Australia Day seen as most important
SkyNEWS.com.au.,,Updated: 08:53, Tuesday January 17, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The National Australia Day ...[ 2645 ]
An overwhelming majority of Australians have nominated Australia Day as the most significant day on the national calendar.
Russian Missile High Alert Drills ...[ 2644 ]
Russian Missile Forces Hold High Alert Drills
Yars / © Photo Press Service of the Russian Defense Ministry
00:35 17/01/2012
MOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti)
Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces are holding a series of exercises to practice putting road-mobile missile systems on high alert, SMF spokesman Col. Vadim Koval said.
The exercises involve Topol (SS-25 Sikle), Topol-M (SS-27 Sickle B) and Yars (RS-24) mobile systems stationed in central Russia and Siberia.
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“SMF units armed with Topol, Topol-M and Yars road-mobile missile systems will practice patrolling, camouflaging and launch preparation procedures during high alert drills from January 16 to February 3,” Koval told reporters on Monday.
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The SMF are planning to hold over 100 tactical drills in the first half of 2012.
As of January 2012, the SMF operated at least 162 mobile Topol systems, 18 mobile Topol-M and 15 mobile Yars systems.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Iraq summons Turkish envoy ...[ 2643 ]
Iraq summons Turkish envoy over crisis remarks
BAGHDAD |
(Reuters) - Iraq summoned the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad on Monday to complain about comments by Turkish officials it said amounted to meddling in its affairs, a sign of regional tension over worries that political crisis in Iraq could lead to sectarian war.Iraqi officials did not specify what Turkish remarks they were angry about, but the complaint appeared to stem from comments earlier this month by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who said a Sunni-Shi'ite conflict in Iraq, if unleashed, could engulf the entire Islamic world.
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Fears of renewed sectarian conflict in Iraq have increased since U.S. troops withdrew last month and Maliki's Shi'ite-led government sought the arrest of a Sunni vice president on accusations he ran death squads.
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Maliki's government denies it has a sectarian agenda, but the arrest warrant threatens to wreck a fragile ruling coalition that saw Sunni and Kurdish groups join Maliki's cabinet.
Many Iraqis fear that a collapse of the power-sharing deal could lead to renewed sectarian violence, which still simmers but at a much lower intensity than in 2006-07 when tens of thousands of civilians were killed.
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In an interview to al-Hurra television on Friday, Maliki said: "Turkey is unfortunately playing a role which may lead to disaster and civil war in the region."
Iraq's Deputy Foreign Minister Muhammed Jawad al-Dooreki summoned the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad on Monday, urging his government to consider the "necessity of avoiding anything that might disturb" good relations, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said.
"The Turkish ambassador gave assurances that Turkish officials' statements were in good faith and he will inform his government in Ankara of the Iraqi position," the foreign ministry statement said.
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Turkey responded by summoning Iraq's envoy to the Foreign Ministry in Ankara, a diplomatic source told Reuters.
Turkey, which has a Sunni majority but is officially secular, has attempted to play a moderating role as rivals Shi'ite Iran and Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia jockey for influence in the region.
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Since the 2003 invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Shi'ite majority have been in the ascendancy, and Maliki has moved the government closer to Iran. But the country also has strong trade ties with Turkey, a major investor.
- (Reporting by Suadad al-Salhy in Baghdad and Ibon Villelabeitia in Ankara; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Peter Graff)
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Russian Tanker on way to reach iced-in Nome ...[ 2642 ]
The Coast Guard Cutter Healy escorts the Russian-flagged tanker Renda 250 miles south of Nome on Friday, making their way through ice up to five-feet thick./msnbc.com staff and news service report
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Coast Guard icebreaker is cutting a path through icy seas for a Russian tanker carrying much-needed fuel for the iced-in Alaska city of Nome.
The 370-foot tanker Renda, hauling more than 1.3 million gallons of fuel, is scheduled to arrive later Monday or Tuesday. It was less than 190 miles away on Saturday. Video and still photo images released by the Coast Guard show the two vessels moving steadily through ice jammed seas.
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The city of about 3,500 people on the western Alaska coastline did not get its last pre-winter fuel delivery because of a massive storm. If the delivery of diesel fuel and unleaded gasoline is not made, the city likely will run short of fuel supplies before another barge delivery can be made in spring.
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Vitus Marine LLC spokesperson Stacey Smith told KTUU the Renda and the Coast Guard icebreaker Healy were stopped against an ice ridge just before dawn Saturday and waited until daylight before continuing their journey.
If the mission is successful, it will be the first time petroleum products have been delivered by sea to a Western Alaska community in winter.
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The Coast Guard said the Russian tanker came upon ice about a foot thick very early Friday near Nunivak Island, a large island in the eastern Bering Sea. The tanker is following the Healy, the Coast Guard's only functioning icebreaker — a ship of special design with a reinforced hull made to move through ice.
The icebreaker should have no problem getting through the ice even if it becomes several feet thick, said Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class David Mosley.
"In the worst-case scenario, it might stop and back up and ram their way through the pressure ridges, where it gets really thick," he said.
However, he pointed out to the Alaska Dispatch that the scenario was nonetheless difficult. "The ice conditions are giving us a number of challenging issues," he said. "We can break it open but it is quickly closing."
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The 370-foot tanker Renda will have to go through more than 300 miles of sea ice to get to Nome, a city of about 3,500 people on the western Alaska coastline that did not get its last pre-winter fuel delivery because of a massive storm.
-Mosley told the Dispatch that the ships, crawling through the ice very close together, would struggle overnight as the darkness would make it difficult for the captains to keep watch and avoid knocking into each other.
"They are moving on at a crawl," Mosley said.
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Supplying hospitals, schools
The Renda left Russia in mid-December after the barge delivery of 1.6 million gallons of fuel failed and Nome became iced-in for the winter.
The tanker is carrying more than 1 million gallons of diesel fuel loaded in South Korea and 300,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline picked up in Dutch Harbor in southwestern Alaska.
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Sitnasuak Native Corp., the company that eventually signed a contract with Vitus Marine LLC to have a tanker delivery, considered flying supplies to Nome but decided against that plan because of the cost and the possibility fuel prices could jump to $9 a gallon. The tanker delivery is expected to be more costly than by barge but not as expensive as air delivery.
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"I would be happy if we never ship through ice again," Sitnasuak Native Corp. chairman Jason Evans told the Dispatch.
The Native corporation is a major fuel supplier to the city, with between 800 and 1,000 customers including the hospital and schools.
The tanker is expected to arrive in Nome early Monday.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Six-story building collapsed in Beirut,...[ 2641 ]
25 dead in Beirut building collapse
January 16, 2012 -- Updated 1840 GMT (0240 HKT)
Rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed building in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh neighbouhood on January 16, 2012.
Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- At least 25 people are dead after a six-story building collapsed in Beirut, the country's news agency reported Monday.
The collapse occurred Sunday night in the Ashrafieh neighborhood of Beirut, NNA reported. All hospitals in the region were ordered by the Health Ministry to be prepared to take in the injured.
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The cause of the collapse was not immediately known and an investigation, led by Prime Minister Najeeb Mikati, is under way.
The dead included Lebanese nationals, as well as people from Egypt, Sudan, Jordan and the Philippines, NNA reported.
CNN's Nada Husseini contributed to this report.
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