Wi-Fi Service, Cellphone Headed for More Subway Stations

 Wall Street Journal

By Ted Mann

Rob Bennett for The Wall Street Journal

Subway travelers have been able to used cellphones in the C, E line station at Eighth Avenue and 23rd Street since September. Cell service is scheduled for 30 more stations this year.

Cellphone service will arrive at 30 additional subway stations in 2012, including Times Square and Rockefeller Center, broadening access to include much of Midtown, the firm conducting the improvements said this week.
Transit Wireless, which launched cell service in six stations on 14th and 23rd Streets in September, is working to extend cellphone access to the 30 new stations this summer. Construction is slated to begin in April, a spokesman said.
Among the stations scheduled to be wired for cell service this year are those at Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Columbus Circle and stations along 96th Street. A full list of the new locations is below.
The stations would come online in groups of five or six at a time, beginning in July or August, said Patrick Smith, spokesman for Transit Wireless.
Transit Wireless has negotiated deals with AT&T and T-Mobile to provide cell coverage in the subways, and negotiations with other wireless carriers for access to its underground system is ongoing, the company said.
The company also plans to announce the launch of free wireless Internet access in six subway stations within the next several weeks, said Smith. The wi-fi access would be free to subway passengers, and paid for through a sponsorship arrangement still under negotiation.
The MTA has previously estimated the cost of wiring all 271 subway stations in the transit system at roughly $200 million, a cost being borne entirely by Transit Wireless. Transit Wireless and MTA will share proceeds of the company’s contracts with wireless carriers, MTA officials have said, with a minimum annual payment to the transit system of $3.3 million once the cellphone network is complete.
“Bringing wireless service into our underground subway system reinforces the MTA’s effort to use technology to improve customer convenience that allows them to stay in touch with friends, relatives and business contacts,” said Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the MTA. “And by having access to real-time service status updates while underground, riders can better navigate the system.”
Meanwhile, the MTA announced the winners of its App Quest contest, in which software developers built applications to display subway data and schedules on smart phones. The winning app, called EmbarkNYC, features GPS navigation, street and subway system maps, and a trip planning feature that doesn’t require a cell phone signal to be operational.
A list of the contest winners is at the MTA’s contest website.
Stations scheduled to begin cell phone service in 2012:
1, 2, 3 station, W. 96th Street & Broadway
1 station, W. 86th Street & Broadway
1 station, W. 79th Street & Broadway
1, 2, 3 station, W. 72nd Street & Broadway
1 station, W. 66th Street & Broadway
1 station, Columbus Circle, W. 59th Street & Broadway
1 station, W. 50th Street & Broadway
1, 2, 3 station, Times Square, W. 42nd Street & Broadway
1 station, 7th Ave. & W. 28th Street 1 station, 7th Ave. & W. 23rd Street
1 station, 7th Ave. & W. 18th Street
B, C station, West 96th Street & Central Park West
B, C station, West 86th Street & Central Park West
B, C station, West 81st Street & Central Park West
B, C station, West 72nd Street & Central Park West
A, B, C, D station, Columbus Circle, W. 59th Street & Broadway
B, D, E station, 7th Ave. & W. 53rd Street
C, E station, 8th Ave. & W. 50th Street
B, D, F, M station, Rockefeller Center, 6th Ave. and W. 47-50th Streets
A, C, E station, Times Square, 8th Ave. & W. 42nd Street
N, Q, R station, 5th Ave. & W.59th Street
N, Q, R station, 7th Ave. & W. 57th Street
N, Q, R station, 7th Ave. & W. 49th Street
N, Q, R station, Times Square, W. 42nd Street & Broadway
R station, W. 28th Street & Broadway
R station, Madison Square, W. 23rd Street & Broadway
7 station, Times Square, W. 42nd Street & Broadway
Shuttle, Times Square, W. 42nd Street & Broadway
F station, 6th Ave. & 57th Street
E, M station, 5th Ave. & 53rd Street
Stations with existing cell phone coverage:
A, C, E station at Eighth Avenue and West 14th Street
L station at Eighth Avenue and West 14th Street
C, E station at Eighth Avenue and West 23rd Street
1, 2, 3 station at Seventh Avenue and West 14th Street
F, M station at Sixth Avenue and West 14th Street
L station at Sixth Avenue and West 14th Street

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US TODAY: Slain border agent's family files $25M claim against U.S.

