World’s Largest Gasoline Production Unit in Early Feb

22 Dead in Egypt After Football Riot Verdicts

Twenty-two people were killed in Port Said on Saturday after 21 Egyptian football fans and club members were sentenced to death over a deadly post-match riot last year in the canal city.
The clashes erupted after a Cairo court handed down the death sentences over the football riot last February in which 74 people were killed, and came a day after violence swept Egypt on the second anniversary of its uprising, AFP reported.
As news of the verdict emerged, relatives of those condemned tried to storm the prison in Port Said where they are being held, leading to fierce clashes with security forces.
Unidentified assailants used automatic weapons against police who responded with tear gas, witnesses said.
Two police stations in Port Said were stormed and heavy gunfire was heard in the Al-Manakh neighborhood.
Ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals all shops and businesses closed for the day as protesters set tires alight and mosques urged worshippers to donate blood.
“It has been decided to deploy some units to work for calm and stability and the protection of public establishments,” General Ahmed Wasfi said in a statement carried by the official MENA news agency.
The clashes left 22 people dead and 200 injured, a health ministry statement said.

Policemen Among Dead
Two policemen were among those killed, the interior ministry said in a separate statement, adding that there were “many critical injuries among police forces.”

Cancer Hotline On Call

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Iranian Inventor Wins Spanish Award

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Pentagon to Layoff 46,000 Employees

The Pentagon said on Friday that it has begun laying off some of its 46,000 temporary and contract workers and is cutting maintenance on ships and military hardware, as it prepares for potentially drastic defense cuts.
“We’re trying to minimize the harm to defense but we need to take some actions now to avoid larger harm later,” Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday.
Carter said the US military had to start slowing its spending rate given the threat of automatic budget cuts that are due to kick in after March 1, if Congress fails to break a political stalemate.
“This is what we’re doing now to slow our spend rate,” he said.
The Pentagon would face roughly $50 billion in reductions and given the March 1 deadline, would have only five months left in the current fiscal year to absorb them, he said.
The Pentagon’s 46,000 temporary and contract employees are “all now subject to release,” he said.
The workers would either be laid off or not have their contracts renewed, except for those performing jobs deemed vital for the war or core missions, he said. The department has already announced a freeze on the hiring of civilians.
To brace for possible cuts, Carter said the Pentagon also was deferring maintenance of military equipment and bases.

UK Lists Israel as Human Rights Abuser

The British foreign office included Israel as ‘a country of concern’ in a report on human rights violators.
In the quarterly report, which considers the period between October and December 2012, Israel sits in the company of Afghanistan, Belarus and Zimbabwe--countries the foreign office considers to have a human rights record ‘of particular concern’, The Telegraph reported.
The criticism will unsettle the Jewish regime, which proudly claims it is the only democracy in the Middle East, and considers the UK an ally amid an increasingly critical Europe.
The Palestinian Authority is also included, although it is noted that Israel’s refusal to deliver Palestinian customs revenue has undermined the leadership’s capacity to enforce law and order.
The four-page entry on Israel lingers on November’s intense bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip and recently announced plans to expand dramatically Israel’s settler presence in the West Bank.
Following the Palestinian Authority’s successful bid for upgraded status at the United Nations last November, Israel announced it would push ahead with plans to build 3,000 new settler homes in the E1 areas of East Beit-ul-Moqaddas and the West Bank.
The UK, along with Spain, Denmark and Sweden, summoned its Israeli ambassador in protest.

Global Glimmers Of Hope

China’s manufacturing grew at the fastest pace in two years and eurozone services and factory output shrank less than economists forecast in surveys for January, adding to signs of resilience in the global economy.
A eurozone composite index based on responses from purchasing managers in both industries rose to 48.2 from 47.2 in December, London-based Markit Economics said.
Economists forecast a reading of 47.5, according to the median of 22 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
Markit’s factory survey in China was at 51.9, up from 51.5 in December.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi suggested this week that the worst of the debt crisis may be over, while investor confidence in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, rose to the highest in 2 1/2 years.
That optimism and the prospect of China keeping up its growth pace are encouraging economists even after the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global expansion and Spain’s unemployment reached a record.
“There is a sense that we have reached at least a turning point,” Jens Larsen, chief European economist at RBC Capital Markets in London and a former Bank of England official, said by telephone.
“You can’t be very confident yet it will turn into very strong macroeconomic growth, but from a market perspective the fact that it’s clearly stopped getting worse is really important.”

