay Carson, a Clinton campaign spokesman.

"None of Hillary Clinton's presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information."

The Clintons paid around $34m in taxes between 2000 and 2007, their returns show.

The last time the former first couple publicised their finances was in 2000 - the year they left the White House. In that year they reported a gross income of $416,000.

Since leaving office, though, Bill Clinton has given speeches around the world, as well as becoming involved in numerous business ventures.

He has also made $30m from his two books, My Life and Giving.

For her part, Mrs Clinton made more than $10m from her book Living History.

She donated all the proceeds from another work, It Takes a Village, to charity.

Although the New York senator revealed highlights of tax returns from 2007, she requested an extension for their full disclosure, citing the need for more information on a blind trust dissolved last year.

Beer distributor

Last week Mr Obama published seven years of tax returns on his website.

The data showed he earned nearly $1 million in 2006, nearly half of it coming from the publication of his second book, The Audacity of Hope.

In previous financial disclosures, Sen McCain has listed his primary sources of income as his Senate salary of $170,000 and his Naval pension of around $56,000.

Although Mr McCain's wife is heiress to a stake in Hensley & Co, one of the largest beer distributorships in the US - reportedly worth more than $100 million - a prenuptial agreement means most of her assets are kept in her name.

Bush praises Croatian democracy

Mr Bush praised Croatia for what he called its transition from communist tyranny to maturing democracy.

Mr Bush told the crowd Croatians should also be recognised for "helping the Afghan people defeat the terrorists and secure their future of liberty".

Mr Bush is due to fly to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin later on Saturday.

The meeting is the last in a series of scheduled talks between the two leaders.

Speaking in Zagreb, Mr Bush said Croatians had proved the value of fighting for democracy.

"There are many people who don't appear to understand why it takes so long to build a democracy. You can tell them how hard it is to put in place a new and complex system of government for the first time.

"There are those who actually wonder if people were better off under their old tyranny. You can tell them that freedom is the only real path to prosperity and security and peace."

Mr Bush flew to Croatia after a Nato summit in Romania and spent Friday in talks with its President, Stjepan Mesic.

Croatia and Albania have been invited to join Nato, though neighbouring Macedonia had its bid blocked because of an ongoing row with Greece - Macedonia is also the name of a region in Greece.

The BBC's Helen Fawkes in Zagreb said the transformation of Croatia sent out an important message to other countries in the Balkans.

Mr Bush's meeting with the Russian leader in the Black Sea resort of Sochi later on Saturday follows complaints by Mr Putin at the Bucharest summit against Nato's eastward expansion.

The former Soviet states of Georgia and Ukraine are seeking to become members of the security pact.

And, while the two countries were not offered a Membership Action Plan earlier this week, Nato did leave open the option of taking in the two countries.

Mr Putin leaves office next month, though he is expected to serve as prime minister under President-elect Dmitry Medvedev.

The Russian and American leaders are expected to discuss US plans to site a missile defence system in Eastern Europe.

Russia has strongly criticised the US proposals, which would see interceptor missiles based in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.

Nato countries agreed to back US plans to site a missile defence system in the two countries at the Bucharest summit.