Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister on Monday expressed doubts about the usefulness of more sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
Prince Saud al-Faisal told a news conference in the Saudi capital that the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions demands a more immediate solution than sanctions…
…The Saudi minister also said efforts supported by the U.S. to rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons must apply to Israel.
“Sanctions are a long-term solution,” the Saudi minister said. “But we see the issue in the shorter term because we are closer to the threat,” referring to Iran. “We need immediate resolution rather than gradual resolution.”
via Saudi official questions new sanctions on Iran – Yahoo! News.
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But some independent climate experts say the blizzards in the Northeast no more prove that the planet is cooling than the lack of snow in Vancouver or the downpours in Southern California prove that it is warming.
As an illustration of their point of view, the family of Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, a leading climate skeptic in Congress, built a six-foot-tall igloo on Capitol Hill and put a cardboard sign on top that read “Al Gore’s New Home.”
The extreme weather, Mr. Inhofe said by e-mail, reinforced doubts about scientists’ conclusion that global warming was “unequivocal” and most likely caused by human activity.
via Climate-Change Debate Is Heating Up in Deep Freeze – NYTimes.com.
]]>Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, mounted stiff resistance tonight to any swift bailout of Greece, as a rift opened up between European capitals over how best to tackle the risks posed to the euro.
Despite a show of Franco-German unity on the crisis and the first statement from EU leaders pledging to safeguard the currency's stability, hopes on the markets of a German-led rescue plan to shore up Greece’s critical public finances were dashed by Merkel, who repeatedly emphasised that Athens would need to put its own house in order and brushed aside all questions of financial support.
“Germany is stepping totally on the brakes on financial assistance,” said a senior EU diplomat. “On legal grounds, on constitutional grounds and on principle.” Another senior diplomat said of the Germans: “They’re not waving their chequebooks.”
via Angela Merkel dashes Greek hopes of rescue bid | Business | The Guardian.
]]>]]>“I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that’s what the United States should send,” Chavez said on his weekly television show. “They are occupying Haiti undercover.”
via Chavez says U.S. occupying Haiti in name of aid | Reuters.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti CNN — Earthquake victims, writhing in pain and grasping at life, watched doctors and nurses walk away from a field hospital Friday night after a Belgian medical team evacuated the area, saying it was concerned about security. The decision left CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta as the only doctor at the hospital to get the patients through the night.
via Security concerns cause doctors to leave hospital, quake victims – CNN.com.
]]>“When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, [said actor Dannny Glover] this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I’m sayin’?” His obscene opinion would be bigger news if Glover had – in the manner of others – idiotically blamed a less-fashionable deity.
]]>Wyclef Jean, the former Fugees star is urging people to donate $5 to his Haitian charity, Yéle Haiti, by texting “YELE” to 501501. (The donation will be automatically charged to your cellphone bill.)
“I cannot stress enough what a human disaster this is, and idle hands will only make this tragedy worse,” said Jean in a statement. “We must act now… Haiti needs your prayers and support.”
Jean said he is on his way to Haiti via the neighboring Dominican Republic and asked people to pray for Haiti and for him.
For more information on how to help, go to Jean's Yéle Haiti website, which crashed this morning due to the volume of traffic.
]]>]]>…the military has flown in hundreds of rescuers and has advance teams and assessment teams on the ground. The Coast Guard has deployed four ships as well as air support for evacuation efforts. The Navy destroyer USS Higgins, with about 320 sailors on board, arrived on Thursday.
Up to 3,500 soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg will be deployed in Haiti by Sunday. An advance group of about 125 troops will arrive on Thursday and 800 more will arrive on Friday. Another 2,200 Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit at Camp Lejeune, N.C., may arrive this weekend or at the latest by Monday for what initially is expected to be about a 90-day deployment.
An amphibious readiness group with three ships – the USS Bataan, the USS Fort McHenry and USS Carter Hall — will take the Marines to Haiti. This group can produce its own purified water. A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, with a crew of between 4,000-5,000 sailors on board, is on the way and will arrive in the area by Friday, with 19 helicopters on board. It has three operating rooms, several dozen hospital beds and can produce fresh water. But the much-anticipated hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, will not arrive until around Jan 22 with its 12 operating rooms and 250 hospital beds. The Pentagon says the Comfort is a slow-moving vessel and will need a week to arrive in Haiti. Two additional ships, the USS Underwood and the USS Normandy, are also headed to Haiti. Editing by Cynthia Osterman
via Reuters AlertNet – FACTBOX-U.S. military mobilizes thousands for Haiti relief.