China’s Tianhe-1A supercomputer has been confirmed as the most powerful in the world.

Confirmation came with the publication of the latest list of the Top 500 supercomputers on the planet.

Tianhe-1A has a peak speed of 2.57 petaflops, far higher than the US XT5 Jaguar that can manage 1.76 petaflops.

The list also reveals significant changes in the technology used to power the machines and the nations hosting the most powerful ones.

Unconfirmed reports that Tianhe-1A would take the top spot on the list emerged in late October. Since then no other more powerful computers machines have emerged to knock it off the number one position.

Located at China’s National Supercomputer Centre in Tianjin much of the machine’s processing power comes from chips more typically found in graphics cards. It is expected to be doing simulations to help Chinese weather forecasts and to help with work to locate undersea oil fields.

Of the top four machines on the list, three are now largely built around graphics processors. By contrast the US Jaguar supercomputer that Tianhe-1A has pushed into second place is built around more traditional CPUs typically used in desktop computers.

The top seven supercomputers on the list can now all carry out at least one petaflop which is the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second.

The latest Top 500 list also reveals that the US is slipping down the rankings of supercomputer superpowers. Only five of the top ten machines are in the US, a change from other years in which American supercomputers have typically dominated the upper regions of the Top 500 list.

The US maintains its spot as the nation with the most supercomputers in the Top 500 list and China is now second. However, it has a long way to go to catch up as the US has 275 machines in the top 500 and China has only 42.

Muslims were biggest minority in Israel at end of 2009; birthrate stood at 3.7 children per woman, higher than in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt.

At the end of 2009, the Muslim population in Israel was estimated to be 1,286,000 people, an increase of 32,000 people from the end of 2008, according to new figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

Among Israel’s Muslims, 264,000 thousand (20.5 percent) live in Jerusalem, constituting over a third (34.2%) of all of the capital’s residents, and making it the largest community of Muslims living in Israel.

The second largest Muslim community in Israel was Rahat, with 51,600 Muslim residents, followed by Nazareth with 49,600, and Umm el-Fahm with 46,000.

By the end of 2009, the fertility rate (defined as the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime) among Israeli Muslims population stood at 3.7 children per woman, a decline from 4.7 children per woman in 2000, but still the highest  overall communal birthrate in Israel. The percentage also makes the birth rate among Israeli Muslims higher than those among Muslims in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.

The figures also show that the workforce participation among Muslims ages 15 and over in Israel in 2009 was 39.8%, 61% among men and 18% among women.

In terms of religiosity, 9% of Muslims define themselves as very religious, 51% as religious, 29% as not so religious, and 10% as not religious.

Regarding education, Muslim students in Israeli universities now account for 6.5% of all students in universities, compared to 3.1% in 1989. The figures show that Muslim university students in comparison to their Jewish counterparts are more likely to pursue studies in the medical fields and less likely to study engineering and architecture.

Thirty years ago, Israeli farmers faced a daunting choice – find a new water source or go under. Their solution was waste water recycling. Now climate change is presenting other nations with a similar choice.

With increased interest worldwide, Israel is marketing its waste water reuse technologies and has developed a billion-dollar industry by sharing systems and expertise.

Israel began confronting water scarcity when its main sources, the Sea of Galilee and two aquifers, became overtaxed and the population was growing. There was simply not enough water for agriculture.

“We had to adapt, and found what at the time was an unlikely solution,” said farmer Yaron Rot, who manages irrigation at Kibbutz Magen, an agricultural community in southern Israel.

They began irrigating their fields with recycled waste water from the drains of Tel Aviv.

At the time it was not discussed openly. Water treatment technology was not well-known and authorities feared the public would reject the idea of toilet water being used to grow food.

“Today, nearly half our irrigation comes from recycled waste water,” Rot said, making clear it was no easy achievement.

By the turn of the century, Israel was still the only country to recycle waste water extensively. Global warming means its neighbors will increasingly need to do the same.

Competition over shared water resources is a sensitive issue in Israel’s relations with the Palestinians and other Arab neighbors, tending to fuel more conflict than cooperation.

The United Nations, in its Human Development Report, classified the Middle East as the world’s most water-stressed region. Its climate modelling projects hotter temperatures and less rainfall in the future.

A separate UN report said the regulated use of treated water could reduce pressures.

“Israel demonstrates the potential,” it said, adding other nations were following the lead of a country that has also pioneered water-saving techniques such as drip irrigation.

World leader

Israel has made water recycling an integral part of daily life – even if many residents are not aware of it.

More than 80 percent of household waste water is recycled, amounting to 400 million cubic metres a year, the Environment Ministry says. That ratio is four times higher than in any other country, according to Israel’s water authority.

Treatment facilities remove contaminants to a level set by the Health Ministry and the water is then sent to farmers.

