News Archive - 9 February 2011

> The deal also marks China's third acquisition of a shale gas play after CNOOC Ltd's (0883.HK) twin deals with U.S. firm Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK.N). China's state energy firms have since 2010 embarked on a spree of gas asset buys to fuel a domestic boom that...

By Richard Yeakley Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) A delegation of Baha'is is making the rounds in Washington in an effort to raise awareness of the treatment and imprisonment of more than 50 Baha'is in Iran, including seven top leaders of the Iranian Baha'i community. Iraj Kamalabadi, a Southern...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Egypt must do more to meet protesters' demands for political change, the United States said on Wednesday in a sharp escalation of rhetoric with one of its most important allies in the Middle East. Washington is waiting for "real, concrete" moves to speed the transition, White House...

>Here are some details about shipping around the region:* STRAIT OF HORMUZ/ARABIAN SEA/GULF OF OMAN:-- A narrow bend of water separating Oman and Iran. It connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.-- At its narrowest point, the...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak began meetings in Washington on Wednesday as the two allies weighed the impact of Egypt's political crisis on stability in the Middle East. Barak was due to meet Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Thomas Donilon, President Barack...

>KABUL (Reuters) - Through a blue gate, they come for treatment in the early morning, faces wrapped in scarves against the cold. For now it's a trickle, but their numbers are rising. "I try to keep it secret, especially from my mother," said a 26-year-old HIV patient at a foreign-run...

Berlin, Feb 10 : There were victories for some of football's big guns Wednesday in international friendlies as Argentina, Netherlands, France, Spain and England all won their games.

Emirates will operate the first A380 service to Kuwait this month, in honour of the country's National Day.

Top U.S. officials on Wednesday stressed the U.S. "unshakable commitment" to Israel's security amid chaos in Egypt.

TEHRAN - Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi said that the ministry will invest $150 billion in the oil and gas industry during the Fifth Five Year Development Plan (2010-2015).

Turkish President Abdullah Gul is set to arrive in Iran with a delegation of 300 people, including 135 officials and more than 100 businessmen.

KIEV, Ukraine, Feb 10 (Bernama) -- Russia is actively working to participate in the construction of nuclear power plants in Egypt, Jordan, Bangladesh and other countries, First Vice President of Atomstroiexport Alexander Dybov told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency after signing a contract with Ukraine's Energoatom on designing reactors for nuclear...

NORRISTOWN – Currently a magisterial district court judge in Lower Merion, Henry J. Schireson believes his 30-year legal career has prepared him well for a move to the Montgomery County bench.

With the end of the Cold War and the coming of George W. Bush, America set aside a national interest-based foreign policy for a policy rooted in ideology, political religion. Not until the world is democratic, said Bush, can America be secure. Comes now the acid test of democratist ideology:...

Kolkata, Feb 9 : India are clubbed with Uzbekistan and Bangladesh in Group B at the FIFA Women’s Olympic Football Tournament, 2012 for Asian teams' qualifying rounds beginning March.

Where was the support, the outrage and the media on behalf of the Iranian protestors in 2009? That missed opportunity held the promise of removing a totalitarian Islamic regime in a country with some openness to democracy.

Now is time for prudence, context in Egypt

It’s might be a special Middle East domino effect, pieces that fall one by one, all rigidly American and Western allies, that have long been nurtured into a special relationship based on mutual interests.

TEHRAN, Feb 10 (Bernama) - The Iranian minister of energy said Iran has reached self-sufficiency in the electricity industry and is currently constructing huge water and power projects in many countries of the world, Iran's Mehr News Agency (MNA) reported.

The transition now underway in Egypt confirms John Kenneth Galbraith's famous appraisal of politics as a choice between "the disastrous and the unpalatable."

China doesn't want to steal American energy, just develop it faster.

Two days of clashes between police and protesters in the south of Egypt have left five dead and 100 injured, as Egypt’s new Vice President Omar Suleiman stressed the importance of holding dialogues with opposition groups to avoid a military coup d’état and ensure an orderly political transition

Washington, Feb 10 (PTI) Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak held intense discussions on the latest developments in Egypt along with other bilateral issues with top Obama Administration officials, the White House said.

Washington (AFP) Feb 8, 2011 US and French defense leaders penned a cooperation agreement on Tuesday designed to help track space debris and avoid collisions of vital satellites. The accord reflects a new US space security policy that calls for forging an alliance of foreign partners to save costs and...

“A lot has changed in Egypt, just within the period of the last week,” Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, told journalists on a conference call. “We believe it can never go back to being the way it was.”

