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Tag: InternationalNews

  • Israel Accused of Bombing Sudan Arms Factory

    {{Sudan said on Wednesday that an Israeli air strike had caused the huge explosion and fire at an arms factory in Khartoum that killed two people, while Israel’s defence minister declined to comment.}}

    Sudan, which analysts say is used as an arms-smuggling route to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip via neighbouring Egypt, has blamed Israel for such strikes in the past but Israel either has refused to comment or said it neither admitted nor denied involvement.

    Asked by Israel’s Channel Two News about Sudan’s accusations, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said: “There is nothing I can say about this subject.”

    A huge fire broke out late on Tuesday at the Yarmouk arms factory in the south of the capital which was rocked by several explosions, witnesses said. Firefighters took more than two hours to extinguish the fire at Sudan’s main factory for ammunition and small arms.

    “Four military planes attacked the Yarmouk plant … We believe that Israel is behind it,” Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman told reporters, adding that the planes had appeared to approach the site from the east.

    “Sudan reserves the right to strike back at Israel,” he said, saying two citizens had been killed and that the plant had been partially destroyed. Another person was seriously injured, he added.

    Around 300 people gathered in the evening at the courtyard of a government building where the Sudanese cabinet was meeting at an emergency session, shouting “Death to Israel” and “Remove Israel from the map.”

    “Israel is a country of injustice that needs to be deterred,” Vice President Ali Osman Taha, standing next to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, told the crowd. “This attack only strengthens our firmness.”

    The governor of Khartoum state initially had ruled out any “external” cause for the blast but officials later showed journalists a video from the vast site. A huge crater could be seen next to two destroyed buildings and what appeared to be a rocket lying on the ground.

    Osman said an analysis of rocket debris and other material had shown that the attack had been engineered by Israel, which Sudan views as an enemy.

  • Movie: ‘Paranormal’ Debuts at No. 1 with $30.2M

    {{Scary movie fans are still into “Paranormal Activity,” though the horror franchise looks as though it’s starting to run out of steam at the box office.}}

    Paramount’s “Paranormal Activity 4” debuted at No. 1 with $30.2 million, a big drop from the $40 million and $50 million opening weekends of the last two installments, according to studio estimates Sunday.

    Perpetual hit maker Tyler Perry failed to find an audience for his new persona as an ace crime solver. Summit Entertainment’s “Alex Cross,” starring Perry as author James Patterson’s brilliant criminal profiler, was a dud, opening at No. 5 with $11.8 million.

    Perry has written, directed and starred in a string of hits featuring his sassy grandma Madea, which mostly have had opening weekends two and three times bigger than that of “Alex Cross.”

    Fans didn’t buy into Perry as the title character, who goes up against a diabolical serial killer.

    “He’s become so identified and so successful with the Madea franchise that when he steps outside of that, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the audience is going along with him,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. “It’s fun for him to stretch out a little bit, but it didn’t really pay off.”

    Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage tale “Argo” held up well in its second weekend, remaining at No. 2 with $16.6 million, dropping just 15 percent from its debut. Big studio releases often drop 50 percent or more in subsequent weekends, but “Argo” has proven a hit with critics and audiences alike, earning Academy Awards buzz and strong word of mouth that should give it a long run at theaters.

    Affleck, who also directed “Argo,” plays a CIA specialist who concocts a wild plan to rescue six Americans hiding in Tehran after the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy there.

    Released by Warner Bros., “Argo” raised its domestic total to $43.2 million.

    Liam Neeson’s action sequel “Taken 2,” which had been No. 1 the previous two weekends, slipped to fourth place with $13.4 million, lifting the 20th Century Fox release’s domestic haul to $106 million.

    Adam Sandler’s animated hit “Hotel Transylvania,” from Sony Pictures, also held up well at No. 3 with $13.5 million, pushing its domestic earnings to $119 million.

    While domestic revenues were way down for the fourth “Paranormal Activity” flick, the franchise remains a big moneymaker for distributor Paramount.

    “Paranormal Activity 4” was produced on a tiny budget of $5 million, continuing the franchise’s trend of turning minimal investments into tidy profits.

    “For us, the focus is always, what are these movies made for and how profitable are they? Within Paramount, it’s a colossal success,” said Don Harris, the studio’s head of distribution.

    “A $5 million movie that has an opening weekend of over $30 million, it’s really kind of irrelevant what No. 2 or No. 3 did. The movies really stand on their own.”

    Overseas, “Paranormal Activity 4” had a good start with $26.5 million in 33 countries, giving it a worldwide total of $56.7 million.

