News Archive - 16 August 2011

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran's internal power struggles are shifting into election mode with hard-line political forces banding together to groom candidates for next year's parliamentary elections and punish allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

>"Speaking about the information in the U.S. media about an asymmetrical response, a cutback in cooperation over Afghanistan, Iran, the Middle East, then there is nothing more far from reality than such speculations," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.The 2009 death...

>BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's bloodiest day this year delivered a deadly reminder to the government and departing U.S. troops that al Qaeda affiliates can still stage complex, coordinated attacks and test security forces with widespread destruction. Suicide bombers, car bombs and roadside explosives hit more than a dozen Iraqi...

Iranian media affiliated to the Islamic regime have been accused of using library images from different times and locations in Britain and other parts of the world to portray the UK riots as "the uprising of the oppressed against the British monarchy".

>A full and prolonged closure of the 700,000 tonne-per-year paraxylene plant, which is China's leading importer of heavy naphtha, would mean additional supply would become available in the Asian market, which is now short of heavy naphtha.Authorities in Dalian in northeast Liaoning province ordered Dalian Fujia Petrochemical Co Ltd...

>AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian tanks opened fire on poor Sunni districts in Latakia on Tuesday, residents said, the fourth day of a military assault on the northern port city aimed at crushing protests demanding an end to 41 years of Assad family rule. President Bashar al-Assad, from Syria's minority Alawites,...

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There’s no doubting the incredible work ethic of the Southbank Jester, Andrew Bolt, which is why we’ve decided to dedicate a thread to him each week where you can discuss his unique contributions to public discussion.

Lebanese Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn has praised Iran's support for his country's independence and dignity, expressing optimism about his visit to Tehran in a near future.

Tehran - Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Ramin Mehmanparast in his weekly press conference said Tuesday that seeking reparation from Iraq is an issue which will be discussed in due time.

London - Iran has paid tribute to BBC sound recordist Cyril Roy Benford, who passed away earlier this year after being among the many thousands of victims of chemical weapons attacks carried out by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Australia's immigration system and its detainees were under considerable strain, documents showed Wednesday, with self-harm reports surging 12-fold as waiting times stretched to almost a year.

Tehran - Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to be placed among top five military powers. He made the remarks in a meeting with military experts.

DUBAI - UAE non-oil foreign trade has risen for Q1 2011 compared to the same quarter of the last year. Federal Customs Authority Federal Customs Authority ( FCA FCA ) preliminary statistics showed that UAE non-oil foreign trade has grown for the said period by 25 percent compared to the...

TEHRAN - Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Danaiifar said on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic has never interfered in internal affairs of Iraq and Kuwait.

TEHRAN - The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and a consortium of Iranian companies signed a $1.6 billion contract to develop the third phase of the Darkhovin oilfield.

TEHRAN - The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has warned that it will stop the $500b oil deal with Belarus oil company, because of the disagreements over development of the project, Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, Aug 17, 2011 (AFP) - Russia pressed ahead Wednesday with its drive to revive the stalled nuclear talks between Iran and Western powers after the Islamic state's president said he backed Moscow's new crisis proposals.

TEHRAN - Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani has expressed hope that Tehran will appoint an ambassador to Buenos Aires in the near future.

Kuala Lumpur (The Star/ANN) - The relief is reminiscent of wood carvings, words overlapping like waves. Drawing on skills practised and perfected over the centuries, Mohammad Reza Amuzaad¿s works are created with modern technology, a white and sleek relief made of fibreglass.

No frills airline, AirAsia Bhd, will charge a RM10 check-in fee per passenger for all flights whose bookings are made from Sept 21 onwards to check in via conventional check-in counters. The airline said the additional charge was part of its plan to aggressively grow revenue through ancillary income and...

Over the past four months Mahmoud Abbas has dug himself into a very deep hole in the Palestinian West Bank. Next month, he will try to blast himself out with what he hopes will be a controlled explosion — mass demonstrations by Palestinians that, he supposes, will neither turn against...

After nearly a decade of development, the U.S. Air Force has ordered eight MOP (massive ordnance penetrator) GBU-57A/B bunker buster bombs. These 14 ton weapons cost $3.5 million each.

