Gunmen attack Egypt`s gas pipeline

Attackers set off explosives early Monday along a gas pipeline in Egypt`s Sinai Peninsula that transports fuel to Israel and Jordan, forcing a shutdown and halting exports

Written on November 29, 2011 | Posted in Sports, export, israel, unlmitie | Leave a comment

Pakistan's exports to EU countries Hike to $6.18 Billion

(MENAFN – Saudi Press Agency) The volume of Pakistan's exports to European Union (EU) countries has increased to an annual amount of US$ 6.18 billion.In a statement here today to the Associated …

Written on November 27, 2011 | Posted in Pakistan, UN, US, cia, europe, export, unlmitie | Leave a comment

India world’’s biggest arms importer: SIPRI think tank

STOCKHOLM: India has been the world’’s biggest weapons importer over the last five years, Swedish think-tank SIPRI reported Monday, naming four Asian countries among the top five arms importers. The report also highlighted how the world’’s major arms supplying countries had in recent years competed for trade in Libya, and in other Arab countries gripped by the recent wave of pro-democracy uprisings. “India is the world’’s largest arms importer,” the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said as it released its latest report on trends in the international arms trade. “India received nine percent of the volume of international arms transfers during 2006-10, with Russian deliveries accounting for 82 percent of Indian arms imports,” it said. Its arms imports jumped 21 percent from the previous five-year-period with 71 percent of its orders being for aircraft. India’’s arms purchases were driven by several factors, said Siemon Wezeman of SIPRI”S Arms Transfers Programme. “The most often cited relate to rivalries with Pakistan and China as well as internal security challenges,” he wrote. China and South Korea held joint second place on the list of global arms import, each with six percent, followed by Pakistan, on five percent. Aircraft accounted for 45 percent of Pakistan’’s arms imports, which had bought warplanes from both China and the United States. Pakistan’’s arms imports were up 128 percent on the previous five-year period, SIPRI noted. Greece rounded off the top-five list arms importers, with four percent of global imports. Since the lifting of a UN arms embargo on Libya in September 2003, Britain, France, Italy and Russia had all competed to win orders from Moamer Kadhafi’’s regime, said the report. Kadhafi’’s forces are currently using tanks, artillery and warplanes to reclaim territory held by the opposition forces. Egypt had received 60 percent of its major arms imports from the United States between 2006 and 2010, said the SIPRI report. They included “M-1A1 tanks and M-113 armoured vehicles of the type present during demonstrations in the country in January 2011,” it added. A pro-democracy uprising forced Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to step down on February 11, after nearly three decades of autocratic rule, after pro-democracy uprising. But the conflict left at least 384 dead and more than 6,000 injured. Russia, Montenegro, the Netherlands and China had also supplied weapons to the Mubarak regime, said the SIPRI report. The United States remained the world’’s largest military equipment exporter, accounting for 30 percent of global arms exports in 2006-10, 44 percent of which went to to Asia and Oceania, SIPRI said. The rest of the top five arms suppliers were: Russia, with 23 percent of the total market; Germany (11 percent); France (seven percent); and Britain (four percent). “There is intense competition between suppliers for big-ticket deals in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America,” said Dr Paul Holtom, head of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme. He cited the efforts of the Eurofighter consortium to sell their plane across the world against rival warplanes, with competition particuarly fierce for the markets in Brazil and India. Britain, France, Germany and Italy were also competing for orders for naval equipment from Algeria, noted SIPRI. The think tank, which specialises in research on conflicts, weapons, arms control and disarmament, was created in 1966 and is 50-percent financed by the Swedish state. (AFP)

Written on March 14, 2011 | Posted in 2010, 2011, America, ISI, International, News, Pakistan, UN, US, War, ad, africa, aid, aircraft, china, cia, dha, export, france, import, india, korea, live, military, netherlands, trade, uth | Leave a comment

