News Archive - 17 August 2012

>Many thousands of Iranians shouted "Death to America, death to Israel" during state-organized protests on Friday and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told them there was no place for the Jewish state in a future Middle East."The Secretary-General is dismayed by the remarks threatening Israel's existence attributed over the last two...

>Shaul Mofaz, a parliamentary opposition leader who quit Netanyahu's cabinet last month where he served as vice premier, said on Israeli television he thought Israel was "planning a hasty, irresponsible event".The former general and defence minister said he thought Israel could not do anything to force a strategic change...

>BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations on Friday confirmed that veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi would become the new international mediator on Syria, as the 17-month-old conflict slid deeper into civil war and refugees fled to Turkey in increasing numbers. President Bashar al-Assad's forces have turned increasingly to air...

>* Group has given more clues about arsenal since '06 warBy Tom PerryBEIRUT, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Hezbollah said on Friday it could kill tens of thousands of Israelis by hitting targets with what it described as precision-guided missiles in a declaration that seemed aimed at deterring Israeli strikes on...

>* Japan, South Korea oppose tapping emergency stocks* France, UK open to discussing release with United States* Brent oil prices fall more than 1 pct on stock talkBy Kristen HaysHOUSTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama faced stiff resistance to the possibility of releasing emergency oil reserves to damp...

>* Former Syrian PM in Qatar to discuss anti-Assad struggle* Ahmadinejad says no room for Israel in new Middle EastBy Tom PerryBEIRUT, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Refugees are fleeing Syria in ever greater numbers, U.N. agencies said on Friday, as the conflict between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels...

>* Ahmedinejad calls Israel a "cancerous tumour"* Iran risks losing Syrian ally Bashar al-AssadDUBAI, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Many thousands of Iranians shouted "Death to America, death to Israel" during state-organised protests on Friday and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told them there was no place for the Jewish state in a...

>DAR ES SALAAM Aug 17 (Reuters) - Tanzania intends to cancel its contract with a Dubai-based shipping agent, saying the company reflagged Iranian ships with the Tanzanian flag without its knowledge, a minister for the semi-autonomous Zanzibar government said on Friday. The east African country said it was in the...

>* Israel's Peres opposes any solo Iran attack* Merkel backs Draghi, swift European policy integration* Stocks firm, euro holds onto gains on Merkel remarks* Coming Up: U.S. leading indicators for July; 1400 GMT (Updates throughout, changes dateline, previous SINGAPORE)By Christopher JohnsonLONDON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Brent crude oil fell...

SINGAPORE: Malaysian crude palm oil futures rose on Friday to their highest in more than two weeks as investor optimism returned on recovering exports and the outlook for the euro zone debt crisis brightened.

Friday , President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told hundreds of thousands of demonstrators screaming “Death to Israel!” “Death to America!” that he new Middle East would have no trace of Americans or Israelis. Ban Ki-moon reproved him for “offensive and inflammatory” rhetoric.

Anti-Israel activists are slated to square off with counter-protesters at Queen’s Park on Saturday afternoon

Mark Kalch arguably has traveled the farthest to attend Riverboat Days in Yankton, even though he never intended to visit or had even heard of the three-day festival.

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney's campaign has slammed the Obama administration's Iran policy, which he said had failed to prevent a "genocidal regime" from going ahead with its nuclear programme.

SOUTHAVEN — Local individuals are joining up with an Israeli organization stationed in Jerusalem, Israel, called Emergency Volunteer Project (EVP) which recruits volunteers who are trained for the purpose of helping that country in a time of emergency.

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sharply criticized Iran's supreme leader and president, describing their latest verbal attacks on Israel as "offensive and inflammatory."

Delicate discussions as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq all seek to win post of secretary general

Public statements and anonymous quotes to Israeli media in the past week have raised speculation that an Israeli attack on Iran could come before the U.S. presidential election in November.

Hmm, it’s August, things are quiet, time for another wave of hysteria over an imminent Israeli attack on Iran. We’ve seen this movie for a decade — Israel’s “red line” on the Iranian nuclear program has proved of spandexlike elasticity.

In this Aug. 15, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event in Davenport, Iowa. SOUTHAMPTON , N.Y. ( AP ) — The jobs-and-economy election suddenly seems all about Medicare — for now, at least. Republican Mitt Romney is embracing a topic his party usually approaches gingerly.

