Porn chiefs in bail-out plea
Porn barons in the US have called for a multi-billion dollar bail-out of the adult entertainment industry to help it through the "hard times" ahead. 8 Jan 2009 at 10:29am
Dell to axe 1,900 jobs in Ireland
COMPUTER giant Dell is to axe 1,900 jobs at its flagship manufacturing plant, the company confirmed today. 7 Jan 2009 at 6:00pm
Gaza peace talks to start today, Egypt claims
PRELIMINARY peace talks could take place today involving representatives of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, it was claimed last night. 7 Jan 2009 at 6:00pm
Gas row starves Balkans of heat
THOUSANDS of Bulgarians, Bosnians and Serbs were left in the cold and some companies and schools closed down yesterday after Russian gas supplies to south-eastern Europe dried 7 Jan 2009 at 6:00pm
Police seek blow-up doll sex bandit
An Australian man broke into three adult shops, had sex with blow up dolls named "Jungle Jane" and then dumped his plastic conquests in a nearby alley. 7 Jan 2009 at 6:00pm
3,000 most wanted to fill jobs in the FBI
THESE might be harsh times in the jobs market, but it seems there is still plenty of work for people who can provide their own dark suits and sunglasses. 7 Jan 2009 at 6:00pm
Woman suspected as bomber arrested
A FEMALE suicide bomber allegedly planning to blow herself up among Shiite pilgrims was arrested yesterday in northern Iraq, as millions joined processions across the country 7 Jan 2009 at 6:00pm
Al-Qaeda chief in attack on Obama
A SENIOR figure in al-Qaeda has blamed Barack Obama, the US president-elect, for not doing anything to stop Israel's offensive in Gaza. 7 Jan 2009 at 6:00pm
Police claim Israeli town struck by Lebanese rockets
ISRAELI police said at least three rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon today and rescue services reported at least one person wounded. 7 Jan 2009 at 6:00pm
Pakistan admission over Mumbai attack
PAKISTAN yesterday confirmed the lone surviving gunman responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks is Pakistani. 7 Jan 2009 at 6:00pm
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by announcing the first public release of Windows 7. 8 Jan 2009 at 3:22am
Activists condemn the jailing in Senegal of nine gay men for eight years - reportedly the heaviest sentences passed over homosexual acts. 8 Jan 2009 at 6:09am
Continental Airlines is the latest to to test-fly a jet biofuel, this time with a product derived partially from algae. 8 Jan 2009 at 7:51am
People's Daily Online
Israel-Lebanon confrontation unlikely after rockets rock N Israel
Northern Israel was pounded on Thursday morning by two rockets fired from Lebanon, causing injuries and damage, while few signs were seen indicating a major confrontation across the fragile border.
One of the Katyusha rockets smashed the roof of a nursing home at the northern Israeli town of Nahariya and exploded in its kitchen, when about 25 elderly residents were eating breakfast in the adjacent dining hall, reported local daily The Jerusalem Post.
Two people were injured when ... 8 Jan 2009 at 8:06am
Finland to send $675,000 in aid to Gaza
Finland will send 500,000 euros (about 675,000 U.S. dollars) in humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, according to reports reaching here Thursday from the Finnish capital of Helsinki.
Finland's support was conveyed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) through the Finnish Red Cross, the government said in a statement.
The ICRC has 75 workers in Gaza, and the Palestine Red Crescent Society has nearly 300 workers.
Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis, said ... 8 Jan 2009 at 8:06am
Two soldiers killed in two bomb attacks in Iraq
A total of eight Iraqi soldiers have been killed and six others injured in two bomb attacks in Iraq's provinces of Diyala and Kirkuk on Thursday, police said.
A roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol in the Rashad area, some 25 km south of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The blast killed two soldiers and wounding three others, including one in a critical condition, the source said.
A milita ... 8 Jan 2009 at 8:05am
Greek sends 2nd batch of aid to Gaza
A Greek military plane carrying the second batch of aid will leave for Gaza on Thursday as part of Greece's "Bridge of Hope" humanitarian campaign, according to the country's Foreign Ministry.
A total of 13 tons of medical supplies, collected by the Foreign Ministry in cooperation with the Parliament and the city of Athens, include medicines, intravenous drips and hygiene material, said the ministry, officials from which will accompany the shipment.
The military aircraft will fly ... 8 Jan 2009 at 8:05am
Malaysian PM: Israel must be forced out of Gaza
Any resolution passed by the Special Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York Friday morning must ensure that Israel is forced out of Gaza, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said here on Thursday.
