News Archive - 11 December 2011

>ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Relations between the United States and its ally Pakistan, already heavily battered, have been pushed to their lowest point in years by a NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26. NATO aircraft struck two military border posts in northwest Pakistan, in the worst incident...

>The inquiries are part of SEC reviews of companies' investment risks to security holders.Sony Corp, Caterpillar Inc, American Express, Aecom Technology, Iridex and Veolia Environnement are among the companies that received letters from the SEC's corporate finance division, the report said.Their responses show how sales have shrivelled with...

>UK'S CAMERON WARNED ON EU TRIUMPHALISMBritish deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has warned David Cameron to show no signs of triumphalism when the prime minister reports back to MPs on Monday on his decision to veto a European Union treaty change, as the row escalated into the most serious threat...

>Ehud Barak also predicted that Syria's ruling Assad family could fall within weeks and that this would be a "blessing" for the Middle East."Something is wrong with this family, the way they suppress the will of the Syrian people, killing them, slaughtering their own people," he told a conference...

>LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Undercover police officers infiltrated Occupy LA's tent city last month to spy on people they suspected of stockpiling human waste and crude weapons for resisting an eventual eviction, police and city government sources said. Authorities also used security cameras mounted outside City Hall, where the camp...

>"OECD stock levels are at historically low levels, plus we are in a very fragile economic recovery situation," IEA chief economist Fatih Birol told a seminar in Australia on Monday."And higher prices than we have now can strangle economic recovery efforts worldwide, therefore the Saudi production boost currently and...

>The Ministry of Defence says Iraq's army was 600,000-700,000 strong before 2003.Here is a look at the Iraqi security forces now, and how they stack up against some others in the Middle East: CURRENT (According to the U.S.):Police - 450,000Army - over 192,900 soldiers- 5,100 Special OperationsAir...

>BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Nearly nine years after the United States threw out Saddam Hussein and dissolved his feared security machine, Iraq's rebuilt military is a long way from matching up with regional powers like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Israel. With little air defense, marginal control of its borders and a...

TEHRAN, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A U.S. unmanned reconnaissance aircraft brought down in Iran last week is a national trophy and won't be returned, an Iranian general said Sunday.

>The bodies of 3 Iranians and 90 Iraqis were handed over at the border crossing point of Shalamcha in southern Iraq, while military bands played national anthems.All but one coffin, containing the remains of an Iraqi soldier, were unidentified. Many were draped in the national flag of each soldier's...

>* Says oil sanctions will harm crude market* Iran discovers natural gas field in Caspian Sea (Adds foreign minister quotes, gas field discovery)By Parisa Hafezi and Ramin MostafaviTEHRAN, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The European Union "definitely" will not impose sanctions on OPEC member Iran's oil exports because such a measure...

Tehran - The Deputy Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Hamid Safdel on Sunday said Iran's non-oil exports including gas condensate exceeded 28 Billion dollars over 8 months. In a press conference, he also spoke of a 35 percent growth in Iran's exports and a 6 percent decrease in imports.

The U.S. confirms that Iran does have our top secret military drone known as the RQ-170. The Airforce has not released images of the drone, but they also state the drone was not shot down as Iranian officials . . .

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 (Bernama) -- Production of natural rubber (NR) in October 2011 recorded 85,800 tonnes, up 10.4 per cent when compared to the previous month, the Statistics Department said in a statement Monday.

President Barack Obama meets Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Monday, marking America's exit from a war launched in a aerial "shock and awe" assault that went on to deeply wound both nations.

(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) South Korea plans to announce a set of fresh sanctions on Iran as early as this week, diplomatic sources said Sunday, after the United States asked for such punishment ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - With the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq in its final days, President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will meet at the White House Monday to discuss the next phase of the relationship between their countries.

WASHINGTON -- As United States troops prepare to exit Iraq at the end of the month, the Obama administration is facing a significant dilemma over what to do with the last remaining detainee held by the American military in Iraq.

A proposed Pennsylvania law to ban courts from considering any "foreign legal code or system" that doesn't grant the same basic rights as the federal and state constitutions was drafted by an anti-Islam activist but is drawing fire from some Jews.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the international community must impose harsher sanctions against Iran.

Phoebe Prince. (AP Photo) Phoebe Prince killed herself on January 14. Today is April 12, and her name is...

Newt Gingrich is ringing alarm bells over a type of nuclear attack called the electromagnetic pulse, which some scientists say is far-fetched.

"Do most of you know there's an election coming?" Congressman Ron Paul joked as he took to the podium Friday at the Webster City Fire Station. U.S. Rep.

TEHRAN, Iran—Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday.

Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County, N.D., Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said. Sheriff Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the...

Tehran, Dec 12 : Iran has discovered a gas field in the Caspian sea, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said Sunday.

Iran faces new hurdles to getting paid for its oil as the U.S. tightens financial sanctions to deter buyers from the world’s third-largest crude exporter.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday.

KARACHI : Slow pace trading was evident during shortened week owing to Muharram-ul-Haram holidays. No big price change was observed. Markets are expected to warm up next week.

How worried should we be that Islamists won 70 per cent of the seats in the first round of Egypt's first free parliamentary elections?

