News Archive - 8 January 2012

IRI Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi says the spies recently arrested in Iran were plotting to implement US plans during upcoming Iranian parliamentary polls. Moslehi said on Sunday that the espionage agents were planning to disrupt the elections, using guidelines communicated to them from outside the country and generating disturbance through...

Quito favors expansion of political, economic and cultural ties with Tehran, Ecuadorian Ambassador to Tehran Visente Fliks Berinus said on Sunday. He told IRNA that Ecuador was willing to boost ties with Iran in different fields of interests. IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to visit Ecuador on the last...

The first international press festival of Muslim women opened Sunday morning, according to IRNA. The festival is being held with participation of 50 periodicals from different countries and 60 domestic ones in the venue of Iran’s National Library. Expert committees to be held at the sideline of the festival will...

A US Predator drone had reportedly fired the first bomb in an airstrike that killed 35 Kurdish civilians in southeastern Turkey last month, Press TV quoted Turkish Aydinlik newspaper as saying Sunday. The report added that Turkey's F-16 fighter jets had arrived at the scene between 16 to 18 minutes...

Egyptian protesters have condemned the United States' interference in their country's internal affairs, demanding the closure of US embassy in Cairo, according to Press TV. Chanting anti-US slogans, the demonstrators gathered outside the US embassy in the capital Cairo on Saturday to protest what they described as Washington's meddling in...

The world's largest annual migration of people officially began in China on Sunday with millions of travellers boarding public transport to journey across the vast country for Lunar New Year celebrations. The government estimates the number of passenger trips on trains, planes, boats and buses will reach 3.2 billion...

IRI parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Sunday morning that sowing religious discord in the region is the main US strategy. Addressing a parliamentary open session this morning, he said what was going on in Iraq and Syria in the past few weeks is a proof that the US is following...

>"The Fordow nuclear enrichment plant will be operational in the near future ... 20 percent, 3.5 percent and four percent enriched uranium can be produced at this site," said the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, the Kayhan daily reported.Iran has said for months that it...

A former inmate at the US detention center of Guantanamo Bay has disclosed details of humiliation and torture he suffered during eight years in the prison. Saber Lahmar explained that he was deprived of sleeping and food and there was constant noise from a motor outside his door. “You couldn't...

Asian stocks fell for a third day and oil retreated after India’s Prime Minister cut his economic growth forecast and Australian retail sales missed estimates. The euro touched an 11-year low against the yen before European leaders meet to discuss rescue plans for the region.

>* Iran's threats to shut waterway caps price falls* Index reweighting narrows Brent/WTI spread* Coming up: German industrial output, November; 1100 GMT (Updates prices)By Seng Li PengSINGAPORE, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Brent crude prices steadied above $113 a barrel on Monday as concerns over the economic health of the euro...

IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in the Venezuelan capital Caracas on the first leg of his tour of several Latin American countries. President Ahmadinejad was welcomed by Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua upon his arrival at Maiquetia Airport in Caracas on January 8. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to meet with...

>CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dismissed a U.S. warning to avoid close ties with Iran on Sunday, denouncing what he said was Washington's attempt to dominate the world as he welcomed the Iranian president to the Latin American nation. Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived at the start of...

>CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez's signature "Alo Presidente" TV show returned to Venezuelan screens on Sunday in the latest milestone of his recovery from cancer at the start of an election year. The 57-year-old leader has often been on television in recent weeks, looking stronger and boasting a new...

>* Military says still fears long-term cutsBy Dan WilliamsJERUSALEM, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Israel will boost defence spending by about 6 percent this year in the face of deepening regional instability, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, defying calls for cuts as living standards are squeezed.Israel will spend...

IRI Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi has described as insignificant the dispatch of UK's sophisticated destroyer to the Persian Gulf. British Ministry of Defense confirmed on Saturday that HMS Daring, a one-billion-pound Type 45 destroyer, would join the British presence in the region. Last week, Iran wrapped up a...

>The Absalon warship, serving in NATO's counter-piracy mission Ocean Shield, captured the fishing vessel and 25 suspected pirates on Saturday, a navy spokesman said.The suspected pirates, believed to be Somali, were being questioned on Sunday, spokesman Mikael Bill said."The operation went as planned, without casualties to the crew,...

