Archive for February, 2010
Dalai Lama ‘very happy’ with Obama talks
Brushing aside China’s warning, US President Barack Obama has concluded over an hour of private talks with the visiting Dalai Lama at the White House, and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader declared himself “very happy.”
The Dalai Lama told reporters on the White House driveway that he spoke to Obama about the promotion of human value, religious harmony and the concerns of the Tibetan people. He said Obama was “supportive”. He also urged a greater leadership role for women in the public life of nations.
Small plane crashes into a building in Austin, Texas
A small plane crashed into a seven-story office building in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.
Reports from the scene were sketchy shortly after the crash, but it appeared from televised images that the plane hit the lower floor of the building alongside Highway 183. Damage to the front of the building appeared extensive.
Witnesses told television reporters that they saw a fireball. Firefighters were seen dousing the building as smoke poured into the sky.
The pilot of the plane had set his house on fire beforehand, stole the plane, a Cirrus SR22 single-engine four-seat aircraft, and crashed it intentionally, a federal official told CNN.
Federal officials said two F-16 fighter jets were launched as a precaution after the crash, though terrorist intent was not indicated.AP, CNN
Iran’s president urges Hezbollah to wipe out Israel if it attacks Lebanon
Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday told Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during a phone call that if the Israelis launch a new war against Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the militant group should be prepared to retaliate and wipe this (Israeli) entity out of existence.
Ahmadinejad’s comments were the latest in a heated exchange of rhetoric between Israel and Lebanon and Syria this months in which all sides have been warning the other not to start a war.
“The preparations should be of the level that, if they (the Israelis) want to repeated the mistakes of the past (by attacking), then their case should be closed once and for all and the region delivered from their evil ways forever,” the Iranian president said, according to the state news agency IRNA.
Aoun: Beirut Municipality should be divided like Paris
Following the weekly meeting of Change and Reform bloc its leader MP Michel Aoun told the media:
“Proportionality provides right representation to a certain extent, but it is not useful in services because one municipality in Beirut will not offer services to all people equally. Beirut should be divided into districts, like Paris Municipality.”
” We will prepare a reform plan for every town and we invite everyone to cooperate with us. Whatever the reform plan, everyone must be cooperative in implementing it, and we will engage positively with all of those who want to cooperate with us regardless of their political affiliation ”
Aoun denied that the popularity of his Free Patriotic Movement is declining.
He said that the bloc also discussed the agenda of his upcoming visit to MP Walid Jumblatt in Mukhtara Shouf.
The media office of the FPM distributed the agenda of Aoun’s visit to the Shouf region on Saturday February 20 . It includes a stop at the graves of the late President Camille Chamoun and his son Dany Chamounin in Deir el Qamar , a stop at a church in Deir al Qamar to meet the local residents , and a visit to Beiteddine after his visit to Jumblatt in Mukhtara.
Fouad Saad a key member of Jumblatt’s Democratic gathering bloc said that he will not participate in the meeting with Aoun in Mukhtara even though he is always present in Mukhtara.
Czech Republic wants to boost Lebanon ties
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout whom arrived Thursday in Beirut met with President Michel Suleiman, PM Saad Hariri and Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami. Following his meeting with Shami he said:”We intend to boost bilateral ties.”
Following his meeting With Hariri he said : We discussed the bilateral relations between our two countries and ways to strengthen and deepen these relations. He added: “I have invited Prime Minister Hariri, on behalf of Prime Minister Jan Fischer, to visit Prague and he has accepted the invitation.
Lebanon will attend the Summit in Libya, says Moussa
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa met with President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda palace : Following the meeting Moussa said that Lebanon will participate in March’s Arab League Summit in Libya, The National News Agency (NNA) reported
Moussa added that the level of Lebanon’s representation will depend on the internal Lebanese situation. “There is enough time to discuss the issue,” said Moussa.
“Lebanon’s participation in the upcoming Arab Summit is necessary, since it is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council,” he added.
Moussa touched on the issue of the 1978 disappearance in Libya of Shiite leader Imam Moussa Sadr ( founder of the Amal movement ), saying that the issue, while very sensitive to some Lebanese, should not be discussed in the media.
Amal Movement leader , Speaker Nabih Berri, called for boycotting the summit saying that Libya remains responsible for Sadr’s disappearance.
Hamas official accused of helping Mossad hit squad
A key security operative of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas was under arrest in Syria tonight on suspicion of having helped an alleged Israeli hit squad identify Mahmoud al-Mabhouh before he was assassinated in Dubai, the Guardian has learned.
Palestinian sources in the Gulf confirmed Nahro Massoud, a Hamas security official, was in detention and under interrogation in Damascus in connection with the 19 January killing, which is now widely assumed to have been mounted by Israel’s Mossad secret intelligence service.
Khaled Mishal, Hamas’s political leader, denied the allegation. “It is not correct at all,” he said, as Hamas sources suggested a disinformation campaign by the group’s Fatah rival. But informed Palestinian sources insisted Massoud was being questioned amid mounting speculation that potentially senior Palestinian defectors may have assisted in the plot. guardian.uk
Obama to meet with the Dalai Lama
President Obama will receive the Dalai Lama on Thursday in the Map Room of the White House instead of the Oval Office, not one-on-one but in a group, and then will leave town without a joint appearance before television cameras.
Pointedly employing no protocol that implies head-of-state status for the Tibetan leader-in-exile, the White House is also being explicit about its invitation: Obama meets the Dalai Lama as an “internationally respected religious leader and spokesman for Tibetan rights.” LAT
Body of French amabssador’s wife flown to Paris
The body of Mrs. Marla Sanchez Pietton, wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash of flight ET409 last January 25 was flown to Paris today on board an Air France jet
DNA testing: Egypt’s King Tutankhamun died of malaria
The DNA testing of several prominent Egyptian mummies has revealed the identities of the mother and the father of famous boy king Tutankhamun. Egypt’s head of antiquities, Zahi Hawass, says tests also revealed what killed Tut.
Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass says the results of two years of tests on famous Egyptian mummies show boy king Tutankhamun died of malaria.
Speculation Tut was murdered was debunked by the exhaustive scientific investigation. Hawass says a series of CAT scans revealed damage to Tut’s head was just part of the mummification process.
“The important thing is how King Tut died. Everyone thought in the past that King Tut was murdered because of the blow on the back of the head. But, the study of the CAT-scan machine proved that the blow at the back of the head was opened to put the liquid for mummification,” he said.VOA
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