    In limited release, Fox Searchlight’s acclaimed drama “The Sessions” did solid business, opening with $121,005 in four theaters in New York City and Los Angeles, for a healthy average of $30,251 a cinema.

    By comparison, “Paranormal Activity 4” averaged $8,851 in 3,412 theaters.

    “The Sessions” stars John Hawkes and Helen Hunt in the true-life story of a man, paralyzed by polio and stuck in an iron lung most of his life, who hires a sexual surrogate so he can lose his virginity. The film expands to more cities over the next month.

    While “Paranormal Activity 4” fell short of the franchise’s third installment, which opened over the same weekend last year, overall Hollywood revenues continued to rise after a late-summer slump.

    Strong holdovers such as “Argo,” “Hotel Transylvania” and “Taken 2” made the difference, with domestic business totaling $131 million, up 8 percent from the same weekend a year ago, according to Hollywood.com. Revenues were up for the fourth-straight weekend.

    “Last year, the box office was so top-heavy with `Paranormal Activity 3,’ and the rest of the films really underperformed,” Dergarabedian said. “This year, we have a much more balanced lineup.”

    Estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

    1. “Paranormal Activity 4,” $30.2 million ($26.5 million international).

    2. “Argo,” $16.6 million ($1.2 million international).

    3. “Hotel Transylvania,” $13.5 million ($14.5 million international).

    4. “Taken 2,” $13.4 million ($23.6 million international).

    5. “Alex Cross,” $11.8 million.

    6. “Sinister,” $9 million ($2.3 million international).

    7. “Here Comes the Boom,” $8.5 million.

    8. “Pitch Perfect,” $7 million ($320,000 international).

    9. “Frankenweenie,” $4.4 million ($4.1 million international).

    10. “Looper,” $4.2 million ($5.6 million international).

  • Korea to Launch Naro Rocket into Space Friday

    {{Korea has started its countdown for the expected launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, also known as the Naro rocket.}}

    There is slight chance of rain on the day of its third attempt to shoot it into space, but officials said the launch schedule remains set for Friday at 3:30 p.m.

    This will be the first and last launch of Naro using Russian technology including a liquid-fueled rocket engine, should it succeed.

    Korea has an agreement with Russia in which the latter will provide three engines taking into account of the possibility of launch failure, not its rocket propulsion technology.

    However, Russia has agreed to share design and operational know-how in launch pads with Korea.

    The so-called “joint venture” rocket launched purely for scientific purposes has failed to launch twice into space, and everyone ranging from government officials to the public is counting on Naro to make history this Friday.

    Experts said that a successful launch will provide a foothold for the country to further develop its proprietary rockets and satellites that can monitor climate change and the environment among other things crucial to the society.

    But the country still has a long way to go before it can catch up with other advanced economies ― even China. Korea’s space budget is one-tenth of that of Japan, and one-hundredth of China.

    In comparison with automobiles, Korea’s level of space technology is on a par with the Hyundai Pony using foreign engines, said Lee Chang-jin, professor of aerospace engineering at Konkuk University.

    “However, Naro would be a stepping stone for Korea to develop indigenous application satellites with our own made-in-Korea rocket engine equivalent to luxury automobiles such as BMW as Korea has sufficiently learned from its past failures,” Lee said.

    He added that developing a space program will need time and patience.

    Their potential, which may not be noticeable in the near term, should be seen like other industries such as shipbuilding and semiconductors whose success did not happen overnight.

    Prof. Chang Young-keun of Korea Aerospace University said that space is all about “trials and errors,” and the next crucial step after the Naro launch is to develop Korea’s domestic rocket propulsion technology.

    “That technology will define Korea’s space capability over the next 10 years,” said Chang.

    This is the area where South Korea not only lags behind other advanced economies but also North Korea, which already has the know-how in developing liquid rocket engines.

    North Korea’s Taepodong missile rockets use liquid engines, which initially pushed South Korea to launch its space and rocket programs.

  • Barcelona vs Celtic: 2-1

    {{Celtic produced a performance full of heart and tactical discipline but lost out to an injury-time Jordi Alba goal.}}

    The visitors led after the presence of Georgios Samaras helped force Javier Mascherano to divert a Charlie Mulgrew free-kick into his own net.

    Barcelona were not at their best, but produced a moment of sheer class to allow Andres Iniesta to equalise.

    Celtic stood firm in the face of relentless pressure until the dying seconds when Alba stole in to score.

    It was incredibly cruel on Celtic, who were outstanding to a man.
    They remain second in Champions League Group G but now trail Barcelona, who maintain their 100% record, by five points.

