News Archive - 8 March 2015

>The statement said Saudi Arabia had asked the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, on the request of Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to host the talks in Riyadh where the headquarters of the organization was, and that they had agreed. Yemen, a neighbor of top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and global...

The president explains the conditions that must be met to reach a deal with Iran.

Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama assured in a taped television interview Sunday that the United States was prepared to "walk away" from nuclear talks with Iran if a verifiable deal cannot be reached with Tehran.

>BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite militia fighting the Islamic State took control of the center of a town on the southern outskirts of Saddam Hussein's home city Tikrit on Sunday, security officials said. Sending in more troops and fighting fierce clashes, the army and militiamen were still...

>"We have made progress in narrowing the gaps, but those gaps still exist," Obama said in an interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation" that was recorded on Saturday and broadcast on Sunday.He nonetheless repeated he was willing to walk away from negotiations, which are scheduled to reach a...

Vladimir Putin was regularly violent to his ex-wife Lyudmila during their marriage, a German documentary on the Russian leader has claimed.

UMass Amherst has backtracked on its policy banning incoming Iranian graduate students from participating in engineering and natural science programs.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has vowed to track down the Islamist militants who smashed rare relics in the northern city of Mosul and are attempting to sell others.

These are uneasy times in Israel.

Tehran (AFP) - US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz was headed to Geneva Saturday to join talks with Iranian officials as efforts for an historic nuclear deal stepped up a gear. It was the first time that Moniz, who is himself a nuclear physicist, had joined the negotiations, although US energy...

Independent forensic tests on the body of the Argentine state prosecutor, found days after he accused President Cristina Fernandez of plotting to cover up Iran's alleged role in a 1994 bombing, indicate that his death was a homicide, his ex-wife said Thursday. Argentine authorities have not released full results of...

Fresh from the latest round of Iran nuclear negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Saudi Arabia Wednesday to ease Gulf Arab concerns about an emerging deal and discuss ways to calm instability in troubled Yemen and other Mideast nations.

To the editor: It is not well known by the public that a paper on the association of childhood vaccination with autism was fraudulently published by the British physician Andrew Wakefield in the Lancet in 1998 and was retracted in 2010. ("Doctors turning away unvaccinated children," Feb. 10)

Israel's prime minister says he knows the details of the deal being forged with Iran over its nuclear program and asked "what is there to hide" after the U.S. said it was withholding some information on the talks.

The campaign for Tikrit is a dress rehearsal for the real contest: The fight to recapture Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the extremists' biggest stronghold. But can a large-scale ground offensive alone succeed, without U.S.-led air support?

With little fanfare, another taboo in U.S.-Iran relations has shattered. Jim Slattery, a former six-term Democratic Congressman from Kansas, late last year became the first former or current American legislator to visit the Islamic Republic of Iran. In Tehran to attend a conference on countering violent extremism, Slattery...

A Swiss solar-powered plane has taken off from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, marking the start of the first attempt to fly around the world without a drop of fuel.

Obama's Iran policy deserves to be challenged.

Iraqi troops and Iranian-supported Shiite militias launching a large-scale offensive to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State without significant U.S. support is raising red flags. 

The world is now divided between the forces of democracy and authoritarianism in a manner similar to the ideological fissures of the Cold War, the House Intelligence Committee's leading Democrat said.  Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Adam Schiff warned that the world is now ideologically split and that Russia's...

Beneath the dispute between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama about the risks and benefits of nuclear negotiations with Iran lie a wealth of unresolved and highly technical questions. Here are the main six.

A cyberespionage group with a toolset similar to ones used by U.S. intelligence agencies has infiltrated key institutions in countries including Iran and Russia. Kaspersky Lab released a report Monday that said the tools were created by the “Equation” group, which it stopped short of linking to the U.

Conservative Republicans, bullish on their prospects in 2016, are gathered at their vast annual conference to road test the long list of potential candidates promising to win them back the White House.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a deep bond with the United States and Americans. And as he prepares to give a controversial speech to the U.S. Congress in Washington on Tuesday, he knows the halls of political power in America as well many home-bred U.S. politicos. The...

WASHINGTON: Presi dent Barack Obama assured in a taped television interview on Sunday that the United States was prepared to “walk away” from nuclear talks with Iran if a verifiable deal cannot be reached with Tehran.

Militants loyal to the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for bombing the empty residence of Iran's ambassador to Libya. No one was injured Sunday in the central Tripoli attack. Tehran condemned the blasts, according to Iranian state media. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the bombs caused minor structural damage. Three...

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress was a historic and controversial event and now reactions are coming fast and furious on Twitter, with people on both sides of the aisle inserting their opinion. With his speech, Netanyahu attempted to persuade members of the U.S. Congress that a...

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing a tough re-election fight in two weeks, the U.S. Congress has handed him an unprecedented boost with its effusive welcome to a message that resonates at home: Iran cannot be...

Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter detained in Iran for more than seven months, was granted access to a lawyer but not one of his choosing, his family said. Masoud Shafii, who has been attempting to secure official recognition as Rezaian’s attorney, said he has been trying to see his...

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Thursday that criminal networks operating in Pakistan generated about $927 million through human trafficking and migrant smuggling in 2013

Iran believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to abort a nuclear deal are fruitless.

