News Archive - 16 June 2012

>Obama said Nayef, who had been next in line to rule the world's top oil exporter, had for decades "dedicated himself to the security of Saudi Arabia as well as security throughout the region.""Under his leadership, the United States and Saudi Arabia developed a strong and effective partnership in...

IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has invited five African states to attend Non-Aligned Movement Summit inTehran. Mr. Ahmadinejad invited heads of states of Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia, Seychelles and Mauritius to attend the summit which is to be held in Tehran on August 30-31, 2012. Foreign Ministry Director General in African Affairs...

Unity between I.R.Iran and Egypt is the best way to end the domination of the hegemonic powers and Israel over the region, IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told relatives of Egyptian revolutionaries killed during the current popular uprising in Tehran on Saturday. “If Iran and Egypt stand together, there...

The Muslim Brotherhood has rejected the military’s decision to dissolve the Egyptian parliament and has demanded that a referendum be held on the issue, according to Press TV. The party that secured the largest bloc of seats in two rounds of parliamentary elections in December 2011 and January 2012, issued...

Ballots opened nationwide in Greece on Sunday for a critical general election that will determine whether the debt-laden nation will complete painful austerity reform or otherwise exit the Eurozone. Some 9.8 million Greeks began voting at 0400 GMT in what is expected to be a close contest between the...

Egyptians started casting their ballots in a presidential runoff during two-days of voting across the country. The eligible voters went to the polls in the North African state on Saturday and Sunday, June 16 and 17, with Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party candidate, Mohammed Morsi running against former Egyptian...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accused Qatar and Saudi Arabia of hatching plots against his government to overthrow the political system of the country. “Toppling the (political) system of Iraq, not me, is their objective,” Maliki said in an interview with Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen satellite channel which was founded by...

Iran's car manufacturer Iran Khodro Co. (IKCO) has started the mass production of the third indigenously-manufactured car, Runna, in a ceremony attended by state and automotive industry officials. The small sedan comes with fuel-efficient domestically-developed 1.4-, 1.5-, 1.6- and 1.7-liter engines, as well as manual and...

Egyptians started casting their ballots in a presidential runoff during two-days of voting across the country. The eligible voters went to the polls in the North African state on Saturday and Sunday, June 16 and 17, with Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party candidate, Mohammed Morsi running against former Egyptian...

>* Says he would be 'opposite' to Obama on Israel relations* Practices retail politics in rural Pennsylvania* Praises job creation at thriving specialty foundryBy Ros KrasnyCORNWALL, PA, June 16 (Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney took time out on Saturday from a five-day tour aimed at shoring up support among small-town...

>LONDON (Reuters) - Whether the euro lives or dies, the chaotic way Europe has tackled the crisis could undermine the region's geopolitical clout for years to come and leave it at a distinct disadvantage in a rapidly changing world. With an apparently never-ending series of last-minute summits and telephone calls,...

WASHINGTON — Since mid-April, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline has dropped nearly 40 cents. President Barack Obama has announced support for same-sex marriage. Government statisticians have delivered two disappointing monthly jobs reports. Tensions have ebbed and flowed with Iran. And Mitt Romney has clinched the Republican...

It is difficult to take reports of Republican outrage over alleged national security leaks seriously.

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) Faced with Russian and Chinese rejection of effective UN action against the Syrian regime, the administration of US President Barack Obama is said to be moving towards a ...

President Michel Sleiman contacted his Turkish counterpart over the weekend to follow up on the case of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims who were kidnapped in Syria.

MITT Romney vs. Barack Obama is not exactly Jefferson-Adams or Lincoln-Douglas.

A JetBlue pilot who was locked out of the cockpit by his co-pilot after his odd midflight rants in March was ruled competent to stand trial Friday morning. YouTube Video:  No YouTube read more

Telegraph View: The Conservatives are to be praised for having the courage to commit Britain to updating its nuclear deterrent

Ahead of a fresh round of talks between Iran and six major world powers (P5+1) in Moscow, a senior Iranian lawmaker urges Western countries to recognize the Islamic Republic’s “inalienable” nuclear rights.

Romney says he'll do opposite of Obama on Israel... Paul backers seek state path to national impact ...

Academic analysis shows Romney in historically strong position after winning GOP nomination.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi demanded on Sunday that Iran's presidential election be annulled and urged more protests, while tens of thousands of people hailed the victory of the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

As the time draws near to vote for president, I thought it would be interesting to see how President Obama’s administration compares to his predecessors. I figured we would keep it to the presidents within modern times, beginning with President...

