News Archive - 1 May 2012

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Iranian club Sepahan has blanked Al-Nasr of the United Arab Emirates at the group stage of the 2012 AFC Champions League. Sepahan pummeled Al-Nasr 3-0 on Tuesday at al-Maktoum stadium in Dubai at a Group C match with only one game remaining to the knockout stage. Sepahan opened the scoring...

A US economist believes that the country’s economic growth, which has fallen in the first quarter of 2012, will see an even slower session in the next quarter. Official statistics released on Friday showed that the economic growth had fallen to 2.2 percent in the first four months of...

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Managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) says the Islamic Republic plans to raise its oil output by 45,000 barrels per day in the current Iranian year (started March 21). With the development of oilfields including Khesht, Sarvestan and Sa’adatabad, some 45,000 barrels of oil will be added...

Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei in a statement Tuesday thanked members of the IRI weightlifting squad for grabbing the title of the 2012 Asian Weightlifting Championships in Pyeongtaek, South Korea after nine years. "Thank you dears for making the Iranian people happy.I pray God for your success,"...

Clues have been found about perpetrators of cyber attacks and the prosecutor is following up the case, Commander of the IRI Police, Brigadier-General Ismail Ahmadi Moqaddam said on Tuesday. He told reporters that the prosecutor is currently busy identifying perpetrators of the cyber attacks in cooperation with Ministry of Communications...

College football players suffer knee injuries about 40 percent more often when playing on an artificial surface compared to when they're playing on grass, according to a new study. "We thought it was interesting because many universities are switching to the new generation artificial turf," said Dr. Jason Dragoo, the...

US-led forces have killed four children during an operation in Afghanistan's southern Zabul province, according to Press TV. Afghan protesters on Tuesday staged a protest rally against US-led troops over the killing of four children during the operation carried out by foreign troops against Taliban militants in Shahjoy district on...

Experts with an Iranian medicine research company have built Glatiramer acetate and peptide, two major substances for MS drugs, managing director of the company told IRIB Tuesday. Glatiramer is increasingly prescribed and administered to MS patients and will soon replace Alf or Beta interferon in Betaferon and Avonex, Hussein Attar...

IRI take the rotating chair of the Non-Aligned Movement in late August for a three-year term, Ramin Mehmanparast, Spokesman of the IRI Foreign Ministry told a weekly press conference Tuesday. He said the 118-member community could play an effective role in international scene, adding that the movement must utilize the...

Spokesman of the IRI Foreign Ministry urged the British foreign ministry to mind human rights situation in the country instead of making meddlesome remarks about other countries under the guise of human rights advocacy. Ramin Mehmanparast was speaking to a weekly press conference Tuesday in response to a question about...

Up to one billion dollars will be invested in the second development phase of Mansouri oil field, Managing Director of Oil Development and Engineering Company Naji Sa'douni said on Tuesday. He made the remarks during a signing ceremony of the agreement to develop the second phase of Mansouri oil field...

>* China's April PMI at 53.3 vs 53.1 in March* U.S. crude stocks to post 6th weekly rise -poll* Coming up: API oil data, 4:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday (Updates prices through Brent settlement)By Robert GibbonsNEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - Oil prices turned higher on Tuesday...

>WASHINGTON May 1 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama signed an order on Tuesday giving the Treasury Department more power to take action against foreign individuals and companies who try to circumvent U.S. sanctions against Iran and Syria."Whoever tries to evade our sanctions does so at the expense of...

>BEIJING (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China on Wednesday for top-level talks that risk being upstaged by the fate of a blind dissident whose supporters say is under U.S. protection in Beijing after escaping house arrest. Washington has not even commented on the whereabouts of...

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hoped to highlight stability during her trip to China this week, but instead flies into a diplomatic hurricane sparked by the dramatic escape of a blind Chinese human rights activist now believed to be under U.S. protection. Clinton is...

