News Archive - 11 January 2013

>The truck, intercepted on a motorway in northern Spain early on Wednesday, was carrying highly corrosion-resistant valves, the ministry said in a statement.Police were examining computer databases and documents at the company, Fluval Spain, a ministry spokesman said. The two arrested men were employees at the firm, he said.

>* Vital oil output falls, steel production plunges (Adds details, background)ALMATY Jan 11 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's industrial output grew by 0.5 percent in 2012, the lowest rise in the last 10 years, data published by the State Statistics Agency showed on Friday.Full-year growth was slower than the 2.

>* Sources say Iran has not responded to date proposed by EU* Fears stand-off could lead to new Middle East war* U.N. nuclear agency chief downbeat on separate Iran-IAEA talksBy Steve Gutterman and Fredrik DahlMOSCOW/VIENNA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Russia voiced alarm on Friday at delays in agreeing new...

Top level delegation said to be planned to discuss recruitment of doctors, paramedics

Former Israeli premier has criticized hawkish Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for wasting billions of shekels for preparing futile war plans against Iran.

A former Iraqi soldier and prisoner who brought one of the world's oldest stringed instruments back into the spotlight is set to end his exile and take his haunting songs back home.

U.S. Warns Banks of Iranian Efforts to Sidestep Sanctions

Abitter battle is brewing on Capitol Hill. Chuck Hagel’s confirmation as the next defence secretary of the United States boils down to this litmus test: does he support Israel, understand the threat posed by Iran and is he sorry for past remarks that his critics say were borderline anti-Semitic?

The secretary general of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has lauded Iran’s six-point peace plan to settle the unrest in Syria, urging all parties to remain committed to the proposal to secure its implementation.

WATSONVILLE -- Watsonville-based Applied Survey Research is looking for volunteers to participate in a homeless census.

Chuck Hagel has committed unpardonable sins. He has violated the GOP commandment -- popularized by Ronald Reagan -- against criticizing his fellow partisans. Worse yet, in the eyes of those partisans, he has castigated the warmongering imperialists who dragged the nation into a disastrous invasion of Iraq.Recipient of two...

Rizana Nafeek spent seven years on death row despite being under 18 when the crime, which she denied, was committed A Sri Lankan maid accused of killing a four-month-old baby in her care has been executed in Saudi Arabia after more than seven years on death row. Rizana Nafeek, who...

A spellbinding parable of love and romance unfolds.(PRWEB) January 12, 2013 “Love works in miracles every day: such as weakening the strong, and stretching the weak; making fools of the wise, and wise men of fools; favouring the passions, destroying reason, and in a word, turning everything topsy-turvy.”...

It’s no ordinary feat to drive from Germany to Dubai and 81-year old Martin Blaskowitz knows it all too well. The German national completed a solo journey crossing 13 countries and covering 20,000 kilometers before reaching Dubai, where he met his son Alexander.

BOISE -- In 2009, KTVB was there when Pastor Saeed Abedini came home after being held captive in Iran. Abedini was seen as a threat to national security in Iran for running a house church movement there. "In 2009 when they detained him, he was able to make an agreement...

By Cal Thomas President Obama’s choice for secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, former Nebraska Republican senator, has a resume most politicians can envy: a clean senatorial record, no ...

JERUSALEM - A trove of ancient manuscripts in Hebrew characters rescued from caves in a Taliban stro ...

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood hits the red carpet Sunday for the Golden Globes, Tinseltown's biggest pre-Oscars awards show, with Steven Spielberg, Ben Affleck and Quentin Tarantino among those eyeing major prizes.

Letters from Daily News readers.

--- Barack Obama to Dmitry Medvedev, March 26, 2012 The puzzle of the Chuck Hagel nomination for defense secretary is that you normally choose someone of the other party for your Cabinet to indicate a move to the center, but, as The Washington Post editorial board points out, Hagel's foreign...

Americans and global economic pundits breathed a sigh of relief when Washington finally stepped back from the fiscal cliff on New Years Day. But there's another cliff looming in 2013 that left unaddressed, can shove all into the abyss of a Middle East Armageddon: We are now confronted with...

