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Friday, December 16, 2011
What Are the Best Designed Apps on Android? [Android Apps]
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Iran says oil would go over $250 if exports banned (Reuters)
TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran warned the West on Sunday any move to block its oil exports would more than double crude prices with devastating consequences on a fragile global economy.
"As soon as such an issue is raised seriously the oil price would soar to above $250 a barrel," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a newspaper interview.
The comments come as Iran strives to contain international reaction to the storming of the British embassy last week, a move which drew immediate condemnation from around the world and may galvanize support for tougher action against Tehran.
Washington and EU countries were already discussing measures to restrict oil exports after the United Nations nuclear watchdog issued a report in November with what it said was evidence that Tehran had worked on designing an atom bomb.
Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.
The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to penalize foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank
-- which takes payment for the 2.6 million barrels Iran exports a day. The European Union is considering a ban -- already in place in the United States -- on Iranian oil imports.
So far neither Washington nor Brussels has finalized its move against the oil trade or the central bank amid fears of the possible impact on the global economy of restricting oil flows from the world's fifth biggest exporter.
But the British embassy attack dragged relations with Europe to a long-time low and Iran is now facing rising rhetoric about a direct hit on its main source of foreign earnings.
Until recently, Iran had dismissed as ineffective mounting sanctions aimed at forcing it to halt its nuclear activities. Mehmanparast's comments show a more defensive stance.
"No one welcomes the sanctions, we know that sanctions create obstacles, but we want to say we will overcome these obstacles," Mehmanparast told Sharq daily.
"Imposing sanctions on oil and gas is among the sanctions that, if one wants to do that, the consequences should be fully considered before taking any action," Mehmanparast said.
"I do not think the situation in the world and especially in the West today is prepared enough to raise such discussions."
Britain's embassy in Tehran was ransacked on Tuesday after London announced unilateral sanctions on Iran's central bank. London evacuated staff, closed the embassy and the biggest EU states withdrew their ambassadors in protests.
Rising tensions were enough to push up crude prices with ICE Brent January crude up 95 cents on Friday to settle at $109.94 a barrel.
Mehmanparast warned the EU on Saturday to avoid tying itself to British interests.
(Reporting by Ramin Mostafavi; Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Maria Golovnina)
Monday, December 5, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Lawmakers block safety rules for battery shipments
FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2010 file photo, a general view of the military compound where a 747-400 Boeing cargo plane operated by United Parcel Service Inc crashed in Dubai. Lawmakers, responding to pleas from industry and foreign governments, have tentatively agreed to block the Obama administration from requiring lithium batteries be treated as hazardous cargo because of the danger of fires during flight. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2010 file photo, a general view of the military compound where a 747-400 Boeing cargo plane operated by United Parcel Service Inc crashed in Dubai. Lawmakers, responding to pleas from industry and foreign governments, have tentatively agreed to block the Obama administration from requiring lithium batteries be treated as hazardous cargo because of the danger of fires during flight. (AP Photo/File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Lawmakers, responding to pleas from industry and foreign governments, have tentatively agreed to block the Obama administration from requiring that air shipments of lithium batteries be treated as hazardous cargo because of the danger of fires during flight.
The deal came in talks on a long-term funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., told The Associated Press. The bill will effectively block new battery-shipment rules by insisting the U.S. follow international standards, which are less stringent, said Rahall, top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Pilot unions said the international standards don't provide enough safety and are weaker than rules the administration proposed nearly two years ago but never made final. The unions and the National Transportation Safety Board for several years have sought new rules on air shipments of the batteries to prevent fires that can cause air crashes and deaths.
"We're very concerned that unless this issue is addressed we'll continue to see accidents and we'll continue to see fatalities," said Mark Rogers, who heads the Air Line Pilots Association's committee on hazardous cargo.
The U.S. shouldn't "adopt an existing international standard on lithium batteries that's generally recognized as inadequate," Robert Travis, president of Independent Pilots Association, which represents UPS pilots, said in a statement.
The FAA bill "is an opportunity for the U.S. to lead by setting a higher standard on the carriage of lithium batteries," Travis said.
A fire broke out five years ago in cargo containing lithium batteries and other goods on a United Parcel Service plane, forcing an emergency landing in Philadelphia. No one was killed, but one of the pilots said he was able to escape with seconds to spare. The cause of the fire wasn't conclusively determined, but batteries were suspected.
Last year, another UPS plane with a fire raging on board, and carrying thousands of lithium batteries, crashed near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, killing both pilots. The accident is still under investigation, but preliminary reports indicate investigators have focused much of their attention on the batteries.
The use of rechargeable lithium-ion and non-rechargeable lithium-metal batteries has soared since the late 1990s. Millions of products from laptops to cellphones to watches contain the batteries. And, in an age of increasing globalization of trade, those products are often shipped by air to and from the United States and other countries.
But the batteries can catch fire if they are damaged, exposed to high temperatures or packaged incorrectly. Lithium-ion battery fires can reach 1,100 degrees, close to the melting point of aluminum, a key material in airplane construction. Lithium-metal battery fires are far hotter, capable of reaching 4,000 degrees.
The administration proposed regulations that would have threated lithium batteries and goods containing the batteries as hazardous materials requiring special labeling and training of workers who package and handle them.
But they were opposed by a broad swath of powerful industries, including battery-makers, electronics manufacturers and retailers, cargo airlines, and at least a half dozen foreign governments who said they would disrupt international trade. The opponents said the regulations would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in added packaging, paperwork and employee training. The rechargeable battery industry alone says the rules would cost more than $1 billion in the first year.
