Saudi may transfer ailing Nigerian president

Saudi doctors treating the Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua have considered transferring him either to the US or Germany.

President Yar'Adua's health condition has allegedly been worsening and he needs to be moved to a country with more advanced medical equipment.

The Nigerian leader was flown to Germany a little over two years ago for similar treatment and was discharged a couple of days later after doctors declared him fit to return home and assume his task.

This is the third time that President Yar'Adua is in hospital for an acute pericarditis --an inflammation of the covering of the heart-- since he won a troubled election to succeed former President Olusegun Obasanjo nearly three years ago.

Local media quoted the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where the leader is being treated as saying that the Nigerian president would have to stay in hospital for the next three months.

This is in sharp contrast with a Nigerian government press statement which had said that President Yar'Adua was "responding well to treatment and was watching football matches from his hospital bed."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=113264&sectionid=351020505.

Google reveals 'Goggle'

Google has unveiled its new search option, "Goggles," which allows users to perform an Internet search by submitting a photograph instead of keywords.

The search giant Google's regular search engine lets users search by typing text onto a Web page.

The search giant launched Google Goggles as its search-by-sight feature to let users use a picture instead of keywords as the search query.

Users can take a picture of a given object and send it to Google Goggle to obtain more details about the object.

"It is our goal to be able to identify any image," said Google's vice-president of engineering, Vic Gundotra.

“It represents our earliest efforts in the field of computer vision. You can take a picture of an item, use that picture of whatever you take as the query."

The tool compares the searched key-image with Google's database of billions of images. Goggle informs its analysis of the uploaded image to return relevant information.

It can recognize books, album covers, artwork, landmarks, places, logos, and more.

Kuwaiti MPs set to remove prime minister

Kuwaiti opposition lawmakers file two motions to remove Prime Minister Sheikh Nasir al-Muhammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah and his interior minister over corruption charges.

The premier and Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khaled al-Sabah are both senior members of the al-Sabah family that has been ruling the Persian Gulf state for 250 years.

Ten opposition lawmakers filed on Tuesday a "motion for non-cooperation" against the prime minister following a protracted six-hour session held behind closed doors.

"A motion has been officially submitted, and voting will take place on December 16," AFP quoted Parliament Speaker Jassem al-Khorafi as saying.

If passed, the motion would still need to be sent to the emir to decide either to sack the premier, or dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.

Sheikh Nasir, the first prime minister to be questioned by Kuwait's parliament since the legislature was set up in the Arab emirate in 1962, is facing allegations that his office embezzled 23 million dinars ($86 million) in the run-up to the 2008 elections.

He is also charged with issuing a $700,000 check to a former MP last year.

Early on Wednesday, 10 other opposition MPs filed a no-confidence motion against the interior minister for providing the parliament with false information during a June 23 questioning.

Kuwaiti lawmakers also grilled Minister of Public Works and Municipalities Fadhel Safar over allegations of financial and administrative corruption, and then defense minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak al-Sabah for alleged misappropriation of public funds and wrongdoings in arms deals.

The appointment of Sheikh Nasir's, a nephew of the ruler, as premier in 2006 sparked bitter disputes between Kuwait's executive and legislative bodies which have seen parliament dissolve three times and forced Sheikh Nasir to resign five times ever since.

Late on Tuesday, 30 MPs out of parliament's 50 members issued a statement expressing confidence in the prime minister, who denies the corruption charges along with his ministers.

For the opposition motion to be passed, it requires at least 25 votes from elected MPs who are not cabinet ministers. All ministers, whether elected MPs or not, hold ex-officio seats in Kuwait's parliament.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=113258§ionid=351020205.

Russia to triple Israeli-made drone fleet

Russia is negotiating a second weapons deal with Israel, purchasing unmanned spy planes valued at around $100 million, an Israeli defense source says.

The new deal with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) would be worth about twice the size of an initial $50 million sale announced in April.

"The Russians are going for a triple upgrade of their fleet and its capabilities," an unnamed Israeli source told Reuters on Monday.

