SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- The troubled online deals provider Groupon has ousted its chief executive, Andrew Mason, the once-lauded wunderkind who founded the company. Mason appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine in 2010 under the headline: Meet The Fastest Growing Company Ever. Google offered $6bn for the company in 2011. The company is now worth less than $3bn. Investors and directors Eric Lefkofsky and Ted Leonsis will take over running the company until a new chief is found.…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- HOW times change. In 1952 Wernher von Braun, the ex-Nazi rocket engineer recruited by the Americans after the second world war, published a book called “The Mars Project”. In it, he detailed his plans for the human exploration of Mars. Ten ships, assembled in Earth orbit, would burn 5m tonnes of rocket fuel carrying a crew of 70 to the planet. On arrival, ground crawlers would carry the crew from their polar landing site…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Spain's troubled Bankia - formed of the merger of seven floundering savings banks - has reported a record loss. The bank, which received aid of 18bn euros, made a loss of 19.2bn euros (£17bn, $25.2bn) for 2012 and put aside provisions of 26.8bn euros. Last year, Bankia and its parent firm, BFA, asked for EU funds to help rebuild its capital. Spain's bank rescue fund said Bankia itself had a negative value, although its…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Veteran journalist Bob Woodward said Wednesday he was threatened by a senior Obama administration official following his reporting on the White House's handling of the forced federal spending cuts set to take effect on Friday. "They're not happy at all," he said on CNN's "The Situation Room," adding that an e-mail from a senior administration official - who he would not name - communicated a message which caused him great concern. "It was said very…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- On January 2, 2005, Rahinah Ibrahim, a PhD student in Construction Management and Engineering at Stanford University, arrived at San Francisco International Airport to board a scheduled international flight en route to Malaysia. Ibrahim was slated to attend a Stanford-sponsored conference in the country to present findings from her doctoral research; a trip she was taking despite being wheelchair-bound due to complications from a recent hysterectomy. However instead of boarding her flight, Ibrahim found herself in…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- The White House says there's a simple reason why it released the now-famous photo of President Obama shooting a gun. People kept asking about it. "There were persistent questions about this, so we decided to release a photo of the president shooting at Camp David," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. It wasn't just reporters; some of Obama's Republican critics had questioned the president's statement that he had fired a weapon. The issue surfaced…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Frozen meat in a cold store in Northern Ireland has tested for "exceptionally high" levels of horse DNA, as food standards watchdogs and fraud investigators in the UK and Ireland battle to contain the tainted burger crisis. The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) is seeking to unravel the chain of suppliers to Freeza Meats, which has a production plant and cold store in Newry, County Down. Investigators are examining a possible link to the Silvercrest plant in Co…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Naomi Oni, 20, said she was attacked by a person wearing a veil covering their face after getting off a bus in Lodge Avenue, Dagenham, on 30 December. She said: "I've never been so scared in my life. I just knew it was acid. "The first time I looked I was shocked. I didn't want to live after I saw my face." Miss Oni, who worked at the Victoria Secret lingerie store in Westfield,…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Iran said on Monday it had launched a live monkey into space, seeking to show off missile delivery systems that are alarming to the West given Tehran's parallel advances in nuclear technology.The defense ministry announced the launch as world powers sought to agree a date and venue with Iran for resuming talks to resolve a nuclear standoff with the West before it degenerates into a new Middle East war. Efforts to nail down a…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- A blaze raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing 232 people as the air filled with deadly smoke and panicked party-goers stampeded toward the exits, police and witnesses said. It appeared to be the world’s deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade. Witnesses said that a flare or firework lit by band members may have started the fire.   www.shafaqna.com/English