Meyer Minute

Talks are set to conclude this week between Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the countries of Pakistan and India. The deal, if confirmed, will set in the motion plans to build a pipeline supplying Iranian gas to the two other nations, according to CNN.

The pipeline would be about 1,600 miles long, and would cost around $7 billion to build. Initial costs put the line at around $4.5 billion, but were recently revised. The current plan would have 682 miles of pipe in Iran, 620 in Pakistan, and 372 in India.

The United States has been pressuring Pakistan and India, both allies of the U.S., to not sign any agreements with Iran. Some have instead called the pipeline a "peace pipeline," believing it will reduce tensions between the three nations.

In efforts to try and convince India to back out, the U.S. offered India advanced nuclear technology, to make up for the gas, but India has already claimed it's ready to enter final discussions with Iran.

The line would be capable of delivering 150 million cubic meters of gas to India and Pakistan a day. A top Iranian advisor spoke about the importance of oil and gas when putting Western powers "in their place," according to Iran's semi-official news agency, Fars.

"Oil and gas are two elements of power at the disposal of the Muslims," Gen. Yahya Safavi said Sunday, according to Fars.

Posted by meyer980 at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pope Benedict XVI is set to visit the White House during his United States trip, marking only the second time a pope has been there, according to CNN. President Bush is planning to meet the pope at the airport and hosting a fancy East Room dinner, both which are firsts for a president.

The leader of the Roman Catholics is set to visit the White House Wednesday morning, where a crowd of 12,000 is expected to show up. That will be the largest crowd during Bush's presidency, beating out Queen Elizabeth II which was around 7,000. The crowd isn't the only first, as Bush is planning to celebrate Benedict’s 81'st birthday also. Bush explained the special treatment, saying that Benedict was coming as a man of faith, and not a politician.

The first white house visit by a pope was by Pope John Paul II, when President Carter had 10,000 guests show up. Ever since Woodrow Wilson was a guest at Vatican City, each president has visited with the current pope at least once. Bush will break the record this week at five meetings, with two separate popes.

Bush and Benedict politically agree on many issues, like Bush did with the former pope John Paul. Social issues like abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research are a few examples. However, they disagree on the war in Iraq, and as a cardinal Benedict said that a preventive strike against Iraq could not be justified under Catholic doctrine.

Even with the special attention from the Bush administration, the most remembered and influential moments of Benedict's trip is likely to be when he addresses the United Nations on Friday, said George Weigel, a Catholic theologian and biographer of Pope John Paul II.

Posted by meyer980 at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

President Bush and Russian President Putin failed to resolve their differences after a meeting today, according to CNN. Bush did say they had laid out a strategic framework to help guide any future U.S.-Russian relations.

The two presidents spoke at a joint press conference Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. Putin expressed his countries concern that the U.S. wanted to build missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. Putin did say he was hopeful that the two sides would come to some sort of agreement in the near future, and called his eight-year professional relationship with Bush "mostly positive."

President Bush said that it would take some more time to convince Moscow that the missile sites were purely defensive in nature, and not offensive. He also said that people need to accept that "the Cold War is over."

Bush was also able to meet Russia's future president, Dmitry Medvedev, who will take over next month. Bush called Medvedev a straightforward fellow, and told reporters, "You can write down, I was impressed and look forward to working with him."

In the text of the US-Russia Strategic Framework Declaration, which was released after the talks, Russia and the U.S. agreed that the time when they considered each other a "strategic threat or enemy" was over. "Where we have differences, we will work to resolve them in a spirit of mutual respect."

Posted by meyer980 at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Australia started a project to pump carbon dioxide underground to try and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to CNN. The project hopes that by pumping the gases underground they will be unable to affect the atmosphere.

A plant opened in southern Victoria state Wednesday that should capture and compress 110,231 tons of carbon dioxide and pump it 6,500 feet underground. The pumping site is a depleted natural gas reservoir.

This idea, known as geosequestration, is only being used in a handful of places with the U.S. being one of them. About 144 sites in the U.S. use a similar method of pumping carbon dioxide underground to help recover oil reserves.

