nike air max skyline

subota, 25.06.2011.

Oil up in Asia on positive US data

Oil rose in Asian trade today on positive economic data from the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer, analysts said.
New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for July delivery, rose 25 cents to USD 95.20 a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for August gained four cents to USD 114.06.
"US crude futures rose in choppy trading, recouping some of the previous day's sharp losses after the International Energy Agency forecast a steep rise in demand," said a Phillip Futures report.
The IEA, in its monthly report Thursday, raised its global oil demand forecast for 2011 by 0.1 million barrels per day to 89.3 million barrels. A predicted rise in demand hinted at a recovering US economy, which requires crude oil to fuel its industries, leading to higher prices.
New US claims for unemployment benefits fell to 414,000 in the week ending June 11, a decline of four per cent from the previous week, and US housing starts grew more than expected in May, rebounding 3.5% from April.
"However, the gain was limited due to the rising tension over a planned rescue of Greece, amid worries of wider fallout," the IEA report added.
Dealers have been rattled by the failure of eurozone finance ministers to reach an deal on a second bailout package aimed at averting a Greek debt default, which could plunge financial markets into crisis.

25.06.2011. u 02:37 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

petak, 17.06.2011.

Zawahiri steps into bin Laden’s shoes at helm of al-Qaeda

After a long delay, al-Qaeda’s media arm announced a successor for Osama bin Laden over the Internet. “The general command of al-Qaeda, after completing consultations, decided that the sheik doctor Abu Mohammed Ayman al-Zawahiri take the responsibility and be in charge of the group,” said the statement. “We seek with the aid of God to call for the religion of truth and incite our nation to fight ... by carrying out jihad against the apostate invaders ... with their head being crusader America and its servant Israel, and whoever supports them,” it said.
Born in 1951, and trained as a surgeon, Mr. Zawahiri is an Egyptian who got involved in radical Islamist politics in the 1970s and formally became Mr. bin Laden’s second-in-command in 1998. He’s sometimes described as the “Karl Rove of al-Qaeda,” brainy and uncharismatic, but despite his shortcomings as an orator he was always viewed as the natural replacement for Mr. bin Laden. There is a $25-million bounty on his head.

Why was he the obvious choice?

In part, there’s nobody else. A joke among analysts in recent years was that serving as al-Qaeda’s “No. 3” is the most dangerous job in the world, because hits on senior terrorist figures were touted as taking out the third in command. Some of that was bluster from Western intelligence agencies, but there did appear to be a dearth of suitable candidates.

Wasn’t another al-Qaeda associate named leader?

Pakistani newspaper reported last month that Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian special forces officer, had been appointed as interim leader. Several other media outlets corroborated this, but the announcement from al-Qaeda does not offer details about Mr. Adel’s role. That ambiguity, and the fact that the terrorist group waited 45 days before naming a leader, have been widely interpreted as signs of a power struggle.

“It is surprising that al-Qaeda took such a long time to announce Zawahiri as the group’s new leader,” said Noman Benotman, a senior analyst at the think-tank Quilliam, who was a close associate of Mr. Zawahiri in the 1990s. “This is a sign that there may have been disputes and conflicts within al-Qaeda, including over his leadership, that Zawahiri needed to resolve before formally taking over.”

How will this promotion affect the organization?

Some say he will focus on attacking the West to nominally avenge his former boss’s death, but also to make his own mark. Organizationally, his ascension may not make a difference. “Under his leadership, there really won’t be that many changes,” former CIA counterterrorist expert Mark Baker told CNN. “It’s not like a corporate shakeup.”

Does anybody take al-Qaeda seriously any more?

The United States government has tried to play down Mr. Zawahiri’s relevance; one senior official told reporters he “barely matters.” Then again, if he were entirely irrelevant the White House would not have bothered to circulate talking points that attack his character, telling journalists that the new al-Qaeda boss lacks combat experience and was an “armchair general.” Predictably, the U.S. military promised to hunt and kill the new al-Qaeda leader.

Will this affect the Taliban’s war in Afghanistan?

Not really. Three Taliban fighters interviewed by The Globe and Mail in the days after Mr. bin Laden’s death seemed uninterested in the question of who should lead al-Qaeda. Most insurgents in Afghanistan draw a sharp distinction between themselves and the “foreigners,” meaning Arab extremists with a global vision of holy war. A 40-year-old merchant now fighting NATO forces in southern Afghanistan suggested that al-Qaeda doesn’t need a leader: “Everyone in al-Qaeda is Osama,” he said.

17.06.2011. u 03:14 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

srijeda, 15.06.2011.

Utah Jazz: Jimmer Fredette, Kemba Walker to work out for Jazz Wednesday

SALT LAKE CITY — The Jimmer Fredette-Kemba Walker showdown is set.

Both hyped players and lottery prospects, who made big splashes in the NCAA Tournament this spring, will participate in a pre-draft workout for the Utah Jazz on Wednesday morning.

The point guards will be joined in the tryout session by 6-foot-8 forward Paul Carter (Illinois-Chicago), 6-10 forward Josh Harrellson (Kentucky), 6-2 guard Senario Hillman (Alabama) and 6-6 guard Malcolm Lee (UCLA).
As usual, this workout is not open to the public.