1,000 feared dead in Japan quake-tsunami disaster

TOKYO: More than 1,000 people were feared dead after a monster tsunami unleashed by a massive quake which wreaked destruction across northeast Japan and triggered an emergency at a nuclear power plant. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Saturday that residents living within 10 kilometres (six miles) of the plant must evacuate amid fears of a slight radiation leak, before stepping onto a helicopter to head for the area. The atomic emergency came as the country struggled to assess the full extent of the devastation wrought by the massive tsunami triggered by the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan. The towering wall of water generated by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake — the seventh biggest in history — pulverised the northeastern city of Sendai, where police Friday reportedly said that 200-300 bodies had been found on the coast. Kyodo News said the final death toll was likely to pass 1,000. The 10-metre (33-foot) wave of black water sent shipping containers, cars and debris crashing through the streets of Sendai and across open farmland, while a tidal wave of debris-littered mud destroyed everything in its path. At least 384 people were killed in the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis, police and press reports said. The National Police Agency said 184 people had been confirmed dead and 707 missing, with 947 injured in the tremor, and a spokesman said this did not include the bodies reportedly found on the Sendai coast. “The damage is so enormous that it will take us much time to gather data,” an official at the agency told media. The tsunami left Rikuzen Takata, a coastal city of some 23,000 people, “almost in shambles,” the national Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. Video footage, taken by a resident from a hill, showed massive waves sweeping away houses, vehicles and other objects as they surged over the city from the sea. Before the prime minister told residents around the Fukushima nuclear plant to evacuate, trade minister Banri Kaieda warned there could be a release of radioactive steam in an operation to relieve a pressure build-up after the plant’’s cooling system was damaged in the quake. Japan’’s network of advanced nuclear power plants are designed to shut down as soon as the earth shakes in one of the world’’s most quake-prone countries, though a fire broke out in the turbine building of another nuclear plant in Onagawa. More than eight million homes lost power, mobile and landline phone systems broke down for many and gas was cut to more than 300,000 homes, meaning many people could not heat their dark homes during a terrifying and cold night. Japan’’s military mobilised thousands of troops, 300 planes and 40 ships for the relief effort. An armada of 20 naval destroyers and other vessels headed for the devastated Pacific coast area of Honshu island, while air force jets flew reconnaissance missions. Leading international offers of help, President Barack Obama mobilised US military might to provide emergency aid after the disaster which he described as “simply heartbreaking.” The United States, which has nearly 40,000 military personnel in Japan, has ordered a flotilla including two aircraft carriers and support ships to the region to provide aid following the tsunami. The towering wave set off alerts across the Pacific, sparking evacuations in Hawaii and the US West Coast, and devastating at least one California port. Chile said it was evacuating coastal areas and Ecuador’’s state oil company announced it had suspended crude oil exports due to risks posed by the tsunami. A Japanese ship with 100 people aboard was reportedly carried away, more than 300 houses were destroyed in the remote city of Ofunato and a dam broke in the northeast prefecture of Fukushima, with homes washed away. “It was the biggest earthquake I have ever felt. I thought I would die,” said Sayaka Umezawa, a 22-year-old college student who was visiting the port of Hakodate, which was hit by a two-metre wave. The quake, which hit at 2:46 pm (0546 GMT) and lasted about two minutes, rattled buildings in greater Tokyo, the world’’s largest urban area and home to some 30 million people. It was felt in Beijing, some 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) away. Millions who had earlier fled swaying buildings in the capital were left stranded in the evening after the earthquake shut down the city’’s vast subway system. The government urged people to stay near their workplaces rather than risk a long walk home, as highways leading out of the city centre were choked and hotels rapidly filled up. There was major disruption to air travel and bullet train services. A passenger train with an unknown number of people aboard was unaccounted for on a line outside Sendai, Kyodo News reported. The tsunami also submerged the runway at Sendai airport, while a process known as liquefaction, caused by the intense shaking of the tremor, turned parts of the ground to liquid. Hours after the quake struck, TV images showed huge orange balls of flame rolling up into the night sky as fires raged around a petrochemical complex in Sendai. A massive fire also engulfed an oil refinery near Tokyo as the quake brought huge disruption to Japan’’s key industries. Tokyo share prices plummeted and the yen was down against the dollar. The first quake struck just under 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the US Geological Survey said. It was followed by more than 70 powerful aftershocks, one as strong as 7.1. “We were shaken so strongly for a while that we needed to hold on to something in order not to fall,” said an official at the local government of the hardest-hit city of Kurihara in Miyagi prefecture. “We couldn”t escape the building immediately because the tremors continued… City officials are now outside, collecting information on damage.” Japan sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire” and Tokyo is in one of its most dangerous areas, where three continental plates are slowly grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure. The government has warned of a 70 percent chance that a magnitude-eight quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo’’s vast urban sprawl. The last time a “Big One” hit Tokyo was in 1923, when the Great Kanto Earthquake claimed more than 140,000 lives, many of them in fires. In 1995 the Kobe earthquake killed more than 6,400 people. More than 220,000 people were killed when a 9.1-magnitude quake hit off Indonesia in 2004, unleashing a massive tsunami that devastated coastlines in countries around the Indian Ocean. Small quakes are felt every day somewhere in Japan and people take part in regular drills at schools and workplaces to prepare for a calamity. (AFP)

