US denies missile-defense plans holding up START

Washington - The United States denied on Tuesday that the plan to deploy missile-defence systems to Europe was holding up negotiations with Russia on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty. US and Russian officials have been in negotiations for a year to reach an agreement on a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which expired in December without a new deal.

Russia's top military officer, General Nikoloai Makarov, blamed the failure on a new treaty on the missile-defence plans. Moscow adamantly opposes the deployment and the issue has been at the center of difficult relations between both sides for years.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs rejected that notion, saying Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has not made similar statements in conversations with US President Barack Obama about START.

"The notion that somehow this is in any way an impediment to what's going on with START is simply not true," Gibbs said. "It certainly wasn't what President Medvedev told President Obama."

Gibbs said the main holdup on a new treaty is in debating the final language of the agreement. "There are going to be some fights over different words, and that's what (the negotiators are) working through."

The Kremlin's anger over the previous Bush administration's plans to base 10 long-range interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic was the key issue that dragged relations down.

Obama announced in September that he was scrapping those plans in favor of deploying short- and medium-range systems, which he says are more technically sound than the long-range system.

Romania has expressed a willingness to host part of the new system. Russia is concerned that placing the system in what was once its sphere of influence is a threat to its nuclear deterrent. The United States rejects that claim, saying it is designed to defend against missile threat from countries like Iran.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/308384,us-denies-missile-defence-plans-holding-up-start.html.

ISRO to launch Defense Satellite: Scientist

Bangalore, Feb 9 : Indian Defense Research Agencies, including DRDO were working out to develop a Communication Intelligence Satellite, module, for Indian Arm Forces for Surveillance in its borders, Dr U K Revankar, Director Defense Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), said here today.

S peaking to newsmen Dr Revankar said that the Communication Satellite 'Comtel' would be launched by Indian Space Agency, ISRO in the next four to five years.

He said the Satellite module, which would be developed in co-ordination with the all the Indian Defense Research Agencies including DRDO would serve Indian Arm Forces to gather Intelligence captivities in the International border.

He said that the proposed Satellite would be place din the skies with the Low Orbit distance of about 500 KM would not only intercept communication but also pick up Radar based signature.

Source: New Kerala.
Link: http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-47910.html.

Hezbollah arms for protection -- lawmaker

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Statements criticizing the right of Hezbollah to maintain an armed resistance against Israel are dangerous sentiments, a Shiite leader said in Beirut.

Border relations between Lebanon and Israel escalated last summer, with both sides blaming the other for regional instability.

Beirut filed a series of complaints to the United Nations because Israel was conducting surveillance flights over Lebanese territory in violation of Security Council resolutions. The Lebanese government, meanwhile, backed a measure that gives Hezbollah the right to maintain an armed resistance in the face of an Israeli threat, which also violates U.N. mandates.

Adnan al-Sayyed Hussein, the Shiite state minister in Beirut, told Hezbollah's al-Manar news agency that blaming Hezbollah for Israeli aggression was a dangerous accusation.

"Should Lebanese dispute the resistance's arms before Israel withdraws from occupied territory?" he asked.

Lebanon and Israel dispute the official demarcation of their shared southern border.

Lebanese lawmakers struck a similar tone in 2009. Opponents said Israel would have no reason to maintain a defensive posture if Hezbollah surrendered its weapons. Advocates, however, said the issue was a matter of self-defense.

Observers suggest Hezbollah could lose some of its political influence without the leverage from the weapons issue.

Beirut, meanwhile, is preparing for commemorations to mark the anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/02/09/Hezbollah-arms-for-protection-lawmaker/UPI-97761265744824/.

UN to work harder to stop rape

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s newly appointed Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict has promised a more effective battle against mass rape.

Citing recent mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Margot Wallstrom, a Swedish politician with a long history in defending women’s rights, has said that ending sexual violence in conflict situations remains a top priority.

She said: “Sexual violence against women is not cultural, it’s criminal. It’s not a women’s issue, it’s a human rights issue. It’s for both men and women to make sure that women have the right to their body.”

Speaking at a news briefing in New York, she said there was a need to end impunity for rapists in conflict zones.

She said the Secretary-General had specifically called for increased actions by the international community to "prevent violence, to protect individuals, to punish perpetrators, and to provide redress to victims.”

The UN Population Fund reported this week that more than 8,000 women were raped in the DRC during fighting between warring factions last year.

The UN has claimed to be fighting the rape scourge by developing a greater presence on the ground, escorting women going to market or fetching firewood or water, developing early warning systems, and working with local mayors.

Source: Malaysia News.
Link: http://www.malaysianews.net/story/599538.

Speaker names source of Iran democracy

Thu, 21 Jan 2010

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Wednesday the cornerstone of the democracy in Iran is Velayat-e-Faqih, the rule of the most senior religious authority in Shia Islam.

"Velayat-e-Faqih is the foundation of democracy and religion in the country," Larijani told a gathering of clerics in central Markazi Province.

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, is the current religious jurisprudent. Under Iran's Constitution, the Assembly of Experts chooses and supervises the Leader.

Larinjani called on political factions in the country to adhere to the guidelines of Ayatollah Khamenei to guarantee unity in the country, Fars News Agency reported.

"We should pay more attention to the country's issues under the current conditions," he added. "The events in the country are sensitive but not critical."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116699§ionid=351020101.

Iran plans to lop three zeros off currency

Thu, 21 Jan 2010

Iran will remove three zeros from its national currency, the rial, so it can recover value lost in recent years, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said.

"We are supposed to remove zeros from the currency... as for some reasons the rial has depreciated during recent years," Ahmadinejad told reporters on Wednesday. "We have to restore its true real value to the one existing in law."

Ahmadinejad did not say when the changes would happen and gave no other details.

A 10,000 rial note is currently worth about one US dollar.

Iran's Central Bank chief Mahmoud Bahmani told reporters on Wednesday that he expected "one dollar to become even more expensive during the next year."

In September, Bahmani had announced plans to devaluate the currency by three decimal places but later said the idea had been shelved for further consideration.

The Iranian President directed the Central Bank of Iran in 2007 to mull over the concept of devaluating the national currency.

The decline in value of Iran's national currency over recent decades has caused numerous objective and subjective problems.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116696§ionid=351020102.

US lifts visa ban on Muslim scholar

Thu, 21 Jan 2010

The US State Department said Wednesday it lifted a ban on Swiss Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan entering the country, six years after using the Patriot Act to revoke his visa.

The decision was signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"I am very happy and hopeful that I will be able to visit the United States very soon and to once again engage in an open, critical and constructive dialogue with American scholars and intellectuals," Professor Ramadan said in a statement.

The travel ban on him was imposed in the wake of an accusation that he had contributed to the terrorism from 1998 to 2002 by donating about $1,300 to a Swiss-based charity that provided money to Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

The Bush administration in 2006, under the Patriot Act, revoked Ramadan's visa, as he sought to travel to the US to take up a position as a tenured professor at the University of Notre Dame.

The Oxford University professor argued that he had believed the charity had no connections to terrorist activities and that he had always condemned terrorism.

In August 2009, Ramadan was dismissed from his position at a university in the Netherlands for hosting a Press TV program, which the Dutch authorities said was "irreconcilable" with his position as a guest professor.

The Swiss-born scholar said his dismissal was the result of Western "hypocrisy."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116698§ionid=351020606.