PHOENIX -- The family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry filed a $25 million wrongful death claim Wednesday against the federal government, saying he was killed because U.S. investigators allowed murder weapons into the hands of criminals.

Terry died Dec. 14, 2010, when his special-operations unit got into a shootout with border bandits in a remote canyon area near Rio Rico. At the scene, investigators found two AK-47s that were traced back to a gun-smuggling probe by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Congressional investigations and Department of Justice records have since revealed that ATF agents allowed as many as 1,400 guns to be transported into Mexico, and that the AK-47s were purchased by a known firearms trafficker. The so-called "gun-walking" strategy used in Operation Fast and Furious remains the subject of inquiries by Congress and the Department of Justice's inspector general.

• STORY: Justice, House GOP tangle over Fast and Furious

In the civil claim, which is a required legal step prior to the filing of a lawsuit, Terry's family says federal agents were not only negligent, but acted "in violation of ATF's own policies and procedures."

"The murder of Agent Terry and other acts of violent crimes were the natural consequence of ATF's decision to let dangerous weapons designed to kill human beings 'walk' into the hands of violent drug-trafficking gangs," says the claim, filed by Phoenix attorneys Patrick McGroder III and Lincoln Combs.

The 65-page document was filed on behalf of Terry's parents, Josie and Kent Terry Sr., as well as surviving siblings. In it, family members criticize federal authorities for attempting to cover up the flawed strategy in Fast and Furious, and its connection with Brian Terry's death.

The claim says family members met in March 2011 with former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, who resigned amid the scandal. The claim alleges he incorrectly said that guns found at the scene were from a store in Texas, and that the fatal bullet would never be found even though it was recovered during an autopsy.

"Burke hemmed and hawed, bobbed and weaved, refused to give straight answers, and flat-out lied about when he knew about Brian's death and Operation Fast and Furious," the family alleges.

The claim contains poetry, dozens of family photographs, lyrics from Terry's favorite songs and a detailed account of his life. In explanation of the $25 million demand, it concludes: "The love and companionship of a beloved son, warrior and American hero like Brian is impossible to quantify, but it is worth at least that much."

Wagner also reports for The Arizona Republic.

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Miami Herald to occupy a Memphis-owned building

A Memphis-based commercial real estate firm is exchanging one high-profile tenant in Miami for another, from the U.S. Southern Command headquarters to the Miami Herald.
The Miami Herald Media Company has signed a lease for the 158,000-square-foot building SMPO Properties built and opened in Doral in 1997 for $40 million.
The newspaper will move its business and news staffs of more than 700 people 12 miles inland from its longtime headquarters on the Atlantic in Downtown Miami to the affluent Doral suburb.
SMPO, owned by Oscar Seelbinder, built the building. GPA-I, a special-purpose business entity created for the project, took ownership and leased it to the Southern Command until the military moved out last August.
The Southern Command oversees military activity in South and Central America during crisis situations and disasters.
Seelbinder is also a partner in GPA-I with fellow Memphians including Jerry Sklar, an attorney; Ron Sklar, a builder-developer; and John H. Montgomery, who splits his time between Memphis and Chicago.
The Herald had been hunting for a new home. Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co., which owns the Miami Herald, sold the Herald’s seaside headquarters eight months ago for $236 million with the agreement the paper could stay rent-free for up to two years.
The Herald signed a 15-year lease for the two-story office building and nine acres. GPA also sold an adjacent six acres where the Herald will build a 120,000-square-foot production facility.
The Miami Herald lease isn’t the only big deal landed recently by SMPO, which is headquartered at 5858 Ridgeway Center Parkway in East Memphis.
Just before the Herald lease, SMPO completed a deal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lease for 20 years a 45,000-square-foot laboratory building in Los Angeles.
“It’s the second-largest lab the USDA will have in the United States,” Seelbinder said. “The value of the lab is more valuable than the property leased to the Herald.”
SMPO was founded in 1984. It’s a comprehensive commercial real estate firm and what Seelbinder describes as a “merchant builder.’’
“You build things and then you sell them,” Seelbinder explained.
It began by building and leasing out post office buildings. SMPO has built more than 150 of them.
But the company also has built a CVS pharmacy, AutoZone stores, four FedEx facilities ranging from 115,000 to 575,000 square feet, and Captain D’s restaurants.
SMPO has sold the vast majority of the nearly 200 properties it has built over the years across 40 states, Seelbinder said.
“We only have a couple left,” he said. “It’s difficult to hold on when people offer prices. In merchant building, you put up property that’s income-producing. In essence, somebody will pay us more than we feel it’s worth and we sell it.”
In addition to developing, SMPO is a commercial real estate broker of government leased and credit-rated tenant transactions. The combined value of its brokered deals over the years exceeds $500 million.
SMPO also manages property, and as SMPO Financial, LLC, it even structures commercial real estate loans of $750,000 to more than $100 million.
Despite its successes and longevity, SMPO doesn’t seem that well known.
“There’s never been an importance placed on being in the public eye,’’ Seelbinder said.
“The primary business we do has more to do with public bids to government, and relationships with credit tenants. It just never has seemed important to have publicity.”