CORNWALL, Pa. -- In hawkish remarks that drew cheers from an audience of religious conservatives, Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama on Saturday of being more afraid of Israel attacking Iran than of Iran developing a nuclear weapon.

LOS ANGELES — An unmanned Air Force space plane steered itself to a landing early Saturday at a California military base, capping a 15-month clandestine mission.

Kevin Sylvester did not become a fixture in local broadcasting without having a gifted voice, and he certainly hit all the right notes in a phone conversation last week after the Buffalo Sabres announced a new role for him in the team's broadcasting lineup.

Contradicting reams of punditry, national polls have not moved an inch amid those events ? not to mention the lesser political battles that have animated cable news programs.

By nearly every measurement, the Obama presidency is unraveling.

Forty years ago today, a crew of five men connected to President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign were arrested in a bungled attempt to bug the Democratic Party headquarters in Washington.

BEIRUT — The United Nations’ decision to suspend its observer mission in Syria could increase pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to comply with a faltering U.N. peace plan that many view as a last chance to avoid all-out civil war in the strife-torn Middle Eastern nation. But the...

Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney will speak in Newark on Sunday as part of his bus tour targeting swing states.  

RaceTrac at 2 p.m. Friday posted $3.099 a gallon for regular gasoline, the lowest price here since the gas price of a gallon of regular pushed over $3 in February 2011.

- With global anxiety rising, President Barack Obama is searching for bolder, swifter signals from Europe that it will contain its financial mess and keep it from torpedoing the U.S. economy and his re-election chances along with it.

QUAKERTOWN, Pa. (AP) – Standing in front of his campaign tour bus, Mitt Romney on Saturday told religious conservatives he would do “the opposite” of what President Barack Obama has done on Israel.

Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov is determined to stop Vladimir Putin's tyrannical crackdown on political opposition.

Richard Stolz, a career intelligence officer who was called out of retirement in 1987 to run the CIA's spying operations and cleanse its image after the Iran-contra scandal, died June 9 in Williamsburg, Va. He was 86.

Here is a list of new books at Tom Green County library system:

Romney, speaking to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, accuses Obama of being more afraid of Israeli military action against Iran than of Iran's suspected nuclear program. CORNWALL, Pa. — In hawkish remarks that drew cheers from an audience of religious conservatives, Mitt Romney accused President Obama on Saturday of being...

Recent articles about America’s drone-strike assassinations and cyberweapons program spawn criticism in Congress.

If a bill came along in Congress that included cuts to the Rock Island Arsenal, U.S. Rep. Buck McKeon, a Republican from California who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, said Saturday he would not support it.

'Please,' a member of George Galloway's staff asks me, before I meet the newly elected Respect MP for Bradford West, "don't turn this into a lazy rehash of the same old stuff."

Four decades after Watergate, experts and protagonists in the 20th century's worst US political scandal worry that its lessons are melting away, amid deepening Washington dysfunction and a return of sweeping presidential power.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack lauds cooperation, pledges post-fire assistance and continued focus on forest restoration By Bob Berwyn SUMMIT COUNTY — Along with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, top federal officials toured the High Park Fire zone Saturday, then emphasized the high level of cooperation between local volunteer fire departments, the...

Exclusive: The Framers of the U.S. Constitution never looked smarter than when the American system of a strong central government is compared to the European Union model, a loose federation staggered by disunity.

In hawkish remarks that drew cheers from an audience of religious conservatives, Mitt Romney accused President Obama on Saturday of being more afraid that Israel might attack Iran than that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon.

When Vladimir Putin meets with US President Barack Obama for the first time as the Russian head of state at the G20 conference in Los Cabos, Mexico this week, hopefully they will begin to reverse the generally downward trend in relations between the two countries and come to some agreement...

Britain is to forge ahead with a new generation of nuclear weapons with a £1bn contract to be unveiled this week.

President after president has fallen into similar traps when it comes to conflict. An expert explains why

The presidential runoff election in Egypt this weekend pits an Islamist against a symbol of Egypt's former dictatorial regime: the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik.

