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Trade deficit widens to $40.6 billion in December

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:09:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – The trade deficit widened in December as rising oil prices pushed the value of imports up faster than U.S. exports.

The deficit increased 5.9 percent in December to $40.6 billion, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

U.S. exports of goods and services rose to $163 billion, a 1.8 percent gain and the best showing since July 2008. Sales of industrial machinery, civilian aircraft and autos and auto parts led U.S. exports

But imports rose even faster. A 2.6 percent gain pushed total U.S. imports to $203.5 billion, the highest level since October 2008. The increase was led by a 16.8 percent rise in imported oil. The average price for a barrel of imported crude oil climbed to $79.78 in December, the highest point since crude imports averaged $91.73 per barrel in October 2008.

For all of 2010, the U.S. trade deficit rose to $497.8 billion, a 32.8 percent surge. It was the biggest annual percentage gain since 2000. In 2009, the deficit had fallen to the lowest point in eight years as demand for imports plunged.

Economists believe the deficit will keep widening in 2011 but that U.S. manufacturers will benefit from a weaker dollar, which makes their goods more competitive in foreign markets.

"Exports remain strong and are a bright spot in the U.S. expansion," said Cary Leahey, an economist at Decision Economics. But economists predicted the overall deficit will widen further in coming months, reflecting rising global oil prices.

President Barack Obama, looking for ways to attack high unemployment, has set a goal of doubling the nation's exports in five years. He recently pledged to move forward this year to win approval of a free trade pact with South Korea.

New trade deals remain a sensitive political issue. Labor unions charge that previous pacts failed to protect American workers from unfair foreign competition and have cost millions of American jobs. Much of the criticism is focused on China, which critics allege is manipulating its currency to gain unfair trade advantages and erecting barriers to keep U.S. products out.

For 2010, the deficit with China rose by 20.4 percent to hit an all-time high of $273.1 billion, the largest imbalance the United States has ever recorded with a single country. The United States has had its biggest trade deficit with China since 2000 when that country surpassed Japan.

The expectation is that trade tensions between the two largest economies will only intensify in coming years.

For 2010, U.S. exports to China climbed to 32.2 percent to an all-time high of $91.9 billion. However, Chinese imports to the United States also rose to a record high of $364.9 billion, an increase of 23.1 percent. The trade deficit is the difference between exports and imports.

Death toll in suicide attack in Iraq raises to 26

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 13:50:00 +0000

BAGHDAD – An Iraqi health official says the death toll from a suicide bombing north of Baghdad has risen to 26.

Hussein Jaafar, the director of the hospital in Balad Ruz, said Saturday that five more people have died from injuries sustained in the blast.

The suicide bomber blew himself up inside a popular cafe Friday night, breaking what has been a period of relative calm in Iraq.

The neighborhood where the explosion occurred is home to many Shiites of Kurdish ethnicity.

The attack underscores the delicate nature of Iraq's security gains and comes as the country is approaching its eighth month without a new government following inconclusive elections.

"Scissors" star runs to indie drama "Art Machine"

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:53:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Joseph Cross ("Running with Scissors") has taken the lead role in the indie drama "Art Machine," whose cast also includes "Gossip Girl" actress Jessica Szohr and Joey Lauren Adams.

The script, by director Doug Karr and Nuno Faustino, centers on a child-prodigy painter (Cross) on the verge of turning 18 who is suffering from bipolar disorder and needs to come up with an art show to end all art shows. When he meets a group of artist-anarchists, his world turns upside down.

Szohr plays one of the outlaw hipsters, a pyrotechnic artist who is attracted to the prodigy, but as his manic madness grows, she becomes concerned for his safety. Adams ("Chasing Amy") is Cross' mother. Production is underway in New York.

French Muslims feel victimised by veil ban

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sun, 02 May 2010 01:21:00 +0000

PARIS — Muslims in France say the government's plan to fine women for wearing the Islamic veil is one in a string of political ploys that stigmatise them and pander to anti-Islamic prejudice.

Extracts from the law leaked on Friday propose to fine women 150 euros (200 dollars) for wearing a full-face veil in public, while anyone who forces a woman to wear one would face a year in jail and fine of 15,000 euros.

Some say giving police the power to fine Muslim women in the street is part of a worrying trend, after the government's "national identity debate" and its targeting last week of a man accused of polygamy and radicalism.

