News Archive - 23 September 2011

Ahmadinejad's diminishing political fortunes poses a dilemma for the U.S. on the seriousness of any deal the Iranian president proposes on the country's controversial nuclear program.

Larry Merchant hasn't always been a fan favorite ... to say the least.The 80-year-old HBO boxing analyst drew the ire of Mexican fight fans in 1997, when he exclaimed, "this sucks! " while a mariachi band serenaded Oscar De La Hoya before the fight between the "Golden Boy" and Pernell...

Whether Palestine becomes a member state of the UN or not is likely to have no change to the attitudes and aggressions by Israel in the region.

I have a piece up on Foreign Policy’s Af-Pak Channel on the attack in Mastung this week: The brutal, execution-style attack on Shi’a Muslims in the Mastung area of Baluchistan this week was debilitating, shocking, and instructive all at the same time. It was debilitating because it reminded observers and...

New York, Sep 24 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held wide ranging discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during bilateral meetings with them on the sidelines of the 66th United Nations Annual General Assembly session, and aired India's firm commitment...

By Naveen Kapoor, New York, Sep.24 : Differences have cropped up between India and United States over the issue granting separate statehood to Palestine.

It was the United Nations that determined the fate of the Palestinian people more than six decades ago – and on Friday it was the UN that heard an impassioned plea to change the destiny of Palestine once more.

Has America exhibited moral courage by addressing change, or the lack there of, in the world? Or has it squandered our hope for a principled effort to rid American foreign policy of its realist inclinations and desire to cling to paradigms? Many of us have placed our trust ...

The Arms Control Association has made available the transcript of a discussion it sponsored last Monday on Iran’s nuclear program . Moderated by ACA Executive Director Daryl Kimball, the discussants were Admiral Joe Sestak, a former congressman; Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the nonproliferation and disarmament program at the International Institute ...

By Naveen Kapoor, New York, Sep 24 : With an aim to boost India''s image on the international stage, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh met leaders from various countries on the sidelines of the United National General Assembly session here on Friday.

Prof SK Sitrampalam, Senior Vice President of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), writing in Thinakkural this month on the importance of Eezham Tamils asserting to their right to self-determination, disproved a distorting campaign by Colombo, New Delhi, Washington, international crisis managers and even the UN panel report trying to tell...

Palestinians used the mechanics of diplomacy to grab a rare moment in the international sun, forcing the world to pay attention to their cause.

Two American hikers detained in Iran for over two years on espionage charges were released Wednesday after a $1 million bail-for-freedom deal, their lawyer said, and flown to the Gulf state of Oman to meet their families, the Associated Press reported.

The United Nations -- minus the US and Israeli delegations -- erupted in rounds of applause yesterday as an uncharismatic Palestinian leader mercilessly attacked Israel. Turtle Bay was almost stone silent a bit later, when one of the best orators in Israel’s history called for Middle East peace and...

The Associated Press A quick look at what to know today: 1. What’s really behind Abbas’ statehood push No matter how a formal request to the Security Council plays out, the Palestinian leader has succeeded in being seen as standing up to both Israel and the U.S.

Bangalore: Though India is a democratic nation, the suppression in India mainly targets religious issues.

When top U.S. military officer Adm. Mike Mullen described the Haqqani Network as a "a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence [spy] agency," to the U.S. Senate on Thursday you could almost hear the ‘I told you so' chorus echoing all the way from Afghanistan.

By Arun Kumar , United Nations, Sep 24 : A day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad triggered a US-led Western walkout from the UN General Assembly with a combative speech, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met him in a reiteration of their close ties regardless.

By Arun Kumar , United Nations, Sep 24 : Keeping up a hectic round of diplomacy ahead of his address to the United nations Saturday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has met the leaders of Iran, Japan and Sri lanka.

UNITED NATIONS -- The Palestinian leader took his people's quest for independence to the heart of world diplomacy Friday, seeking U.N. recognition of Palestine and sidestepping negotiations that have foundered for nearly two decades under the weight of inflexibility, violence and failure of will.

CARACAS : A meeting between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad set for this weekend in Caracas has been postponed indefinitely, a senior official said Friday.

