Cyprus has sent a written request to the Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council, for advice on handling the cargo of the Russian-owned ship docked off the Limassol coastline since last week. The vessel is suspected to be carrying arms and munitions from Iran.
Due to the committee's requirement for unanimous voting - and Russia's veto power - it is feared that the issue will lead to deadlock, passing the ball back to the Cypriot court for a decision.
"We are carefully handling the situation, based on international conventions and agreements - and not based on what a third country possibly wants," said Stefanos Stefanou, state spokesman, referring to the reported pressure on Cyprus by the US and Israel to confiscate Monchegorsk's cargo.
State broadcaster CyBC yesterday said that Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak was in constant contact with his US counterparts over the affair, adding that Israel now believed the arms were heading for Syria.
Society's Child
Mysterious serial killings of beggars on Guwahati streets have left the city police in a tizzy. Four beggars have been killed since the first week of January.
Police are now exploring all angles - whether the killer is a psychopath or if the killings were carried out at the behest of a larger network whose motive is to create terror among beggars and force them to form an association to exploit them for profit.
Police are now exploring all angles - whether the killer is a psychopath or if the killings were carried out at the behest of a larger network whose motive is to create terror among beggars and force them to form an association to exploit them for profit.
© Times Online
Mahmoud Mattar lies unconscious in hospital. 'Two of his friends who were walking with him were killed instantly'
Mahmoud Mattar lies unconscious in hospital. 'Two of his friends who were walking with him were killed instantly'
The Times has uncovered dozens of incidents in which doctors say that civilians have been wounded by white phosphorus, which burns at extremely high temperatures until its oxygen is cut off. Last week UN officials in Gaza were certain that their compound had been hit by white phosphorus shells.
© AP
Amanda Knox
Amanda Knox
In the dock with her will be her 24-year-old ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. They have spent more than a year in Perugia's jail waiting to be tried for their alleged role in the murder of the Surrey student Meredith Kercher, 21, sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in her Perugia bedsit in November 2007.
© 2009 Sott.net
Some of the speakers at the emergency meeting on Gaza Jan. 14th 2009
Some of the speakers at the emergency meeting on Gaza Jan. 14th 2009
SOTT.net editors attended the event, this is their report:
A UN convoy attacked, the Red Cross blocked and harassed, international journalists blocked in the apparent vain attempt to hide all the murders, dead men, women and children in the roads, all at the hands of the IDF. The list goes on and on. I hope this is all being carefully recorded to present to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.
© Pink Floyd - The Wall
Marching Hammers, from Pink Floyd - The Wall
Marching Hammers, from Pink Floyd - The Wall
The new year does not look very promising as the pathocrats in Israel have stolen their Christmas 'present' from the tree of humankind by force, initiating their long-planned invasion of Gaza. In the background we hear the rumble of more wars to come, poverty, hunger and riots; and all of this takes place in the context of a strange and disturbing cosmic and earthly climate that no one quite understands.
Miami, Florida - The family of a missing cruise ship passenger said Monday that they suspect the woman "chose an unfortunate ending to her life" and jumped from a cruise ship balcony into the waters off Mexico's coast on Christmas night. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Monday for Jennifer Ellis Seitz, a Florida journalist, after combing more than 4,200 square miles off the coast of the popular resort area of Cancun, where the ship had just visited. Mexican authorities said they would continue their search for another 48 hours.
© AFP
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike in the town of Rafah
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike in the town of Rafah
"Egypt condemns the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip and blames Israel, as an occupying force, for the victims and the wounded," President Hosni Mubarak said in a statement.
He gave instructions for the Rafah terminal -- the only one bypassing Israel -- to be opened so that the wounded could be treated in Egyptian hospitals.
© William Blake
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed With the Sun
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed With the Sun
To cut to the chase, because this news is just too good to wait until Christmas to unwrap, the anti-SLAPP motion was granted and the claims of Higher Balance Institute have been stricken. In the process, the term "horse hockey" has been enshrined in American Case Law.