Businesses have thrived by developing the most efficient solutions, including an ultra-violet light purifier and a recycling system that uses millions of small plastic rings to breed bacteria and break down organic waste.

Exports of water-saving technologies total $1.5 billion a year, said Oded Distell, head of the government’s water technology programme.

“There are two reasons for the growth. Countries certainly expect the lack of water will increase. And water has taken on an economic value,” he said.

This year, Israel assembled a committee at the Swiss-based International Organisation for Standardization to formulate universal guidelines to reusing waste water in irrigation.

“There is great interest in the world because they understand the global shortages. It turns out there are many other countries suffering,” committee secretary Yaron Ben-Avi said.

He said the goal was to create a global standard in less than three years, with guidelines on how to build and maintain water recycling systems, how to avoid harming the environment and how to select which fruits and vegetables to grow.

Israeli legislators are drafting a bill that would require all new buildings to be able to recycle “grey water”, all household water waste except that from toilets.

A government study also recommended the creation of wetlands to help treat waste water naturally. Such systems have been described as the “earth’s kidneys” as they filter pollutants.

Israel has built a few dozen manmade wetlands that treat sewage from cowsheds, vineyards and army bases, but this remains an area where it lags behind Western countries, said Michal Green, an engineer at the Technion Institute of Technology.

Companies are showing more interest in constructed wetlands as an alternative to treatment plants, she said.

“They are non-energy intensive, they have lower maintenance costs and they are a more aesthetic option. I have no doubt they will catch on.”

Israel’s multi-layered air defense network will be fully deployed by 2015, combining short-range rocket interceptors with kamikaze satellites that blow up ballistic missiles in space, officials said on Monday.

Unveiled at a government-sponsored aerospace conference in Jerusalem, the production schedule corresponds to Israel’s assessment of when Iran might develop nuclear weaponry.

Should the Islamic republic get the bomb, that could embolden allies Syria and Lebanese and Palestinian guerrillas in their own fights against the Jewish state.

“In the next two to five years, we will turn this vision into a reality,” Colonel Zvika Haimovitch of the Israeli air defense corps said in a speech. “Within the coming five years, we will see this doctrine implemented.”

Spurred by Hezbollah salvoes in the 2006 Lebanon war, Israel developed Iron Dome, which shoots down rockets with ranges of 5 to 70 km. David’s Sling, an interceptor for more powerful rockets, should be ready by 2013, Haimovitch said.

The next tier of the shield is Israel’s Arrow interceptor, which has been operational for a decade and is designed to knock out Iranian or Syrian ballistic missiles at high altitudes.

An Arrow III upgrade will launch a booster-rigged satellite beyond Earth’s atmosphere to collide with the missile, said project director Yoav Turgeman of state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

“We are talking about hermetic protection,” Turgeman said. “Even if the new Arrow misses the incoming threat, it will be far enough from Israel’s borders to allow for a secondary interception.”

Turgeman said Arrow III, which like its predecessors is being underwritten by the United States, would be ready by 2014 or 2015. Its first live trial is expected in 2011. The projected cost of each interceptor missile is e2 million to e3 million.

Face off

Arrow III had previously been swathed in secrecy. Asked about the decision to go public with it at the International Aerospace Conference and Exhibition, an Israeli defense official said: “Everything was done with the full backing and initiative of the Defence Ministry, given the current state of affairs.”

He appeared to be referring to Iran’s uranium enrichment in defiance of international pressure to curb the process, which can produce fuel for bombs. Tehran says it is for energy only.

Though the Israelis have hinted they could attack Iran pre-emptively, there are big tactical and diplomatic hurdles.

The missile shield — which officials envisage patching in, when needed, to U.S. interceptors such as Aegis — suggests Israel is weighing a more defensive posture, girded with the deterrence offered by its own assumed atomic arsenal.

Among the advantages of Arrow III cited by Turgeman was that its interception of a nuclear missile would not produce toxic debris, as this would burn up on re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. Such planning is hard to reconcile with Israel’s vow, dating back decades, to deny its enemies access to nuclear weaponry.

Arrow veteran Uzi Rubin raised another possible disincentive to a pre-emptive Israeli attack now: retaliation by Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas guerrillas from Gaza.

In the absence of reliable air defenses, Rubin said in a speech, Israeli cities can be hit by as many as 13,000 rockets and missiles, some accurate to within 500 meters and carrying warheads with as much as a half-ton of explosives.

The greater Tel Aviv area alone could expect to suffer 1,500 strikes — enough to guarantee damage to military headquarters, paralyze the economy and gut morale. Dozens of Iraqi Scud missiles sowed chaos in Tel Aviv during the 1991 Gulf war.

Rubin said the face-off risked forcing a de facto parity on Israel, which has long relied on overwhelming force of arms to compensate for its geographical smallness and numerous foes.

“The enemy has achieved aerial supremacy without even having planes,” Rubin said.