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Women’s Tennis: WVU Hosts Pitt and Akron

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – The West Virginia women’s tennis team will play host to Pitt on Friday at 3 p.m., as well as Akron on Sunday at 12 p.m., with both matches being held at the Ridgeview Racquet Club.

Tina Samara

The Mountaineers enter Friday’s tilt against the Panthers with an 0-3 record, but are coming off a loss to No. 9 Virginia in which coach Tina Samara saw strides in the right direction.

“We took some positives away from our match against a very tough Virginia team,” says Samara. “We competed on Tuesday, and if we bring that same fire to the court this weekend, we like our chances.”

WVU had the opportunity to square off against players from Pitt, who enters the match at 1-1, during the fall season at the Martha Thorn Invitational and the ITA Regionals.

“We saw some of Pitt’s players this fall,” Samara says. “They have some strengths at certain spots, but I definitely think that they are beatable. Again, it comes down to what we do. If we stay within ourselves and do what we are capable of, we will be fine, but that is a big if.”

The Mountaineers lead the all-time series against the Panthers, 29-4.

“We should be coming out with more fire than normal because it is Pitt,” Samara says of the rivalry. “There is a little extra behind it. We made sure the upperclassmen told the younger girls what this match is all about.”

Sunday’s match against Akron (2-0) will present a different difficulty to the Mountaineers, as the Zips come in as a somewhat unfamiliar opponent. WVU did not compete against them in the fall.

“We don’t know a whole lot about Akron,” Samara says. “We have looked over their results, and they look like a pretty solid team.”

Akron won 5-2 over Michigan State on Jan. 22 and will enter Sunday’s match having played two matches the day prior.

In order for the Mountaineers to be successful in both matches this weekend, junior Emily Mathis will need to continue her strong play in the No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles spot.

“I am not worried Emily,” Samara says. “She will go out and do her best. She will fight hard and do what she does to get wins.”

A full recap of both matches will be available on MSNsportsNET.com after the completion of competition.

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Spoonhour remembered as basketball 'pied piper'