The 6-3 Fredette, who earned national player-of-the-year honors at BYU this past season, and the 6-1 Walker, who led UConn to the national championship, are among the intriguing players who will likely be available for the Jazz with their No. 3 overall pick.

The Jazz also have the 12th selection of the draft, which takes place a week from Thursday.

The wildly popular Fredette worked out in Phoenix on Monday and has also received rave reviews from his showings for Indiana, New York and Sacramento.

While many Jazz fans are hopeful the local team will pick up the BYU star, Fredette has been projected to be selected as high as No. 7 overall. Most draft speculation has Jimmer pegged in the late lottery area, which would give Utah a shot to take him at No. 12.

15.06.2011. u 03:44 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

subota, 11.06.2011.

Yemen protesters demand wounded leader's ouster

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Nearly 100,000 Yemenis protested Friday in a main square of the capital, demanding the president's ouster in the biggest rally since Ali Abdullah Saleh left for Saudi Arabia after he was wounded in an attack on his palace.
Saleh's evacuation for medical treatment has thrown Yemen into a dangerous political standoff, with opponents insisting he now be pushed completely out of power and his allies seeking to preserve his rule. Saleh was wounded in a blast that hit a mosque where he was praying in his presidential palace on June 3. Badly burned, Saleh was rushed to Saudi Arabia for treatment along with a number of top officials from his regime who also were wounded in the blast.
But the president's allies say he could return within days and have been resisting U.S. and Saudi pressure to start now on a handover of power. Saleh, who has ruled for nearly 33 years, has held out against a wave of daily protests since late January demanding his removal, throwing the country into turmoil. Before he was wounded, opposition tribesmen rose up and battled for two weeks with government forces in fighting that shook the capital.
The United States fears that the impoverished country's power vacuum will give even freer rein to al-Qaida's branch in Yemen, which Washington believes is the terror network's most active franchise. Already, Islamic militants — some suspected of ties to al-Qaida — have taken control of at least two areas in the restive south, a provincial capital Zinjibar and a nearby town Jaar.
PHOTOS: Demonstrations in Yemen
On Friday morning, warplanes hit militant positions north of Jaar, witnesses and security officials said. They said there were casualties but the number was not known. The night before, troops shelled other militant positions near the town with artillery, killing at least six militants, according to medical officials. The medical and security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
In Sanaa's Taghyeer, or "Change," Square on Friday, the crowds of protesters demanded that the vice president — who is acting leader in Saleh's absence — allow the creation of a new government. "The people want a transitional government," they chanted.
The opposition tribesmen marched through the square with the bodies of 41 of their fighters they say were killed a week ago when troops bombarded the Sanaa home of one of their leaders. The tribe's chief, Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, led the march of around 10,000 people from the square to a cemetery in the capital, as protesters chanted, "The people want the butcher put on trial," referring to Saleh.
In another part of the city, about three miles (five kilometers) away, several thousand Saleh supporters held a rally outside his presidential palace. No friction between the two sides was reported.
Similar anti-Saleh protests were held in cities around the country, including in Taiz, Yemen's second largest city, where tribesmen have moved in to protect protesters who came under attack last week in a fierce crackdown by government troops. In recent days, government forces and tribesmen have been fighting in the city, trading gunfire and shelling.
Since Saleh's evacuation, Sanaa has been under a fragile cease-fire, with government troops still deployed in the streets where they once battled al-Ahmar's tribal fighters. The situation has raised fears of a new explosion of violence if a political solution is not found soon — or if the president does indeed return.
The United States and Saudi Arabia are pressing Saleh's ruling party to move ahead with a Gulf Arab-mediated agreement under which he would formally leave power in exchange for immunity, a new unity government would be formed between the ruling party and opposition parties and new elections would be held within two months.
But youth activists leading the street protests reject the deal, saying it would allow elements of Saleh's regime to remain in power. They demand the creation of a transitional government made up of technocrats.
In Abu Dhabi, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday called on all sides to honor a cease-fire. She said Washington was pushing for an "immediate, orderly and peaceful transition" in Yemen.
The upheaval of the past months has left Saleh too preoccupied to focus on the fight against al-Qaida, and the United States has stepped up its covert operations in Yemen. American officials said Thursday that a U.S. airstrike on June 3 killed a midlevel al-Qaida operative named Abu Ali al-Harithia in southern Yemen.
Emboldened, the militants have made inroads deep in the Yemeni hinterland and on its rugged mountain ranges.
In Abyan, residents said suspected al-Qaida militants were openly training in camps and using live ammunition for target practice. They were also carrying out identity checks on travelers on roads leading to neighboring provinces.
Residents of the southern province of Shabwa said suspected al-Qaida militants and sympathizers had set up checkpoints on the road to the nearby province of Hadramawt. They also controlled the towns of Rawdah and Houtah, where they freely roamed the streets.
There is a blurred line between Yemen's large and diverse community of militants and al-Qaida, which is thought to have no more than 300 hard-core members in Yemen. The militants have varying levels of links to the terror network.
Saleh has allied with many of these groups to promote his own interests against political rivals that include moderate Islamists, leftist parties and secular-minded intellectuals. He has sought the militants' help to "Islamize" the south, where secular traditions endure two decades after it was united with the conservative north.