News Archive - 28 October 2012

>SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil slipped on Monday, with Brent falling below $109 a barrel, as refineries along the U.S. East Coast lowered run rates ahead of approaching Hurricane Sandy, reducing crude use in the world's largest oil consumer. The run cuts come after a rise of nearly 6 million...

Reuters/Dubai Iran possesses drones that are far more advanced than the unmanned aircraft Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched into Israeli airspace this month, Iran’s defence minister was quoted as saying yesterday.

>LOS ANGELES Oct 28 (Reuters) - Acclaimed Iran hostage thriller "Argo" brought home its first box-office win over a quiet weekend, leading movie charts with $12.4 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales as would-be moviegoers hunkered down for Hurricane Sandy.The tally for "Argo," directed by and...

>The search was the second carried out by Baghdad since Washington warned Iraq not to allow Iran to ship weapons through its airspace to help Assad in his battle against a 19-month-long revolt."Yesterday morning we stopped an Airbus plane from Iran heading to Syria... but we found humanitarian aid,...

>* Syrian army blames "terrorists" for ceasefire violations* Tension rises in northern Syria between Kurdish PKK and rebelsBy Khaled Yacoub OweisAMMAN, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Syrian jets bombarded Sunni Muslim regions in Damascus and around the country on Sunday, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad kept up air strikes against...

>DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran possesses drones that are far more advanced than the unmanned aircraft Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched into Israeli airspace this month, Iran's defense minister was quoted as saying on Sunday. Iran's military regularly announces defense and engineering developments though some analysts are skeptical of the reliability of such...

Harvard Kennedy School students and faculty participate in a national security crisis simulation Saturday in the Belfer Center. Each participant played the role of a Cabinet member or adviser as the group worked together to resolve a modern day crisis with Iran over possible nuclear test sites.

Letters to the Editor for the weekly print issue of October 29, 2012: In response to voter ID laws (blatant attempts at disenfranchisement) communities should band together and pull off the greatest voter registration drive in history. The US and its allies should step up support for legitimate democracy movements in...

Images of the charred U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, flashed around the world as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton entered the Treaty Room in Washington and spoke about the deaths of four Americans there.

The US' 'pivot-to-Asia' policy, Iran, China-Japan maritime dispute and South China Sea will be among the issues to be discussed during the 3rd round of India-US-Japan Trilateral dialogue in New Delhi ... Related Stories Man detained for trying to throw slipper at Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan Amit Shah's U-turn after...

Gallup is best known for keeping tabs on American presidential elections, but since 2005 it has been quietly accumulating...

Julia Gillard says Australia winning a seat on the UN security council means an Aussie accent will now be heard at the highest level.

U.S. and European Union officials expect talks with Iran to resume after our presidential election, possibly before the end of the November, according to various media outlets.

>* Investors buy product crack spreads, depress crude* Speculators cut net long US crude futures to lowest in 3 mths -CFTC* Coming up: Japan Sept preliminary industrial output at 2350 GMT (Adds CME trading floor closure, updates prices)By Florence TanSINGAPORE, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Oil slipped on Monday, with Brent...

After last week's Obama-Romney love-fest for Israel, the Arabs have been slowly deciding which of the two men would be best for the Middle East.

Taxes, spending, immigration--put the issues aside and examine you're own decision-making process before you cast your vote this November. As you prepare for the upcoming Presidential election, you should contemplate deeply what it takes to be a good U.S. President. The field has narrowed to two remarkable individuals with...

Here’s a cautionary tale of two shows and the growing disconnect between Broadway and its patrons.

ROYAL Navy blasts Trident II in an awesome show of military strength from nuke-powered submarine HMS Vigilant

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and stories that will be talked about on Monday:

With respect to foreign policy, this election is a contest between two different archetypes. When President Obama was running for president in 2008, he promised two things. First he promised to end the war in Iraq. Second, he promised to refocus our operations back on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. He...

The world's markets may believe that the worst of the financial crisis in Europe is over after three turbulent years, but those people who control the purse strings of the world's businesses are not breathing any easier.

Susana Trimarco’s quest to find her kidnapped daughter has uncovered the dark underbelly of Argentina’s sex trade.