Iranian Ambassador to Dushanbe Ali Asghar Sherdoust says Iran plans to set up a cement plant worth more than 500 million dollars in Tajikistan.

United Nations (AFP) Feb 8, 2011 The European Union is considering lifting a travel ban on Iran's new foreign minister to boost hopes for a nuclear accord, officials said Tuesday. Ali Akbar Salehi, a former head of Iran's atomic program who became foreign minister last month, is one of a...

The purely authoritarian regimes in the Middle East can loosely be classified into two categories: monarchies and republics. If you want to know who will be most likely to follow the path of Ben Ali and Mubarak, look at the republics.

There were varied results for the big guns on a massive night of internationals highlighted by Lionel Messi's late winner against Portugal, Brazil falling to defeat in France, while Germany’s winless streak against Italy continued.

Beware the Muslim Brotherhood

Mobile Active Defense (MAD) Partners promises to make your life dealing with mobile devices easier.

The House Foreign Relations Committee is chock full of Florida lawmakers, a reflection of the state delegation’s diversity.

Messi scored in Argentina's 2-1 win over Portugal but Brazil lost 1-0 to France.

Huntsville, AL -- In 1979, life was good for the German family of Rockville, Maryland. Marge and Bruce German were contentedly married. Their children, Debbie, Matt and Chris, were happy and healthy. Then, on the morning of November 4th, their lives were forever changed.

What happens when a caller confronts Rush Limbaugh with the Gipper's actual record?

WASHINGTON — Three years ago, Egyptian officials assured U.S. diplomats that they were doing their best to strangle supplies to the Gaza Strip after Hamas militants seized control of the territory, but they couldn't be seen as helping the Israeli blockade.

Listen to the Audio KWAME HOLMAN: Iran issued a warning today, as opposition groups planned a Monday rally supporting protesters in Egypt. The state prosecutor said, the people of Iran are vigilant, and if necessary, they will respond. Instead, he said people should attend an officially sanctioned rally this Friday.

Lionel Messi won his personal duel with his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo lighting up Argentina's 2-1 win over Portugal by making one goal and scoring the winner in a lively friendly international in Geneva Wednesday.

BERLIN (AFP) - "True Grit", an Oscar-nominated remake of the classic western, on Thursday kicks off the 61st Berlin film festival, a 10-day extravaganza of glitzy entertainment and explosive political fare.

NATO named on Wednesday the British ambassador to Iran, Simon Gass, as its new top civilian envoy in Afghanistan, replacing his fellow countryman Mark Sedwill.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both scored in the duel between the two most recent World Players of the Year last night, but it was the Barcelona striker who had the last laugh when his 89th-minute penalty gave Argentina a 2-1 win over Portugal in Geneva.

London - Lionel Messi won his personal dual with his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo, lighting up Argentina's 2-1 win over Portugal by making one goal and scoring the winner in a lively friendly international in Geneva on Wednesday.

AIKEN -- Transitions into democracy can be messy, Tom Wood advised.

The Caspian Sea littoral states on Wednesday agreed to formulate a regional working protocol on security cooperation. The agreement came during discussions that were held as a follow-up to last November's Caspian States Summit also held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

As with other civil struggles, a nonviolent movement can ebb and flow. There may have to be tactical retreats, times for resetting of strategy, or a focus on negotiations, before broader operations that capture the world's attention resume.

Viet Nam's women's football team will start its FIFA Women's Olympic Football Tournament 2012 qualifying campaign next month.

Coptic Christians in America, with the support of other Americans, are concerned for their counterparts living in Egypt. Also in danger could be people of other faiths, including Muslims of unpopular sects.

As I write this commentary, many courageous human rights activists that I’ve met in my research on the pro-democracy movement in Egypt are being beaten and detained — not just in Tahrir Square, but in their offices and homes.

Statler and Waldorf were the two characters in The Muppet Show who used to sit in the balcony of the theatre making old-man comments that contradicted each other and showed they had picked up the wrong end of the stick about what was happening on stage. That's Europe, with its...

Iran has opened its 11th school in neighboring Iraq, vowing more projects will become operational in the war-torn country in the next months.

Douthat: Meet Obama the realist

Saeed Malekpour sentenced to death after allegedly confessing under torture A 35-year-old Iranian web programmer is facing imminent execution in connection with developing and promoting porn websites, charges that his family insist are trumped up. Saeed Malekpour, a permanent resident of Canada who was arrested in October 2008 after his...

Brazil was the highest ranked team to fall on Wednesday, losing in Paris to a France side that continues to improve on last summer's World Cup disappointment. But while the Selecao were the biggest giants to fall, their fall was not the most surprising, with Slovakia losing to UEFA minnows...

