News Archive - 14 December 2011

>* The Chinese government increased trade tensions with the Obama administration Wednesday evening by unexpectedly imposing antidumping and antisubsidy tariffs on imports of sport utility vehicles and midsize and large cars from the United States.* A House committee is expected to disclose on Thursday that MF Global, under Jon...

>SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent crude futures were little changed at $105 on Thursday, after plunging the most in nearly three months in the previous session after Italy's borrowing costs skyrocketed and renewed fears about the euro zone's debt crisis. Asian shares and base metals fell, while the euro nursed losses...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday that would expand sanctions on Iran, cracking down on a wider range of energy issues and closing some loopholes in existing energy and financial sanctions. Some senators in both parties are also working on legislation to tighten...

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the U.S. will continue to conduct intelligence operations like the recent one that led to the loss of a drone over Iran.

>TEHRAN (Reuters) - Tehran does not look like a city under siege. Its shops and markets are full of goods and customers; signs that international sanctions are ravaging Iran's economy are hard to detect.With global oil prices above $100 a barrel, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter is proving...

>* Saudi, Bahrain say Iran's Al Alam channel instigates unrest* Iran sees Gulf channels' TV serials as cultural threatBy Firouz SedaratDUBAI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Satellite television channels are widening the divide between Arabs and Iranians by airing alleged calls by Iran for revolt in Gulf states and what Tehran...

>VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran could soon begin sensitive atomic activities in an underground facility deep inside a mountain, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday, a move that would up the ante in a stand-off with big powers demanding Tehran curb such work. Iranian experts have carried out the necessary preparations at...

>VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC oil producers on Wednesday sealed their first new output agreement in three years in a deal that settles a 6-month-old argument over supply policy firmly in Saudi Arabia's favor. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed a target of 30 million barrels daily, ratifying current...

>BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thirteen people were killed in Syria's Hama province on Wednesday when troops fired on a car and provoked a reprisal ambush, activists said, the latest bloodshed in a nine-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. The British-based Syrian Organisation for Human Rights said army deserters ambushed a convoy...

>FORT BRAGG, North Carolina (Reuters) - President Barack Obama welcomed home some of the last U.S. troops from Iraq on Wednesday, marking a symbolic end to the nearly nine-year war that strained America's armed forces and inflicted lasting damage to its standing worldwide. Addressing soldiers at Fort Bragg, North...

>The bill is expected to pass the Senate this week and then go to Obama's desk for his signature into law.Shortly before the House vote, the White House announced the president's advisers would not recommend a veto, although they said they still had concerns about the measure.The measure...

>VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC oil producers gathered on Wednesday for a meeting that is expected to reset a production limit for the first time in three years and settle an argument over output levels in Saudi Arabia's favor. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ministers will consider a new...

KABUL, Afghanistan | Declining to discuss details about a U.S. RQ-170 drone aircraft that went missing in Iran, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta defended the use of intelligence, surveillance and ...

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina: President Barack Obama on Wednesday honored America's nearly nine years of "bleeding and building" in Iraq, hailing the "extraordinary achievement" of a war he once branded "dumb."

Kuala Lumpur: Senator Datuk Paul Kong on Wednesday said many people in Sabah are wondering whether the State's air transportation is moving forward or backward following the recent decision by MAS subsidiary Firefly's decision to stop flights from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur and vice versa.

A member of Iran's Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy says the country has begun the construction of a new nuclear plant for civilian purposes in the central province of Isfahan.

US representatives have endorsed harsher sanctions against Iran as it seeks to weaken Tehran economically and derail its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Former U.S. Sen. and new Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America Chris Dodd speaks at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace during CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, March 29, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

>"This is being considered in light of sanctions being considered (against Iranian oil trade) by some countries," said the source, who asked not to be named.India and Iran have been struggling to find a permanent mechanism to settle their bilateral trade, especially since last year when India's central bank...

KABUL, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the United States will continue to conduct intelligence operations like the recent one that led to the loss of a drone over Iran. Speaking at a press conference yesterday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Panetta said he would not publicly discuss the...

Iraq, after eight years of occupation by American troops, is luring U.S. hotel operators and developers betting on growth from business expansion and an eventual pickup in leisure travel to the war-torn region.

President Barack Obama honored America's nearly nine years of "bleeding and building" in Iraq, hailing the "extraordinary achievement" of a war he once branded "dumb."