    Spartak Moscow, who beat Benfica earlier in the day, are a point behind Neil Lennon’s side with the Portuguese side bottom with a single point.

    It had looked ominous for the visitors as early as the second minute when Barcelona sliced through their defence for the first time, Iniesta providing the killer ball, only for Alexis Sanchez to dink the ball wide of Fraser Forster’s right-hand post.

    That apart though, Celtic began the match comfortably, coping well with the constant passing and movement of the Catalan side.

    Forster’s first major test came 17 minutes in, and he dealt with it brilliantly.

    Lionel Messi floated the ball over the Celtic defence, Iniesta turned it across goal where Marc Bartra flashed a header on target, only for the giant Celtic keeper to push it away.

  • Apple Unveils iPad Mini

    {{Apple is set to start selling an 8-inch version of the iPad to compete with Amazon.com’s Kindle and other smaller tablets, but it set a higher-than-expected price tag of $329 that Wall Street fears could curb demand.}}

    Apple’s pencil-thin, smaller iPad Mini will cost much more than its competitors when it goes on sale on Friday, signalling the company is not going to get into a mini-tablet price war.

    The company debuted the iPad Mini on Tuesday, with a screen two-thirds smaller than the full model and half the weight. In a surprise, Apple also revamped its flagship, full-sized iPad just six months after the launch of the latest model.

    Apple’s late founder Steve Jobs once ridiculed a small tablet from a competitor as a “tweener” that was neither big enough nor small enough to compete with tablets or smartphones. Now Apple’s own Mini enters a growing small-tablet market dominated by the Kindle Fire.

  • Syrian Government Won’t Bomb on Eid

    {{International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi has said the Syrian government has agreed to a ceasefire during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, a decision Damascus would announce shortly.}}

    “After the visit I made to Damascus, there is agreement from the Syrian government for a ceasefire during the Eid,” Brahimi told a news conference at the Cairo-based Arab League on Wednesday.

    The holiday starts on Thursday and lasts three or four days.

    Brahimi, a mediator appointed by the United Nations and League, did not specify the precise time period.

    Brahimi, who arrived in Cairo on Tuesday, is due to meet with the head of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi for talks on the 20-month conflict.

    The envoy wanted “a long-lasting ceasefire that will enable a political process to unfold”.

    The 15-member Security Council is bitterly divided over the conflict with Western nations pressing for international actions against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and Russia and China blocking these moves.

    UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous spoke on Monday of tentative plans top assemble a peacekeeping force if the ceasefire takes hold.

    “We are getting ourselves ready to act if it is necessary and a mandate is approved,” Ladsous said..

    The Syrian authorities “are still optimistic,” deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad said. “The visit was successful and [Syria’s] co-operation with Brahimi is without limits.”

  • Andrew Mitchell Resigns

    {{British cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell resigned October 20, after launching a foul-mouthed tirade at police officers guarding the gates of Prime minister David Cameron’s Downing Street office.}}

    Mitchell, who as the government’s chief whip was supposed to enforce discipline in Cameron’s Conservative party, handed in his resignation after nearly one month of intense pressure over his behaviour.

    He denied accusations that he had called police “plebs” but admitted using bad language to the officers after they stopped him going through the main gate on his bicycle, directing him to a side gate instead.

    The row was damaging for the Conservatives as they face growing accusations that the privileged backgrounds of Cameron and other senior party members including Mitchell are out of touch with voters.

    The new chief whip will be George Young, the former leader of the House of Commons. British media pointed out that Young is like Mitchell a keen cyclist and went to the elite Eton College, where Cameron was educated.
    In his resignation letter, Mitchell, said: “The offending comment and the reason for my apology to the police was my parting remark ‘I thought you guys were supposed to fucking help us’.”

    Part of the offensive word was replaced by asterisks in the copy of his letter officially released by Downing Street.

    Citing the “upsetting and damaging publicity”, Mitchell said that “whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter I will not be able to fulfil my duties as we would both wish”.

    He added: “I have made clear to you — and I give you my categorical assurance again — that I did not, never have and never would call a police officer a ‘pleb’ or a ‘moron’ or use any of the other pejorative descriptions attributed to me.

    “It was obviously wrong of me to use such bad language and I am very sorry about it and grateful to the police officer for accepting my apology.”

    Police representatives had called for Mitchell’s resignation, saying his outburst was particularly badly timed because it came in the week that two policewomen were shot dead in the city of Manchester in northwest England.

    Cameron wrote back that he was sorry to receive Mitchell’s resignation but understood why he had decided to quit.

    “I regret that this has become necessary,” the prime minister wrote.

