IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • England Defender Rio Ferdinand Retires

    {{England defender Rio Ferdinand has announced his retirement from international football.

    The Manchester United player, 34, who won 81 caps, said he wants to concentrate on his club career.}}

    “After a great deal of thought, I have decided the time is right to retire from international football,” he said.

    England manager Roy Hodgson said: “To have captained his country, and to play at three World Cups, marks him out among a very special group of players.”

    Ferdinand has not played for England since a Euro 2012 qualifier against Switzerland in June 2011.

    He was recalled by Hodgson for the World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Montenegro in March, but later withdrew because of a “pre-planned fitness programme”.

    Ferdinand helped Manchester United regain the Premier League title and was voted in to the Professional Footballers’ Association’s team of the year by his peers.

    “I feel it is right for me to stand aside and let the younger players come through, which allows me to concentrate on my club career,” added the former West Ham and Leeds centre-back.

    “The team looks in great shape and there is an influx of young, talented players coming through the ranks, which bodes well for the future.

    “I regard it as a great honour and a privilege to have represented my country at every level from Under-17s upwards.

    “I have always been very proud to play for England. I would like to wish Roy and the team all the best for future tournaments.”

    On Thursday, Hodgson will name his England squad for the end-of-season friendlies against Republic of Ireland at Wembley on 29 May and Brazil in Rio de Janiero four days later.

    {wirestory}

  • French MPs Seek to Cut English Influence in Universities

    {{French MPs on Tuesday urged parliament to strike down or heavily amend a bill that would allow universities in France to increase the use of English in classrooms, amid fiery debate over the best way to elevate the country’s standing in international academia.}}

    Several intellectuals and the prestigious Académie Française, which is charged with safeguarding the French language, have in recent days called on the government to reject a law that supporters say will help attract more foreign students to French institutions of higher learning.

    The bill says some university-level classes in France could be taught in English when they were part of an accord with a foreign or international institution, or if they had financial backing from the European Union.

    Daniel Fasquelle, an MP with the main opposition UMP party who opposes the bill, highlighted France’s “waning influence” and told parliament he feared the new law would accelerate “the complete loss of control in certain technical and scientific fields.”

    Claude Hagège, a lecturer at the prestigious Collège de France, chastised it as a “self-destructive impulse” and “suicidal project.”

    But the bill, authored by Higher Education Minister Geneviève Fioraso, a Socialist, has also found detractors within her own camp.

    Socialist MP Pouria Amirshahi is leading a group of around 40 lawmakers who have already declared themselves against the measure.

    Its implications and eventual application were the subjects of long debates on Tuesday at the National Assembly, with a vote expected on May 22.

  • Iran Hard-liners Urge Election ban on 2 candidates

    {{Hard-line Iranian lawmakers have petitioned authorities to bar two contenders — a moderate former president and a protege of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — from running in next month’s presidential election.}}

    According to a report Wednesday by the semi-official Fars news agency, about 100 lawmakers appealed to the country’s Guardian Council, which vets and short-lists all those seeking to run in the June 14 election.

    One of the lawmakers, Javad Karimi Qodoosi, says they want ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani barred for supporting the opposition in the disputed 2009 vote.

    Qodoosi says the lawmakers also want the Council to disqualify Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close confident of Ahmadinejad, for his alleged un-Islamic attitudes.

    Rafsanjani and Mashaei last week submitted their candidacies to the Council, which is to announce the finalists later this month.

  • US Envoy Summoned by Russian Foreign Ministry

    {{The U.S. Ambassador to Russia was summoned by the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday over Moscow’s claim it caught a U.S. diplomat disguised in a blond wig trying to recruit a counterintelligence officer.}}

    Michael McFaul entered the ministry’s building in central Moscow morning and left half an hour later without saying a word to journalists waiting outside the compound.

    Russian security officials reported on Tuesday that they briefly detained Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy, who was carrying special technical equipment, disguises, written instructions and a large sum of money. Fogle was later handed over to U.S. Embassy officials.

    Fogle’s detention appeared to be the first case of an American diplomat publicly accused of spying in about a decade and seemed certain to put further strain on relations between the two countries.

    The State Department would only confirm that Fogle worked as an embassy employee, but wouldn’t give any details about his employment record or responsibilities in Russia. The CIA declined comment.

    The Russian foreign ministry promptly declared Fogle persona non grata and ordered him to leave Russia immediately. He has diplomatic immunity, which protects him from arrest.

    Despite the end of the Cold War, Russia and the United States still maintain active espionage operations against each other. Last year, several Russians were convicted in separate cases of spying for the U.S. and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences.