His college basketball teams won 373 games and, with high school and junior college, the total was just short of 700.
But what Charlie Spoonhour really had wanted to do growing up in Rogers, Ark., was to play second base for the Cardinals.
Spoonhour, the former Missouri State and St. Louis University coach who died at age 72 in Chapel Hill, N. C., Wednesday after battling a lung affliction for two years, was a Cardinals fan his entire life. He regularly would come to spring training in either St. Petersburg, Fla., or Jupiter, Fla., after whatever team he was coaching had been eliminated from postseason play.
Once, after his University of Nevada-Las Vegas club had lost at South Carolina in the NIT, he bolted immediately to the airport, flew to Atlanta, spent the wee hours in the airport there and arrived in Jupiter well ahead of his luggage, wearing only his Runnin' Rebels warmup jacket and the same pants he had sported at the game.
Another time, Cardinals manager Joe Torre suited Spoonhour up for an exhibition game and had him sit on the bench next to him. He even let Spoonhour try to flash the squeeze sign to the third-base coach although by the time "Spoon" had gone through his gyrations, everybody on both sides knew what was up.
"He loved baseball," said Henry Iba Jr., perhaps Spoonhour's best coaching friend. "If that wasn't his first love, it was his second, as far as sports."
Spoonhour had been in and out of the Duke University Medical Center for the past couple of years after getting a lung transplant there in 2010. He had been diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — a scarring of the lungs.
There had been plans to replace Spoonhour's other lung but there were too many complications from the first surgery and his body never was strong enough to endure another procedure. Spoonhour, whose weight had dropped to 110 pounds, was brought home to hospice care in Chapel Hill, on Tuesday.
"It was peaceful," said his wife, Vicki, who was at his side with other members of his family. "It was better than being in the hospital."
Testimonials from all over the country poured in Wednesday and a couple of hundred spoons were stuck in the ground at a SLU quadrangle in honor of Spoonhour.
When his teams were filling the old Arena in the mid-1990s at 17,000 a night, the sign everyone wanted to see at the end of the game was the one which said, "Stick a Spoon in 'Em. They're Done."
As much as Spoonhour loved both basketball and baseball players, friends loved him as much, if not more.
"I don't think you can think of anybody who disliked Charlie," said Iba, who had Spoonhour on his staff as an assistant at Nebraska from 1981-83 before Spoonhour got his first head coaching job at Southwest Missouri State the next season.
Larry Garrett, Spoonhour's longtime friend from Rogers, Ark., said, "there have been at least 12 people who have said Charlie was their best friend. You don't hear of that very often."
At Southwest Missouri (now Missouri State), Spoonhour's teams were 197-81 with five NCAA appearances. At SLU, Spoonhour compiled a 122-90 mark with three NCAA appearances.
He finished his coaching career at UNLV from 2001-04 with a 57-31 mark before retiring with a heart issue.
Scott Highmark, a star in the mid-1990s under Spoonhour at St. Louis U., said, "Coach Spoon always wanted us to have fun. When he came here, the tone was pretty negative. But he said to (Erwin) Claggett and me, 'We're just going to have fun. This is not like life and death.'
"He was like a pied piper. People would come to a game just to see Charlie Spoonhour coach. Who does that?
"He just had a way of connecting with people better than anyone I've ever been around. The wins and losses were great. But it was more the human being. He just drew people to him. ... He was one of a kind."
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins knows that. Huggins, one of Spoonhour's closest friends in the business, got to know Spoonhour best when the former coached at the University of Cincinnati and Spoon was at SLU.
"Guys in our profession know that it's gone well beyond what it used to be," said Huggins. "Guys were friends and you had dinner the night before a game. It always happened with us. We always got together the night before a game and sometimes afterwards."
Huggins' favorite story concerning Spoonhour took place in March 1995 at Milwaukee, site of the Great Midwest Conference tournament. All the teams were staying at the same hotel.
"We're getting ready to play DePaul and (coach) Joey Meyer," Huggins said, "and he calls me and says, 'Come up here (to his room). I said that I was watching DePaul tape. And he says, 'Then you're not as smart as you think you are. You've already played them two times.'
"So I go upstairs and sit around and do what we always do (12-ouncers were involved). We both win and the next night we're getting ready to play Memphis and he's playing Marquette. He calls me and says, 'Junior (his nickname for Huggins), I believe it's your night to host.' I was watching Memphis tape but I said, 'All right, come on down.' He was in my room all night.
"We beat Memphis and they beat Marquette and now we're playing each other in the tournament championship. He says, 'Junior, I'm a man of my word. It's my turn. Come on up.' "
After another night together, the two then walked near Lake Michigan the next morning before the game and Huggins and his team repaired for a pregame meal. For one reason or another, Spoonhour had been closed out of his team's meal so, when Huggins saw Spoonhour standing near the door of the restaurant, Huggins invited Spoonhour to eat with his team.
As was his custom with nearly everyone else, the home-spun Spoonhour had Huggins and the Bearcats in stitches. The game ensued and Cincinnati won by two points on a last-second shot. "We slap hands afterward and then Spoon says, 'Well, Junior, it looks like you're hosting tonight,' "Huggins said.
"There was nobody better," Huggins said. "There's never been a better person. He's a really special guy."
For many years, when he wasn't coaching, Spoonhour was an analyst, most often for the Missouri Valley games. In fact, Spoonhour will be among the honorees on March 2 here as he and five others are inducted into the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame.
MVC commissioner Doug Elgin said, "He was very upbeat about that. Right up until the end, he was very excited about coming back here.
"Charlie was unforgettable," Elgin said. "He was a very legendary figure — bigger than life — both as a person and as a coach. And whatever you saw with him wasn't a schtick. He never forgot his roots. He may have moved on to St. Louis and other places but there still was a lot of northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri down-home-boy in him."
Vicki Spoonhour said Charlie told her in his final hours, "'Don't spend the money on a funeral.' He didn't want all of his friends flying in for a funeral and crying. He said, 'Have a party.'
"He had a lot of friends," Vicki Spoonhour said. "He had 348 contacts on his phone. I think everyone considered him a friend. That says a lot about him."
Services will be private in North Carolina, Vicki Spoonhour said. Spoonhour is survived by sons Jay, head coach at Moberly Area Community College, and Stephen, in addition to five grandchildren.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/slu/charlie-spoonhour-remembered-as-basketball-pied-piper/article_ef71b3af-40bb-5351-bf6d-2f6bb3e1eef5.html#ixzz1lGWrXrJN

