News Archive - 23 February 2015

>U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, as well as U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Iran's atomic nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi met for a second day following a two-hour meeting on Sunday."Both sides are determined to resolve the remaining...

>INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL* GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia tentative, awaits word on Fed rate outlook* Brent rises above $59 on hopes of economic recovery* MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf markets consolidate as oil dips; telco deal boosts Egypt* PRECIOUS-Gold hovers near 7-week low ahead of Yellen's speech* U.S. jury orders Palestinian groups to pay attack victims $218.

>Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein extended the invitation "to maintain Israel's dialogue with both political parties in Congress," according to a letter to the Israeli leader obtained by Reuters.Netanyahu has faced criticism at home and in the United States for his plans to address Congress on March 3,...

>GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States made some progress in talks with Iran on its nuclear program and managed to "sharpen up some of the tough issues", a senior U.S. official said on Monday, but both sides said much remained to be done. Negotiators from Iran and six major...

>MOSCOW Feb 23 (Reuters) - Russia has offered Iran its latest Antey-2500 missiles, the head of Russian state defence conglomerate Rostec said on Monday according to media reports, after a deal to supply less powerful S-300 missiles was dropped under Western pressure.Sergei Chemezov said Tehran was now considering the...

will quit nuclear talks if the other party aimed to impose their wills on Tehran in the ongoing negotiations, the country's senior negotiator told state IRIB TV on Monday.

As indicated in the article, traditional supporters of Israel have supported both parties evenly in most elections. It seems that the people who are crying foul the most are the Democrats and opposition groups in Israel.

(MENAFN - Jordan News Agency) British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has decided to appoint Edward Oakden as a new ambassador to Jordan, replacing ambassador Peter Millet.Oakden s...

A leading Saudi terrorist was wanted for planning to carry out terrorist operations in the UAE similar to the 9/11 attacks in New York in addition to a series of explosions in the Kingdom and other countries before he was received by Saudi authorities almost three years ago, an Okaz/Saudi...

>* U.S. officials are investigating at least 10 major banks for possible rigging of precious-metals markets, even though European regulators dropped a similar probe after finding no evidence of wrongdoing, according to people close to the inquiries.(on.wsj.com/1a9RLuJ)* U.S. and Iran are exploring a nuclear deal...

We must change our standards or keep staggering in slow motion as even our neighbours pass us by.

Nuclear deal? US and Iran appear to be edging toward historic pact, but obstacles remain GENEVA (AP) - Edging toward a historic compromise, the U.S. and Iran reported progress Monday on a deal that would clamp down on Tehran's nuclear activities for at least 10 years but then slowly...

As part of its rebuilding exercise, Afghanistan is focusing on reviving the legendary Silk Route and build new ones preferring Indian businessmen and investors in the process, the war-torn country's envoy said here Monday.

The United States and India are united in opposing Iran's nuclear programme, US Ambassador to India Richard Verma said here Monday.

When the political flashpoints first went off in the Arab world, people were calling for real change, and when governments chose not to respond, they became victims of the change, Lakhdar Brahimi, former Special Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, said on the concluding day of the International...

Russia has offered Iran its Antey-2500 missile defence system, a modified version of the S-300 missiles which Moscow had previously declined to provide Tehran due to international sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

10:13 NC veteran Sheikh Nazir dies : Sheikh Nazir, veteran National Conference leader and uncle of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, died at a hospital this morning. He was 84.

A deal would further strain U.S. relations with Israel, which opposes any agreement that doesn't end Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

A six-page list of bailout extension reforms have been prepared for examination in Brussels on Tuesday, where the Eurozone's finance ministers are expected to decide whether Greece's proposals will be set in motion, said The Guardian.

With the clock ticking down to a third, perhaps final deadline for a deal to rein in Iran's nuclear program, top diplomats are ramping up efforts to pin down details. US Secretary of State John Kerry met twice in Geneva with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday and...

Last week, 23 House Democrats asked Speaker John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, to postpone Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of ...

If we dare reduce global geopolitics to cartoons, it’s tempting to imagine Benjamin Netanyahu as Wile E. Coyote. Racing off a cliff built on his own hawkish bluster, frantically deploying the ACME umbrella as the fateful descent begins. Iran, in this scenario, is the Road Runner. Surviving unscathed with a...