Economic growth across the world will slow in 2012 due to the problematic combination of private-sector deleveraging, public-sector austerity and the lack of confidence in political leaders' ability to navigate these situations according to IHS, a leading macro-economic consultancy.

Aid is freezed pending assurances from Pak that it has taken steps to thwart militants.

Day 3 of the 49th WBC convention got underway with introductions of the assembled promoters from around the world.

The continued onslaught against protesters in Syria has resulted in 5,000 deaths according to recent United Nations estimates.

A SEVEN-BEDROOM WOODEN HOUSE ON AN ISLAND OFF ISTANBUL

House of Representatives approves defence bill including moves to allow terror suspects to be detained indefinitely.

India and Russia may have last year elevated their strategic partnership to "special and privileged status," but there seems no evidence of private enterprise in both countries following in the footsteps laid down by their respective governments.

The increase in the average price of a gallon of unleaded, regular gasoline in Georgia, this week over last week, was so small, that it is not likely to slow the state’s motorists down at all.

Washington, Dec 15 : The United States Air Force (USAF) is reportedly planning to deploy a new jet-powered stealth drone in Afghanistan, after Iran ‘captured’ one of its surveillance aircraft for ‘violating the Islamic regime’s airspace’.

The US flag is to be lowered in Baghdad in a ceremony formally marking the end of US military operations in Iraq, after nearly nine years of war.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats backed away from their demand for higher taxes on millionaires as part of legislation to extend Social Security tax cuts for most Americans on Wednesday as Congress struggled to clear critical year-end bills without triggering a partial government shutdown.

Twenty years ago last week, three courageous Soviet republic presidents, led by Russia’s Boris Yeltsin, met near Minsk to plot the destruction of their country. Less than three weeks later, on Christmas Day 1991, their decision forced the end of a once great and powerful empire that splintered into 15...

Stocks, euro slide as worries about Europe persist NEW YORK -- A growing sense that Europe's leaders have failed to contain that region's debt crisis swept through financial markets Wednesday. It started with the euro dropping below $1.30 for the first time since J...

Rumours of Iran and war

Romney steps up criticism of Gingrich IOWA CITY, Iowa His attacks growing ever more personal,

Wednesday, Daily Show host Jon Stewart introduced a new, ball-centric segment aimed at celebrating and/or denigrating public figures whose massive cojones propel them forward or trip them up, as massive cojones are wont to do. And it's all sponsored by Lowe's,* naturally.

It's12 months since an Indonesian fishing boat was tossed by heavy seas onto rocks on the shore of Christmas Island.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Tigers football squad continue to receive invitations for friendly matches, with the latest encounter set for Feb 20 against Saudi Arabia in Melbourne, Australia.

Anbar was where instability began in Iraq. It was where stability returned. And it is where instability could start again.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said yesterday that the U.S. will continue to conduct intelligence operations from Afghanistan like the recent mission that led to the loss of a drone over Iran, and he gave an upbeat assessment of the unpopular war. Standing with Afghan President Hamid Karzai,...

Michele Bachmann was an "accidental politician," and it all began on April Fool's Day. On April 1, 2000, the 2012 Republican White House hopeful — then a "middle American mom," as she wrote in her recent memoir — made a fateful, spur-of-the moment decision that changed her life.

The US Air Force reportedly plans to deploy a new highly-capable radar-evading generation of drone in Afghanistan after Iran downed one of its stealth drones, which was in violation of the Islamic Republic's airspace.

A Waukegan couple denied making false statements on their voter application materials at their arraignment Wednesday.Waukegan couple Mahmoud and Parvin Vakili are charged with perjury and mutilation of election materials.Mahmoud, 67, and Parvin, 62, face up to five years in prison if convicted of perjury and up to...

The US House of Representatives has passed laws to freeze some Pakistan aid and slap harsh new sanctions on Iran.

Taking stock of Iraq as the troops come home

So, how real is the concern over Congressman Ron Paul's position on Israel?  Real enough that the Republican Jewish Coalition last week told Congressman Paul that he was not invited to speak at a candidates forum even though every other Republican candidate was invited.

The presidency of Barack Obama was nurtured by the political firestorm whipped up by the Iraq war -- but in ending the conflict, he is leaving recriminations to history. Obama, honoring a promise to end the war, is remembering America's dead and turning a political page as the last US...

As American forces withdraw from Iraq, we asked Iraqis questions about the war and their country's future. We start in Baghdad.