Amid the polygamy controversy, bullets were fired at a mosque in Istres, southern France, and a halal butcher in Marseille. A French Muslim group, CFCM, said this signalled "a rise of racism and Islamophobia."

"It's getting tougher and tougher. It's as if people have had something against us for a long time and now that the politicians are saying it, they are letting it all out," said Mamadou Alpha Diallo, 73, outside a Paris mosque.

Muslims in France "have the impression that Islam is on trial," added Dounia Bouzar, an anthropologist and high-profile commentator on Muslim affairs.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's government has nevertheless vowed to press on and said it will present a bill to parliament by July, despite a warning from state judicial experts that a full public ban may be unconstitutional.

Sarkozy insists veils such as the niqab and the burqa are an affront to women's rights and France's secular values.

Fewer than 2,000 women are estimated to wear the veil in France, however, and critics of the government plan say it clouds more pressing issues for a Muslim community struggling to integrate.

"Even people who have little connection to the Muslim faith feel they are being singled out and are having a very hard time during these debates on Islam," said Azzedine Gaci, leader of a mosque in Villeurbanne, eastern France.

Amar Lasfar, the leader of a mosque in the northern city of Lille, said the veil issue was "very marginal" and was being blown out of proportion.

"Here in France they are concentrating on that as if it were the number one problem of Muslims and society," he said, judging it "a side-issue that has been overdone in the media".

"It gives the impression that you see people wearing the burqa on every street corner... There is a feeling of exasperation among Muslims. They're crying out 'Leave us in peace!'"

According to Friday's leaked extracts, the law will fine women 150 euros (200 dollars) for wearing a full-face veil in public, while anyone who forces a Muslim woman to wear one would face a year in jail and a huge fine.

"No-one may wear in public places clothes that are aimed at hiding the face," says the text to be presented to parliament in July, according to a copy seen by the pro-government newspaper Le Figaro.

The extracts cited did not indicate whether the law would contain exemptions for people covering up their faces for popular non-religious purposes such as skiing, nor how these exceptions would be defined.

Some political opponents of Sarkozy's right-wing ruling party have likewise accused the government of stigmatisation, though the ban does have some support on the left.

"This is what the extremist groups wanted -- to divide French citizens over the question of Islam," said the Islam expert Bouzar. " Politicians have fallen into the trap."

Biden calls for ratification of nuclear test ban treaty

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:04:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden called on the US Senate Thursday to ratify an international treaty banning nuclear testing to strengthen a "fraying" international consensus against the spread of nuclear weapons.

The Senate voted in 1998 against the accord -- the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) -- which would ban all nuclear blasts, whether military or civilian in nature.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the CTBT on September 10, 1996 but it has not yet entered into force because countries like the United States, Iran and Israel have yet to ratify the treaty.

Biden noted that lawmakers had harbored significant concerns about the treaty 12 years ago, but insisted that many of their reservations have been resolved.

"We're confident that all reasonable concerns raised about the treaty -- concerns about verification and a reliable nuclear arsenal -- have now been addressed," he told an audience at the National Defense University, a military educational institution in Washington.

The speech was well received by arms control advocates, but it remained unclear how the proposal would fare in a deeply divided Senate to muster the 67 votes needed for ratification.

Government agencies agree that the US nuclear arsenal can be reliably maintained without tests, according to the vice president.

Nuclear lab chiefs say they know more about the state of the US nuclear arsenal today than when they were testing weapons.

But Biden acknowledged worries that underfunding over the past decade has fueled a sharp loss of skilled specialists and nuclear scientists while US nuclear facilities declined.

"The signs of age and decay are becoming more apparent every day," Biden said. Lab directors "described a dangerous impact these budgetary pressures were having on their ability to manage our arsenal without testing," he added.

In a bid to halt this trend, President Barack Obama's administration has budgeted seven billion dollars this year to maintain the nation's nuclear weapons labs and production complex -- an increase of 624 million dollars from last year.

Over the next five years, spending will be increased by five billion dollars under the administration's 2011 budget proposal.

Biden argued that increased spending on the nuclear infrastructure was not inconsistent with cuts in the US nuclear arsenal.

The United States and Russia have said they are close to agreement on a new treaty to make deeper cuts in their arsenals, which also would require Senate ratification.

"Guaranteeing our stockpile, coupled with broader research and development efforts, allows us to pursue deeper nuclear reductions without in any way compromising our security," the vice president said.

