News Archive - 30 March 2014

>* Exchange of views shores up mutual understanding, diplomats* No concrete sign that the meeting solve differencesBy William Maclean and Angus McDowallDUBAI/RIYADH, March 30 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's leaders hope U.S. President Barack Obama and their King Abdullah understand each other better after talks and can stabilise a close...

>* Iraq starts production at giant West Qurna-2 field* Libya Mellitah condensate exports still blocked (Adds quotes, updates prices)By Florence TanSINGAPORE, March 31 (Reuters) - Brent crude traded near a two-week high at above $107 a barrel on Monday as simmering tensions between Russia and the West offset a rise...

>The unidentified merchant ship reported being shot at twice from close range from a speedboat carrying six people armed with machine guns, on Sunday morning. It repelled the attack with hoses and the vessel and crew are safe, NSC said.Although suspected Somali pirates commonly attack merchant shipping in the...

IF geography determines a country’s destiny, then Pakistan’s location is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, we stand at a critical faultline between South Asia and Central Asia, in an area that has been fought over by invading armies and local forces for centuries.

EY partner Maryam Hussain1 She had a narrow escape when travelling from Madrid to Tehran in 1980. Her pilot landed 20 minutes early, meaning she was safely watching from the airport building as minutes ...

Letters to the Editor for the March 31, 2014 weekly magazine:  Budget deficits now threaten benefits for veterans. Nobody likes to pay higher taxes, but America has a responsibility to those it sends to war.  Syria's civil war is fundamentally a conflict between Sunni Muslims and Alawites, Christians, and...

The leader of Iranian Jews, Rabbi Yousef Hamadani Cohen, has passed away in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Paris is getting its first female mayor, but her ruling Socialists took a beating in the second round of local elections in France. Spanish-born Anne Hidalgo defeated her conservative rival to win the top job in the French capital. Hidalgo perviously served as a deputy to the outgoing mayor, Bertrand...

Iran has forced a foreign policy dilemma on the Obama administration by choosing as its next United Nations ambassador an official who belonged to the group that held 52 Americans hostage in Tehran for 444 days.

Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Hassan Rohani speaks about the country's nuclear program and relationship with the U.S. Rohani speaks before the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. (This report is in Farsi with English translation. Video courtesy of United Nations.

Sam Nassrouie has become the go-to private investigator for L.A.'s Iranian community. An Iranian man parks his car in a guest spot behind his apartment. He heads inside the building and comes back out about an hour later to walk the dog.        

The protesters who toppled Lenin in Kiev joined the ancient tradition of angry crowds attacking figures of rulers. Beyond rage, what is behind this fatal attraction? The best thing about statues is smashing them. This is true at least for crowds desperate to get some revenge on a figurehead of...

The Obama administration is failing to seize on a rare strategic chance, presented by Russia's increasingly aggressive military posturing around Ukraine, to expand the U.S. missile defense footprint in Eastern Europe, says a group of influential Republican lawmakers. Several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee say the White...

Andrew Sparrow 's rolling coverage of all the day's political developments as they happen, including George Osborne's morning interviews Andrew Sparrow

Suwaibah Mohd Nasir is on a mission to prove that the strong ties between Malaysia and China can never be eroded with a 3,333km marathon. The 41-year-old began a run across 12 nations, beginning from the capital of China.

epa04140498 Ukrainian soldiers take their position near the border with Russia not far of Volnovaha village in East-Ukraine, 25 March 2014. Russian President Putin ordered Russian administration be put into place in newly annexed Crimea by the end of the week.

Victims of a 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem cannot seize Persian antiquities on display in the United States as restitution, a federal judge ruled. Click here for the rest of the article...

Greenpeace urged world leaders to accelerate the transition to clean and safe energy as the UN climate panel issued on Monday a new warning on the looming climate chaos.

US president discusses ‘tactical differences’ on Syrian and Iran with King Abdullah

Just as Iran and the United States seem to be emerging from a diplomatic freeze that started with the 1979 hostage crisis at the American embassy in Tehran, Iran has appointed a new ambassador with links to that very incident.        

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., addresses a memorial service for the Ukrainian dead at St. Michael's Ukrainian Church in New Haven, Conn., on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014. Blumenthal spoke in New Haven again on Sunday to discuss congressional aid for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.

BEIJING: Suwaibah Mohd Nasir is on a mission to prove that the strong ties between Malaysia and China can never be eroded with a 3,333km marathon.

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission issued the following statement: "I welcome the publication today by the Fijian Government of the Electoral Decree, the appointment ...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned his political foes they will "pay the price" for accusing him and his party of corruption. Mr. Erdogan spoke Sunday to thousands of supporters in Ankara, as he claimed victory in local elections seen as a referendum on his rule.Early and...

An Iranian philanthropist family that has recently been sentenced to prison, plus millions of dollars in penalties for donating money to the needy children in Iran talks about its ordeal following 9/11 attacks. The US prosecutors say $600,000 of the $20,000,000 donations of the Lahiji family have been in violations...

Iran’s inflation rate fell to a two-year low in February, fulfilling President Hassan Rouhani’s vow to halt rampant increases in the cost of living.