I am willing to accept his apology, which Ambassador Hormel has now accepted, even if reluctantly, because Hagel will work for President Obama, and I don't believe the president would nominate anyone to this sensitive position who will not be supportive of the LGBT community.

Lee Staddon thinks Australia stands a good chance of going home with an Oscar

In the central military region which have appeared in several MEDIA refute reports that in the Elanskom garrison (Sverdlovsk oblast) was an outbreak of pneumonia. 11 January informed reporter BakuToday the head of the press service of the County, Colonel Jarosław Roshchupkin, a situation with colds within the County is...

The producers of the Oscars awards have included a tribute to James Bond for this year's show.

Steven Spielberg's political biopic Lincoln is leading the field after the BAFTA nominations.

A UK businessman to nearly three years in prison for trying to buy and resell weapons to Iran.

French auto giant PSA Peugeot Citroen's worldwide sales in 2012 dropped by 16.5 per cent in 2012.

Australian Hugh Jackman has received a BAFTA best actor nomination for his role in Les Miserables.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Shiite Muslims hit by a twin bombing that killed 86 people refused to bury their dead Friday, demanding the Pakistani government do more to protect them from increasing violence against the minority sect.

Within the totality of the Japan-China relationship, which can and should be a “Mutually Beneficial Relationship Based on Common Strategic Interests,” the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute is wholly negative and potentially disastrous, and the danger continues to escalate. Ambassador Magosaki’s supranational authority proposal could be the best and most workable solution...

Sen. John Kerry earlier predicted that the now-disgraced government of President Bashar al-Assad could bring peace and stability to the Mideast

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright dismissed as "ridiculous" the accusations by Republican critics that President Barack Obama's choice for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, is anti-Israel.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An apocalyptic tone has crept into Israel's hitherto muted election season, with opposition leaders and others sounding increasingly desperate warnings that a few more years of rule by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's heavily favored right wing might well destroy the Jewish state.

Computerworld - Though U.S. officials blamed Iran for an ongoing stream of distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) against major U.S. banks, security experts say there's not enough evidence yet to assign blame.

FILE - This April 1, 2010 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian President Bashar Assad meeting with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., President Barack Obama's choice to become the next secretary of state, at al-Shaab presidential palace in Damascus, Syria.

All indications point that the foreign policy of the second Barack Obama Administration will carry two aspects, one implicit and one explicit, moving together and in parallel in order to satisfy and contain radical contradictions within the US public opinion. Indeed, the majority of the American people does not...

In the newsroom -- or wherever the news took me, over a long career in journalism -- mid-December invariably brought reflections on the great events of the year gone by, and prognostications of what was to come. A year ago, just back from a Damascus interview with Syria's beleaguered...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Regulators are expected to order JPMorgan Chase & Co to correct lapses in how it polices suspect money flows, two people familiar with the situation said, in the latest move by officials to force banks to tighten their anti money-laundering systems. The action against JPMorgan, which...

Iran coach Carlos Queiroz has hit out at what he thinks is Fifa's unfair schedule for countries outside football's elite.

The Oscar nominations hit on Thursday morning, Jan. 10, and there were a few shockers in the announcements. While "Lincoln" received 12 nominations, easily expected for the prestigious Steven Spielberg period piece, the surprising "Life of Pi" received 11, a shockingly large number for a specialty art-house styled movie. However,...

Oil prices jumped 10% over the last month on several factors including a Saudi production cut, the fiscal cliff resolution and the reversal of a key pipeline, but analysts expect the gains will be short lived.

Just months after its release, Ben Affleck's international thriller "Argo" is set for a reboot, only this time it's the Iranians telling the story of a group of American diplomats who evaded capture and daringly escaped Tehran during the 1979 hostage crisis.

PARIS (Reuters) - French employers offered concessions on unions' core demand in talks to overhaul labour rules on Friday, raising the chances of an agreement that would bolster President Francois Hollande's credibility as a reformer. Related Stories Lack of deal with Iran on nuclear talks alarms Russia Tunisians set fire...

They know what it is like to fight a costly, unwinnable war. Now Chuck Hagel and John Kerry are spearheading America's new resolve to pull out of Afghanistan - for good.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Berlin wants Britain to remain an active and constructive partner in the European Union, joining a growing international debate on the course of London's future ties with the bloc. Related Stories Lack of deal with Iran on nuclear talks alarms Russia...

