Iran sentences American man to death in CIA case

FILE -- A Dec. 27, 2011 file photo of a video frame grab image made from the Iranian broadcaster IRIB TV, shows U.S. citizen Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, accused by Iran of spying for the CIA, in Tehran's revolutionary court, in Iran. An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday Jan. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/IRIB/File) NO ACCESS IRAN; BBC PERSIAN TV OUT; VOA PERSIAN TV OUT

FILE -- A Dec. 27, 2011 file photo of a video frame grab image made from the Iranian broadcaster IRIB TV, shows U.S. citizen Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, accused by Iran of spying for the CIA, in Tehran's revolutionary court, in Iran. An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday Jan. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/IRIB/File) NO ACCESS IRAN; BBC PERSIAN TV OUT; VOA PERSIAN TV OUT

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday, in a case adding to the accelerating tension between the United States and Iran.

Iran charges that as a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for his alleged intelligence mission. The radio report did not say when the verdict was issued. Under Iranian law, he has 20 days to appeal.

The 28-year-old former military translator was born in Arizona and graduated from high school in Michigan. His family is of Iranian origin. His father, a professor at a community college in Flint, Michigan, has said his son is not a CIA spy and was visiting his grandmothers in Iran when he was arrested.

His trial took place as the U.S. announced new, tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which Washington believes Tehran is using to develop a possible atomic weapons capability.

Iran, which says it only seeks nuclear reactors for energy and research, has sharply increased its threats and military posturing against stronger pressures, including the U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's Central Bank in attempts to complicate its ability to sell oil.

The U.S. State Department has demanded Hekmati's release.

The court convicted him of working with a hostile country, belonging to the CIA and trying to accuse Iran of involvement in terrorism, Monday's report said.

In its ruling, a branch of Tehran Revolutionary Court described Hekmati as a mohareb, an Islamic term that means a fighter against God, and a mofsed, or one who spreads corruption on earth. Both terms appear frequently in Iranian court rulings.

In a closed court hearing in late December, the prosecution asked for the death penalty for Hekmati.

The U.S. government has called on Iranian authorities to grant Swiss diplomats access to him in prison. The Swiss government represents U.S. interests in Iran because the two countries don't have diplomatic relations.

Hekmati is a dual U.S.-Iranian national. Iran considers him an Iranian since the country's law does not recognize dual citizenship.

His father, Ali Hekmati, and family friend Muna Jondy, an attorney who has been speaking on behalf of the family, did not immediately respond to emails and phone messages left at their offices before business hours Monday morning.

Similar cases against Americans accused of spying have heightened tensions throughout the years-long standoff over Iran's nuclear program.

Iran arrested three Americans in July 2009 along the border with Iraq and accused them of espionage, though the Americans said they were just hiking in the scenic and relatively peaceful Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

One of them was released after a year in prison, and the other two were freed in September in deals involving bail payments that were brokered by the Gulf sultanate of Oman, which has good relations with Iran and the U.S.

On Dec. 18, Iran's state TV broadcast video of Hekmati delivering a purported confession in which he said he was part of a plot to infiltrate Iran's Intelligence Ministry.

In a statement released the same day, the Intelligence Ministry said its agents identified Hekmati before his arrival in Iran, at Bagram Air Field in neighboring Afghanistan. Bagram is the main base for American and other international forces outside Kabul, the Afghan capital.

It is not clear exactly when he was arrested. Iranian news reports have said he was detained in late August or early September.

Hekmati's father, Ali, said in a December interview with The Associated Press, that his son was a former Arabic translator in the U.S. Marines who entered Iran about four months earlier to visit his grandmothers.

At the time, he was working in Qatar as a contractor for a company "that served the Marines," his father said, without providing more specific details.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-09-ML-Iran-American-Detained/id-7390a670356b4afd87fb04954d22d65e

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AnnaLynne McCord Lashes Out Against Topless Twit Pic "Slander"

Yes, AnnaLynne McCord accidentally Tweeted a photo of her nipple to a follower this week.

But the 90210 actress quickly edited out the naughty part and has a message for all who have been mocking her for the incident: Oh yeah?!?!?

"My only response to all these lovely people is, 'He who be without sin cast the first stone.' If you have never messed up or done anything wrong in your life, then please, feel free to judge me," McCord told Global Grind yesterday.

