Archive for April, 2008
Weltmeister Firat Arslan Titelverteidigung gegen Darnell Wilson
„Universum Champions Night”
am Samstag, 03. Mai 2008 in Stuttgart,
Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle
Weltmeister Firat Arslan trifft in seiner ersten Titelverteidigung auf den US-Amerikaner Darnell Wilson, die Nummer 14 der WBA - „Ding-A-Ling Man” Wilson: „Ich treffe dich, ich läute deine Glocke und schlage dich K.o.!”
(LIVE im ZDF ab 23.00 Uhr)
Doppelweltmeisterin Alesia Graf verteidigt ihre WM-Gürtel gegen die Brasilianerin Rosillette Dos Santos
Schwergewicht Alexander „Sascha” Dimitrenko bekommt
in Stuttgart Derric „The Shaolin Fist” Rossy vor die Fäuste
Die Spannung steigt - die Schleyer-Halle ist schon gut gefüllt! Die Stuttgarter Boxfreunde haben mit der „Universum Champions Night” am Samstag, 3. Mai ab 19.15 Uhr in der Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle wieder einmal eine große Box-Gala in ihrer Stadt.
Ein Höhepunkt dieser Stuttgarter Veranstaltung ist die erste Titelverteidigung von Lokalmatador Firat Arslan. In seinem Heimspiel in der Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle wird der WBA-Weltmeister im Cruisergewicht in seiner freiwilligen Titelverteidigung den US-Amerikaner Darnell Wilson, der auf Position 14 der WBA-Rangliste geführt wird, vor die Fäuste bekommen.
Motiviert und voller Selbstbewusstsein präsentierte sich Firat Arslan bei der heutigen Pressekonferenz: „Vor Darnell Wilson habe ich großen Respekt. Ich will immer nur die Besten boxen und er ist im Cruisergewicht einer der härtesten Puncher der Welt. Die Zuschauer wollen diesen Kampf sehen.”
Die Herausforderin für Doppelweltmeisterin Alesia „Die Tigerin” Graf wird wieder eine besondere Aufgabe. Die WIBF/GBU-Weltmeisterin im Jr. Bantamgewicht wird in ihrer Heimatstadt gegen die Brasilianerin Rosillette Dos Santos, die durch eine hohe K.o.-Quote beeindruckt, antreten.
Auch Schwergewichtler Alexander Dimitrenko wird zum wiederholten Male in seiner Wahlheimat Stuttgart antreten. Der ungeschlagene 2,01 m große Hüne Alexander „Sascha” Dimitrenko trifft auf Derric Rossy aus Puerto Rico, der sich in seinen 19 Kämpfen nur einmal gegen den IBF-WM-Kandidaten Eddie Chambers geschlagen geben musste.
Palestine: Four children among six dead in Israeli attack on Gaza
Four children among six dead in Israeli attack on Gaza
BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip, April 28 (AFP):
Four Palestinian children, aged one to five, their mother and a man were killed in Israeli operations in Gaza on Monday as Palestinian factions prepared for talks in Egypt on a possible truce. Four siblings — aged one, three, four and five — were killed when a tank shell hit their home in the north Gaza town of Beit Hanun, and their mother died later of her wounds, doctors at the Kamal Radwan hospital said. Palestinian security officials said an Islamic Jihad fighter was killed in the same area.
Oil prices hit an all-time high near US$120 a barrel
Oil prices hit new trading record near US$120 on supply concerns
The Associated Press , Singapore
Oil prices hit an all-time high near US$120 a barrel Monday after a weekend refinery strike closed a pipeline system that delivers a third of Britain’s North Sea oil to refineries in the U.K.
The shutdown comes amid supply outages in Nigeria that have helped to support oil against a strengthening dollar.
“We’ve got a confluence of a number of events that have really disrupted crude oil supply,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. “That’s what’s driving oil to a new record even though the U.S. dollar actually strengthened a bit.”
Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose to a record US$119.93 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract eased back to US$119.33 a barrel by midafternoon in Singapore, up 81 cents from Friday’s close of US$118.52.
BP PLC on Sunday shut down the Forties Pipeline System that carries more than 700,000 barrels of oil a day to the U.K. because of a 48-hour walkout by employees at a refinery in central Scotland.
Workers walked out of the Grangemouth refinery vowing not to give ground in their dispute with refinery owner Ineos over plans to close a generous pension scheme to new employees. Ineos chief executive Tom Crotty said it could take a week for the plant to return to production once the strike ends on Tuesday. BP said its pipeline could be up and running within 24 hours.
BP’s Kinneil plant, the onshore processing center for the pipeline system, is powered from the Grangemouth site.
“With the refinery being shut down, it will affect supplies from the North Sea and that has a potentially significant impact,” said David Moore, a commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. “That comes at the same time that there’s production disruptions from Nigeria so the combined effect of those is the immediate factor that’s put pressure on oil prices.”
In Nigeria, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said its fighters hit an oil pipeline late Thursday, the fourth conduit the group has attacked in the past week. MEND said the pipeline belongs to a Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture. A Shell spokesman confirmed one of its pipelines had been hit, but provided no additional details.
Separately, workers at an ExxonMobil Corp. joint venture there cut production by an unspecified amount to demand more pay.
Demand is high for Nigeria’s light, sweet crude, which is easily refined. After years of militant attacks, however, Nigeria’s output is dropping and the country can produce only about 75 percent of its official production capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day.