The Iranian volleyball team has blanked India to continue its winning streak in the 16th Asian Men's Volleyball Championship.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Iran on a date to be decided mutually after consultations.

India finds itself ranked at the 27th place, much ahead of China but a little below its IBSA partner Brazil in a new survey that measures the reputation of 50 countries among people of the G8 nations.

UNITED NATIONS -- President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, formally requested full United Nations membership for his as yet undefined country on Friday. But before the thunderous applause greeting his announcement in the General Assembly had faded, international powers laid out a new plan to resume direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks...

(WOMENSENEWS)-- Cheers read more

One afternoon this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran addressed the United Nations General Assembly, once again casting doubt that the Holocaust had occurred. Almost exactly 24 hours earlier, an otherwise obscure college student in Morocco named Elmehdi Boudra was convening a conference devoted not to denying the Holocaust but...

Quest Charter Academy Principal Engin Blackstone leads the other 38 newly sworn American citizens in the Pledge of Allegience on Friday at the U.S. District Courthouse in Peoria.

Hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made an impassioned appeal for full U.N. membership for an independent Palestinian state, U.S. and European diplomats on Friday proposed a new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to begin within a month, with the goal of reaching a deal by the end...

President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, formally requested full United Nations membership yesterday for his as yet undefined country. But before the thunderous applause greeting his announcement in the General Assembly had faded, international powers laid out a new plan to resume direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that was designed to...

PESHAWAR, Sept 23: Former Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed has said that the US push for establishing a relation between the Haqqani network and ISI is a mere drama in order to materialise its plan of attacking Pakistan.

Tehran, September 22 (KCNA) -- Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili, addressing a press conference on Monday slashed the hegemony of the United States.

The proposal by the 'quartet,' which includes the U.S., calls for Israelis and Palestinians to offer comprehensive plans within three months of resuming talks and end negotiations by the end of 2012. The United States and other world powers unveiled an eleventh-hour plan Friday to try to renew...

Tehran, September 22 (KCNA) -- Seyed Ali Khamenei, leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, in a conversation on Sept. 20 condemned the West for its intrigues against those countries advocating independence.

Tehran, September 22 (KCNA) -- The minister of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics of Iran in an interview with the IRNA on Monday scathingly accused the NATO of its moves to deploy the missile defense system.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran and its neighbors are capable of maintaining security in the Persian Gulf region.

Tehran, September 22 (KCNA) -- Iran has recently pushed forward the development of a new type radar system. The system is capable of detecting not only planes flying at low-altitude and from long distance but cruise missiles within the range of 3 000 km.

NEW YORK: Iran sedang mengadakan rundingan dengan Russia untuk membina loji nuklear kedua di republik itu, kata Presiden Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pada Sabtu.

BAHRAIN'S women's national football team bowed to India 1-3 last night in an international friendly match. The tie kicked off roughly two hours behind schedule partly due to the heavy congestion along certain highways across the kingdom.

BAHRAIN'S West Asian qualifying matches for next year's AFC Futsal Championship will be played in Kuwait City in December, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has announced.

Cyber spying is growing fast and Western governments are responding with alarm, reports Dylan Welch.

Cyber spying is growing fast and Western governments are responding with alarm, reports Dylan Welch.

Defending champion Iran has lost to Jordan in the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship and thus will not advance to the semifinals and will not be going to the London Olympics in 2012.

NEW YORK (AP) - NBC and Dunder Mifflin have announced the new manager of the Scranton office of the make-believe paper company portrayed in "The Office." It's dim-witted salesman Andy Bernard, played by cast member Ed Helms.

New York, Sep 23 2011 9:10PM The dispute over the status of Iran’s nuclear programme can only be resolved “through a negotiated political solution that restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature” of the programme, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed today.

If Jason Bourne's too long in the tooth, try robbing Abduction 's cradle. Better, get thee to a Laemmle for Circumstance & House of Boys , two thrilling, sensual coming-of-age stories from overseas. [ more › ]

Thanks to new beauty products, attitudes and lifestyles, Gen X women are a youthful bunch. Much has been made this year about the behemoth baby boom generation reaching retirement age. But another significant milestone is slipping past a bit more quietly yet with noticeable impact.