The United States has observed a unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests for 18 years, but Biden said ratification of the CTBT would help US efforts to strengthen another nuclear accord -- the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The NPT, which limits possession of nuclear weapons to the United States and the other four states holding permanent seats on the UN Security Council, has come under fire in recent years as a growing list of countries have either acquired or actively pursued nuclear weapons.

International efforts to stem nuclear proliferation has become a front-burner issue, namely due to ongoing confrontations with Iran over its uranium enrichment program in defiance of UN resolutions.

Biden said the NPT has slowed the spread of nuclear weapons, but the international bonds that contained the spread of atomic weapons is weakening.

"That consensus is fraying and it's time for us to reinforce this consensus and strengthen the treaty for the future," he said.

The United States will rally support for measures to strengthen inspections and punish countries that violate NPT when it comes up for review at a UN conference in May, Biden added.

Chicago businessman charged over Mumbai attacks

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:30:00 +0000

CHICAGO — A Chicago businessman was charged with helping an old friend from military school in Pakistan plot the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, officials said.

Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 49, has been held in jail since his October arrest on charges of helping plot an attack on the Danish newspaper that published incendiary cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Prosecutors allege that Rana helped his friend David Coleman Headley, a key suspect in the Mumbai attacks, by allowing him to use his immigration company as a cover for surveillance trips to India and Denmark.

Rana was charged Thursday with three separate counts of providing material support for terrorism in the Mumbai attacks, the Denmark terror plot, and to the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Also indicted on conspiracy charges related to the Denmark plot were Ilyas Kashmiri, an alleged terror kingpin in Pakistan who prosecutors accuse of being in regular contact with Al-Qaeda leaders, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani military. Neither man is in US custody.

Headley, 49, has pleaded not guilty to 12 terrorism related charges and remains in custody where he is cooperating with prosecutors.

The Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and American mother, Headley reportedly befriended Bollywood stars and even dated an actress during his lengthy surveillance trips to Mumbai.

The indictment alleges that Rana acted as a messenger while Headley scoped out the Mumbai terror targets, taking photos and video and entering their positions on a GPS device.

Nearly a year after the bloody 60-hour siege which began November 26, 2008, Headley was allegedly recorded discussing five future targets with Rana.

Prosecutors said the targets included Bollywood, the Indian temple Somnath, the National Defense College in Delhi, Shiv Sena, a political party in India with roots in Hindu nationalism and the Danish newspaper.

Headley had already begun the planning for a second Indian attack during a March 2009 surveillance trip whose targets included the National Defense College and Chabad Houses in "several cities" in India, the indictment alleges.

He was also working on the Danish newspaper plot weeks before the Mumbai attack was carried out, the indictment alleges.

Headley is accused of once again using Rana's immigration business as a cover in order to arrange a visit to the Copenhagen and Aarhus offices of Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's highest circulating daily.

During a February meeting in Pakistan, Kashmiri allegedly told Headley that they should use a truck bomb to attack the newspaper and directed him to meet with European contacts who could provide the money, weapons and manpower for the attack.

Headley and Rana were arrested in October on terror charges related to the plot to attack Jyllands-Posten and kill an editor and the cartoonist.

Headley was charged last month with spending two years casing Mumbai, even taking boat tours around the city's harbor to scope out landing sites for the attackers.

Rana, a Pakistani-born Canadian citizen who owns the Chicago-based First World Immigration Services that Headley allegedly used as a cover, insists that he is a pacifist who was "duped" by his friend.

A date has not yet been set for Rana's arraignment on the new charges.

No beefed-up security for Shania Twain's New Year's Day torch run: officials

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:16:00 +0000

TIMMINS, Ont. — Olympic officials say they won't be boosting security when Canadian country music superstar Shania Twain carries the torch Friday in her hometown of Timmins, Ont.

Twain's run with the flame will come four days after a torchbearer in Guelph, Ont., fell to the ground in a confrontation between protesters and security personnel.

"The security levels we have now are appropriate. There's no pre-plans to beef up security, but that might change on a moment's notice, based on crowd size or crowd behaviour," said Bert Paquet, spokesman for the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit.

"We have that ability to increase that level pretty much instantly."

Torchbearer Courtney Hansen had just turned a corner with the torch in Guelph on Monday morning when she became entangled in the protest and fell.

The flame skidded against the ground but stayed lit. Guelph police have charged a 19-year-old woman with assault.

