News Archive - 16 September 2011

MUSCAT, Oman -- An international effort to free two Americans jailed in Tehran as spies is "waiting for the next Iranian move" on whether its hard-line judiciary will clear the way for payment of $1 million in exchange for their release, Iraq's foreign minister said Friday.

>"We are still waiting for the final word about taking the Americans to Muscat with our plane now in Tehran. Hard to say when that will happen, perhaps in the next 24 hours, but we are hopeful it will happen soon," the official told Reuters, declining to be identified due...

> * Turkish billet falls to $680-690 fob * European producers benefit of softer euro LONDON, Sep 16 (Reuters) - Black Sea billet prices fell this week because buyers postponed purchases as nervousness about the health of the global economy weighed on sentiment. Traders quoted Black Sea billet at $670-680...

Gilani has now directed FM Hina Rabbani Khar to represent Pak at UN General Assembly session.

“We viewed that as very positive steps and appreciated then their restraint in transferring arms sale,” Mark Toner said.

A lawyer representing two U.S. men sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran for alleged espionage said Saturday he was submitting the final paperwork for a bail application.

Islamabad, Sep 17 : It is high time to tell the US that Pakistan "would not take any dictation from anyone", said a daily Saturday.

Iran launches the first international conference on Islamic Awakening and the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in the Iranian capital Tehran.

Come fall, there's a buzz at movie theaters across the land. It's a sound that heralds the start of moviedom's award-season fervor.

BEIJING, September 17, 2011 (AFP) - Beijing-backed religious groups hit out at the US after it reaffirmed China's status as a country "of particular concern" on religious freedom, accusing Washington of trying to harm the nation's image.

WASHINGTON - The number of violent crimes fell by a surprising 12 percent in the United States last year, a far bigger drop than the nation has averaged since 2001, the Justice Department said. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported there were 3.8 million violent crimes last year, down...

Supporters of two American hikers detained in Iran on espionage charges were elated Tuesday after Iran’s president said they could be released this week on $500,000 bail. One day later, Iran’s judiciary has refuted reports of the hikers’ imminent release.

Esteqlal has blanked its archrival Persepolis in the 71st Tehran derby in the seventh week of the Iranian Premier League (IPL) to top the table.

The airline has launched joint business ventures and added flights with Virasb Vahidi as chief commercial officer.

With a cool breeze blowing, the weekend Saturday started on a pleasant note for Delhiites.

Pyongyang, September 16 (KCNA) -- Indonesia and Thailand on Sept. 12 agreed to boost cooperation in trade, energy and agriculture. Russia and Iran adopted a MOU on increased cooperation in the nuclear energy on the same day.

Tehran, September 15 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry in a press conference on Sept. 13 clarified the stand of the government not to stop its nuclear activities for peaceful purpose.

Last week Electronic Arts and DICE gave us a small taste of a new Battlefield level called Operation Guillotine . Today we're getting a longer look at this level, and we're seeing how it looks on Xbox 360. This trailer shows us how U.S. Marine Sgt. Blackburn infiltrates the city...

Tehran, September 15 (KCNA) -- The Bushehr nuclear power station, the first of its kind, went into operation with due ceremony in Iran on Sept. 12.

Now playing at a theater near you:★★★★ Superior ★★★ Recommended ★★ OK ★ Time-waster NR Not rated NA Not available 30 Minutes or Less ★★Jesse Eisenberg plays a pizza delivery man who is forced to rob a bank while strapped to a bomb to raise money so a couple of...

The Iranian basketball team has defeated Qatar 40-4 at the Asian Basketball Championships in a game that was called off in the first quarter.

Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek says Turkey and Iran are determined to enhance the level of their bilateral cooperation in all areas.

Last week, as we remembered the mass slaughter of innocents on 9/11, I watched incredulously as the CBC ran a small feature on a Canadian woman who had been denied entry to the U.S. because she once attempted suicide and the police had been called to her home.