Tehran, March 31 (IANS) In a bid to tighten security along Pakistan border, Iran has begun constructing 120 watch posts along its eastern border areas, a security official said Sunday. The police are building the watch posts and a 120-km road in cooperation with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)...

As Lebanon entered the two-month constitutional period in which it must elect a new president.

The NSA’s global spy operation may seem unstoppable, but there’s at least one target that has proven to be a formidable obstacle: the Chinese communications technology firm Huawei, whose growth could threaten the agency’s much-publicized digital spying powers.        

Ali Mohammadian's gesture, copied by his entire class of 23 pupils, stops bullying and attracts praise from all over country When Iranian schoolteacher Ali Mohammadian noticed that one of his students was bullied after going bald as a result of a mysterious illness, he decided to show solidarity and shave...

“Look for the AIPAC hand whenever the US gets embroiled in a foreign policy debacle. Zionist agents will engender conflict and continue riding the American wagon – as it rode the German and the British before – until the US becomes useless. Then they will jump on the next world...

Follow live coverage of the latest reaction to the death of Nelson Mandela Matthew Weaver

Everything changed in this big, shocking season finale - so why did it feel as it was retreading old ground? • Plan your festive viewing with our interactive Christmas TV guide SPOILER ALERT: This blog is for people watching the third series of Homeland at UK broadcast pace. Don't read...

Speeches referencing the Green Movement and valuing ‘young filmmakers’ repeatedly censored at this year’s Fajr film festival

Well something we all like to do is eat, especially good food no matter who we are or where we come from and that’s exactly what took place today at the school of mines campus.

Let me state from the outset that I totally agree with the press statements by Malaysia's Defence Minister and Acting Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein that "we have conducted ourselves fairly, responsibly and history will judge us for that."

US President Barack Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia (March 28-29) was a well-timed and urgently needed opportunity to discuss US policies in the region, in particular with regard to Syria and Iran. One objective of the visit was to ensure that whatever differences of opinion existed between Saudi Arabia and...

CAIRO - Egypt's presidential election will be held in late May, the electoral commission announced on Sunday, finally setting dates for the crucial vote widely expected to be won by the country's former military chief who ousted an elected president last year. The commission set the first round of voting...

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's presidential election will be held in late May, the electoral commission announced on Sunday, finally setting dates for the crucial vote widely expected to be won by the country's former military chief who ousted an elected president last year.

In The Name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful! Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. And may peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad, his family, his companions, and all those who follow his way until the Day of Judgment.

John Kerry, US Secretary of State, Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister Photo: AP, Reuters While an estimated 40,000 Russian troops remained stationed along the Ukraine border Sunday night, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Paris to discuss a potential deal to...

Former Killing Joke bassist Youth and Karen Ruimy were the only UK artists at this year’s celebration of Sufi music in India. We caught up with them …

It's one of the most famous fights in boxing history, but why did Durán ask the referee to stop the fight in the eighth round? If I were to say " Thrilla in Manilla ", most boxing fans would know what I was talking about immediately. If I were to...

Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog , “War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned...

I don’t think Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Yes, his father was born in Kenya, and his brother was born in Kenya. But that doesn’t mean he himself was born in Kenya.

The Sultan of Brunei, one of the world's wealthiest rulers, will this week oversee his country's transition to a system of Islamic law with punishments that include flogging, the dismemberment of limbs and stoning to death.The 67-year-old...

Two Spanish journalists are free Sunday after being kidnapped by an al-Qaida-linked group and held for six months in Syria. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo said correspondent Javier Espinosa and freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova were freed and handed over to the Turkish military. They were flying home to Spain.

Smack in the path of typhoons and a fault-line, Manila earns the dubious distinction of being  the world’s second riskiest city for natural disasters waiting to happen  –  just behind Tokyo-Yokohama. Swiss Re, an international reinsurance company, rounds out the top ten riskiest cities to include Taipei in Taiwan, Tehran...

Obama’s dismissal of Russia as a regional power makes his own leadership of the one superpower all the more embarrassing. For seven decades since the Japanese surrender, our role under 11 presidents had been as offshore balancer protecting smaller allies from potential regional hegemons.

Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Sonny Barrios will appear before the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights tomorrow in what should be the next big step toward the naturalization of NBA veteran Andray Blatche for the Gilas Pilipinas team. In a position paper earlier submitted to Sen. Sonny...

The US nuclear allegation against Iran is among the single greatest lies ever propagated by “the Warfare State” over the past 30 years, an analyst says.

Special to WorldTribune.com Yossef Bodansky, Senior Editor, Global Information System / Defense & Foreign Affairs Major Western states, with historical dominance over key African regions and markets, have, in the first years of the 21st Century, been losing influence in many areas of Africa. Often the Western states —...

>INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL* GLOBAL MARKETS-US stocks end off highs, Dow up for week; gold at 6-week lows* Oil prices edge higher on geopolitical concerns* Gold bounces from 6-week lows, marks second weekly loss* Car bomb kills three soldiers in attack on Lebanese army checkpointEGYPT* Egypt court sentences two Mursi supporters to death*...