At a time when families are tightening their belts, most would expect people to be donating less, yet Ute alumni appear to be giving more for scholarships and to the university overall.

News items from around the world

The day before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad angered diplomats by denouncing the United States and its European allies at Thursday’s U.N. General Assembly, a University of New Haven professor helped pose questions to the controversial leader.

New York, Sep 23 2011 12:10PM Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged all remaining States to seize the moment and sign and ratify the global treaty banning nuclear tests, with the aim of bringing it into force by 2012.

New York, Sep 23 2011 2:10PM Iraq is striving to build a democratic State anchored in peace and the rule of law, with all communities living in harmony, irrespective of their sectarian, ethnic or factional affiliation, the country’s President, Jalal Talabani, "http://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/66/IQ_en.pdf">told the General Assembly today.

Every year around this time the world witnesses a parade of heads of state arriving in New York.

Despite his catastrophic misjudgement on Iraq, Blair retains a strange superiority complex.

NEW YORK - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday called on NATO naval forces to withdraw from the Gulf, calling them a threat to security.

There is only one avenue for a sustainable peace: finding a means to employ the vast populace in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon who currently endure the indignities and difficulties of unemployment.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday put himself forward as a champion for European separatists -- from Wales to Spain's Basque region -- who he said had been ignored by the United Nations.

AMERICA:IN DECEMBER 2008, Judge Abner Mikva, a former counsel in the Clinton White House and one of several Jewish mentors of Barack Obama, joked that Obama would “go down in history as America’s first Jewish president”. This week, Mikva’s prediction seemed to come true, when the president aligned himself with...

UNITED NATIONS — Hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made an impassioned appeal for full U.N. membership for an independent Palestinian state, U.S. and European diplomats on Friday proposed a new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to begin within a month, with the goal of reaching a deal...

Behind closed doors – in places where the religious police cannot listen in – residents of Mecca are beginning to refer to their city as Las Vegas, and the moniker is not a compliment. Related Stories US wife denies cutting off penis Oil prices fall amid demand fears Pope meets...

Thousands of mourners thronged the streets of Kabul yesterday to pay their last respects to former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani after his assassination earlier this week.

NEW YORK: Iran is in talks with Russia to build a second nuclear plant in the Islamic Republic, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian cagers blew a golden opportunity to secure their best finish in 22 years after narrowly losing 89-87 to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the ninth-12th playoff match of the 26th Fiba Asian Championship in Wuhan, China, yesterday.

Ted Koppel receives the Edward R. Murrow Award for being a pillar in communications. In a rare personal interview, Koppel said he will never give up journalism, though he thinks broadcasting has taken a turn away from what's serious to light.

THE shock resignation this week of Wadah Khanfar, the highly-acclaimed head of Qatar television network Al Jazeera, has focused attention on Qatar's pivotal role in Libya&

Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, co-director of the latest film of banned Iranian film director Jafar Panahi, is among six filmmakers arrested by Iranian authorities, according to an opposition website.

Supporters of Troy Davis hold a vigil in Jackson, Ga., at Georgia's death-row prison Wednesday.

VIENNA, Sept 24 — The United Nations atomic agency ended its annual member state meeting in disunity today, with delegates unable to adopt a resolution on a policy area central to its work in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. Two Western diplomats accused Iran, Cuba and Egypt — the...

There’s nothing like nostalgia. This yearning for something that was but can never be relived may be one of those sentiments that most folks have felt.

A protest in solidarity with the Syrian people was held in the Qibbeh neighborhood of Tripoli following Friday prayers, as the number of Syrian refugees in North Lebanon approached 4,000.

WAUSAU - Two American hikers were recently released after being held captive in Iran for more than two years.

Intelligence estimates about foreign nuclear programs seem to lead unhappy, often controversial, lives. There was the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program. That was wrong, of course. But there is a body of thought, built up on the American left, that the estimate was ...

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he would welcome a "hotline" with the United States or any other way to head off conflict in the Persian Gulf.

UNITED NATIONS - Hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made an impassioned appeal for full U.N. membership for an independent Palestinian state, U.S. and European diplomats on Friday proposed a new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to begin within a month, with the goal of reaching a deal...