While thanking UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the convening of the Special Session which Malaysia and several other countries had urgently called for, Badawi said the United States should also not oppose whatever resolution that would touch on Israel, wh ... 8 Jan 2009 at 8:05am
Suicide attack kills 2, wounds 10 in S Afghanistan
A suicide bomber exploded himself Thursday afternoon near a patrol of international troops stationed in southern Afghan province of Kandahar, killing two civilians and wounding ten others including at least two foreign soldiers, said a police official.
Mematullah Khan, police chief of Maywand district in Kandahar province, told Xinhua that it occurred at around 5 p.m. local time (1230 GMT) when the suicide bomber with explosive strapped under clothes approached the international troops o ... 8 Jan 2009 at 8:03am
Bangladesh's new parliament to hold 1st session on Jan. 25
Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed has summoned the country's new parliament to hold its first session on Jan. 25, said an official handout on Thursday.
The country's ninth parliament, formed through parliamentary elections held on Dec. 29, 2008, will elect the country's new President, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker in its first session.
Ruling party Awami League led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already named the party's senior leader Zillur Rahman for the office of ... 8 Jan 2009 at 8:02am
Cambodian PM: ASEAN meeting in Thailand should be delayed
The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) meeting scheduled to be held in Thailand late January should be delayed to later in 2009, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said here on Thursday.
"We want the ASEAN meeting, the ASEAN plus three (China, South Korea and Japan) meeting and ASEAN plus other partners meeting to be held at the same time in order to not waste time and money. We do not need to separate such meetings," Hun Sen said at a press conference at the National Assembly. ... 8 Jan 2009 at 8:03am
UNDP names goodwill ambassador, launches ethnic minority culture protection i...
Chinese singer Zhu Zheqin was named goodwill ambassador here on Thursday by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to enhance the protection of China's ethnic minority cultures.
A two-year-long protection plan called "Show the World: Culture-based Development Goodwill Action for Ethnic Minorities in China" was also initiated by UNDP. Zhu Zheqin, also Dadawa, a Han nationality born in south China's Guangdong province, was named ambassador.
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China voiced hope here Thursday that the International Criminal Court (ICC)'s measures should be conducive to the stability of Sudan and help properly resolve the Darfur issue.
"I want to reiterate that the justice and fairness in Darfur cannot be realized without the long-term peace and stability in this area," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told the regular briefing on Thursday.
He said China would decide on its next moves on the Darfur-issue based on that standpoi ... 8 Jan 2009 at 6:37am
Israel today came under fierce criticism from humanitarian groups for delaying access to the injured during its offensive in Gaza as fresh fighting killed at least 11 people, taking the death toll over 700.
The unusually strong condemnation coincided with a UN announcement that it was suspending its operations in the territory in response to what it said were Israeli attacks.
The International Committee of the Red Cross accused Israel of "unacceptable" delays in letting rescue workers reach three homes in Gaza City that had been hit by shelling.
The group said the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach the site in the Zaytun neighbourhood for four days. Once Red Cross teams reached the area yesterday, they found four small children next to their dead mothers at one home. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.
In another house, a rescue team found 15 survivors, including several wounded. In yet another home, rescuers found three bodies. Israeli soldiers posted at a military position nearby ordered the rescue team to leave the area, which it refused to do.
"This is a shocking incident," said Pierre Wettach, the Red Cross's head for the region. "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded."
The ICRC said the children and wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart because Israeli forces had erected large earth walls, making it impossible to bring ambulances into the neighbourhood. The Red Cross said it brought out 18 wounded and 12 others who were extremely exhausted, as well as two bodies.
Diplomatic efforts continued yesterday, with senior Israeli officials travelling to Cairo for Egyptian-brokered talks on a proposed ceasefire, but Hamas spokesmen reiterated that they have major reservations about the plan.
Since yesterday , Israel has observed a daily, three-hour halt in operations to allow humanitarian evacuations and aid deliveries throughout Gaza, but aid groups said such lulls were insufficient to alleviate the suffering of civilians trapped by almost two weeks of fighting.
In its statement, the ICRC demanded that the Israeli military grant it and ambulances safe passage and access immediately to search for any other wounded. The ICRC has still not received confirmation from the Israeli authorities that this will be allowed.
Other groups such as Médecins Sans Frontières have also criticised Israel for blocking access to people injured during the crisis. Jessica Pourraz, a field coordinator for the group, yesterday urged Israel to respect the "humanitarian space" and allow access to those in need of medical help.
Israel has also come under strong criticism from the UN, which said it was halting all aid shipments into Gaza, citing attacks on UN staff and buildings.