MADRID, Spain: David Silva scored just four minutes from full time on Wednesday to earn Spain a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Colombia and end the world champions' embarrassing streak of winless friendlies.

If, as many people seem to expect, Israel's national team coach Luis Fernandez loses his job after last night's 2-0 home defeat to Serbia, he could become the first coach to have his career sniped by friendly fire.

A scene from a nameless Cairo street in a chaotic, Manichean battle. Stones are flying amid scattered debris. Pro-Mubarak forces advance. A shot zings across the space between two ideals and a youth falls in a dead heap. Probably one of the reported 300-plus Egyptians to be sacrificed by the...

Ecstatic crowds in Cairo prove there is no clash of civilisations – everyone wants freedom. The question is, how to get it? 'No one predicted this, but everyone could explain it afterwards." Said of another revolution, as true of this one. "To be honest, we thought we'd last about...

A blindfolded Robert Tait could only listen as fellow captives were electrocuted and beaten by Mubarak's security services The sickening, rapid click-click-clicking of the electrocuting device sounded like an angry rattlesnake as it passed within inches of my face. Then came a scream of agony, followed by a pitiful whimpering...

Iran has disappointed Russia in a friendly football match, as Mohammed Reza Khalatbari scored the only goal of the match at the penultimate.

CAIRO — Just when you think the Egyptian uprising is dying down, more Egyptians than ever waited in long lines Tuesday to get into Tahrir Square to ask President Hosni Mubarak’s regime to go.One reason the lines get so long is that everyone has to funnel through a single...

SLIP into Librerías del Sur, a chain of state bookstores. Read a state newspaper. Turn on state television. Listen to state radio. Eva Golinger, a New Yorker who speaks Spanish with a thick American accent, seems to be expounding everywhere these days on the threats to this countryâs so-called âBolivarian...

England overcame a stuttering start to edge out Denmark 2-1 in Copenhagen on Wednesday with Aston Villa pair Darren Bent and Ashley Young cancelling out an early effort from Liverpool's Daniel Agger.

TALLINN - Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves participated in the Munich Security Conference in Germany, one of the most influential annual European security and foreign policy conferences.

Director Jafar Panahi is facing six years in prison in his native Iran, where the regime feels threatened by his films such as 2006's "Offside".

>Following are the 22 films in the main competition lineup, along with the production countries, the name of the director and the names of major stars. Six are not in the running for awards.- True Grit (United States) by Joel and Ethan Coen. *- The Turin Horse (Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland/U.S.

Zinat Pirzadeh left Iran for Sweden almost 19 years ago, fleeing from oppression, arranged marriage

There are a lot of unhappy Iranian lovers. Iran not only executes one of its citizens every eight hours, Cupid now has been shot down. St. Valentine s Day, next Monday, has been outlawed with jail time threatened for disobedience.

Members of Egypt's Coptic Christian community gathered near Alexandria Wednesday to commemorate the deaths of 21 people in a recent suicide bombing. They say such attacks, and rising tensions between Muslims and Christians, make many nervous about the popular attempts to oust President Mubarak and his regime.

ABUJA, Nigeria - Iran's ambassador to Nigeria said Wednesday that a Gambia-bound arms shipment seized at Nigeria's busiest port three months ago did not breach sanctions imposed by the United Nations.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Reza Aslan, a professor of creative writing at UC Riverside,will ask "Has America Become Islamophobic?" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23 at the Culver Center of the Arts, 3834 Main St., Riverside.

At 46, and a follower of current events since I was a young paper boy in the mid-1970s in northern Bergen County, N.J., I remember about eight U.S. presidents.

International friendly results on Wednesday (* denotes new result). * France 1 Brazil 0 * Argentina 2 Portugal 1 Germany 1 Italy 1 Scotland 3 N. Ireland 0 Poland 1 Norway 0 Netherlands 3 Austria 1 Malta 0 Switzerland 0 Belgium 1 Finland 1 Denmark 1 England 2 Luxembourg 2...

Understanding the Egyptian uprising

Since the Egyptian uprising began, Iran's opposition figures inside and outside the country have looked to the streets of Cairo with admiration and regret. Who would have thought it would be the Egyptians capable of forcing concessions -- however limited they might be at this stage- from their authoritarian...

Less than half of Americans (45%) say what happens in Egypt is vitally important to the U.S., putting Egypt 9 th out of 12 countries Gallup asked Americans to rate on this dimension. China ranks first by a wide margin, with 7 in 10 Americans saying what happens...