A plane crashed on Friday, September 16, 2011 during the Nevada Air Show 2011, as shown in the video below; with officials telling reports that the incident is a “mass casualty situation”. Plane crashes during Nevada Air Show Image Credit: slicker0492/YouTube As noted at US news sites, the plane plunged...

> ATO Pictures has acquired North American rights to Julian Farino's debut feature film "The Oranges," the company announced Friday. The comedy-drama stars Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Allison Janney, Alia Shawkat, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester. It's about a young man who falls for the daughter of a...

> A particularly intriguing and potentially risky choice was made by Germany, which opted for Wenders' documentary "Pina" (left), a 3D look at the work of legendary dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. Documentaries are occasionally submitted in the category (including "Steam of Life" last year), but are almost never nominated.

A northeast Calgary grocer who used opium poppies to make narcotics he then sold from his store has been spared jail.

The era of commercial space travel could be upon us with the British business magnate Richard Branson confirming he will launch a vessel into space within the next 12 months.

Chinese residents living in a Shanghai industrial suburb have said they are worried about the likelihood of lead poisoning for themselves and their children.

The EU has predicted a virtual standstill in Eurozone growth.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has revealed it destroyed documents relating to preliminary investigations of major banks and the Bernard Madoff case.

A UBS trader has appeared been charged in London with fraud and false accounting.

A suspected double murder-suicide has occurred in the US suburb of Oakdale, Minnesota.

There have been large and angry rallies in Washington over what protesters have labelled the unconditional support for Israel by the United States.

Sub-Saharan Africa is among the regions making progress, but pace of change is not fast enough to meet MDG target About 12,000 fewer children under five are dying every day than in 1990, according to the latest estimates on worldwide child mortality rates published this week. The levels and trends...

Four coal miners from a South Wales colliery have been found dead in the mine.

US President Barack Obama is showing poor approval ratings in the state of California, normally a reliable Democratic state.

During an electric program Thursday on Iran 's struggle for human rights, the audience in the Kavli Theatre heard from actors, authors, educators and filmmakers in a program sponsored by the Bahá'í community of the Conejo Valley.

ISLAMABAD: On the face of it, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani cancelled his planned trip to the US on Friday because ‘he personally wanted to supervise ongoing relief efforts in flood-hit areas of Sindh’.

While members of the Permian Basin Petroleum Pioneers are dedicated to the preservation of the history of the oil and gas profession, they also are looking to the future.

Why is the social science maven so defensive about social media?  Why do we even care?

THE INTERNATIONAL community should go to the rescue of women in Egypt or they will face discrimination like that experienced by women in Iran, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi said in Dublin yesterday.

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

Nobel prize winning World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz says the US is starting to look a lot like Russia.

Central theme of US president's address Wednesday will be struggles for freedom in Middle East, Africa, and Mideast peace efforts

The years-long diplomatic effort to integrate Israel as an accepted neighbor in the Middle East collapsed this week, with the expulsion of the Israeli ambassadors from Ankara and Cairo, and the rushed evacuation of the embassy staff from Amman.

As a sixth-grader, Cyrus Sinai would often drop to his knees, desperately trying to "pray the gay away."Born to Iranian parents, active in the Mormon Church and approaching puberty, young Cyrus was desperately confused about his sexual feelings.

There was a time when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used his annual trip to the United Nations for two big objectives...

THERE was a time when Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used his annual trip to the United Nations for two big objectives: basking in the attention of America's media

Clad head-to-toe in black – the international uniform of heavy metal – Mahyar Dean looks the archetype hard rock guitar hero.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has signaled Turkey could launch a joint operation with Iran against Kurdish militants’ main base in northern Iraq, according to reports in Turkish newspapers Friday.

Bank of America announced earlier this week that it is going to slash 30,000 jobs nationwide, so why was it holding a job fair Friday at its Rancho Cordova branch?