The announcement came shortly after the driver of a UN truck was shot and killed by tank fire near an Israeli border as he was about to pick up an aid shipment. The UN said the delivery had been coordinated with Israel and that the vehicle carried a UN flag and insignia. Earlier this week, at least 40 people were killed when two UN schools were hit by Israeli gunfire.
As the conflct continued, Israel today for the first time came under rocket fire from Lebanon on its northern border. At least three Katyusha rockets were fired from southern Lebanon, landing near the town of Nahariya and injuring two people. The Israeli military fired back at the point from which the rockets were launched.
A minister in the Lebanese cabinet denied that Hezbollah was responsible, amid fears that the conflict in Gaza could spread. Two years ago, Israel fought a month-long war in Lebanon that claimed hundreds of lives.
The Lebanese president, Fuad Saniora, condemned the rocket fire, saying it did not serve Lebanese, Palestinian or Arab interests and that Lebanese authorities were cooperating with UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon in investigating the incident.
Radical Palestinian factions have a presence in Lebanon, and the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine previously warned it could open other fronts against Israel if the attack on Gaza continued.
The exchanges came as Israeli air strikes destroyed several houses in the town of Rafah, on Gaza's southern border, today after what Palestinians said was one of the heaviest nights of bombing since the conflict began 13 days ago.
Intense artillery strikes and waves of aerial bombardment were reported across the Gaza Strip. Israeli tanks were seen moving in southern Gaza and leaflets were dropped near the border with Egypt, warning residents to leave the area "because Hamas uses your houses to hide and smuggle military weapons". Around 5,000 Palestinians fled their homes and took refuge in two UN schools that had been set up as shelters.
Unwra, the UN relief agency that works with Palestinian refugees, said it had suspended operations in Gaza because of the growing risk. "Unwra decided to suspend all its operations in the Gaza Strip because of the increasing hostile actions against its premises and personnel," said Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based spokesman for the organisation. He did not say how long the suspension would last. About 40 people died when Israeli shells hit a UN school in Jabaliya, Gaza, on Tuesday.
As the negotiations continued, the death toll among Palestinians rose to around 700, with around 3,000 injured. Palestinian health officials were reported as saying that around one-third of the dead were civilians, with 219 children and 89 women killed. Ten Israelis, three of them civilians, have died.
Heavy fighting was reported near Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, and in Jabaliya, to the north, earlier today . At least one person was killed and 10 injured.
Despite days of intensive Israeli attacks, Palestinian militants were still able to fire rockets, hitting the city of Be'er Sheva overnight on Wednesday and Ashkelon and Ashdod this morning .
The Israeli military said today it had captured 120 suspected Hamas fighters and had bombed the houses of two Hamas militants, in Rafah and Khan Yunis, overnight.
A total of around 60 sites were hit in the strikes, including what the military said was a mosque used to store weapons, 15 smuggling tunnels in the south, several rocket-launching areas and other buildings storing weapons. It said several gunmen were also hit.
The UN security council has yet to reach an agreement on a ceasefire resolution, although the US has supported an initial deal outlined by France and Egypt.
Although the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said both Israel and the Palestinian Authority ? which is based in the occupied West Bank and is run by Hamas's rival, Fatah ? had accepted the deal, Israel said there was agreement on broad principles but there had yet to be an agreed plan for practical action.
Israel wants Hamas to stop all rockets being fired into southern Israel and has called for an international arms embargo on the Islamist movement. Hamas, which did not seem to be part of the French deal, wants an end to Israel's months-long economic blockade of Gaza.
The foreign secretary, David Miliband, who was at the UN in New York, said: "I have seen the first glimmerings of the possibility of a ceasefire ? it's far too early to say we can get a breakthrough."
Yesterday the Israeli cabinet agreed to continue with the fighting at the same time as it considered the ceasefire proposals.
Military planners have prepared for even more intense operations in Gaza in which Israeli soldiers would push deep into the crowded urban areas of the Strip to attack Hamas gunmen.
Thousands of Israeli reservists had been called up and would be ready by Friday, Israeli defence officials said.
Israeli officials discussed a French-Egyptian ceasefire plan in Cairo today, but Hamas officials have yet to turn up and the Islamist group reiterated its reservations about the proposal.
The Israeli envoys, Amos Gilad, a defence official, and Shalom Turjeman, a senior aide to Israel's prime minister, spent the day in talks with Egyptian officials before heading back to Israel. There were no details on who they met and what they discussed.
Hamas, which has neither accepted nor rejected the plan, has yet to decide on whether to send anyone to Cairo. "It is early to talk about a delegation going to Cairo," Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of the group's political bureau, told Associated Press in Syria. He added that Hamas was discussing the Egyptian initiative and "soon we will have a position".
