China has moved into operational deployment of its planned system of positioning satellites, with the launch of the first such spacecraft without the label "experimental." The Apr. 14 launch of the Compass 1M satellite may turn out to be just as important for the country's hard-pressed civil air traffic management system as it will be for the People's Liberation Army's ambitions to avoid reliance on the Pentagon's GPS.

The U.S. advised its citizens Tuesday not to fly on Indonesian airlines, as Jakarta stepped up its threats against six carriers it says are deficient; if the six airlines don't shape up within three months, they'll be closed down, the government says. Following three serious accidents this year, the U.S. travel warning was based on an FAA decision to downgrade the agency's assessment of Indonesian safety oversight, which it says fails to comply with ICAO standards.

Indonesian police have arrested and charged the former chief of Garuda as an accessory to the murder of a human rights activist on one of airline's aircraft in 2004. The charge against former President-Director Indra Setiawan follows last year's successful appeal by the Garuda pilot convicted of the arsenic poisoning of activist Munir Saib Thalib, who had exposed human rights abuses by the Indonesian military. Rohainil Aini, secretary to Garuda's chief pilot, also was arrested and charged with assisting premeditated murder.