This year has seen numerous security breaches at the root infrastructure of Web privacy and security. How can regular users protect themselves? Glenn Fleishman has some expert suggestions.

(Reuters) - Following are security developments in Pakistan on Friday at 11:05 a.m. EDT.

A former U.S. envoy to the United Nations says the Obama administration is doing "almost nothing" to protect Iranians from the violence of their own regime.

WASINGTON (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that as an engineer he's sure the twin towers were not brought down by jetliners. read more

Recently reviewed books of particular interest.

NEW YORK — Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he would welcome a “hot line” with the United States or any other way to head off conflict in the Persian Gulf.

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC saluted Prime Minister Netanyahu's eloquent and forthcoming speech before the UN General Assembly today to achieve a breakthrough for peace with the Palestinians. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100816/AJCLOGO) Israel...

ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO Canada's natural resource minister said Friday the country needs Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to the Pacific coast to be built so that it can diversify its energy exports to China. Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver noted in a speech that the U.S. is...

The U.S. will likely deploy some Predator drones on Turkish soil, the Turkish prime minister said Friday. Turkey has been pressing for the drones in an escalating war against Kurdish rebels.

President Barack Obama thanked Oman's Sultan Qaboos on Friday for his role in getting Iran to free two US hikers jailed there for spying and illegal entry for over two years.

Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, two of the three Americans hikers who had been held by Iran over the past two years, were formally engaged in Oman on Friday, an envoy of the sultan said.

Ninety-seven individuals representing many countries raised their right hand and took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States, thereby becoming United States citizens Friday.

Drones: every military wants ‘em. But if you’re a country like Iran, sanctions can put a bit of a crimp in you efforts to build an unmanned aerial vehicle fleet. To get around the problem, Iran is turning inward, using drone development competitions gin up new ideas for homebrew UAVs.

In the lead-up to the Palestinian application for full membership in the United Nations later this week, we can expect nation after nation to vilify the Jewish state and to walk out when Prime Minister Netanyahu takes the microphone.

By Steven Rea

A 6-ton NASA satellite on a collision course with Earth clung to space Friday, apparently flipping position in its ever-lower orbit and stalling its death plunge.

Pan Am — which chronicles the life and loves of flight attendants — aims to conjure up what one-time stewardess Kari Beese calls the “heyday of flying.”

After two years spent in an Iranian jail, American hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal are finally free. The two—along with Sarah Shourd, who is Shane’s fiancee—were hiking in Iraq when they wandered over to the Iran border. It was a mistake, the hikers said, but they were convicted of...

Washington, Sept 24 : US actor Sean Penn flew to Venezuela to encourage President Hugo Chavez to talk to Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about freeing the two Americans who were held in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison on charges of espionage.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared it “neither possible nor practical” to return to “business as usual” in peace negotiations with Israel, as he presented his case to the United Nations for recognition of Palestine as a member state.

Turkey has slapped an arms embargo on Syria over its brutal crackdown on the country's uprising and has stopped a Syrian-flagged ship, the prime minister said. Related Stories Palestine in historic bid for full statehood at UN Mecca for the rich: Islam's holiest site 'turning into Vegas' 'Collar bomb' suspect...

Palestinian President Mahoud Abbas put forth a historic U.N. membership bid for an independent state of Palestine on Friday; a move Israel says is premature without direct talks that address its longstanding security concerns.

Filmmakers are fond of tales of adolescence. The coming-of-age predicaments of young adults afford plenty of dramatic and melodramatic fodder for picturesque representations of tender naIfs, exploring themselves and the magical (or abrasive) world they're meant to navigate.

NEW YORK - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he would welcome a "hot line" with the United States or any other way to head off conflict in the Persian Gulf.

NEW YORK (AP) — Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he would welcome a "hot line" with the United States or any other way to head off conflict in the Persian Gulf. He told a news conference Friday that there was no reason for any clashes and "any tool that can...

President Obama's speech to the General Assembly succeeded in making clear why the Palestinians had no choice but to take their statehood bid to the UN and why the United States can no longer pretend to be an "honest broker" in the conflict.