News Archive - 4 February 2013

Highlights of Fulham’s international Iranian player Ashkan Dejagah in the match against Manchester United – 2/2/2013.       FULL MATCH: 1st Half: 2nd Half:

Interview with Iran’s national football coach Carlos Queiroz ahead of the Asian Cup 2015 qualification match against Lebanon at Azadi stadium.

>"They will regret this recent aggression," Saeed Jalili, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told a news conference in Damascus a day after holding talks there with President Bashar al-Assad.Jalili likened Israel's attack on a military compound north-west of Damascus on Wednesday to previous conflicts including its 34-day...

>No reason was given for the arrest, but the timing suggested it might be linked to the role of the former judicial official, Saeed Mortazavi, in a dispute between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani."The Tehran prosecutor announced Monday night that Saeed Mortazavi has been arrested," read...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator John McCain said on Monday he opposes using a procedural hurdle to block a vote on Chuck Hagel's nomination to be defense secretary, a stance likely to boost White House confidence that Hagel will win Senate confirmation. "I do not support a filibuster," the Arizona Republican...

>"War is not the solution...A government that rules through war - its work will be very difficult. A sectarian war should not be launched in Syria," he told Al Mayadeen television."We believe that (deciding) whoever stays or goes is the right of the Syrian people. How can we...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed earlier today that he wanted to be the first Iranian in space. And, okay, that might be open to a few jokes considering his country's mostly debunked claim about sending a monkey into orbit last week, which Iranian space officials are still defending. But actually referring to...

>BERLIN (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Monday he saw U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden's offer this weekend of bilateral dialogue between their two countries as a sign of a change in approach to Tehran by Washington. Iran is embroiled in a long stand-off with big...

>Prices at factory gates in the 17 countries using the euro fell 0.2 percent in December from November, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Monday, as expected by economists polled by Reuters.Prices fell by the same margin in November. Compared to the same month a year ago,...

>MUNICH (Reuters) - Syria's opposition leader flew back to his Cairo headquarters from Germany on Sunday to explain to skeptical allies his decision to talk with President Bashar al-Assad's main backers Russia and Iran. The Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, and U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, portrayed Syrian National Coalition...

>Iran declared last week that it had successfully launched a monkey into space and retrieved it alive, which officials hailed as a major step towards their goal of sending humans into space.The launch added to Western concerns about Iran's space program because the same rocket technology could potentially be...

TEHRAN, Feb. 5 (MNA) – Bahraini opposition groups and organizations say the more we get closer to Feb. 14 the more pressure the regime puts on its opponents.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is raising the possibility of a filibuster of President Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary.

(MENAFN - Arab News) IN Munich, officials from several global superpowers met, and Iran was No. 1 on the menu list for lunch. Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister and Iran's ally, defended the ...

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) OPEC daily basket price rose to USD 112.62 per barrel Friday, compared with USD 112.30 pb the previous day, the OPEC bulleting OPECNA said on Monday. The new ...

(MENAFN - Arab News) PRESIDENT Barack Obama may have to decide this year whether to use military force to fulfill his vow to prevent Iran from being able to build nuclear weapons, foreign policy ...

THE United States has strongly backed a move by Syria's opposition chief to open dialogue with President Bashar al-Assad in a bid to end 22 months of warfare that has cost tens of thousands of lives.

HARRISBURG Kane starts Sandusky probe Keeping a major campaign promise, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has named a special deputy to oversee an inquiry into the handling of the …

>* Deadline for offers on Tuesday at 1600 GMT* Decision by court not before ThursdayBy Michel RosePARIS, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Potential bidders for Normandy-based oil refinery Petit-Couronne have until Tuesday to submit offers to legal administrators and avert a liquidation the French government has been desperate to prevent.Big...

>* Strong dollar, mixed U.S. data add to pressure* Coming Up: API weekly crude stocks; 2130 GMT (Updates prices)By Ramya VenugopalSINGAPORE, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Brent crude slipped towards $115 per barrel on Tuesday, giving up some of its gains from the last three weeks, on renewed euro zone...