>* Central bank intervened to stop currency dropping further* Currency, inflation problems seen partly due to sanctionsBy Hashem KalantariTEHRAN, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Iran's parliament cracked down on unofficial money traders on Sunday after new U.S. sanctions helped trigger a currency crash as Iranians rushed to buy dollars.The...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta cautioned global rivals on Sunday not to misjudge U.S. plans to slash military spending over the next decade, saying America would still field the world's strongest military and nobody should "mess with that." Panetta, speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation" ahead...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site built to withstand possible airstrikes, a leading hard-line newspaper reported Sunday in another show of defiance against Western pressure to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.

>* MSCI Asia ex-Japan falls 0.3 pct* S&P 500 index futures down 0.5 pct* U.S. crude eases to $101.40 a barrelSINGAPORE, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The euro sank against the dollar and the yen and Asian stocks stalled on Monday, as renewed gloom about the fallout...

LONDON (SHARECAST) - More than £31bn of taxpayers’ money has been wasted across government departments in the past two years, according to an audit by The Times.

Jan. 8, African National Congress founded. Jan. 8, The U.S. Monetary Commission presented a plan to Congress that would become the Federal Reserve System.

Arthur Abraham faces Pablo Natalio Farias in a 12 round bout on January 14 at the Baden-Arena, Offenburg, Germany.

India has expressed concerns over the new US sanctions on the Iranian oil sector, saying it will seek waivers on the embargo to deal with the potential impacts of the measures on its crude supply.

75 Years Ago Saturday, January 9, 1937 • A Minneapolis and Omaha passenger train puffed into Norfolk today after spending 21 hours wedged between snowdrifts 22 feet high. All its 16 passengers were well but hungry. The train became stuck in the drifts near Winside, Neb., early Friday.

The doomsday scenario of Soviet nukes falling into the hands of rogue states or terrorists has, as far as is known, remained fiction, thanks to a massive US-Russian effort.

> Financials...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site built to withstand possible airstrikes, a leading hard-line newspaper reported Sunday in another show of defiance against Western pressure to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program.

Osasuna midfielder Javad Nekounam insists European champions Barcelona are harder to play than Real Madrid or any other team, ahead of their Copa del Rey second leg on Thursday.

SINGAPORE (Jan 9) Malaysian crude palm oil futures eased on Monday as renewed worries about the euro zone debt crisis...

Oil falls to near $101 in Asia as investors eye Europe meeting, Iran tension

Motorists and hauliers face record diesel prices at the pumps, putting a further brake on economic recovery, after an unprecedented rise in wholesale costs over the festive period.

Today is Monday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2012. There are 357 days left in the year. On Jan. 9, 1972, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purported autobiography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake.

Unlike in Iowa, people in the Granite State get right to the point in the days before the primary.

CAIRO -- Iran's top nuclear official announced this weekend that the country was on the verge of starting production at its second major uranium enrichment site, in a defiant declaration that its nuclear program would continue despite new international sanctions restricting its oil revenue.

Few people noticed Saudi Arabia’s three-day conference in September on disrupting terrorism financing. For a team at the U.S. Treasury Department, though, it was a long-sought victory in the fight against al-Qaeda.

Oil flatOil traded near the lowest settlement this year in New York as bets that Europe’s debt crisis will worsen and curb commodity demand countered concern that tension with Iran will disrupt supplies. Crude for February delivery was at $101.40 a barrel, down 16 cents, early yesterday in...

WASHINGTON: Instability in Pakistan and the threat of a nuclear Iran were more pressing issues than the war in Afghanistan, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich told a Sunday morning presidential debate.

The prospect of an EU-imposed oil embargo against Iran is not likely to threaten the country's nuclear ambitions, but would merely draw it closer to China. 9 Jan 2012 3:20 PM

Oil prices were down in Asian trade Monday on concerns the European debt crisis could worsen, analysts said, amid tensions over Iran's threat to block a vital oil shipping lane.

Tammy Tran preparing cakes for the desserts. Anton's Pasta Bar opens every year to feed people in need.

To any objective observer, the 2012 presidential primary will fail to go down as one of New Hampshire’s most exciting, energetic or unpredictable political events. A long campaign that only began to galvanize late, a prohibitive local favorite and near unanimity of thought on the major issues of the day...

"If Iran's oil is banned, not a single drop of oil will pass through the Hormuz Strait.

The top United Nations official in Iraq met today with the parliamentary speaker of the country to discuss the recent upsurge in political and sectarian tensions. Martin Kobler, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq and the ...

Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been acquitted by the country's High Court of a sex offence against a former aide, citing unreliable DNA evidence. Related Stories Iran 'begins enriching uranium' TV shows young Kim threatening war Anwar acquitted of sodomy charge Giffords remembers shooting victims Woman's 365ft snapped-bungee plunge

SINGAPORE - Oil prices were down in Asian trade Monday on concerns the European debt crisis could worsen, analysts said, amid tensions over Iran's threat to block a vital oil shipping lane.

An Australian tourist bungee jumping in Africa plunged 365ft into a river when her cord snapped, but miraculously managed to swim to safety with a broken collarbone and her legs tied together. Related Stories Iran 'begins enriching uranium' TV shows young Kim threatening war Anwar acquitted of sodomy charge Giffords...

The trappings are here: Debates … diner stops … satellite trucks. But the contest isn’t.

BARACK Obama made a special trip to the Pentagon last week to unveil America’s post-Iraq, post-Afghanistan defence strategy. But amid all the president’s talk, one particular word was nowhere to be heard: China.

Crude-oil futures decline but hold above $101 a barrel, in line with broad selling across commodity and equity markets.

Neville Chamberlain came back from Berlin and shouted, ‘peace in our times,’ thereby ending the war of words. Soon after, Germany invaded Poland and England was sucked into what would be five-year World War of attrition.

We have in recent weeks been rather confused by the contradiction between the strongly bearish price patterns that are developing in gold and silver, which are indicative of a major top that portends a brutal deflationary downwave, and the seemingly bullish COTs and sentiment for the sector.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta issued a clear warning Sunday that the U.S. military will quickly respond if Iran attempts to carry out its threat to choke off world energy supplies by closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The US is trying to “recalibrate a comprehensive plan to topple the Islamic government of Iran” as it is to be understood from Washington's efforts to redefine its war in Iraq and its push to disintegrate the Syrian regime, a political expert tells Press TV .

A bombing of the Iranian nuclear sites will drive the price of oil to record peaks and throw the world into recession. Are you willing to own any equities but oil producers under that scenario? Better not.?? Even a blockade of the Hormuz Straits will destroy the chances for moderate...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8- The United States has declared Venezuela's consul general in Miami persona non grata and asked her to leave by Tuesday, the State Department said on Sunday.

> Financials Industrials...

Front-runner Mitt Romney came under attack Sunday in the second Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire in two days, with rivals saying he would be unable to defeat President Barack Obama.

Posted Jan. 08, 2012, at 5:40 p.m. President Obama pledged that the $489 billion in defense cuts he has proposed over 10 years would be governed by a concerted strategy, and on Thursday he delivered one.

Rallies in stocks and gasoline will push prices toward the highest levels ever in 2012 even as U.S. Treasury yields hold near record lows.

Attempts by Minister Kim Carr to revive the Australian car industry will only help if the government intends to continue to support the car industry's operations and if the car firms can be convinced this is the case, says Dr John Mikler from the University of Sydney.

Some 17 illegal Afghan immigrants who had been arrested by the police investigation section of the people smuggling department escaped [...]

> Basic Materials Cyclical Consumer Goods Energy Financials Industrials Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News...

>SEOUL Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures fell in early Asian trade on Monday as a stronger U.S. dollar made the dollar-denominated asset costlier, but the fall was capped by supply concerns after Iran's threat to shut a key oil-shipping route. FUNDAMENTALS* On the New York...

METAIRIE, LA. — The New Orleans Saints are still undefeated at home and have lost just three times all season. So, it might be a bit of nitpicking to say the road could be a potential downfall. "You win 13, 14 games now, and you're trying to find something," coach...

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday welcomed the lifting of the Public Emergency Regulations in Fiji as a step in the right direction towards the full enjoyment of fundamental human rights in the country.

Arrow 3 Defense Missile Launch Test (Photo credit: Israeli Defense Ministry via Israel Hayom)

THERE WAS something strange about watching six middle-aged men in charcoal grey suits and white shirts devote so much discussion to contraception and gay marriage on Saturday night and yesterday morning, in the last two Republican debates before tomorrow’s New Hampshire primary.

Some members of the Occupy New Hampshire group disrupted a rally for Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich Sunday.

