News Archive - 1 November 2011

>The federation will issue a final verdict next week on Mohammad Nosrati, who appeared to briefly put his hand between the buttocks of Sheys Rezaei as Persepolis players huddled together to celebrate a goal against Damash Gilan in a televised match on Saturday.The gesture might have caused little comment...

>* Symantec says virus delivered via tainted Word document* Details emerge as experts race to unlock Duqu secretsNov 1 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said hackers exploited a previously unknown bug in its Windows operating system to infect computers with the Duqu virus, which some security experts say could be the...

>MOBILE, Ala (Reuters) - The owner of a large southwest Alabama car dealership derided as "Taliban Toyota" by a competitor has been awarded $7.5 million in damages after a jury trial for his slander claim. Iranian-born Shawn Esfahani, owner of Eastern Shore Toyota in Daphne, Alabama, sought $28 million...

>BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's president-elect said on Tuesday the United States should leave its military air base in the Central Asian republic when its lease expires in 2014, the same year NATO-led combat troops are due back from Afghanistan. Almazbek Atambayev, the pro-Russian prime minister who claimed victory in a...

>TEHRAN Nov 1 (Reuters) - Iran's oil minister said on Tuesday that current international crude prices are "good" and predicted that prices will remain unchanged until March."The current oil prices are good ... we are not expecting the prices to change in winter," Rostam Qasemi told a news conference.Brent...

>LONDON (Reuters) - Ministers, tech executives and Internet activists from around the world gather in London on Tuesday to discuss how to tackle security threats and crime on the Internet without stifling economic opportunities or freedom of speech. The London Conference on Cyberspace will look at ways to increase international...

Tehran, October 31 (KCNA) -- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Sunday lauded resistance of all Iraqi ethnic groups to U.S. pressures at diplomatic talks.

British embassy accused of illegally cutting down trees in compound in Iran

Tehran, October 31 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Iran on Friday bitterly denounced Israel for destroying a temple in east Kuds under the pretext of building a museum.

(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) The Chinese currency Renminbi, or the yuan, weakened 60 basis points to 6.3293 against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading ...

(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) Tokyo stocks continued lower Tuesday, with the Nikkei Stock Average ending the day down 152.87 points, or 1.7%, to 8,835.52. Investor sentiment worsened due to ...

Rich LowryKing Features Syndicate When President Barack Obama took the podium last Friday to abruptly announce the imminent end of the Iraq War, he ended on a ringing McGovernite note: “After a decade of war, the nation that we need to build — and the nation that we will build...

After Moammar Gadhafi's downfall as Libya's tyrannical ruler, politicians and "experts" in the U.S. and elsewhere, including...

(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) The Reserve Bank of Australia met market expectations Tuesday and cut interest rates to 4.50 from 4.75 percent at its monthly meeting. The first change in the rate ...

(MENAFN) US Williams Cos. said that net income during the third quarter reached USD272 million, compared with a loss of USD1.26 billion in last year's same period, reported AP. The company, which ...

# middleeast The Iranian football federation has scrutinized controversial footage of Persepolis defender Mohammed Nosrati (below, left) squeezing teammate Sheis Rezaei's (right) firm buttocks following a goal during the Persian Gulf Cup, and ruled that the two players be fined $40,000 each and "banned indefinitely from all football activities for...

London, Nov 2 : Muslim students in British university campuses suffer from many problems because of issues associated with "Islamophobia", an Iranian woman student leader has said.

My Tehran for Sale, was released from prison after her sentence of one year in prison and 90 lashes was overturned on appeal." The Guardian (UK) 10/29/11

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the Government should bring on a vote on its proposed changes to the Migration Act in light of the drowning of asylum seekers off Indonesia.

Four Singaporeans, who were arrested last Monday on charges by American authorities of illegally exporting bomb parts to Iran, have been kept in detention for another week.

ISTANBUL : Foreign Ministers and international community to attend Istanbul Regional Conference being hosted by Turkey to ensure peace, security and development in Afghanistan , and the region, on Wednesday.

MORE than 200 passengers on a flight from New Jersey to Poland had a miraculous escape after the pilot landed the Boeing 767 on its belly at Warsaw airport.

Israel has authorized its military to take all necessary steps to stop rocket fire from Gaza, including a ground operation, an Israeli military official said Tuesday, as Egypt worked on a truce and said Israel had agreed to delay stepping up its response.