Both Romney and Obama chase the topic, each trying to use it to their advantage with seniors.

US regulators are investigating claims Deutsche Bank and other global banks funneled billions of dollars for Iran, Sudan and other sanctioned nations, The New York Times reported Saturday. The probe is ...

Issue Open : Jointeca Edu. Rising Syrian tensions and falling Crude supplies resulted in spiraling of light sweet Crude oil prices in world markets. Further supporting the commodity was the ongoing sanctions on Iran and its continuing nuclear program.

The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. forces killed in such attacks to nine in the last 11 days.

Two Americans are killed by a rookie Afghan policeman in Farah province, bringing the number of such attacks to nine in 11 days. KABUL, Afghanistan — No sooner had freshly minted Afghan policeman Mohammad Ismail been issued his service weapon than he turned it on his American mentors.

Israel's opposition leader says any unilateral attack by his country on Iran would not stop nuclear arms.

Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi has been confirmed as the new envoy for Syria, taking over from Kofi Annan who resigned in early August.

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney's campaign has slammed the Obama administration's Iran policy, which he said had failed to prevent a "genocidal regime" from going ahead with its nuclear programme.

New York, Aug 17 2012 3:10PM A former Serb military official was transferred to Portugal to serve a 20-year sentence for crimes committed against non-Serb prisoners of war, the United Nations war crimes tribunal set up in the wake of the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s announced today.

The United Nations top envoy in Iraq today strongly condemned a wave of deadly attacks which left dozens dead and hundreds more wounded across the Gulf country.

MOSCOW, Aug. 17- Nuclear talks between Iran and major world powers was at a difficult moment, visiting U.S. under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said here.

Preparing the Public for the Attack on Hezbollah by Dan Lieberman When the rhetoric starts to ratchet, the bombs are ready to explode.

TEHRAN, Aug. 17-- A group of experts from Switzerland has arrived in Iran to conduct a study on Iran's recent earthquake.

Edgar Allan Poe: His Writing Life Celebrated actor Lou Harmon will perform dramatic readings of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and the oft-quoted poem of paranoia, “The Raven” Monday, Aug. 20 at 7 p.m.

PS: We go behind the scenes as David Jones and Myer pulled out every stop at their fashion launches.

Beyond the hatred, the racism and the anger, there’s a certain irony surrounding Al-Quds Day, commemorated this weekend internationally and to its shame — in Toronto.

Iranian diplomacy is at work with full force to defend and protect Assad who is under threat from the Free Syrian Army. In this background, we see the visit of Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security, to Beirut, Damascus and Baghdad.

BENJAMIN Netanyahu may be crazy, but he is not mad. Ehud Barak may be mad, but he is not crazy. Ergo: Israel will not attack Iran. I have said so before, and I shall say so again, even after the endless talk about it. Indeed no war has been talked...

ON Sept. 13, 2002 a crime comedy movie titled Stealing Harvard was released.

The Secretary-General is dismayed by the remarks threatening Israel’s existence attributed over the last two days to the Supreme Leader and the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Secretary-General condemns these offensive and inflammatory statements.

"Insider" shootings, carried out by Afghan police, soldiers or other members of the security apparatus on Western troops, have risen sharply this year.

STANDARD CHARTERED is preparing a boardroom shake-up amid pressure from investors over its handling of allegations that it hid details of transactions with Iran totalling $250 billion.

AN UNPRECEDENTED war of words has broken out among the Israeli leadership after comments by President Shimon Peres that Israel cannot strike Iran on its own.

THE failure of both sides of the Syrian civil war to observe a ceasefire in line with a peace deal brokered by former United Nations and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan forced the ­Security Council to pull out its observer mission yesterday.

TEHRAN, Iran — Israel's existence is an "insult to all humanity," Iran's president said Friday in one of his sharpest attacks yet against the Jewish state, as Israel openly debates whether to attack Iran over its nuclear program.

BRENT CRUDE futures for October delivery fell more than 1 per cent yesterday on talk of a possible release of US strategic petroleum reserves and expectations that North Sea output will rebound after maintenance curbs September production.

Investors: BRIC, MIST good acronyms In 2001, Jim O'Neill kicked off a decade-long investment boom with a catchy acronym for the four largest emerging-market economies - BRIC, for Brazil, Russia, India and China. The Goldman Sachs Asset Management chairman is now promoting a new foursome of fast-track countries: In terms...

