News Archive - 27 February 2014

>* Global surplus oil capacity inches up in Jan, Feb -EIA* Iran's oil fleet looks to come in from cold as exports pick up* Brent targets $107.85-$108.11 range -technicalsBy Manash GoswamiSINGAPORE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Brent crude futures slipped on Friday below $109 a barrel on expectations demand...

>WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM Feb 28 (Reuters) - For years, Israeli leaders visiting Washington have been boosted by America's main pro-Israel lobby, its influence on U.S. Middle East policy long accepted as a matter of conventional wisdom. But when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses an annual convention of Israel's U.S. supporters...

>* Imports confirm tanker data showing rising Iranian shipments* Second payment on frozen oil receipts due on SatBy Aaron SheldrickTOKYO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Asian buyers increased purchases of Iranian crude by 22 percent in January from a year ago as the grip of sanctions imposed since 2012 loosened following...

>* Term crude made up about 53 pct of 2013 Iraqi crude imports* Iraq since 2011 ranks as fourth-biggest crude supplier to S.Korea* Iraq crude replaces Iran barrels, beats out oil from Qatar, OmanBy Florence Tan and Meeyoung ChoSINGAPORE/SEOUL, Feb 28 (Reuters) - South Korean refiners are set to...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has lauded the Islamic Republic’s enormous deterrence power, stressing that such power stops enemies from engaging in adventurism against Iran.

>"Atletico Paranaense announces that the test game to be played for the 2014 World Cup meeting all FIFA's recommendations will take place on March 29, 2014," the club said in a statement on its website on Thursday."The stadium will host a game between the under-23 team and an as...

>LONDON Feb 27 (Reuters) - Iran's oil tanker fleet is gearing up for more business, with some vessels taking to the high seas after over more than a year at home ports, another sign that an easing in Western sanctions is enabling exports to begin to pick up. Iran and...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans blocked legislation on Thursday that would have expanded federal healthcare and education programs for veterans, saying the $24 billion bill would bust the budget. Even though the legislation cleared a procedural vote on Tuesday by a 99-0 vote, the measure quickly got bogged...

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, Hollywood I do go. Golden land of oranges and syringes. Where car parks have valet mugging. Where boobs are so big they have their own ZIP...

Woody Allen: “Has anybody read that the Nazis are going to march in New Jersey? You know, I read this in the newspaper. We should go down there, get some...

Interview with 20-year-old table tennis player from West Bengal, Krittwika Sinha Roy

You can trace the history of India through its postage stamps. But what of the dramatic history of the Indian post and its ancestor, the dak runner? An excerpt from a new book that intertwines both narratives.

By Ayla Jean Yackley MIDYAT, Turkey (Reuters) - When Louis Bandak fled the violence in Syria, he sought refuge in the country his grandfather was forced to abandon exactly 90 years ago this week. Bandak, his wife and two daughters are part of a small but growing trickle of Christians...

Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell walks through the Capitol to attend a meeting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on November 13, 2012 in Washington. Morell was called on to fill in as acting CIA Director after the resignation of David Petraeus.

What if antivirus companies are whitelisting state malware... TrustyCon A surprising number of governments are now deploying their own custom malware – and the end result could be chaos for the rest of us, F-Secure's malware chief Mikko Hyppönen told the TrustyCon conference in San Francisco on Thursday.…

With Iran facing a critical shortage of water, this report argues the conservation measures the government is taking may not be enough.

Samoa will host the first United Nations Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Conference to be held in the Pacific region, estimated to bring over 3,000 delegates to Apia in six months time.

Nymphomaniac: One Night Stand | Keswick film festival | Borderlines film festival | Pan-Asia film festival Nymphomaniac: One Night Stand, Nationwide That Lars von Trier, he's a naughty one, eh? And befitting its subject matter, his latest grandiose provocation has been preceded by a prolonged foreplay-session of teaser trailers and...

U.S Secretary of State John Kerry comments on Gary Locke's tenure as Ambassador to China.

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) - Dozens of armed men in military uniforms seized an airport in the capital of Ukraine's strategic Crimea region early Friday, a report said.

The mission of the Imam Hussein is recounted in a spectacular religious epic from Iran read more

White House says administration watching closely trial of Al Jazeera staff and called for press freedom.