Posted Oct. 28, 2012, at 4:43 p.m. “L’etat, c’est moi.” “This nation. Me.”

What started out as photographer Sooni Taraporevala’s attempt to preserve the essence of a generation evolved into something much greater: an insightful and unprecedented documentation of India’s Parsi Zorastrians. Thursday night marked the opening of Taraporevala’s “Parsis, The Zoroastrians of India” at Harvard University’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.

In the Middle East and North Africa, everything is Israel’s fault. Most conspiracy theories centre on the malevolent hand of the Jewish state. But where there’s smoke, there’s fire – and there was plenty of both last week as an arms factory in Khartoum was rocked by a series of...

SYRIA’S HOLIDAY ceasefire was yesterday broken both by regime troops and rebels as military aircraft bombed restive towns near Damascus and insurgents clashed with Kurdish militiamen in Aleppo.

For anyone interested in German and Austrian art before the Second World War, there is only one place to go and that is to the Richard Nagy gallery in London where the Silverman Collection of art is on display.

October 29, 2012 8:22 AM LONDON (AP) - The world's markets may believe that the worst of the financial crisis in Europe is over after three turbulent years, but those people who control the purse strings of the world's businesses are not breathing any easier.

During last week's final presidential debate, billed as a square-off over foreign policy, neither President Barack Obama or Republican rival Mitt Romney made mention on how hugely indebted the United States is to communist interests.

Many of the Washington state Republicans challenging incumbents in U.S. Senate and House races are decidedly less aggressive on foreign policy than their predecessors — and sometimes their Democratic opponents.

New External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid yesterday said he would do his best to fulfil the vision of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in improving India’s relations with its neighbours and other countries.

The ensemble, relaunched earlier this year after a two-year quietus, has been disbanded. No reason has been given – except that some officials have been quoted as saying ‘we have no budget’.

The European Parliament announced Friday that the 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought would go to two jailed Iranians: human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and filmmaker Jafar Panahi.

This past Wednesday, nobody reported that a squadron of 8 Israeli F-15 jets dropped 4 two-ton bombs on the giant Yarmouk missile factory on the outskirts of Sudan's capital Khartoum. Which is just as Israel wanted it. Because what otherwise would be a provocative incursion tantamount to war (if only...

Wars of succession harken back to earliest recorded history. Turning wives against husbands, sisters against brothers, aunts against nephews. The temptation to wear the crown and wield the power of the throne is greater than the blood ties that supposedly hold families together. If driven away by the monarchy becoming...

Google offers $100 to $20,000 in rewards for observers who find serious bugs compromising its users’ data. But corporate thank-yous may not pay the bills for independent Web gurus with the smarts to dig into sensitive electronic networks, digital security analysts said.

JERUSALEM, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy is considering purchasing a number of Israeli-made unmanned surface vessels to use in a potential confrontation with Iran, a report says.

Both sides have violated the UN-brokered ceasefire in Syria.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A senior Republican U.S. Senator said Sunday he does not expect President Barack Obama's management of Hurricane Sandy to change the minds of many voters.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A Texas man who plotted to assassinate a Saudi diplomat regaled a jail psychologist with stories of days as a wealthy playboy, court documents said.

() JERUSALEM — The American military chief is in Israel to observe the largest armed forces drill between the two countries.

TEHRAN, Oct. 28 (MNA) -- Despite Washington’s strong support for the opposition, in a massive turnout on October 7, Venezuelans elected Hugo Chavez president for the fourth consecutive time, showing that they believe in the Bolivarian socialist policies of the Chavez government.

The murder of former premier Yitzhak Rabin by a rightwing extremist was "one of the worst crimes," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday as Israel marked the 17th anniversary of the assassination.

As many pundits have noted, if the rest of the world were voting in the US elections, the third presidential debate would probably have proceeded differently.

Both candidates plan to take action against Iran if necessary to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons. Read more

A policy shift announced by President Barack Obama in June provides a two-year protection from deportation to certain young people brought to this country illegally and the chance to apply for a work permit. Now the young activist leaders are deciding whether it's worth accepting a deal that falls far...