Mercenaries, goateed liberals, jackals who scavenge for money at foreign embassies in Moscow -- those are some of the things Vladimir Putin has called Russia's opposition. But he's never before had to reckon with them as a significant threat to his rule. That may now have to change. On Saturday,...

Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit leads Warner's 2012 lineup

Google has come under fire for compromising the national security of the United States with satellite images of secret military bases.

This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global-news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Kommersant.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki flew to Washington on Sunday for talks with President Barack Obama aimed at cementing a new, postwar era in U.S.-Iraqi relations.

On an otherwise ordinary September Saturday, after months of planning and preparation, the Occupy Wall Street movement began in Manhattan. ... ;

Four years ago, Russians compared Vladimir Putin to Peter the Great. Now many are openly likening him to Leonid Brezhnev, the senile Soviet premier who had symbolized the broken-down and corrupt end-stage of Communism. Rioting in Moscow and other cities has followed a parliamentary election blatantly fraudulent even by Putin...

Letters: A West-Rooney primary would hurt the GOP

Iranian Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Mehdi Ghazanfari has announced that the country's steel production has witnessed 10-percent growth in the first 10 months of the year.

Obama faces a deadline to decide how to handle U.S. military's last Iraq detainee.

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To claim, when he wants Jewish votes and contributions, that, "Obviously, no ally is more important than the state of Israel ," is a sickening destruction of words.

U.S. intelligence operatives must be laughing at a lot of the media coverage they have seen this week concerning Iran’s supposed downing of a top-secret U.S. reconnaissance drone.

L.A. critics pick George Clooney dramedy as year's best, while Boston critics opt for valentine to silent films; Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Michelle Williams among winners

>DUBAI Dec 12 (Reuters) - Here are factors that may affect Middle East stock markets on Monday. Reuters has not verified the press reports and does not vouch for their accuracy.INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL* Brent steady above $108 on China imports, EU deal* GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks gain on EU progress, euro falls on...

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his State of the Union Address to Congress in 1941, he articulated four fundamental freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of [...]

At the very moment American troops are pulling out of Iraq, the revolt in neighboring Syria is threatening to disrupt the fragile political...

DAMASCUS, Dec. 11- A Syrian opposition front at home called for forming a national unity government as the sole solution to end the nearly nine-month-old crisis, as the ongoing violence in central Homs region is ramping up unabatedly.

DUBAI, Dec 10 (Reuters) Dozens of pro-government demonstrators marched to the offices of a Bahraini opposition party today and daubed the building with grafitti against majority Shi'ites and Iran, residents said.

A TENTATIVE deal by EU leaders for a pact on region-wide fiscal discipline - with Britain excepted - gave a boost to US markets last Friday allowing the markets to end another rocky week in the plus column.

For most of Islamic history, Sunnis and Shiites have managed to get along under the guidance of strong governments -- mostly run by Sunnis who kept the Shiites in their place. But when governments are on the edge of collapse, as in Iraq a few years ago and in Syria...

Former Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney is trailing after failing to break Newt Gingrich’s momentum and a bet that backfired

THE continuous violence in Syria has brought about great suffering of its population. It is time that concrete efforts are taken to bring peace to the country, where a geopolitical game of influence has taken centre stage since the Arab Spring.

Part of the incoming Iranian natural gas to Armenia re-exported to Georgia and Armenia receives electricity from the ratio of 1 cubic metre of gas 4.5 kW of power. Illustrated report Chamber of Armenia for the exploration of the energy system of the country for the 2009-2010 biennium.

Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Washington today, looking to open a new chapter with the United States after a protracted war that left deep wounds.

Beirut - One person was injured in southern Lebanon on Sunday when a rocket apparently fired towards Israel hit a Lebanese border village, security sources in Lebanon said.

Iranian officials said the violation of Iran's airspace by the U.S. drone was a "hostile act" and warned of a "bigger" response.

After the Second World War, American artists rejected the European past and took to Abstract Expressionism.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague meets with top US diplomat Hillary Clinton on Monday amid a rift between Britain and its European partners over eurozone debt concerns.

From DR CHANDRA MUZAFFAR,President,International Movement for a Just World

Beirut (dpa) - Unidentified militants fired a rocket late Sunday from southern Lebanon toward Israeli settlements, but the weapon fell inside Lebanon and wounded a woman, a Lebanese security source said.Fired from Wadi al-Kassiyeh in southern Lebanon, the rocket fell by mistake on the nearby village of Houla, wounding...

Successive electoral victories of Islamic movements in a number of Arab countries seem to have triggered a kind of debate in the West about this "problem", malevolently described as the 'rise of political Islam'.

According to Iraqi Council of Representatives Oil and Energy Committee member Furat al-Sharei, the 10 oil fields that spread across the Iraqi-Kuwaiti frontier are still waiting to have a line drawn through them to delineate the border, more than eight years after a coalition led by U.S. forces toppled...

