News Archive - 22 June 2012

>GENEVA, June 22 (Reuters) - Iran should be part of the solution to the Syria crisis, international mediator Kofi Annan said on Friday, a week before a planned crisis meeting that is in doubt because of Western objections to the Islamic Republic's participation.Annan said that he wanted states with...

G5+1 should correct its approach toward Iran in the upcoming nuclear talks, Tehran's interim Friday Prayers leader Hojjatoleslam Sayyed Ahmad Khatami said in his 2nd sermon on Friday. He noted that the demands of the G5+1 (US, UK, France, China, and Russia plus Germany) from Iran in Moscow nuclear talks...

Egyptian protesters remained in Cairo's iconic Liberation Square, protesting the delay in announcing the winner of the presidential elections and the risk of a coup by the country’s military rulers. Thousands of angry Egyptians camped out in the historic square since Wednesday, calling on the military council to quit power...

The student demonstrations in Quebec entered their 130th day, as protesters took to the streets to shout against the proposed tuition fee hikes and denounce a controversial anti-protest law. Students in Canada’s French-speaking province once again poured onto the streets on Thursday against the provincial government’s plan to increase tuition...

The ruling Pakistan’s People’s Party (PPP)nominated former Information Technology Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to succeed Yousuf Raza Gilani as prime minister. This comes after a court issued an arrest warrant for first nominee of the party. Earlier, PPP nominated Makhdoom Shahabuddin for the post. However, he was dropped on Thursday...

At least 12 people killed and a number of others are taken hostage in a Taliban militants' attack on a hotel in the Afghan capital of Kabul, according to Press TV. The militants were armed with RPGs and heavy machineguns when they attacked the hotel at a popular Kabul recreation...

IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that the West is against scientific and technological progress of Iran. President Ahmadinejad made the remark in a press conference with Brazilian and international reporters, journalists, and photojournalists at the Riocentro Convention Center in Rio de Janeiro on Friday morning local time. The...

>* Film combines sport with culture shockBy Jordan RiefeLOS ANGELES, June 22 (Reuters) - At first glance, "The Iran Job" is just another David and Goliath sports story.But boiling beneath the surface of the new indie documentary that follows American basketball player Kevin Sheppard playing in Iran's league, is...

>* Turkey cut ties over French bill on 1915 genocide* Turkey says will keep taking in some Iran crude, payments legal (Adds Yildiz comments on resumption of French ties, settlement of payments for Iranian crude oil imports)By Melissa AkinST PETERSBURG, June 22 (Reuters) - Turkey's resumption of diplomatic ties with...

>GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran must be part of any solution to end the crisis in Syria and pave the way for a political transition, but time is running out because world powers are failing to agree on the next steps, international mediator Kofi Annan warned on Friday. Iran, an ally...

>BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - The talk can be blunt and the rhetoric can be flowery, with invocations of deity and Persian poetry. Sometimes, it has been suggested, there is the sense of a well-worn cast acting out a script. Iran's negotiations with the West on its nuclear program have developed their...

>SIR BU NUAYR ISLAND, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) - Rashed al-Humairi likes to trade the sleek glass and steel towers of modern Abu Dhabi for the thrill of reviving a seafaring heritage aboard an antiquated wooden sailboat. The 30-year-old banker watches his shipmates push the long slender dhow from a...

Oil steady above $84 ahead of Fed policy meeting Associated Press Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 05:39 a.m., Wednesday, June 20, 2012 Crude has risen from $81 last week and global stock markets have jumped this...

United States President Barack Obama on Friday attacked presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for outsourcing the jobs by his companies and said Americans don't need pioneers of outsourcing in Oval Office.

Another year, another Chinese-Indian 'memorandum of understanding' on energy agreed this week. The two nations previously penned an agreement on upstream exploration and pipelines in 2006.

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hosted Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Friday to ink a series of deals, just a week after boasting about collaboration with Tehran on a drone project.

In the 14 years Derrik Sims has been in the lawn care business, he's learned he's better off not looking at that final number on the gas tank.

