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Archive - 2008 - blog
Like minds pair up: Brown & Bush both resist calls for more rapid withdrawals from an unpopular war
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LONDON: After talks with President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised tougher measures in Iran and Afghanistan, saying that Britain would freeze the assets of Iran's biggest bank and increase its troop strength in Afghanistan.
Appearing with Bush at a news conference, he sought to speak directly to the Iranian people, saying that Tehran's refusal to resolve international concerns over its nuclear activities would only lead to further isolation. Specifically, he said, the sanctions would be designed to freeze the assets of Iran's biggest bank, Bank Melli. "We will take action today that will freeze the overseas assets of the biggest bank in Iran, the Melli bank, and secondly, action will start today for a new phase of sanctions on oil and gas," he said, without elaborating.
For his part, Bush refused to rule out any action in Iran, saying "all options" were on the table — a formula he has used that has been interpreted as not precluding military strikes. read more »
No small money. Withdrawal of $75 billion from EU banks before Brown announced to freeze overseas assets of Bank Melli Iran
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Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said. "Part of Iran's assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks," Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying.
Iranian officials were not immediately available to comment on the report in Shahrvand-e Emrouz, a moderate weekly, which did not specify the time period for the withdrawals which it said were ordered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"About $75 billion of Iran's foreign assets which were under threat of being blocked were wired back to Iran based on Ahmadinejad's order," the weekly said. Iran's Etemad-e Melli newspaper, also quoting Talai, last week also reported that the world's fourth-largest oil exporter was withdrawing assets from European banks but did not give any figures.
Britain will freeze overseas assets of Iran's largest bank, Bank Melli. "Action will start today," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday.
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Photos Courtesy of Reuters and The Jerusalem Post
Original Source: Javno and Associated Press
Tiger Woods amazes once again at Torrey Pines - "He’s good enough he can beat us on one leg"
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Just when you thought there was going to be one less thing to believe in – namely the invincibility of Tiger Woods with a lead in a major golf championship – along he comes to amaze once again.
He slid and bounced about a 15-footer into the side door on the 72nd and final hole to tie the tournament and force the playoff and it was a putt, a moment, that represented the highest kind of drama this sport has to offer. It was amazing stuff, really, and he has done it before and he surely will do it again and no one should ever be surprised when he performs miracles. But he keeps doing it and who isn’t constantly amazed, if only by the sheer volume?
"That man will crawl around if he has to play," Rocco Mediate said of Woods’s wounded knee, which dominated the TV talk and surely was making an impact on Woods, too, although he said the reason his tee shots, most of the day, kept sailing left was “just bad swings."
“He’s good enough he can beat us on one leg,’’ Stephen Ames had said about five hours earlier, when asked who would win. Ames then assumed the stork pose and swung away.
“He can stand up like this and still hit it – ding – 250 (yards) and beat us.’’ read more »
Drivers told to zip lips - NASCAR president Mike Helton says complaining is unfair to fans, who face costly gas, tough economy
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NASCAR is tired of hearing the negative message some of the stock car sport's driving stars have been sending to fans lately. Too many complaints about the new-generation car, bumpy racetracks and numerous other things, and not enough positive reinforcement for fans.
NASCAR president Mike Helton held a "mandatory" meeting yesterday morning for drivers and the team owners at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. Things apparently reached a critical mass last week at Pocono, where it appeared nobody was happy about the rough track or the so-called Car of Tomorrow that is still being developed or the intense heat that had many drivers near exhaustion after a Pocono 500 that most believe shouldn't be longer than 400 miles.
After 14-day mission, 217 orbits, 5.7 million miles around the Earth, space shuttle Discovery softly touches down with 7 crew
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The U.S. space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew returned to earth Saturday after a successful two-week mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle safely touched down at 11:15 a.m. local time (1515 UTC) at the U.S. space agency's landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center in the southeastern state of Florida.
The mission's highlight was the delivery and installation of a new $1 billion Japanese science laboratory. The 11-meter long lab is now the largest module on the orbiting space station.
The Discovery crew also dropped off a new toilet pump to allow the Russian space station crew to fix their on board facilities. Discovery made 217 orbits and travelled 5.7 million miles around the Earth before it was given the green light to return home yesterday morning.
But on Friday Nasa engineers were forced to carry out last minute checks on the shuttle after astronauts spotted something floating away from their space ship. It turned out be a 12 inch metal clip from the rudder.
After four hours, the crew were told that its absence posed no danger for re-entry - during which temperatures around the shuttle can reach more than 2,500 degrees C.
Extensive checks are carried out on space shuttles before they begin re-entry after Columbia burned up as it entered the atmosphere, killing all seven crew on board, after foam panels in its heat shield were damaged during lift-off.
Commander Mark Kelly brought the shuttle safely back to Earth at 4.15pm (BST) yesterday afternoon through slightly cloudy skies. Television cameras were able to track the shuttle as it made its final approach, landed and deployed its brake parachute.
As Discovery came to a safe stop, Kelly said: "Great to be back." NASA officials described the landing as being as "smooth as it gets".
Astronauts also exchanged a member of the orbital outpost's permanent crew. American astronaut Greg Chamitoff remained on the space station for a six-month mission. He replaced U.S. astronaut Garrett Reisman who returned home after 95 days in space.
Reisman's wife, Simone Francis, was waiting at the Kennedy Space Center. Over the past week, Reisman described in quite romantic terms how much he missed her, calling her "my favourite Earthling".
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Images Courtesy of AP Photo/NASA, BBC News
Original Source: BBC News (with video), The Telegraph, and VOA News
June 12 - US Supreme Court delivers its third consecutive rebuff to Bush Administration's handling of detainees
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered its third consecutive rebuff to the Bush administration’s handling of the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, ruling 5 to 4 that the prisoners there have a constitutional right to go to federal court to challenge their continued detention.
The court declared unconstitutional a provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that, at the administration’s behest, stripped the federal courts of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus petitions from the detainees seeking to challenge their designation as enemy combatants.
Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the truncated review procedure provided by a previous law, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, “falls short of being a constitutionally adequate substitute” because it failed to offer “the fundamental procedural protections of habeas corpus.”
Justice Kennedy declared: “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”
'Habeas corpus' (Latin: [We command] that you have the body) is the name of a legal action, or writ, through which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention of themselves or another person. The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action. read more »
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