It's expected that Twain, a multiple Grammy-winner whose 1997 release "Come on Over" remains the best-selling country music album of all time, will carry the torch during a two-hour celebration in Timmins on New Year's Day.

There have been no reports in Timmins media of any expected protests.

Paquet said security officials "don't want to take away" the uniqueness of the torch run - both for Twain's fans and the singer herself - by having undue levels of security.

The security unit is working closely with local police, Paquet said, and if any "intelligence" shows there could be a problem then they'll act quickly.

"Our job is to protect the torchbearer and the flame. And we will do that."

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Lebanon PM on 1st Syria visit since father's death

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:57:00 +0000

DAMASCUS, Syria — Lebanon's prime minister, who has blamed neighboring Syria for the assassination of his father, visited Damascus Saturday for the first time since the 2005 killing — a trip that a close associate said was extremely difficult for him to make.

Despite the unresolved issue of his father's slaying in a massive truck bombing in Beirut, Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri's visit potentially opens the way for a new era in the two countries' relations, which have been characterized by upheaval and suspicion for decades.

The 39-year-old Hariri has appealed for relations with Syria based on "clarity and honesty." He was greeted warmly by Syrian President Bashar Assad upon his arrival at the presidential palace at the start of his two-day visit, and Lebanese media said he would attend a dinner banquet hosted by Assad.

Assad adviser Buthaina Shaaban told reporters their talks were "frank" and "succeeded in overcoming difficulties that marred relations in the past five years."

"The guarantee to that is the will of both President Assad and Hariri to build a positive and constructive relationship," she said.

Hariri said in a statement his government was looking forward to establishing "real and strategic relations with Syria."

Syria directly dominated Lebanon for nearly 30 years and kept tens of thousands of troops on its soil. After the killing of Hariri's father, Rafik, Syria came under intense pressure from its opponents in Lebanon, who staged massive protests, and from the West, forcing it to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

Syria repeatedly denied involvement in the assassination and a series of other political slayings and bombings that followed, but Hariri and his supporters continued to implicate Syria in the killing. Anti-Syrian parties were swept to power in 2005 elections in Lebanon.

The visit by Hariri was "very difficult on the personal level" and involves "great sacrifice," said Hariri loyalist and former lawmaker Mustafa Alloush.

"But as prime minister of Lebanon, it is quite normal to have such a visit. ... It is necessary and there is a need to settle all aspects of the relationship," Alloush told The Associated Press.

He said the visit did not mean some in Lebanon had dropped their belief that Syria was responsible for the killing of Rafik Hariri, who also served as prime minister.

"But this matter is up to the international tribunal now; it is no longer a personal issue," Alloush said.

A U.N.-backed tribunal has been set up to prosecute the assassins, but no suspects have been charged.

Syria has sought recently to improve its relations with the West, largely through its actions in Lebanon. Assad backed a peace deal between rival political factions in Lebanon that ended sectarian violence in May 2008.

Last year, Syria established formal diplomatic relations with Lebanon and set up an embassy in Lebanon for the first time since the countries' independence from France in the 1940s.

Syria still maintains influence in Lebanon through its backing of the militant group Hezbollah.

Hariri and his pro-Western political allies are in an uneasy power-sharing government with a Hezbollah-led grouping.

Associated Press Writer Zeina Karam contributed to this report from Beirut.

The push for 350: Contradictions and carbon levels

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:52:00 +0000

OPENHAGEN — As police cracked down on climate protesters, church bells tolled 350 times Sunday to impress on the U.N. global warming conference a number that is gaining a following, but is also awash in contradictions.

Conference negotiators went behind closed doors in talks to pin down an elusive new pact on climate, talks in which the figure 350 looms as a goal for true believers, but one that appears impossible based on progress so far.

It refers to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the highest concentration that some leading scientists say the world can handle without sparking dangerous climate effects.

"It's the most important number in the world," said Bill McKibben, founder of the environmental activist group 350.org. "It's the line between habitability on this planet and a really, really desolate future."

Not everyone buys into that. But an entire environmental group has sprung up around the number, pushing 350 as a goal, sporting it on T-shirts and flags waved by throngs of protesters that marched to the conference center over the weekend. About 100 nations at the U.N. climate summit have signed on to the idea of heading for 350.

Actually, the world has lived with more than 350 for a while.

The last time the Earth had 350 ppm of carbon dioxide in the air was a generation ago, in the fall of 1989. This year CO2 pushed over the 390 level. When scientists started measuring carbon dioxide in 1958 it was 315.