Joel BrinkleySyndicated ColumnistThe continuing massacres in Syria --- summary executions of women and children, the total destruction of entire towns --- present a horrid picture far more disturbing than we saw in Bosnia during the 1990s, before NATO intervened.With cell-phone cameras, social media, Skype and other new communication devices,...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez criticised international sanctions on Iran as he met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Related Stories Paraguay president ousted by Senate Syria 'shot down Turkish war plane' Video shows 'mass killing' in Syria Couple deny suspected pimp murder Sport coach guilty of abusing boys

The nation's leftist leader hedges on whether he'd risk taking in the WikiLeaks founder.

EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ The following is article was written by the Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez and published in a Spanish newspaper on Jan. 15, 2008. It . . .

Moscow, June 23 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Dismissing the US and British objections to Iran's participation in an international conference on Syria, Russia has said it should take part in it.

GENEVA, June 22 -- UN-Arab League joint envoy to Syria Kofi Annan said on Friday that an international conference on Syria could take place in Geneva on June 30.

Kansas City area drivers aren’t catching their usual break on gasoline prices, even with oil prices down sharply.

World leaders put on a brave face as Rio sustainable development summit concludes with a wishy-washy agreement.

Julia Gillard has insisted the Rio sustainable development summit made some progress, as world leaders wavered between bemoaning its wishy washy agreement and trying to put a brave face on the outcome.

Gay pride parade kicks off celebrations around the world as Grindr releases a not-entirely-surprising map of users worldwide Temperatures are rising and soon the streets of New York will throng with muscular men in very short shorts stomping along to Lady Gaga. To be honest they would be doing it...

Candidate of the Pakistan Peopleâs Party (PPP) Raja Pervaiz Asharaf has been elected as the new prime minister of Pakistan. Days after the Supreme Court ruled Yousuf Raza Gilani as premier, Ashraf .....

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in Venezuela on the last leg of his tour of three Latin American countries.

Foreign influence and arms have split Syria's civil movement, making peace ever more remote On 18 March 2011, the most important civil movement in Syria's modern history was launched in the streets of Dara'a . Inspired by the revolutionary spirit of the Arab spring, it was peaceful. Anti-corruption and anti-authoritarian, it...

One woman's account of Syria's tyrannical regime The Syrian novelist Samar Yazbek recognises government thugs as soon as they get out of their car: "Puffed-up muscles, tattoos, broad chests, an arrogant gaze, death." She has the novelist's eye for telling detail. Born in 1970 into an affluent and influential...

An online video has showed more than a dozen bloodied corpses, some of them piled on top of each other and in military uniforms, dumped beside a road in northern Syria in what the government called a mass killing by rebel forces. Related Stories Turkey says Syria shot down plane...

OGDEN — The archers were lined in a long row, spaced evenly apart, and they raised their bows. One by one, they released their arrows into a gentle breeze. If they flew straight enough and true enough, the archers knew, London would finally be within their grasp. When it was...

Much as his partisan opponents might want to paint Obama as a star-crossed Jimmy Carter, that dog just won't hunt. It's Governor Romney's determination to reprise the foreign policy of George Bush that terrifies many Americans -- and most of the world.

With Euro 2012 heading into its final stages, Bleacher Report is taking a look at the best international tournaments World Football has to offer. Of the 16 teams participating in this edition of Euro 2012 , seven of them were ranked in the top 10 teams in the world. We're...

Syria said the Turkish fighter jet was flying low, well inside Syrian territorial waters when it was shot down.

it is Carlos Queiroz's departure that is now viewed as the pivotal moment in the country's transition from under-achievers to European Championship semi-finalists here in Poland and the Ukraine.

US director Tim Burton was honored at the 34th Moscow Film Festival for his contribution to cinematography.

The foreign minister is frustrated by the inability of the United Nation to resolve conflicts such as in Syria. read more

Syria says the Turkish aircraft violated its airspace over the Mediterranean. The fate of two pilots is unknown. Turkey's leader says his nation will act 'decisively' after details emerge. BEIRUT — Syria shot down a warplane from Turkey on Friday that it said had violated its airspace, an event that...

“President Obama is going to let certain illegal immigrants stay in this country. But there is an age requirement. You have to be old enough to vote by November.”