Ledgers paint a picture of an intricate global money-laundering apparatus that, with the bank as its hub, appeared to let the terrorist organization move huge sums of money into the legitimate financial system.

Though the US has denied its widely perceived counterbalancing of China 's rising regional clout by relaunching its Asia-Pacific policy, the world is now focusing on how the two largest economies coordinate their interests in the region, which sustains world economic growth and strategic balance.

The US House of Representatives approves a defence bill that includes provisions to put terror suspects into military custody and permit indefinite detention.

Over the objection of the Obama Administration, Sen. Mark Kirk preserves sanctions against his favorite enemy, Iran.

Crude prices up with stock rally, Mideast tension Associated Press Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 08:55 a.m., Tuesday, December 13, 2011 About a third of the world's oil tanker traffic passes through the strategic waterway, and...

THE Government will “respond positively” if Pope Benedict expresses an interest in visiting Ireland, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said.

If Newt Gingrich had dug into the historical archives as deeply, say, as Wikipedia, he would have discovered that the word "Palestine" or linguistic variants thereof have existed since ancient times.

It's not quite over yet, but the Iraq war is in its last days. US president Barack Obama yesterday welcomed home American troops, saying "the final work of leaving Iraq has been done." Read more on the blog...

Time magazine has again turned to a concept for its latest person of the year, choosing “The Protester” in recognition of a year in which unhappiness with politics and the economy was given voice in streets around the world, most notably in the Mideast.

The cofounders of some of the Internet's most successful startups have put out a letter condemning the Stop Online Piracy Act. It warns that SOPA will undermine online security, burden future web startups, and "censor the web using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran." The...

ENERGY Texas site for ethylene plant Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., a joint venture equally owned by San Ramon's Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, will move forward with plans to build one of the first new ethylene... Presented By: 10 Tips to Win this Holiday Season FREE GUIDE    During the...

Crude shoots up along with stock rally Associated Press Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 07:43 a.m., Tuesday, December 13, 2011 NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are surging, outpacing a broad rally in stocks, as strong...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Nearly nine years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq ousted Saddam Hussein, American troops are pulling out and leaving behind a country still battling insurgents, political uncertainty and sectarian divisions. Nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis lost their lives in...

Trash Haulers, who have had an exclusive deal with Hillsborough since 1996, will now have to go through a bid process.

Is tech the last refuge from Democrat-Republican bickering?

US spy drone unveils by IRAN (IRGC). Despite the denial of the Pentagon, the US government finally opened up to accept the lost of their one of the most advance secret unmanned aircraft, the RQ170 Sentinel.

By Humeyra Pamuk and Amena Bakr

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave an upbeat assessment of the Afghanistan war on Wednesday and said the U.S. will continue using drones for intelligence operations from Afghanistan.

Kabul (AFP) Dec 14, 2011 Afghan territory should not be used in a proxy war between the United States and Iran, President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday after the Islamic republic captured a US drone. Karzai was speaking in Kabul after an hour-long meeting with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who...

Iran is to transfer its nuclear production across a series of underground and bomb-proof secret facilities as it steps up efforts to thwart an apparent Western sabotage campaign.

Ankara (AFP) Dec 14, 2011 Iran dismissed intimidating remarks by its own officials against Turkey saying Tehran would target NATO's missile shield in its neighbour if threatened, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday. "We reject those views completely," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salihi told Anatolia in an interview,...

Italy's borrowing costs jump at bond auction as EU attempts to forge a 'fiscal union' fails to convince markets it can solve the debt crisis, while 'opt out' Britain secures record low interest rates at ...

Washington (UPI) Dec 14, 2011 Albert Einstein's advice that solutions to tough problems should be made as simple as possible and no simpler applies in part today with the caveat that solutions should also be as bold as possible - but no bolder! Incremental or marginal change to complex, Sisyphean-like...

Ron Paul is the most virtuous candidate in the 2012 presidential race. This fact is not lost on the American public; a recent poll of Republicans and independents selected Paul as the most “principled” candidate.

Thirty-one days into his presidency, Gerald Ford , with the stroke of a pen, granted a full and absolute pardon to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, who had resigned from office on Aug. 9, 1974. It was the only time an American president had pardoned another.

The ancient art of war is coming to the internet. The House and Senate agreed to give the U.S. military the power to conduct “offensive” strikes online — including clandestine attacks, via a little noticed provision in the military’s 2012 funding bill. The power, which was included in the...