No one's still standing on the moral high ground in this BART debacle. Not the protesters who chose to vent their outrage by hammering on ticket machines. Not the group of hackers who leaked private information in the...

Analysts are rightfully skeptical of recent efforts to reboot the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program. [1] Neither Seoul's offer of a "grand bargain" nor Washington's "partial approach" will fundamentally change Pyongyang's historical position on nuclear weapons.

Security forces finished their mission in Syria's coastal city of Latakia by "putting an end to the armed terrorist groups who terrified the safe citizens by their criminal acts" and were pulling out, the state-run news agency reported.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has praised the friendly relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia.

Persepolis' hopes for a maiden victory in the fourth week of Iran's Premier League (IPL) have been dashed by the league bottom-rooted club Mes Sarcheshmeh.

In the wake of recent civil unrest, the thought of government's trumping bad behavior with worse rules is disturbing. In the wake of recent civil unrest, the thought of government's trumping bad behavior with worse rules is disturbing.

BENGHAZI, Aug 17, 2011 (AFP) - Libya's rebels were bolstered by fresh battlefield advances Wednesday, as leaders claimed the six-month-old civil war had entered a decisive phase and could end within weeks.

Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili says Tehran and the P5+1 group can work together based on a dialogue-cooperation strategy.

Stolen food sold in Mogadishu markets amounts to no more than 1% of total assistance, says World Food Programme spokesman The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has rejected as implausible a report of widespread food aid theft in Somalia, where more than 3.2 million people are relying on a...

Book Passage in Corte Madera offers free author readings and other free events open to the public.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have denounced the West's "imperialist aggression" in Libya and Syria, the foreign ministry in Caracas said Tuesday.

Pictures portraying riots as anti-royal revolt include images from 2008 Notting Hill Carnival, the miners' strike and even Chile Iranian media affiliated to the Islamic regime have been accused of using library images from different times and locations in Britain and other parts of the world to portray the UK...

Iran's Red Crescent Society (IRCS) plans to dispatch the fourth batch of its humanitarian aid to the famine-stricken Somalia in the coming days.

Errant boys have been running through our nation’s best novels for a long time. Hemingway famously declared that “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn’,” and whether you agree with that or not, boys — and men who still act like them —...

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi is scheduled to pay a visit to the famine-ravaged country of Somalia in the near future and assess the situation there.

Heavy machine-gun fire rang out across the besieged Syrian city of Latakia Tuesday as the death toll from a four-day military assault rose to 35. The British foreign secretary said President Bashar Assad was losing “the last shreds of his legitimacy.”

According to him, in the composition of the delegation of the Armenian communities abroad, other than athletes who came to their historical homeland and over 10 thousand tourists.

By Gonzalo Lira Letter To George Washington, Regarding Paul Krugman I wrote a letter to George Washington, the pseudonym for a well-known finance and economics blogger , with regards to a blog post he wrote on August 15.   The letter might sound a bit like score-settling—but there is a...

A bizarre beast said to combine the characteristics of a kangaroo, dog, rat and deer was captured last week by workers at Prince George’s Hospital Center in Maryland near Washington, D.C.

Human-rights organisations have criticised the Edinburgh International Festival for using cash support from the Chinese government to help bankroll the event.

Theresa May said the curfews would ban the public from entering certain areas at certain times, allowing officers to clear the streets, while anyone found breaching the orders could be arrested.

DYSON, the eponymous vacuum cleaner maker, made record profits last year but has warned that a lack of skilled engineers in Britain may one day force the company abroad.

by PaloAltoOnline.com Talk: 'The WISE view of the Solar System' Joseph Masiero of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will discuss "The WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) view of the Solar System" tomorrow (Aug. 17) at noon at SETI Institute, 189 Bernardo Ave., Mountain View. Author: Jafar Yaghoobi Jafar Yaghoobi...

After the Ames poll, pundits and the media pay little attention to Ron Paul's second place.

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/455e98/defense_and_securi) has announced the addition of the "Defense and Security in South Korea" report to their offering. South Korea, a sovereign nation, is located in the southern portion of the Korean peninsula in east of Asia. For quite some time now, the issues it...