    {wirestory}

  • 3-man Space Crew Returns Safely to Earth

    {{A Soyuz space capsule with a three-man crew returning from a five-month mission to the International Space Station landed safely Tuesday on the steppes of Kazakhstan.}}

    Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, American Thomas Marshburn and Russian Roman Romanenko landed as planned southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan at 8:31 a.m. local time Tuesday (0231 GMT; 10:31 p.m. EDT Monday).

    Live footage on NASA TV showed the Soyuz TMA-07M capsule slowly descending by parachute onto the sun-drenched steppes under clear skies.

    Russian search and rescue helicopters hovered over the landing site for a quick recovery effort.

    Rescue teams moved quickly to help the crew in their bulky spacesuits exit out of the capsule, charred by the fiery re-entry through the atmosphere.

    They were then put into reclining chairs to start adjusting to the Earth’s gravity after 146 days in space.

    The three astronauts smiled as they chatted with space agency officials and doctors who were checking their condition. Hadfield, who served as the space station’s commander, gave a thumbs-up sign.

    They made quick phone calls to family members and friends before being carried to a medical tent for a routine medical check-up prior to being flown home.

    Hadfield, 53, an engineer and former test pilot from Milton, Ontario, was Canada’s first professional astronaut to live aboard the space station and became the first Canadian in charge of a spacecraft. He relinquished command of the space station on Sunday.

    “It’s just been an extremely fulfilling and amazing experience end to end,” Hadfield told Mission Control on Monday.

    “From this Canadian to all the rest of them, I offer an enormous debt of thanks.” He was referring to all those in the Canadian Space Agency who helped make his flight possible.

    Hadfield bowed out of orbit by posting a music video on YouTube on Sunday — his own custom version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” It’s believed to be the first music video made in space, according to NASA.

    “With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World,” Hadfield said via Twitter.

    Hadfield sang often in orbit, using a guitar already aboard the complex, and even took part in a live, Canadian coast-to-coast concert in February that included the Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson and a youth choir.

    The five-minute video posted Sunday drew a salute from Bowie’s official Facebook page: “It’s possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created.”

    {wirestory}

  • U.S.Oil Booms, OPEC Sidelined From Demand Growth

    {{Rising U.S. shale oil production will help meet most of the world’s new oil demand in the next five years, even if the global economy picks up steam, leaving little room for OPEC to lift output without risking lower prices, the West’s energy agency said}}.

    The prediction by the International Energy Agency (IEA) came in its closely watched semi-annual report, which analyses mid-term global oil supply and demand trends.

    “North America has set off a supply shock that is sending ripples throughout the world,” IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said on Tuesday.

    “The good news is that this is helping to ease a market that was relatively tight for several years,” she added. Oil on Tuesday traded near $103 a barrel, well below its peak of $147 in 2008.

    The IEA said it expected global demand to rise 8% on aggregate between 2012 and 2018 to reach 96.7 million barrels per day (bpd) based on a fairly optimistic assumption by the International Monetary Fund of 3 to 4.5% global economic growth a year during the period.

    That incremental demand will be mainly met by non-OPEC production, which will rise by more than 10% between 2012 and 2018 to 59.31 million bpd, the IEA said, increasing its estimate of non-OPEC supply in 2017 by 1 million bpd versus its previous report in October 2012.

    The United States will overtake Russia as the world’s largest non-OPEC producer as early as 2015, the IEA said.

    That may leave OPEC, which had been long seen as the last resort for the world to meet rising demand, with output fluctuating around the current levels of 30 million bpd for the next five years.

    The agency cut its estimate of the demand for OPEC crude in 2017 to 29.99 million bpd, down by 1.22 million bpd from its previous report six months ago.

    It said OPEC’s spare capacity will rise by over a quarter to reach 6.4 million bpd or 6.6% of global demand, giving an additional cushion to potential supply shocks, the report said.

    The adoption of U.S. shale technology could help Russia and China boost production from unconventional reserves, but new projects may slow in other areas.

    “Several members of the (OPEC) producer group face new hurdles, notably in North and sub-Saharan Africa. The regional fallout from the ‘Arab Spring’ is taking a toll on investment and capacity growth,” the IEA said.

    “Downward adjustments across the (OPEC) group are partly offset by substantially stronger growth in Saudi capacity than previously expected, reflecting newly announced development projects,” it added.

    Iran’s sustainable crude production capacity is likely to fall by as much as 1 million bpd to 2.38 million bpd by 2018, the lowest in many decades, due to Western sanctions, the IEA said.

    {reuters}

  • 4 news Cases of SARS Reported in Saudi Arabia

    {{Saudi Arabia has confirmed four new cases of a deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS that appears centered in the Arabian Peninsula but that has also been reported in Europe.}}

    The official Saudi Press Agency said Tuesday that one patient was treated and released from a hospital, while three others remain under medical care.