Nuclear deal? US and Iran appear to be edging toward historic pact, but obstacles remain GENEVA (AP) - Edging toward a historic compromise, the U.S. and Iran reported progress Monday on a deal that would clamp down on Tehran's nuclear activities for at least 10 years but then slowly...

The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority backed a series of terrorist attacks in the early 2000s in Israel that killed or wounded Americans, a U.S. jury found Monday in awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in damages at a high-stakes civil trial.

Two years have passed since a shooting on the Las Vegas Strip led to a fiery crash and the deaths of three people. The man accused of those murders, Ammar Harris, still has not been brought to trial. 

IRVINE, Calif. (February 23, 2015) - The Blues family continues to expand as Head Coach Oliver Wyss announced today the new Orange County Blues FC coaching staff for the 2015 USL season.

Pyongyang, February 23 (KCNA) -- Celebrations took place at the DPRK missions overseas from Feb. 12 to 15 to mark the birth anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il. They included receptions, book and photo exhibitions, round-table talks and film shows at the DPRK missions in Thailand, Myanmar, Iran, India, Nepal,...

I read with interest the article “Not a war on Islam” (Feb. 23) by Hassan Barari. We appreciate US President Barack Obama’s statement but the truth is action speaks louder than words. It seems that President Obama has become hostage to the whims and wishes of neocons within the US...

To deepen economic ties with the Indian Ocean Rim countries and emphasize on maritime security, India will hold a three-day international conference in Odisha, starting March 20.

THE PAPERS' TOP STORIES :: The Daily Telegraph Labour ex-foreign secretary Jack Straw is to take a job with a firm that won a £75m government contract after he lobbied a minister on its behalf. :: The Times Tory former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind has been urged to stand...

Advocates say Thomas Drake’s experience underscores the problem that intelligence and defense workers face in bringing malfeasance to the surface. Click to Continue »

The United States and Iran said Monday they had made progress in the latest round of talks on Tehran's nuclear programme, but warned there was still a long way to go to seal a final deal. Negotiators for Iran and six world powers had been meeting in Geneva since Friday,...

The basket of 12 crude oils of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) closed at $56.55 a barrel Friday, compared with $56.29 last Thursday, the OPEC secretariat said.

Seven civilians were killed when Egyptian jets attacked suspected Islamist militant targets in the eastern Libyan city of Derna last week, Amnesty International said on Monday, citing eyewitnesses. Egypt had flown air strikes last Monday against Islamic State targets, a day after the militant group released a video showing the...

Publicly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the case in 2012 that Iran was drawing dangerously close to building a nuclear weapon. Privately the same year, the Israeli spy agency Mossad assessed the threat as more remote, according to rep...

Countries that hold women back from the workforce are actually hurting their economies and contributing to lost productivity despite slowing global growth, a new report from the International Monetary Fund says. The estimated gain in GDP, or gross domestic product, for countries that close their gender gaps ranges from 15...

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has raised the alarm over the plight of some Nigerians living in Baku, Azerbaijan, who live daily in fear of deportation as a result of being denied the opportunity to renew their passports. SERAP, in an open letter dated February 20, 2015 and signed...

Israeli intelligence took a different view of Iran's nuclear capabilities from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a leaked cable suggests.

Responding indirectly to evidence that Iran’s cyber capabilities have improved because of a U.S.-Israeli cyberattack, NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers said clearer norms could help prevent such escalation.

Republicans in Nebraska - one of just two states that allow presidential votes to be split - want to reinstate a winner-take-all system, but Democratic lawmakers argued Monday that such a change would remove any incentive...

Americans' opinions of North Korea remain highly negative, with 9% rating it favorably and 87% unfavorably. This is similar to ratings of the country over the past decade. North Korea consistently ranks among the worst-rated nations.

By The Associated Press U.S. stocks are edging mostly lower as the market pulls back from an all-time high reached last week.

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez). Connecticut defensive back Byron Jones claps after his long jump was measured at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Monday, Feb. 23, 2015.

By JOHN MARSHALL AP Basketball Writer Kentucky is No. 1 in the latest Associated Press Top 25, extending its season-long streak at the top of the rankings.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch is backing a Supreme Court challenge to one of the keystones of President Barack Obama's health care law. Now, he says he's preparing a plan to help people who might be...