Turkey and its U.S. and European allies could be on a collision course over Iran. Despite international efforts to isolate Iran over its disputed nuclear program, Turkey has deepened trade and financial relations with Tehran.

Islamabad, Sept. 16: The US has once again expressed serious reservations over multi-billion dollars mega Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, which will be ready by 2014.

Dick Cheney is an inspiration to right-wing Republicans set on dismantling the New Deal and getting rid of as many government jobs as possible. But Cheney’s memoir traces his success in life back to the security created by the federal programs of Franklin Roosevelt, writes Robert Parry.

Calcutta, Sept. 16: Tea production is likely to touch 1,000 million kg this year with the output for January-August hovering around 620 million kg, a jump of around 40 million kg over last year.

The US has once again expressed serious reservations over multi-billion dollars mega Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, which will be ready by 2014. ... |

Release Time:  For Immediate Release James S. Brady Press Briefing Room 10:21 A.M. EDT MR. CARNEY: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming to our gaggle. I have with me today Ben Rhodes, who is the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications. Many of you know him. He will...

Authoritarian regimes dream through propaganda and so, to see what they're fantasizing about, we regularly check in on what state-controlled media outlets have been churning out. Cuba welcomes ... Danny Glover? You can imagine our surprise when we loaded the website for the  Cuban News Agency  only to find a story...

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's power supply network is in deep crisis, pounding the economy and making life miserable for average Pakistanis. But one of the solutions that Pakistan has proposed to fix the problem, a natural gas pipeline from Iran, faces objections from the United States. This week U.S. officials...

Once a year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad receives escort and protection from the U.S. Secret Service

The 1992 killings of four Iranian opposition leaders in Berlin implicated the highest levels of Iran’s leadership.

Today in academia: a defense of for-profit education, clarifying Ahmadinejad's trip to Columbia, a nervous law school and finding something wrong with a jayhawk. What could be controversial about the University of Kansas's mascot? This is a picture: it's a jayhawk . It's also apparently the name of a "a group...

WASHINGTON, September 16, 2011 (AFP) - The White House said Friday that a "legacy of mistrust" between the United States and the Arab world was complicating President Barack Obama's drive to improve America's stature in the Middle East.

In July 2009, American friends Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd set out on an adventurous vacation. They had been pals for a long time. Bauer and Shourd, boyfriend and girlfriend and in their late 20s, had been living for about a year in the Syrian capital of Damascus,...

"We are still waiting for the final word about taking the Americans to Muscat with our plane now in Tehran. Hard to say when that will happen, perhaps in the next 24 hours, but we are hopeful it will happen soon," the official said. read more

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday, telling him the era of oppressive dictators has past.

It worked in Tahrir Square. Now, taking their cue from social-media fueled uprisings in places like Egypt and Iran, a band of online activists are hoping it will work on Wall Street.

Security forces in Syria shot dead at least 15 people in operations across the country on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as pressure mounted on the regime to end the crackdown.

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Victor Lebedev of Russia earned his second world title in a row Friday, winning gold in the freestyle 55-kilogram class at the world wrestling championships.

COSTA MESA, Calif. - Michele Bachmann, struggling to regain her footing in the GOP presidential contest, Friday assailed rival Rick Perry, saying he abused his power as governor of Texas and rewarded political donors in a manner similar to President Barack Obama.

Security forces in Syria shot dead at least 15 people in operations across the country on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as pressure mounted on the regime to end the crackdown.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said America is not involved in trying to tone down a draft U.N. resolution on Palestinian statehood.

Victor Lebedev of Russia earned his second world title in a row Friday, winning gold in the freestyle 55-kilogram class at the world wrestling championships.

SAN FRANCISCO - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday she is optimistic the two American hikers being held in Iran will be released, despite a delay since Iran's president announced the planned release.

According to a report published by the international think tank Oxford Analytica, the problem of Nagorny Karabakh is a factor, directly threatening the security and stability in South Caucasus.