>"We have in writing from General Insurance Corp that it and four other insurers will provide a cover of $50 million to Indian flag carriers per Iranian voyage," Sunil Thapar of Shipping Corp of India, the country's largest shipping firm with a fleet of 29 crude carriers, told Reuters.Tough...

A journalists' group says that the Horn of Africa nation Eritrea leads the world in imposing censorship on the media, followed closely by North Korea, Syria and Iran.

This month, 66 falcons will be flown to Kazakhstan to be released back into the wild by Falcon Hospital Abu Dhabi (FHAD).

Asean and EU nations who are members of the G20 grouping should jointly enforce agreements endorsed at the previous G20 Summit, including the reform of financial institutions and other development issues towards balanced and sustained economic growth.

NEW YORK - A journalists' group says that the Horn of Africa nation Eritrea leads the world in imposing censorship on the media, followed closely by North Korea, Syria and Iran.

Chen Guangcheng’s future threatens to overshadow this year’s round of high-level talks.

Gasoline prices dropped 4 cents a gallon Monday night at many area stations, bringing the most common price in Erie to 3.85 for a gallon of unleaded regular.

BEIJING : The escape of a Chinese activist championed by Washington and now said to be under US protection is hugely embarrassing for Beijing and comes at the worst possible time ahead of US-China talks, analysts say.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Beijing for high-level strategic and economic talks.

BEIJING (AP) - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived Wednesday in Beijing, where a tense human rights showdown awaits over the fate of a blind Chinese lawyer said to be under U.S. protection after escaping from house arrest.

As Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ramps up the threat of pre-emptive strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, and the prospect of Iranian retaliation, a key U.S. House panel has approved another $680 million for the Netanyahu government's anti-missile defenses.

By Marc Caputo and Patricia Mazzei, Miami Herald Tuesday, May 1, 2012 Gov. Rick Scott began Tuesday morning as the darling of Miami's Cuban exile community, but by day's end he was being vilified for the way he handled a bill cracking down on companies that do business with Cuba...

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday the long-term strategic pact he signed overnight with visiting US President Barack Obama would pose no threat to neighbouring countries.

 ‘Lies, damn lies, and statistics’ - one of Churchill’s catchier phrases. And it currently applies to BP. Let’s face it; this quarter’s figures aren’t just bad – they are positively torrid. The British oil major posted $4.8bn ‘gains’ – a number that equates to a 13% fall in underlying...

Four young Hongkongers have set off to cycle halfway round the globe, hoping to cover 18,000 kilometers in just over a year.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is tightening penalties on foreign entities and individuals who try to evade sanctions on Iran and Syria.

There is no doubt that the cess must continue and be used for development projects in the energy sector with a view to not only increasing supply to meet demand but also to ensuring that the cheapest source of electricity is preferred over expensive alternatives.

Comandante Tomas Borge was the last surviving founder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) which overthrew the US-backed Nicarag-uan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979. While his fellow guerrilla, the thick-spectacled Daniel Ortega, currently back as the country's president, was put forward as the public face of the revolution,...

I like him. I like his squashy red face, and his big, bulbous nose, and the fact that his wife is called Sheila. I like his passion for languages, and his taste in books. I like the fact that he hasn't just heard of Halmstad in Sweden, which is where...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set for wide-ranging talks in China, where the escape of a Chinese activist threatens to overshadow key talks.

President Barack Obama answered political taunts with presidential muscle Tuesday, making a high-profile trip to Afghanistan as Republicans said he's overdoing the celebration of Osama bin Laden's death one year ago.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler asked the state’s highest court to overturn — or at least suspend — last week’s ruling that prohibits DNA collection from suspects charged but not yet convicted in violent crimes , saying he plans to challenge the decision with the U.S. Supreme Court...

— Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird doesn’t want to see pieces of his department’s art collection sold off, but dozens of official residences that often display such works are still facing the axe.

President Obama landed in Kabul to sign a strategic partnership agreement with President Hamid Karzai meant to mark the beginning of the end of the war in Afghanistan.