Local Kinno export target had been set to 0.3 million tons this year and expected to generate over a $100 million in export earnings. However, the fruit has experienced a bumpy start of season with a variety of challenges in the way of making this goal into a reality.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich's trailing rivals derided the leading presidential contenders on Sunday as insufficiently conservative, each trying to find a second wind in the race to become the Republican nominee with time running out before voting begins.

- Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Community Services will be offering tax preparation services for seniors starting March 1. Basic tax returns only. Space is limited. Info: 604-467-6911 ext 232.

THE journey of our 14th Yang di-Pertuan Agong started on Nov 28, 1927, in Alor Setar, Kedah, at Istana Anak Bukit. Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah is the eldest son of Sultan Badlishah Al-Marhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah and his consort, Tunku Sofiah Al-Marhum Tunku Mahmud.

TEHRAN, Iran—Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday.

BEIRUT, Dec 12 ― One person was injured in southern Leban yesterday when a rocket apparently fired toward Israel hit a Lebanese border village, security sources in Lebanon said. They said the rocket was fired from the Wadi al-Qaisiyeh area, about 2km from the frontier and landed in the village...

Rick Santorum appeared on CNN's State of the Union earlier today, and he addressed his accusation least week that the Obama administration engages in appeasement. The president responded by suggesting people ask Osama bin Laden and other terrorists he's killed under his administration if he favors appeasement. When Candy Crowley...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki arrived in Washington on Sunday, looking to open a new chapter with the United States after a protracted war that left deep wounds.

American officials insist that neither weaponry nor technology brought down a U.S. drone that was flying over Iranian territory earlier this month, but a former U.S. ambassador says if reports are true that Russia provided jamming equipment, the situation becomes all that much worse.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a dreary summer marred by the fight over government borrowing, rank-and-file Democrats say they are growing more optimistic about President Barack Obama’s political prospects in 2012. They cite his tougher, more populist tone and what they view as a chaotic primary fight among Republicans.

• Bahrain o Bahrain Independent Commission Of Inquiry o International Committee Of The Red Cross • Drc o Electoral Process • Iran o Robert Levinson Video o Swiss Ambassador Meeting With Iranian Authorities o Virtual Embassy Tehran • Syria/Turkey/Russia/China ...

December 12, 2011

Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday

In the next war, one of the battlescapes is likely to include a brick building shaded by fir trees, not far from Interstate 5, north of Olympia.

Thank you, Maureen. It is a pleasure to be here at the Newseum for this important conversation hosted by Google and the Dutch Embassy and to be linked to the ministerial meeting with Secretary Clinton in The Hague.

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been positioned to take over Iran, a report said. The Foreign Policy Research Institute asserted that IRGC was becoming the only force that could impose a leader in turbulent Iran. In a report by Amin Tarzi, the institute said IRGC support...

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. (AP) — In the next war, one of the battlescapes is likely to include a brick building shaded by fir trees, not far from Interstate 5, north of Olympia. The two-story building, with office space downstairs and shared computer work spaces upstairs, is home to the...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Bans on women smoking water pipes in public and male coiffeurs styling women’s hair are no longer being strictly enforced in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, apparent signs of greater tolerance as the Islamic militant group acknowledges mistakes in seeking to impose a religious lifestyle. Read...

Iran will not return a US surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard says. read more

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WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich’s trailing rivals derided the leading presidential contenders on Sunday as insufficiently conservative, each trying to find a second wind in the race to become the Republican nominee with time running out before voting begins. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota combined the two leaders...

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday.

Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy head of the Guard, said in remarks broadcast on state television that the violation of Iran's airspace...

WASHINGTON — Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said.

Head of Iran's High Council for Human Rights says the US and its allies have become paranoid about growing Iranian influence in the region, Press TV reports.

IRAN: A senior Iranian commander says the Islamic Republic is among the few countries that possess the technological know-how of the unmanned aerial vehicles fitted with scanning and reconnaissance systems.

World powers piled pressure on Syria to let in observers as activists reported at least 14 civilians killed by security forces on Saturday’s anniversary of International Human Rights Day.

A senior Arab League official has condemned Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's statement that the Palestinians are an "invented" people.

Head of the Iranian Judiciary High Council for Human Rights says the violation of Iran's airspace by an American spy drone is a blatant example of rights violation and legal action will be taken against the US.

TEHRAN, Dec. 11 (MNA) -- The deputy commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, says that Iran is among the handful of countries that have the most advanced drone technology.

Iran's foreign minister says Tehran will complain to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) about the recent violation of Iranian airspace by an American reconnaissance drone.

KARIN LAUB Associated Press GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Bans on women smoking water pipes in public and male coiffeurs styling women's hair are no longer being strictly enforced in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, apparent signs of greater tolerance as the Islamic militant group acknowledges mistakes in seeking to impose a...

COMMENTARY | The deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said today that Iran will not return the downed U.S. unmanned drone they claim to have recovered. That's not really surprising -- far be it for Iran to cooperate in a matter as complicated as this one.

COMMENTARY | Rick Perry seems determined to take up Herman Cain's seat on the "Board of Hopefuls Who Say and Do Dumb Things." Recently exposed as an anti-gay bigot by his ad reviling gay members of the armed forces, Perry just proved three more unpleasant things about himself. He...