Greece found itself in a familiar position today — pinned under German boot heels — but this time it involved a soccer title instead of the eurozone. It was a quarter-final match of the European championship soccer match in Gdansk, Poland. Germany won, 4-1, with...

America under Barack Obama has begun the big geopolitical pivot from its fateful over-engagement with the Islamic world of the Middle East and Central Asia to greater engagement with Asia and the Pacific. But this week showed that the transition is going to be anything but smooth.

Saudi Arabians will pay the salaries of the rebel Syria army to increase pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad's, the Guardian of London newspaper reported Friday.

Steffy: Energy stocks anything but energetic Houston Chronicle Copyright 2012 Houston Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 11:47 p.m., Thursday, June 21, 2012 On Thursday, U.S. crude prices slipped to $78.20, the lowest close since October, amid concern...

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Global leaders ended a U.N. development summit on Friday with what was widely considered a lacklustre agreement, leaving many attendees convinced that individuals and companies, rather than governments, must lead efforts to improve the environment. Nearly 100 heads of state and government gathered over...

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta defended the Obama administration’s decision not to arm the Syrian opposition.

The most peculiar thing about Obama Term I has been its subversion of the electorate's expectations. Obama the president has largely failed where Obama the candidate was meant to succeed, and thrived where he was meant to flounder.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection says its officers discovered 5.3 pounds of opium and more than 1,900 pills of methadone, alprazolam and valium in belongings of a traveler entering the U.S. at Los Angeles International Airport. Customs said Friday that the incident occurred...

Martha Payne is, in many ways, an ordinary nine year-old. She lives in Lochgilphead, a small town in Argyll, with her parents, brother Joe and sister Polly, and a fox red labrador called Jura.

The critic's new corner

A rice cooker and jar seized from an airline passenger arriving from Iran contained an unexpected surprise: $110,000 worth of opium, federal authorities said.

Cyberespionage is coming of age but the problem with weapons like Stuxnet is that they will be used against us

To be born a U.S. citizen is to be born lucky.

TEHRAN, June 22 (UPI) -- As the Middle East becomes a hot cyberwar battleground, Iran claims it has detected a planned "massive cyber attack" by the United States, Britain and Israel against its nuclear installations.

Democrat Elizabeth Warren said today she wants to go the Senate to bring an outsider’s perspective to solving the nation’s problems. “I think we need more outsiders,” the Harvard professor told Boston.com readers during a 45-minute online chat. “The problem in Washington is that too many of these guys...

President Rafael Correa's objections to what he deems American interventionism in Latin America and his delight in Julian Assange's massive uncorking of U.S. secrets appear to have persuaded the WikiLeaks chief that Ecuador offers his best shot at avoiding extradition to Sweden.

Crude Climbs in Rebound Rally

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's foreign minister has warned the West against issuing threats to Iran over its nuclear program, saying a quick settlement isn't possible.

Russia has long been dominant in wrestling at past Olympic Games and is expected to do so again this summer in London. But the US and other nations will be medal contenders, as well.

Top GOPers keep stepping on Romney's message, because they're not sure he'll be leading them after November

HOUSTON – Gelareh Bagherzadeh was a gregarious Iranian-born woman studying molecular genetics. She taught children to play the piano and volunteered at her church.

WASHINGTON —Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute administered the Oath of Allegiance to 19 former refugees during a special naturalization ceremony at the Department of State (DOS) Thursday to commemorate World Refugee Day.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Former IRA commander and current deputy first minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness will meet the Queen for the first time next week, marking a milestone in the province's peace process. Related Stories Insight: Iran talks - across the table, a wary stalemate Rebekah Brooks faces court...

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Downgrades by ratings agency Moody's will make funding more expensive for banks that rely the most on capital markets, while reinforcing the competitive advantage of "safe-haven" banks that can fund themselves from stable customer deposits. Related Stories Insight: Iran talks - across the table, a wary...

MOSCOW - Russia's foreign minister said Friday that Iran shouldn't face threats over its nuclear program and that a quick settlement of the standoff over it isn't realistic.