The original Wikileaks US State Department cable dump a few years ago was illuminating at best, and embarrassing at worst. But a new batch of cable leaks is set to be released, this time from Al Jazeera (working with the Guardian), and it's set to be a whole lot bigger.

A leaked 2012 cable purportedly sent by Israel's Mossad spy agency appears to take a less alarmist view of Iran's nuclear program than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented at the U.N. weeks earlier.

>NEW YORK Feb 23 (Reuters) - Nigeria will call an extraordinary meeting of OPEC if crude oil prices slip any further, the country's oil minister said in an interview with the Financial Times, in a sign of growing alarm over the impact of oil's collapse on oil-producing economies."We're already...

Seven of the eight members of the 2014 U.S. Freestyle World Team have confirmed their participation in the 2015 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup, set for the Forum, presented by Chase, in Inglewood, Calif., April 11-12.

Peter Beinart, a man who made his name attacking his own people, now attacks Elie Wiesel, a man who earned a global reputation as the champion of the memory of six million defenseless Jews murdered in the holocaust.

Australian Foreign Minister July Bishop is set to visit Tehran in April, the second member of her government to visit the country in a decade.

The ovation wasn't quite as deafening as it was 35 years ago. It was riveting, nonetheless, for Dave Christian and his old Olympic buddies, together again to celebrate their Miracle on Ice.

South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA) will have some tough explaining to do after a digital leak to Al Jazeera and the UK’s Guardian newspaper alleges it spied on Iran from as far back as 2006. The two publications reported to be in possession of several documents titled ‘Operational Target...

The Baltic states are becoming increasingly...

A company in Louisville, Ky. will take a photograph of your favorite animal friend and created a stuffed replica.

The former president of Oscar Mayer will become the new CEO at Johnsonville Sausage.

HSBC executives offered a fresh mea culpa Monday as its chief executive found himself personally mired in the scandal surrounding allegations that the bank helped wealthy clients dodge taxes.

GENEVA (AP) — Edging toward a historic compromise, the U.S. and Iran reported progress Monday on a deal that would clamp down on Tehran's nuclear activities for at least 10 years but then slowly ease restrictions on programs that could be used to make atomic arms.

Authorities say a 4-year-old girl was killed and a man was seriously injured in a Wauwatosa house fire.

Authorities are investigating a hit-and-run crash that killed two people and injured at least four others on Milwaukee's southwest side.

Authorities say a northern Wisconsin man is in critical condition after being shot in the head during a dispute over marijuana in Florida.

Today is Monday, Feb. 23, the 54th day of 2015. There are 311 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: read more

The Republicans of Lower Merion and Narberth have a future to think about. That future was one of the main topics during the 50th Annual Lincoln Day Dinner and Silent Auction on Thursday, February 12, 2015, at the Hilton Hotel on City Avenue.

Democracy has not featured as a theme of US President Barack Obama's foreign policy. He took office promising to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, not to remake those countries in America's image. The Arab Spring turned into a nightmare, leading Obama to back strongmen in Cairo and Riyadh. Outreach...

>Vice Admiral John Miller, Commander of U.S. Naval Central Command, told a conference in Abu Dhabi that a "robust" U.S. and international maritime presence was helping to minimise threats to oil-producing countries in the region."As dynamic as the region is today, what we have seen over the...

Prague, Feb 20 (CTK) - Czechs still have the best relationship to the Slovaks, French and Swedes, the same as two years ago, according to a poll CVVM carried out in January and released Friday.

Oil struggles to stay positive as investors continue to fret about excess crude in the U.S.

The Commission needs political courage to promote a dynamic domestic market for renewables. Is Mr Juncker up to the task? asks Claude Turmes. Claude Turmes is a Green MEP from Luxembourg.

CAIRO - The retrial of two Al-Jazeera English journalists who face terror-related charges in a case widely criticized by human rights organizations and media groups is set to begin Monday in Egypt. Both acting bureau chief, Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, and Egyptian producer Baher Mohammed have been ...

To secure even that, Athens must satisfy its creditors with a list of economic reforms it will submit by close of business today. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had vowed to scrap the bailout, end cooperation with the so-called "troika" of international lenders and roll back austerity. Initial indications about the...

(MENAFN - Gulf Times) Iran's parliament has approved an article in the 2015-2016 draft budget to tax religious foundations and army-linked firms that could generate trillions of do...