United Nations diplomats are weighing how much Chinese opposition they may face to further UN sanctions on North Korea if it conducts a third nuclear blast, which South Korea says appears imminent.

Zahra Kazemi, arrested for taking pictures, died after she was tortured in custody

LOS ANGELES: The producers of this year's Oscars show said Monday they have no "big red button" to press in case boundary-pushing host Seth MacFarlane oversteps the mark.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has used new media to rattle the sabres and ridicule the Islamic Republic of Iran, but McCain was tweeted on Monday by a Republican congressman from Michigan that he ought to “wisen up and not make racist jokes.” Once in political hot water for...

US military officers have endorsed pre-emptive cyber-strikes if the US ever faces a digital attack.

Internet engineers and legal scholars are worried that amendments to a U.N. telecommunications treaty will give repressive governments more control of the Internet in their countries and could begin to undermine international sanctions against pariah states such as Iran. Current and former U.S. and foreign officials, scientists and...

After 213 years, it’s official – women in Paris can wear trousers. The most disobeyed law in the French capital – except stopping for red lights – has been declared null and void. Related Stories Iran bank chief flying to Germany 'caught with £45m cheque' Italian election: Silvio Berlusconi resorts...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Sen. John McCain's tweet comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a monkey is drawing criticism from a fellow GOP lawmaker as racist. So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space - wasn't he just there last week? "Iran launches monkey into space" news.yahoo.com/iran-launches-…...

The Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says it is “unforgivable” that Turkey has been made to wait half a century to become part of the European Union and it should be admitted without delay. Related Stories Iran bank chief flying to Germany 'caught with £45m cheque' Italian election: Silvio Berlusconi...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he is ready "to be the first man in space" under Iran's ambitious program which aims to send a human into orbit by 2020.

>BEVERLY HILLS (Reuters) - With a high five from 9-year-old actress Quvenzhane Wallis, and a pledge that Oscar night will have something for everyone, the Academy Awards kicked into high gear on Monday at a luncheon for more than 160 nominees. Jennifer Lawrence, Steven Spielberg, Jessica Chastain, Naomi Watts, Joaquin...

>The drill was characterized as defensive and a follow-up to the IMCMEX 12 exercise held last September, focused on keeping oil shipping lanes open by clearing mines that potentially Iran, or even guerrilla groups, might deploy to disrupt tanker traffic."This year's effort will reaffirm the ongoing, global cooperation that...

The United States expressed doubt on Monday (local time) about Iran's claim that it safely returned a monkey from space, saying it is questionable that the monkey survived - or if the flight happened at all.

After Iran announced last week that it had launched a monkey into space, web sleuths compared before and after photos of the furry astronaut and cried hoax. They claimed the monkey that made public appearances after the space flight in a bespoke suit looked nothing like the animal that had...

The cost of living the Australian dream has surged with Sydney and Melbourne among the five most expensive cities in the world, outstripping most European and U.S. locations, according to an annual survey released on Monday.

Dozens of inmates escaped from a Brazilian prison crawling through the sewage system, authorities said. Related Stories Soccer probe finds 680 games fixed Malala 'getting better day by day' Send me into space says Ahmadinejad Child killer asks for his freedom Pakistan is closer to Taliban deal

It's hard to get a handle on it — few Israelis are willing to talk about it on the record — but there's been a palpable shift in thinking in Israel about launching an airstrike on Iran. Nowhere more than in the counter-terrorism community itself.

Judging by its expanding nuclear program, harsh sanctions against Iran have done little but impose hardship on its people, while diplomacy has also failed to slow the Islamic Republic's atomic progress.

>Asked in an interview on the Al Mayadeen news channel whether he would visit Gaza while in Cairo next week or before his term as president expires in June, he replied: "My wish is bigger than this. I wish to pray in Jerusalem after complete liberation."Iran does not recognize...

Wheat futures edged lower on forecasts that rain will fall in Kansas and Nebraska in the coming days, helping the outlook for this year's crop.The price of wheat for March delivery fell 2 cents to $7.63 ...