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Cricket: Black Caps lose early wickets

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Martin Guptill. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The Black Caps have lost two early wickets in the first ODI against Zimbabwe at University Oval in Dunedin today.
LIVE SCORING
Nicol was dismissed for a duck in the sixth delivery of the match after edging to Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor at first slip off Keegan Meth.
New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum, batting a three today, then fell in the second over for just three runs when Kyle Jarvis trapped him LBW, leaving the Black Caps at 4 for two.
That introduced Kane Williamson to the crease who joined opener Martin Guptill.
Earlier Taylor won the toss and sent New Zealand into bat.
New Zealand are playing three debutants today with Dean Brownlie, Tom Latham and Andrew Ellis all playing their first ODIs for the Black Caps. Jacob Oram is New Zealand's 12th man.
Zimbabwe won the last clash between the two sides in Bulawayo in November after chasing down a mammoth 328-run target.

New Zealand: Brendon McCullum (c), Martin Guptill, Rob Nicol, Kane Williamson, Tom Latham, Dean Brownlie, Nathan McCullum, Andrew Ellis, Doug Bracewell, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee. 12th man: Jacob Oram.
Zimbabwe: Brendan Taylor (c), Hamilton Mazakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Regis Chakabva, Tatenda Taibu, Malcolm Waller, Elton Chigumbura, Keegan Meth, Shingirai Mazakadza, Ray Price, Kyle Jarvis. 12th man: Tino Mawoyo.
- HERALD ONLINE

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Ali's Legendary Trainer Angelo Dundee Dies at 90

n this Jan. 14, 2012, file photo, Muhammad Ali, right, celebrates his 70th birthday next to his longtime trainer Angelo Dundee at a fund raiser for the Muhammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, Ky. (The Muhammad Ali Center/AP Photo)

Celebrated boxing trainer Angelo Dundee, Muhammad Ali's cornerman in his greatest fights, has died at the age of 90.

"Angelo died surrounded by family and friends," his family said in a statement. "He was very happy that he got to celebrate Ali's (70th) birthday earlier this year and also that he got to go to the Hall of Fame.

The genial trainer got to see his old friend, and reminisce about good times. It was almost as if they were together in their prime again, and what a time that was.

Dundee died in his apartment in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday night at the age of 90, and with him a part of boxing died, too.

He was surrounded by his family, said his son, Jimmy, who said the visit with Ali in Louisville, Ky., meant everything to his Dad.

"It was the way he wanted to go," the son said. "He did everything he wanted to do."

Jimmy Dundee said his father was hospitalized for a blood clot last week and was briefly in a rehabilitation facility before returning to his apartment.

"He was coming along good yesterday and then he started to have breathing problems. My wife was with him at the time, thank God, and called and said he can't breathe. We all got over there. All the grandkids were there. He didn't want to go slowly," the son said.

Dundee was the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Ali in his greatest fights, willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, and coached hundreds of young men in the art of a left jab and an overhand right.

More than that, he was a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it.

"To me, he was the greatest ambassador for boxing, the greatest goodwill ambassador in a sport where there's so much animosity and enemies," said Bruce Trampler, the longtime matchmaker who first went to work for Dundee in 1971. "The guy didn't have an enemy in the world."

How could he, when his favorite line was, "It doesn't cost anything more to be nice."

Dundee was best known for being in Ali's corner for almost his entire career, urging him on in his first fight against Sonny Liston through the legendary fights with Joe Frazier and beyond. He was a cornerman, but he was much more, serving as a motivator for fighters not so great and for The Greatest.

Promoter Bob Arum said he had been planning to bring Dundee to Las Vegas for a Feb. 18 charity gala headlined by Ali.

"He was wonderful. He was the whole package," Arum said. "Angelo was the greatest motivator of all time. No matter how bad things were, Angelo always put a positive spin on them. That's what Ali loved so much about him."