    “As you have acknowledged, the incident in Downing Street was not acceptable and you were right to apologise for it.”

    Mitchell, 56, a former soldier and investment banker, was appointed to his new post by Cameron during a cabinet reshuffle in August. He previously served as international development secretary.

    He was educated at the elite Rugby public school where he was reportedly nicknamed “Thrasher” because of his reputation as a stern disciplinarian.

    Mitchell met Britain’s Police Federation last Friday in a fruitless attempt to smooth over the row.

    The opposition Labour Party had also taunted Cameron over Mitchell’s row with the police, which was first reported in The Sun newspaper and quickly became known as “Plebgate” in the British media.

    Speculation over his position reached fever pitch after he was unable to attend the Conservatives’ annual conference in the industrial city of Birmingham, which neighbours his own constituency as a lawmaker.

    But the Conservatives continue to face accusations of being a party of the privileged.

    Hours before Mitchell quit, finance minister George Osborne was embroiled in a row after he got into a first class train carriage with only a standard ticket.

    It emerged later that Osborne paid to upgrade his ticket, while both his spokesman and rail company Virgin Trains dismissed initial reports that Osborne’s aide had refused to pay.

  • Armstrong Asked to Pay US$11m to US Insurance Company

    {{A Texan insurance company is pursuing Lance Armstrong for US$11million.}}

    SCA Promotions insured performance bonuses paid to the American after he claimed his fourth, fifth and sixth Tour de France victories.

    As the International Cycling Union (UCI) has now stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour titles, SCA will demand the money back from Armstrong.

    “We will make a formal demand for return of funds,” SCA’s lawyer, Jeffrey M. Tillotson said.

    “If this is not successful, we will initiate formal legal proceedings against Mr Armstrong in five business days (Monday 29 October).”

    The insurance policy was taken out by Tailwind Sports, owner of the US Postal team, to cover performance bonuses that would be due to Armstrong if he won the Tours.

    SCA initially refused to pay out money covering the bonus for Armstrong’s sixth Tour de France win in 2004, totalling $5m, because it argued Armstrong was not a clean rider.

    Armstrong took the company to an arbitration hearing in Dallas in 2005 and won, because the contract between the parties stipulated the insurance money would be payable if Armstrong was the “official winner” of the Tour.

    It meant SCA was forced to pay out US$7.5million – a US$5million bonus, plus US$2.5million in interest and legal fees.

  • Italy Earth Quake: Scientists Sentenced to Jail

    {{Six Italian scientists and a government official were sentenced to six years in jail on Monday for multiple manslaughter in a watershed ruling that found them guilty of underestimating the risks of a killer earthquake in 2009.}}

    They were also ordered to pay more than nine million euros (almost $12 million) in damages to survivors in the devastated medieval town of L’Aquila in a case that has sparked outrage in the international science community.

    Seismologists in Italy and beyond were horrified by the unprecedented sentence and argued that all science was being put on trial.

    Under the Italian justice system, the seven remain free until they have exhausted two chances to appeal the verdict.

    Prosecutor Fabio Picuti had asked for jail sentences of four years for each defendant for failing to alert the population of the walled medieval town to the risks, days before the 6.3-magnitude quake that killed 309 people.

    “I am crestfallen, desperate. I thought I would be acquitted. I still don’t understand what I’m accused of,” said Enzo Boschi, who was the head of Italy’s national geophysics institute (INGV) at the time.

    All seven defendants were members of the Major Risks Committee which met in L’Aquila on March 31, 2009 — six days before the quake devastated the region, tearing down houses and churches and leaving thousands of people homeless.

    Picuti had slammed the experts for providing “an incomplete, inept, unsuitable and criminally mistaken” analysis, which reassured locals and led many to stay indoors when the first tremors hit.

    “This is a historic sentence, above all for the victims,” said lawyer Wania della Vigna, who represents 11 plaintiffs, including the family of an Israeli student who died when a student residence collapsed on top of him.

    “It also marks a step forward for the justice system and I hope it will lead to change, not only in Italy but across the world,” she said.

    The bright blue classroom-sized temporary tribunal in L’Aquila — built on an industrial estate after the town’s historic court was flattened in the quake — was packed with lawyers, advisors and international media for the verdict.

    Four of the defendants were in court, as well as a small group of survivors.

    Aldo Scimia, whose mother was killed, welled up as the verdict was read out.

    “We cannot call this a victory. It’s a tragedy, whatever way you look at it, it won’t bring our loved ones back,” he said.

    “I continue to call this a massacre at the hand of the state, but at least now we hope that our children may live safer lives.”