Since the atmosphere passed the 350 level, ice sheets have been melting and other dramatic changes have been happening. Prominent scientists — notably NASA's James Hansen, one of the earliest to warn about global warming, and Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — have said 350 is the only safe level of carbon dioxide in the air.

Still, many economists, political leaders, and even some scientists believe that the worst effects of global warming can be avoided even with less stringent actions.

But there is general agreement among negotiators and climate scientists that continued global warming will lead to dramatic changes that mean more widespread drought in some regions, greater flooding along coastlines, stronger storms and the loss of species.

On Sunday, hundreds of churches around the world had signed up to ring bells at 3:50 p.m. in their respective time zones.

"It was an incredibly powerful moment and to know that there are bells ringing all over Europe, up to Greenland, down into the south Pacific and every corner of the planet," McKibben said moments after the bells stopped ringing in Copenhagen.

As they tolled, more than 40 government environment chiefs and other high-level negotiators were meeting at the Danish Foreign Ministry. They were trying to bridge the gap between their positions in informal talks before the second and last week of negotiations gets under way. The week will end with the arrival of President Barack Obama and more than 100 other national leaders for the final hours of negotiation.

Sharp divisions remain between rich and poor countries on greenhouse emissions cuts and financing for developing nations to deal with climate change and shift to cleaner energy.

"I think there was recognition around the table of the urgency of what we need to achieve in the coming days," Britain's Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said after Sunday's talks. "I think there needs to be more movement from everyone, more imagination, and I think we will all be striving for that."

Australia's Climate Change Minister Penny Wong also said a lot of work remains to be done.

"It's going to be tough to get an agreement by Friday but that's what we have to do," she told a news conference.

According to participants, the closed-door consultations focused on about a half-dozen plans on financing for poor countries to deal with climate change. One joint proposal by Mexico and Norway calls for a "Green Fund" for climate financing, starting with $10 billion a year in 2013, and increasing to $30 billion to $40 billion a year by 2020

Separately, a proposal aimed at saving the world's tropical forests suffered a setback Sunday, when negotiators ditched plans for faster action on the problem because of concerns that rich countries aren't willing to finance the plan. A deal on deforestation — a sizable global warming factor — is considered a key component of the larger pact.

For a second day in a row, police cracked down on climate activists marching through the Danish capital. More than 200 were detained as police stopped an unauthorized demonstration headed toward the city's harbor and carried out a security check of some of the participants.

Meanwhile, nearly all of the 1,000 detained on Saturday — from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the U.S — were released without charges. Thirteen of them were arraigned in court and faced preliminary charges of assaulting police or were let off with a warning for wearing masks, which are outlawed during demonstrations in Denmark, or carrying box-cutters or other sharp objects.

Reducing carbon dioxide levels to 350 would mean reversing the trend of the past couple of centuries. Carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for as long as 100 years. And the emissions cuts currently being pledged by developed countries, including the United States and European nations, are aimed at having CO2 levels peak at around 450, not 350, in coming decades.

And even that may not be possible. Some economists say the world should plan to stop at 550.

Economist Henry Jacoby, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, has said that even 450 is "totally impossible, there's no way we can do that."

To get down to 350, civilization has to remove massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the skies, something talked about but not yet achieved. Trees and oceans suck CO2 from the atmosphere, but that process is overwhelmed by emissions from burning coal and oil. McKibben said it would probably take 40 years to get down to 350 even if emissions stopped today.

"It may be on the edge of impossible," he said Sunday. "We could do it. At the moment, there's no sign that we are going to do it."

MIT management professor John Sterman said scientifically 350 makes sense, even if economically it seem unreachable.

"We ought to have a goal of 350 and realize we're already above that," Sterman said.

___

Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen, John Heilprin and Karl Ritter contributed to this report.

EDITOR'S NOTE _ Find behind-the-scenes information, blog posts and discussion about the Copenhagen climate conference at http://www.facebook.com/theclimatepool, a Facebook page run by AP and an array of international news agencies. Follow coverage and blogging of the event on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/AP_ClimatePool

Clashes in Philippine martial law province: govt

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:46:00 +0000

MANILA, Philippines — Rebel forces loyal to a powerful Muslim clan whose area is under martial law in the southern Philippines have engaged troops in clashes, a senior government official said Monday.

"There have been shooting incidents between these groups and the Philippine National Police," Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno told reporters.

