Egypt says Iran ships can use Suez Canal - Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Request an early test for Egypt's military rulers
* Israeli minister has called Iran's move "provocation"
(Adds background)

By Marwa Awad

CAIRO, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Egypt has approved the passage of two Iranian navy ships through the Suez Canal, an army source said, a move that could annoy Israel whose right-wing foreign minister has called Iran's actions a provocation. "Egypt has agreed to the passage of two Iranian ships through the Suez Canal," the army source told Reuters. State television and Egypt's official news agency subsequently reported the news, without giving sources. Iran's request was an early diplomatic test for Egypt's interim military government, which has close ties to the United States and has been ruling since Feb. 11 when President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in the face of a popular revolt.



Egypt's Western allies are watching for hints of any shift in policy towards its Middle East neighbours, especially Israel with which it has a peace treaty. The two ships would be the first Iranian military vessels to pass through the canal since Iran's 1979 revolution. To navigate the strategic waterway, naval vessels need the approval of Egypt's Foreign and Defence Ministries. The Suez Canal Authority had yet to receive approval, a canal official said, adding that the next convoy from south to north would be at 6:00 a.m. (0400 GMT). Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday Iran's plan to send the ships through the canal en route to Syria was a "provocation".



Israel's state-funded Channel One television said later Lieberman, a stridently far-right partner in the conservative coalition, had spoken out of turn and the Defence Ministry "had preferred to ignore" the ships' approach. There was no immediate comment from Israel after approval was given. Egypt's military said the request stated the Iranian ships did not carry military equipment or nuclear or chemical cargo. It said the ships were in the Red Sea, at the canal's southern end.



(Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Pfeiffer; editing by Andrew Dobbie)

MACTV News: Visited out LIVE Stream of Unted Nations 24/7

UN News: Argentina's Response to Economic Crisis through Social Protection, Posted by Menelik Zeleke

Record unemployment is one of the consequences of the global economic crisis, but in Argentina, fewer jobs were lost in the crisis than in many other countries. A new report from the ILO found that's because Argentina learned some lessons from a bitter experience in the past, and protected jobs when hard times came around again.

Egypt's army turns to the Web after protests, looks like they are taking notes from the protesters! Posted by Meosha Eaton

As reported by Reuters:

* Mubarak's govt cut Internet at early point in protests
* Egyptians sign up to army site as supporters


By Edmund Blair
CAIRO, Feb 18 (Reuters) - The army, thrust to the forefront of Egyptian politics with Hosni Mubarak's overthrow, has turned to the Web to win over youths who used the Internet to such devastating effect in bringing down the president.

The Higher Military Council has launched its own page on Facebook, the website that became an essential tool alongside others like Twitter in galvanising the masses on to the streets.

The once-feared interior ministry in Tunisia, where protesters ousted their own leader a month before Mubarak stepped down, has had the same idea. [ID:nAMA639171]
The Egyptian army site has drawn more than 98,000 supporters -- and rising. Among them were those who demonstrated in Tahrir Square. Some thanked the military, others called for a purge of old ministers and others urged the army to deliver on reform.
The council's site addressed its audience as the "sons of Egypt and the noble youths who ignited the Jan. 25 revolution".

The council's statement says it launched the page "in the belief that fruitful cooperation in the period ahead with the noble sons of Egypt will lead to stability, security and safety for our beloved Egypt".

In the early days of the revolt, the authorities shut down the nation's Internet system, stunning the world with such a brazen act of censorship. Mobile lines were cut too.
But youths still found the means to keep the protest momentum going, as the numbers of those turning out of the street surged from the thousands to hundreds of thousands.

On Friday, to mark the revolt, millions flooded Egypt's cities.
Ahmed N. Ibrahim, posting his comment on the council's page, wrote simply: "This is an admirable initiative. More and more reassuring."
Reflecting the anger many have towards Mubarak and his allies who they accuse of stealing Egypt's wealth, Maha Anwar Mostafa urged the council "to pursue the money of all the Mubarak family ... and freeze the foreign assets."

Others appealed to the army to remove old faces from a cabinet mainly made up of ministers appointed before Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11.

"I salute the Egyptian army and ask how there can be ministers from the old regime, not to mention Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq," who was also the former civil aviation minister, Mohamed Adel wrote.

Ahmed Abouraia thanked the army but listed demands, including a call that it "continue to protect the revolution until all the demands are realised."

