Search for survivors suspended after wrecked cruise ship shifts

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

ROME –  Search teams have suspended operations after an enormous cruise ship grounded and partially submerged off the coast of Tuscany shifted under turbulent seas.

The Costa Concordia cruise liner had more than 4,200 passengers and crew on board when it slammed into the reef Friday off the tiny island of Giglio after the captain made an unauthorized maneuver.

Firefighters searched the part of the ship above water overnight, but found none of the passengers and crew still missing.

The bodies of five adult passengers were discovered in the ship on Tuesday, raising the death toll to 11. Their nationalities were not immediately released.

The bodies were discovered after navy divers exploded holes in the hull of the ship to allow easier access. They are expected to blast more holes in the submerged area on Wednesday.

View the original article here

Search,survivors,suspended,after,wrecked,cruise,shifts

Read More | comments

Pakistan rejects US envoy visit: Official - Hindustan Times

Pakistan has rejected US special envoy Marc Grossman's request to visit the country, a senior official said on Wednesday, highlighting the increased tensions between the uneasy allies.
He did not elaborate on the reasons. "Ambassador Grossman asked to visit Pakistan but we conveyed to him that it was not possible at the moment," a senior government official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

Relations between Islamabad and Washington are at the lowest point in years, dragged down by a NATO cross-border air attack which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26.

The growing tension threatens to set back peace efforts in neighbouring Afghanistan, where the United States is gradually withdrawing troops after a decade of war.

Pakistan's cooperation is regarded as crucial, because of its long history of association with militant groups, to efforts to persuade the Taliban to join negotiations.

Grossman, US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is due to visit Afghanistan and Qatar this week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last Wednesday.

Pakistan said in early December it had decided to review cooperation with the United States and NATO. The review is currently before parliament with no firm timeline on when recommendations will be presented to the government.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Tuesday Pakistan had decided the review should be completed before Grossman's next visit.

Ties between Washington and Islamabad were severely hurt in January 2011 by the killing of two Pakistanis by a CIA contractor.

The United States further infuriated and embarrassed Pakistan's powerful military in May with a unilateral special forces raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Pakistan said the raid, of which it wasn't informed, was a violation of its sovereignty.

Relations between Pakistan's civilian leadership and military are also at their worst since a 1999 coup following reports of a disputed memo allegedly from President Asif Ali Zardari's government seeking US help in reining in Pakistan's powerful generals.

View the original article here

Pakistan,rejects,envoy,visit,Official,Hindustan,Times

Read More | comments

Iran to ship model of downed US spy drone to White House

TEHRAN, Iran –  Iranian state radio says Tehran will give the United States a model of the American surveillance drone captured by the Islamic Republic.

The report Tuesday said the toy model of the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone will be sent to the White House in response to a formal request from Washington last month asking Iran to return the aircraft that went down over Iran in December.

State radio said the model will be one eightieth the size of the original aircraft. The report says the models also will be sold on the Iranian marked for about 70,000 rials, or around $4.

The Obama administration has asked Iran to return the drone which Tehran says it detected over the eastern part of Iran some 140 miles from the Afghan border.

View the original article here

model,downed,drone,White,House

Read More | comments

Gunmen kill journalist in Pakistani mosque

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Police say gunmen have killed a local television journalist in a mosque in northwest Pakistan.

Mukarram Khan Atif worked for Dunya TV, and according to his profile on LinkedIn, contributed stories to U.S. government funded Voice of America.

Police said the 40-year-old was killed Tuesday near the city of Peshawar.

A colleague said Atif had received threats from militants in the Mohmand tribal region and moved away from there several months ago.

The colleague didn't give his name for security reasons.

Last year, seven journalists were killed in Pakistan, making it the deadliest country for journalists for the second year in a row.

View the original article here

Gunmen,journalist,Pakistani,mosque

Read More | comments

Iran: Oil embargo means 'economic suicide' for EU

TEHRAN, Iran-- Iran's OPEC governor said Tuesday a European Union embargo on Iranian oil would be "economic suicide" for Europe, the latest stiff statement reflecting Iranian concern about the prospect of deeper sanctions over its nuclear program.

Iran is OPEC's second largest oil producer, and oil exports account for 80 percent of Iran's foreign currency income. Iran sells about 20 percent of its oil exports to Europe.

European nations are considering whether to go along with new U.S. legislation outlawing transactions with Iran's central bank, indirectly limiting Iranian oil shipments by making it harder for customers to pay for them. The law takes effect later this year.

Iran has reacted with a string of strong pronouncements. It threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, where most of the Gulf's oil exports pass, it scheduled war games in the area of the strait, it warned the U.S. not to send an aircraft carrier back into the Gulf -- and now it is cautioning Europe over the consequences of abandoning Iranian oil.

"Applying the scenario of sanctions on Iran's oil exports to EU members would be economic suicide for the member countries," the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi as saying.

"Regarding the economic crisis in the eurozone, imposing any sanction on Iran's oil will push European countries into a deeper crisis," Khatibi said. The European currency is already under pressure because of debt and financing problems facing some of its members.

At issue is Iran's nuclear development program. The U.S., Israel and others charge that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Their case was bolstered by a report from the International Atomic Energy late last year, publishing what it said was evidence that Iran was employing methods and equipment used in making bombs.

Iran has consistently denied that, saying its nuclear program is peaceful, aimed at producing electric power and isotopes for cancer treatment.