She then added simply: "I'm a human being and we make mistakes."

The star is clearly bothered by the criticism she's faced over the last couple days, though most has really been in jest. Following this interview, McCord Tweeted (while clothed, we presume):

"BIG THX 2 @GlobalGrind 4 giving me a voice regarding a bit of slander that was coming my way."

[Photo: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/annalynne-mccord-lashes-out-against-topless-twit-pic-slander/

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Ford sets the stage for Fusion 2013 in Detroit

Ford introduced three members of the Fusion family. There was gas only, hybrid and plug in models, called Ford Fusion, Fusion Hybrid, and Fusion Energi at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show.

Words like eco-friendly and fuel-efficient are being stressed for all three models. Ford claims the gas-0nly Fusion, Hybrid and Energi variants will be the most fuel-efficient, best-driving, tech-packed range of sedans in the midsize segment.

The cars will be in the marketplace within the next 12 months and will be overseas next year under the name Mondeo in Europe and Asia.

Enlarge

The gasoline-only 2013 Fusion will carry 4-cylinder engine options, not V6. Fusion will feature stop-start technology, which shuts off engine power when the car is stopped and restarts as the driver releases the brake pedal. Fusion?s makers say this can reduce fuel consumption and emissions by about 3.5 percent.

Enlarge

Tech gadgetry being packed into the showcased Fusion includes safe-driving support. Fusion has a Lane Keeping System, adaptive cruise control, and active park assist. The lane system is to prevent a drowsy driver from becoming his or her own worst nightmare. A forward-facing camera behind the inside rearview mirror is part of a system that monitors lane lines to determine that the car is on course. The system will alert a driver if drowsiness or erratic lane-keeping is detected. Another element uses a steering wheel vibration to warn the driver if the Fusion drifts too close to lane markings. The system can also apply pressure on the steering to help bring the car back into proper lane position. As for parking support, sensors provide the driver with parking assistance to steer the car properly into a designated spot.

A key talking point about the hybrid Fusion is batteries. The hybrid comes with lithium-ion batteries that save weight and generate more power than the previously used nickel-metal hydride batteries being replaced. Ford is touting the new hybrid?s capability of cruising as fast as 62 miles per hour under electric power alone, thanks to the more powerful batteries. Ford expects the hybrid to get 47 miles per gallon in city driving.

Enlarge

A strong eye magnet in the Fusion models showcased has been the 2013 Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid. The car is expected to deliver more than 100 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) when driving on plug-in battery power. That small ?e? at the end is important as it is an equivalency measure of how far a car drives on an amount of electricity equivalent to the energy contained in one gallon of gasoline.

Enlarge

Nonetheless, there is a word of advice from TreeHugger is to take the 100 MPGe in stride. ?We'll have to wait and see how it does in the real-world, though, since plug-in hybrids are notoriously hard to rate when it comes to fuel economy (it depends so much on electric range and driving patterns).?

Pricing for the new Fusion models will be announced later this year.

More information: Press release

? 2011 PhysOrg.com

Source: http://www.physorg.com/news245396521.html

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Polish prosecutor shoots self after news conference (Reuters)

WARSAW (Reuters) ? A Polish military prosecutor shot himself in the head Monday after cutting short a news conference in what appeared to be a dramatic protest in a turf war between Poland's civilian and military prosecution services.

Mikolaj Przybyl was taken to hospital in the western city of Poznan after reporters heard a gunshot and hurried back to find him lying slumped on the floor in a pool of blood.

His life was not in danger, officials said, but the apparent suicide attempt quickly triggered a public dispute between the heads of Poland's military and civilian prosecution services over plans, criticized by Przybyl, to merge the two.

Shortly before the shooting, Przybyl had asked the reporters to leave his office. In his news conference, he had criticized media leaks from the ongoing probe into the 2010 crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others, mostly senior Polish officials, in Smolensk, western Russia.

Several news outlets showed footage of Przybyl's body behind his desk before an ambulance took him to hospital. A doctor later told local media his team was still looking for the bullet that had lodged in the prosecutor's head.

Poland's chief prosecutor Andrzej Seremet said Przybyl was expected to survive.