If the world’s newly-emerging diplomatic coalition of India, Brazil and South Africa can stop a fourth Western-led attack on an Islamic country in a decade, it will be whispered in the portals of the United Nations headquarters in New York for some time that such a war was avoided by...

The Texan libertarian won't win the GOP nomination, but we lose by treating him as a pariah for asking hard questions of America For the last few days, the American media and political classes have been debating the fallout from the Ames straw poll : the Iowa ritual that marks...

Washington (AFP) Aug 16, 2011 US forces carried out two air strikes in June against militants targeting American troops, including one against an Iranian-backed militia, a spokesman for the military mission said Tuesday. The comments marked the first time the US military had acknowledged calling in air power recently against...

At the height of the Iranian hostage crisis, artist-turned CIA technical officer Tony Mendez pulled off a stunning ploy when he helped six American diplomats in the Canadian embassy in Tehran escape by disguising them as members of a Hollywood film crew.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for an end to the dollar dominance, as the US economic crisis would lead to further devaluation of the currency.

Kirschen Türkische Napoleon beherrschten kontinuierlich den Markt. Die Importe fielen aber immer geringer aus. Da das Interesse gleichzeitig nachließ, sahen die Händler von einem Anheben der Forderungen ab. Bei besonders großen Kalibern verlangte man in Berlin jedoch etwas mehr als in der Vorwoche.

Over the past four months Mahmoud Abbas has dug himself into a very deep hole in the Palestinian West Bank. Next month, he will try to blast himself out with what he hopes will be a controlled explosion — mass demonstrations by Palestinians that, he supposes, will neither turn against ...

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Tuesday he hoped Iran was not harboring fugitives accused of the 2005 assassination of his father, following the publishing of a report suggesting Tehran was linked to the killing of former statesman Rafik Hariri.

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: A former people smuggler could be almost half a million dollars richer if the Human Rights Commission has its way.

Yahoo! is asking Americans how September 11 changed them. Below is an account from a reader.

Night demonstrations held in several cities as military keeps up assault in Latakia, with deaths and arrests reported.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized more than $100,000 over the weekend from travelers coming into the country who failed to report the large sums of cash they were carrying.

Here revealed important nuances. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan stated that “the Syrian problem – it is an internal Turkish matter.” According to him, “we can not stand by and silently watch the proceedings.” By “internal affair of Turkey,” one can assume the following.

Famous and not so famous critics have pointed out in the past day that journalists for the most part have ignored Ron Paul even when he succeeds at a level other Republican presidential candidates haven't.As far as many political reporters have been concerned, the congressman might as well be...

Tehran (AFP) Aug 16, 2011 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday welcomed Russia's latest proposals for restarting talks on the Islamic republic's controversial atomic programme that were broken off in January. "Iran welcomes Russia's step-by-step proposal and is ready to make suggestions to cooperate," he said in a meeting with...

Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) (L) and Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) hold a news conference to introduce the 'Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act' at the U.S. Captiol.

At the height of the Iranian hostage crisis, artist-turned CIA technical officer Tony Mendez pulled off a stunning caper when he helped six American diplomats in the Canadian embassy in Tehran escape by disguising them as members of a Hollywood film crew.

A Conversation with Secretaries Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta Remarks Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta; Director of the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs Frank Sesno National Defense University Washington, DC August 16, 2011 var runVideo_4177277_pre = function() { if (typeof...

Lady Gaga delights fans by releasing her eagerly awaited music vid, "You and I" early.

Syrian forces have raked Latakia with heavy machine gun fire and pressed a crackdown in the port city, activists and residents say.

Today,  NPR  reported that kids living with unmarried, cohabitating parents are worse off than children of married parents. According to a new study , kids of unmarried parents are more likely to have trouble in school and experience psychological stress, physical abuse and poverty. The National Marriage Project and the...

. According to him, April 19, IRGC officers planned to “take the 130 government offices in Tehran.” They were unhappy, “orchestrated the election” of 2009 and the brutal suppression of statements “green opposition.”

In 1999, we visited Syria as well as Jordan, Israel, and Baalbeck in Lebanon. We arrived in Syria on the eve of the Israeli elections.

