News Archive - 8 June 2011

>VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC talks broke down in acrimony Wednesday without an agreement to raise output after Saudi Arabia failed to convince the oil cartel to lift production. "We were unable to reach an agreement -- this is one of the worst meetings we have ever had," said Ali al-Naimi,...

TEHRAN — Not participating in the 2012 London Olympics is a nightmare for every serious athlete, but for the Iranian women’s soccer team the defeat was extra bitter after they were disqualified right before a crucial qualifying match because they wore Islamic headscarves. Read the whole story...

VIENNA (Amena Bakr and Emma Farge) - OPEC talks broke down in acrimony Wednesday without an agreement to raise output after Saudi Arabia failed to convince the oil cartel to lift production. "We were unable to reach an agreement -- this is one of the worst meetings we have...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will soon install more advanced centrifuges at its new uranium enrichment site, the country's nuclear chief said Wednesday, underscoring Tehran's continued defiance in the face of international sanctions imposed over its controversial nuclear program. Vice President Fereidoun Abbasi also announced that Iran plans to triple...

> "OPEC, led by Iran and Venezuela, has snubbed its nose at the United States and the rest of the Western nations addicted to OPEC oil," Markey, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, said in a release. "This is a clear sign that America must engage in a...

> Secretary General Abdullah El-Badri said the effective decision was no change in policy and that OPEC hoped to meet again in three months time. No date has been set for another meeting. "Unfortunately we are unable to reach a consensus to reduce or raise production," El-Badri told reporters. Gulf...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oil consuming nations reacted with dismay to OPEC's failure to agree an increase in output on Wednesday, with the International Energy Agency urging key members to hike production anyway and an influential U.S. lawmaker suggesting Washington may tap strategic stocks. The quick response to an extraordinary...

>"We were unable to reach an agreement -- this is one of the worst meetings we have ever had," Naimi said.Naimi said that Saudi Arabia was committed to supply the oil market with whatever oil it needed.He said four Gulf Arab countries -- also including the UAE, Kuwait...

>OPEC's official output ceiling, in place since December 2008, stands at 24.84 million barrels per day. Actual output from the 11 group members with production targets was at 26.23 million bpd in May, according to a Reuters survey.FOR AN INCREASE* SAUDI ARABIA - Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi...

>Secretary General Abdullah El-Badri said the effective decision was no change in policy and that OPEC hoped to meet again in three months time to assess the situation.Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers had been seeking to push through an increase to help the economies of consumer nations, but...

>VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC's shock failure on Wednesday to reach agreement breaks with a long tradition of putting output policy above even the most intense political rivalries. Turmoil across the Arab world and a deepening divide between OPEC's two biggest members Saudi Arabia and Iran was always expected to complicate...

> "This year, under the supervision of the (International Atomic Energy) Agency, we will transfer 20 percent enrichment from the Natanz site to the Fordow site and we will increase the production capacity by three times," the head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, told reporters after a cabinet...

Rhubarb is a group of plants that belong to the genus Rheum in the family Polygonaceae. They are herbaceous perennial plants growing from short, thick rhizomes. Although the leaves are toxic, various parts of the plants have culinary and medicinal uses. -Hossein Hosseinzadeh

Deputy FM Sergey Manasaryan noted the progress in social and economic cooperation achieved during Romania’s 6-month BSEC chairmanship.

Amnesty International, in collaboration with the Iranian activist community in NYC and a number of Hollywood luminaries, is carrying out an action on Wednesday, June 8 at the Iran Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan, located at 622 Third Avenue.

Mehdi Mahmoudian, the jailed Iranian journalist who recently exposed the prevalence of sexual abuse in Iranian prisons, has been transferred to solitary confinement again. The Tahavol-e Sabz opposition website reports that officials at Rejai Shahr Prison transferred Mahmoudian yesterday without any explanation.

Palestinian activists adapt tactics from uprisings to their own struggle, as tide of Pan-Arabism brings popular support.

Is Iraq the new Saudi Arabia of oil? Yes, no, and maybe. Yes, they're looking at massive oil reserves that are high grade and easy to reach, at a time when analysts worry Saudi Arabia is beyond its peak (the exact status is a closely-guarded secret).

VIENNA (Reuters) - The European Union voiced deep concern Wednesday over Iran's announcement it would increase its capacity to produce higher-grade enriched uranium, saying Tehran was increasing its defiance of the U.N. Security Council.

OPEC unexpectedly left its production levels unchanged on Wednesday, causing oil prices to jump, as senior officials said their meeting ended in disarray - a stunning admission for an organization that places a premium on consensus decision making.

GOSHEN, Ind. -- Goshen College, a Mennonite school in Indiana, is coming under fire for its decision to ban the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at sporting events because -in the school's view- the song is too violent.