The death of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz on Saturday means that — for the second time in less than a year — the key Western ally must pick an heir to the 88-y...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The death of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz on Saturday means that — for the second time in less than a year — the key Western ally must pick an heir to the 88-year-old King Abdullah, who has already outlived two designated successors.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Nayef, a hawkish interior minister who crushed al Qaeda in the world's top oil exporter, has died eight months after becoming heir to the throne, paving the way for a more reform-minded successor. read more

The Dutch Foreign Minister announced yesterday that in view of sanctions against Iran, Netherlands will no longer renew or issue visa or residency applications for Iranian researchers and specialist immigrants.

The Moscow talks that are set to occur on the 18th and 19th of June is of great sensitivity and significance. A precarious setback as a result of failed Moscow talks is that shortly after the conclusion of the talks sanctions on the central bank of Iran by the United...

Before there was an Arab awakening, there was an Iranian one. It started three years ago, on June 13, 2009. Some have since called it a revolution; others have been more guarded, referring to it instead as a movement, connoting a sense of continuity. -Holly Dagres

The Russian scholar and independent analyst Dr. Nikolay Kozhanov shares his in-depth insight into the Russian approach towards the upcoming Moscow negotiations between P5+1 and Iran with Shirin Shafaie. Dr. Kozhanov was an attache at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Tehran from 2006 to 2009, where he worked...

For the second time in less than a year, Saudi Arabia was thrown into the process of naming a new heir to the country's 88-year-old king following the death Saturday of Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz.

The army secured key buildings across the Egyptian capital Cairo yesterday as voters cast their ballots in a presidential election many voters claimed had already been fixed in the military's favour.

The head of observers, Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, said the bloodshed was posing significant risks to the observers and was impeding their ability to carry out their mandate.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has praised the recent arrest of the elements behind the assassination Iranian nuclear scientists by the country's Intelligence Ministry.

The White House acknowledged Friday the eurozone debt crisis would be the main issue on the table at the G20 meeting next week in Mexico, adding world economies needed to come together and agree to equal risk-sharing in the handling of the crisis.

BAGHDAD, June 16 (UPI) -- At least 32 people were killed Saturday and scores injured when a pair of car bombs exploded in Baghdad during a religious holiday, Iraqi police said.

He’s 76, a hawk when it comes to Iran—and the kingdom’s new heir. Bruce Riedel on Prince Salman.

With global anxiety rising, President Barack Obama is searching for bolder, swifter signals from Europe that it will contain its financial mess and keep it from torpedoing the U.S. economy and his re-election chances along with it.

Iranian president tells German magazine he wants to return to academia when his second term expires early next year.

After a decade of costly conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American way of war is evolving toward less brawn, more guile.

After a decade of costly conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American way of war is evolving toward less brawn, more guile.

The sanction-stricken Iran is silently emerging as India's biggest destination for oil meal exports. As per the latest figures issued by the Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) of India, Iran imported 97,904 tonnes of oil meals in April 2012 compared to 50,022 tonnes in April 2011, up by 95.72 per...

Washington, June 16 (ANI): As Egyptians prepare to vote in the country's first ever presidential elections post the Mubarak era, the revolutionary spirit seems to be missing amongst its citizens, following a Supreme Constitutional Court that ordered the dissolution of Egypt's parliament.

LAHORE: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday said that a paradigm shift has been introduced in the political landscape of the country through consensus politics based on tolerance for diversity, as nations are built when diversity is accepted as a way of public life leading to peaceful co-existence.

On Friday, Tahrir Square stood relatively empty, sapped of the spirit and optimism of the 2011 revolution that made it possible for Egyptians to choose their own president for the first time in history.

Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Saturday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.

Iraq's rapidly expanding oil production is likely to complicate OPEC's efforts to influence world prices as the country re-emerges as a major player after 20 years on the sidelines because of sanctions and strife.

WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama is not exactly Jefferson-Adams or Lincoln-Douglas. No Harry Truman or Bill Clinton here, let alone FDR or Reagan. Indeed, it's arguable that neither party is fielding its strongest candidate. Hillary Clinton would run far better than Obama.

What can the U.S. learn from successes -- and possible mistakes -- from other countries?

Tehran, June 16 (Xinhua-ANI): Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said Tehran expects that its right to nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment, be recognized during the upcoming talks with the world powers in the Russian capital of Moscow, the Press TV reported on Saturday.

By United Press International UPI Almanac for Saturday, June 16, 2012.

Saudi-backed Bahraini forces have fired teargas at people staging a protest rally close to tourist areas near the capital Manama. The rally against the rule of the Al Khalifa regime was organized by Bahrain's largest opposition group al-Wefaq on Friday. Anti-government activists and protesters defied authorities' warnings and gathered near...