This week, the oil market is also expected to closely watch the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The central bank’s policymakers will meet to decide whether to lower interest rates again and to issue an updated assessment of the U.S. economy and financial system. Most investors believe the Fed will lower rates by another quarter percentage point - and that it will also suggest it may temporarily halt its round of recent cuts.
“There are a lot of expectations that the Fed will make an announcement that they will take a pause in interest rate cuts,” Shum said. “If that’s the case, then the U.S. dollar may bottom out and that could cause some pullback in oil pricing.”
Many analysts believe the weakness of the dollar is a bigger factor than supply and demand because the soft dollar draws investors worried about inflation into commodities such as oil and gold. It also makes commodities less expensive for buyers operating in other currencies.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 0.92 cent to US$3.312 a gallon (3.8 liters) while gasoline prices added 1.32 cents to US$3.0669 a gallon. Natural gas futures added 12.4 cents to US$11.087 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Brent crude futurs rose 84 cents to US$117.18 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London. (**)
Indonesia: Why should we give diplomatic immunity to a researcher?
Indonesian Govt urged to shut down U.S. lab
Abdul Khalik , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta
Lawmakers have told the government to shut down the U.S. Namru-2 research lab in Jakarta if Washington continues to demand diplomatic immunity for all its researchers working there.
“Why should we give diplomatic immunity to a researcher? It doesn’t make sense and is suspicious. If the U.S. keeps on pushing for diplomatic status for their researchers, then the government must terminate the lab’s operation,” Andreas Pareira of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said.
Andreas, a member of the House of Representatives’ Commission I on defense, security and foreign affairs, said Indonesia had compromised its security by granting too many foreigners diplomatic immunity.
Indonesia and the United States are now negotiating a new memorandum of understanding to extend the operation of the Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 (Namru-2) after the previous agreement expired in 2005.
Indonesia offered last week to grant diplomatic immunity to only two American officials at Namru-2 and demanded that the laboratory be more transparent in its operations.
In response, the United States through its embassy here has insisted that all 19 of its citizens at the laboratory be given diplomatic immunity. The United States also denied the lab was not transparent.
Earlier, lawmaker Mutammimul Ula of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) demanded the government stop the lab’s operation and investigate allegations that it was used for intelligence activities.
Golkar lawmaker Harry Azhar Azis joined the call for the lab’s closure, saying he had not seen its benefits for the Indonesian people.
“The MOU should be mutually beneficial and we can’t accept an international agreement that can possibly damage us. We just have to be tough and say no if the U.S. pushes us,” he said.
Political scientist Dewi Fortuna Anwar of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences underlined the importance of mutual benefits in a joint research lab, while questioning the motive of asking for diplomatic immunity for researchers.
“As a researcher, we don’t need immunity status as we can be charged if we violate regulations, such as stealing data or plagiarism. Is the U.S. trying to protect their researchers from being charged for such illegal actions?” she said.
Rector of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) Djoko Santoso said the government had to feel the benefits of a joint research lab.
“If not, what is the use of continuing such research?” he said.
Several Indonesian officials, including Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari and Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono, have said the lab lacks transparency.
Juwono said Thursday the United States had rejected including Indonesian Military (TNI) scientists in the lab’s operations. Siti said last Friday she would bring the Namru issue to the next Cabinet meeting and ask for support in terminating the lab’s operation.
Former TNI chief Gen. Wiranto and former foreign minister Ali Alatas in 1999 asked then president BJ Habibie to stop the operations of Namru-2, saying it compromised Indonesian national security while offering little benefit to the country.
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IAEA chief hits out at US, Israel over Syrian reactor claims
IAEA chief hits out at US, Israel over Syrian reactor claims
VIENNA, April 25 (AFP) -
The UN atomic watchdog hit out Friday at the United States for withholding intelligence that Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korea’s help. The IAEA also criticized Israel for acting on the allegations and bombing the purported reactor in a raid last September without giving IAEA inspectors an opportunity to investigate.The agency insisted it was taking seriously the allegations that were passed on by the United States on Thursday. “(We) will treat this information with the seriousness it deserves and will investigate the veracity of the information,” it said in a statement.
Bush assures Mahmoud Abbas on statehood, Hamas offers truce
Bush assures Mahmoud Abbas on statehood, Hamas offers truce
WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters):
U.S. President George W. Bush assured Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas Thursday that Palestinian statehood remained a high priority in his final 10 months in office despite faltering peace talks. As Bush met with Abbas at the White House to try to shore up the negotiations, Hamas formally proposed to Egyptian mediators in Cairo a six-month truce between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with an option to extend it to include the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “The movement agrees to a truce in the Gaza Strip … fixed at six months, during which period Egypt will work to extend the truce to the West Bank,” former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, said reading from a statement. “The truce must be mutual and simultaneous and the blockade must be lifted and the crossing points opened, including the Rafah crossing point (between Gaza and Egypt),” Zahar added.
Palestine: Two Israelis killed on West Bank border
Two Israelis killed on West Bank border
JERUSALEM, April 25 (Reuters):
Two Israelis were shot dead on the West Bank boundary Friday in what appeared to have been a Palestinian militant attack, Israel Radio reported. It said the bodies of the two men were discovered at their workplace, the Netzanei Oz industrial zone near the Palestinian-governed town of Tulkarm.
Iraq: Bomb attack kills US soldier south of Baghdad
Bomb attack kills US soldier south of Baghdad
BAGHDAD, April 25 (AFP) -
A roadside bomb attack Thursday killed a US soldier south of Baghdad, the American military said Friday. The latest death brings to 4,050 the military’s total losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP count.