News Archive - 15 September 2012

>(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co's compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering laws is being reviewed by a banking regulator, a source said, making the largest U.S. bank the latest target of a wide investigation of how banks prevent transactions involving drug money and sanctioned countries. The Office of...

Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles stormed heavily-fortified Camp Bastion, the British HQ in Helmand, in a deadly assault on the ‘aviation area’.

>JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Benjamin Netanyahu's deputy for intelligence and atomic affairs on Thursday broke with the Israeli prime minister's call for Iran to be confronted with a "red line" beyond which its disputed nuclear program would face military attack. In a broadcast interview, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor appeared to...

>BEIRUT (Reuters) - International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said after talks with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday that the escalating conflict in the country posed a global threat. Activists say 27,000 people have been killed in the 18-month-old uprising against Assad. Late on Saturday, 20 bodies, including a woman's, were...

Benjamin Netanyahu has solidified his grip on the political market and as of now, faces no real competitors over the reins of power.

Ask Ben Dworkin whether he was surprised that U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan was formally chosen for the vice presidentâs slot at the Republican Partyâs nominating convention this week, and the veteran political observer answered âno.â

As our Mideast policy once again crashes and burns, the president promises a tough response at a Las Vegas fundraiser, and the press coordinates attacks on the candidate who says our emperor has no clothes.

WASHINGTON - There are two positions one can take regarding the Iranian nuclear program: (a) it does ...

I was not aware of a film insulting to Islam until American embassies were attacked in Libya and Eg ...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using this week's rioting against U.S. embassies as evidence for why the U.S. needs to draw a red line with Iran over its nuclear weapons program.

JERUSALEM - Israel's prime minister says a policy of containment for Iran will not work because Tehran is guided...

Interview part of PM’s campaign to garner American public support for his position on Iran.

Three of the men involved in creating 'Innocence of Muslims' are devotees of Zakaria Botros Henein, sometimes called Islam's Public Enemy No. 1. The Southern California men behind the anti-Islamic movie that has enraged the Arab world were influenced by a fiery Coptic cleric who owns a home in Huntington...

Since West Nile virus first appeared in the city in 1999, the Health Department has done its best to protect the city from this disease (“Risking the Public Health,” Jeff Stier, PostOpinion, Sept. 4). Stier wrongly assumes that spraying Anvil, a chemical pesticide, is the only defense the city uses...

Only now can Salman Rushdie (pictured) tell the full story of living under the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini on Valentine's Day 1989.

Violent riots have broken out in many parts of the world with spontaneous rallies breaking out over an anti-Muslim film.

Wu Bangguo (C), chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), arrives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sept. 15, 2012, starting an official goodwill visit to Sri Lanka.

Next month, on October 7, Venezuelan voters will have the opportunity to choose between Hugo Chavez [58] and his failed Bolivarian system of government, or a youthful 40-year-old named Henrique Capriles.

THE moderates among us in all faith traditions must work together to combat extremists, who just want to stir up trouble.

KOTA KINABALU: Malaysian authorities are looking into claims that a mobile storage depot off Labuan island is being used by Iran to export its crude oil, thus evading international sanctions.

Once upon a time it would have taken scores of dedicated people and an awful lot of hard work and travel to incite riots in two dozen countries half a world away. But, as events of the past six days have shown, a few extremists in California can now do...

NOBODY wants to have a war with Iran except Israeli premier Binyamin Netanyahu, so it could still happen.

Jacksons Lane, London "Once upon a time some were, and some were not," is a traditional Persian way of starting a story. The formula could not be more appropriate for this tale of the elusive Roshan, who came to England from Iran in the 1970s to escape revolution . Or maybe he...

In an interview with NBC, Netanyahu warned American policymakers a nuclear Iran could not be contained. Read more...

Former Armed Forces Minister Sir Nick Harvey, pictured, claimed he was sacked to avoid a damaging Coalition split over the attack.

A burst of energy - that is the only way to describe the rehearsal for "The Journey to Reims," held last week in Tel Aviv, in preparation for its premiere performance by the New Israeli Opera on November 20. Seventeen singers reveled on a stage set designed as an airplane...

Major U.S. banks are being investigated for insufficiently safeguarding against being used by drug dealers or terrorist groups to launder dirty money, it was reported Saturday.

Esteqlal has defeated Rah Ahan 2-0 in the eighth week of Iran’s Premier League (IPL) to make fans happy after several weeks.

An armada of US and British naval power is massing in the Persian Gulf in the belief that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran's covert nuclear weapons programme.

First, the good news: Sanctions have helped drive Iran's currency to its lowest level ever, half its value from a year ago. Meanwhile, Iran's oil exports were down almost 45 percent in July, the most recent month for which data are available.

Look who’s pulling the strings of Marionette Mitt and Puppet Paul.

• (http://twitter.com/share) Climate change's effect grows worse

Iranian supreme leader's military advisor says Israeli threats are placing the citizens of Israel 'a step away from the grave.'