Exclusive: A shadow foreign policy apparatus built by Ronald Reagan for the Cold War survives to this day as a slush fund that keeps American neocons well fed and still destabilizes target nations, now including Ukraine, creating a crisis that undercuts President Obama, reports Robert Parry.

If proven authentic, these calls could foment the political revolution that the Turkish opposition has sought in vain for almost a dozen years.

Feb. 28, 2014, 12:28 p.m. Washington: When Irakli Garibashvili was a child, his native Georgia was just beginning to recover from decades as an impoverished Soviet satellite. His house had no electricity or gas, and he studied by candlelight.

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) - Masked gunmen stormed parliament in Ukraine's strategic Crimea region Thursday as Russian fighter jets scrambled to patrol borders, the stirrings of a potentially dangerous confrontation reminiscent of Cold War brinksmanship.

Tony Mendez and his wife, Jonna, recounted the real-life story that was used as the basis for the blockbuster film “Argo” Wednesday night in front of about 250 people at Colorado State University-Pueblo’s Occhiato Ballroom.

NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC sharply criticized Amnesty International for its new report on Israeli military activities in the West Bank. "Sadly but tellingly, starting with the title, this Amnesty International report has all the hallmarks of those groups...

A divided Senate on Thursday derailed Democratic legislation that would have provided $21 billion for medical, education and job-training benefits for the nation's veterans. The bill fell victim to election-year...

The evidenced-based views of parliamentarians need to be heeded during the Conference on Population and Development at the UN in New York this April.

The European Union (EU) with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) have signed a financing agreement for Adapting to Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (ACSE) programme worth FJ$90.8m.

The United States on Thursday denounced what it said was the growing use of security forces by repressive regimes to crackdown on a worldwide groundswell of pro-democracy protests. "The fundamental struggle for dignity, for decency in the treatment of human beings... is a driving force in all of human history,"...

Defiant crowds may destroy an old regime, but seldom do they build a new one that endures.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea confirmed Friday that rival North Korea fired four short-range Scud missiles into the sea a day earlier in an apparent attempt to protest against ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises that Pyongyang calls a rehearsal for invasion. The launches, however, weren't expected...

Heads of fisheries from the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu met this week in Honiara with a high-level team from Japan to talk over development funding for regional fisheries.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Consideration of new U.S. economic sanctions on Iran drew fire Thursday from bipartisan leaders on Capitol Hill and veterans' affairs supporters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A chemicals weapons attack in Syria last summer that the U.S. says killed more than 1,400 people was the world's worst human rights violation of 2013, the Obama administration concluded Thursday.        

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkey’s extraordinary corruption scandal deepened Thursday with the publication of a new audio recording purporting to show Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan instructing his son to hold out for a larger bribe on a business deal.

Angry funeral held for man rumored to have sung anti-Shiite song as Syrian war inflames Beirut        

BEIRUT: Hezbollah threatened Wednesday to retaliate after Israel’s first reported air raid on a position of the Shiite movement inside Lebanon since a 2006 war between them.

>ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is likely to start ordering F-35 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) from 2015 onwards and it will start with two orders initially, Turkey's undersecretary for state-run defense industries Murad Bayar said on Thursday. "We will start F-35 orders either this year or...

WPP today reported its 2013 Preliminary Results.

A court in Egypt on Thursday suspended the espionage trial of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi after defence lawyers requested that the judges in the case withdraw. The case, one of three already opened against Morsi, comes amid a relentless government crackdown targeting him and his Muslim Brotherhood movement since...

TEHRAN, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The ground is laid to bring some of the largest energy companies in the world back to the Iranian oil sector, an Oil Ministry contract adviser said.

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Saudi-India JV to create Dubai as hub for rice distribution

Fruit Chan's "The Midnight After" will be the second opening film, while Iran's Asghar Farhadi, French actress Isabelle Huppert, fashion designer Agnès B, and China's Jiang Wen will get special showcases. read more

>* Aiming progress on missile talks with China in April* Turkey to seek compensation from Airbus over late deliveryBy Tulay KaradenizANKARA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Turkey is likely to start ordering F-35 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp from 2015 onwards and it will start with two orders initially,...

>VIENNA/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog planned a major report on Iran that might have revealed more of its suspected atomic bomb research, but held off as Tehran's relations with the outside world thawed, sources familiar with the matter said. Such a report - to have been...