In its 2,400-year history, the tradition of camel wrestling in Turkey has seen many winners and losers. But owner Ismail Egilmez had reason this year to celebrate a totally new kind of triumph. His beloved camel had just won the first-ever beauty pageant of its kind.

Pictures (from left) of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are displayed during Iran’s Hi-Tech Expo opening at the Fairgrounds, near Damascus yesterday.

Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani has described the recent popular movements in the region as the result of "humiliation of Muslim nations."

The explosion at the end of January 2011 in Egypt is raising huge identity crises for Jews. And it should be. It is not news to say that Jews are divided.

Three near-simultaneous car bombs yesterday killed at least eight people in the ethnically-divided northern city of Kirkuk, attacks blamed on Sunni militant group Ansar Al-Islam.

Thursday, February 10th, 2011 12:04:00 ABU DHABI: Mohammad Reza Khalatbari scored a last-minute winner then got sent off for celebrating as Iran stunned Russia 1-0 in a scrappy friendly this morning. With former Portugal and Real Madrid manager Carlos Queiroz watching, Khalatbari sprung the offside trap before evading two Russian...

Tehran (UPI) Feb 9, 2011 Tehran announced that it is mass-producing ballistic missiles that can travel three times the speed of sound and hit naval targets on the high seas. Cmdr. Mohammad Ali Jafari, who heads the elite military force, the Revolutionary Guards, said the missile had a range of...

AFP/Tehran The Revolutionary Guards yesterday warned opposition leaders not to stage a rally after the anniversary of Iran’s Islamic revolution, as a top official said the planned event aimed to sow division.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO appointed Britain's current ambassador to Iran as its new civilian representative in Kabul on Wednesday.

HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) - Israel and Arab states have a common interest in containing nuclear Iran and that has not been affected by protests in Egypt against President Hosni Mubarak, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday.

Malise Ruthven Gustave Doré: Mohammed (1861) More than five years after Danish artist Kurt Westergaard published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, lives continue to be lost and—if we are to believe the police and intelligence agencies of dozens of countries—assassinations are still being attempted and plotted because Muslims have...

Russia 0-1 Iran Dick Advocaat's side suffered defeat in their opening friendly of 2011, Mohammad Khalatbari striking a late blow before being sent off.

As tension rises on the streets of Cairo and other cities in Egypt, speculation and anxiety has also been increasing in Iran. The people of the two nations, which had been so close for ages, were ripped apart when a revolution took place in Iran and an Islamic regime...

Since the Tunisian and Egyptian democracy uprisings, there's little doubt that Middle Eastern leaders have been scrambling. From Damascus to Tripoli, many are scratching their heads, wondering, Exactly how much political reform does it take to make myself look genuinely committed to the democratic process, while maintaining a firm...

Prison conditions are worsening for seven leaders of Iran's Bahai community who are staying in cramped cells with poor sanitation alongside common criminals, US-based relatives said Wednesday.

MNA- Juybar wrestling team claimed the title of Iran’s Freestyle Wrestling Championship on Tuesday. Juybar wrestling team defeated host Naft of Tehran 4-3 at the Hafte Tir Hall and stood on the podium.

ABU DHABI [MENL] -- Iran and Oman have conducted formal military cooperation talks as well as a naval exercise. Copyrights 2008, Middle East Newsline.

Iran says that the Gambia-bound arms shipment seized at Nigeria's busiest port three months ago did not breach sanctions imposed by the United Nations.

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iran has reported the development of indigenous telecommunications and research satellites. Copyrights 2008, Middle East Newsline. All rights reserved.

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iran has inaugurated what officials asserted was the largest oil refinery in the Middle East. Copyrights 2008, Middle East Newsline.

Some of America's Mideast allies have been pressing the Obama administration to go easy on Egypt's embattled leader and allow for a gradual transition of power.

>The possibility of Mubarak falling to a more than two-week-old popular revolt has set off jitters in Israel, which sees Cairo as an important bulwark for Middle East powers that fear Tehran's ascendancy and nuclear programme.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of an Iran-style Islamist revolution in Egypt...

Keeping with the low-profile it has adopted in Egypt's uprising, the Muslim Brotherhood said Wednesday it wants to promote democracy but does not intend to field a candidate for president.

DGAP-News: Petro Novus AG / Key word(s): AgreementPetro Novus Concludes Agreement to Acquire 50% of PetroleumExploration and Production Sharing Agreement in the Republic ofArmenia09.02.2011 / 17:40Petro Novus Concludes Agreement to Acquire 50% of …

“Times have passed when Iran-residing Turkic people saw their futures in unification with Azerbaijan,” the expert believes.