SACRAMENTO -- The nation's largest teacher pension fund took the first step Wednesday toward divesting from companies that make guns and high-capacity ammunition magazines that are illegal in California.

>By John KempLONDON Jan 11 (Reuters) - Fracking and a global surge in offshore exploration pose the biggest challenge to Saudi Arabia's oil policy since the 1980s.For Saudi policymakers, the question will be how to maintain market share and export revenues amid a host of competing supplies from shale...

>* But Syria may still hold uranium to fuel reactor - experts* Any uranium stockpile may be of interest to Iran* Iran, Syria deny allegations of nuclear weapons aimsBy Fredrik Dahl and Dan WilliamsVIENNA/JERUSALEM, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Western and Israeli security experts suspect Syria may have tonnes of unenriched...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the minority leader in the U.S. Senate, said in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. and Israeli agendas in the Middle East were identical.

ISLAMABAD: The country has wheat stock of 6.267 million, which is not only sufficient for domestic consumption but also available for export while bumper crop production is expected during next year.

A series of bombings killed 115 people across Pakistany, including 81 who died in twin blasts on a bustling billiards hall in a Shia area of the southwestern city of Quetta. Related Stories Pakistan soldier killed on Kashmir border Rape accused's lawyer claims victim was to blame for bus attack...

RUSSIAN NEGOTIATOR RYABKOV SAYS HE IS ALARMED THERE IS NO AGREEMENT ON A NEW ROUND OF NUCLEAR TALKS BETWEEN GLOBAL POWERS AND IRAN-IFAX

Israeli prime minister says stopping Iran's nuclear program is top priority if he's re-elected

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Iraqi Sunni Muslims took to the streets in Baghdad and other cities after prayers on Friday, in another show of discontent with Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Director Ben Affleck on the set of the motion picture 'Argo,' about the secret extraction of U.S. hostages from Iran in 1980. An Iranian director says he plans to produce a response to 'Argo," that will focus on 20 American hostages who were delivered to the United States by...

The sixth annual DSC Jaipur Literature Festival has been scheduled from Jan 24-28 at Diggi Palace in Jaipur. The international list of authors participating at the festival this year is the most cerebral, intellectually-stimulating and high-powered ever fielded, said organizers on Friday.

Navy says vessel appeared unaware of incident

The Iranian government has officially denied any involvement in the wave of relatively unsophisticated cyber attacks that have struck glancing blows on websites for U.S. financial institutions over the past months.

A decorated Vietnam vet, Chuck Hagel combines experience in war with skepticism over turning to military solutions where diplomacy might work.

Typhoon Pablo (Bopha), the devastating storm that racked up almost 2,000 deaths as it crashed through southern Philppines last December, has been ranked the world's deadliest catastrophe for 2012, according to a recent study.

The tensions between Israel’s top security professionals and their civilian bosses, Bibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, are no secret — but that’s not the whole story. Click here for the rest of the article...

Reuters will issue this diary daily at around 0930 GMT and1700 GMT. All times in GMT unless otherwise stated. Items marked ** denote new or amended listings. Media clients will also receive around 0700 GMT a daily REUTERS WORLD NEWS OUTLOOK which highlights key events for the coming week. For...

To the surprise of many, including me, President Barack Obama has nominated former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel to be his next defense secretary. Like many Texans, I am grateful for Hagel's courageous mi

KUALA LUMPUR, 11 Jan (Bernama) -- Eksport getah asli pada November tahunlepas susut 2.4 peratus atau 1,633 tan kepada 65,043 tan berbanding 66,681 tanyang dicatatkan pada Oktober tahun yang sama, kata Jabatan Perangkaan hari ini.Getah Mutu Malaysia (SMR) menyumbang 94.3 peratus daripada jumlah eksport getah asli, dengan...

>* PKK ORIGINS - Abdullah Ocalan founded the Marxist-Leninist group in 1978. It took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an independent Kurdistan in the mainly Kurdish areas of Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. It is now seeking greater Kurdish rights and limited autonomy in...