METULLA, Israel, May 1 (UPI) -- Israel is building a concrete wall to protect its northernmost town, adding to the fortification of its borders with Egypt, Syria and the Palestinians.

OIL FUTURES: Manufacturing Data Sends Crude To One-Month High

Just weeks before the start of the Euro 2012 football games in Ukraine, a series of bombings in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk raised huge concerns over the country’s ability to host the tournament.

The Iranian government acknowledged today that authorities have found evidence of recent cyberattacks against several agencies, according to reports by state-sponsored media outlets.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama may be running for re-election at the same time. Will one race influence the other?

One year after the U.N.’s top human-rights body finally removed Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, the organization is quietly planning to elect Hugo Chávez, testing the Obama administration’s pledge to keep bullies off the 47-nation Human Rights Council.

Alex Traiman stands under a tarp in his spacious backyard as his 10-year-old, Tmima, turns cartwheels on the lawn. “This is our home,” Treiman says, pointing to his single-floor apartment filled with books and children’s toys.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday reminded Americans that his likely Republican opponent in the November election had been lukewarm about targeting Osama bin Laden, seeking to gain political advantage from the killing of the al Qaeda leader.

A radical Islamist sect has published video of a suicide car bombing it carried out at the office of a Nigerian newspaper and promised more attacks against journalists.

The blind activist at the center of a diplomatic tussle between the U.S. and China did not set out to be a dissident. Chen Guangcheng taught himself law to defend the constitutional rights he saw trampled so often.

Police in Alaska say a 4-year-old boy was playing with a handgun at a pawn shop when he fired a round into the store's ceiling.

>LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia frets that Egypt, its strongest Arab ally and a major recipient of Saudi funding, is falling under what it sees as the baleful influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. Riyadh recalled its ambassador from Cairo at the weekend in a spat that underlines the misgivings of...

>MANAMA (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch urged Bahrain on Tuesday to immediately free leaders of last year's uprising after an appeals court ordered a retrial, raising pressure for farther-reaching gestures to defuse resurgent street protests. Bahraini authorities also heard a call from the U.N. human rights agency to move...

(JERUSALEM ) - Israel's National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror is holding talks with European officials ahead of the next round of talks over Iran's disputed nuclear programme, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

TEHRAN, May 1 (MNA) - Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast has advised regional countries not to provide outsiders with opportunities to increase their military presence in the region.

The Israeli army carried out contingency maneuvers on its border with Lebanon Tuesday in case of an attack on the area during the construction a 6-meter-high separation wall.

Amnesty International has today launched a high-profile advertising campaign on the London Underground to encourage people to use their mobile phones to take action on behalf of people suffering human rights abuse around the world.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – The British government says it will continue to work with a number of countries including those in the Caribbean to abolish the death penalty.

A high-profile dissident is believed to be sheltering with U.S. diplomats in China. But on the eve of crucial U.S.-China talks, neither country wants to talk about the case of Chen Guangcheng.

Earlier this year Iran's defense minister put the world on notice: His nation had developed the ability to "easily" watch spacewalking astronauts from the ground. The announcement was largely ignored, in part because it made the minister sound like a James Bond villain. The boast was also a bit anticlimactic,...

Israel's former foreign minister and opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, announces she is resigning from the country's parliament, the Knesset.

> Stocks Markets...

>* Spain in recession, US economic growth appears to slow* U.S. crude stocks to post 6th weekly rise - poll (Updates previous Singapore)LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) - Oil held above $119 a barrel on Tuesday as economic expansion in China helped counter a sluggish U.S. economy and bubbling...

>The company has not lifted Iran crude since it last bought in January 2011, Shunichi Kito, the company's Executive Officer told Reuters on Tuesday.Meanwhile, the firm plans to restart one of the two naphtha crackers at its Tokuyama plant as Tosoh, one of its customers, expects to restart one...