Iran urged Saudi Arabia to rethink its offer to offset losses in the world oil market if Iran cannot export its share. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni nation, is a bitter enemy of Shiite Iran.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi, in comments published Sunday, said, "We are prepared to meet the increase in global demand as a result of any circumstances."

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi asked Al-Naimi to consider the issue with "contemplation and wisdom," the official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday.

Salehi told IRNA, "I think the comment from Saudi Arabia on increasing oil production was only the personal view of its oil minister, and Saudi government definitely has no such idea."

Saudi Arabia is the only OPEC member with enough spare capacity to make up the shortfall if Iranian oil exports are blocked.

Another Iranian official, Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi, dismissed the effectiveness of moves targeting Iran's nuclear program.

Ghasemi said Tuesday, "I am sure we will overcome oil sanctions."

View the original article here

embargo,means,economic,suicide

Read More | comments

Forint Advances Second Day as Bonds Rise on Hungary Aid Prospect - BusinessWeek

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The forint gained for a second day and Hungarian bonds rallied on speculation the government will accept conditions imposed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in return for a bailout.

Hungary’s currency appreciated as much as 1.5 percent and traded 0.9 percent higher at 306.5 per euro by 10:04 a.m. in Budapest. A close at that level would be the strongest since Dec. 27. The government’s benchmark 10-year bonds rallied for the first time in four days, cutting the yield 13 basis points, or 0.13 percentage point, to 9.651 percent.

The European Union yesterday threatened a lawsuit against Hungary for encroaching on the central bank’s independence, pressing Prime Minister Viktor Orban to resolve a dispute that halted talks on international aid for the country. Hungary is ready to comply with demands from the European Union over the central bank, Bild reported, citing an interview with Orban.

“The prime minister told the foreign press that all will be fine with the legislation which had been criticised, and that caused the rally,” Miklos Kolba, the Budapest-based head of foreign currency trading at ING Groep NV, said in comments sent by e-mail.

Orban is scheduled to speak at the European Parliament today. He has asked to speak to defend the country against “lies and groundless accusations,” his spokesman, Peter Szijjarto, said in a statement on Jan. 16.

“We will bow to power, not to the arguments,” Orban told Bild in the interview.

Legal Action

The EU commission’s concerns about Hungary’s central-bank independence stem partly from the country’s Magyar Nemzeti Bank law, which includes provisions that allow ministerial participation in meetings of the monetary council, requires agendas to be sent to the government in advance and oblige council members to take an oath of fidelity to the nation. The commission also expressed doubts about Hungary’s rules for dismissing the president of the central bank and monetary council members.

The EU also threatened legal action over measures which may curb the independence of Hungary’s judiciary and data protection authority.

“The process is simple: either the prime minister accepts that changes are required and the market can breathe a sigh of relief or the premier tries to negotiate,” Benoit Anne and Guillaume Salomon, London-based emerging-market strategists at Societe Generale SA, wrote in a research report today. “The latter would be very bad news.”

--Editors: Linda Shen, Balazs Penz

To contact the reporter on this story: Andras Gergely in Budapest at agergely@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net

View the original article here

Forint,Advances,Second,Bonds,Hungary,Prospect,BusinessWeek

Read More | comments

Russia Says Foreign Troops Will Not Deploy in Syria - Voice of America

Syrian ally Russia says it will not allow the deployment of foreign troops in Syria, as the U.N. Security Council debates how to stop the bloodshed of the 10-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that if someone wants to use force, such a move will not be done with any authorization from the U.N. Security Council.

His comments come a day after senior diplomats from the Security Council met to discuss a revised Russian draft resolution that assigns equal blame for the violence to the government and opposition.  France, Britain and the U.S. are pushing for strong condemnation of Syria, but Russia and China have blocked such measures.

Syria on Tuesday rejected a Qatari proposal to send Arab troops to the country to stop the unrest, saying such a move would worsen the situation and open the door to foreign interference.  Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani proposed the troop deployment last week, saying it is needed to "stop the killing."

U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday condemned Syria's continued crackdown on protesters, calling the violence "unacceptable" and vowing to redouble international efforts to force Mr. Assad to step down.

The Syrian-based activist group Local Coordination Committees said Assad's security forces on Tuesday killed at least 30 people, 19 of them in the troubled central province of Homs.

The Arab League is due to discuss the crisis in Syria on Saturday and Sunday, and is expected to consider the future of its widely criticized observer mission in the country.

Syria is Moscow's chief ally in the region and one of its biggest arms customers. A Russian-operated ship carrying ammunition allegedly docked in Syria last week. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice said Tuesday an arms embargo against Damascus is "overdue."

"Obviously we’d have very grave concern about arms flows into Syria from any source and we would certainly make that point very directly with any country that may be providing such arms," said Rice. "Unfortunately, there is not an arms embargo against Syria, which we certainly think is overdue, in part because as you well know, some members of the Council, including Russia, have indicated opposition to any form of sanction, even those that mirror that [which] the Arab League has already implemented."

Senior U.S. officials say Iran also is supplying weapons to aid Syria's crackdown in an initiative spearheaded by the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds force.

The United Nations says violence linked to the uprising has killed more than 5,400 people, including 400 in the last three weeks. Syria says "terrorists" have killed about 2,000 members of the security forces since the unrest began.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

View the original article here

Russia,Foreign,Troops,Deploy,Syria,Voice,America

Read More | comments