Greens political party officials say that the project would achieve little and governments should concentrate on much bigger goals to solve global warming. Green Party Sen. Christine Milne said that the plan was government-funded PR.

Officials said that scientists will monitor the site to measure leaks and other potential problems with the goal of proving that geosequestration is both a safe and effective way of fighting global warming.

Posted by meyer980 at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Protestors gathered at the Olympic torch lighting ceremony Monday objecting to the games being held in Beijing, according to CNN. Three protestors rushed onto the field of the ceremony in Olympia, Greece with a banner calling for a boycott of the games.

Police detained the three protestors who were French, but it is unclear whether they will face trial for their actions. In a statement the French group said they couldn't allow the flame, a symbol of peace, go into China unless they denounced the dramatic situation of human rights there.

Officials said it was the first time the lighting ceremony had been interrupted by protestors. In China, state broadcasters cut to pre-recorded footage, blocking millions of viewers from seeing what really happened.

Later on in the day more protests followed. A Tibetan woman covered herself in red paint and laid on the ground in front of the torch bearers, forcing them to go around.

Although there were no injuries or fights, officials say it may one of the most difficult Olympic relays they've had to guard. We have Tibetans popping out of every corner protesting during the torch relay," said a senior Greek Olympics official.

Posted by meyer980 at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chinese officials told the state press Sunday that they had successfully stopped two separate terrorist attacks, one of which was targeting the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, according to CNN. Officials said both attacks were operated from a region in northwest China.

The first group was militant members who were killed earlier this year in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and were planning on attacking the Olympic Games to take place in Beijing. The Autonomous Region is home to about 19 million people, most of whom are Muslim and oppose the Chinese government. The second failed attack was from an airplane forced to land because some passengers were "attempting to create an air disaster." The flight took off from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The crew was able to stop the hijackers.

Wang Lequan, chief of the Xinjiang regional committee of the Communist Party of China, said there are three evil forces of the region, terrorists, separatists and extremists, and that they are working to stop them.

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After a media disclosure of his military deployment, a disappointed Prince Harry was brought home to London, according to CNN. After a media organization revealed his deployment last week the British military decided it was unsafe for Prince Harry it was decided to withdraw him for security reasons.

Originally, most major news organizations agreed to keep the Prince's location a secret but a Web site broke the story on Thursday. Prince Harry said he was actually surprised at how well the British media kept his locations a secret, but also added "At the same time it doesn't surprise me that once again it came down to media, foreign media, that's once again spilled the beans."

A debate has also been started as to whether or not the media should have kept Prince Harry’s location a secret, or ignored the government’s request. Veteran Channel 4 broadcaster, Jon Snow, was scathing about the media decision not to report news of the deployment, according to another CNN story. Snow praised the Drudge Report Web site for publishing the story, saying they broke “the best kept editorial secret of recent times.� Others disagree, saying the secret was a necessary precaution.

Prince Charles, Harry's father, said he was glad to have Harry home safe, and said he now understood what families of soldiers were going through. Harry was also glad to be home but said he would love to go back on duty very soon. "I thought I could see it through to the end and come back with our guys and the colonel himself."

Posted by meyer980 at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cuba's National Assembly convened Sunday to choose a head of state, and for the first time in decades it won't be Fidel Castro, according to CNN. Castro announced his resignation as president last week, likely due to his health condition. The parliament election will most likely choose Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother, as their new president. Raul has been the acting president of Cuba since 2006, when Fidel took a temporary leave for health reasons.

The Cuban parliament is also expected to choose a new vice president during the election, as well as new members of their Council of State, an assembly which acts on parliament's behalf when they are not in session.

The Bush administration has said that this is a chance for change in Cuba, and Raul has made similar remarks. "Is there going to be a transition here toward something?" Raul told reporters, "Yes, toward a better form of socialism and -- here's something you'll like -- toward a more democratic society." But Fidel has spoken out against President Bush, saying Bush's idea of change for Cuba amounts to annexation of Cuba.