Direct US Talks in Oman Denied

A top Iranian official has categorically denied reports about direct talks between Iran and the United States in Oman, saying Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has not permitted anyone to hold negotiations with the US.
“I have held no talks with the Americans neither in Oman nor any other country,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution told Mehr News Agency on Saturday, Press TV reported.
This rumor is basically nothing but a lie, he added, reiterating that no talks have been held so far with the US on a legal basis and with the Leader’s permission.
The official emphasized that the US should ‘definitely make a revision in its policies’ and said, “The nuclear issue is our strategic issue. The Islamic Republic of Iran will never give up its right to peaceful nuclear energy.”
Velayati added that there is consensus on Iran’s nuclear energy program ‘which is a national issue’ and warned that if the US and its allies seek to monopolize nuclear energy, they will use it as a mechanism to exploit Third World countries.
He noted that US policies in the region have reached an impasse and expressed confidence that Washington would not repeat its experience of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in Iran.
“Today, the US is weaker than the US at a time when it attacked Iraq and Afghanistan and Iran is currently far stronger than Iraq and Afghanistan,” the senior official pointed out.

Islamic Unity

An issue that Muslims have always strived for since the death of the prophet (PBUH) has always been the Unity of Muslims all over the world. Different ideas to unite the Muslims throughout centuries emerged and vanished. The main cause has been that these ideas were all biased either nation-wise or ethnic-wise.
The interference of enemies of unity has been significant. All enemies of Islam and Muslims supported the segregationists, whom were fanatics too. This way, enemies were able to divide and rule. Islamic philosophy thinkers spent a lifetime fighting segregation and fanatic ideas without any considerable achievements since the power of enemies of Islam has been stronger among the disintegrated Muslims worldwide.
After more than 14 centuries, hundreds of ideologies emerged among millions of Muslims and finding one ideology all Muslims would abide by looked impossible. The 1997 Islamic Revolution in Shiite Iran brought a new ideology in a period of time where most Muslim countries were marching towards nationalism ideologies. Imam Khomeini, the founder of Islamic Republic of Iran, had a new idea ‘Working for the Unity of Muslims Around the World’, though Iran is a Shiite majority country. However, the official name of the country became ‘Islamic Republic of Iran’ and since the beginning of the victory of the new revolution, its idea to unite the Muslim world spread worldwide among different sects of Muslims.
These ideas were welcomed in most Islamic countries and threatened the throne of ruling dictators. They persuaded Saddam Hussein to attack Iran and stop the new ideology from spreading to their countries. They also started a planned false propaganda against the new ideas, and tried to raise nationalist sentiments against the pro-unity ideas. Billions of dollars were spent on these enmities with no gain. The new ideology was much stronger than all money and power at their disposal, and on the contrary, they started falling down one by one.

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Hezbollah Denies “Sectarian Conflict” In Arab World

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, said on Friday that the developments in the Arab world are not “sectarian conflict.”
In a televised speech marking the birthday of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), Nasrallah said “it is not true that what’s happening in the Arab region is a sectarian conflict.”
“Political objectives... were behind all the conflicts and wars that happened, which had little to do with religion or with Sunnis and Shiites,” said Nasrallah. “Many current conflicts are political and have nothing to do with religions.”
“We must keep any conflict away from sectarian incitement,” Nasrallah said, calling for dialogue in Syria, Bahrain, Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon.
As for the Syrian crisis, Nasrallah said “all the military, regional and international developments indicate that the dreams of many parties will not come true concerning the situation in Syria.”
On the outcome of Israel’s legislative elections, Nasrallah said “no one should bet on any party in Israel, because Israeli left and right parties are the same concerning the Arab rights.”
Israel’s general election results have showed the country’s political leadership is in “crisis”, the leader of Lebanon’s powerful movement said.

P5+1 Wants Talks Adjourned Till February

The six major powers of the P5+1 group have called for the postponement of nuclear talks with Iran to February, saying they are not ready to negotiate with the Islamic Republic this month.
The request was made on Friday by European Union deputy foreign policy chief Helga Schmid in a telephone conversation with the deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Baqeri, Press TV reported.
Schmid is the number two of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the P5+1 group (the United States, France, Russia, Britain, China, and Germany).
Baqeri reaffirmed that Iran is ready to attend the long-awaited talks and asked the P5+1 group to remain committed to the date agreed upon for talks in January.
Earlier on Friday, China called for the resumption of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group in order to end the standoff between the West and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
China has repeatedly affirmed Iran’s right to a peaceful nuclear energy program.
Iran and the P5+1 group have held several rounds of talks with a focus on Iran’s nuclear energy program.
The last round of talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany was held in Moscow in June.
Tehran has announced that it welcomes the fact that the P5+1 group is ready to hold constructive talks with Iran.