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Men's freestyle results Friday at the wrestling world championships at Sinan Erdem Dome: Men Freestyle 55 kilograms Final Victor Lebedev, Russia, def. Radoslav Marinov Velikov, Bulgaria, 1-0, 2-1. Bronze Medals Hassan Rahimi, Iran, def. Nicholas Scott Simmons, United States, 1-0, 4-0. Daulet Niyazbekov, Kazakhstan, def. Mihran...

Sixty-six local residents from 21 nations around the world became American citizens during Naturalization Court ceremonies Thursday at the Rome Court House.

Since President Nelson Mandela took office in 1994, our relationship with the Middle East has grown in leaps and bounds. Currently we have missions in Ramallah, Tehran, Amman, Jordan, Damascus, Riyadh and Jeddah, Kuwait, Doha, Muscat, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The United Nations says 2,600 people have been killed since Syrians rose up against Assad six months ago, inspired by revolts in North Africa which overthrew leaders of Egypt and Tunisia and have now also ousted Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

Transitional Libya faces many challenges. The NTC is rife with political squabbles. Former President Muammar al-Qaddafi remains at large and NTC fighters continue to battle loyalists for control of the country.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is confident Iran will free two US hikers convicted of spying.

The United Nations vote on the Palestinians' bid for statehood will be one of the most momentous taken at the world body for decades, and arguably the most dramatic since it approved the creation of Israel in 1947.

One of the defining characteristics of the Arab Spring is that the heavy protests typically staged after Friday prayers have names. In March, for example, Yemeni protesters countered President Ali Abdullah Saleh's "Friday of Tolerance and Peace" with their own "Friday of Departure" (Saleh's departure, that is). These names can serve as...

A football academy near Kolkata is giving children of sex workers the courage to dream.

When Formula 1 cars, high on jet fuel, race down the tarmac in speeds of up to 320 km per hour for three days late October in Greater Noida, Suresh Kalmadi may finally get reason to smile. It was, after all, the discredited and jailed ex-president of the Indian Olympic...

Security forces in Syria shot dead at least 15 people in operations across the country on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as pressure mounted on the regime to end the crackdown.

The following is the thirteen-page confession of A.Q. Khan. 

DAMASCUS - Security forces in Syria shot dead at least 22 people in operations across the country on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as pressure mounted on the regime to end the crackdown.

At the Tokyo Games Show 2011, we get a playthrough of this tense Battlefield 3 single-player mission on the PS3 Tucked away behind Sega's stand at the Tokyo Game Show, EA had a modest presence, bringing along some of its key goodies, including Fifa 12, Need for Speed: The Run,...

The following is a letter from A.Q. Kahn to his wife. 

MASON CITY - The North Iowa Diversity Appreciation Team, partnering with Main Street Mason City, sponsored the eighth annual Ethnic Lunch by Central Park event with music, food, cultural exhibits and Diversity Awards on Friday.

The liberal media are President Obama’s last hope. His popularity is plummeting. The economy is in crisis. Global recovery has stalled. The Middle East is drifting toward chaos. Even many Democrats concede that Mr. Obama’s re-election is in serious jeopardy.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — In the Palestinians' high-profile bid to seek statehood at the United Nations, half the future nation they envision has been all but forgotten. Residents of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip are watching frustrated from the sidelines as the West Bank-based leadership pushes for the long-held...

Iran's ambassador to the Vatican says officials in the Catholic Church back the popular protests in Arab countries, but fear extremists might take control.

Syrian opposition sources said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has sent scores of snipers to help in Assad's crackdown of the revolt. They said the snipers were ordered to target protest organizers as well as those filming the demonstrations.

Bachmann finds herself in the headlines for making misstatements and demonstrably false claims.

BAGHDAD, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Iraq is "very close" to finalizing a deal to buy 18 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets, enough for one squadron for its nascent air force and the first of as many as 96 of strike aircraft.

KARL Kraus said: “Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.”