EL PASO, Texas – El Pasoans can celebrate Valentine’s Day with the animals at the zoo. The El Paso Zoo is inviting the public to watch the zoo’s animals as they receive their Valentine’s Day treats on Saturday. Zoo officials said

When you grow up as Maz Jobrani did, as one of the few Iranian American kids in the rich Bay Area town of Tiburon, a kid embarrassed when his dad drove him to school in a Rolls-Royce instead of a Volvo like the other parents — comedy might come naturally.

As ISIS's willingness to attack countries beyond their traditional territory grows, so too does the list of countries willing to confront the militant group.

For the third day in a row, the Middle East woke up to the wind whipping and sand flying. And it's only getting worse.

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Winners of the World Press Photo awards. WORLD PRESS PHOTO OF THE YEAR 2014: Mads Nissen, Denmark, Scanpix/Panos Pictures.

The Argentine prosecutor who inherited a high-profile case against President Cristina Fernandez reaffirmed the accusations Friday, formally renewing the investigation into whether she helped Iranian officials cover up their alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center.

A state-owned newspaper in Iran is quoting the country's supreme leader as criticizing the film American Sniper, saying it encourages violence against Muslims.

A party spokesman said Netanyahu’s landmark 2009 speech, in which he endorsed the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, was ‘not relevant’ in the ‘current realities’

Kerry says it is ‘up to Iran’ to prove its nuclear programme is peaceful

Argentina’s president published an advertisement in eight major newspapers discrediting AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s allegations against the government. Click here for the rest of the article...

The Senate's most senior lawmaker said Tuesday he will skip the Israeli prime minister's speech to Congress next month on Iran, calling the invitation by Republicans without White House consultation a "tawdry and high-handed stunt."

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has told Iran to end its "intolerable" ban on women attending football matches.

Iran has threatened Jews for decades. But Laura Shapiro Kramer had a very different experience in the land where the Purim story takes place. Click here for the rest of the article...

From Oscar homework to the Foo Fighters and the Mardi Gras and more, we have your weekend covered.

The head of Israel’s election commission acted on Monday to limit any pre-election boost Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may get from a March 3 speech to the U.S. Congress in which he will warn of the threat from Iran’s nuclear program. Click here for the rest of the article...

Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has reportedly pledged allegiance to Islamic State in an audio statement.

LAST autumn, half a year after assuming office, Chinese President Xi Jinping invoked the ancient Silk Road of the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago and called for the forging of contemporary trading routes.

Imagination’s Sir Hossein Yassaie prepares to do battle with arch-rival ARM in race to power 'The Internet of Things’

ABOARD THE CHARLES DE GAULLE (AP) — Some Iraqi army units in line for U.S.-led training to fight the Islamic State group are showing up ill-prepared, the top American general said Sunday.

Sunny skies and above-average temperatures are expected to be the norm for most of the week in Billings.

A murder mystery in Argentina, a country that a century ago rivaled the US as the richest in the Americas, has spotlighted its political and economic missteps. This year's elections could offer an alternative path.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main challenger in March 17 elections, the centre-left Zionist Union, unveiled its platform Sunday with an emphasis on ending Israel's "diplomatic isolation". Its two planks for the legislative polls are "to end the diplomatic isolation of Israel" and halt the rising cost of living, the alliance...

The US would "walk away" from nuclear talks with Iran if an acceptable deal does not materialise, Barack Obama has said. The President delivered the warning as US Secretary of State John Kerry travelled to Paris to try and smooth over differences with France, which has pushed for greater guarantees that...

Obama says Iranians have negotiated seriously and progress has been made ‘in narrowing gaps’, but those gaps still exist.

President Barack Obama says he'll walk away from a deal to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions unless the country agrees to a stringent inspection system with "unprecedented transparency."

>Major-General Herzi Halevy, commander of Israeli military intelligence, is scheduled to meet U.S. defense officials and attend a pro-Israel fundraising event, the sources said. It is his first U.S. trip since being appointed in September. Bilateral ties have been strained by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech in...

RIGA, Latvia (AP) — European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says she is optimistic the world powers and Iran are closing in on a nuclear deal that will have sufficient guarantees Tehran will not be able to build an atomic bomb.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said that although his address to U.S. lawmakers has been the subject of controversy, he never intended his Washington visit to be political. Click here for the rest of the article...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made a public appearance amid rumors about his health.

KIRKUK: Some 30,000 Iraqi troops and militia backed by aircraft pounded militant positions in and around Tikrit on Monday in the biggest offensive yet to retake one of the Islamic State group's main strongholds.

GREAT BARRINGTON >> I was raised in a household that was profoundly affected by the Holocaust.

VIENNA: The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said he could not tell when its long-running investigation into Iran's nuclear programme might be finished as a deadline looms this month for a framework deal between world powers and Iran.

LONDON: Brent crude oil fell more than 2 percent to around $61 a barrel on Monday after Iran said a deal on its nuclear programme could be agreed this week if the West lifts sanctions, which could boost the country's oil exports.

OTTAWA - A Canadian special forces soldier has been killed and three others wounded during a friendly fire incident in northern Iraq in what Defence Minister Jason Kenney described as a tragic "failure of identification."

>ADEN, March 8 (Reuters) - Yemen's defence minister has fled Houthi-controlled Sanaa for Aden, officials said on Sunday, in a move expected to bolster President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in his power struggle with the Shi'ite Muslim group.Yemen is caught in a stand-off between the Western-backed president and the Iranian-backed...