News Archive - 31 October 2014

>* Western states call for freedom of expression and religion* U.S. urges release of Washington Post journalist (Adds quotes by activists and former lawyer of Jabbari)By Stephanie NebehayGENEVA, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Iran defended itself on Friday against Western accusations of repression and a sharp rise in executions, including...

>* BNP says could consider bolt-on deals* Says talk of interest in Italy's Monte Paschi is "speculation"* BNP to hold anayst conf call at 1300 GMT (Updates with market reaction, details)By Maya Nikolaeva and Matthias BlamontPARIS, Oct 31 (Reuters) - France's No. 1 bank BNP Paribas returned to net profit...

>ARBIL Iraq (Reuters) - Cloaked in Kurdish flags, thousands of people lined the roads to cheer on a military convoy headed for what was -- until recently -- an obscure Syrian border town, now the focus of a global war against the militants of Islamic State. The Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga...

Global powers wrestling to hammer out a ground-breaking deal with Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions are moving complex talks into high gear with a "critical" three weeks left for an accord.

Despite frustrations, Mr. Obama would be wise to try to smooth things over.

GREECE: The European Union on Thursday carried out its biggest exercise to prevent cyber-attacks on Europe's public utilities and communications networks.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is traveling to Europe, Asia and the Middle East for a series of meetings on numerous issues. In the Mideast, Kerry will visit Oman for a trilateral meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and EU rep Catherine Ashton on the Iran’s nuclear...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities are investigating London-based Standard Chartered Plc for potential U.S. sanctions violations connected to its banking for Iranian-controlled entities in Dubai, according to people familiar with the probe.

A new voice in Iranian nuclear talks

What do playing the flute, sharing an omelette and sitting on a tarpaulin all have in common - apart from being things you might do at a hippy picnic?

>Kerry's talks in Muscat, Oman with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif and the EU's Catherine Ashton are due to take place two weeks before a Nov. 24 deadline to complete an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. (Reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Warren Strobel; Editing by Diane Craft) FILED UNDER:...

there is a dark side to low gas prices

Comedian Jon Stewart tackles a serious true story as the writer and director of "Rosewater".

New York City has the safest metro system for female travellers while Bogota's public transport is the least safe, a new survey suggests

This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place every weekday morning. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more...

Deputy National Security Adviser and MFA in creative writing Ben Rhodes likened an Iranian nuclear deal to ObamaCare in a talk to progressive activists last January, according to audio obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

LONDON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The following table shows OPEC crude oil output in millions of barrels per day (bpd) in October and September, according to a Reuters survey published on Friday. The survey indicates output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has fallen by 120,000 bpd in...

Brent crude headed for a sixth weekly loss, the longest losing streak since 2002, as OPEC boosted production to a 14-month high amid a global surplus. West Texas Intermediate was on track for its biggest monthly decline in more than two years.

Members of OPEC, the group that supplies 40 percent of the world’s oil, are engaged in an internal price war as they seek to preserve their share of an oversupplied market, Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said.

Vienna, Oct 31 (IANS/WAM): The basket of 12 crude oils of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) closed at $82.79 a barrel Thursday compared to $83.24 Wednesday, the OPEC Secretariat said.

"Unbeknownst to most Americans the United States is presently under thirty presidential declared states of emergency.

When documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras was approached by an anonymous whistle-blower calling himself Citizenfour, he warned her to upgrade her computer security substantially if she wanted to evade government surveillance.

Thirty-six years ago, robbers took priceless items – three swords and two daggers and their scabbards, encrusted with jewels – from the Truman Library in Independence.They are still missing, and a cable television show is trying to bring new attention to the issue.“It’s, I guess, kind of a...

Beijing/Kabul, Oct 31: Afghanistan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Friday called upon the Taliban group to join the peace process in the country as the group has stepped up its insurgency activities across the country.Without making any specific proposals for joining the

The latest absurdity coming out of Ukraine, the EU and Washington is that the humanitarian aid that Russia and the Red Cross are trucking into the former Russian territories that comprise eastern Ukraine is a trick, a deception, a pretext for Russia’s invasion forces. Such a preposterous lie tells us...

>TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian buyers of Iranian crude imported 6.6 percent less in September than a year ago, the first on-year decline since December, but shipments rose back above the 1 million barrels-per-day mark allowed under a deal that eased Western sanctions. World powers are negotiating to strike a...

This week’s Apple Loop covers Forbes’ iPad Air 2 review, no plans for a cheap iPhone, Apple Pay vs CurrentC, why the iPod died, sapphire screens, widgets in the app store, moving into Iran, more iAd countries, and Tim Cook's personal statement.

Quarterly results mark a return to net profit for the bank after it was fined $8.9 billion fine for breaking sanctions against Sudan, Cuba and Iran.

Coach Roelof Kotze hopes to make up for poor form on first leg of long road to Rio Olympics

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Islamic State leader Caliph Ibrahim - aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - never ceases to amaze us - and most of all his powerful petrodollar-stuffed backers. The Caliph is for all practical purposes now an oil major worth of membership of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). His takfiri...

Madrid, Oct 31 (IANS/EFE) The Syrian city of Kobane, where resistance against jihadis of the Islamic State (IS) has become a symbol of Kurdish unity, is also an unprecedented example of equality for its women, who fight side by side with men in the streets.