Kenyan police have arrested two Iranians on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks in concert with al-Shabaab, the extremist group based in southern Somalia.

MPs elected Raja Pervez Ashraf as Pakistan's new prime minister Friday, in a bid to end a crisis sparked by judges ousting the premier and demanding the arrest of his would-be successor.

An online video showed more than a dozen bloodied corpses, some of them piled atop each other and in military uniforms, dumped beside a road in northern Syria in what the government Friday called a mass killing by rebel forces.

ALONG THE CASPIAN SEA, Iran — One of the most pernicious misunderstandings in the West about Iranians is that they are dour religious fanatics. read more

The summer solstice and the first of seven clashes between Uranus and Pluto by Vivian Carol Cancer The Crab (June 20-July 21)The sun returns "home" to your sign this week. You likely will find it to be energizing.… [ Read more ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this...

Microsoft yesterday announced that each of the three finalists in the BlueHat Prize $250,000 security contest came up with ways to detect and stymie one of the most effective exploit methods now being used by hackers.

There are no signs of rioters, wind-damaged homes or flooding. The brand new City Hall features gleaming marble floors and the public recreation centers offer Zumba, karate and Pilates classes.

Summer is coming in like a fire-breathing dragon to the northeastern U.S. More >>

His championship chase finally complete, LeBron James shared a long embrace with Kevin Durant, his workout partner last summer and his Olympic teammate in a few weeks.

By The Associated Press Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today (all times EDT):

Summer is coming in like a fire-breathing dragon to the northeastern U.S. More >>

SEOUL, June 22 (UPI) -- A South Korean military official suggested joint military exercises with the U.S. Navy would send a strong signal to North Korea.

Refugees and asylum seekers in Indonesia, many of whom fled persecution and conflict in their home countries, say they are being driven to get on boats for Australia out of frustration with the resettlement process.

MOSCOW, June 22 (UPI) -- A Russian activist said Friday she became the latest in a series of high-profile resignations from a presidential human rights council.

JUBA, South Sudan, June 22 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch said it uncovered dire prison conditions during a survey of the most populated detention facilities in South Sudan.

BAMAKO, Mali, June 22 (UPI) -- Thousands of students in Mali have fled educational institutions because of strict Islamic laws imposed by separatists, a ministry said.

BAGHDAD, June 22 (UPI) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lacks the political vision to lead an effective administration in Baghdad, a lawmaker allied with a key Shiite cleric said.

Cyberdefense specialists in the U.S. and Israel collaborated on the so-called “Flame” malware that caused havoc with Iran’s nuclear reactors, a top engineer has said.

TEHRAN, June 20 (MNA) – Iranian ambassador to the Netherlands has said that the Dutch Immigration Office’s decision to reject renewal applications for residency made by Iranian students is irrational and contrary to human rights norms.

TEHRAN, June 22 (MNA) – The commander of the Navy has announced that Iran plans to build more modern destroyers and boost its naval presence in international waters.

TEHRAN, June 22 (MNA) – The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran issued a statement on Thursday saying that it will give a crushing response to any aggression against the country.

>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amid this week's carnage in crude oil markets with Brent futures slumping to 18-month lows, bullish traders have held out hope that Saudi Arabia will bail out the market with a quick cutback in oil production. They are likely to be disappointed. Saudi Arabia has driven...

LOCK HAVEN - "I watched Jack fly right straight into the side of the mountain. There was a huge explosion with all his bombs. I was upside-down looking at him... and that was Jack." U.S.

The jury in Jerry Sandusky's sex abuse trial is back in court to listen again to testimony from a... - 10:36 am

FIGHTERS from the Arab countries will see action for the first time in the 12th World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation (Wekaf) World Championships set July 18 to 24 at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).

The jury in Jerry Sandusky's sex abuse trial is back in court to listen again to testimony from a... - 10:36 am

TEHRAN, June 22 (MNA) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that the Islamic Republic is keen to come to a mutual understanding with the six major powers in the process of talks over its nuclear program.

Iran's president defended his nation's right to develop nuclear energy during a visit to Brazil. - 10:27 am