Written on March 12, 2011 | Posted in 2011, ISI, International, Mobile, News, UK, UN, US, USA, War, ad, aid, aircraft, ban, cars, chile, cia, earthquake, export, footage, india, live, media, military, nato, police, trade | Leave a comment

Huge tsunami kills hundreds in Japan, sweeps across Pacific

TOKYO: The biggest earthquake on record to hit Japan rocked the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that killed hundreds of people and swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships and cars. The Red Cross in Geneva said the wall of water was higher than some Pacific islands and a tsunami warning was issued for almost the entire Pacific basin, although alerts were lifted for some countries, including Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. Up to 300 bodies were found in the coastal city of Sendai, media said. NHK television said the victims appeared to have drowned. The extent of the destruction along a lengthy stretch of coastline suggested the death toll could rise significantly. Some 3,000 residents living near a nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo, were told to evacuate but the government said no radiation was leaking. It said the evacuation was a precaution after a reactor cooling malfunction. Other nuclear power plants and oil refineries were shut down after the 8.9 magnitude quake, while one refinery was ablaze. A major explosion hit a petrochemical complex in Miyagi prefecture after the quake, Kyodo said. Political leaders pushed for an emergency budget to help fund relief efforts after Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked them to “save the country”, Kyodo news agency reported. Stunning TV footage showed a muddy wall of water carrying cars and wrecked homes at high speed across farmland near Sendai, home to one million people and which lies 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Ships had been flung onto a harbour wharf, where they lay helplessly on their side. The quake, the most powerful since Japan started keeping records 140 years ago, sparked at least 80 fires in cities and towns along the coast, Kyodo news agency said. A ship carrying 100 people had been swept away by the tsunami, Kyodo said. One train was unaccounted for. In Tokyo, residents who had earlier fled swaying buildings jammed the streets trying to make their way home after much of the city’’s public transportation was shut down. Electronics giant Sony Corp , one of the country’’s biggest exporters, shut six factories, as air force jets raced toward the northeast coast to determine the extent of the damage. The Bank of Japan, which has been struggling to boost the anaemic economy, said it would do its utmost to ensure financial market stability as the yen and Japanese shares fell. “I was terrified and I”m still frightened,” said Hidekatsu Hata, 36, manager of a Chinese noodle restaurant in Tokyo, where buildings shook violently. “I”ve never experienced such a big quake before.” The tsunami alerts revived memories of the giant waves which struck Asia in 2004. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued alerts for countries to the west and across the Pacific as far away as Colombia and Peru. The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. There were several strong aftershocks. In Tokyo, there was widespread panic. An oil refinery near the city was on fire, with dozens of storage tanks under threat. Around 4.4 million homes were without power in northern Japan, media said. “People are flooding the streets. It’’s incredible. Everyone is trying to get home but I didn”t see any taxis,” said Koji Goto, a 43-year-old Tokyo resident. NHK television showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted. Thick smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama’’s Isogo area. TV showed residents of the city running out of shaking buildings, shielding their heads with their hands from falling masonry. TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks tossed around like toys in the water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed and cars were turning around and speeding away. “The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks,” Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo. “It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago.” The U.S. navy said its ships had been unaffected by the tsunami and were ready to provide disaster relief if needed. China offered to provide earthquake relief. The quake struck just before the Tokyo stock market closed, pushing the Nikkei down to end at a five-week low. Nikkei futures trading in Osaka tumbled as much as 4.7 percent in reaction to the news. The disaster also weighed on markets elsewhere. GREAT KANTO QUAKE The quake surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area. The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion. Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers” hands during the quake. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura. Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo. Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first quake subsided, crowds watched and pointed to construction cranes on an office building up the street with voices saying, “They”re still shaking!”, “Are they going to fall?” Japan’’s northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’’s most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world’’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