    A historic legal precedent

    Some commentators had warned that any convictions would dissuade other experts from sharing their expertise for fear of legal retribution.

    “We are deeply concerned. It’s not just seismology which has been put on trial but all science,” Charlotte Krawczyk, president of the seismology division at the European Geosciences Union (EGU)

  • Obama Attacks Romney on Foreign Policy

    {{President Barack Obama had the best lines, but perhaps Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney had the best night. Not in the sense that he won the debate – it was a draw if you have to judge these things that way. This final debate probably won’t shift the opinion polls, but it saw a marked change in emphasis in Mr Romney’s foreign policy.}}

    Their debates now history, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney on Tuesday open a two-week sprint to Election Day powered by adrenaline, a boatload of campaign cash and a determination to reach Nov. 6 with no would-have, should-have regrets in their neck-and-neck fight to the finish.

    From here, the candidates will vastly accelerate their travel, ad spending and grass-roots mobilizing in a race that’s likely to cost upward of $2 billion by the time it all ends.

    All the focus now is on locking down support in the nine states whose electoral votes are still considered up for grabs: Colorado, Iowa, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia. No surprise then, that Obama campaigns Tuesday in Florida and Ohio while Romney heads West to Nevada and Colorado.

    Neither candidate scored a knockout punch in their third and last debate Monday, as both men reined in the confrontational sniping that had marked their last testy encounter. And though the stated topic this time was foreign policy, both kept circling back to their plans for strengthening the fragile U.S. economy — Job 1 to American voters.

    Closing out their trio of debates, Obama concisely summed up this pivot point in Campaign 2012: “You’ve now heard three debates, months of campaigning and way too many TV commercials. And now you’ve got a choice.”

    The president framed it as a choice between his own record of “real progress” and the “wrong and reckless” ideas of Romney.

    Romney countered by sketching “two different paths” offered by the candidates, one of decline under Obama and one of brighter promise from himself.

    “I know what it takes to get this country back,” he pledged.

    With polls showing the race remains incredibly tight, first lady Michelle Obama made a prediction before the candidates left Florida that neither side would dispute: “This election will be closer than the last one — that’s the only guarantee.”

    Obama made it look easy in 2008: He won 365 electoral votes to 173 for Republican John McCain. And he got 53 percent of the popular vote, to 46 percent for McCain.

    With 270 electoral votes needed for victory, Obama at this point appears on track to win 237 while Romney appears to have 191. The other 110 are in the hotly contested battleground states.

    The candidates’ strategies for getting to 270 are implicit in their itineraries for the next two weeks and in their spending on campaign ads.

    Obama and his Democratic allies already have placed $47 million in ad spending across battlegrounds in the campaign’s final weeks, while Romney and the independent groups supporting his candidacy have purchased $53 million, significantly upping their buys in Florida, Ohio and Virginia. And both sides are expected to pad their totals.

    After Obama and Vice President Joe Biden campaign together in Ohio on Tuesday, the president splits off on what his campaign is describing as a two-day “around-the-clock” blitz to six more battleground states. He’ll be in constant motion — making voter calls and sleeping aboard Air Force One as he flies overnight Wednesday from Nevada to Tampa, Fla.

    The vice president is midway through a three-day tour of uber-battleground Ohio, and Obama’s team contends its best way of ensuring victory is a win there.

    The campaign says internal polling gives Obama a lead in the Midwestern battleground state, in large part because of the popularity of the president’s bailout of the auto industry.

    But even if Obama loses Ohio, his campaign sees another pathway to the presidency by nailing New Hampshire, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nevada and Colorado.

    Romney and running mate Paul Ryan are picking up the pace of their campaigning as well, and their schedule reflects an overarching strategy to drive up GOP vote totals in areas already friendly to the Republican nominee.

    The Denver suburbs. Cincinnati. Reno, Nev. They’re places that typically vote Republican, but where McCain fell short of the margins he needed to defeat Obama. To win in all-important Ohio, the GOP nominee must outperform McCain in typically Republican areas.

    Romney and Ryan start their two-week dash in Henderson, Nev., then hopscotch to the Denver area for a rally with rocker-rapper Kid Rock and country music’s Rodney Atkins at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

    Then Romney heads back to Nevada, on to Iowa and then east to Ohio for three overnights in a row. By week’s end, he’s likely to be back in Florida.

    The following week brings a significant uptick in Romney’s schedule. Aides say he’ll touch down in two or three states a day, or hold that many daily events in big states like Florida.

    Both candidates are done holding fundraisers — no doubt a happy thought for the two of them.