Intel Newshot

Oscar-winning Austrian Schell passes away at 83

Maximilian Schell, one of Austria's most celebrated actor and a Hollywood favorite, passed away early on Saturday at the age of 83. He died in a hospital in the western Austrian city of Innsbruck from complications related to "a serious and sudden illness," said his press agent Patricia Baumbauer, the Austria Press Agency reported. Schell was the first German-speaking actor who won an Oscar in 1962 for his role as a defense attorney in "Judgment at Nuremberg.”

Yemeni oil pipeline bombed, oil flow stopped

Yemen's main oil pipeline was bombed by armed tribesman Saturday, causing a huge fire and halting the oil flow, local government and oil officials said. The attack occurred in the Serwah district in the central oil-producing province of Maarib, stopping oil flow from the Maarib fields to the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea. Local armed groups stage such attacks to pressure the government to provide jobs, settle land disputes or free relatives from prison. The latest among the frequent bombings took place on December 26, as the pipeline was repaired on January 5. Yemen, at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, relies on crude exports to finance up to 70 percent of its budget.

US hopeful of brokering Mideast peace deal – Kerry

The US is hopeful it can broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday at the Munich security conference. "I am hopeful and we will keep working on it," said Kerry adding "I don't think we're being quixotic ... We're working hard because the consequences of failure are unacceptable." The framework of the peace deal is due to be completed in the coming weeks and the final peace deal is to be negotiated by the end of 2014, a US official said, according to a participant in a briefing with American Jewish leaders.

Red Cross operations suspended in Sudan until further notice

Sudanese authorities have reportedly given the Red Cross an order to suspend its operations, according to a statement by the NGO on Saturday. "We have received an official letter from the Humanitarian Aid Commission informing us to suspend our activities with effect from today," a spokesman told AFP, adding that the commission had cited “technical issues.” Despite the halt in activities, the ICRC’s 700 local and international staff will remain in their offices until further notice. Meanwhile, the areas still affected by lack of aid are the north-south borderline South Kordofan and Blue Nile provinces. Although the Humanitarian Aid Commission has been known to previously expel NGOs from Sudan, the country’s authorities have repeatedly said in recent times that they wish for international cooperation on aid matters.

US warns China

Against declaring new air defense zone in South China Sea

Washington warned China on Friday against any move to declare a new air defense zone over parts of the South China Sea, including the sea’s disputed islands. Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun reported that Chinese military officials have drafted proposals for the next Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) that could place the Paracel Islands at its core, AFP reported. Such a move would be viewed as “a provocative and unilateral act that would raise tensions and call into serious question China’s commitment to diplomatically managing territorial disputes,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters. She said, however, that the reports remained “unconfirmed” at this time. Beijing has laid claim to the South China Sea almost in its entirety. Late last year, tensions erupted when China abruptly declared an air defense zone above the East China Sea, including islands involved in a territorial spat with Tokyo. “We’ve made very clear that parties must refrain from announcing an ADIZ or any other administrative regulation restraining activity of others in disputed territories, and we would of course urge China not to do so,” Harf added.

Gunfire, explosions rattle Bangkok on eve of general election

Intense gunfire and at least two explosions increased tensions amid anti-government demonstrations in Bangkok on Saturday, one day before a general election that is not expected to end the deepening divisions in the Southeast Asian country of 64 million people. At least three people were injured in the violence in front of a suburban shopping mall in the north of the Thai capital, Reuters reported. Sporadic gunfire continued into the evening. It was not immediately clear whether the protesters or those injured were anti- or pro-government activists in the run-up to an election that is expected to return Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to power. Since late November, 10 people have died and at least 577 have been injured in politically-related violence in the country.

​10 die in mountain bus crash in Nepal

Ten people have died and 47 were wounded in a bus accident in Okhaldhunga, a mountainous part of Nepal, late Friday. An overloaded bus with 65 passengers on board fell 100 meters when a driver lost control of the bus on a narrow mountain road, due to a mechanical problem with the steering wheel, police said Saturday.

​Egypt air strike kills 7 Sinai militants – army

Seven militants were killed and five wounded in a Thursday night air strike in the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptian army said Saturday. The attack targeted four houses of "dangerous extremists linked to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group," said the army, which brought to power the current government that ousted President Mohamed Morsi. The air strike came less than a week after militants shot down a military helicopter with five soldiers on board in the Sinai, on the third anniversary of the Arab Spring uprising.

​US should not set ultimatums to Syria over disarmament – Lavrov

The US should not use the language of ultimatums over the implementation of Syria’s program of chemical weapons disarmament, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
“Well, they can’t meet a phase of the chemical disarmament exactly to the date, so let them know we can use force,” he said, citing an example of an ultimatum. “Does this really help?”
The comment comes after several US officials voiced concerns that Syria may miss a deadline under the current disarmament plan. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that Syria has “no legitimate reason” for a delay and threatened that non-compliance with disarmament obligations may lead to the UN-mandated use of military force.

​Obama to try mend ties with Saudis in March

US President Barack Obama is to travel to Saudi Arabia in March in a bid to defuse tensions with America’s key Arab ally, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed Arab officials. US relations with the monarchy deteriorated amid Washington’s rapprochement with Saudi regional rival Iran. Riyadh is also irritated by the US’s reluctance to use military force against the Syrian government, which the Saudis want toppled.

Academics launch new torrent site for P2P research

Academic Torrents is a new file-sharing site developed by researchers for other researchers seeking an avenue to share academic papers and datasets. Joseph Cohen and Henry Lo, two PhD students at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, launched the site so they and other academics could communicate with each other in a free-flowing, decentralized environment. “Sharing data is hard. Emails have size limits, and setting up servers is too much work. We've designed a distributed system for sharing enormous datasets – for researchers, by researchers. The result is a scalable, secure, and fault-tolerant repository for data, with blazing fast download speeds,” the pair told TorrentFreak. Already indexed on the site are over 1.5 petabytes of data, including NASA's map of Mars.
Media agencies