    Saudi authorities have reported nearly 30 cases since the virus was identified last year. Other cases have appeared in France, Germany and Britain, possibly linked to travel in the Gulf region.

    The novel coronavirus has killed at least 18 people since September 2012. The new virus is related to SARS, which killed some 800 people in a global epidemic in 2003, and belongs to a family of viruses that most often causes the common cold.

    {AP}

  • EU Finance Ministers Seek to cut tax Evasion

    {{European Union finance ministers are seeking ways to cut down on tax evasion and hammer out controversial building blocks of the region’s planned banking union to stabilize its financial system.}}

    British Chancellor George Osborne insisted Tuesday cracking down on tax evasion was important in the current economically difficult times.

    “I think that at an economic time like this, it is right that everyone makes their fair contribution,” Osborne said on his way into a meeting of the 27 EU ministers in Brussels. “This is our opportunity to do that.”

    Part of the effort will involve reviving a long-stuck savings directive, which seeks to set up an automatic exchange of banking information between countries so that interest income on various types of savings accounts can be properly taxed.

    The directive requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU members. However, Austria and Luxembourg, two states renowned for their cultures of banking secrecy, have long held up the regulation. But increasing international pressure from the U.S. and their European peers has swayed them into reconsidering their stance.

    Britain, however, could also face tricky questions, as many EU officials say it is not doing enough to crack down on tax evasion in its offshore territories.

    In addition, Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said he expected the ministers also to direct the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, to begin negotiations on the exchange of banking information with five small countries that aren’t EU members — Switzerland, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco and Lichtenstein.

    Noonan presided over the meeting because Ireland currently holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency.

    {AP}

  • Study: Plants Communicate Via Underground Fungi

    {{A new study has demonstrated that plants can use an underground network of fungi to warn each other about incoming insect attacks.}}

    Carried out by researchers from the University of Aberdeen, the James Hutton Institute and Rothamsted Research, the study demonstrated that the plants are able to send warnings of incoming aphids to other plants connected to their network.

    The plants then send out a chemical signal that repels aphids and attracts wasps, a natural aphid predator.

    The research follows previous findings that have shown plants can communicate similar chemical warnings through the air.

    The new study says plants can connect with other via a common fungus known as mycorrhizae. “Mycorrhizal fungi need to get [products of photosynthesis] from the plant, and they have to do something for the plant,” John Pickett of Rothamsted Research told media.

    “In the past, we thought of them making nutrients available from the [roots and soil], but now we see another evolutionary role for them in which they pay the plant back by transmitting the signal efficiently,” he said.

    University of Aberdeen’s David Johnson added, “Our understanding of ecological systems has not considered the fact that plants are interconnected in this way. It could have major implications for our understanding of how one organism affects another.”

    Conversely, the plants in the study not connected to the fungal network did not send out warning signals to other plants after coming under attack. The in-network plants were also covered with bags to ensure that they were not actually sending the signals through the air.

    Pickett said the discovery could lead to farms using the fungi as an advance warning system for their crops. In theory, one “sacrificial” plant would be kept at a distance from the crops. If it fell under attack from insects, it would warn the rest of the plants, giving them time to mount a viable defense.

    {agencies}

  • Saudi man traveling with pressure cooker arrested

    {{A Saudi man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after federal agents said he lied about why he was traveling with a pressure cooker, according to a court documents filed Monday.}}

    Two pressure cookers were used in last month’s Boston Marathon bombings.
    Hussain Al Kwawahir was being held Monday in Detroit on allegations of using a passport with a missing page and lying to Customs and Border Protection agents.

    A criminal complaint says Al Kwawahir arrived at the airport Saturday on a flight from Saudi Arabia via Amsterdam. The complaint says Al Kwawahir told agents he was visiting his nephew, who he said is a student at the University of Toledo in Ohio.

    The complaint says Al Kwawahir originally said he brought the pressure cooker with him because pressure cookers aren’t sold in America, then later said his nephew had bought one but it “was cheap” and broke after one use.

    Agents said they also noticed a page was missing from Al Kwawahir’s passport from Saudi Arabia. He told them he didn’t how it had been removed, and said the document had been locked in a box that only he, his wife, and three children have access to in his home, according to the complaint.

    Al Kwawahir was read his Miranda rights, which he said he understood, and he invoked his right to remain silent, according to the complaint.

    A Monday detention hearing for Al Kwawahir was delayed and a message seeking comment about whether he has an attorney was left with a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Detroit.

    Authorities say brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev set off two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs April 15 near the Boston Marathon finish line, an attack that killed three people and injured more than 260.