Main News of February 16

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*As Iran continues refusing to back down over its nuclear program, tough new sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union have sent prices for basic foodstuffs soaring on the streets of Tehran.

*Iran will counter any Western military action against it, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow said.

*U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has no intentions to head the World Bank after its current President Robert Zoellick resigns, Department of State spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
*A member of the medical commission that examined jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's health said that she did not need any medical operation.

 

RUSSIA

*He has dived to the bottom of Lake Baikal, flown a fighter jet and recently took up ice hockey. Now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has taken a bobsled run.

*The Mistral class amphibious assault ships built in France for the Russian Navy will be equipped with Russian-made weaponry, Navy Commander Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky said.

*Two women who say they defied orders to rig December’s parliamentary elections in favor of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party said they were being intimidated by the authorities.

*Russia is the most dangerous country in the world for Internet users, beating Oman and the United States to the dubious title, antivirus software maker Kaspersky said in its annual bulletin on cyberattacks.

*The head of Russia’s Federal Migration Service Konstantin Romodanovsky said that a decision to expel prominent French journalist and writer Anne Nivat from Russia has been overturned.