Month: August 2009

Iran’s Khamenei vows to prosecute post-vote crimes

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Tehran, August 31: Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Sunday that Iran will prosecute anyone who has committed “crimes” against people harmed in post-election unrest, state television reported.

Speaking in the wake of allegations that detainees have been raped and tortured, Khamenei was quoted as telling a group of academics in Tehran: “All those who have been hurt in these (post-vote) incidents should know that the system does not intend to compromise.”

Man Arrested for Issuing
 Dh640,500 in Dud Cheques

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Dubai, August 31: The General Department of Criminal Investigation of the Dubai Police has arrested a man who allegedly issued dud cheques worth Dh640,500.

A number of shops owners informed the police that the 35-year-old suspect had taken goods from them and issued to them dud cheques.

They told the police that the suspect had shut down the company against which the cheques were issued.

The police failed to reach the suspect who had switched off his mobile phone and had no fixed address.

Mohammed to Launch Metro

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Dubai, August 31: His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will officially launch Dubai Metro on September 9, 2009.

Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said the emirate’s plan for the train system were coming
to fruition. “Launching Dubai Metro on September 9 is a true manifestation of the vision of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to uplift the infrastructure of the emirate of Dubai,”

Parents Exercise Caution
as Schools Reopen

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Dubai, August 31: The start of the academic year saw quieter school corridors as many parents chose to keep their children back home as a precautionary measure over swine flu fears.

Sharjah resident Sheeba Shaji decided to keep her children home for fear they might catch an infection due to their low immunity. “My elder son is allergic and suffers from wheezing and sneezing occasionally. I was worried about his vulnerability and I was also scared that the school might send him back just because he sneezes due to his allergy,” she said.

VIP Web Domain Name Holder Gets Dh4m Offer

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Abu Dhabi, August 31: A UAE-based businessman is set to make millions from the sale of a highly desired web domain name.

Brendan O’Shea, the Irish business development director in an Abu Dhabi management consultancy, has been offered Dh4 million by an Emirati for the web domain name vip.ae, which he registered in early 2007 to promote an event for VIPs in the UAE capital.

Schools Told to Note H1N1 Symptoms

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Dubai, August 31: Clinical judgement and common sense are the keywords for schools while identifying sick children and sending them for home isolation due to suspected H1N1 infection.

Experts are stressing on this message for avoiding a situation in which any child that sneezes or coughs for reasons not linked to swine flu is treated as a suspected H1N1 patient.

This is also important because some of the initial symptoms of H1N1 infection are similar to those of all other types of influenza, common cold, and certain allergies, especially in 
asthmatic people.

Sharjah Power Failure Frustrates Residents

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Sharjah, August 31: Residents of Sharjah’s Industrial Area No 1 and some parts in Industrial Areas 13 and 17 are extremely frustrated with the power failure experienced during the last three days.

Residents and commercial business owners said they had witnessed failure in power supply up to four times a day during the weekend.

Riaz, a resident of Industrial Area No 1, said power supply had barely been on for three hours in recent days. “The power does not last three hours. So far I have already spent more than Dh2,400 staying in hotels,” he said.

Businesses Upbeat as Launch Date Nears

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Dubai, August 31: Shopkeepers and staff of businesses based around the 10 stations that are opening on the Dubai Metro were looking forward to the launch day.

Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) officials on Sunday named the 10 stations that would open on September 9: Rashidiya, Terminal 3 (Dubai International Airport), City Center, Al Rigga, Union, Khalid bin Al Waleed, Jafliah, Financial Center, Mall of the Emirates, and Nakheel Harbour & Tower.

The remaining stations on the Red Line will be opened in phases over the next few months, said officials.

Woman Dies as Flu Fears Keep Students Away

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Dubai, August 31: A woman has become the UAE’s second swine flu fatality, and as parents worried about the spread of the H1N1 virus, fewer students than normal turned up for the first day of the new school term on Sunday.

The 30-year-old Asian woman who died was pregnant but her baby was delivered through C-section and is in good health, Wam reported.

According to school principals, up to half of primary section pupils were absent on Sunday but, with some exceptions, most high school students attended on the first day.

Cheney blasts Obama for probe against CIA

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Washington, August 31: Former US vice president Dick Cheney and former presidential candidate John McCain Sunday took the Obama administration to task for ordering probe against the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) for alleged excesses against terror suspects.

Appearing on Fox News, the former vice president said investigation against CIA was “a political move’ by the Obama administration. “I mean, there’s no other rationale for why they’re doing this,” he said.

India Calls Off Chandrayaan Moon Mission

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Panaji, August 31: India on Sunday decided to terminate its first unmanned moon mission as contact could not be re-established with the spacecraft Chandrayaan, a top space official 
said here.

“We are disappointed with what has happened, but we have managed to salvage a large volume of data,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters here.

“We are content with the result,” he said. Earlier, Indian scientists tried to restore radio contact with the lunarcraft Chandrayaan-1.

Fire at Guwahati Refinery Doused

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Guwahati, August 31: A fire broke out at the Guwahati Refinery on Sunday, creating panic in the area. It was extinguished in about half-an-hour and authorities said there were no casualties or damage to the plant.

A refinery spokesperson said the fire broke outside the Sulphur Recovery Unit of the plant on Sunday afternoon during a routine shutdown.