OSH, Kyrgyzstan -- In one of his first statements as Kyrgyzstan's new president, Almazbek Atambayev said Tuesday that he would seek to close an important American military base when its lease runs out in 2014, reviving a threat dropped by past leaders after the United States agreed to increased payments.

The discussion concerning winners and losers resulting from recent Middle-Eastern events is more about domestic politics than the possibility of a peace treaty anywhere on the horizon. Such speculation includes a political gain for Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement for taking the question of a Palestinian state to the...

ON MONDAY, NATO formally ended its mission in Libya, which it has hailed as one of its “most successful” so far. 

Crown Prince Nayef says kingdom ‘ready to face all events’ as pilgrimage begins

Australians are shocked after a boat filled with asylum seekers capsizes on its way from Indonesia, and at least eight people die.

The following is a transcript of George Stephanopoulos’ interview with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Madame Secretary, thanks for doing this. CONDOLEEZZA RICE: Pleasure to be with you. GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I am so struck by the tone of this book. And there’s...

Senior diplomats will gather in Turkey on Wednesday for a global conference aimed at mapping out the future of war-torn Afghanistan after Western troops depart.

MOBILE, Ala., Nov 1 (Reuters) - The owner of a large southwest Alabama car dealership derided as "Taliban Toyota" by a competitor has been awarded $7.5 million in damages after a jury trial for his slander claim.

The United States is set to bolster its military presence in the Persian Gulf by posting combat forces in Kuwait to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.

The method of smuggling included swallowing pellets containing drugs. -The Star/ANN

Col. Riad Assad's boasts of strikes against Syria's government are impossible to verify, as is his contention that more than 10,000 soldiers have deserted and taken up arms. From his heavily guarded enclave in Turkey, a leading Syrian defector says he is heading an armed rebellion against the regime of...

Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Nov 1, 2011 Israel is reported to be seeking to extend the range of its Jericho- 3 ballistic missile, which could be used for pre-emptive military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. Amid persistent concerns that Israel may launch unilateral attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a...

Iraq is unready for a U.S. drawdown and will have a hard time defending itself, a top U.S. watchdog warns.

Deputy Commissioner Datuk Othman Harun said that the number of African drug mules, mostly Nigerians, had increased. -The Star/ANN

IT almost seemed as if their statements had been coordinated.

Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Nov 1, 2011 Germany has reportedly threatened to halt the delivery to Israel of a sixth Dolphin class submarine, supposedly capable of firing nuclear-tipped missiles at Iran, in protest against plans to build 1,100 homes for Jewish settlers in an East Jerusalem suburb. Israel has three...

SYRIA and the Arab League have agreed on a roadmap to end the violence and a formal announcement is due to be made today at Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Syrian state television said last night.

The design similarities between the recently-publicised Duqu malware and the infamous Stuxnet worm that caused widespread alarm more than a year ago have been hugely exaggerated, an analysis by Dell SecureWorks has concluded.

Nuclear security is an extremely important issue for all countries and it is vital that the right lessons are learned from the accident at the Japanese power plant earlier this year, the head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency ...

Belgrade (AFP) Nov 1, 2011 Russia could take steps of "a technically military nature" if its objections to NATO's planned missile defence system are not heeded, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a Serbian daily Tuesday. "If our partners in the future continue to ignore out position we should protect...

Herman Cain has a lot of problems on his plate, but he is facing the cameras, and tonight did another extended interview, this time with Bill O'Reilly . While he spent half the interview discussing the recent sexual harassment charges, it is the second half of the interview-- on foreign policy--...

The health minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has asked the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) to help the polyclinics of Iraqi Kurdistan.

ISLAMABAD: The top diplomats of the region meeting in Istanbul on Wednesday for a conference on Afghanistan are unlikely to agree on anything other than a non-binding declaration because of persisting differences among participating states over a deal on a structure for regional security.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 -- The U.S. should first negotiate with the neighboring countries of Afghanistan before it holds talks with Taliban which is aimed to bring it into the political process, former U.S. State Secretary Henry Kissinger said on Tuesday.

Premier Wen Jiabao and his counterparts from fellow member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will set out their joint vision on the state of the global economy when they meet next week, a senior diplomat said on Tuesday.

MS. NULAND: Good afternoon, everybody. We have nothing at the top So let’s go right to what’s on your minds.

