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Iran Sets Conditions for Oil to European Nations
Febraury 22, 2012
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has laid out conditions for future oil exports to other European countries after halting sales to Britain and France earlier this week, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.
The remarks by the spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, came a day after oil prices jumped to a nine-month high above $105 a barrel following ...
Ban Calls on All Countries to Ratify CTBT
Febraury 19, 2012
VIENNA - UN Secretary General has called on the remaining countries that have not yet ratified the comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) to come forward and sign it so that it can become global law.
The CTBT bans all nuclear explosions by everyone, everywhere: on the ...
UN Tells Assad to Step Down
Febraury 18, 2012
NEW YORK — The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Thursday for a resolution backing an Arab League plan calling for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down and strongly condemning human rights violations by his regime.
The vote in the 193-member world body on the Arab-sponsored ...
Iran Claims Two Steps to Nuclear Self-Sufficiency
Febraury 16, 2012
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran claimed Wednesday that it has taken two major steps toward mastering the production of nuclear fuel, a defiant move in response to increasingly tough Western sanctions over its controversial nuclear program.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad oversaw the insertion of the first ...
Iran Urges Hamas to Continue Fight against Israel
Febraury 13, 2012
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's leaders urged the Hamas prime minister of Gaza to continue the Islamic militant group's resistance against Israel and promised support, state TV reported on Sunday.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh that Iran would always stand by the Palestinian "resistance" against Israel and warned him ...
Iran to Reveal New Nuke Achievements: Ahmadinejad
Febraury 12, 2012
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will soon unveil "big new" nuclear achievements, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday while reiterating Tehran's readiness to revive talks with the West over the country's controversial nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad spoke at a rally in Tehran as tens of thousands of ...
Russia will Keep Shielding Assad at UN: Diplomat
Febraury 11, 2012
MOSCOW — A senior Russian diplomat signaled Friday that Moscow will again use its veto power at the United Nations to block any resolution aimed at ousting Syrian President Bashar Assad from power.
Last weekend, Russia voted "no" at the U.N. Security Council for a second time in four months to block a resolution urging ...
Turkey Plans International Conference on Syria
Febraury 09, 2012
ANKARA — Turkey plans an international conference "as soon as possible" with regional players and world powers in a fresh attempt to resolve the Syrian crisis, its foreign minister said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would speak on the phone with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, whose country voted down a UN ...
Iran Calls New US Sanctions ‘Psychological War’
Febraury 08, 2012
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Tuesday dismissed the new U.S. sanctions, saying they are part of a "psychological war" meant to sow discontent among Iranians and insisting the measures would not halt the country's nuclear program.
Washington ordered the new penalties on Monday, giving U.S. banks additional powers to freeze assets linked to the Iranian government and ...
Syria Bombards Homs; West Scrambles for New Strategy
Febraury 07, 2012
BEIRUT - Syrian forces bombarded Homs on Monday, killing 50 people in a sustained assault on several districts of the city which has become a center of armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian National Council opposition group said.
Western countries seeking Assad's downfall were scrambling to find a ...
World Lacks Enough Food, Fuel as Population Soars: UN
January 31, 2012
LONDON - The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned on Monday.
As the world's population looks set to grow to nearly 9 billion by ...
UN Nuclear Inspection Gets Under Way in Iran
January 30, 2012
TEHRAN, Iran— U.N. nuclear inspectors began a critical mission to Iran on Sunday to probe allegations of a secret atomic weapons program amid escalating Western economic pressures and warnings about safeguarding Gulf oil shipments from possible Iranian blockades.
The findings from the three-day visit could ...
Arab League Suspends Syria Mission as Violence Rages
January 29, 2012
BEIRUT - The Arab League said on Saturday it had suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of "the critical deterioration of the situation" as state security forces battled rebels holding three suburbs just outside Damascus.
The Arab League called last week for President Bashar al-Assad to ...
Onus is on Iran in Nuclear Dispute: Ban
January 28, 2012
DAVOS, Switzerland — U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged a resumption of dialogue between Western powers and Iran on their nuclear dispute Friday, and said Tehran must comply with Security Council resolutions and prove conclusively that its nuclear development program is not directed to making arms.
"The onus is on Iran," said Ban, speaking here at a press ...
Russia ‘to Deploy Missiles on EU Border This Year’
January 26, 2012
MOSCOW - Russia plans to deploy Iskander missiles on the European Union's border later this year, a source in its western Baltic Fleet told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday.
A source told the news agency that senior naval staff had confirmed plans to assign personnel for a naval unit set to service the missile ...
750,000 Yemeni Children are Malnourished: UNICEF
January 25, 2012
SANAA, Yemen — A year of Yemen's turmoil has exacerbated the number of malnourished children under the age of five to around 750,000, UNICEF said Tuesday, appealing to the government and the international community to help develop the country's infrastructure to tackle the problem.
In some parts of this country of 20 million people, the number of ...
EU Bans Iranian Oil, Tehran Responds with Threats
January 24, 2012
BRUSSELS/TEHRAN - The European Union banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development program.
In Iran, one politician responded by renewing a threat to blockade ...
Yemen grants Saleh immunity to try to end crisis
January 22, 2012
(SANAA)Yemen's parliament approved a law on Saturday granting outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh immunity from prosecution, part of a deal for him to step down after nearly a year of unrest.Protesters and the opposition have accused the security forces, controlled by the president and aides, of using troops and snipers to kill hundreds of ...