In a defiant message another senior Hamas official, Mohammed Nazzal, told Syrian TV the group would never surrender and vowed to fight the Israeli military in Gaza.
The Egyptian-French proposal aims to achieve a "lasting halt" to rocket fire into Israel and secure a withdrawal of Israeli troops. It would also seek the reopening of border crossings between Israel and Egypt, the launch of a reconstruction effort in Gaza, prisoner exchanges and a resumption of talks for an overall settlement.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction was forced out of Gaza by Hamas, called the Egyptian-French initiative "a positive element", while Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy, said a deal was possible. "I believe it's possible to reach an accord," Blair said on France's Europe-1 radio. "If we can reach a truce, it's a short-term solution. But for the long term, it's absolutely necessary to have a negotiated peace process" between Israel and the Palestinians.
In New York, the UN security council will resume discussions behind closed doors today to craft an international response after failing to reach agreement last night.
Libya, backed by Arab countries, is pushing for a UN resolution that demands an immediate, permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. It expressed "grave concern at the crisis faced by the Palestinian people". The second proposal is a UN statement, largely written by the UK, with US and French co-operation, also expressing "grave concern at the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza" and calling for both the Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations to be protected.
Amnesty International, the human rights group, has accused Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters of endangering the lives of Palestinian civilians by using them as human shields.
Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's Middle East programme director, said: "Our sources in Gaza report that Israeli soldiers have entered and taken up positions in a number of Palestinian homes, forcing families to stay in a ground-floor room while they use the rest of their house as a military base and sniper position. This clearly increases the risk to the Palestinian families concerned and means they are ... being used as human shields."
Amnesty said Palestinian gunmen were also continuing to fire at Israeli troops from areas close to civilian homes, endangering their inhabitants.
The Argentine justice ministry is currently concerned about national safety, and its preoccupation has nothing to do with terrorism, violent crime or drug trafficking. Instead, it is worried about a shortage of coins and the growing black market where coins are purchased. As strange as this may sound from abroad, a lack of coins can become a nightmare for bus users, retailers and average citizens in Argentina.
The ministry's concern started some three months ago when the Chamber of Chinese Supermarkets, which represents the hundreds of grocery stores owned by Chinese citizens in Argentina, filed a legal complaint arguing that private money transport companies were selling coins. Like most small- and medium-sized retailers, grocery stores need large amounts of coins to use as change.
They usually get the coins from banks, but banks have been handing them out sparsely, because they say there is a coin shortage. Therefore, small retailers must find other providers, and this is when money transporters, who can hoard the coins they transport and replace them with bills, step into the picture in the guise of coin salesmen. Retailers pay around 100 pesos for roughly 88-95 pesos worth of coins. Experts say this business is more profitable than, for example, manufacturing fake coins.
Hoarding coins is not in itself a crime, so when the chamber filed the complaint, the justice ministry intervened to find a way to fill the legal loophole. It came up with the idea of charging coin hoarders and dealers with putting national security at risk. In a subsequent raid in Buenos Aires on October 9, police seized 134 barrels full of coins from a private money transport company. After three weeks of counting, the police announced that 21 barrels contained fake coins while the rest had to a total of 4.5 million pesos (some $1.3m or £876,700).
If it ended there, the story would be no more than a witty scheme to make some extra money through shady operations. However, the problem is not reduced to one company and a few stores. The central bank, which regulates bank activities, fined five banks last year for not handing out coins to clients, as is mandatory, and 10 other banks are now under investigation.
And if the shortage troubles retailers, it is more disturbing for Argentineans who must use buses or want to do small shopping. According to regulation, banks are under the obligation to give up to 20 pesos worth of coins to any person who requires it (the amount was lowered last year from 100 pesos because it was impossible to meet). Banks regularly dismiss the regulations, however, and hand out as little as three pesos in coins. With bus fares ranging from 0.90 to 1.50 pesos, this is obviously not enough.
The shortage is considered a national problem, but it is mainly centred in the greater Buenos Aires area, whose population of roughly 13 million people represent around 30% of the country's population. The core public transportation in this metropolitan area is a bus network of more than 200 lines owned by dozens of different companies. Unlike other cities in the country and abroad, buses cannot be used with pre-paid magnetic fare cards. Save a few exceptions, the only way to pay the bus fare is onboard with coins, which are therefore in large demand. Because all their income is in metallic, metropolitan bus companies are suspected of acting in cohorts with money transportation companies to sell coins instead of depositing them in banks, which would return them to the financial system.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week, an American university professor, George Selgin, offered some advice to solve the problem. Selgin believes that the Argentine government should allow private companies to issue distinct coins that people can choose or not to use. But Argentine monetary history shows that such as system is likely to fail.
