G20 meeting urged to act on food price inflation

 

What to do about the rising price of basic goods like food is likely to preoccupy the G20 meeting 

The G20 is being urged to tackle the issue of price inflation affecting basic goods ahead of a two-day meeting which kicks off later.

Brazil bishops say reality TV is bad for society

 

Gyselle Soares has modelled in Paris after appearing on Big Brother Brazil

Brazil's Catholic bishops have criticised the country's popular reality TV shows.

Bahrain urged to show restraint after bloody clampdown

 

Protesters prayed for injured comrades outside Salmaniya hospital in Manama late on Thursday 

Washington has urged Bahrain to show restraint in dealing with protesters and called for meaningful reform in the small Gulf state kingdom.  

Japan ends Antarctic whaling season early

The BBC's Roland Buerk says the rights and wrongs of whaling is not debated publicly in Japan

Japan has stopped its annual Antarctic whale hunt before the end of the season, saying "harassment" by US activists had made it impossible to continue.

The hunt had been halted temporarily last week, after the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society chased the Japanese fleet's mother ship.
Now the fisheries minister says the fleet will return home.
Sea Shepherd said the decision was "great news".
"We will however stay with the Japanese ships until they return north and make sure that they're out of the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary," Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd group, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Commercial whaling was banned in 1986 but Japan uses a regulation permitting hunting for scientific research.
Iceland and Norway have lodged official objections to the ban and continue to hunt commercially.
'Unjustified interference' Japan had said it had suspended its hunt on 10 February. Normally the season continues until mid-March.
Announcing that whaling was being abandoned for this season, Japan's Farm and Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano said: "Even now the mothership is being chased, and it is difficult to ensure the safety of the crew members."

The Legalities of Whaling

• Objection - A country formally objects to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium, declaring itself exempt. Example: Norway
• Scientific - A nation issues unilateral "scientific permits"; any IWC member can do this. Example: Japan
• Aboriginal - IWC grants permits to indigenous groups for subsistence food. Example: Alaskan Inupiat

Activists' ships have been harrying the fleet for weeks in the icy seas of Antarctica.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says one of its boats has been blocking the main ship's stern loading ramp, preventing any harpooned whales from being loaded on to the ship.
Japan's fleet involves 180 people on four ships, with the aim to kill up to 945 whales in Antarctic waters during the southern winter season.
Japan says the aim is to study their impact on fish stocks.
Few Japanese eat whale regularly, but many object to what they see as unjustified foreign interference in a cultural tradition, the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo reports.
Anti-whaling nations, led by Australia and New Zealand, and environmental groups say the hunts are cruel and unnecessary.
Australia is taking legal action in the International Court of Justice against Tokyo over whaling.

US geologist loses China appeal over 'spy' conviction

 

Mr Xue says interrogators burned his arms with cigarettes

 The eight-year jail sentence of a Chinese-born American geologist has been upheld by a Chinese court.

Egypt after Mubarak: Three ex-ministers arrested

 

Habib el-Adly has been blamed for deadly police violence during the protests

The authorities in Egypt have arrested three ex-ministers for corruption including the former Interior Minister, Habib el-Adly, judicial sources say. 

Australian town becomes SpeedKills in safety campaign

 

Speed is becoming SpeedKills and resident Phil Down becomes Phil Slow Down

 A small town in the Australian has decided to change it name for a month in a bid to boost road safety.

Cyber war threat exaggerated claims security expert

 

Electronic attacks will play a part in conventional conflict, but they are not wars says Schneier

The threat of cyber warfare is greatly exaggerated, according to a leading security expert. 

UK soldier killed in Afghanistan blast named

 

L/Cpl Marshall had led his team in the discovery of a bomb-making factory shortly before he died 

A soldier killed in a blast in southern Afghanistan on Monday has been named by the Ministry of Defence.

UK unemployment total rises again

 

Many analysts expect unemployment to rise this year because of public sector job cuts

UK unemployment rose by 44,000 to almost 2.5 million in the three months to the end of December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. 

US Senator Kerry says Raymond Davis inquiry to go on

 

Raymond Davis says the men were trying to hijack his vehicle at gunpoint

US Senator John Kerry has said a US man arrested for killing two Pakistani men will be subjected to a criminal inquiry at home if Islamabad released him. 

Libya: Protests 'rock city of Benghazi'

 

Fourteen people were reportedly injured during the clashes in Benghazi

Hundreds of people have clashed with police and pro-government supporters in the Libyan city of Benghazi, reports say. 

US immigration agent shot dead in Mexico attack

The US government is working with Mexican authorities to investigate the shooting

 A US immigration and customs agent has been shot dead and a second wounded in an attack on their car in Mexico.

Seven charged by US with conspiring to aid Taliban - BBC Said

 

Afghanistan is dotted with poppy fields, which are used to produce opium and heroin

Seven people, including two Americans, have been charged with conspiring to aid the Afghan Taliban by selling the militant group weapons and moving drugs through West Africa, US officials say.

Mumtaz Qadri charged with Salman Taseer murder

 

Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri has become a hero to many in Pakistan

A police bodyguard who admitted assassinating Punjab Governor Salman Taseer last month has been charged with murder in a Pakistani court. 

Blackburn shisha-smoker in blowtorch blast

 

Shisha pipes are filled with aromatic tobaccos and must be smoked outdoors

Egypt crisis: Protesters leave Tahrir Square

Egyptian security forces are removing the final protesters from Cairo's Tahrir Square after the new military rulers vowed to dissolve parliament and suspend the constitution.

China overtakes Japan as world's second-biggest economy

 

China's growth has been powering ahead while the wheels have come off Japan's economy

China has overtaken Japan as the world's second-biggest economy.

Obama makes sales pitch for his 2012 budget

President Barack Obama makes a statement about Egypt in the Grand Foyer of the White House in Washington February 11, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

WASHINGTON (Reuters Said) - President Barack Obama made a sales pitch on Saturday for his forthcoming fiscal year 2012 budget, pledging that it would help the United States "live within our means while investing in our future. News taken By  Wiki Tanoli From Reuters

China to vet inward M&A deals for national security

Feb 12 (Reuters Said ) - China will launch a state-level investment review body to check that merger and acquisition deals struck by foreign firms in one of the world's fastest-growing economies do not endanger "national security," China's State Council, the cabinet, said on Saturday.