Archive for February, 2010
Madeira flash floods: Death toll rises to 42
The death toll in flash floods on the Portuguese holiday island of Madeira rose to at least 42 as search teams began digging for survivors and environmentalists blamed greed and overbuilding for the scale of the tragedy.
Army and police rescue teams from mainland Portugal started sifting through mud and debris left behind by flooding and mudslides after a torrential storm ravaged the island on Saturday.
Authorities warned that the death toll in the island’s worst tragedy for a century would increase as rescuers traveled to towns and villages cut off by floods and rockfalls. Several villages remained inaccessible yesterday and telephone services were still cut in some areas.
More than 120 people, including visiting tourists, were injured and an unknown number of others were missing, possibly swept away or smothered. guardian.uk.
Arabian Gulf: 2 words that can get you fired in Iran
Here are two words that will cost you your job in Iran: “Arabian Gulf.”
Iranians take seriously their claim that the body of water separating them from the Arabian Peninsula should be called the Persian Gulf, and not the Arabian Gulf, as people in the Arab world call it.
A Greek flight attendant for the Iranian-owned Kish Air learned this lesson the hard way.
He was fired, according to Iranian media, after he allegedly traded words with passengers who complained against the use of the phrase “Arabian Gulf” on a plane’s in-flight monitors.
Iranian officials have reprimanded the airline and deported the flight attendant. LAT.
Israel Heron TP drones ‘could target Iran’
Israel’s air force has unveiled a fleet of unmanned aircraft that its says are able to reach the Gulf, putting Iran within range.
The Heron TP drones, which have a wingspan the size of a Boeing 737 passenger jet, were presented to the media on Sunday, as Israel pushes for international action against the Islamic republic over its nuclear program.
The aircraft, developed by the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, can fly at least 20 consecutive hours and be used for surveillance or launching a missile attack.
“I can tell you, it can do a lot of missions. It can do some special missions, unique missions that no other UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] can do,” Lieutenant Colonel Eyal Asenheim, a drone operator, told The Associated Press news agency.
Brigadier General Amikam Norkin, the head of the base that will operate the drones, said: “With the inauguration of the Heron TP, we are realizing the air force’s dream. Aljazeera
Lowering voting age to 18: Jumblatt-yes, Aoun-no
MP Alain Aoun a member of the Change and Reform bloc which is headed by General Michel Aoun told LBC television that their bloc will not vote for lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 at Monday’s Parliament session.
“All doors to find a way out of this issue are closed. However, we will not cripple the legislative work,” Aoun said
On the other hand Democratic Gathering bloc which is headed by MP Walid Jumblatt will vote for lowering the voting age.
Both the Lebanese Forces and Lebanon First blocs will insist on linking the lowering of voting age to the voting of Lebanese abroad otherwise they will abstain from voting.
LBCI television on Sunday quoted a source close to Speaker Nabih Berri as saying that MPs during Monday’s parliamentary session will only have two choices.. yes or no vote on lowering the voting age from 21 to 18…
In other words Berri will not be linking the lowering of voting age to the voting of Lebanese abroad
Houri: Voting age issue should be linked to vote of Lebanese abroad
During an interview with LBCI television on Sunday , MP, Ammar Houri , a key member of Lebanon First said the vote of his block for amending voting age from 21 to 18 will be linked to granting the Lebanese abroad the right to vote from their countries of residence by 2013 otherwise he said his block will abstain from voting .
Houri added that during the a parliamentary session in March 2009 the 2 issues were linked together
Hariri: peace, stability and security only way to fight terrorism
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in an interview published Sunday :”The only way to fight extremism is through peace, stability and security.”
Hariri stressed that he did not go to Damascus to build a relationship with Syrian President Bashar Assad, but with the Syrians.
Hariri pointed to Italy’s “vital role” in Lebanon and expressed hope that Rome would not cut the number of troops working among the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon ( UNIFIL).
“We hope Italy would not reduce the number of its troops nor would it change its policy” toward Lebanon, Hariri said.
He wondered why Christians and other people are emigrating .
“It’s because there is no peace, security or stability,” Hariri answered himself, noting the presence of 1 million Iraqi refugees in Syria and at least 500,000 others in Jordan.
“The problem with the Christians,” Hariri explained, “is that they are a small community, and they feel they have to leave.”
Turning to Lebanon, Hariri stressed that Christian-Muslim equity will “stay forever.”
Regarding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Hariri said the STL did not lose momentum.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his family pictured with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State
Lebanese press freedom takes hits: IPI report
Press freedom is suffering in Lebanon, despite a modicum of maneuverability allowed by the law and the government’s non-interference with journalists
French PM raises human rights concerns with Syria
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said he held “frank and direct” talks with Syria’s president on the issue of human rights, days after the trial of a Syrian lawyer who championed the cause of political prisoners.
France has led European moves to help Syria emerge from diplomatic isolation, though Syrian authorities have intensified arrests of politicians and others calling for democracy.
“Yesterday I exchanged views with President (Bashar al-) Assad on human rights. The discussion was frank and direct,” Fillon said in the Syrian capital on Saturday.
“Our dialogue with the Syrian authorities … permits us to open all the subjects on which we have different views,” said Fillon, who signed economic deals and other agreements. Click on Reuters to read full report
US Fed agents say men funded terror with Playstations
Federal agents have charged three Miami businessmen with conspiring to smuggle videogame consoles to a shopping center in Paraguay that funds political terrorist group Hezbollah.
Khaled T. Safadi, Ulises Talavera, and Emilio Gonzalez-Neira were arrested Thursday following a nearly three-year investigation of their Miami-based export and freight-forwarding businesses. ICE agents working with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force say the three falsified invoices and export paperwork and used a network of fake addresses to mask the true destination of thousands of Sony cameras and Playstations: the Galeria Page Mall in Cuidad del Este.
The U.S. Treasury has identified Galeria Page as the headquarters for Lebanon-based Hezbollah in the tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay; they say the manager pays a regular quota to Hezbollah based on the center’s sales. NBC
Former US Secretary of State Haig Dead at 85
Alexander Haig, who managed the Nixon administration during the Watergate crisis and served a controversial stint as secretary of state under President Reagan, died on Saturday. Haig who sided with Israel against Lebanon resigned in July 1982, barely a month after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon , saying he could not work with an administration that ran competing foreign policies. ( In reference to former Vice President George Bush and National Security Adviser William Clark who opposed the invasion)
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