The Navy destroyer USS Gridley is scheduled to return to its homeport of San Diego Tuesday following a six-month independent deployment to the Middle East.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei turned to social media recently. Meanwhile, Iran's government has stepped up efforts to identify and target online pro-democracy activists. Analysts say the government is using increasingly sophisticated methods to shrink the online space for free expression.

A U.S. business group voiced concern Monday over market access barriers in China, which it said likely contributed to a drop in foreign investment there last year.

Mary Bruce reports President Obama signed the ”No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013,” suspending the debt limit for another three months. Super Bowl Ads: Politics Upstage Products - http://abcn.ws/12o2FpT (Alisa Wiersema) ‘Murder-apolis’ No More? – President Obama took his plan to overhaul the nation’s gun laws on...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged regional countries on Monday to work for unity in Iraq, which has seen weeks of protests against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, warning that any disturbance there would affect the whole Middle East.

ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek prosecutor ordered an investigation on Monday into whether four suspected bank robbers were beaten in custody, after police published mug shots that were altered to make their injuries appear less severe. Related Stories Iran's Salehi says U.S. is changing approach to Tehran Draghi informed...

John McCain was slammed for a “racist” joke he made on Twitter on Monday. The joke referred to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a “monkey.” McCain’s tweet came with the news that Ahmadinejad wants to be Iran’s first human in space, but that the Middle Eastern nation sent a...

Associated Press (AP) Syria's defense minister signaled Monday that his country won't hit back at Israel over an airstrike inside Syria, claiming the Israeli raid was …

John Kerry, freshly installed as secretary of state, spoke with the Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

Iran's foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi has been speaking to euronews on the margins of a security conference in Munich. The former head of the…

Canada has begun phasing-out its penny, whose production costs have come to exceed its monetary value.

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Three Kapampangan filmmakers have made it to the annual Cinema Rehiyon Film Festival in Los Baños, Laguna on February 5 to 9 representing Pampanga's best talents in local filmmaking. The event is in celebration of the National Arts Month organized by National Commission...

TEHRAN, Iran — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that he's ready to take the risk of being the first Iranian astronaut sent into space as part of Iran's goal of a manned space flight. "I'm ready to be the first Iranian to sacrifice myself for our country's...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that he's ready to take the risk of being the first Iranian astronaut sent into space as part of Iran's goal of a manned space flight.

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia is likely to maintain the zero export tax for crude palm oil (CPO) for the third [...]

NEW YORK — Oil prices fell to nearly $96 a barrel Monday on signs that the U.S. and Iran may restart talks about Iran's nuclear program. In New York benchmark oil for March delivery dropped by $1.60 to finish at $96.17 a barrel.

Sen. John McCain came under fire Monday after posting a tweet that compared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the monkey the Iranian government allegedly launched into space last week. "So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space — wasn't he just there last week?" Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican,...

>President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be the first Iranian head of state to visit Egypt since the 1979 Iranian revolution, which led to a rupture in diplomatic relations between two of the most influential states in the Middle East. He is due to attend a two-day Islamic summit in Cairo that...

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrives at the African Union headquarters to attend the union Summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, in this Jan. 25, 2013 file photo.

As outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey made media rounds on Sunday, they brought a joint message: the U.S. is not leaving Afghanistan in 2014. Speaking to CNN's Candy Crowley on Sunday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dempsey dismissed the idea of a...

The Energy Department has been hit by a major cyber-attack which resulted in the personal information of several hundred employees being compromised and could have been aimed at obtaining other sensitive information, The Washington Free Beacon reports. 

Secretary of State John Kerry said he has “big heels to fill” and recalled a childhood brush with Communism in first-day remarks to State Department employees that gave no indication of changes he may envision for U.S. foreign policy.

Emirates National Oil Co., Dubai’s government-owned refiner, agreed to buy 20,000 barrels a day of condensate from Qatar under an annual contract as it cuts fuel imports from Iran because of international sanctions.

