News Archive - 26 January 2013

>Iran is a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who is fighting a near two-year-long revolt. Tehran has already repeatedly warned the West against intervening in the conflict against Assad."Syria has a very basic and key role in the region for promoting firm policies of resistance ... For this...

>* Show of solidarity with protesters in northern town* Popular resentment over graft, wealth gap, joblessness (Adds quotes, context)BAKU, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Police arrested about 40 activists demonstrating in Azerbaijan's capital on Saturday against President Ilham Aliyev's government and in support of residents of a northern town where protests...

>The Gulf Arab state, a U.S. ally against Iran, has been in turmoil since protests erupted in early 2011 led by majority Shi'ite Muslims demanding an end to the Sunni-led monarchy's political domination and full powers for parliament.Wefaq and five other pro-democracy groups have said they are ready...

>Mirhossein Mousavi stood in presidential elections in 2009 and became one of the figureheads of the huge street protests over allegations of vote rigging that followed. He was detained with his wife Zahra Rahnavardstood in February 2011.The Islamic Republic is gearing up for another presidential vote in June and...

>By Daniel FinerenDUBAI Jan 26 (Reuters) - An Iranian-flagged cargo ship that fled Sri Lankan waters after weeks of detention by the island nation's navy has arrived back in Iran, according to ship-tracking data published by Reuters.The Sri Lankan navy fired warning shots in early January to prevent the...

North Side

Iran, which currently chairs the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), has expressed readiness to help resolve the ongoing crisis in the African country of Mali.

Economies in the Middle East and North Africa are coping with the aftermath ofthe Arab Spring uprisings and an unstable global environment. Many have boostedfiscal spending to sustain growth and head off popular discontent, putting thegovernment finances of some under pressure, although the budgets of most Gulfoil exporters are still...

WASHINGTON DC, USA - John Kerry is the son of a US diplomat, who grew up among the rubble of Berlin, criss-crossed Europe as a child, fought in Vietnam, has met many world leaders and negotiated tough deals for America. And in just a few days the veteran senator, ...

Tea Board has embarked on using the social media to promote consumption of the beverage within the country and abroad.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Iran hostage-crisis thriller "Argo" has taken the top honor at the Producers Guild Awards.

I  didn’t watch the inauguration or the accompanying festivities because I suspected the coverage of them would be sycophantic, given the fact that the mainstream media has carried President Obama’s water for him more blatantly than it has for any president in memory, perhaps ever. Based on the little I...

More mutants are back to X-Men: Days of Future Past . Anna Paquin, Ellen Page and Shawn Ashmore will return to Bryan Singer’s X-Men franchise. read more

Only one thing is certain from last week's unexpected election result in Israel: the next Prime Minister will almost definitely be the previous incumbent, Binyamin Netanyahu, who now has a time limit of six weeks of political horse-trading to cut a deal with rivals and retake the premiership, albeit in...

Is Yair Lapid a young thruster who changed the face of Israeli politics by challenging the old order, or is he a hopeless dreamer whose utopian agenda will come a cropper in the harsher realities of defending the nation state?

A top Iranian official's comments come as the first NATO-deployed Patriot missile batteries are declared operational along Turkey's border with Syria. BEIRUT — Any foreign attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran, a senior Iranian official warned Saturday as the first Patriot missile batteries were declared operational...

IRAN will defend the Syrian government to the end to preserve an “axis of resistance” to Israel and the West, its ambassador in Damascus has warned.

A former left-leaning prime minister staged a big return to power Saturday by winning the Czech Republic's first directly elected presidential vote.

One of the questions that often comes up in my Roman history class and world religions class concerns the famous apostles of Christ, the men charged to take the Christian message to the ends of the world.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won re-election to a third term on Tuesday by the skin of his teeth.

Fallujah, Iraq (AFP) Jan 25, 2013 Soldiers fired on an anti-government rally west of Baghdad on Friday, killing six demonstrators, the first deaths in weeks of increasingly angry protests calling for Iraq's premier to quit. The shootings came as tens of thousands rallied in majority Sunni areas of the country,...

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UPI) Jan 25, 2013 Amid a series a recent cyberattacks on Iranian industrial sites, Tehran is reported to be strengthening its cyberwarfare capabilities in a widening covert war with the United States and Israel. The Islamic republic, one of the world's top oil exporters, has been...

Tehran (AFP) Jan 26, 2013 Iran blamed world powers on Saturday for delays in long-stalled talks over its controversial nuclear programme, after Western diplomats said Iranian uncertainty over the venue had delayed the negotiations. State broadcaster IRIB said deputy EU foreign policy chief Helga Schmid had asked Iranian deputy nuclear...

Strong words from Iran on Syria.

The online community needs protections to prevent our ideas from being blocked, writes guest columnist Timothy Karr.

By The Washington Post Federal investigators looking into disclosures of classified information about a cyberoperation that targeted Iran’s nuclear program have increased pressure on current and former senior government ...

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Jan. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Riki Ellison, Chairman and Founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org, viewed the Ground-Based Interceptor test from the Ronald Reagan Missile Defense Site at...