A Polk County high school head football coach was arrested Wednesday on charges of having sex with a female student.

The federal tax credit for research and development should be expanded from 14 percent to 20 percent and made a permanent provision in the tax code, which would help Iowa businesses like Pioneer Hi-Bred seed company, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Wednesday.

(Ronald Zak | The Associated Press) Wednesday’s decision by OPEC at its meeting in Austria should appease price hawks Iran and its allies and price doves Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf nations and avoids a repeat of the cartel's last abortive talks in June, when oil ministers disagreed publicly...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - With the White House's blessing, lawmakers moved on Wednesday to pass legislation to freeze some Pakistan aid, slap harsh new sanctions on Iran, and endorse indefinite imprisonment of suspected terrorists.

Jim Portell, whose daughter was killed in an SUV rollover, supports the NTSB recommendation to ban cell phone use while driving.

The founders of Google Inc. and eBay Inc. attacked Hollywood-backed anti-piracy legislation in the U.S. House and Senate that they said would threaten the technology industry and lead to Web censorship.

The Stokes atmospheric nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site, August 7, 1957 Newt Gingrich has been warning the nation of the danger of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) a burst of radiation created by a high-altitude nuclear explosion. This pulse would take down electrical systems over hundreds or thousands of...

Oil tumbled more than 4 per cent on Wednesday, the biggest drop in over two months as a commodities selloff led to breaches of key technical support.

On Tuesday, the New York Times published a critical story on K12 Inc, the largest player in the for-profit K-12 online learning industry. Today, the publicly traded company's stock is down more than 20 percent from where they were at Monday's market close. But will the negative reaction last? Education...

As reported last week in the New York Times, South Korea is seeking renegotiation of a 1974 treaty that bars it from acquiring spent nuclear fuel reprocessing or uranium enrichment plants–so-called “fuel cycle facilities” that can be used both to support a nuclear energy sector or ...

Iran Human Rights Designations Press Statement Victoria Nuland Department Spokesperson , Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC December 14, 2011 Yesterday, the United States Government designated two senior Iranian officials for their roles in committing serious human rights abuses against the Iranian people. Both Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

Law enforcement officials are investigating reports that Iranian and Venezuelan diplomats in Mexico were involved in planning cyber-attacks against the United States. read more

A group of about 150 young men and women from the 25th Unit Brigade and the 82nd Airborne division returned to Ft. Bragg in North Carolina this week. Families are eagerly awaiting the return of their loved ones as the wave of homecomings continue until the end of this month.

DAMASCUS — UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged world powers on Wednesday to act “in the name of humanity” against Syria’s crackdown on dissent, as a US official likened the Damascus regime to a “dead man walking.”

Thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the state of human rights and the rule of law in Russia. These issues have always been central to the Administration’s strategy toward Russia. As President Obama said in July 2009, “Americans and Russians ...

The White House on Wednesday backed off a threat to veto a bill that freezes some aid to Pakistan, slaps harsh new sanctions on Iran, and embraces indefinite detention of suspected terrorists.

Crude oil futures plummeted more than 5% today, the biggest drop in nearly three months.

(The Associated Press) WASHINGTON — FBI Director Robert Mueller has expressed concerns about what he called the “uncertainty” of requiring military custody for suspected terrorists, casting doubt on a massive defense bill that Congress raced to complete on Wednesday.

Two recent explosions and the unlikely capture of an American stealth drone have left a flood of questions — but very few answers — in Iran. Was it the action of Israel? Has a covert war already begun? Iranians are unnerved with the feeling that the country is constantly under...

CNN Money answers the question " Are You Better Off Than Your Mom and Dad? " The good news-young people still believe in the American Dream . The report shows that young women are slightly better off than their parents while young men are slightly worse off than their parents. American...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is building ties with a range of oil producing countries in an effort to ensure a steady supply of crude to global markets as the West ratchets up the threat of increased sanctions against Iranian exports. According to a State Department official, the groundwork...

Unlike today's spy satellites, the Pentagon's space telescope of tomorrow could take live video of anywhere on Earth.

The Union government on Wednesday said there were no plans to regulate the content on Internet or monitor social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. “The government does not regu...

Iran is to transfer its nuclear production across a series of underground and bomb-proof secret facilities as it steps up efforts to thwart an apparent Western sabotage campaign.