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Friday, September 11, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US Coast Guard, on high alert for the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, fired 10 rounds on a suspicious boat on the US capital's Potomac River, a US news channel reported Friday.It was not immediately clear if the boat posed any danger to Washington, as President Barack Obama for the first time led ceremonies to mark the eighth anniversary of the attacks.The vessel was challenged in a restricted part of the river, adjacent to the Pentagon where Obama was attending a ceremony to mark the 2001 attacks, the channel said.Contacted by a foreign news agency the coast guard said they could not immediately confirm the incident, and were checking the details. Police declined any comment saying they were not handling the situation.

Friday, September 11, 2009 ANAHEIM: The Walt Disney Co. kicked off its four-day exposition, dubbed "D23 Expo," in Anaheim, Calif.The event is the company's attempt to create buzz around its brands and build the loyalty of its fan base, by granting special early access to soon to be released movies and the opportunity to meet with franchise celebrities. Attendees will also be able to get a first look at the company's future plans for its theme parks, listen to keynote speakers and will be able to view an extensive display of memorabilia from the company's archives.The expo will also help to build on its online fan club, the D23 club, which grants members exclusive benefits and behind-the-scenes fan club access for a $75 annual membership fee. Disney is charging $30 per adult and $22 per child for admission to the Expo.

Friday, September 11, 2009 WASHINGTON: In the largest study of its kind (with over half a million subjects), it was found that mature people in the US Americans who eat large amounts of red meat like beef, pork and lamb, and processed meats like hot dogs and bacon were discovered to have a higher risk of death from cancer or heart disease.This research back up the long-standing advice of experts to limit red meats in the diet, and appears in the March 23, 2009 Archives of Internal Medicine.The researchers looked at over 545,000 subjects aged 50 to 71 years old, recruited from AARP members as part of the National Institutes of Health Diet and Health Study, and asked about their eating habits.The results relied on participants remembering what they ate, and this of course isn’t always accurate. Over 70,000 of the subjects died during the decade long study, and the researchers accounted for risk factors like smoking, high BMI (body mass index) and family history of cancer in their analysi...

Friday, September 11, 2009 RIYADH: A total of 128 swine flu cases among Umrah performers and residents have been reported since the beginning of Ramadan, a Ministry of Health medical bulletin said. It said all cases had fully recovered and that no deaths among the visitors to the Prophet’s Mosque and Umrah performers have been reported so far. Ajyad Emergency Hospital has been provided with all necessary medical equipment and facilities to meet any medical contingency. Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeah, Minister of Health, said the ministry has set up six health centers with trained medical personnel inside the Holy Haram. Two of the centers have recently been set up by the ministry to provide medical services to Umrah performers in Mataf and Masa’ while the rest are situated in the upper part of the Holy Haram near the King Fahd Gate.Meanwhile, Egypt decided to delay the start of classes for schools and universities as a precautionary measure.

Friday, September 11, 2009 LONDON: Tall people lead happier lives than their more vertically challenged peers, according to a new study which found that most miserable men are almost an inch shorter than average.Researchers found that shorter people tended to be more dissatisfied with their lot in life. The study interviewed more than 450,000 adults about how they viewed their life. The volunteers were asked to place themselves somewhere on a “life ladder” and asked about their emotions. According to the findings, people who were taller were also more likely to be positive about their life and were more likely to judge themselves a happy. They were also less likely to feel a range of negative emotions, including sadness and physical pain, although they were more likely to experience stress and anger, and if they were women, to worry. Men who reported that their lives were the "worst possible" were in general more than eight tenths of an inch, or two centimetres, shorter than ...

Friday, September 11, 2009 LONDON: Millions of "worried well" Britons are wasting their money and possibly risking their health by taking vitamin supplements, a leading nutritionist has said.Popular multivitamin supplements are completely pointless for the majority of people on a healthy diet, Professor Brian Ratcliffe from Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen argued. He added that topping up on vitamins could occasionally prove dangerous.Safe levels of vitamin A can easily be exceeded, for instance, by taking both multivitamin and fish oil supplements, Prof Ratcliffe said.Excess vitamin A, which accumulates in the liver, led to headaches and nausea, and over a long period of time increased the risk of osteoporosis.Large doses of vitamin C - taken in the belief they fight colds - may be harmless but are largely excreted and have unpleasant effects on the stomach, said the professor, an expert advisor to the Food Standards Agency.Speaking at the British Festival of Science at...

Friday, September 11, 2009 WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed at White House, the deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates armed forces, the White House said.The two "discussed ways to deepen the strong political, security and economic relationship" between the United States and the UAE, as well as ways to "bolster regional security, and advance Israeli-Arab peace efforts," the White House said in a statement on Thursday.Obama and the Crown Prince also discussed civil nuclear cooperation, including the administration's support for the US-UAE Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation.

Friday, September 11, 2009 WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed at White House, the deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates armed forces, the White House said.The two "discussed ways to deepen the strong political, security and economic relationship" between the United States and the UAE, as well as ways to "bolster regional security, and advance Israeli-Arab peace efforts," the White House said in a statement on Thursday.Obama and the Crown Prince also discussed civil nuclear cooperation, including the administration's support for the US-UAE Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation.