Until the early 1990s, coin-sized tokens were the only way to pay for underground fares and public phones, and they are still used in some video game arcades. Tokens were cumbersome to carry, as they could be used only for specific situations and were truly "distinctive private money", as they were not interchangeable (phone tokens could not be used in the underground and vice-versa). Another variety of counterfeit money has existed recurrently in Argentine history in the form of provincial and national government bonds used to pay workers whenever cash was scarce. During the 2001-2002 national economic crisis some 20 different bonds circulated in the country at the same time in parallel with legal money. The first system is recalled as highly unpractical for users, the second as harmful to monetary policy.
While it is accused of inefficiency, the central bank says 2007 marked an all-time high in the number of coins manufactured and says that production went up an extra 12% in 2008, setting a new high in circulation. According to the central bank, there is an average of roughly 100 pesos worth of coins on the street for every Argentine citizen.
Meanwhile, people must struggle to pay their bus fares and argue with shop clerks over change. Want to buy a 2.50 peso Coke? Better pay with a fiver so the attendant can give you a 2-peso bill and 0.50 in change. Paying with four pesos (two 2-peso bills) would require the shopkeeper to part with at least a 1 peso coin and a 0.50 coin ? too much of a commodity.
Argentina has always been a country where larger bills ? 50s and 100s ? are far easier to come by than small change, be it coins or 5- and 10-peso bills. When pennies existed in this country during the 1990s, they were not usually accepted by shopkeepers because they were considered a nuisance. Thus, in Argentina and unlike other countries, the phrase "Got any spare change?" is common to most people, not only the corner beggar. The current shortage has simply made it more popular then ever.
Obama warns of dire consequences without stimulus
U.S. president-elect laid out goals of doubling the production of alternative energy over three years, updating most federal buildings to improve energy efficiency
by JENNIFER LOVEN 8 Jan 2009 at 10:47am
UN halts all aid deliveries to Gaza
Decision follows a series of Israeli attacks on UN installations and staff, including killing of UN truck driver by tank fire
by IBRAHIM BARZAK AND STEVE WEIZMAN 8 Jan 2009 at 9:58am
Residents flee D.C. before chaos
Obama-mania crowds could exceed estimates of five million, giving traffic-averse locals reason to rent their homes and head south
Head games
Riders of motorcycle taxis in Nigeria wear dried fruit shells, among other things, on their heads in bid to beat new helmet law
by MIKE OBOH 8 Jan 2009 at 3:37am
The New York Times
U.N. Suspends Food Aid Into Gaza
The U.N. ordered the suspension after one of its contract drivers was killed during an Israeli attack that hit a delivery convoy.
Israel Condemns Vatican?s ?Concentration Camp? Remarks
Tensions rose between the Vatican and Israel on Thursday after Israel condemned a high-ranking Vatican official for comparing the Gaza Strip to ?a concentration camp.?
Ten Killed in Three Attacks on Iraqi Soldiers
Eight Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were killed Thursday in three separate attacks in which insurgents used roadside bombs to target the Iraqi Army.
by By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS 8 Jan 2009 at 11:46am
Possible Deal in Gazprom Dispute
Europe?s gas crisis appeared to be moving toward a solution, after Gazprom said it would resume shipments when monitors could verify the gas was being shipped to the West.
by By DAVID JOLLY 8 Jan 2009 at 11:53am
China Blocks Travel for Parents Planning Quake Protest
Parents who were trying to travel to Beijing to ask the government for a full investigation into school collapses during the May earthquake were stopped by local police.
by By EDWARD WONG 8 Jan 2009 at 11:41am
British Regulator Starts Madoff Investigation
The Serious Fraud Office in Britain announced Thursday that is opening an investigation into the business operations of Bernard L. Madoff.
by By MATTHEW SALTMARSH 8 Jan 2009 at 6:29am
Gunman in Mumbai Siege a Pakistani, Official Says
Pakistan?s national security adviser, Mahmud Ali Durrani, was fired hours after confirming that the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks is a Pakistani citizen.
by By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and SALMAN MASOOD 7 Jan 2009 at 11:45pm
Spy Chief in Britain Opens Door a Bit to Press
One hundred years after Britain?s domestic intelligence agency was founded, its director general, Jonathan Evans, became the first head of the agency to grant an interview.
by By JOHN F. BURNS 7 Jan 2009 at 11:56pm
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