Seremet added that he had disagreed with some of Przybyl's comments at the Poznan news conference.

Military prosecutors had been right to seek journalists' mobile phone records while searching for the source of leaks in the Smolensk investigation, the chief prosecutor said, but he added they had broken the law by also seeking access to text messages.

"This case has been accompanied by so much emotion, including unnecessary hysteria, in my view," said Seremet, who also contradicted Przybyl's assertion that the civil and military prosecution services were to be merged, saying no final decisions had been taken.

PROSECUTORS' FIGHT

Poland's top military prosecutor, Krzysztof Parulski, told a separate news conference he fully backed all Przybyl's comments and actions over leaks from the Smolensk investigation.

Parulski accused Seremet, his civilian supervisor, of acting unethically by seeking a separate analysis into the work of the military prosecutors and making it public before a court ruling.

Parulski said Przybyl had faced numerous threats, including a break-in at his flat and damage to his car, aimed at intimidating him and stalling other investigations the prosecutor was leading over possible financial misconduct within the army.

That is why Przybyl had lately been carrying a gun, Parulski added.

President Bronislaw Komorowski said in a statement he was "concerned" about the incident and asked the national security bureau to monitor the situation.

The Smolensk crash investigation remains a very sensitive political issue for Poland and for its relations with Moscow.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who leads the main opposition party and was twin brother of the late president, has accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government of collaborating with Moscow to cause the crash and of later conniving with Russia to cover up its real causes.

The government says such claims are absurd.

Since taking office in late 2007, Tusk has tried to improve relations with Moscow that have long been strained over energy, security and other issues. But disagreements over the investigation into the Smolensk crash have chilled the atmosphere.

(Additional reporting by Chris Borowski; Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Gareth Jones and Ben Harding)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120109/wl_nm/us_poland_prosecutor

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Israel Navy to devote majority of missile boats to secure offshore drilling rafts

Monday 9th January, 2012

Israel Navy to devote majority of missile boats to secure offshore drilling rafts ??

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?????Monday 9th January, 2012??Source: Haaretz ??

The Israel Navy will be in charge of protecting Israeli offshore drilling rigs, even though this will take up a huge portion of the battleships' operational hours, Haaretz has learned. The IDF General Staff decided several months ago that the flotilla in charge of the navy's missile boats will be responsible for naval patrols between the natural...

Breaking News Monday 9th January, 2012

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Source: http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?rid=202481555&cat=810aad60e2faf4cc

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Egypt Islamists seen winning near two-thirds of seats (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? The Muslim Brotherhood said on Saturday it had won at least 41 percent of the seats in Egypt's lower house of parliament, with Islamists of various stripes occupying almost two thirds of the assembly so far.

Banned under deposed President Hosni Mubarak, the Brotherhood has emerged as a major winner from the uprising that toppled him, exploiting a well-organized support base in the first free legislative vote in decades.

It may be some weeks before the exact shape of the lower house is known because of various runoff votes. However, it is unlikely that their outcome will alter the dominance of the Islamists who now look set to wield major influence over the shape a new constitution to be drafted by a 100-strong body that the new assembly will pick.

The Brotherhood has promised that Egyptians of all persuasions will have their say and, while the strong Islamist performance has alarmed some Egyptians and Western governments that backed Mubarak, it is far from clear whether rival Islamists will cooperate in the new legislature.

The Brotherhood's Democratic Alliance list has won 41 percent of the seats so far, while another list led by the hardline Islamist Nour Party came second with 20 percent of the seats.

The Nour Party seeks strict application of Islamic law and the more moderate Brotherhood may seek an alliance with liberal groups to allay concerns about the prospect of an Islamist-led Egypt.

Sixty-two percent of potential voters cast their ballots in the third round of the election, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, Egypt's election commission said.

CONSTITUTION

With the elections for the lower house drawing to a close, the debate is now likely to shift to the new constitution that will replace the Mubarak-era document.

One main area of discussion will be whether there should be a dilution of presidential powers which underpinned his rule.

Those powers are now exercised by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has faced mounting criticism from activists who accuse it of seeking to hold on to power and privilege.

The military is set to rule until the end of June, by which time they say Egyptians will have elected a president to whom they will hand power.