The Arabic-language Facebook page can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/Egyptian.Armed.Forces#!/Egyptian.Armed.Forces

Serene Branson Says Watching Her Grammy Report Is 'Troubling', Posted by Meosha Eaton

"I was terrified. I was scared, I was confused. I didn't know what was going on,” says the CBS 2 correspondent, who suffered from a complex migraine live on air.

 by Lindsay Powers

Serene Branson opened up Thursday about the complex migraine that her to speak erratically on air during a live Grammy report. "I started to get a really bad headache" before going on air, Branson said, adding that she just figured she was tired. "At around 10 o'clock that night I was sitting in the live truck with my field producer and the photographer and I was starting to look at some of my notes," she said. "I started to think, the words on the page are blurry and I could notice that my thoughts were not forming the way they normally do."

"As soon as I opened my mouth I knew something was wrong," Branson, who works for Los Angeles affiliate CBS 2, went on. "I was having trouble remembering the word for Grammy. I knew what I wanted to say but I didn't have the words to say it." The station cut away to file Grammy footage, and she was examined by paramedics and then sent home. In a second interivew on the CBS Early Show Friday, Branson said, "I know what was going through my mind at that time.

I was terrified. I was scared, I was confused. I didn't know what was going on." She said watching the tape back later was "troubling." "I knew something wasn't right as soon as I opened my mouth," Branson added. "I hadn't been feeling well a little bit before the live shot. I had a headache, my vision was very blurry. I knew something wasn't right, but I just thought I was tired.

So when I opened my mouth, I thought, 'This is more than just being tired. Something is terribly wrong.' I wanted to say, 'Lady Antebellum swept the Grammys.' And I could think of the words, but I could not get them coming out properly." Kerry Maller, a KCBS producer, who was on-location with the twice Emmy nominated reporter, said, "After the live shot, she dropped the microphone and got very wobbly." Once paramedics arrived, "They sat me down immediately," says Branson. "I dropped the microphone. Right after that, my cheek went numb, my hand went numb, my right hand went numb and I started to cry. I was scared. I didn't know what had gone on and I was embarrassed and fearful."

Paramedics checked Branson's vital signs and said she was fine. "I was scared, nervous, confused, exhausted, and in an evening dress in the back of an ambulance," she said. "I said, 'I just want to go home. I just want to go home.'" "I had headaches throughout my life, but never what I would have called a migraine," she said. "And the doctor ran lots of tests. I saw some of the best doctors in the world, top neurologists and cardiologists. They ran tests for three days. I was there for nine hours Monday, back for nine hours the next day and finally they diagnosed me with migraine aura, which is much more serious than what people think of as a migraine."

She didn't learn the video had gone viral until days later. "I hadn't been on the Internet," she said. "Obviously, I looked at my phone and it was inundated with phone calls. I spoke with my best friend in the morning, obviously my mother at work immediately, but I spoke with my friend, and I didn't have any idea at that point because, obviously, work and my family were so concerned about my health at that point.

But my friend said something about seeing it on the news. And I said, 'the news?' And even at that point I said, 'Gosh, I hope it doesn't make it on YouTube."' Her parents, however, watched it live on the news. "My parents watch every night," Branson said. "I talked with my mother earlier in the day. She was excited to see how my hair looked that night at the Grammys. And I know she'd been watching and she was terrified. But interestingly enough, she -- I talked to her the next day, and she said, 'This is a condition that I think I may have had.

So let's get you right to a neurologist and get you checked out.'" She is ready to return to work. Her doctor, UCLA neurologist Dr. Andrew Charles, explained to the Associated Press, "A migraine is not just a headache. It's a complicated brain event." He said only 20 to 30 percent of people experience symptoms before having a migraine attack. The right side of Branson's face went numb, which affected her speech. "She was actually having the headache while she was having these other symptoms," he said. Branson had experienced migraines since childhood, but never of this severity, Charles added.

Palin to run in 2012 elections......unbelievable, Posted by Meosha Eaton

Sarah Palin hints at 2012 presidential run, but says she's undecided...

In a rare public speech, she predicts voters will want a nomination contest that's 'a little bit rogue,' and teases that a mother with her experience would be right for the job. She acknowledges she'd need to address her drop in popularity.

Reporting from Woodbury, N.Y. — By Paul West, Washington Bureau, LA Times

Escalating speculation about a possible presidential run, Sarah Palin offered a teasing hint Thursday of the type of candidate she would like to see in 2012: a multi-tasking mother with experience at the state and local level who has already been a vice presidential nominee.