Editor: Jon Boyle + 44 207 542 7918 Global Picture Desk: + 65 6870 3775 Global Graphics Desk: + 65 6870 3595 (All times GMT/ET) TOP STORIES European investigators expose huge soccer match fixing THE HAGUE - European investigators have uncovered evidencethat hundreds of soccer matches at club and national...

* Anti-al Qaeda Sahwa militia often targeted in past * Seventh suicide bombing in a month * Syria's crisis increasing sectarian tensions in Iraq (Updates death toll, adds details) BAGHDAD, Feb 4 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber attacked agovernment-backed militia in Iraq on Monday, killing at least 22people in an...

Also: Malala, Pakistani girl shot by Taliban, speaks out; Iran says Israel will regret strike on Syria; hostage situation continues in Alabama, where a 5-year-old boy has been held for almost a week. read more

>"The army of Syria is big enough, they do not need fighters from outside," Salehi told a conference in Berlin when asked if Tehran was providing military assistance to Assad."We are giving them (Assad's government) economic support, we are sending gasoline, we are sending wheat. We are trying to...

>VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran could be able to make thousands of next-generation uranium enrichment machines, according to a former chief U.N. inspector, adding credibility to Tehran's claims of technical advances in its disputed nuclear program. As Iran and world powers prepare to resume talks aimed at easing a dispute...

>MUNICH (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it was open to a U.S. offer of direct talks on its nuclear program and that six world powers had suggested a new round of nuclear negotiations this month, but without committing itself to either proposal. Diplomatic efforts to resolve a dispute...

The region's GDP will grow by 5 per cent in 2013 and 5.7 per cent in 2014.

Western states are sceptical about Iran’s commitment to talks

Israel arrested 23 Hamas members in the occupied West Bank today, including three who sit on the Palestinian Authority Legislative Council. Related Stories Cleric's release after murder case sparks anger The mystery of the Iran space monkey is solved - the pictures showed the wrong animal, say Iranian officials Video:...

“Ahmet Davutoglu, who used be a serious scholar, appears to be emulating his conceited Prime Minister,” Sassounian says.

>* Middle East tensions fuel supply worries* Coming Up: U.S. durable goods, factory orders at 1500 GMT (Updates throughout, changes dateline, previous SINGAPORE)LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Brent crude oil consolidated above $116 per barrel on Monday, not far off 4-1/2 month highs, on signs of improving economic growth...

MURPHYS - Calaveras County residents responded with shock and grief Sunday as they learned that a Little League coach, author and former airline pilot had shot his two teenage children to death and then turned the gun on himself at their home in one of...

TEHRAN, Feb. 4 (MNA) – The Iranian administration and the parliament have decided to pay cash assistance to 60 million Iranians on the verge of the new Iranian calendar year.

The review came as the US Department of Defense approved a five-fold expansion of its cybersecurity force over the coming years in a bid to increase its ability to defend critical computer networks.

MUNICH - Israel's defense minister strongly signaled Sunday that his country was behind an air strike last week in Syria, telling a high-profile security conference that Israeli threats to take preemptive action against its enemies were not empty. "We mean it," Ehud Barak declared.

Can a Rutgers University professor win over voters in his homeland and be elected the next president of Iran? Hooshang Amirahmadi, of Rutgers' Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy in New Brunswick, says his candidacy is a serious attempt to build bridges between the Islamic republic and...

The 3.5km railway link from Vientiane to the Thai border will be able to handle freight by 2015, news reports in Laos said Monday. Laos would build the required facilities at its end of the ...

Syria's two key allies approve of an opposition figure's offer of conditional talks with the government of President Bashar Assad. BEIRUT — A faint glimmer of hope of breaking the diplomatic standoff on Syria has emerged as two key allies, Russia and Iran, reacted positively to a leading opposition figure's...

TEHRAN, Feb 4 (Bernama) -- Head of Iran's Crisis Management Organisation Hassan Qadami said that Islamic Republic is cooperating with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the field of reducing the risk of unprecedented incidents, Iran's IRNA reported.

WASHINGTON (AP) — New Secretary of State John Kerry will be introducing himself to his agency's employees Monday after spending much of the weekend making connections with leaders around the world.