Written on March 11, 2011 | Posted in 2011, Economy, ISI, International, News, UK, UN, US, War, ad, ads, aid, australia, ban, budget, call, cars, china, cia, drugs, earthquake, export, footage, india, media, new zealand | Leave a comment

Huge tsunami slams Japan, kills 60

TOKYO: The biggest earthquake on record to hit Japan struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships, cars and farm buildings. The Red Cross in Geneva said the wall of water was higher than some Pacific islands and a tsunami warning was issued for almost the entire Pacific basin, though alerts were lifted for some countries in the region, including Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. At least 60 people had been killed in the quake and tsunami in Japan, broadcaster NHK said, adding that many were missing. The extent of the destruction along a lengthy stretch of Japan’’s coastline suggested the death toll could rise significantly. The 8.9 magnitude quake, the most powerful since Japan started keeping records 140 years ago, caused many injuries and sparked fires while the tsunami prompted warnings to people to move to higher ground in coastal areas. Domestic news agencies said a radoactive leak was possible at a nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo, and some 2,000 residents had been told to evacuate the area. Some nuclear power plants and oil refineries were shut down and a refinery was ablaze. Prime Minister Naoto Kan told politicians they needed to “save the country” after the disaster which he said had caused widespread damage to swathes of the country’’s north. The quake split a highway near Tokyo and flattened several buildings in the northeast and a train was unaccounted in a coastal area hit by the tsunami. A ship carrying 100 people had been swept away by the tsunami, Kyodo news agency said, and TV footage showed the roiling waters, blackened with debris, some of it ablaze, sweeping away homes, cars and bringing ships inland. There were reports of at least 80 locations on fire after the quake, Kyodo said. Around 4.4 million homes were without power in northern Japan, media said. A hotel collapsed in the city of Sendai and people were feared buried in the rubble. Electronics giant Sony Corp, one of the country’’s biggest exporters, shut six factories, as air force jets raced toward the northeast coast to determine the extent of the damage. The Bank of Japan, which has been struggling to boost the anaemic economy, said it would do its utmost to ensure financial market stability as the yen and Japanese shares fell. “I was terrified and I”m still frightened,” said Hidekatsu Hata, 36, manager of a Chinese noodle restaurant in Tokyo, where buildings shook violently. “I”ve never experienced such a big quake before.” The Philippine and Indonesia issued tsunami alerts, reviving memories of the giant tsunami which struck Asia in 2004. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued alerts for countries to the west and across the Pacific as far away as Colombia and Peru. The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. There were several strong aftershocks. In Tokyo, there was widespread panic. An oil refinery near the city was on fire, with dozens of storage tanks under threat. “People are flooding the streets. It’’s incredible. Everyone is trying to get home but I didn”t see any taxis in Ginza, where there are usually plenty,” said Koji Goto, a 43-year-old Tokyo resident. TV footage showed a muddy wall of water carrying debris across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai, which has a population of one million. Ships in once coastal area were lifted from the sea into a harbour where they lay helplessly on their side. Sendai is 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo and the epicentre at sea was not far away. NHK television showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted. Thick smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama’’s Isogo area. TV showed residents of the city running out of shaking buildings, shielding their heads with their hands from falling masonry. TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks tossed around like toys in the water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed and cars were turning around and speeding away. Kyodo said there were reports of fires in Sendai where waves carried cars across the runway at the airport. “The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks,” Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo. “It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago.” The U.S. navy said its ships had been unaffected by the tsunami and were ready to provide disaster relief if needed. China offered to provide earthquake relief. The quake struck just before the Tokyo stock market closed, pushing the Nikkei down to end at a five-week low. Nikkei futures trading in Osaka tumbled as much as 4.7 percent in reaction to the news. The disaster also weighed on markets elsewhere. GREAT KANTO QUAKE The quake was the biggest since records began 140 years ago, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area. The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion. Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers” hands during the quake. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura. Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo. Household goods ranging from toilet paper to clingfilm were flung into the street from outdoor shelves in front of a drugstore. Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first quake subsided, crowds watched and pointed to construction cranes on an office building up the street with voices saying, “They”re still shaking!”, “Are they going to fall?” Asagi Machida, 27, a web designer in Tokyo, sprinted from a coffee shop when the quake hit. “The images from the New Zealand earthquake are still fresh in my mind so I was really scared. I couldn”t believe such a big earthquake was happening in Tokyo.” Japan’’s northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’’s most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world’’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

