News Archive - 13 March 2011

>LONDON (Reuters) - By the time the outside world agrees on a response to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's bloody onslaught against a popular revolt, it could all be over. The advance of Gaddafi's better-armed forces, who seem to have shown little regard for civilians when storming in to retake rebel...

>MANAMA (Reuters) - Waves of protesters blocked a main thoroughfare to Bahrain Financial Harbour on Sunday, a major business district in the Gulf Arab banking center, facing off with police who fired clouds of tear gas and water cannon. In one of the most violent confrontations since the military killed...

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says it is ‘not right’ to compare the nation with countries rocked by political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa.

Watch Steve Forbes' interview with Donald Trump.

They resisted, were jailed and tortured and now political prisoners from Iran and Turkey express hope in the future through art.

Oil falls in New York to the lowest in two weeks amid concern Japan earthquake will limit demand in the world's third-largest economy.

BEIRUT : Supporters of outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri gathered Sunday for a mass rally marking the 2005 uprising that ended Syria's domination of Lebanon to demand the disarm of the Shiite armed group Hezbollah, the Daily Star newspaper reported.

The typical tourist in Asia used to be a young backpacker in need of a shower, but these days there are just as many older and retired people roaming the continent seeking its secrets.

The minarets and Turkish coffeehouses in this southern Serbian town are reminders of the Muslim empire that once shook Europe's foundations by pushing armies all the way to the gates of Vienna.

The Film File

MANAMA, Bahrain -- Thousands of anti-government demonstrators cut off Bahrain's financial center and drove back police trying to push them from the capital's central square -- shaking the tiny island kingdom Sunday with the most disruptive protests since calls for more freedom erupted a month ago.

There are also signs of sectarian strains, as Shiites clash with Sunnis at Bahrain University.

Mr Speaker. Mr President Pro Tempore . Distinguished Members of the Senate and the House. Distinguished Guests. Ladies and Gentlemen. I am the fourth Australian Prime Minister to address you here assembled. Like them, I take your invitation as a great honour.

An Iranian judiciary official said Sunday that Iran will hold another hearing session for three detained U.S. hikers on May 11, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran's Atomic Chief, Fereidoon Abbasi, said that Iran plans to export its nuclear materials and services to the global market, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

A senior Iranian military official has said that passive defense can be a strong barrier against possible threats and attacks of enemies.

Foulad of Khuzestan has blanked its crisis-hit host Peykan in the 26th week of the Iran Premier League (IPL) to sit on the sixth spot of the table.

President Obama’s upcoming trip to Latin America is an opportunity to forge a relationship based on new realities and a vision for the future.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or the ATF, is in the hot seat now because of its alleged investigative practices that have allowed thousands of illegally purchased firearms to be smuggled into Mexico by warring narco-trafficking organizations.

The catastrophic effects of last week’s earthquake in Japan has accentuated the need in every country to anticipate disaster, reaffirmed the dangers of tsunamis and brought back deep concerns about nuclear safety.

Oil exporting countries are cutting holdings of U.S. government debt as energy prices rise, helping depress the dollar, the worst performing major currency of the past six months.

Mikhail Simonov was an aircraft designer whose innovative planes placed the Soviet Union at the forefront of aerial warfare.

Iran are set to take part in next year's London Olympics despite a bizarre complaint to the International Olympics Committee that they believed the Games' logo spelt "Zion."

Beirut— Tens of thousands of supporters of Lebanon's pro-Western opposition thronged downtown Beirut today, demanding that the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah give up its weapons.

Your leading article of 11 March says "Lord Hutton's notion of a 59-year-old firefighter is problematic" – but since 2006, all new entrants to the operational side of the fire service have to work until they are 60.

Not driving her car as often and buying less groceries are two lifestyle changes Mary Wenninger of Lake City has implemented to compensate for steeply climbing gasoline prices.

Tehran, Iran— The Irani government says a second session in the trial of three Americans accused of spying will be held May 11.

Iran said it will attend the 2012 Olympics in London despite its protest of the Games' logo, which it says spells the word Zion.

STAR-LEDGER FILE PHOTOJoe Morello performing at the 15th Annual Riverfest and Food and Jazz Festival at the Marine Park in Red Bank in 1996. TRENTON, N.J. — Legendary jazz drummer Joe Morello, whose virtuosity and command of odd time signatures...