* Hamas Admires Obama U.S. President Barack Obama’s tough stance towards Israel since he has taken office has apparently struck a chord with none other than Hamas.

* Palin: Jerusalem is Israel’s Capital – not a Settlement Sarah Palin told 85 GOP freshmen Congressmen in an open letter, “Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, not a settlement.”

* ‘Death to America and Israel’ Slogans at Muslim Hajj Pilgrimage Tens of thousands of Muslims chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” at the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

* Arab League Set to Reject Freeze, Waits for Better US Offers The Arab League is waiting to see if the Obama administration will offer it further inducements to entice the Palestinian Authority into direct talks.

* Israel missile defense to be completed by 2015 Israel’s planned multi-layered air defense network combines short-range rocket interceptors and kamikaze satellites that target ballistic missiles in space.

* Hizbullah takeover in Lebanon likely, Ashkenazi warns IDF chief of staff says publication of Hariri tribunal’s findings will likely lead to coup d’etat in Beirut.

* Aerospace Security Conference in Jerusalem A conference and exhibition on aerospace technological innovation is taking place at Jerusalem’s Binyanei Ha’Uma conference center this week.

* Arid Israel recycles waste water on grand scale Due to water scarcity in the region, Israel has become a global leader in water reuse technologies; more than 80 percent of household waste water is recycled.

* New CBS report: Muslims over a third of J’lem population Muslims were biggest minority in Israel at end of 2009; birthrate stood at 3.7 children per woman, higher than in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt.

* Israel ‘risks chaos without peace’, official warns The Palestinian leadership could fall apart without significant progress towards peace with Israel, which would be a major setback for Israel, a senior Israeli intelligence official has said.

EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has issued a stark warning against growing nationalism, populism and anti-democratic forces across the EU, suggesting that the threat to peace in Europe remains a key issue.

“We have together to fight the danger of a new euro-scepticism,” he said in a speech in Berlin on Tuesday night (9 November).

“This is no longer the monopoly of a few countries. In every member state, there are people who believe their country can survive alone in the globalised world,” he continued.

“It is more than an illusion: it is a lie!”

The president was speaking in the German capital on the Schicksalstag, or ‘fateful day,’ the anniversary of five pivotal events in the nation’s history: the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the fall of the monarchy in 1918, but also the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Kristallnacht in 1938 and the execution of a leader of the 1848 revolutions in the German states.

Quoting wartime US president Franklin Roosevelt, he said that the “biggest enemy of Europe today is fear,” and that this ultimately could lead to war.

“Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war,” he said. “Today’s nationalism is often not a positive feeling of pride of one’s own identity, but a negative feeling of apprehension of the others. Fear of ‘enemies’ within our borders and beyond our borders.”

“It is a feeling all over Europe, not of a majority, but everywhere present.”

In a wide-ranging speech, alighting on a range of aspects of the current state of the European Union, he cheered the day when the nations of the former Yugoslavia will join.

“To those who say that war is so far away in our past that peace cannot be a key issue in Europe anymore, that it does not appeal to the younger generations, I answer: just go out there [to the western Balkans] and ask the people there! And ask the young ones too!”

Beyond the EU’s economic and political structures, he said that Europe needed to look to its heritage, in particular, the values and virtues of Ancient Greece.

“To keep such European virtues alive, to transmit their age-old qualities to our children and grandchildren, that will be one of the great challenges for the future,” he said. “We have to be a union of values but also a union of civic virtues.”

He also touched on the current economic crisis, cheering the recent decision of European leaders to move towards common economic governance.

“One cannot maintain a monetary unity without an economic union,” he said, and went on to salute the “courage” of EU leaders in imposing austerity measures over the top of popular opposition.

“I, for one, have really been impressed over the last year by the political courage of our governments. All are taking deeply unpopular measures to reform the economy and their budgets, moreover, at a time of rising populism.

“Some heads of government do this while being confronted with opposition in parliament, with protest in the streets, with strikes on the workplace – or all of this together – and fully knowing they run a big risk of electoral defeat.

“And yet they push ahead. If this is not political courage, what is?”

He also went on to criticise the European Commission’s proposals for EU taxes. In October, the EU executive proposed a list of potential EU fund-raising mechanisms in an attempt to reduce the direct contributions national governments make to fund the workings of the bloc.

“I do not think that redesigning the way the EU get its revenue is a top priority,” he said, adding that the imposition of EU taxation would fall on some countries harder than others and that this would be unfair.

“The current system reflects as a rule the member states’ capacity to pay. Contributions are based on the gross national income and thus seen as fair … I am personally open to new ideas, but since most alternative sources of income would risk to hit member states unequally, this would weaken the fairness of the current system, its built-in solidarity.”

He did not however close the door completely on the idea. “So let’s be prudent, but let’s discuss it,” he said.