News Archive - 18 May 2012

>VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. atomic watchdog chief Yukiya Amano and top aides will travel to Tehran on Sunday for talks with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, a few days before the Islamic state and world powers meet in Baghdad to discuss the broader nuclear dispute. News of the rare visit...

>DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's thrust for a Gulf Union, driven by fear of Arab Spring contagion and spreading Iranian influence, has stumbled on misgivings among smaller neighbors about a loss of sovereignty and increasing domination by Riyadh. Gulf diplomats, officials and analysts expressed surprise that Saudi Arabia had opened...

>MANAMA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of mainly Shi'ite protesters rallied in Bahrain on Friday against proposals for closer ties with other Gulf Arab countries, a plan pushed by Saudi Arabia to contain dissent in Bahrain and counter Iran's regional influence. In Iran, thousands of protesters also rallied against the...

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear chief will fly to Tehran on Sunday in an apparent bid to secure a deal enabling his inspectors to probe suspicions of atomic bomb research, a few days before Iran and world powers meet in Baghdad for broader talks on their dispute. News...

The Islamic Republic of Iran laid forward a set of proposals for an overhaul of the world economic system to curb further financial crises and eliminate monopolies on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Addressing the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Thematic Debate on the State of...

An Iranian legislator says the new round of joint naval drills between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Oman will thwart plots by Western powers to promote Iranophobia in the region. Behrouz Ja’fari also said on Friday that Iran's military might is merely based on the nation's defense doctrine of...

Another two US-led foreign soldiers killed in an attack in eastern Afghanistan, the Western military alliance of NATO has announced. NATO said in a statement that the troops died in the country's troubled east on Friday. The US-led alliance has not yet released any further details regarding the soldiers' nationality...

Representative of Libyan transitional government in Lebanon Abu-Bakr Sheibani said Friday that his nation would never forget Iran’s support to Libyan revolutionary forces. “Libyan nation would inscribe the active role of Iran's Red Crescent Society in helping the war-hit country in their hearts and minds,” Sheibani said. The Libyan official...

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei said the movement started by the Islamic revolution in Iran will continue. Ayatollah Khamenei made the remark Friday in a meeting with a group of the veterans of the eight-year imposed war. Describing the sacred defense events as a subtle and...

>CAMP DAVID, Md. May 18 (Reuters) - Group of Eight leaders agreed in their initial discussions at Camp David on Friday that Iran needs to disclose more about its nuclear ambitions and that it was time to focus on a political transition in Syria, a U.S. official said.The...

>The leaders also stressed the importance of having North Korea adhere to international norms with its nuclear program and said it would face more isolation if it "continues down the path of provocation," the official said.The Friday evening dinner, hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama, was the first...

>* President to isolated Merkel: "You have a few things on your mind"* France's Hollande signals sticking to Afghan pullout vowBy Laura MacInnisCAMP DAVID, Maryland, May 18 (Reuters) - A growing chorus of world leaders on Friday pushed for a shift toward more pro-growth policies to help ease a European...

>Sri Lanka's oil minister, Susil Premajayantha, said this week his government expected to avoid U.S. sanctions after cutting Iran oil imports by up to 38 percent by switching to alternatives from Oman and Saudi Arabia.Premajayantha said Sri Lanka had reduced Iran crude purchases to eight cargoes a year...

>Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, which handles most of Japan's payments for oil imports from Iran, on Thursday said it had frozen transactions with Iranian banks after being ordered to do so by the New York District Court earlier this month.The move stems from a U.S. court decision in...

>* G8 could say it's prepared to use oil reserves* Iran oil exports have fallen by a fifth this year (Adds Hollande comment in para 5)By Timothy Gardner and Jonathan LeffWASHINGTON/NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) - Late last year, Iran issued a series of not-so veiled threats to the West,...

Jerusalem, May 18 (Xinhua-ANI): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Iran is good at playing "chess game" in negotiations about its nuclear program, local media reported, quoting an official statement.

>SEOUL May 18 (Reuters) - Gas-rich Qatar expects its condensate production to exceed its crude output 'very soon', even while it produces its maximum OPEC quota of oil, the Gulf Arab country's energy minister said on Friday. Qatar, one of the OPEC's smallest producers, is producing a about 1.45...

>VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog are making headway towards a framework deal on how to tackle concerns about its atomic activity, diplomats say, a potential bargaining chip for Tehran in next week's negotiations with world powers. Iran says such an agreement is needed before it...

>SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent crude slipped below $107 per barrel on Friday to its lowest in 2012 as a worsening euro zone crisis and weak U.S. economic data raised fears of a global slowdown that could dent oil demand. Worries about the euro zone, already roiled by Greek political...

President Barack Obama and leaders of other major industrial powers grappled Friday with options regarding Iranian nuclear bomb development and worsening violence in Syria.

Obama, Hollande acknowledge need for reforms to avert global crisis.

Some parts of the United States may see gas pump prices fall to around $3.25 a gallon or less in the next week or two. Even West Coast drivers should get some relief from prices that are still above $4 a gallon.

US President Barack Obama has backed French calls for pro-growth policies in Europe, setting up a clash with German leader Angela Merkel at the G8 summit.

NEW YORK, May 19 (Bernama) -- Malaysia continued to be the top trading partner of the United States amongst the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in the first two months of the year, and the expert opinion here is that this trend would possibly continue during the remainder of...

The US president backed his new French counterpart's focus on economic growth as G8 leaders met for a summit overshadowed by fears of Greece's possible exit from the eurozone.Before welcoming world leaders ...

Claims that German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested debt-stricken Greece vote on whether it should stay in the eurozone have sparked a row.

Iran's President Ahmadinejad has questioned whether he'd be allowed to attend the Olympics in London

The head of the UN atomic agency will visit Iran on Monday raising hopes international cooperation

Leaders of the largest industrialized countries are displaying strong unity in pursuing both diplomacy and sanctions against the development of an Iranian nuclear bomb and found common ground in focusing on political transition in violence-wracked Syria. That from a senior U.S. official.

Iran’s Ambassador to Italy, Seyyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini, has urged the P5+1 group to take seriously the issue of “reviving the Iranian nation’s lost trust” during the upcoming nuclear talks.

PARIS, May 19 (RIA Novosti) – New French President Francois Hollande has vowed to put pressure on Russia to support UN Security Council action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

President Barack Obama greeted G8 leaders at his rural presidential retreat of Camp David, marking the opening of summit dominated by Europe's fiscal woes.

That which does not kill us only makes us laugh. That seems to be the governing principle in this outrageously offensive, but ridiculously funny, effort from agent provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen. YouTube Video:  No YouTube read more

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson will be the principal speaker

U.S. President Barack Obama was caught between two competing European visions of how to solve the financial crisis and the G8 summit when U.K. Prim Minister David Cameron rejected outright a French proposal to raise €57 billion (£46 billion) through a tax on financial transactions.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has arrived in Washington and will immediately leave for Camp David, where he will take part in a G8 summit, his press pool reported.

The United Nations has been urging participants at this weekend's NATO summit to provide "predictable, massive, long-term support" for Afghanistan's security forces to promote stability and ensure that the country is never again a base for international terrorism, the U.N. envoy to Afghanistan said Friday.

Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog are making headway towards a framework deal on how to tackle concerns about its atomic activity, diplomats say. The deal will be a potential bargaining chip for Tehran in next week’s negotiations with world powers.

Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki calls the country’s development drive over two decades of independence “a success story.” “We have achieved a lot, and our culture has helped us a lot to create an environment for sustainable development,” he told VOA in an exclusive interview ahead of the 21 st...

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives on Friday passed a nearly $643 billion defense bill -- a measure at odds with prior military spending agreements and President Barack Obama's Pentagon plans. The measure passed in a 299-120 vote. An overwhelming majority of Republicans backed the measure, while the bulk of Democrats...

Iran’s offer to supply Lebanon with electricity through high voltage lines may not materialize in the near future due to numerous technical and logistic problems.

The federal government is asking an appeals panel in Richmond to reverse a ruling that shields a reporter from testifying in the case of an ex-CIA officer charged with leaking classified information about a botched covert operation in Iran.

If youre lucky enough to live in some parts of the United States, you may see gas pump prices fall to about $3.25 a gallon or less in the next week or two. Even West Coast drivers should get some relief from prices that are still above $4 a...

The "monumental" operation to re-float and remove the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship will be the biggest and costliest ever of its kind, the company said today. Related Stories UN nuclear chief to visit Iran Singer Fischer-Dieskau dies at 86 Merkel 'suggested Greece euro vote' Woman punished for abandoning boy...

