News Archive - 17 March 2011

>MANAMA (Reuters) - Bahrainis prepared on Friday to bury an activist killed in a crackdown on mainly Shi'ite Muslim protesters that has angered Iran and raised tensions in the world's largest oil-exporting region. It was not clear if large numbers of people would turn out for the funeral of the...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday the world must make clear that Iran would face "credible military action" if sanctions do not shut down Tehran's disputed nuclear program. Netanyahu, in an interview on CNN, said it was clear Iran was pursing its nuclear ambitions despite...

In a move which has raised international concerns, Iran has successfully launched a new rocket capable of sending satellites and carrying living creatures into space. As Reuters is reporting, the new Kavoshgar-4 rocket was launched Tuesday, equipped with a capsule capable of containing living organisms, ahead of an eventual...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama visits Latin America this week to try to boost U.S. influence in the region after two years of wrestling with a more pressing domestic agenda and two foreign wars. Obama wants to boost trade to a fast-growing region and help jobs back home,...

>NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - An illustrated page from a rare 500-year-old manuscript detailing the early history of Persia is expected to sell for as much as $5 million when it auctioned for the first time in London next month. The exquisitely detailed work is one of 258 miniatures...

Dubai’s Total Arts Gallery and Teheran’s Aun Gallery have brought together a collection of contemporary Iranian art works in an exhibition titled ‘Unified in Diversity’ in Dubai. It is running at the Total Arts Gallery until March 24.

Master of Ceremonies Sean Balingit, who is the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce vice-president and Beaumont Planning Commission chairman, looks on as members of Tahquitz High School’s JROTC presents the colors at the opening ceremony of San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital’s 60th anniversary celebration.

SALT LAKE CITY — In the lull before the annual national hoop storm that began Thursday morning and will continue off and on through the next three weeks, Dave Ipaktchian, vice president of Iggy's Sports Grills, paused long enough to pay personal homage to the basketball madness of March.

Tehran, March 16 (KCNA) -- Exports of mining products grew 50 percent in the first 11 months of the current Iranian year in comparison with the same period last year.

N-fuel making devices headed for Iran seized in M'siaBy A. Ruban and Lourdes Charles in Kuala Lumpur/The Star/18 March 2011=

MANAMA: UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned Bahrain that its crackdown on anti-government protesters might be breaking international law after his human rights chief spoke of “shocking and illegal” abuses.

As Japan's nuclear meltdown puts the brakes on yet another power source, the world is looking at ME energy to fill the gap. Luckily, there is plenty coming on line, despite the region's shot-term problems.

Yet again, our leaders think they’ve got a calling to save a country in the Middle East.

Tickets are on sale for the mayor's interfaith prayer breakfast set for May 5 at the Embassy Suites, 1040 P St.

MANAMA, Friday 18 March 2011 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned Bahrain that its crackdown on anti-government protesters might be breaking international law after his human rights chief spoke of "shocking and illegal" abuses.

BRASÍLIA -- Two years ago, President Obama energetically reached out in London to shake the hand of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was then the president of Brazil. "Here's my man, right here," Mr. Obama said. "I love this guy. He's the most popular politician on earth."

United Auto Workers bargainers are coming to town next week to prepare for national contract talks later this year with Detroit's automakers. All you need to remember are three numbers:

London, Mar 18 : An aircraft created by scientists in Iran is, they claim, the world’s first flying saucer.

WASHINGTON, D.C. —U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) today released the following keynote speech as prepared for delivery for the 15 th Annual Border Issues Conference luncheon hosted by the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce , in conjunction with Congressman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) and the Congressional Border Caucus:

MANAMA, Bahrain -- Bahrain arrested six opposition leaders Thursday, kept the main hospital surrounded by troops and tanks and imposed a nighttime curfew on the center of its capital as it moved to the next stage of its crackdown on reform-seeking protesters, sending the political opposition into crisis.

CANBERRA, Australia - More than 200 rioters torched buildings and tried to escape a crowded Australian offshore detention centre in an escalation of protests there to gain asylum in the country, officials said Friday.

>SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold rose more than half a percent on Friday after equities markets regained strength and crude oil firmed on rising tensions in the Middle East and North Africa, but Japan's nuclear crisis could cap gains. Investors shifted their attention to Libya after the United Nations authorized military...

MANAMA, March 18 — Bahrain’s largest opposition group urged Saudi Arabia to withdraw its forces and called for a UN inquiry into a crackdown on mainly Shi’ite protesters that has angered Iran and raised tensions in the oil-exporting region. Bahrain arrested seven opposition leaders yesterday, a day after its forces...