EAST RUTHERFORD — It seemed only appropriate that Hakeem Nicks dug the "Dirty Bird" touchdown celebration out of the storage closet Sunday afternoon as he experienced his very own resurrection.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The euro sank against the dollar and the yen and Asian stocks stalled on Monday, as renewed gloom about the fallout from the European sovereign debt crisis overshadowed signs of vigour in the U.S. economy.

The average price for regular gasoline at U.S. filling stations rose 12.03 cents to $3.3596 a gallon, according to Lundberg Survey Inc.

ACCUSATIONS of blasphemy, apostasy or insulting Islam are being increasingly used by governments and extremists in the Muslim world as a way of acquiring and consolidating power.

ANALYSIS/OPINION: Minutes after voters in Iowa had deadlocked on two candidates, MSNBC's political mastermind Chris Matthews was shocked — shocked. Sure, Mitt Romney had come out of nowhere to tie another upstart, Rick Santorum, but the mouthy host declared that Mr. Romney, the GOP front-runner, had failed to get more ...

Iran has already begun enriching uranium at a new underground site heavily protected from possible air strikes, according to a newspaper identified with the country's clerical leadership.

Oil traded near the lowest settlement this year as bets that Europe's debt crisis will worsen and curb commodity demand countered concern that tension with Iran will disrupt supplies.

Oil traded near the lowest settlement this year in New York as bets that Europe’s debt crisis will worsen and curb commodity demand countered concern that tension with Iran will disrupt supplies.

> Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News...

> Financials...

A decision by a Shiite militia to transform itself from an armed, anti-American movement into a viable political force could complicate Iraq’s political crisis and strengthen Iran’s clout in the country as U.S. influence wanes.

This morning, President Obama and Secretary of Defense Panetta unveiled new strategic guidance that reflects our 21st century defense needs and secures America’s leadership for the future. The Defense Department and State Department continue to work side-by-side ...

For the network news divisions of ABC, CBS and NBC, the focus has shifted to being different.

Headline Title:  Middle East protest and repression set to continue in 2012 09 January 2012 Repression and state violence is likely to continue to plague the Middle East and North Africa in 2012 unless governments in the region and international powers wake up to the scale of the changes being...

January 9, 2012

Asian Markets are set for a weak opening after Stocks closed mixed Friday, as even a strong government employment report was not enough to offset ongoing worries over the euro zone debt crisis.

Clash of the nice guys By KATHLEEN PARKER WASHINGTON - Iowa front-runners Mitt Romney and Rick Santo ...

Average price on UK forecourts hit 141p a litre over the weekend due to instability in the Persian Gulf.

Oil rose for the first day in three, climbing as much as 59 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $102.15 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude for February delivery was at $101.93 at 10:05 a.m. Sydney time.

Commodity markets were roiled last week as the dollar surged against the beleaguered euro and oil prices spiked close to eight-month highs on simmering tensions over key crude producer Iran.

Jaipur, Jan. 8: A communications expert who advises the Prime Minister and a Harvard law graduate who helped Rahul Gandhi’s team draft the Lokpal bill differed on the need for an anti-corruption ombudsman, as the now-shelved legislation dominated an NRI meet today.

Washington, Jan. 8: S.M. Krishna’s hopping travel to four West Asian nations now under way has the potential to be the most important visit made by any external affairs minister in recent memory, ranking almost on par with Jaswant Singh’s post-Pokhran dialogue with the Americans and Prime Minister Manmohan...

The US will respond if Iran tries to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned yesterday, saying such a move would cross a “red line”.

Looking at the week ahead, there's a slew of economic numbers and corporate earnings...

Noting that the Armenians have lived in the territory of modern Iraq, and is currently the largest communities live in Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk and Basra, Bishop Shahinyan noted that since 2003, the security situation and economic problems, their number has decreased significantly.

By 2015, the U.S. and China will be spending, for all practical purposes, equivalent amounts on the military. China remains a poor country, despite its rapid growth, but its huge size makes it a major world player.

Iran on Saturday welcomed the rescue of 13 Iranian sailors by a U.S. Navy ship, calling it a "humanitarian act."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, facing tighter U.S. sanctions and rising tensions in the Persian Gulf, will turn to his diminished group of allies in Latin America for support this week.

For anyone wondering how the abandonment of the dollar reserve status would look like we have a Hollow Men reference: not with a bang, but a whimper... Or in this case a whole series of bilateral agreements that quietly seeks to remove the US currency as an intermediate. Such as...