"They have engaged in actual firefights with some of the uniformed services," he said.

EU: Hijacked oil tanker was outside corridor

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:51:00 +0000

NAIROBI, Kenya — An oil tanker bound for the United States that was hijacked by Somali pirates was traveling outside a recommended maritime corridor, the commander of the EU Naval Force said Tuesday.

The Greek-flagged tanker Maran Centaurus was carrying more than $20 million of crude oil when pirates captured it Sunday.

Rear Adm. Peter Hudson said Tuesday he does not advise vessels to have armed guards on board, and that flammable cargo and firearms don't mix.

Hudson also said the fact that pirates are now attacking ships 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) off the Somali coast presents a large challenge and that the EU force will never fully secure such a large area of ocean.

Twenty percent of global shipping — including 8 percent of global oil shipments — is funneled into the narrow, pirate-infested Gulf of Aden that leads through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal. The route is bordered on one side by the failed state of Somalia and on the other by the increasingly unstable country of Yemen.

Somalia's lawless 1,880-mile coastline has become a pirate haven. The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for a generation and the weak U.N.-backed administration is too busy fighting an Islamist insurgency to go after pirates. Pirates now hold about a dozen vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members.

The Maran Centaurus is carrying around 275,000 metric tons of crude, said Stavros Hadzigrigoris, from the ship's owners Maran Tankers Management. At current market rates the oil would be worth just over $20 million.

The ship has 9 Greeks, 16 Filipinos, 2 Ukrainians, and a Romanian aboard. Granberg said the ship's owner reported the crew was not injured in the attack.

The vessel is only the second oil tanker captured by Somali pirates. The Saudi-owned Sirius Star was hijacked a year ago, leading to heightened international efforts to fight piracy off the Horn of Africa. That hijacking ended with a $3 million ransom payment. The ship held 2 million barrels of oil valued at about $100 million and was released last January.

Icebergs heading for New Zealand

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:53:00 +0000

A flotilla of hundreds of icebergs that split off Antarctic ice shelves is drifting toward New Zealand and could endanger ships in the south Pacific Ocean, experts said.

The nearest one, about 30 metres high, was 160 miles south east of New Zealand's Stewart Island, Australian glaciologist Neal Young said.

He could not say how many icebergs in total were roaming the Pacific, but counted 130 in one satellite image alone and 100 in another.

Large numbers of icebergs last floated close to New Zealand in 2006, when some were visible from the coastline - the first such sighting since 1931.

Maritime chiefs have issued navigation warnings for the area south of the country. "It's an alert to shipping to be aware these potential hazards are around and to be on the lookout for them," Maritime New Zealand spokeswoman Sophie Hazelhurst said.

No major shipping lanes or substantial fishing grounds are in the area, but most ships there have little hull protection if they collide with an iceberg - which typically has 90% of its mass under water. Very few adventure sailors would be in the waters in November, when it is still the southern hemisphere's spring.

Maritime New Zealand safety services general manager Nigel Clifford said as the icebergs drift closer "the more the potential risks grow of them posing a hazard to shipping" as they break up and float lower in - or just under - the ocean surface.

The agency was "keeping a close eye on the increasing risk ... it's tracking iceberg positions and has begun initial planning for any incident", he said.

MTV nabs rights to Michael Jackson documentary

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:23:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The network that introduced millions to Michael Jackson will air his final performance. MTV Networks has acquired the exclusive U.S. television rights to the posthumous documentary "Michael Jackson's This Is It."

Though the film wasn't the blockbuster some anticipated, the concert movie did well at the box office and should prove of high interest to viewers of MTV, whose airing of Jackson's music videos helped boost the singer's career into the stratosphere during the 1980s.

Sister networks such as VH1, BET and Palladia also will have rights to air the film.

"This Is It" was shot from March to June and includes concert rehearsal and behind-the-scenes footage as Jackson prepared for his planned comeback stand in London.

Man in Santa Claus parade faces impaired driving charges

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:43:00 +0000

CAMBRIDGE, Ont. — A 51-year-old man faces impaired driving charges after he was pulled over while driving a vehicle in a Santa Claus parade in Cambridge, Ont. Saturday night.

At around 6:50 p.m. police at the parade received a tip about a driver in the parade who appeared drunk.

Police immediately pulled the vehicle off the road.

Two other occupants in the vehicle were charged with public intoxication.