Here's what you should be watching Friday, March 18.

MANAMA: Bahrain's largest opposition group urged Saudi Arabia to withdraw its forces and called for a UN inquiry into a crackdown on mainly Shi'ite protesters that has angered Iran and raised tensions in the oil-exporting region, reported Reuters .

DUBAI, Mar 17, 2011 (AFP) - The entry of Saudi and other Gulf forces into protest-hit Bahrain pushes an issue of local unrest towards a regional crisis, but is unlikely to cow protesters and may even galvanise them, analysts say.

Two young women from London, England are bicycling from England to Rayong to support HIV/AIDS prevention. They will arrive at the Camillian Social center Rayong on Sunday the 20th of March. Daniel Pruce, deputy head of the British Embassy, will be there to congratulate them on their achievement.

It was an idea for its times, an organization that has delivered aid to needy countries around the world while enriching the lives of volunteers who delivered it. The Peace Corps was born 50 years ago, when President John F. Kennedy signed it into life March 1, 1961. As a...

The Iranian Navy has dispatched its thirteen fleet of warships to the piracy-ridden waters of the Gulf of Aden in a bid to guard Iranian merchant containers and oil tankers.

Moody"s believes that the entry of Saudi troops into Bahrain, as part of a first contingent of security assistance provided by fellow members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), underlines the gravity of the political situation in Bahrain and a worrying geopolitical dimension to the region"s recent flare-up of unrest.

More than three decades into their career The Stranglers are easily the longest-surviving punk band to have come out of the 1970s, shifting more than 30 million records along the way - one of which was inspired by Norfolk. ROB GARRATT speaks to founding member JJ Burnel.

PORT KLANG : Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar yesterday confirmed that police recently detained a ship anchored at West Port here and seized two containers believed to contain weapons components.

Bahrainis will gather in the village of Sitra today to mourn the death of a protester, a day after Bahraini security forces arrested opposition leaders and accused them of having ties with foreign countries.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration’s new-found willingness to back aerial bombing to protect rebels cornered by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces may signal a critical turning point for the fledgling democracy movement in the Middle East.

A scientist is proposing a radical program of "assisted colonization" to save species endangered by climate change. He says the strategy is applicable across the world, and he suggests Britain as a potential haven for species such as the Iberian lynx, the Spanish Imperial Eagle, the Pyrenean Desman and the...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian police say a ship smuggling equipment that possibly could be used to make nuclear weapons had been headed to Iran. National police chief Ismail Omar told The Associated Press on Friday the Malaysian-registered ship was travelling from China to Tehran.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysian police say a ship smuggling equipment that possibly could be used to make nuclear weapons had been headed to Iran. National police chief Ismail Omar told The Associated Press on Friday the Malaysian-registered ship was traveling from China to Tehran. The cargo was seized two...

Although overshadowed by Japan’s woes and Libya’s war, the mayhem unfolding this week in the tiniest of Arab nations may pose the most serious threat of all to global security.

POLICE IN Malaysia said they had seized two containers possibly containing parts meant for producing weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads, from a ship bound for Iran.

Into March's quality wasteland at the multiplex comes this playful, provocative, literate European fable about artifice and middle-aged, second chances at romance.

MANAMA, March 17: Bahrain's largest opposition group urged Saudi Arabia to withdraw its forces and called for a...

A doll of whom got one company into hot water?

THE UN has warned of “shocking and illegal” abuses in Bahrain where the US-backed Sunni Muslim rulers are waging a bloody crackdown on Shi’ite-led protesters.

Associated Press, MANAMA, Bahrain — Bahrain’s king declared a three-month state of emergency Tuesday to quell a Shiite uprising, as clashes spread through the capital and surrounding villages in a showdown that drew in the region’s major powers and splintered along its main sectarian faultlines. At least two Bahrainis and...

MANAMA, March. 17-- Bahrain on Thursday slammed Iran's interference in its internal affairs after the latter communicated with international organizations expressing concern about the situation in the Kingdom.

Dr. Mohammad Shteyyeh is president of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PEDCAR) and holds the rank of minister.

MANAMA, March 17: Bahrain's largest opposition group urged Saudi Arabia to withdraw its forces and called for a U.N. inquiry into a crackdown on mainly Shi'ite protesters that has angered Iran and raised tensions in the oil-exporting region.

