Ron Paul hopes for win in Maine
AUGUSTA, Maine, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- As Maine's weeklong caucuses come to an end Saturday, presidential hopeful Ron Paul may have his first primary season victory, some observers said.
The Texas representative is the only Republican candidate who has spent much time in Maine, The Washington Post reported.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania ignored the Maine caucuses, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney made his first visit Friday.
Paul, however, has been campaigning heavily there.
Paul's campaign team said they were confident of a win in the state.
Under state law, Maine voters have 2 1/2 months to caucus, the newspaper said. Parties can suggest a shorter time, but cannot enforce one.
Mike Quatrano, executive director of the state Republican Party, said the GOP has been trying to shorten its caucus period since last year, but it was "kind of a culture shock to some of these folks." Proposals to shorten the caucus to a day or a weekend "absolutely did not fly."
The party settled on recommending a week: Feb. 4 to Feb. 11.
Hamas leader visits Iran
TEHRAN, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, received a warm welcome when he visited Iran for undisclosed reasons, officials say.
Hamas officials dodged calls from journalists regarding the meeting, saying only that Haniyeh arrived in Tehran Friday.
The New York Times reported Iranian media outlets detailed an official welcoming ceremony complete with an honor guard. The warm welcome suggests relations between Hamas and Iran remain positive, despite tensions during the Syrian uprising due to Hamas' resistance to support Syrian president Bashar Assad, the Times said.
Haniyeh is on his second regional tour since December, having already visited Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. He was advised by Persian gulf leaders not to visit Tehran. However, analyst Mustafa Sawaf, who is close to Hamas in Gaza, said not only does Hamas refuse such advise, but Haniyeh would probably even invite Iranian officials to Gaza.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said: "For anyone who had any illusions as to the extremist nature of Hamas, I would hope this would serve as a wake-up call. The leadership of Iran and the leadership of Hamas share the same extremist goals. In many ways, Hamas is Iran's proxy."
Japan starts decontamination
IITATE, Japan, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Japan began decontaminating villages near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, despite there being a lack of knowledge on how to do so, officials said.
The Japanese government has started handing out $13 billion in contracts to construction companies meant to rehabilitate the more than 8,000-square-mile region most exposed to radioactive fallout, The New York Times reported Friday.
Critics of the work see little point in decontaminating the area without an expertise in the matter.
"No experts yet exist in decontamination and there is no reason why the state should pay big money to big construction companies," said Yoichi Tao, a visiting professor in physics at Kogakuin University who is helping people in the village of Iitate test decontamination methods.
However, a spokesman Taisei, a construction company that has already received a government contract, said the company is building expertise in decontamination.
"We are building expertise as we work," said Fumiyasu Hirai, the Taisei spokesman. "It is a process of trial and error, but we are well-equipped for the job."
The government plans to return as many of the 80,000 people displaced by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster to there homes.
Britain stole Falklands, Argentina says
NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Argentina has started a protest at the United Nations over the so-called militarization of the Falkland Islands by the British, officials said.
Argentinian foreign minister Hector Timerman submitted a formal complaint Friday to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on British military equipment, including a modern destroyer ship and a nuclear submarine, being moved to the islands, The Guardian reported.
"Argentina has information that within the framework of the recent British deployment in the Malvinas [Falkland] Islands they sent a nuclear submarine with the capacity to transport nuclear weapons to the South Atlantic. This is a submarine which is called the Vanguard," Timerman said.
Argentinian officials claimed Britain stole the islands, situated 300 miles off the coast of Patagonia, in 1833. Argentina calls the archipelago Las Malvinas.
British officials held a press conference to dispute claims made by the Timerman, Voice of America reported.
"Before 1982 there was a minimal defense presence on the Falkland Islands," said British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant. "It is only because Argentina illegally invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982 that since then we have had to increase our defense posture. Nothing has changed in that defense posture in recent months or recent years."