Opponents of the proposed rules turned for help to Congress, where House Republicans passed an FAA funding bill that requires the U.S. to follow standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency, effectively blocking the rules. The Senate did not include the measure in its version of the funding bill, but under the tentative deal reached Friday, the House-Senate compromise bill would include it.
Kara Ross, a spokeswoman for United Parcel Service, said the cargo carrier wasn't aware of the agreement reached by lawmakers but supports the House provision.
A spokesman for PRBA-The Rechargeable Battery Association declined to comment.
Besides Rahall, the other lawmakers involved in negotiations were Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, senior Republican member of the Senate committee.
___
Follow Joan Lowy at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Afghan president pardons imprisoned rape victim (AP)
KABUL, Afghanistan ? Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday pardoned an Afghan woman serving a 12-year prison sentence for having sex out of wedlock after she was raped by a relative.
Karzai's office said in a statement that the woman and her attacker have agreed to marry. That would reverse an earlier decision by the 19-year-old woman, who had previously refused a judge's offer of freedom if she agreed to marry the rapist.
Her plight was highlighted in a documentary that the European Union blocked because it feared the women featured in the film would be in danger if it were shown.
More than 5,000 people recently signed a petition urging Karzai to release the woman. She had the man's child while in prison and raised her daughter behind bars, which is common among women imprisoned in Afghanistan.
A statement released by Karzai's office says that after hearing from judicial officials, the decision was made to forgive the rest of the sentence she received for having sex out of wedlock, a crime in Afghanistan. The presidential statement did not say when the woman was to be released or how much prison time had been pardoned.
The woman told The Associated Press in an interview last month that she had hoped that attention generated by the EU film might help her get released. With the film blocked, she said that she was losing hope and considering marrying her rapist as a way out. She said her attacker was pressuring her to stop giving interviews.
About half of the 300 to 400 women jailed in Afghanistan are imprisoned for so-called "moral crimes" such as sex outside marriage, or running away from their husbands, according to reports by the United Nations and research organizations. Fleeing husbands isn't considered a crime in Afghanistan.
The EU welcomed the woman's release.
"Her case has served to highlight the plight of Afghan women, who 10 years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime often continue to suffer in unimaginable conditions, deprived of even the most basic human rights," the European Union's Ambassador and Special Representative to Afghanistan, Vygaudas Usackas, said.
He said the EU hoped the same mercy would be extended to other women serving similar terms. Usackas said he planned to raise the issue of Afghan women's rights at an international conference on Afghanistan Dec. 5 in Bonn, Germany.
Some of the most severe restrictions women faced under the Taliban, like a ban on attending schools and having to have a male escort to venture outside the home, were done away with when the radical Islamic movement was driven from power in 2001. But Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative and male-dominated society, meaning women are still sold to husbands and rights enshrined in law are often ignored in practice.
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Mindy McCready, son reported missing in Florida (AP)
TAMPA, Fla. ? Florida authorities say country singer Mindy McCready is missing with her 5-year-old son, and a judge has given her until Thursday to return the boy.
The state Department of Children and Families says a missing persons report was filed with Cape Coral police Tuesday night after McCready took her son Zander from her father's home.
McCready doesn't have custody of her son ? her mother does ? and the singer was allowed to visit the boy at her father's home, according to a department spokesman. On Tuesday, DCF discovered that McCready and the boy were not at her father's home.
DCF spokesman Terry Field told The Associated Press the agency asked a Lee County judge for an emergency pickup order, and the judge ruled McCready must return the boy voluntarily by 5 p.m. Thursday or risk an arrest warrant.
Cape Coral Police Lt. Tony Sizemore said that so far, there's "no criminal act."
"There's a lot more questions than answers at this point," he said.
Cape Coral is on Florida's Gulf coast, about 120 miles northwest of Miami.
The singer's brother, Josh McCready, told The Associated Press in a private Facebook message that his sister was "fine."
"Mindy is fine and so is Zander. There is nothing to worry about," he wrote.
Since topping the country charts in the mid-1990s with her music, the troubled 36-year-old singer's life has been filled with domestic abuse, drug and DUI arrests and a suicide attempt. In August, she filed a libel suit in Palm Beach County against her own mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted her mother.
In 2010, she spoke with The Associated Press about her life.
"It is a giant whirlwind of chaos all the time," she said. "I call my life a beautiful mess and organized chaos. It's just always been like that. My entire life, things have been attracted to me and vice versa that turn into chaotic nightmares or I create the chaos myself. I think that's really the life of a celebrity, of a big, huge, giant personality."
In July 2007, she was accused of scuffling with her mother and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Florida. She was sentenced to jail for 60 days for a probation violation and released; she served 30 days in jail. She also lost custody of her son.
And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a Nashville hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.
During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010 McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.
On the show she said she suffered from love addiction, not substance abuse. In one of the show's scarier moments, McCready suffered a seizure and was rushed to a hospital where scans showed brain damage.
Also in 2010, police went to McCready's mother's home for a report of an overdose, and McCready was taken to a Florida hospital. However, neither the hospital nor McCready's publicist would say why McCready was hospitalized.
McCready also fought the release of a tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.
A call to a lawyer representing McCready in the custody case was not immediately returned.
___
Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush
Caitlin R. King contributed to this report from Nashville.
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