President Barack Obama is using weekend gatherings of world leaders _ dominated by discussion of European economic woes and Afghanistan _ to solidify world resolve against development of an Iranian nuclear bomb and to encourage a more forceful response to worsening violence in Syria.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Friday in tug-of-war trading, posting a 2012 low and a third straight weekly loss as debt problems in Greece and Spain kept concerns about the euro zone economy in focus. Crude futures felt pressure from news that European officials were working on...

The House of Representatives voted Friday to require the United States to sell 66 new fighter-jets to Taiwan, with lawmakers saying the deal would close a growing military gap with China.

The United States and five other countries have agreed to offer a joint proposal to Iran at a high-level meeting next week in an effort to open a path for negotiations to curtail Tehran’s disputed nuclear program and to ease the threat of war.

A study by the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards compared provinces and territories with the rest of the world using the Human Development Index developed for the United Nations.

Syrian forces have fired on protesters holding the largest opposition marches yet in Aleppo, according to activists. Related Stories Rocket kills two at US Afghan base UN nuclear chief to visit Iran Singer Fischer-Dieskau dies at 86 Merkel 'suggested Greece euro vote' Woman punished for abandoning boy

Its three great basins - the Indus, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra - are the most densely populated area in the world. The Ganges alone supports half a billion people.

Visiting French President François Hollande told President Barack Obama on Friday that France's combat troops would leave Afghanistan by year's end and pledged to find a way "for our allies to pursue their mission" in talks at a looming NATO summit. The two leaders also bonded over jokes about fast-food,...

Oil futures slid for the sixth session in a row Friday, settling at their lowest level in nearly seven months and setting yet another new low for the year as macro-economic worries and weak supply-demand fundamentals weighed on the market.

Iran's presumed quest for nuclear weapons isn't just about nuclear weapons. It is also about prestige, and it is also about respect, both of which Iran believes it is entitled to, and neither of which it feels it sufficiently has. Remember that Iranians are the inheritors of the great...

The Canada Border Services Agency said Canada 2000 Immigration and Business Services helped clients who lived abroad create the appearance they were residing in Canada, thereby enabling them to obtain Canadian citizenship without living here.

WASHINGTON US President Barack Obama and new French President Francois Hollande are to meet at the White House on Friday, in a brief meeting scheduled ahead of the Group of Eight nations summit at Camp David.

President Barack Obama called the European debt crisis an issue of "extraordinary importance" to the global economy and said that fiscal responsibility should be coupled with policies to promote growth.

NEW YORK—A new poll finds widespread opposition around the world to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons and strong support for tougher economic

When reaching out to Alberta oil sands companies before a trip to Canada last month I thought all of them mined oil the same way — they don't. The open mining most people think of when they picture the oil sands is just one way of extracting crude from the...

The U.S. has plans in place to attack Iran if necessary to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, Washington's envoy to Israel said, days ahead of a crucial round of nuclear talks with Tehran...

Chancellor Angela Merkel flew into the US for a weekend of summit meetings, as the eurozone debt crisis threatens to escalate due to political instability in Greece and market uncertainty in Spain.

A panel headed by the PM’s chief economic advisor C Rangarajan has recommended exporting 2 million tonnes (mt) of wheat at a subsidy of Rs 1,500 crore through government channels and another 1 mt through private traders at a subsidy of Rs 150 crore.

Iran’s crown prince is urging Israel to help topple the Iranian regime. Reza Pahlavi—whose father was the shah who was toppled during the 1979 Islamic revolution—told Al Arabiya he does not believe that Israel should launch a military attack.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) announced that he will not run for a House seat in Washington after losing the Democratic nomination for his seat in Ohio.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The USS Iowa, which ferried the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the perilous Atlantic waters to a historic meeting with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin in the dark days of World War Two, will have to be towed to its final port call. The battleship...

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) - Tens of thousands of protesters chanting "Bahrain is not for sale" jammed a major highway Friday to denounce proposals for closer unity between the unrest-torn Gulf kingdom and neighboring Saudi Arabia.

A Japanese bank has halted transactions by the Iranian government in response to a U.S. court ordering a $2.6 billion asset freeze over the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that countries trying to "sow chaos" in Syria could be infected with it themselves, an apparent warning to Arab Gulf nations that back the insurgency aimed at forcing him from power. Related Stories EU, ECB working on Greece exit contingency...

CAMP DAVID, Md. (AP) - President Barack Obama and leaders of other major industrial powers stepped outside discussions of European economic woes and Afghanistan that will dominate a long weekend of summitry for a look Friday at options to solidify world resolve against development of an Iranian nuclear bomb and...

