Israel Samsung Tablet Ad Jokes About Striking Iran - February 06, 2012 (The New York Times)

An Israeli cable television company has removed an ad from its YouTube channel making light of a possible attack on Iran's nuclear facilities by Israel. The ad, for the cable provider Hot, imagines characters from an Israeli sitcom bungling a covert operation and destroying the Iranian nuclear facility near the city of Isfahan by pressing the wrong button on a Mossad agent's Samsung Galaxy tablet computer. After the facility goes up in smoke, the culpable Israeli character dismisses it with a shrug as just "another mysterious explosion in Iran," a clear reference to a string of deadly attacks on Iranian scientists and installations that have been attributed to Israel. One outraged Iranian official demanded an apology from South Korea and even suggested that a ban on Samsung products might be in order. The company quickly issued a statement stressing that the ad had been produced in Israel "without Samsung's knowledge or participation."

China Deepens Energy Partnership With Arab States - February 07, 2012 (AP)

As the world's biggest energy consumer, China's roaring appetite for stable oil and gas supplies is driving its Gulf push — a relationship made clearer last month when Premier Wen Jiabao traveled to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. In Saudi Arabia, Wen specifically called for the two countries to "deepen their energy partnership" and increase trade in oil and gas. State oil giant Saudi Aramco and Chinese refiner Sinopec just finalized plans to jointly build a refinery in the Red Sea city of Yanbu capable of handling 400,000 barrels of oil a day. The two companies and Exxon Mobil Corp. are already partners in a refinery in eastern China. Nearby Iran was not on Wen's January itinerary even though China remains Iran's trop crude oil buyer and its powerful state energy companies have rights to exploit untapped Iranian oil reserves.

Last Known WWI Veteran, Florence Green, Dies at 110 - February 07, 2012 (BBC News)

A woman thought to be the world's last known surviving service member of World War I has died aged 110. Florence Green, from Norfolk, England served as a mess steward in Britain's Royal Air Force. She died in her sleep on Saturday night at Briar House care home, King's Lynn, Norfolk. Mrs Green had been due to celebrate her 111th birthday on 19 February. She outlived the last two surviving combat veterans of WWI — Claude Choules, a Royal Navy sailor and the last WWI combatant, and Frank Buckles, the last American veteran, both of whom died last year at the age of 110.

Same-Sex Marriage Heading To Supreme Court - February 07, 2012 (CNN)

A federal appeals court ruled against California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage Tuesday. In a split decision, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the state's Proposition 8 "works a meaningful harm to gays and lesbians" by denying their right to civil marriage in violation of the 14th Amendment. Supporters of Proposition 8, which passed with 52 percent of the vote in 2008, said they were willing to take the issue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. A stay halting same-sex marriages remains in place as the appeals continue.

Egyptian Lawmaker Disrupts Parliament With Call To Prayer - Gets Rebuked - February 07, 2012 (The New York Times)

Members of Egypt's first freely elected Parliament in more than six decades were interrogating the interior minister over the recent killing of protesters on Tuesday when Mamdouh Ismail, a lawmaker from the ultraconservative Salafi Asala Party, decided to turn to more pressing matters. "God is great," he began to intone, interrupting the televised proceedings with a call to prayer. Saad el-Katatni, the speaker of the Parliament and a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood, tried to interrupt the very persistent Mr. Ismail. "After you're done with the call for prayers, I'll talk to you because you breached the order of the session," he said. "You're not more of a Muslim than we are," Mr. Katatni added, once the call for prayers was over. "You don't need the media show."

Pfizer Recalls A Million Birth Control Pill Packets - February 02, 2012 (Fox News)

A manufacturing mix-up by Pfizer Inc. is leaving women at risk of unwanted pregnancies. The world's largest drug maker, led to some packets being distributed with the pills out of order. That means a patient could have unknowingly skipped a dose and raised her risk of an accidental pregnancy. Pfizer has recalled about 1 million packets of Lo/Ovral-28 and its generic equivalent, but the company estimates that only about 30 packets were flawed. The pills were made and shipped last year. Each packet contains 28 days' worth of the prescription, with 21 pills containing the active ingredient that prevents pregnancy and seven placebo pills. The pills are normally color-coded to note the difference.