Anti-US riots show why President Barack Obama's support for the Arab Spring may yet backfire, especially if Israel intervenes against Iran, says Richard Spencer.

A day after arriving in Beirut, Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday urged Lebanon to be a model of coexistence of Islam and Christianity for the restive Middle East. His three-day visit comes amid concerns over the future of minority Christians in the region where Islamism is on the rise.

>VIENNA (Reuters) - The 35-nation board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog censured Iran on Thursday for defying international demands to curb uranium enrichment and failing to address mounting disquiet about its suspected research into atomic bombs. Two days after Israel ramped up threats to attack its arch-enemy Iran, the...

>ISTANBUL, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Suspected Kurdish separatists killed four Turkish soldiers and wounded five more in an attack on a military convoy near the border with Iran and Iraq, a Turkish regional authority said on Saturday.The past few months have seen some of the heaviest fighting since the...

>Speculation that Israel might attack Iranian atomic facilities alone, and soon, has soared given an unusually public dispute with the United States about how much time to allow for negotiations and sanctions to run their course before considering military action.Amos Gilad, top aide to Defence Minister Ehud Barak, was...

The Great Satan still sells in Iran. Even after decades of diplomatic estrangement and tightening economic sanctions, American products manage to find their way into the Iranian marketplace.

The new international envoy tasked with ending Syria's civil war said Saturday he still had no clear idea on how to proceed, but that it was "terribly important" to end a conflict that he warned was now a threat to regional and world peace.

WASHINGTON: Coalition military authorities in Afghanistan say the insurgents who attacked a British airfield in southwestern Afghanistan on Friday, killing two U.S. Marines, wore U.S. Army uniforms and destroyed six Harrier fighter jets.

The recent arrest of political cartoonist and anti-corruption campaigner Aseem Trivedi in Mumbai on sedition charges for allegedly depicting national symbols in a despicable manner has triggered a fresh debate in India on freedom of speech and expression.

Sept. 16, 2012, 3 a.m. Talking to Adrian d'Hage can be a disorienting experience. In the classic words of Darryl Kerrigan, he's an ''ideas man''.

Letter defending rally was full of misinformation.

Sun.Star website empowers Philippine communities by providing news and information from the provinces to a national and global audience. It is your link to home in the Philippines.

The California man believed to be the maker of an anti-Islam film that ignited a firestorm in the Muslim world was cooperative when authorities escorted him to a voluntary interview, officials said Saturday.

In this week’s political fight over the killing of the US ambassador in Libya, the two presidential candidates are being likened to White House predecessors they’d just as soon avoid: Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter and Mitt Romney to Richard Nixon.

President Barack Obama on Saturday mourned the week's attacks on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya which killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to the country.

US intervention does little to honour Chris Stevens' vision, writes Robin Wright.

The California man believed to be the maker of an anti-Islam film that ignited a firestorm in the Muslim world was cooperative when authorities escorted him to a voluntary interview, officials said Saturday. "It was all choreographed," said Steve Whitmore of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "He was ready...

No American president would, or should, cede the power to another country to declare war on our behalf, but this is perilously close to what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding of President Barack Obama.

RED LINE FOLLY: The Obama administration has implied that it would be willing to use force. as a final resort. But to go further and define a red line in advance would commit the US to waging a war

The highly trained Mossad agents say that 'any means is valid' when it comes to deploying their feminine wiles - though they would draw the line at sleeping with the enemy.

OTTAWA - The Foreign Affairs Department paid almost $2 million to an international security firm for a sweeping intelligence study of potential threats to Canada's foreign embassies. The assessment would have undoubtedly informed the Harper government's decision to close its embassy in Tehran...

Sir-- The Iranian leadership continues to make the daily news by "lashing out" at this country's leader and that country's leader. It seems the only countries Iran is on good terms with are North Korea, Mongolia and Venezuela.

Syria was part of the Arab Spring movement that has swept many parts of the Arab region since 2011, most notably Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

What Arab and Egyptian political elites need is clearer focus in their analyses and understanding of regional and international relations and a vision unclouded by extraneous details.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi is making his first political visit to the US 24 September -- an annual time honoured ritual maintained by former President Mubarak for 25 years.

Today is Saturday, Sept. 15, the 259th day of 2012. There are 107 days left in the year.

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency - Arabic) The daily OPEC basket price went up by 11 cents to USD 113.47 per barrel (pb) on Thursday, compared to the day before of USD 113.36, the OPEC's bulletin said ...

CHICAGO - The city's nearly weeklong teachers strike appeared headed toward a resolution Friday after negotiators emerged from marathon talks to say they had achieved a "framework" that could end the walkout in time for students to return to class Monday.

>* Capriles mocks Chavez's election manifesto* Political passions grow ahead of Oct. 7 voteBy Andrew CawthorneCARACAS, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition challenger Henrique Capriles sought to deflect attention from a corruption scandal by throwing the accusation back at President Hugo Chavez on Friday in an escalating political brawl ahead...