Posted by meyer980 at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An 83-year-old man and former SS prison guard was sentenced to life in prison in Italy for war crimes he committed during World War 2, according to CNN. Michael Seifert, who had been living in Canada, was recently extradited from Canada to Italy where his sentencing was held.

Seifert, known as the "Beast of Bolzano" during the war, was convicted even though absent in 2000 by a military tribunal in Italy, on nine counts of murder at an SS guard prison transit camp. At the trial, people testified that Seifert starved a young girl, gouged out a prisoner's eyes, and tortured a woman before killing her.

Seifert is a Canadian citizen originally from Ukrainian, and has admitted to being an SS member, but said he never did the tragedies mentioned. He fought Canadian efforts to strip his citizenship, based on allegations that he hid his history. Canada bans former members of the SS and other similar organizations from becoming citizens because of related war crimes.

Seifert is in relatively good health, but does have a pacemaker. If someone is willing to take him, he could be allowed to serve his sentence on house arrest, because of his age.

Posted by meyer980 at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Three masked men robbed a Zurich museum of 4 paintings Sunday, according to the Star Tribune. The E.G. Buehrle Collection is one of Europe's finest private museums police said, and the robbers were able to make off with paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet for a net worth of $163 million dollars. It was the largest art robbery in Switzerland's history, and is being compared to the theft of the Munch Museum in Norway in 2004.

A little after closing Sunday evening 3 men entered the museum wearing dark clothes and masks. One used a pistol to force personnel to the floor while the other two collected the paintings, according to police. Afterwards they loaded the paintings into a white van and drove off.

A reward of $90,000 is being offered for any information leading to the recovery of the paintings. Police said that the theft of iconic pieces, such as the ones stolen Sunday, are rare because they are harder to sell and the intense police work that follows. Lukas Gloor, the museum's director, said that although the robbers took 4 important paintings they appeared to take the first four the saw and left even more valuable ones behind. Gloor said that as soon as the paintings were touched a security system went off and police were notified. Gloor was also happy the robbery didn't turn violent. "We are happy that no employees or visitors were hurt," Gloor said.

Posted by meyer980 at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times is reporting the first suicide attack in Israel in over a year. Two Palestinian bombers snuck into Israel Monday where they had plans to blow up a shopping center. The first killed a woman and injured 11 others, but the second failed to detonate his device before police arrived and was shot dead.

Later Monday a Gaza military group publicly named the attackers and claimed they were from Gaza. Recently travel between Gaza and Egypt has been easier because of a breach in the border. It is likely that this is when the attackers snuck into Israel.

Israeli authorities were happy with the police forces quick response and that they were able to stop the second bomber before he could also detonate. Kobi Moor, an Israeli officer, arrived at the scene and saw the second bomber lying on the ground, apparently injured from the first blast. Before he could recover, Moor shot him 5 times.

However the Israeli government feels more can be done to protect their citizens. The Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, told the government cabinet there was an urgent need to build a fence between Israel and Egypt to try and stop more attackers from sneaking in.

Posted by meyer980 at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seven Pakistani gunmen took a school hostage with over 200 children inside Monday morning located in the Bannu district of northwest Pakistan. The New York Times reports that the group was originally at 8 but after failing to kidnap a local health official they changed their plans and headed for the school instead. During a chase towards the school a gunfight ensued with local police and one of the men was captured.
The Associated Press has the numbers a little different though. They have a quote from police official Hamza Mehsud claiming that after the children were freed they learned that only seven teachers and 25 children were held hostage in one classroom. All 200 school children were allowed to leave after the 5 hour standoff when the gunmen left the building.
Local police still haven't detained the gunmen by the New York Times printing but were in the custody of local elders. The gunmen agreed to free the children but only after turning themselves into the elders instead of the police. The elders are now negotiating to hand the gunmen over to police.
There have been conflicting reports on the matter but according to CBC News Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told a news conference on Monday the issue had been resolved. "It was incidental that those criminals entered the school...It has been resolved peacefully," he said.

Posted by meyer980 at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)