Mohammad Nosrati appeared to briefly put his hand on Sheys Rezaei as Persepolis players huddled together to celebrate a goal against Damash Gilan on Saturday.

A number of Iranian and Egyptian women experts and officials have held a meeting to discuss developments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)region, Press TV reports.

More than 1.7 million pilgrims have already arrived in Mecca, the Saudi city where Islam was founded 1,400 years ago. A record 2.8 million pilgrims performed the hajj last year, including more than 14,000 Americans and almost 100,000 Iranians. Saudi authorities expect similar numbers this year.

The post-sexual harassment Herman Cain media blitz that has kept up all week has done a great deal to understand the workings of the Cain campaign in crisis, but there is one other element of Cain's platform that seems to be getting hit the hardest by his exposure to the...

>* Follows UAE saying price could come down* Debate starts ahead of December meetingBy Ramin MostafaviTEHRAN, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Iran is happy with current oil prices above $100 a barrel, its oil minister said on Tuesday, despite warnings from the West on the impact on the world economy and...

>"It was about seven pages. It was a rant. It was full of all kinds of denials," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news briefing. "There was not a lot new in there from our perspective."U.S. officials announced last month they had uncovered a plot by two...

President Barack Obama’s foreign policy successes -- most recently, the toppling of the Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi -- are of only marginal value to his re-election struggle.

America's pique is not surprising. And Obama probably had no easy way out. But the real message it was sending UNESCO, Palestine and the 107 countries that voted for the UNESCO membership was the alacrity with which it took that decision.

TEHRAN, Nov. 1 (MNA) -- The Tunisian revolution is a totally unique phenomenon in the Arab world.

The base has been a crucial supply hub for the war in Afghanistan since 2001 and is the only one of its kind in Central Asia.

Despite the U.S. funding cut, the U.S. diplomatic message to UNESCO has been one of apology, regrets and fawning statements of support.

MECCA: Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz on Tuesday ruled out any compromise with Iran over allegations of Iranian involvement in a plot to murder the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

Even though the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran are probably the most uptight bunch of assholes on the planet, Iran's pro-athletes may be the biggest group of wild and crazy guys since Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd . When they're not celebrating basketball victories with a little human bowling...

It was bound to happen sooner or later. At some point, both the president and Congress would be faced with a clear choice between U.S. national interests and the demands made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his powerful Washington lobby.

After ten days of hemming and hawing , Google is ready to address — but not apologize to — those users upset by the death of Reader's social features. "We understand that some may not like this change," a Google spokesperson told The Atlantic Wire. "Retiring Reader's sharing features wasn't...

Tehran, Nov 2 : Iran has commended the decision of the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) to grant the Palestinians a full membership while describing it as a sign of international support for their rights.

TEHRAN, Oct. 31 (MNA) – Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says the United States, in a letter full of contradictions, has expressed an interest in holding talks with the Islamic Republic.

President Obama will host European Union leaders at a summit in Washington in November, the White House said late Monday.

ISTANBUL : The proposed Gul Train project took a step forward on Tuesday when the Presidents of Pakistan and Turkey agreed to further upgrade it so as to cover the distance between Ankara and Islamabad in just 11 days instead of 16 days.

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt was peppered with a wide range of questions from economic issues to education to congressional redistricting by a standing-room-only crowd at a town hall-style forum at the Lawrence Township Municipal Building Monday night.

TEHRAN, Nov 1 ― Iran’s parliament voted today against removing the economy minister of hardline President Mahoud Ahmadinejad from office over the country’s biggest financial scandal. Parliamentarians who wanted to remove Shamseddin Hosseini lambasted him for mismanagement, including laxity in monitoring the banking sector. “141 of the 244 ...

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has lessened Iran’s weightlifter Saeid Ali-Hosseini’s lifetime ban for a second doping offense to 12 years.

Two Iranian football players have been indefinitely suspended due to committing "immoral" acts on the field. Apparently, Persepolis players Mohammed Nosrati and Sheis Rezaei got too excited when their team scored the winning goal against Damash Gilan last Saturday. Footage posted online shows the joyous Persepolis defender Mohammed Nosrati squeezing...

CBC has released a list of the public's top 10 choices for the annual Canada Reads battle of the books.

Almazbek Atambayev, Kyrzgystan's new president-elect, in virtually his first act since being elected, has told the US it will have to give up its airbase in the Central Asian state in 2014.

There are fears as many as 20 asylum seekers have drowned after their boat sank on Tuesday morning.