Members of the Amnesty International Group 365, a Watertown-Belmont group, protested the recent death sentence doled out to Iranian prisoner of conscience, Arzhang Davoodi, on May 12 in Watertown Square. The local Amnesty group started over 20 years ago with the raison d’etre to work for the release of “prisoners of...

Anti-war protesters are taking to the streets of London today in solidarity with the biggest-ever demonstration in the US against Nato warmongering.

Just three days after being sworn in, French President Francois Hollande heads to Washington Friday for a crash course in big-power diplomacy in back-to-back summits at the White House, G8 and NATO.

The US has plans in place to attack Iran if other measures fail to stop it developing nuclear weapons, Washington's envoy to Israel says.

Global Zero -- an organization whose sole reason for existence, as its name clearly indicates, is to promote the elimination of all nuclear weapons -- has published a new report calling for deep re...

TEHRAN, May 18 (MNA) – The Islamic Republic’s stance toward the Syrian issue is in line with efforts to advance Kofi Annan’s plan, General Robert Mood, who is the head of the UN mission in Syria, told Iranian Ambassador to Damascus Mohammad Reza Sheibani in a meeting on Thursday.

Officially, NATO meetings in Chicago this weekend will focus on the alliance's withdrawal from Afghanistan, improved military co-operation between the allies and missile defence. Unofficially the crucial issue is cash.

A restaurant worker's fingertip ended up in a 14-year-old Michigan teen's sandwich late last week after the employee cut her finger on the meat slicer.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to see tough action on the eurozone debt crisis at this weekend's G8 summit in Maryland, his chief spokesman says.

>* Moody's downgrades credit rating of 16 Spanish banks* Seaway pipeline reversal completed; oil to flow this weekend* Investors eye weekend G8 meeting, Iran nuclear talks next week (Adds fresh quotes, updates prices)By Claire MilhenchLONDON, May 18 (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped towards $107 a barrel on Friday as investors...

>ANKARA (Reuters) - A bitter rift with Iraq has exposed Turkey's role in a wider Middle East power struggle, with Ankara acting to protect its stability and prosperity from an Iranian-Iraqi "Shi'ite axis" it fears in the wake of the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq. Turkey, a Sunni Muslim...

Local voters back Obama on Afghanistan, Iran Chicago-area voters strongly support two of the Obama administration's major foreign policy priorities as the president prepares to welcome leaders of America's NATO allies to his hometown, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.

Iran says it will sue Google over dropping the name of the Persian Gulf on Google Maps. The threat comes after the famous search engine left the body of water between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula nameless on its online map service.

Tehran, May 18 (ANI): The lifestyle of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people has exposed them to brutal punishments in Iran, according to a study.

Serbia, a landlocked nation of 7.1 million in southeastern Europe, is holding a presidential runoff vote on Sunday. The outcome holds the key to Serbia's bid to join the European Union as well as its relations with...

An American who serves as a commander with a Somali militant group says in a new autobiography that he had a "privileged" childhood in Alabama before he joined the al-Qaida linked militants.

Serbs seem poised this weekend to re-elect a reformist who arrested Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, rejecting a nationalist promising closer ties with Russia - in a sign that the troubled Balkan nation is edging away from...

Rights groups have slammed a lunch being hosted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II on Friday for including monarchs criticized over their countries' human rights records.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Islamic Republic pursues a foreign policy of contribution to help settle all global issues.

>* Alexis Tsipras, head of Greece's radical left party, said in an interview with the Journal that there is little chance Europe will cut off funding to the country and if it does, Greece will repudiate its debts.* BATS's board is debating whether to list the company on a...

>The United States and European Union have stepped up measures to reduce Iran's oil trade, aiming to stem the flow of petrodollars to Tehran in a bid to force it to halt a nuclear program the West suspects is intended to produce weapons.Idemitsu had a term Iranian crude contract...

A Western diplomat said Iran was accused of exporting weapons to the Syrian government in a confidential draft written up by the UN.

Incensed over what it views as a Western-Arab plot, Iran threatened to sue Google for deleting the name Persian Gulf from its online mapping service and leaving the body of water nameless.

Dylan Hoffman's doodle features a pirate scene with a vibrant parrot, a treasure chest and a beautiful sunset. Related Stories Confusion reigns as Indian ISPs block Vimeo, torrent websites If Internet had existed, Emergency would have been a fiasco: Jaitley Iran to sue Google over dropping Persian Gulf name