News Archive - 22 August 2014

>* Premier seeks Sunni, Kurdish support against Islamic State* Shootings followed attack on Shi'ite militia chief's home* Sectarian mosque attacks often provoke revenge killings* Islamic State will remain threat with Syrian havens - U.S.* Britain rules out anti-militant alliance with AssadBy Raheem Salman and Alexander DziadoszBAGHDAD, Aug 22...

>France, one of the six nations in nuclear talks with Tehran, said on Wednesday it wanted Arab states, Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to coordinate a comprehensive response against Islamic State, whose militant forces control large parts of Syria and Iraq.The Sunni...

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Sorry, but your browser needs Javascript to use this site. BAGHDAD – Iraqi Shiite militiamen machine-gunned minority Sunni Muslims in a village mosque on Friday, killing dozens just as Baghdad is trying to build a cross-community government to fight Sunni militants whose rise has alarmed Western powers.

Lotto players in Trafford could be in for a big win, but Camelot bosses say the winning ticket must be handed in by December 18

Iraqi Shiite militiamen opened fire on minority Sunnis in a mosque on Friday, killing more than 70 people just as Baghdad is trying to build a cross-community government to fight Islamists whose rise has alarmed Western powers.

Obama calls the Islamic State a jihadist "cancer" threatening the Middle East and the rest of the world but has so far backed only limited air strikes against the extremists.

Hillary Clinton recently reignited the who-lost-Syria debate when she suggested that President Barack Obama made a mistake in not intervening more forcefully early in the Syrian civil war by arming... read more

Simin Behbahani, whose poetry was quoted by Barack Obama, has died aged 87. But her work lives on.

The talk doesn't mean the US is on the verge of extending its air campaign against Islamic State fighters into Syria, or shifting from an adversarial to cooperative stance with Syrian leader Assad in the interest of defeating IS.

With the president and Congress on vacation, it was fortunate that the nation had the Pentagon press corps on hand when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Michael Dempsey gave a progress report Thursday on U.S. military action in Iraq. Their assessment: We face...

Consisting mostly of students and teachers from local Deobandi ASWJ-affiliated madressahs and Lal Masjid, rally participants even carried placards bearing incendiary slogans, including one that said: “Those opposing the PML-N government would do so over our dead bodies”.

For the most part, The Washington Post is a reliable supporter of President Obama and the Democratic Party in general.

Is the militant group such a threat to the United States that working with the despised Syrian dictator would be in the national interest?

Wedged between Central Asia, China and Afghanistan, Tajikistan is a mountainous land with outstanding trekking and one of the world’s great road trips. Sandwiched between Afghanistan and China, this former Persian settlement is made up of a mêlée of clans. It has a long and swashbuckling history; it is the...

The importers of Iranian tiles have chosen to smuggle the tiles from Iran in the first place but then opted to illegally import them by way of bringing in multiple truckloads of tiles on one invoice.

This is Britain in 2030: frightened, fractious and weary, its economy sunk in the longest depression in history, its people haunted by terrorism and war.

>The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), part of the U.S. Treasury that oversees trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy, has accused DF Deutsche Forfait AG of having violated trade sanctions against Iran. The company has denied the charges.DF Deutsche Forfait said in a statement late...

Geneva, Aug 22 (IANS): The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Friday said Iraq's displaced people were in urgent need of shelters.

As UK investigators work to identify the Islamist militant who beheaded American journalist James Foley, the tiniest details in the videotape of the killing could provide the key clue.

Left-handed with a London accent? Work beings to identify James Foley's killer from video clues.

Until ISIS captured Mosul in June, the terror group concerned Western governments but was not a pressing priority, writes Tim Lister. Its subsequent actions since then, however, have now galvanized an unlikely coalition.

The family of executed journalist James Foley gave an emotional press conference outside their home in New Hampshire.

It's the gravest diplomatic crisis the Gulf Cooperation Council has ever faced -- but as leaders from the six-member Arab alliance prepare to meet in Jeddah, are things about to get even worse?

BOSTON, Aug. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- From September 3 through September 11, 2014, the critically acclaimed Silk Road Ensemble will travel to Europe for a concert tour with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bringing their unique border-crossing musical experience to audiences in Izmir and...

As UK investigators work to identify the Islamist militant who beheaded American journalist James Foley, the tiniest details in the videotape of the killing could provide the key clue.

>VIENNA (Reuters) - As war rages in Gaza, Arab states will likely try to heighten diplomatic pressure on Israel over its assumed nuclear arsenal at next month's annual meeting of the U.N. nuclear agency's 160 member states, diplomats said on Friday. An Arab initiative to single out the Jewish...

>* IAEA's Iran inquiry tied to broader nuclear diplomacy* U.N. agency wants Tehran to address suspected bomb research* Iran agreed to implement five transparency steps by Aug. 25* Denies it is seeking nuclear bomb capabilityBy Fredrik DahlVIENNA, Aug 22 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog appears to have...

Who leaked the Israeli Cabinet’s top-secret military briefing on reoccupying Gaza? A dozen people had the opportunity. Several had the motive. But the main suspect is Netanyahu himself. Click here for the rest of the article...

Killing off an organization that is much more potent than al Qaeda will depend on a lot of things going right in a region where much has gone wrong.

Iraq's Kurdish peshmerga forces on Friday launched an operation to retake the flashpoint town of Jalawla from Islamic State jihadist fighters, Kurdish officials said.

A political analyst says the tightening of sanctions by the United States and the European Union (EU) against Russia is “counterproductive,” Press TV reports.

General Lord Dannatt, former head of British Army, says West must co-operate with Syrian dictator to defeat Isil

Iranian reformist journalist freed on bail

Iran has condemned Israel’s recent assassination of three senior commanders of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan official says peshmerga have already taken back several positions in Jalawla, cutting off IS militants.

>* Some well-connected food firms benefit from new market gap* Share prices spike for some fish and meat firms* "I don't see any negatives," says Russian senatorBy Maria Kiselyova and Olga SichkarMOSCOW, Aug 22 (Reuters) - In the escalating dispute between Russia and the West over Ukraine, a group of...