As I've stated elsewhere, we are a tech news blog, so humanitarian and political crises are not our bread and butter. That said, so much of the Jasmine Revolution has been augmented with social media that I think a brief (and insufficient) breakdown of what's happened in the last week...

Along came Miral and all the rules were broken. Because it involved Israel, and not nations with far more clout in the UN system, the protest fell on deaf ears.

Should the government continue with the plan to build two nuclear power plants?

The university association organized a Damascus event with the ‘inspiring’ wife of the Syrian President as keynote speaker

by Staff Writers Moscow (AFP) March 17, 2011 A US team may arrive in Russia next month to inspect the country's latest range of nuclear missiles under a new disarmament treaty signed by the two sides this year, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

About 130 Boeing employees in Huntsville and 90 at other sites across the country are receiving layoff notices today and Friday as the company adjusts to changes in the Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, for which it is prime contractor.

Muhammed Ali willing to travel to Iran to work on release. Few athletes have used their celebrity and influence the way that Muhammed Ali has. One of the most outspoken men of any generation, he is using whatever power he has within the nation of Islam to try and free...

The U.S. has lacked a coherent Latin American policy for the past decade, regional experts say, leaving a vacuum that China and other potential adversaries have filled by showering the area with attention, investment, arms and foreign aid. President Obama hopes to begin to change that over the next...

Want to know what happened on a Palestinian day of unity..?

One of the primary lessons the US learnt after the 9/11 attacks was that parts of its intelligence system did actually pick up signs of an impending terrorist attack, but there had been a failure to "connect the dots".

Usually the month-plus between our valuation deadline and your reading this billionaires issue doesn't see huge changes. This year a terrible earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.

Failed "color revolutions" expose the leaders for who they really are. During these delicate moments, international support is more -- not less -- justified.

NEW YORK—Japan's fast-moving nuclear crisis and more tensions in the oil-rich Gulf region and Libya pushed crude prices sharply higher Thursday.

MANAMA (Reuters) - Bahrain's largest opposition group urged Saudi Arabia to withdraw its forces and called for a U.N. inquiry into a crackdown on mainly Shi'ite protesters that has angered Iran and raised tensions in the oil-exporting region.

Britain's foreign secretary has urged Israel's defense minister to return to peace talks with Palestinians and voiced concern about settlement construction.

A series of high-profile events in 2010 and 2011 highlighted the increasing and multi-faceted threat of cyberattacks. These include the espionage hacks on Google and Western energy companies ( WSJ) , the Stuxnet ( VanityFair) infiltration of Iranian nuclear sites, and the targeting of government networks in South Korea (BBC) .

A convenience store manager in Nashville, Tenn. gets in a shootout with two men trying to rob his store. The gun battle was caught on store surveillance cameras.

- Group to donate 100 million yen (approx. NZ$1.8 million*) through the Red Cross - Chairman Chung sends condolence letters to Japanese business partners

Steve Coll The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom by Evgeny Morozov Marta Ramoneda/Polaris Wael Ghonim (center), the Egyptian Google executive who started the Facebook group ‘We Are All Khaled Said,’ at a protest in...

The policy people, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and economic advisor Gene Sperling, are arguing for a package of cuts and reform. They argue that it urgently needs to be done and that only a Democratic President can get it done.

Different shades and grades of maple syrup at Shaver-Hill Farm. The farm has three sugarbushes (or sugar maple groves); each sugarbush has 100 trees and 1,500 taps.

DUBAI, March 17 (Reuters) - Bahrain said on Thursday Iranian complaints to the United Nations over its crackdown on mainly Shi'ite Muslim protesters did not serve the security and stability of the Gulf region.

Jonas Gahr Støre What a road we have traveled to reach this point. Just a month or two ago, no one would have suggested that a popular uprising in Egypt would successfully topple one of the region’s longest-serving autocratic leaders. Now, many major newspapers and journals praise the courage of...

“We can no more do without spirituality than we can do without food, shelter or clothing.” — Ernest Holmes, American theologian (1887-1960) Since the 1960s, Yoko Ono has been inextricably linked with her late husband, legendary musician John Lennon. However, long before she met Lennon when he visited her...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered March 16 to go to the Gaza Strip for unity talks with his Hamas rivals. “I declare that I am ready to go to Gaza tomorrow to end the split and form a new government,” Abbas reportedly said in a speech to senior members of...

More and more experts are coming to the conclusion that non-Arab Africa will fall victim of revolutions. The delayed action mine planted by the Europeans during colonization will definitely have a cumulative effect on the whole of central Africa, Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Middle East Institute claims. In an...