Paul Ryan ventured into the debate surrounding the Middle East on Friday afternoon for the first time since being named the presumptive GOP vice presidential nominee.

Sources of U.S. oil imports have shifted with the country relying increasingly on oil from Saudi Arabia, import figures show.

Nasrallah said the situation in the country went out of control this week over a spate of kidnappings against Syrians in Lebanon led by a prominent clan and the families of 11 Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria.

IBTimes' weekly roundup of winners and losers in the world of business.

Jet-setting magazine editor Tyler Brûlé hates the color purple for the same reason Washington loves it: Neutrality. In this week's  New York Times Magazine , the editor-in-chief of  Monocle   unloads on the mauve menace in a combative interview with Andrew Goldman :  Tell me what you wouldn’t be caught...

KABUL, Afghanistan — No sooner had freshly minted Afghan policeman Mohammad Ismail been issued his service weapon than he turned it on his American mentors. The killings of two Americans and the wounding of a third Friday by the new recruit to an Afghan village police force brought the number...

The jobs-and-economy election suddenly seems all about Medicare — for now, at least.

Search our Archives! The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Friday it possessed what it called precision rockets that could kill “tens of thousands” of Israelis in strikes on Israel.

Top seeds Russia came up with a determined show as they downed India 'A' in the seventh round of the TATA 14th IBCA Chess Olympiad for the Blind 2012 here Friday to lead the table with 12 match points.

NEW YORK, Aug 18 — Brent October crude futures fell 1 per cent on Friday on talk of a possible release of US strategic petroleum reserves and expectations that North Sea output will rebound after maintenance curbs production in September. Front-month US September crude showed resilience, edging up in choppy...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations on Friday confirmed that veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi will replace former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the international mediator on Syria as the 17-month-old conflict slides deeper into civil war. "The Secretary-General appreciates Mr. Brahimi's willingness to bring his considerable talents...

Search our Archives! The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Friday it possessed what it called precision rockets that could kill “tens of thousands” of Israelis in strikes on Israel.

Tel Aviv (dpa) - Israel‘s Opposition leader said Friday that any unilateral Israeli attack on Iran would not succeed in stopping Iran‘s suspected drive to nuclear weapons and would be a "disaster" if carried out without US support."Israel cannot strategically change the Iranian nuclear program," Shaul Mofaz, a former...

Hassan Nasrallah says rockets could kills tens of thousands in Israel. Hezbollah promised it could retaliate against an Israeli attack on Lebanon by striking targets that would kill thousands and make life "hell" inside the country, the group's leader said today.

Corpus Christi area gas prices jump 6 cents in past week

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global shares and the dollar advanced on Friday after apparent support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel for European Central Bank intervention to calm the euro zone's debt troubles lifted investor sentiment for a second day. A record high for Apple Inc shares boosted U.S. stocks,...

JERUSALEM — An Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program could trigger a bloody month-long war on multiple fronts, killing hundreds of Israelis or more, the Israeli cabinet’s civil defence chief warned in an interview published...

The conflict between the United States and Iran, from 1979 to the present.

No, He DIDN'T Say That!

In the news, two apparently unrelated stories: The first is that Baywatch "babe" Donna D'Errico got badly bruised climbing Mount Ararat looking for Noah's Ark. The second is a leaked document of Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's first-strike plan for Iran. Many people have a hard time seeing the connection between...

It is clear that if U.S. and Iranian political leaders continue down the present course they will almost certainly lead us into another bloody war. Out of empathy for those who will do the fighting and dying, here are a few things they can do to avert conflict:...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fanned the flames of confrontation with Israel on Friday on the annual Iranian holiday that calls for the Palestinian reclamation of Jerusalem from Israel’s control.

Computerworld - A new Trojan horse tries to covers its tracks by crippling the victim's computer after stealing data, a security researcher said today.

TEHRAN, Aug 18 (Bernama) -- Iran's foreign ministry spokesman on Friday welcomed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's proposal to form a contact group to resolve regional crises including the Syrian unrest, local media reported.

Lindsey is out with Arkansas Week; sorry for slow posting this a.m. To start off, how about this article from the New York Times about Mitt Romney's cozy relationship with casino mogul Sheldon Adelson , whose business is being investigated by the Justice Department that Romney, if elected, would...