He added that the pact would also feature improved surveillance equipment on drones.

IAI declined to comment.

The war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008 has served to bring Israel's intensive involvement in the Caucasus into the limelight.

Reports indicate that Israel had been supplying Georgia with infantry weapons, electronics for artillery systems and ground attack jets for over seven years before the war began.

More then a year after the five-day conflict, Moscow is now seeking to revamp its army by seeking modern weapons through Israel.

Tel Aviv hopes that the two drone deals would help improve ties with the Kremlin, which has had good relations with Iran.

Iran releases three Belgian nationals

Iran has released three Belgian nationals who were arrested earlier this year on charges of trying to “gather intelligence” in a no-entry zone.

The Tehran Prosecutor General's Office declared on Tuesday that Van den Bosch, Vincent Binfleur, and Diego Gomatio (all names as transliterated from Persian), who were arrested two months ago, have been released after an order by their investigator and an approval by Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi.

The Belgian nationals have been handed over to the Belgian Embassy in Tehran, the Fars news agency reported.

No more details were given about the matter.

Christians, Muslims warn of moves against Al-Aqsa

Christian and Muslim figures have warned that Israel intends to impose a fait accompli at the Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of its Judaization campaign that targets East Jerusalem Al-Quds.

During an emergency meeting held in Jerusalem Al-Quds on Monday, the attendees stated that such serious moves against the Al-Aqsa Mosque will raise the ire of the Muslim world and cause an international crisis, according to the Palestinian Information Center.

The meeting also addressed the Israeli decisions to prevent a number of Palestinian scholars, preachers, and national figures from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to impose a ban on the Muslim prayer call at Jerusalem Al-Quds mosques and elsewhere in occupied Palestine.

In a joint statement issued at the end of the meeting, the participants emphasized the importance of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Muslim faith, adding that the mosque and its entire premises belong to all Muslims.

Muslims consider the frequent Israeli attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as part of a Judaization campaign that targets the holy city of Jerusalem Al-Quds.

US Air Force confirms 'Beast of Kandahar' drone

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Air Force on Tuesday confirmed for the first time that it is flying a stealth unmanned aircraft known as the "Beast of Kandahar," a drone spotted in photos and shrouded in secrecy.

The RQ-170 Sentinel is being developed by Lockheed Martin and is designed "to provide reconnaissance and surveillance support to forward deployed combat forces," the air force said in a brief statement.

The "RQ" prefix for the aircraft indicates an unarmed drone, unlike the "MQ" designation used for Predator and Reaper aircraft equipped with missiles and precision-guided bombs.

Aviation experts dubbed the drone the "Beast of Kandahar" after photographs emerged earlier this year showing the mysterious aircraft in southern Afghanistan in 2007.

The image suggested a drone with a radar-evading stealth-like design, resembling a smaller version of a B-2 bomber.

A blog in the French newspaper Liberation published another photo this week, feeding speculation among aviation watchers about the classified drone.

The air force said the aircraft came out of Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works," also known as Advanced Development Programs, in California -- the home of sophisticated and often secret defense projects including the U-2 spy plane, the F-22 fighter jet and the F-117 Nighthawk.

The photo of the drone in Afghanistan has raised questions about why the United States would be operating a stealth unmanned aircraft in a country where insurgents have no radar systems, prompting speculation Washington was using the drones for possible spying missions in neighboring Iran or Pakistan.

The Sentinel was believed to have a flying wing design with no tail and with sensors built into the top side of each wing, according to published photos.

The RQ-170 is in line with Defense Secretary Robert Gates' request for more intelligence and surveillance resources and with the Air Force chief of staff's plans to expand the fleet of unmanned aircraft, the air force said.

The new drone is flown by the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron out of Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, which is under Air Combat Command's 432nd Wing at Creech Air Base, also in Nevada.

The United States has carried out an extensive bombing campaign against Al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan using the Predator and larger Reaper drones.

Robots or "unmanned systems" in the air and on the ground are now deployed by the thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan, spying from the sky for hours on end, searching for booby-traps and firing lethal missiles without putting US soldiers at risk.