October 29, 2012 5:56 AM LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Argo, based on a true story about six Americans spirited out of Iran during the 1979-80 hostage crisis, was the top movie in North America this weekend with US$12.3 million (S$15 million) in tickets sold, industry estimates showed on Sunday.

Mitt Romney's record of relative moderation was a selling point to many Jewish Republicans even if it was a minus in the GOP primaries.

As the presidential candidates and their vice presidential surrogates face off over foreign policy issues, identifying concrete differences in policy is difficult. We'll try to tease out the key distinctions on five flash points: Libya, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.[View the story "5 foreign policy differences between Romney and...

“The drone was definitely not the latest Iranian technology,” said defense minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi Sunday in Tehran. DEBKAfile: He was throwing out a hint that the stealth drone brought down by Israel on Oct. 6 was not the last to breach Israel’s airspace.

When fact-checking organizations like Politifact and Factcheck.org appeared a few years ago, they seemed like perfect antidotes to a lazy, corrupt and broke corporate media unable and/or unwilling to hold politicians to account for their lies. Cue Murphy's Law: Rather than set a higher standard, independent fact-checkers gave mainstream...

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) hope to form an independent body to oversee the administration of the country's football competitions.

If you are viewing this on the web and would prefer to get it as an email every morning, please click here Top stories on MediaGuardian.co.uk Channel 4 confirms racing takeover Channel 4 confirmed its TV takeover of racing's 'crown jewels' from the BBC in a four-year deal...

Catherine Ashton, EU foreign policy chief, voices concern for jailed Iranian lawyer who is on hunger strike in Evin prison The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, expressed her concern for the jailed Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh as she received the European parliament's most prestigious human rights award. Sotoudeh...

Bryan Cranston was a jobbing actor for years… then came the role of a lifetime in Breaking Bad and three successive Emmy wins. Here he tells us how being TV's chemistry teacher/drug baron Walter White changed his life There are some actors' names – Errol Flynn, Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp...

On screen, John Goodman is funny, warm, expansive. Off screen, he's struggled with drink and depression – and he's in no mood to share John Goodman sits on the couch, immobile as Mount Rushmore, his forearms parked aboard meaty knees. Fishing responses from him is like chipping at granite. He...

The Iranian parliament (Majlis) is studying a motion to oblige the Islamic Republic to reduce its oil exports in retaliation for the European sanctions against the country’s energy sector, a lawmaker says.

US monitoring group says images are consistent with attack from air as Khartoum accuses Israel over Yarmouk bombing Satellite images of the aftermath of an explosion at a Sudanese weapons factory this past week suggest the site was hit in an air strike, a US monitoring group said Saturday. The...

A senior Iranian lawmaker says a group of European Parliament members has called off a planned trip to Iran.

British Lord, Viscount Christopher Monckton, is one of the last of a dying breed. Always outspoken, loved by many and hated by others, Monckton is a true polymath. A man of many interests and talents; brilliant, outspoken, inventive, and absolutely sure of himself on the issues of the day. Viscount...

Now Playing Alex Cross An indifferent story and script are elevated somewhat by action director Rob Cohen, who makes the most of every opportunity, in this tale of a madman assassin and the cop out to catch him. Argo That Ben Affleck can direct a film this smart, this gripping,...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave his cabinet an overdue facelift on Sunday, bringing in younger ministers in a bid to breathe new life into his aged, scandal-tainted government ahead of state and federal elections. Related Stories Syrian fighter jets bombard suburbs of eastern Damascus Suicide...

An Iranian military commander has downplayed a US call to use its military bases in the UK as staging grounds for a possible attack on Tehran, saying Iran’s Armed Forces are in full preparedness to defend the country’s borders.

Less than 24 hours after Sudanese President Omar Bashir pledged “decisive steps against Israeli interests which are now legitimate targets,” for the destruction of the Iranian missile plant in Khartoum, Palestinian rocket teams early Sunday, Oct. 28, fired Grad missiles as target finders against Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona.

FLORIDA TODAY’s four editorial board members voted for which candidate seemed best on issues or qualities important to Brevard. Where candidates seemed even to a member, they received .5 points.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack is an extraordinary citizen of America, daughter of a veteran, small- business owner, single mother after Sonny Bono's accidental skiing death, novice politician who fought her way to a prominent position after winning Sonny's House seat.