News Archive - 16 May 2011

>ASHGABAT (Reuters) - The United States has appointed its first ambassador to Turkmenistan in five years, the U.S. Embassy said on Monday, boosting ties with the reclusive Central Asian state as its companies pursue lucrative oil and gas deals. Robert Patterson has been appointed for three years, the embassy...

> Vitol rival Trafigura expressed interest in early April in exporting oil from the eastern towns of Benghazi or Tobruk but has so far held off, traders say. The firm declined official comment. Even Vitol, which, like other oil trading firms tends to have a greater appetite for risk than...

> "I am the caretaker of the Oil Ministry," state television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. (Editing by Anthony Barker)...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's bid this week to reconnect with the Arab world after the killing of Osama bin Laden poses a daunting challenge complicated by an uneven U.S. response to the region's uprisings and his failure to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace. Obama on Thursday will give his...

Palestinian activists are calling it a preview of new tactics to pressure Israel and win world support for statehood: Masses of marchers, galvanized by the Arab Spring and brought together by Facebook, descending on borders and military posts - and daring Israeli soldiers to shoot.

Bruce Kent gave the following talk at the 25th anniversary celebration of Vocation for Justice, the Columban Missionary Society’s Justice and Peace Newsletter on Friday He is the vice-president of Pax Christi, the Movement for the Abolition of War and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

by Eric Arnold, Media Consortium blogger Another day, another media mega-merger. The latest? Microsoft is buying Skype, the Internet communications company, for $8.5 billion. So...

Change ends nationality-based screening that left companies exposed to human rights violations

BAGHDAD — Five weeks after the Iraqi army mounted a lethal assault on Iranian dissidents who've been stranded in a sealed-off camp north of Baghdad since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the U.S. government has offered to help relocate the 3,400 residents elsewhere in the country to avert a...

Agencies/Tehran Iran yesterday ordered the return home of two boats carrying Iranian “activists” to Bahrain to express solidarity with Shia-led protests there, the English-language Press TV said.

US lawmakers unveiled legislation Monday to tighten economic sanctions on Iran, looking to drag Tehran to talks on its suspect nuclear programs and to punish alleged human rights violators.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) - Diego Maradona was hired Monday to coach the United Arab Emirates club Al Wasl, marking the Argentine great's return to coaching since leading his country to the World Cup quarterfinals last year. He signed a two-year contract and will be in charge when the...

A public spat between Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the country's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made international headlines last week. Politics is rarely ever a harmonious business in any country, so why the brouhaha over this particular stand-off? To be sure, the disagreement itself was an unusual occurrence.

>MAROUN AL-RAS, Beirut (Reuters) - The Israeli army fired on a demonstration at a Lebanese border village on Sunday, killing 10 Palestinians marking the "catastrophe" of Israel's founding in 1948, security sources and the Lebanese army said. Israeli forces opened fire at similar demonstrations at its frontiers with Syria and...

>CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab states picked Egypt's foreign minister on Sunday to lead the Arab League during a period of unprecedented turmoil in the region and after last minute diplomacy left only one candidate in the race. Nabil Elaraby, nominated shortly before foreign ministers confirmed his appointment, takes over from...

>The Times said it obtained documents that showed the unit being formed by Erik Prince's new company Reflex Responses with $529 million from the UAE would be used to thwart internal revolt, conduct special operations and defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from attack.The newspaper said the decision to hire...

>CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) - Arrested along with Jafar Panahi while they were preparing a new film, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has succeeded, under what the Cannes Film Festival refers to as "semi-clandestine conditions," in completing "Goodbye," a dark tale focusing on a young woman lawyer and openly attacking the blind...

>JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot Palestinian protesters who surged toward its frontiers with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 13 people on the day Palestinians mourn the establishment of Israel in 1948. In the deadliest such confrontation in years of anniversary clashes usually confined to the...