111.   Two vehicles were seen leaving the launch site, but Afghan military forces that followed them quickly lost contact.

112.   First indications at the Kourou space centre launch site in French Guiana were that technicians would have to replace seals on the feed line.

113.   In Tokyo a spokesman for the Japanese National Space Development Agency, Hideo Hasegawa, said Kiribati was one of several foreign candidates for the launch site.

114.   Interfax said the launch site was due to start fuelling the power plant of the spacecraft Resurs Monday.

115.   Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships blasted suspected Katyusha launch sites in south Lebanon on Tuesday after Hezbollah guerrillas rained rockets on northern Israel, security sources said.

116.   A four-stage rocket effortlessly lifted the space probe high into the clear night sky, judging from a live television transmission from the Central Asian launch site.

117.   A general strike called for Wednesday cut off electric power to hotels in Kourou but the launch site runs its own power supply.

118.   China interrupted its space programme for nearly four months after the rocket crashed near the Xinchang launch site in the western province of Sichuan.

119.   China interrupted its space programme for nearly four months after the rocket crashed near the Xichang launch site in the western province of Sichuan.

120.   The planned launch of the first five satellites of the Iridium telecommunications network has been delayed because of high winds at a California launch site, the company said.