Month: February 2010

Moscow, February 27: Russia has once again expressed concern about US plans for a new missile shield system in Romania.

A Russian foreign ministry spokesman says Moscow has serious questions about the aims of the new initiative.

Andrei Nesterenko stressed that Russia will continue to oppose what he called any dubious unilateral actions that affect international security.

Nesterenko did not comment whether the dispute could affect talks with the US on a key nuclear arms reduction treaty that expired in December.

Washington, February 27: Jilted love may have prompted a man to kill a female teacher Friday outside an elementary school in Tacoma, Washington, a newspaper reported.

There were no children in the school at the time of the shooting, the News Tribune reported online.

The suspected killer died in a hail of police bullets just a few blocks away from the school.

The suspect, who like his victim was 30 years old, knew the woman but did not have a relationship with her, police spokesman Mark Fulghum was quoted as saying.

Washington, February 27: A Canadian citizen was sentenced for scheming to steal excess government property, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday.

Bradley A. Garner, 51, Canadian, but a resident of Palm Desert, California, worked out the plot with his half-brother Steven B. Smith, a former employee of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Smith misused a government computer to place claims on property such as boats, planes, vehicles and computers as a representative of the FAA that were meant to be transferred to other federal agencies.

New York, February 27: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Friday condemned the Taliban for the “senseless disregard” of human lives in the bomb attacks in Kabul that killed at least 17 people.

Ban said in a statement that he “strongly condemns” the attacks that took place in Kabul Friday and for which the Taliban claimed responsibility. The attacks killed and injured Afghans as well as foreigners in a hotel and guesthouse in downtown Kabul.

Tokyo, February 27: An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 struck Okinawa Prefecture, about 1,500 km southwest of Tokyo, Saturday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

A local police official told Kyodo News Agency that they had received no information of human casualties.

Police had received a report of water pipe having been ruptured in Naha city, the capital of Okinawa and Nishihara town.

Washington, February 27: US President Barack Obama will host an international nuclear security summit here April 12-13, the White House said.

“On April 12 and 13, the president will host a nuclear security summit at the Washington Convention Centre,” Xinhua reported quoting White House spokesman Robert Gibbs as saying Friday.

“The purpose of the summit is to discuss steps we can collectively take to secure vulnerable nuclear materials and prevent acts of nuclear terrorism,” he added.

New York, February 27: US stocks fluctuated in a narrow range and ended slightly higher Friday as mixed economic data offered little help to investors who were eager to figure out the direction of the recovery, Xinhua reported.

The Dow Jones inched up 4.23, or 0.04 percent, to 10,325.26. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 1.56, or 0.14 percent, to 1, 104.49 and the Nasdaq was up 4.04, or 0.18 percent, to 2,238.26.

Toronto, February 27: Canada Friday let off another terrorist after his guilty plea in the Al Qaeda-inspired plot to bomb its major targets in 2006.

Known as the Toronto-18 plot – which could have been Canada’s 9/11 – it was unearthed in June 2006 with the arrest of 18 Muslim men, mostly of Pakistani origin. The plotters had planned to storm and blow up the nation’s parliament in Ottawa, take leaders hostage and behead the prime minister.

Vancouver, February 26: White House press secretary Robert Gibbs will have to appear at his next media briefing in a Canadian ice hockey shirt after losing a bet.

Gibbs had a bet with his Canadian counterpart Dimitri Soudas that the US team would win the final of the women’s ice hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics against Canada.

However, the home side won the match 2-0 to repeat their 2002 and 2006 triumph, and Gibbs will now have to wear the Canadian shirt at his next briefing.

–Agencies