Elisha Cuthbert, of '24' fame, to lead Grey Cup parade in Calgary

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:36:00 +0000

CALGARY — A Hollywood actress best known for her role as Jack Bauer's daughter in the hit television show "24" will lead the Grey Cup parade through the streets of Calgary Nov. 28.

Elisha Cuthbert, 26, will act as the parade marshal.

The actress is also well-known in the city as the girlfriend of Calgary Flames player Dion Phaneuf.

There are more than 60 floats and groups participating in the parade.

According to a website dedicated to the actress, she grew up in Montreal, but moved to Los Angeles at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career.

In her role as Bauer's daughter in "24", Cuthbert's character experienced multiple kidnappings and a mountain lion attack over the series' first two seasons.

Wi-LAN signs licensing agreement with NEC Corp.; price tag undisclosed

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:35:00 +0000

OTTAWA — Patent licensing company Wi-LAN Inc. (TSX:WIN) announced Tuesday that Japan's NEC Corp. has signed a multi-year licence agreement to use its patented Internet technology.

The deal will provide NEC, an information technology services, network systems and personal electronics company, access to Wi-LAN technology for use in their domestic and export ADSL products.

ADSL is a type of DSL, a broadband communications technology used for connecting to the Internet.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

"We are very pleased that NEC, a leading Japanese DSL supplier, has taken a licence to our DSL technologies," said Derek Nuhn, vice-president of Wireline Technologies, a division of Wi-LAN.

The agreement will increase the number of companies that have licensed the Ottawa-based company's technologies to 240.

Shares of Wi-LAND dipped a penny to $2.27 Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Ottawa man charged with attempted murder in stabbing

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:01:00 +0000

OTTAWA — Ottawa police have charged a man with attempted murder after he allegedly forced his way into his ex-partner's home.

Police say she was struck in the face and her boyfriend was stabbed on Saturday in the home in west-end Ottawa.

Both victims were taken to hospital and the man was in serious but stable condition.

The woman was released from the hospital.

A man turned himself into police Sunday morning.

Berlin Perdomopena, 35, has been charged with attempted murder, break and enter, assault, assault with a weapon, two counts of aggravated assault and possession of weapons.

Freeway crash kills 2 women

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:22:00 +0000

Two women were killed Tuesday night in a two-vehicle crash on the Sherwood Park Freeway, Edmonton police said.

The women — both 69 — were the driver and passenger in a minivan that was turning left onto 71st Street around 6:50 p.m. when it collided with a Ford panel van that was proceeding through a green light.

The 23-year-old male driver of the van suffered minor injuries.

The women are Edmonton's 29th and 30th traffic fatalities of 2009.

Police are still investigating how the collision occurred.

B.C. high school, nearby residences evacuated after mortar shells found

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:14:00 +0000

BURNABY, B.C. — A B.C. high school has been evacuated after unexploded mortar shells were discovered nearby.

RCMP Cpl. Ted De Jager says the bombs were found Wednesday afternoon near Alpha Secondary in Burnaby, B.C. De Jager says Mounties are still trying to determine how the mortar shells got there and where they might have come from.

De Jager wouldn't say how close to the school the shells were found, or even how they were discovered.

Mounties have cordoned off the area around the school and have also evacuated some nearby homes.

De Jager says officers are still attempting to determine the state of the mortar shells.

Four killed in US strike in Pakistan: officials

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:06:00 +0000

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan — At least four militants were killed in a US drone missile strike in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said on Thursday.

The attack took place in Norak village of North Waziristan, an area where Washington says Islamist fighters are hiding out and planning attacks on Western troops stationed in neighbouring Afghanistan.

"It was a US drone attack which targeted a compound of a local tribesman, Musharraf Gul, in Norak village, killing four militants and wounding three others," a senior security official in the area told AFP.

He said two missiles were fired from a US drone at 1:30 am (2030 GMT Wednesday).

Another security official confirmed the attack and said "Taliban rebels were using the compound."

"It is not clear if there was any high-value target," he said, adding: "We also do not know yet the identity of the militants."

The latest attack came against the backdrop of a continuing military offensive in neighbouring South Waziristan, a stronghold of the feared Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Pakistan has vowed to quash Tehreek-e-Taliban in South Waziristan, part of the border area with Afghanistan that Washington calls the most dangerous place in the world because of the abundance of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Pakistan launched its fierce air and ground offensive in the region on October 17, with 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships laying siege to TTP boltholes.