> So when a visiting Iranian businessman named Vazir Nia Mahzen made the news in Taipei the other day after losing his wallet in a local taxi, he was said by local people to look a lot like Gere. The media had a field day with the story -- even going so...

It’s high time to face an unpleasant fact: President Obama and Israel are not on the same page.

An argument against cuts to projected military spending that is sure to rear its ugly head is that this would cost American jobs. In the current political context, this "jobs" argument is 100% nonsense. Here's why.

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Turkey and U.S. step up condemnation of Syrian regime as attacks continue. read more

Sohrab Amhari highlights what, to simple-minded folk, would seem to be a bit of hypocrisy at the…

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomed on Tuesday a Russian attempt to revive talks with six world powers that view its uranium enrichment programme as a potential pathway to nuclear weapons, but was vague about what the agenda should be.

It’s Saturday morning at the New Westminster Public Library, and it’s time for a conversation. About 15 people are here, from New West and Burnaby, divided into three groups of five. Each group sits at a table with an atlas and picture dictionary. There are no teachers, just a couple...

> The new galas and special presentations added more than two dozen notable films to a TIFF lineup that was already notably strong and deep, while the festival also announced several dozen more additions to its more adventurous sidebars. "Page Eight," with Bill Nighy (left), Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes and...

LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON A senior U.S. military officer says Iranian-backed militias present the most dangerous security threat for Iraq, outpacing al-Qaida-linked terrorists there. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, the senior U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, says the Shiite militias are working to keep the Baghdad...

Iran remains the region's biggest threat, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a delegation of Republican U.S. congressmen visiting Israel.

Heavy machine gun fire rings out across the besieged Syrian city of Latakia as the death toll from a four-day military assault rises to 35. President Bashar Assad is dramatically escalating the crackdown on a 5-month-old uprising during the holy month of Ramadan, which started at the beginning of August.

Gazprom said natural gas sales in Europe increased 20 percent in the second quarter after Libya's supply disruptions boosted demand for the Russian fuel.

The five countries bordering the Caspian Sea have agreed on new commitments to strengthen regional responses to oil spills and to improve the way potential sources of pollution are monitored and managed across national borders.

Copyrights 2008, Middle East Newsline. All rights reserved.

Chelcheli mountain is situated 18 miles to the southwest of Ali Abad in southeast of Gorgan. This mountain is 10,246 feet in height and It is the source of Chelcheli and Baqeshah rivers.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will seek to allay concerns being expressed in China that the U.S. deficit deal doesn’t go far enough to rein in the nation’s long-term debt and that U.S. growth will stall

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's internal power struggles are shifting into election mode with hard-line political forces banding together to groom candidates for next year's parliamentary elections and punish allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“To preserve the chances of dialogue with the Assad regime, the Spanish diplomacy was the most cautious in Europe. It did not recall for consultations its ambassador in Damascus like Italy, for instance, and did not request an emergency meeting of the Security Council.”

Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Aug 16, 2011 Israel's military has set up a cyberdefense division, primarily against the Iranian threat, thus boosting the country's cyberwar capabilities after it allegedly attacked Tehran's nuclear program in 2010 with the Stuxnet virus and changed the face of warfare. The Jerusalem Post reports that...

Vice President Joe Biden is carrying a simple message with him as he arrives in Beijing today: Your money is safe with us.

Some provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty may need to be renegotiated ... read more

Iran's Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Danaeifar says the Islamic Republic plays no role in the dispute between Kuwait and Baghdad over the construction of a Kuwaiti port near the Iraqi border.

(08-16) 14:03 PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- The presidents of Venezuela and Iran have agreed to work together within OPEC as economic concerns weigh on world oil prices, the Venezuelan government said Tuesday.... Presented By: Helping the first responders respond 25% faster in the City of Madrid. Helping the first...

Researchers point to some winning strategies for the seemingly simple "Rock, Paper Scissors" game. For starters, remember that Rock is for rookies.

You could say the revolution is the writing on the wall.

(Charter broker Air Partner removes 12,000 from harm’s way in 2011) (PRWeb August 16, 2011) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/8/prweb8720397.htm

Iran’s position on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is a fresh example of the close relationship between the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Tuesday.