The first of six Patriot missile batteries intended to protect Turkey from Syrian threats is operational along the countries' shared border, NATO said Saturday.

The Middle East conflict at 35,000 feet

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush stirred up the campaign to replace him by suggesting on Thursday that Democratic front-runner Barack Obama's pledge to talk to Iran's leader amounted to "the false comfort of appeasement."

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — TCF Financial Corp. has been fined $10 million for failing to adequately monitor suspicious bank transactions, including some with possible links to terrorism.

As it did all week, the show, which ends Sunday, attracted plenty of people from near and far today.

The first of six Patriot missile batteries intended to protect Turkey from Syrian threats is operational along the countries' shared border, NATO said Saturday. The other five batteries, which NATO says are to be for defensive purposes only, are expected to be in place in coming days. NATO foreign ministers...

Ruling paves way for Czech president to sign Lisbon Treaty.

Federal investigators looking into disclosures of classified information about a cyberoperation that targeted Iran’s nuclear program have increased pressure on current and former senior government officials suspected of involvement, according to people familiar with the investigation. Read full article >>

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi insurgents are trying to capitalize on the rage of anti-government protesters and the instability caused by rising civil unrest, complicating the government's efforts to stamp ...

A senior Iranian official says his country would consider any attack on Syria an attack on itself. The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as saying on January 26 that the Syrian regime played a "key role in the region...

Can military tribunals charge people with idiosyncratic offenses that are not war crimes under international law?

As Barack Obama begins his second four-year term as president, there is renewed talk about U.S. policy toward the Middle East, especially about what might be in store for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The talk gained momentum when Senator John Kerry, expected to be confirmed next week as the...

Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said that UN Commissioner for Human Rights Navineetham Pillay’s statement on Sri Lanka at the OHCHR press briefing amounts to overreaching her mandate.

NATO has announced that the first missile battery to protect Turkey from Syria has gone into operation. Elsewhere, Syrian rebels said they had freed more than 100 prisoners from an Idlib jail.

The U.S. State Department and the White House finally called on Iran to release Pastor Saeed Abedini, a U.S. citizen facing a possible death sentence for his faith. The pastor's wife and senators and representatives had said the State Department wasn't doing enough.

Sunni Arab tribes in Falluja (presumably branches of Dulaim) on Saturday demanded that the government turn over to them within 7 days the troops who fired on protesters on the outskirts of the western city of Falluja, killing 6 and wounding 19 on Friday. Otherwise, they say, they will declare...

For the first time, the Czech Republic directly elected a president, choosing former Prime Minister Milos Zeman. Zeman took office as prime minster in 1998, and has taken favorable positions toward the European Union.

THE daughters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of Iran's opposition leaders, say they haven't been able to see their parents for two months.

Iran defense minister says the country has called for the establishment of a joint military organization among Muslim states to defend the oppressed people wherever needed.

JERUSALEM, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- An Iranian defector says the country is only a year away from possessing a nuclear bomb.

LIVERPOOL FC have agreed a fee of just under 10million Euros (£8.5million) with Inter Milan to sign midfielder Philippe Coutinho.

Czech new-elected President Milos Zeman (C) holds a press conference in Prague on Saturday after the result of the second round of the presidential elections was announced.

Patriot missile system battery designed to defend Turkey from Syrian attack goes operational as tensions rise in region.

TEHRAN, Jan. 26 (MNA) - Special advisor for international affairs to the Leader of Iran said; “retreat from a peaceful nuclear program is neither logical nor practical.”

The first of six Patriot missile batteries intended to protect Turkey from Syrian threats is operational along the countries' shared border, NATO said Saturday.

Editor: Doina Chiacu + 1 202 898 8457 Picture Desk: Singapore + 65 6870 3775 Graphics queries: + 65 6870 3595 TOP STORIES At least 30 killed in Egypt clashes over death sentences PORT SAID, Egypt/CAIRO - At least 30 people are killed whenEgyptians rampage in protest at the sentencing...

ADANA: The first of six Patriot missile batteries being sent by NATO countries to defend Turkey from possible attack from Syria went operational on Saturday.

High up in the snowy peaks above Tehran, Iranians enjoy more than winter sports. They enjoy a taste of the Western comforts that have, for all intents and purposes, disappeared from the city below.

Participants in this year's March for Life, marking the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, seemed less bothered by the mainstream media's lack of coverage of the estimated half-million people descending on Washington, D.C. to demonstrate against abortion on Friday. That's because they relied heavily on social media to...

FOR generations they have signified femininity and glamour - but a pair of high heels was once an essential accessory for men. Read more...

TEHRAN, Jan. 26 (MNA) - The latest oil production statistics shows that Iran have become the second oil producing country in OPEC once again with over 3 million barrels of oil daily.

Hardline clerics in Iran who deny the Holocaust had their chance Friday night to tune in and confront their ignorance of history.

TEHRAN, Jan. 26 (MNA) – World powers negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program are still hopeful that a new round of talks can begin soon and an agreement can be reached, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton who represents the powers in talks said.

Germany’s gold is on the move. For the first time since official gold transactions became more transparent, the Bundesbank has given notice that a significant portion of its holdings will be transferred home from France and the United States.