Arum credited Dundee with persuading Ali to continue in his third fight against Joe Frazier when Frazier was coming on strong in the "Thrilla in Manilla." Without Dundee, Arum said, Ali may not have had the strength to come back and stop Frazier after the 14th round in what became an iconic fight.

Dundee also worked the corner for Leonard, famously shouting, "You're blowing it, son. You're blowing it" when Leonard fell behind in his 1981 fight with Tommy Hearns — a fight he would rally to win by knockout.

A master motivator and clever corner man, Dundee was regarded as one of the sport's great ambassadors. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992 after a career that spanned six decades, training 15 world champions, including Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles.

"He had a ball. He lived his life and had a great time," Jimmy Dundee said. "He was still working with an amateur kid, a possible Olympic kid, down here. When he walked into a boxing room he still had the brain for it."

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Israel could launch military strike on Iran 'within nine months

Israel could launch an air strike against Iran within nine months in a bid to slow Tehran's progress towards building a nuclear weapon, according to a former senior White House aide.

Dennis Ross, a veteran diplomat on the Middle East, said Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not necessarily feel restrained by objections from President Barack Obama, despite his country's historically close ties with Washington.

His remarks came as Israel's chief of military intelligence, Gen Aviv Kochavi, said Israel was convinced Iran had enough radioactive material to produce four nuclear bombs.

"Iran is very actively pursuing its efforts to develop its nuclear capacities, and we have evidence that they are seeking nuclear weapons," he said.

With anxiety about an Israeli attack spreading, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said: "I worry that there will be a military conflict and that certain countries might seek to take matters into their own hands."

Britain, he said, had been attempting to demonstrate "that there are very tough things we can do which are not military steps in order to place pressure on Iran".

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Taliban will retake Afghanistan: US

LONDON: The Taliban are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country.

That’s according to a leaked US report, which also accuses Pakistan of assisting the Taliban in attacking NATO forces.

The Times of London newspaper said the document’s findings were based on interrogations of more than 4-thousand Taliban and al Qaeda detainees. Pakistan denies the charge, describing the report as "frivolous" and going against the country’s policy of "non-interference".

The leaked report comes as the US and Afghan governments are trying to enter peace talks with the Taliban. Despite the presence of about 100-thousand foreign troops, the UN says violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

Large parts of Afghanistan have recently been handed back to the Afghan security forces, with the last foreign troops due to leave by the end of 2014.

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UAE, Qatar stop trade finance to Iran over sanctions

 The central banks of UAE and Qatar have told lenders to stop financing trade withIran, bankers said on Thursday, cutting another source of credit for a country struggling under Western economic sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme.

The Gulf has a long history of trade with Iran, especially in Dubai where there is a large Iranian trading community, and Gulf banks had been expected to fill a funding gap for the import of grains left by European lenders banned from financing trade by EU sanctions.

"Banks in Dubai were asked by the UAE central bank to stop issuing letters of credit to finance trade with Iran. Before the sanctions, the central bank regularly checked on trading with Iran and wanted to know of all dealings between the two countries," said a Dubai-based banker active in trade financing.

"Banks can't do this anymore."

About 8,000 Iranian traders are registered in Dubai, and re-export trade between Iran and the UAE totalled 19.5 billion dirhams ($5.32 billion) in the first half of 2011, according to the latest figures from United Arab Emirates' customs authority.

Qatar's central bank also recently told banks to stop providing credit for Iranian trade, according to a senior Doha-based banker.

Iran is struggling under the weight of sanctions. Its currency, the rial, has depreciated, there has been a run on its banks and inflation is rising, U.S. intelligence chiefs have said.

The United States imposed the harshest sanctions so far on Iran, banning transactions involving Iran's central bank, and the European Union has banned the import, purchase or transport of Iranian oil, cutting off its main foreign currency earner.

The 27-member bloc also agreed in January to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank to try to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at producing an atomic weapon.

Iran denies the charge.

The sanctions, which Western powers say are aimed only at the Iranian administration, may be having unexpected consequences.

SHIPMENTS STOP

Iran is heavily dependent on grain imports for animal feed, but some 10 ships have been unable to deliver grain to Iran for more than three weeks after banks refused to process payments, or offer loans to, Iranian buyers.

On Thursday, up to five of those vessels may have been diverted to new destinations, ship tracking data showed.