Written on March 11, 2011 | Posted in 2011, Economy, ISI, International, News, UK, UN, US, War, Web, ad, ads, aid, australia, ban, call, cars, china, cia, drugs, earthquake, export, footage, india, media, new zealand | Leave a comment

US charges Pakistani with illegal nuclear exports

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani national has been arrested and charged with a scheme to illegally export nuclear-related materials to his home country from the United States, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday. Nadeem Akhtar, 45, who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, a Washington suburb, was indicted for conspiring with others to illegally export restricted goods and technology to a Pakistani nuclear power plant and a Pakistani research commission. With an unidentified co-defendant, the alleged scheme began late in 2005 and lasted until March of last year, officials said. Most of the illegal exports took place between 2005 and 2008. “This arrest is the product of a vigorous, cooperative joint-agency investigation focused on denying and disrupting the illegal export of controlled nuclear technology destined for Pakistan,” said Eric Hirschhorn, the undersecretary of commerce for industry and security. The indictment alleged that Akhtar worked on behalf of the co-defendant who had business relationships with Pakistan government entities and who obtained the items from the United States and other nations. The indictment alleges that Akhtar and his co-defendant transferred funds from Pakistan and Dubai to bank accounts in the United States. Akhtar, who owns a company called Computer Communication USA, was specifically accused of illegally exporting radiation detection devices, resins for coolant water purification, calibration and switching equipment, and surface refinishing abrasives. All of those items require an export license because they can be used in activities related to nuclear reactors and the processing and production of nuclear material, the Justice Department said. The indictment alleged that Akhtar attempted to conceal the ultimate end use of the items and their true value by putting misleading or incomplete information on documents such as invoices and purchase orders. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit export violations and defraud the United States, up to 20 years in prison for unlawful export of goods, and up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Akhtar had an initial appearance in federal court on Wednesday in Baltimore and was ordered detained pending another hearing on Thursday. (Reuters)

Written on March 10, 2011 | Posted in 2011, News, Pakistan, Politics, UN, US, USA, ad, aid, ban, call, cia, conspiracy, export, fraud, industry, live, technology | Leave a comment

Pakistani Charged in Export Scheme

A Pakistani man has been arrested and charged in connection with a scheme to illegally export nuclear-related materials to his home country from the United States, the Justice Department said …

Written on March 10, 2011 | Posted in Pakistan, UN, US, aid, export, unlmitie | Leave a comment

US charges Pakistani national with illegal nuclear exports

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani national has been arrested and charged with a scheme to illegally export nuclear-related materials to his home country from the United States, …

Written on March 10, 2011 | Posted in Pakistan, UN, export, unlmitie | Leave a comment

Pakistani man indicted in scheme to illegally export restricted nuclear goods

A federal grand jury has indicted Nadeem Akhtar, age 45, of Silver Spring, MD, on charges related to a scheme to illegally export items that are used directly or indirectly in activities related to …

Written on March 10, 2011 | Posted in US, ad, export, unlmitie | Leave a comment

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