Friday, September 11, 2009 THERAN: In the north east of Iran at the foot of Mount Sahand in Kandovan, the villagers live in cave homes carved out from the volcanic rock. The age of some houses is more than 700 years. People still living in these age-old houses.The area is famous for scenic sites and according to local myths; hot water streams of this area are beneficial for kidney patients.

Friday, September 11, 2009 WASHINGTON: The United States on Sept 24 will host a summit of UN Security Council member states on nuclear non-proliferation, the White House confirmed on Thursday. President Barack Obama is to chair the meeting, which will be held alongside the UN General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York. It will be the first time a US president leads such a summit and just the fifth in UN history that such a summit is being held, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. 'We did ask for it, and are heading it,' Mr Gibbs said. The summit was first announced by the US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice last month. Ms Rice said at the time that the session would 'be focused on nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament broadly and not on any specific countries.' She said Mr Obama would preside over the special meeting a day after he is due to address the UN General Assembly session.

Friday, September 11, 2009 HOUSTON: The first two opportunities to land the space shuttle Discovery were abandoned Thursday due to thunderstorms and high winds around the landing site in Florida, NASA said. "We know everyone worked it as hard as they could," shuttle commander Rick Sturckow told mission control when informed of the decision to wave off for the night. "We will look forward to trying again tomorrow." Discovery and its seven-member crew will try another attempt to return to Earth on Friday, the 14th day of a mission to the orbiting International Space Station.

Friday, September 11, 2009 WASHINGTON: Iran has proposed a global system to eliminate nuclear weapons as well as cooperation on Afghanistan, fighting terrorism and energy projects but is not willing to discuss halting its uranium enrichment program, an Iranian official told a US daily on Thursday.Iran is proposing to set up an international system to scrap and prohibit nuclear weapons worldwide, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's senior adviser said in an interview published Thursday. Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi told a US daily that the Iranian package of proposals submitted Wednesday to the United States and other powers calls for the elimination of existing weapons and measures to prevent countries without weapons from acquiring them.But he stopped short of promising that Iran would bow to international demands and halt its uranium enrichment program, which Washington fears is aimed at building a nuclear bomb but Tehran insists is for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. "The method...

Friday, September 11, 2009 MOSCOW: Russia will not sell Iran any "offensive weapons," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday, amid reports that Russia has been supplying sophisticated weaponry to the Islamic republic. "We are not selling any offensive weapons to Iran," Lavrov told a gathering in Moscow. "With Iran, we have not done anything that contradicts our international undertakings."Lavrov on Tuesday strongly denied that a cargo ship whose supposed seizure by pirates sparked an international mystery was secretly carrying sophisticated S-300 anti-aircraft missiles bound for Iran. The Arctic Sea, a Maltese-flagged vessel with a Russian crew, was hijacked near Sweden in late July before being recovered by the Russian navy in the Atlantic Ocean several weeks later.

Friday, September 11, 2009 KARACHI: Thousands of faithfuls will observe 10-day ‘Aitikaf’ starting from dusk of 21st Ramazan in hundreds of mosques of the city.Some of the mosques undertook draws after collecting National ID cards from the people willing to observe 10-day Aitikaf.Special security has also been arranged at some of the major mosques of the city.

Friday, September 11, 2009 LONDON: The dollar fell to the lowest levels for months against the euro and the yen on Friday as upbeat economic data reduced demand for the safe-haven greenback, dealers said.The euro rose to a near nine-month high of 1.4627 dollars in early London trading.The dollar dropped to 90.98 yen -- the lowest level since mid-February.In later London trade, the European single currency stood at 1.4591 dollars compared with 1.4583 dollars in New York late on Thursday.Against the Japanese currency, the dollar fell to 91.04 yen from 91.74 yen on Thursday.Gold headed back towards 1,000 dollars an ounce as the weak US unit made the metal cheaper for buyers holding rival currencies, pushing up demand, dealers said."The dollar continues to move lower setting a new low for the year against the euro... while the dollar has fallen more sharply against the yen," said Derek Halpenny, European head of global currency research at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in Lond...

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama led a moment of silence Friday to launch eighth anniversary commemorations of the September 11 attacks in 2001 when 3,000 people died in the world's deadliest terror strike.At exactly 8:46 am (1246 GMT) when the first plane piloted by Al-Qaeda hijackers slammed into the North tower of New York's World Trade Center, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stood with heads bowed outside the White House.On a rain-swept day so different than that crisp September morning eight years ago, ceremonies were also being held in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field where a fourth plane crashed short of its target.The solemn ceremonies were marred by a security scare in Washington after a Coast Guard training event on the Potomac River prompted unfounded reports that a suspicious boat had been fired on.It was the first time that Obama, who was driving to work as a state senator in Illinois when he learned of the attacks on the radio, had le...

NEW YORK – With familiar rituals of grief and a new purpose to honor those who rushed into danger to help, the nation marked eight years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks Friday, with volunteers reading the names of the World Trade Center lost. Memorials in New York, at the Pentagon and at the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania all took place under gray skies, and those reading names at ground zero spoke under tents to protect against rain. "We miss you. Life will never be the same without you," said Vladimir Boyarsky, whose son, Gennady Boyarsky, was killed. "This is not the rain. This is the tears." President Barack Obama, observing his first Sept. 11 as president, had signed an order declaring it a day of service. He had first lady Michelle Obama marked a moment of silence outside the White House as a bugler played taps. The president said the nation came together after the attacks, "united not only in our grief but in our resolve to sta...