]

The United Arab Emirates' central bank ordered financial institutions two years ago to freeze Iran-linked accounts belonging to firms targeted by United Nations sanctions.

In Bahrain, which has traditionally had more limited trade ties with Iran, there have been no guidelines.

"Business with Iranians flourished in the past but Bahrain was never a trading hub like Dubai," one senior banker said. "Financing export of goods through the ports wasn't really a prime line of business."

Iranian trade with Dubai has flowed for decades, plied by wooden dhows carrying household goods and basic commodities such as grain, rice and sugar.

"Historically, grain came to Dubai from South America, mainly Argentina, the USA and EU, mainly France and then re-exported from Dubai to Iran," said the Dubai-based banker.

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Taliban deny talks with Afghan govt

The Taliban have scotched reports they have planned direct peace talks with the Afghan government.
Rumours have swirled for days that President Hamid Karzai's government was seeking direct talks, to be held in Saudi Arabia, in an effort to take charge of the peace effort that has so far been dominated by American efforts and talks with Taliban representatives.
A statement on Wednesday from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected those reports as 'baseless.'
He also noted that exploratory talks between the insurgency and the US-led international military coalition in Afghanistan have not yet reached the stage for negotiations.
'Before the negotiation phase, there should be trust-building between the sides, which has not started yet,' Mujahid said.
The Taliban have so far expressed willingness only to talk with the US, calling the Afghan government a puppet regime. Washington insists it is only setting the stage, and any eventual talks must involve Karzai's government.
US intelligence officials acknowledged on Tuesday that the United States may release several Afghan Taliban prisoners from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an incentive to bring the Taliban to peace talks.
Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper told Congress on Tuesday that no decision had been made whether to trade the five Taliban prisoners, now held at Guantanamo Bay, as part of the nascent peace talks with the Taliban. He and CIA Director David Petraeus did not dispute that the Obama administration was considering transferring the five to a third country.
Who will lead any future peace negotiations has become a major concern. Karzai has reportedly felt sidelined by the US effort.
Afghanistan's own moves toward talks with the Taliban stalled after an ex-president heading the High Peace Council spearheading the effort was assassinated by a bomber claiming to have a message from the insurgents.
That killing damaged relations between Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan after Kabul blamed insurgents based over the Pakistani border for the killing.
Pakistan's foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, visited Kabul on Wednesday to mend relations and insisted her country has no hidden agenda in Afghanistan. Khar said Pakistan will back a peace process with the Taliban as long as it's driven by Afghans and not other figures on the international stage.
'Pakistan wants peace and stability in Afghanistan, and contrary to the hypotheses that do the rounds the world over, Pakistan prefers and considers it vital to have a stable Afghanistan,' she said.
'Our only prerequisite to be supportive of an initiative is that it should be Afghan-led, it should be Afghan-owned, it should be Afghan-driven and Afghan-backed.'
Khar's visit coincided with the leak of a classified NATO report saying that Taliban and its allied insurgents get support from Pakistan.
The US-led military coalition in Afghanistan said on Wednesday that an Afghan soldier shot and killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan in what the coalition described as an attack and an Afghan commander called an accident.
It was the sixth report since December 26 of an Afghan soldier turning his weapon on the international troops working to train the Afghan security forces. The string of attacks has raised concerns about relations between Afghan troops and their foreign allies.
The rising number of attacks by supposed friendly Afghan forces has prompted speculation that Taliban insurgents or sympathisers may be infiltrating national army and police as they rapidly expand to meet the 2014 target for Afghan forces to take over security and most international troops to leave.
There have been at least 35 attacks on international troops since 2007 by Afghan soldiers, police or insurgents wearing their uniforms, according to a tally by The Associated Press. The number rose sharply last year to 17, up from six in 2010.
Tuesday's killing brought to 34 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year.

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Pakistan ready to complete whitewash against England

Courtesy: The News Tribe

Dubai: England will try it best to avoid a whitewash at the hand of Pakistan in the three-match test series, as it is facing the host in the final test in Dubai on Friday.

Pakistan leading the series with an unassailable merging of 2-0 and ready to complete 3-0.

England would replace out of form Morgan with Ravi Bopara while Pakistan would replace Junaid Khan with Wahab Riaz.

There are reports that the pitch of Dubai stadium will help spinners.

Under Andrew Strauss England had won only against Bangladesh in the Sub-Continent.

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