Egyptian Soccer Fans Slaughter Each Other - Military and Police Blamed - November 30, 1999 (CNN)

Horrified eyewitnesses described how Egyptian police officers stood by as violent clashes between rival fans at a soccer match in northeastern Egypt left scores dead. When the referee blew the final whistle, thousands of Al-Masry home team fans stormed the pitch despite their team's hard-fought 3-1 victory. Amr Khamis, an Ahly supporter told CNN at the train station in Cairo after returning from the match, "Officers refused to open the gates of the stadium so we could not escape and had to face thousands of Al-Masry hooligans attacking with rocks, knives, swords and anything else you can imagine." Egypt has recently experienced a breakdown in security, with several armed robberies, kidnappings and random killings taking place across the country in the past week alone.

Subzero Weather Kills 89 In Eastern Europe - February 01, 2012 (Arab News)

Record-low temperatures in parts of Eastern Europe pushed the death toll from Arctic conditions to at least 89 people on Wednesday. In Ukraine, 43 people have died in the past five days. Overnight temperatures sank as low as -27F and hundreds of heated tents have been put up to shelter the homeless. European weather alert network Meteoalarm warned of "extremely dangerous" conditions in several parts of eastern Europe, including Serbia, where a fourth person was found dead overnight in the southwestern Suvobor mountains. Thermometers in parts of Bulgaria plunged to record lows freezing ATM cash machines in Sofia, the daily newspaper Trud reported. Eight people in Bulgaria and 14 in neighboring Romania have now died in the cold snap. Meanwhile in Slovenia, winds of up to 180 kph (112 mph) blew off roofs and prompted authorities to close some schools, authorities said.

Komen for the Cure Defunds Planned Parenthood - February 01, 2012 (Life News)

The breast cancer awareness organization Susan Komen for the Cure is defending its decision to revoke funding for the Planned Parenthood. The key in the Komen decision is the grant criteria it uses to make grants. Planned Parenthood does not perform mammograms at any of its centers across the United States, and Komen says it is implementing "more stringent eligibility standards to safeguard donor dollars." Its new guidelines also prevent it from funding any group under congressional investigation, but the breast screening issue reportedly has the effect of ending Planned Parenthood's funding even if the current Congressional probe finds Planned Parenthood free of any wrongdoing.

Alaska Airlines To Stop Giving Out Prayer Cards - January 26, 2012 (AP)

Alaska Airlines is ending decades of giving passengers prayer cards with their meals, saying Wednesday the decision was made out of respect for all passengers. Airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said the airline heard from customers who preferred not to mix religion with transportation. "Some customers were comforted by the cards and some didn't feel religion was appropriate on the plane and preferred not to receive one," she said. The cards offer a short excerpt of a psalm from the Old Testament printed on a beautiful photograph. One current example includes this excerpt printed over a beach scene: "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever."

Authorities Round Up 104 Suspected Mexican Mafia Members In So. Cal. - January 26, 2012 (CNN)

Authorities arrested more than 100 members and associates of the Mexican Mafia street gang in southern California as part of investigation into a wide range of offenses such as racketeering, kidnapping, attempted murder and drug trafficking, federal officials said. The arrests were made primarily in San Diego County and were the culmination of three major investigations on gang activity in the area, U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said Wednesday.

Tehran Residents React To Obama's SOTU - January 26, 2012 (Reuters)

At a time of heightened tension between the West and Iran with the US more determined than ever to prevent the Islamic state from becoming nuclear-armed Iranians are uncertain about the future they face. Local residents in Tehran's northern district are divided over the comments of US president Barack Obama, who, in a State of the Union address, warned Iran the United States would keep up pressure on its disputed nuclear program with "no options off the table" but said the door remained open to talks for a peaceful resolution. Obama said on Tuesday (January 24) Tehran was isolated and facing "crippling" sanctions that he said would continue so long as the Islamic Republic keeps its back turned to the international community.

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