She said she still hadn't decided whether to become that candidate, but seemed to suggest that a recent slide in her popularity might force her to become more visible than she has been in recent months. National opinion surveys have shown that a majority of Americans view her unfavorably.

"I look at those poll numbers and I say, 'If I'm going to do this, I obviously gotta get out there and let people know who I am, what I stand for, and what my record is,' " said Palin, adding that prospective candidates need to get into the contest "soon" so that voters can begin to take their measure.

"I love competition. I love knowing that competition in a heated primary, it allows for some great debates, very heated discourse — all those things that we need for the voters to decide," she said.

In a rare public speaking engagement before a business group in suburban New York, the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee took swipes at President Obama and members of both parties in Washington. She predicted that voters would be hungry for a nomination campaign that is "a little bit rogue" — a play on the title of her campaign memoir — and shakes up the political establishment.

Responding to questions from a moderator, she used the hourlong appearance to attack Obama, saying he was leading the country down "a road to ruin" and was failing to take the nation's fiscal problems seriously enough.

Obama's "almost European socialized-type policies are being basically crammed down our throats," she said, rattling off a string of sour economic statistics "that don't lie."

Palin styled herself as an ordinary mom who buys diapers by the case, but she also talked about "quantitative easing" and an expanded money supply in predicting that higher commodity prices would lead to rising inflation.

"No wonder Michelle Obama is telling everybody, 'Yeah, you better breast-feed your babies,' " Palin said. "I'm going, 'Yeah, you better. Because the price of milk is so high right now. Regardless of the political, do it for economic reasons.' "

Seated in an armchair on a small stage, Palin was interviewed by the head of the Long Island Assn. at the group's annual luncheon. Kevin S. Law, a former utility company executive, said beforehand that he had no interest in posing "gotcha-style" questions. But he did ask Palin about recent national opinion surveys showing that most voters viewed her unfavorably.

"In a lot of those polls, yeah, I get my butt kicked," she said.

Palin was accompanied by her daughter, Bristol, whom she described as her "entourage." She said she had asked Bristol, in their hotel room Wednesday night, to Google information about the economy in preparation for the appearance in a country club ballroom.

News from the White House: A week in the White House, Posted by Menelik Zeleke

MACTV News: US State Dept Statement on Uprisings in Middle East, Edit by Aaron Ochieng

Video shot by Menelik Zeleke

MACTV News: Senate Majority Leader Statement on the Republican dorminance in the House, Edit by Aaron Ochieng

Video shot by Menelik Zeleke

MACTV News: India police raid TV channel linked to ruling party ally, Posted by Menelik Zeleke

NEW DELHI, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Federal police raided offices of a TV channel owned by the family of a ruling Congress Party ally, local media said, as a probe into India's biggest corruption scandal in decades risked fissures in the government coalition.

The Friday raids followed allegations that companies linked to a telecoms firm under investigation for buying mobile licences at unfairly cheap prices had paid $47 million to the TV channel run by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party.

A deepening probe into the DMK could tense links with Congress and weaken the regional party ahead of a state election this year. The Congress party depends on the DMK to help ensure a parliamentary majority.
The probe is becoming a serious threat to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, accused of heading a corrupt government that has sold access to the world's fastest growing mobile phone market at rock-bottom prices, depriving the state of billions of dollars in revenue and scaring off investors.

Still, the Congress party-led government is not at huge risk of collapsing because of its support from coalition allies, whose positions within government keep them from jumping ship.

The government on Thursday scrapped another lucrative telecoms contract due to irregularities, dealing a fresh blow to Singh, whose office was ultimately responsible for the deal.

The last parliamentary session was halted by opposition protests demanding a probe into the telecoms scam, effectively stopping any reform bills such as one to make land acquisition easier for both industry and farmers.
Singh's government now appears close to agreeing to a broad, cross-party investigation into the 2G mobile scandal, paving the way for parliament to resume for the Feb. 21 budget session.

Foreign investors have pulled hundreds of millions of dollars from the Indian stock market since the start of the year, while foreign direct investment has fallen for three consecutive years, from 2.9 percent of GDP in 2008/09 to around 1.8 percent of GDP in 2010/11. Some of this may be linked to regulatory uncertainty and corruption scandals. (Reporting by Alistair Scrutton and Henry Foy)