The commission has yet to issue the official results because of the runoffs for seats being contested by individual candidates take place on January 10 and 11, and voting must be repeated in a district where the election was cancelled due to irregularities in the first round.

That leaves about 11 percent of seats in the 498-seat lower house as yet undecided, according to a chart of the new parliament posted on the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party Facebook page.

The partial results issued by the Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday suggest non-religious parties have performed poorly.

They suggested the liberal Egyptian Bloc winning 9 percent of the seats so far, the Wafd party taking 9 percent and former Mubarak loyalists taking 4 percent of the vote - a stronger performance than the Revolution Continues coalition of youth activists who won just 2 percent of the seats.

The moderate Islamist Al Wasat won 2 percent, while the rest were taken by independents.

Elections are also set to begin in the coming weeks for the upper house of parliament.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Tolba. Created by Lin Noueihed)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120107/wl_nm/us_egypt_elections

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Meteor quest turns up treasures in Florida

(c) Jeff Berkes Photography

This photo combines the landscape of the Florida Keys with the flash of a meteor above on the night of Jan. 3-4, at the peak of the Quadrantid meteors.

By Alan Boyle

January is the perfect time for a road trip to Florida, and if there's a promising meteor shower to see, so much the better. That's what brought photographer Jeff Berkes down from Pennsylvania to the Florida Keys. The payoff came in the form of a stunning set of pictures showing the Quadrantid meteors at their peak.

"The Florida Keys sounded really good in January for the Quadrantid meteor shower, but Mother Nature had the cold front follow me all the way south," Berkes wrote?in his Flickr photo gallery. "The record low temperature for Key West is 41 degrees. It went down to 46, with winds around 20-30 mph near Big Pine Key this particular night on January 3rd / 4th, 2012."

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Berkes bundled up in two sweatshirts and a fleece, plus "a mad bomber hat" and winter gloves. Then he waited for the light show to begin. He wasn't disappointed.

One picture shows twisted trees in the Keys, with a meteor flashing in the sky above. "That was captured earlier in the night, while the moon was still up," Berkes told me in an email. "It might even be just a random meteor instead of a Quadrantid meteor."

Scientists say the Quadrantids are sparked every year on the night of Jan. 3-4, when Earth passes through the trail of cosmic grit left behind by a burnt-out comet?now known as asteroid 2003 EH1. These particular meteors appear to emanate from a now-obsolete constellation known as Quadrans Muralis, or the Mural Quadrant. That's why they're known as the Quadrantids.

This year was a particularly good year for the "Quads," in part because because the moon had set by the time the meteor shower really got going. This year's?shower was reported to reach a peak ratae of?roughly 80 shooting stars per hour in the wee hours?of Jan. 4. Berkes benefited from a bonus: the faint glow of the zodiacal light. You can see it in the picture below:

(c) Jeff Berkes Photography

A green light pen was used to add "2012" as a signature to this photo of a meteor and the zodiacal light over the Florida Keys.

"The triangular column of light you see is the zodiac lights, stretching up into the night sky before dawn," Berkes told me. "Light coming from the sun [while it's] well below the horizon is scattered by 'space dust,' making it visible in dark locations before sunrise and after sunset. It is definitely something I do not see every day."

Berkes said he counted close to 100 meteors while he was out. He has mastered a technique called "light painting," which calls for adding illumination to a night scene during a long exposure. We featured one of his light-painting photos last fall during the?Orionid meteor shower, and you can see the effect in these photo as well.

"The '2012' in green is just another light-painting trick with a special green pen," he wrote. "The Quadrantids of 2012 were certainly better than 2011. I'm thinking it could be a sign that 2012 will be an even better year than 2011."

I'm thinking the same... Or at least wishing it will be so.

Check out Berkes' Flickr?photostream or his Web site for additional visual?treasures. You'll find more Quadrantid images at the SpaceWeather.com Web site. There could be still more night-sky sights on the way: SpaceWeather.com's Tony Phillips says a coronal mass ejection from the sun "might deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field" on Saturday, sparking enhanced auroras.

The next big meteor show is farther out on the schedule: The Lyrids are due to reach their peak?on the night of April 22-23.?

More meteoric marvels:

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Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

Source: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/06/10017403-meteor-quest-turns-up-treasures

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