India’s Defence Drive Attracts Global Suppliers

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New Delhi, August 31: India’s drive to protect itself after last year’s Mumbai attacks is attracting interest from some of the world’s biggest companies who see opportunities in the push for improved homeland security.

The government, after shunning the private sector for decades, is embracing it as an ally in the quest for new security strategies and technologies following the Mumbai bloodbath last November that left 166 people dead.

Gaddafi, Berlusconi launch Libya highway project

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Touisha, August 31: Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi laid the foundation stone on Sunday for an ambitious highway stretching along the entire Libyan coast, an AFP correspondent said.

The 1,200 kilometre (750 mile) highway has long been demanded by Libya as compensation for Rome’s occupation and colonial rule over the north African country from 1911 until World War II.

USS Missouri to get Pearl Harbor shipyard makeover

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Hawaii, August 31: The “Mighty Mo,” the World War II battleship best known for hosting the formal surrender of Japan in 1945, is heading to the shipyard for repairs.

The USS Missouri, now a decommissioned vessel called the Battleship Missouri Memorial, will leave its historic spot at Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor in October.

US expects ‘strong alliance’ with new Japan PM

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Washington, August 31: The White House said Sunday it expected a “strong alliance” with Japan’s incoming center-left government after voters ended a half-century of nearly unbroken rule by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

The White House described the vote in Japan as a “historic election in one of the world’s leading democracies.”

Hurricane Jimena bellows off Mexican Pacific

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Los Cabos, August 31: Hurricane Jimena blew into a dangerous Category 4 storm off Mexico’s Pacific Coast and was on track to buffet resorts on the Baja California peninsula on Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Sunday.

Jimena, a small but powerful hurricane that has intensified quickly since it formed early on Saturday, had winds of near 135 mph (215 kmh) with higher gusts, and further strengthening was expected in the hours ahead.

Blackwater tapped foreigners on secret CIA program

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Washington, August 31: When the CIA revived a plan to kill or capture terrorists in 2004, the agency turned to the well-connected security company then known as Blackwater USA.

With Blackwater’s lucrative government security work and contacts arrayed in hot spots around the world, company officials offered the services of foreigners supposedly skilled at tracking terrorists in lawless regions and countries where the CIA had no working relationships with the government.

Merkel’s party loses ground in German votes

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Berlin, August 31: Voters inflicted losses on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in state elections Sunday, a setback weeks before a national election that she hopes will produce a new center-right government.

Merkel’s center-left rival in the Sept. 27 national ballot, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, celebrated her party’s “dramatic losses.” However, the results were unspectacular for his Social Democrats, who trail in national polls.

RSS wants to reboot BJP

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New Delhi, August 31: Leadership change in the embattled Bharatiya Janata Party is the last of the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh’s concerns. It wants the party to change the way it’s run.

Bhagwat told every BJP leader who matters that the Sangh’s was not concerned about individuals – whether it is Advani, Rajnath Singh, or for that matter anyone.Fix your system, was the message the sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat delivered with his characteristic bluntness to the many BJP leaders – big and small – he met over the last three days.

Youth washed away, still to be traced: Police

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Mumbai, August 31: An 18-year-old youth from Manor in Thane district was washed away in the Vaitarna river where he had gone to immerse the Ganpati idol last evening on the seventh day of the festival, a delayed report reaching the district police headquarters here said today.

The boy has been identified as Shiv Dashrath Dalvi and added that he had gone along with several other villagers for the immersion in the river.

A search was launched both by the villagers and the police but till late this evening the body was not recovered, police said.

US eyes strong alliance with new Japanese government

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Washington, August 31: The Obama administration expects a “strong alliance” with a new Japanese government, the White House said Sunday.

“We are confident that the strong US-Japan alliance and the close partnership between our two countries will continue to flourish under the leadership of the next government in Tokyo,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

“President Obama looks forward to working closely with the new Japanese prime minister on a broad range of global, regional and bilateral issues,” said the spokesman.

Al Qaeda claims responsibility for attack targeting Saudi prince

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Riyadh, August 31: Al Qaeda Sunday claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack that targeted a Saudi prince and deputy interior minister, the pan-Arab al-Jazeera TV reported.

The terrorist organisation’s branch in the Arabian peninsula said in a statement published on an Islamist website that the perpetrator of the blast, which lightly wounded the Saudi prince, traveled to the Gulf kingdom through Yemen.

German exit polls leak via Twitter

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Berlin, August 31: Data from exit polls in Germany was widely distributed via the online service Twitter Sunday, breaking a confidentiality law and upsetting electoral officials.

The data was embargoed until 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) Sunday when polls closed, but began coursing hours earlier through Twitter, a web service that broadcasts very short personal messages. The originator of the initial message was anonymous.

Survey companies compute the most likely poll outcome about four hours before voting booths close, based on interviews with voters who have just cast their ballots.

Bahrain reports first swine flu death

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Manama, August 31: A southeast Asian woman became the first person to die of swine flu in Bahrain, health officials in Manama said Sunday.

The deceased was a woman in her thirties from Southeast Asia who was brought to Salmaniya Medical Complex in critical condition, said Mohammed Amin al-Awadhi, chief of medical staff at the country’s main hospital.

Sources told the German Press Agency dpa that the deceased was a 30-year-old Filipino woman who was brought to the hospital Wednesday.