Iran produced 3.597 million barrels of crude oil per day in September, accounting for 12 percent of the output of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and making it the second leading producer of OPEC. OPEC's output totaled 29.896 million barrels per day in September.

November 20-21 -- Bahram Beyzai, born 26 December 1938 in Tehran is a prominent Iranian film director, theatre director, screenwriter, playwright, film editor, producer, and researcher.

The Iranian movie which won Golden Bear for the Beat Feature and two silver bears for the best cast in Berlin International Film Festival is an Oscars candidates for the Best Foreign Feature in 2012 Academic Awards.

Managing Director of Iran Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Homayoun Haeri said the country's generation electricity grid would be connected to European network next year.

B|taa'rof is a bi-annual magazine and year-round blog about the collective experience of Iranians across generational and geographic borders. It is the virtual museum of Iranians living outside of Iran; the voice of the Iranian community in North America; and IAAB's newest and most exciting project to date.

Many creative murals cover the walls in the streets of the capital city Tehran. Most of these murals are part of the beautification plan of the city, while some carry a social or political message. Here are a sample of those murals captured by photographer Khosrow Parkhideh.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement has found an unlikely fan: Iran's government Basij force, whose thuggish members are thought to have been heavily involved in the crackdown that followed the disputed reelection of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in 2008. -Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE

Iran's Parliament is preparing a proposal to widen the scope of computer crime laws to include text messages, weblogs and comments left on websites.

TEHRAN, Nov. 1 (MNA) – Assembly of Experts Chairman Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, who has taken the leadership of mainstream principlists in the run-up for the parliamentary election, announced on Tuesday that he has recently met with some members of the Islamic Revolution Resistance Front.

Is more intervention better? And where does that leave Syria? The Weekly Standard's Lee Smith explains why how White House should play the regional board.

It is something of a truism that in Washington, bad ideas never truly go away. Instead, they keep cropping up at the most inopportune moments. So it is with American policy toward Iran. Stymied in recent months by the resilience of Iran's increasingly mature nuclear effort and complicated by the...

Haaretz is reporting a new diplomatic initiative by Israel to convince Western countries…

Could NATO foreign involvement in the Arab Spring just be the beginning? The Nation 's Robert Dreyfuss asks, now that NATO is closing up shop in Libya, will it turn to Syria?

With more than 20,000 employees and a budget of $5.7 billion, ICE has nearly 7,000 HSI special agents assigned to more than 200 cities throughout the United States and 70 offices in 47 countries worldwide. ICE is uniquely positioned and exclusively devoted to disrupting and dismantling transnational criminal networks...

SERHANIYEH, Lebanon — Syria is planting landmines along parts of the country's border with Lebanon as refugees stream out of the country to escape the crackdown on anti-government protests, officials and witnesses said Tuesday.

TEHRAN, Nov. 1 (MNA) – The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) of the United Nations General Assembly has approved Iran’s proposed resolution on nuclear disarmament.

As Nato's mandate officially ends in Libya, Channel 4 News looks at why the UN has not sanctioned the use of force against President Assad's regime in Syria.

Friday afternoon is a traditional time to bury bad news, so at 12:49 p.m. on Oct. 21 President Obama strode into the White House briefing room to "report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year—after nearly nine...

FEDERAL politicians from both main parties last night blamed the drowning deaths of up to 27 asylum seekers en route to Australia yesterday on the ''criminal'' activities of people smugglers.

America’s decade-long hysteria since 9/11 has taken on some characteristics of the European witch hunts of 500 years ago, with incineration of targets after a sham “due process,” albeit now with Hellfire missiles from the air not stake-burnings on the ground, as Mary Beaudoin explains.

A Syrian official and witnesses say Damascus is planting landmines along parts of the border with Lebanon. The official familiar with government strategy said Tuesday the mines are meant to prevent arms smuggling across the border as President Bashar Assad faces a 7-month-old uprising.

Iran's finance minister survived a vote in Parliament on Tuesday to remove him from office over the country's banking scandal, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. More than two dozen lawmakers had submitted a motion to impeach the minister, Shamseddin Hosseini, an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who oversaw...

ISTANBUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday appealed to Pakistan for help in the investigation of the assassination of an Afghan peace envoy, and said efforts to talk directly to the Taliban are futile as long as the insurgents show no desire to negotiate in good faith. Karzai spoke...