Thousands of anti-government demonstrators cut off Bahrain's financial centre and drove back police trying to push them from the capital's central square - shaking the tiny island kingdom Sunday with the most disruptive protests since calls for more freedom erupted a month ago. 

Yemeni police firing from rooftops wounded more than 100 in a protesters' camp Sunday and anti-government demonstrators paralyzed Bahrain's capital as unrest deepened in two of Washington's most critical allies...

(AP:MANAMA, Bahrain) Thousands of anti-government demonstrators cut off Bahrain's financial center and drove back police trying to push them from the capital's central square _ shaking the tiny island kingdom Sunday with the most disruptive protests since calls for more freedom erupted a month ago.

I repeat, there was and will *not* be any significant release of radioactivity from the damaged Japanese reactors.

Bahraini police have clashed with demonstrators trying to occupy Manama's banking centre, as protests spread to the heart of the business district.

>"The next trial session of three Americans who have been charged by espionage will be held on May 11 in Tehran's revolutionary and general court," Alireza Avaiee, head of Tehran's prosecutor's office told IRNA.Avaiee said the trial, unusually, may be held in public.Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah...

>PARIS (Reuters) - The earthquake disaster in Japan looks set to dominate a Group of Eight foreign ministers meeting this week in Paris as members discuss ways to coordinate help for the only Asian country in the group. The crisis over Libya will also be a key issue, with the...

>Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with members of Bahrain's ruling Sunni al-Khalifa family, facing a growing challenge from their country's disgruntled Shi'ite minority.Recent clashes with security forces, which have killed seven people, have revealed the depth of the sectarian rift in Bahrain, home to a major U.S. naval...

Iran's Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi says elements affiliated with the “sedition” movement were involved in the assassination of two Iranian nuclear scientists.

TEHRAN, Mar. 13 (MNA) – The Iranian ministry of Energy announced that it will sign tomorrow a contract with the Chinese side to finance the construction of Bakhtiari Dam.

Supporters of the rulers of Bahrain threatened about 5,000 university students protesting against the government at Bahrain University Sunday, eyewitnesses said.

TEHRAN, March 13 (MNA) – Iranian naval forces have seized a Tanzanian tanker which was attempting to smuggle fuel out of Iran.

TEHRAN, Mar. 13 (MNA) – The deputy director of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran said that the country aims at $45 billion worth of non-oil exports in the new Iranian calendar year (to start March 21).

March Madness, Orphan Annie, Julie Taymor, Mr. T, and more...

Bill was out of work for more than a year before he and his wife turned to the Women and Family Life Center in Guilford for help in 2010.

BEIRUT (AP) — Tens of thousands of Lebanese filled a central Beirut square Sunday to mark the 2005 protests that ended Syria's 30-year domination of the country and to demand that the militant group Hezbollah, seen as a proxy of Syria, give up its weapons.

One of the frustrations of communicating nuclear science is a general lack of understanding of radiation. We are all surrounded by radiation, so hearing that someone has been exposed to radiation could be as trivial as meaning they have eaten a banana, or as serious as Japan’s worst civilian radiation...

Bahraini police on Sunday clashed with demonstrators trying to occupy Manama's banking centre, as protests spread from a peaceful sit-in to the heart of the strategic Gulf state's business district.

>The government said a building housing one reactor was at risk of exploding after a blast blew the roof off the first the day before at the complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.The fear is that if the fuel rods do not cool, they could melt the...

>SENDAI, Japan (Reuters) - A wrecked airplane lies nose-deep in splintered wood from homes in the port city of Sendai. About an hour's drive away, workers in white masks and protective clothing scan thousands of people for radiation. Two days after a ferocious earthquake and tsunami submerged Japan's northeast coast,...

>LONDON (Reuters) - Frantic efforts in Japan to cool three nuclear reactors may avert a collapse of the radioactive cores and a more costly clean-up, but there is no risk of an extensive radiation leak, a top UK academic said. Engineers fought on Sunday to avert a meltdown at earthquake-crippled...

>AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's troops seized the strategic Libyan oil town of Brega Sunday forcing rebels to retreat under a heavy bombardment while world powers considered imposing a no-fly zone. Losing Brega and its refinery further limits rebel access to fuel after the insurgents were pushed out of...