So far, the military says it has killed more than 390 militants since the operation began, with 37 troops losing their lives.

The long-anticipated assault into South Waziristan came after a spring offensive in and around the northwestern Swat valley, which the government declared a success in July. However, sporadic outbreaks of violence continue.

The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy pilotless drones in the region.

The fatalities are impossible to verify independently because the targets are deep in Taliban-controlled territory.

Islamabad publicly opposes the US missile attacks, with 60 such strikes killing more than 580 people since August 2008.

But the Pakistani government welcomed the death of Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud on August 5.

Police warn parents to inspect candy after N.S. mom finds razor blade in apple

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:24:00 +0000

MELVERN SQUARE, N.S. — RCMP are reminding parents to inspect their children's Halloween loot after a Nova Scotia woman discovered a scary surprise in her child's treats.

The Annapolis County woman told police she found a razor blade hidden within an apple that her child received Saturday night.

Police say they've seized the items and are investigating.

The youngster had been trick-or-treating in Melvern Square in Annapolis County and in Kingston, located in Kings County.

Two Surrey men taken to hospital after Halloween attacks; five in RCMP custody

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:51:00 +0000

SURREY, B.C. — Two men have been taken to hospital after separate Halloween night attacks in Surrey, B.C.

RCMP Sgt. Paulette Freill says the first man contacted Surrey Mounties early Sunday morning and told them he'd been struck with a beer bottle while near a local high school.

RCMP received a call from a second man half an hour later who said he had been stabbed by a number of males.

Police believe both attacks were carried out by the same group of men and Freill says five individuals have been taken into custody.

Both victims are in stable condition.

CRTC denies internet throttling appeal

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:41:00 +0000

The CRTC has denied an appeal from a group of internet providers to force Bell Canada to stop its internet traffic management, otherwise known as throttling.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on Thursday threw out a "review and vary" request from the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, a group of smaller companies that rents portions of Bell's network, on a decision the regulator made last year.

In its previous decision, the CRTC found that Bell was within its right to extend the throttling — which it applies to customers using peer-to-peer software — to its wholesale companies. Bell said it needed to throttle because peer-to-peer traffic was causing congestion on its network. The smaller ISPs appealed to the CRTC and said Bell had not proven that congestion.

The CRTC's decision on Thursday reaffirmed its earlier order.

"The commission determines that the applications by CAIP et al. … do not raise substantial doubt about the correctness of the determination in [last year's decision]," it said. "The commission also determines that the applications do not raise substantial doubt about the correctness of [the previous decision] with respect to the completeness of the record used to make that decision or to the fettering of the commission's discretion."

Dumping Alberta premier as Tory leader would be a mistake: ex-rival Ted Morton

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:55:00 +0000

EDMONTON — Alberta cabinet minister Ted Morton says it would be a mistake to dump Premier Ed Stelmach when the Tories hold a leadership review next week.

Morton, who lost the 2006 leadership race to Stelmach, says rejecting him now would plunge the party into an unnecessary search for a new leader.

There's been widespread speculation that Morton has been waiting in the wings in case Stelmach has a poor showing when delegates vote on his performance at the convention in Red Deer on Nov. 7.

But Morton, the minister of sustainable resources, is encouraging them to stay the course.

Former premier Peter Lougheed has also publicly endorsed Stelmach, as has Jim Dinning, a former cabinet minister who also ran for the leadership three years ago.

SKorea acquires Canadian oil firm to boost self-sufficiency

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:09:00 +0000

SEOUL — South Korea's state-run oil company has acquired a Canadian energy firm as part of its efforts to secure more overseas sources, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Thursday.

The Korea National Oil Corp signed the deal to buy Harvest Energy Trust for 4.07 billion Canadian dollars (3.9 billion US), the ministry said.

Harvest Energy has oil and natural gas production and downstream refining and marketing operations.

The acquisition of the company which produces 53,400 barrels of crude a day will raise South Korea's self-sufficiency in oil and gas to 8.1 percent of total domestic demand from the current 6.3 percent.

KNOC will pay 1.8 billion Canadian dollars in cash and take over Harvest Energy's debts worth 2.27 billion Canadian dollars.

South Korea, which imported 87 million barrels of crude last year, is seeking to expand overseas production to insulate the country from sharp fluctuations in international oil prices.

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Mark Lewis |Downtown Tilt, Zoom and Pan (2005)
I worked on this film back in Sept.2005

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