Iran's official news agency says the country's first nuclear power plant will begin preliminary phase operation on Wednesday after a series of delays. The Sunday report by the IRNA agency says "pilot stage operation" of the power plant will start on Wednesday during a visit by the head of Russia's state Rosatom Atomic Corporation, Sergey Kiriyenko.
The long-awaited 1,000-MW power plant, which was built in the city of Bushehr with the help from Russia under a $1 billion contract, was expected to become operational in fall of 2008. Some 700 Iranian engineers were trained in Russia to operate the plant.
Tehran also plans to build a 360-megawatt nuclear power plant in Darkhovin, in the southwestern Khuzestan province.
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No worry, those people moved on to the SEC and Treasury Department. Oh, and not one pep out of the American Luddite community about a new nuke plant on the planet.
#5
That's enough plutonium for 50 atomic bombs/year.
Posted by: ed ||
02/22/2009 14:10 Comments ||
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#6
The Russians are not saying that generation will start on Wed. This may be test.
The project is far behind schedule and must have been redesigned many times (construction began in the 70s). They may have to run it at a low power for a long, long time.
#8
Joe: Not so much. We figured that one out a long time ago, and the US Coast Guard now regularly meets ships 200-300 miles out at sea, for a preliminary check. And they have some sensors that can spot a radioactive source at a goodly distance.
Hezbollah on Saturday denied having fired a rocket from Lebanon that hit northern Israel earlier in the day, lightly wounding two people. "Wudn't us." Ibrahim Mussawi, a spokesman for the militant organization, told AFP that Hezbollah had "nothing to do" with the attack, which was launched from a region largely controlled by Hezbollah and its Amal party ally. "It wuz... ummm... somebody else."
Three other people were treated for shock after the attack, and a house was damaged, the Israel Defense Forces said.
During the IDF's punishing offensive against Hamas in Gaza last month, three Katyusha rockets were fired into northern Israel within a week, hitting Nahariya and Kiryat Shmona. Hezbollah, which has a large rocket arsenal, was behind the two rocket attacks. In both cases, the organization used proxy Palestinian militant groups to launch the rockets from southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese security source in Beirut said Israel had responded by firing at least six artillery shells into southern Lebanon. The IDF Spokesperson's Office later said Israel held the Lebanese government and the Lebanese army accountable.
The rocket exploded a few meters from a house, where a 20-year-old was lightly wounded in her sleep. "Shattered glass was scattered all over the house," her father said. "Not a single window pane remained intact." The leader of the local council said that the incident came "out of the blue." Because of the stormy weather, he said, some people thought that the explosion was a thunder.
The Lebanese source, asking not to be identified, said: "Two rockets were fired from the area of Mansouri, south of Tyre, towards the direction of Israel. One of these rockets landed [within Lebanese territory]. The other rocket's location has not been determined," said the source. No one claimed responsibility for the rocket firing.
A statement from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's office said Lebanon was committed to implementing UN Security Council resolution 1701 which ended a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in 2006. He said the attack threatened the area's stability and condemned Israel's artillery fire. "Prime Minister Siniora [said] the rockets launched from the south threaten security and stability in this region and are a violation of resolution 1701, and these issues are rejected, condemned and denounced... Israeli artillery [fire is an] inexcusable violation of Lebanese sovereignty," the statement said.
Continued on Page 47
This article starring:
IBRAHIM MUSAWI
Hezbollah
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Not to worry. Just some kids playing with their Estes D-12s.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/22/2009 8:25 Comments ||
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#2
Not to worry. Just some kids playing with their Estes D-12s.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/22/2009 8:26 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Can't believe I hit the key twice....
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/22/2009 8:27 Comments ||
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#4
Never apologize Mullah.
Look 'em in the eye and tell 'em they don't get it.
In a sign that President Barack Obama may be seeking better ties, several U.S. congressmen have passed through Syria in the last few days, including Sen. John Kerry, who arrived Saturday and met with President Bashar Assad.
The State Department also announced Friday it has scheduled a meeting next week with Syria's ambassador to the U.S. to discuss differences between the two countries—the first such meeting in months. The congressional delegations, led by Democrats, are carrying the message that America wants to engage countries it has been at odds with if they are willing, as Obama puts it, to unclench their fists.
Kerry, who heads the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, did not speak after his meetings in Syria Saturday. But during his stop in Beirut on Wednesday, Kerry said the U.S. would renew diplomacy with Syria but in return expected Syria to "change its behavior"—particularly on Iraq and Lebanon.
"But unlike the Bush administration that believed you could simply tell people what to do and walk away and wait for them to do it, we believe we have to engage in a discussion," Kerry said in Beirut.
That isn't what Bush said at all. What he said was, "we will stand with people who stand for liberty."
Now tell us, Jawn, just what do you 'discuss' with a ruthless dictator like Pencilneck?
"And so we are going to renew diplomacy but without any illusions, without any naivete, without any misplaced belief that just by talking, things will automatically happen," the Massachusetts senator added.
"We'll talk, and talk, and talk, and we'll be confident that nothing will happen," he added.
Besides Kerry, the other Congress members on separate visits were Sen. Benjamin Zelig Cardin of Maryland and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Howard Berman of California.
There are concerns that new American openness toward Damascus may only be cosmetic, because the long-standing differences between the countries have not changed much.
Syria's ambassador to Washington described the congressional visits to Damascus as being "of extreme importance and depth." But he stressed he was still waiting to see if the visits change "the manner of dialogue between us and America."
"Let us see what are the goals we all want to reach, where we agree, where we disagree," Imad Mustapha told The Associated Press in Damascus. Mustapha is to meet with Jeffrey D. Feltman, the acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, according to State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid, in the belief that direct engagement with Syria will advance U.S. interests.
"Our concerns include Syria's support to terrorist groups and networks, Syria's pursuit of nuclear and unconventional weaponry, interference in Lebanon and a worsening human rights situation," he said Friday.
And allowing terrorists through their border with Iraq.
Already during their trips to the Middle East, Kerry and Cardin repeated the previous American language demanding Damascus change its ways in terms of its ties to Iran and backing of militant groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Hamas.
But Assad has sent signals he wants to work with Washington. In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian published this week, Assad lied when he said he was impressed by Obama's friendly gestures and welcomed the U.S. delegations to Syria. But he also said he is still waiting to see results. "We are still in the period of gestures and signals. There is nothing real yet," he said.
'Real' isn't in the Bambi lexicon ...
Syrian political analyst Imad Shueibi was optimistic that U.S.-Syria relations would change from a period of "the wrestling of wills to the sharing of wills."
"What is happening is not just checking the pulse," he said of the congressional visits. "It is an attempt to define the possible horizons in the relations ahead."
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/22/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
These people give not a fig about the United States or our historical place in the world. They are petulant self-haters. They are setting us up for a major fall, both at home and in the world around us. It is not going to be a pretty four years.
#4
Senator Kerry, why don't you linger a little longer with your friends? Yea, stay in Syria. Assad will be happy to have his very own American Senator to entertain him. You will bask in the adulating light. Stay John. Stay. Don't come home.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/22/2009 14:10 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Is it snowing here yet?
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/22/2009 16:37 Comments ||
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#6
umm, just an aside, but why is he dressed like steve martin in the pink panther 2, using blue instead of the pink?
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Hezbollah on Saturday denied having fired a rocket from Lebanon that hit northern Israel earlier in the day, lightly wounding two people. 
In a sign that President Barack Obama may be seeking better ties, several U.S. congressmen have passed through Syria in the last few days, including Sen. John Kerry, who arrived Saturday and met with President Bashar Assad.