Iran will increase oil and gas exploration activities in joint oilfields of Khorasan province, near the Iraqi border and in Persian Gulf next year (starting March 21, 2011), said Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Ahmad Ghalebani, as reported by PANA.

Israel intercepted a ship carrying a large delivery of weapons off the country’s Mediterranean coast on March 15, saying the weapons were sent by Iran and Syria for Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Bahrain's stock exchange and a few bank branches reopened Thursday, but business remained far from normal a day after soldiers and riot police overran an anti-government protest camp in the Gulf island kingdom.

Lula got Vince Cable. His successor gets Barack Obama. The UK business secretary visited former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva or Lula as he is popularly known last August on a mission to ...

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Hamas ordered its first radar systems from Iran. Copyrights 2008, Middle East Newsline. All rights reserved.

A former animal research technician pleads guilty in the 2009 killing of a Yale University graduate student. Raymond Clark III, 26, was accused of strangling 24-year-old Annie Le and stuffing her behind a wall.

For Purim this year, several Zionist groups have scheduled a megillah reading outside the office of Iran’s United Nations mission in New York, according to the Israeli news service Arutz Sheva.

(03-17) 10:48 PDT NEW YORK, (AP) -- Oil prices soared more than 3 percent, climbing back above $101 per barrel Thursday after a crackdown on protesters in Bahrain increased concerns that unrest there threatens to spread...

Senator Barbara Mikulski replied the letter of the U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) related to the killing of the American serviceman with a weapon “illegally provided to Iran by Armenia.”

Thursday 17 March 2011 Amnesty International has called for an investigation into reports that up to 14 people were killed in a disturbance in a jail near Tehran this week. Amnesty International has called for an investigation into reports that up to 14 people were killed in a disturbance in...

Libya warned on Thursday it could target all Mediterranean air and sea traffic in the case of foreign military intervention.

MANAMA, Bahrain – Bahrains Sunni monarchy detained at least seven prominent opposition activists Thursday, and Iran recalled its ambassador to protest the Gulf troops backing the government against the Shiite protests that forced martial law-style rule in the island nation.

election

Why is it that going to war is the only issue politicians can agree on? Yet again, our leaders think they've got a calling to save a country in the Middle East.

International rescue teams were working hard as recovery efforts continued in the wake of Japan's twin disasters of earthquake and tsunami. Snow and freezing temperatures were adding to the challenge of the crews and the misery of survivors.

> * Will act firmly to allow private investment in airports * Obama visit a recognition of Brazil's potential (Writes through, adds details) By Raymond Colitt BRASILIA, March 17 (Reuters) - President Dilma Rousseff vowed in an interview not to allow the specter of inflation to return to Brazil, saying...

NEW YORK Oil prices are climbing back around $100 per barrel after a crackdown on protesters in Bahrain increased tensions in a conflict that threatens to pull in OPEC heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran. Meanwhile, Japan is expected to boost imports of fossil fuels as the third-largest economy recovers from...

It's the eternal Latin American lament: The region's superpower neighbor either ignores it or pushes it around.

A West Des Moines clinic's ad campaign hits below the belt by urging sport fans to indulge in some alternative March madness: Have a vasectomy on Thursday or Friday then spend the weekend recovering while watching NCAA tournament basketball.

The Libyan army said it would halt operations from Sunday to allow rebels to lay down their arms and benefit from an amnesty, as the newly emboldened insurgents claimed they had shot down warplanes trying to bomb their bastion of Benghazi.

A run-in with angry “do-gooders” during an oilsands discussion panel at a writer’s festival fueled Ezra Levant’s interest in ethical oil.

The U.S. average for a gallon of regular no-lead remained at $3.55 Thursday, 2 cents higher than a week ago, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Head of Iran's Rescue and Relief Organization Mahmoud Mozaffar says Tehran is ready to dispatch humanitarian aid to Muslim nations in the region.

In addition to sending a letter to Iran’s supreme leader seeking the release of two American hikers, Muhammad Ali’s wife says the boxing champ is also willing to go there to help make it happen.

Several EU countries, including the UK and Malta, have issued travel warnings for their citizens not to go to Bahrain or to leave the island nation as quickly as possible.

Malaysian police said on Thursday that they have seized dismantled equipments that were meant for producing weapon of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads, from a vessel in the country's major port last week.

Iran has launched a rocket into space carrying a test capsule designed to house an animal, the official IRNA news agency said, amid Western concerns over Tehran's scientific advances.