Energen Pilipinas overpowered a hapless Saudi Arabia, 95-52, to set in motion its ambitious bid in the 22nd FIBA-Asia Under-18 Championship at the Buyant-Ukhaa Arena in Ulan Bator, Mongolia on Friday.

BERLIN: A magnetic bomb detonated on a diplomatic car in New Delhi. The police uncovered a cache of explosives at a golf course in the Kenyan city of Mombasa. Five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in an attack outside the airport in the Black Sea coastal...

Read all of today's letters and editorials in The Post-Standard

President Pranab Mukherjee hosted an iftar reception on Friday evening at Rashtrapati Bhavan which was attended among others by Vice-President Hamid Ansari and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

GENEVA/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - European governments are rushing to boost stockpiles of crude oil and fuel, three agencies in control of strategic reserves said on Friday, anxious to comply with new EU rules and ahead of feared supply disruptions in the Middle East. Belgium and the Netherlands have issued tenders to...

TEHRAN, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Iran is among the world's leaders of resistance against the Israeli government, an Iranian commander said on a day of national protest.

Standard Chartered has reached a $340 million settlement with the New York State Department of Financial Services pertaining to money laundering in Iran.

# hacking Earlier this year, a devastating virus dubbed Flame made its way through power plants in Iran, wreaking havoc on system software, and prompting the country to disconnect itself from the internet. Now comes word from Kaspersky Labs that there's a copycat virus doing the same thing to "at...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A plot hatched by Damascus and allegedly aimed at igniting a Lebanese civil war through a series of bomb attacks has come as little surprise in a nation where blame for political violence has often been laid at Syria's door. The shock is that the Lebanese authorities...

Tim Bishop, Paul Ryan, Csanad Szegedy, Marika Weinberger and Avi Dichter make the JTA's Friday Five.

BEIRUT: Lebanese group Hezbollah will transform the lives of Israelis to “hell” if Israel attacks Lebanon, its leader said yesterday, adding that the group would not hesitate to hit targets that would leave tens of thousands of Israelis dead.

Father Paul Lonot Sireh calls himself a proud ''Manusian'' - a native of Manus Island, that small drop of land in Papua New Guinea's northern waters pushed to centre stage this week by the expert panel on asylum seekers led by one-time defence chief Angus Houston.

GREER, South Carolina: The Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he has paid tax of least 13 per cent in each of the past 10 years, offering the fullest explanation yet of his tax status.

Forty-Four Percent of Russians Support Pussy Riot Trial \ Ukraine Could Have Supplied Arms to Armenia \ Final Warning

Aug. 18, 2012, 3 a.m. Time will tell, but for now Egyptians are left to wonder at the amazing events of this week: did their new Islamist President emulate his Turkish counterpart in neutering the military as a political player?

The threat of a simultaneous war with Iran's proxies – Hezbollah, Syria, and Gaza militants – is a key consideration for Israel as it weighs an attack on Iran. But Iran’s allies may not be as keen about going to war for the ayatollahs as Tehran would like, and the...

Hamas representative in Iran Khalid Qaddoumi says the issue of Quds is the main cause of uprisings in Arab countries against despotic regimes.

Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal on framing Paul Ryan as Clark Kent Noonan has words of advice for the Republican campaign: You can't forget people's poor economic circumstances. Half the people in the country receive government benefits, and they're worried that political leaders don't care. Instead of having Ryan associated...

As election season is heating up, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, has made his way to Israel to garner Jewish support and raise funds for his campaign. The Obama administration responded with security support and loan guarantees, sending Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to meet with his counterparts.

Mitt Romney said Thursday that over the past 10 years, he had never paid less than a 13 percent rate in income taxes , but he refused again to release more of his returns.

Given the changing nature of the Middle East, the United States must realize that it cannot direct the course of political events in the Arab world, especially in the light of the Arab awakening and the Arab spring, says veteran Middle East expert, Edward P. Djerejian . "Whatever we can do...

Pussy Riot, found guilty by Moscow judge of religious hooliganism, are latest victims of political trial.

Iranian Offshore Oil Co. Managing Director Mahmoud Zirkchiyanzadeh said: "Iran emphasizes its positive diplomacy for development of Arash field and is ready to cooperate with Kuwait.”