Pressure Mounts for UN to Intervene in Syria
January 21, 2012
DAMASCUS — Pressure mounted on the Arab League on Friday to seek UN intervention in the face of growing exasperation that the bloc's hard-won observer mission in Syria has failed to staunch 10 months of killing.
Meanwhile, thousands of people poured out of mosques after Friday ...
Obama Raises Pressure for Syria Regime Change
January 19, 2012
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama vowed to redouble efforts to force a change of regime in Syria as the UN Security Council struggled to agree on a resolution on Damascus's crackdown on dissent.
Obama said concerns about the crackdown on demonstrators by President Bashar al-Assad's forces had been "uppermost" in talks with ...
Iran a Major Threat to Obama’s Re-Election
January 18, 2012
WASHINGTON — The escalating confrontation with Iran poses a major new political threat to President Barack Obama as he heads into his campaign for re-election, confronting him with choices that could harm either the economic recovery or his image as a firm leader.
Sanctions against Iran's oil exports that the president signed into ...
Qatar Emir Suggests Sending Arab Troops to Syria
January 15, 2012
AMMAN - Qatar has proposed sending Arab troops to halt the bloodshed in Syria, where violence has raged despite the presence of Arab League monitors sent to check if an Arab peace plan is working.
Asked if he was in favor of Arab nations intervening in Syria, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told the U.S. broadcaster ...
Bomb Kills Iranian Nuclear Expert
January 12, 2012
TEHRAN, Iran — Two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and his driver Wednesday, reports said. The slayings suggest a widening covert effort to set back Iran's atomic program.
The attack in Tehran bore a ...
Assad Vows ‘Iron Hand’ Against Opponents
January 11, 2012
BEIRUT — In his first speech since June, Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed Tuesday to respond to threats against him with an "iron hand" and refused to step down, insisting he still has his people's support despite a 10-month-old revolt.
Assad repeated claims that a foreign conspiracy is behind the unrest ...
Merkel, Sarkozy Stress Growth A Priority in Crisis
January 10, 2012
BERLIN — the leaders of France and Germany said boosting economic growth across Europe is a priority in their efforts to stem the debt crisis that is showing signs of spreading across the 17 countries that use the euro.
Following a meeting in Berlin Monday with French President Nicolas ...
Britain Sends New Warship to Gulf amid Iran Tensions
January 08, 2012
LONDON — Britain's newest warship is heading to the Gulf for its first mission at a time of tensions over Iran's threat to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key transport route for oil. The Royal Navy's Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring, which has a 'stealth' design to help avoid detection by radar, is to join other British ships in the ...
Biden, Erdogan Discuss Boosting Democracy in Mideast
January 07, 2012
WASHINGTON - US Vice President Joe Biden and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdogan agreed late Thursday on boosting security and supporting democracy in the Middle East region.
A White House statement said that, in a phone call, Biden and Erodogan discussed regional issues, including political developments in Iraq as a ...
In Final Leg of Vote, Egypt’s Islamists Eye Majority
January 05, 2012
CAIRO - The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood looks set for a dominant role in Egypt's first free parliament in decades and is promising rivals a role in writing a new constitution as military generals face growing pressure to hand power to civilians. Egyptians voted for a second day on Wednesday in the final stage of the lower-house ...
U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Banks Dealing with Iran
January 02, 2012
HONOLULU – US President Barack Obama signed into law on Saturday a defense funding bill that imposes sanctions on financial institutions dealing with Iran's central bank, while allowing for exemptions to avoid upsetting energy markets.
The sanctions target both private and government-controlled banks - ...
Erdogan Pledges Full Probe into Deadly Raid
January 01, 2012
ANKARA - Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Friday promised a full investigation into airstrikes on the Iraqi border that killed 35 villagers whom the military had mistaken for Kurdish militants - an attack that has infuriated minority Kurds in Turkey and Iraq. The strikes sparked clashes on Friday in Turkey's restive mainly ...
Turkey Offers Condolences to Families of “Unfortunate” Airstrike Victims
December 31, 2011
ANKARA - Turkish leaders Friday offered condolences to families of a military airstrike incident on the border with Iraq which killed 35 civilians, adding that investigation was going on, local media reports said.
Defining the incident as "unfortunate and saddening", Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "we will do what we have to do at the end of the ...
World Powers Urge Damascus to Give Observers Free Hand
December 29, 2011
DAMASCUS - Arab League observers headed on Wednesday to more key protests hubs in Syria as world powers urged Damascus to give them full access as they try to reveal the truth about a crackdown on dissent.
More bloodshed was also reported as army defectors killed at least four Syrian soldiers in the southern province of Daraa, and a civilian ...
Iran Threatens to Stop Gulf Oil If Sanctions Widened
December 28, 2011
TEHRAN - Iran threatened on Tuesday to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz if foreign sanctions were imposed on its crude exports over its nuclear ambitions, a move that could trigger military conflict with economies dependent on Gulf oil ...
Medvedev Warns of Hard Economic Times Ahead
December 27, 2011
MOSCOW - Russia faces "serious challenges" ahead due to global economic recession, President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday. Speaking at a State Council session, Medvedev said it was the government's obligation to tell Russian citizens honestly about ...
Syrian Opposition Calls for UN Role to End Crisis
December 26, 2011
BEIRUT - The Arab League must bring the UN into the effort to stop Syria's bloody crackdown on protesters, the top opposition leader said on Sunday, as security forces pressed ahead with raids and arrests around the country.
Burhan Ghalioun, the Paris-based leader of the Syrian National Council, made the plea as Arab League officials were setting up ...