US forced raid freighter carrying arms shipment from Iran: Report

October 12th, 2009 MOSCOW - US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is expected to focus on Iran's nuclear programme and the replacement of the current arms reduction treaty between Washington and Moscow during her official visit here, a report said Tuesday. Clinton, who arrived late Monday for a two-day official visit to Russia, is scheduled to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other Russian officials, the report added.

October 5th, 2009 TAIPEI - Taiwan's coast guard are searching for a Panamanian freighter which sent out an SOS near Taiwan during Typhoon Parma, the Taipei Rescue and Coordination Centre said Monday. "The search for the Panamanian freighter is still going on," a duty officer at the rescue centre said by phone without giving details because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

September 27th, 2009 MOSCOW - Russia's last space freighter with an analogue control system will reenter the Earth's atmosphere Sunday before plunging into a "spaceship cemetery" in the southern Pacific, the Russian Mission Control said. The Progress M-67 cargo spaceship, which arrived at the International Space Station July 29, bringing 2.5 tonnes of supplies, including fuel, water and various equipment, successfully undocked from the world's sole orbiter Sep 21.

September 20th, 2009 TEHRAN - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sunday rejected the West's charge that his country wants to develop nuclear bombs, saying Tehran is "fundamentally" opposed to such weapons. "Accusing the Islamic Republic of seeking nuclear arms is a blatant lie.

September 19th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Police in Islamabad raided a firm that provides security to US embassy in Pakistan and seized a lot of arms, the local news agency NNI reported Saturday. The Islamabad police said that 61 repeater guns, nine 30 bore pistols, one 22 bore pistol and 545 rounds were recovered during the last night's raid in a posh area here.

September 17th, 2009 JAKARTA - Indonesia's most wanted Islamic militant, Noordin Mohammed Top, was among four people killed in a raid on a house in Central Java province, the country's police chief said Thursday.

September 16th, 2009 LONDON - A Brit thief reportedly used a pair of knickers to cover his head, in a bid to disguise himself during a drunken shop raid. Chelmsford Crown Court was told that Michael Callaghan, 43, had forced a shop assistant into a cupboard before taking 200 pounds from the till, reports the Daily Star.

September 8th, 2009 Russian FM denies S-300 missiles on hijacked shipMOSCOW — Russia's foreign minister on Tuesday rejected speculation that a hijacked Russian-crewed freighter was carrying S-300 missiles possibly destined for Iran. Russia said the freighter Arctic Sea was seized by pirates in the Baltic Sea in late July after leaving a Finnish port.

August 25th, 2009 Russia: Freighter search found no suspicious cargoMOSCOW — Russia moved to quash speculation that a freighter embroiled in a high-seas mystery might have been carrying sensitive cargo, saying Tuesday that an initial search of the Arctic Sea last week uncovered nothing suspicious. But the Foreign Ministry statement — which also said the Arctic Sea's captain had falsely claimed it was a North Korean ship headed from Cuba to Sierra Leone — appeared unlikely to end the questions about the vessel and its voyage.

August 20th, 2009 Arctic Sea crew, hijackers arrive in MoscowMOSCOW — The crew and the suspected hijackers of the Arctic Sea arrived in Moscow on Thursday, news agencies reported, days after the freighter was found by Russian naval forces off West Africa. Three Russian air force planes arrived at a military airport outside Moscow from the Cape Verde islands, Interfax and ITAR-Tass said.

August 18th, 2009 Russia arrests 8 suspects in ship hijackingMOSCOW — Russia's navy arrested eight men accused of hijacking the Arctic Sea freighter near Sweden and forcing the crew to sail to West Africa, the defense minister said Tuesday. Anatoly Serdyukov said the suspected hijackers were detained by the naval vessel that found the Russian-crewed freighter Monday off Cape Verde, thousands of miles (kilometers) from the Algerian port where it was supposed to dock two weeks ago.

August 5th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A freight train link between Islamabad and Istanbul via Tehran is to be launched Aug 14, Pakistan's independence day. The train will run from Islamabad's Margala Station to Istanbul's Haydarpasa Station via Tehran Station, APP news agency reported, quoting railway officials here.

August 3rd, 2009 LONDON - Iran is awaiting orders from its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to produce its first nuclear bomb, Western intelligence sources have told The Times. According to sources, Iran completed its research program to create weaponised uranium in the summer of 2003, and now claims that once it receives orders from Khamenei, it could feasibly make a bomb within a year of it.

June 22nd, 2009 NATO thwarts pirate attack off SomaliaBRUSSELS — Pirates tried to hijack a Singaporean freighter off Somalia on Monday, but they were chased down and captured by a NATO warship, the alliance said. The MV Maersk Phoenix freighter issued an emergency call when it was attacked by the pirates, who were armed with AK-47 automatic rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, NATO said.

June 4th, 2009 CAIRO - In a much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world from Cairo Thursday, US President Barack Obama urged Iran and other countries to abandon their nuclear weapons programmes. He acknowledged the US role in "overthrowing a democratically elected government" in Iran.