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Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has held a series of meetings in Washington with leading Democrats and Republicans on the issue of US immigration reform. Senior Republican Senator John McCain said he was still committed to a comprehensive deal. He said he hoped Congress would address the issue early next year. Senator McCain also said he was particularly anxious to resolve the difficulties facing up to 50,000 undocumented Irish in the US.

Limbaugh: 'We Need Segregated Buses' Politics | Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 11:06:51 am PDT A lot of lefty blogs are calling for a boycott of Rush Limbaugh after he indulged in blatant, ugly race baiting. I’m not joining that call, because I don’t believe boycotts are a good thing, in general. People like Rush Limbaugh should be allowed to say this kind of stuff; it makes it easier to see what they’re really advocating, and who really supports it. I searched, and found not a single right wing blog denouncing this vile rant. As far as I can tell,...

A tiny baby stoat was given mouth-to-mouth and a heart massage by a member of the public after a passer-by discovered it drowning in a water butt, it has emerged. The lifeless baby stoat, the size of a human thumb, was found in the trough next to its sibling in wasteland near Marham, Norfolk. The pair, since named Blears and Brown after the beleaguered Prime Minister and his former Communities Secretary, were found by an unnamed employee at Anglian Water on May 29.'

US Senator John Kerry on Saturday met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Syria's SANA news agency reported. Kerry, a former presidential candidate who now chairs the Senate foreign relations committee, is the latest US legislator to visit Damascus this week. His talks with Assad were set to focus on Syria's support for Iran and regional groups, including the Shiite Hizbullah movement in Lebanon. "We want Syria to respect the political independence of Lebanon, we want Syria to help in the process of resolving issues with Hezbollah and with the Palestinians," Kerry said on Wednesday in Lebanon. "We want Syria to help......

UNITED NATIONS -- There are no "Obama 2008" buttons, banners or T-shirts visible here at U.N. headquarters, but it might be difficult to find a sliver of territory in the United States more enthusiastic over the prospect of the Illinois senator winning the White House. An informal survey of more than two dozen U.N. staff members and foreign delegates showed that the overwhelming majority would prefer that Sen. Barack Obama win the presidency, saying they think that the Democrat would usher in a new agenda of multilateralism after an era marked by Republican disdain for the world body. Obama supporters...

Senator Charles Schumer (D, NY), June 3, 2008: "we must treat Russia as an equal partner when it comes to policy in the Caspian Sea region, recognizing Russia's traditional role in the region... we must offer to make Russia whole if it joins in our Iranian boycott... we should tell Mr. Putin we will cease building the ineffective antinuclear missile defense sites in Eastern Europe in return for him joining the boycott... The antimissile system strengthens the relationship between Eastern Europe and NATO, with real troops and equipment on the ground. It mocks Mr. Putin's dream of eventually restoring Russian...

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran and China's Sinopec could, as early as Sunday, sign a long-awaited final multi-billion-dollar agreement for the development of the Yadavaran onshore oilfield, the Iranian oil minister said. "Iran could probably sign a contract this evening with China's Sinopec to develop Yadavaran," Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters on the sidelines of an oil conference. "If not today, it will be in two weeks' time. We are still in talks," the oil minister said. In late October 2004, Iran and Sinopec inked an initial agreement to develop Yadavaran in southwestern Iran, which is estimated to hold more than...

November 11, 2007: The increasing use of industrial espionage by Russia and China is hurting counter-terrorism efforts in the West. Increasingly, these two countries are being caught engages in major spying efforts in Europe, Japan and North America, there is tremendous pressure to divert resources from counter-terror work to deal with it. The increased spying has also hurt the exchange of terrorist related intelligence with Russia and China. Britain has cut off all cooperation for the moment, mainly because of an expatriate Russian who was believed murdered by Russian agents.

Does anyone have a list of companies/countries doing business with Iraq?

PARIS (AFP) — A top US diplomat said Wednesday he regretted the French-bashing that took place in the United States over France's refusal to join the US-led war in Iraq. Nicholas Burns, number three in the US State Department, called a decision to rename French fries as freedom fries in the US Congress foolish and he welcomed a new closeness between France and the United States. "I surely hope that those Americans who renamed French fries into freedom fries, and those Americans who poured perfectly good French wines down American drains, I hope that they realise what foolishness that was,"...

A leading Democratic lawmaker lashed out at the former leaders of Germany and France, calling former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a `political prostitute.' Germany denounced the remarks by Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as an insult to its people. Lantos' comments about Schroeder and former French President Jacques Chirac, both opponents of the Iraq war, came in a speech Tuesday at the dedication of a monument to victims of communism... "I am so glad that the era of Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Schroeder in Germany is now gone," Lantos said to applause. He said when...

  Question: How can a candidate for president raise US$23-million in three months--only slightly less than John McCain and Rudy Giuliani combined--and still register barely above zero in polls of members of his own party? That is the sad story of Mitt Romney, the movie-star handsome former governor of Massachusetts. Romney registers a dismal fourth in Republican opinion polls. Yesterday's LAT/Bloomberg poll put him at 8% approval among Republicans. A year ago, Romney looked like an emerging Republic star. He had rescued Massachusetts from a large budget deficit without raising taxes. And he had engineered a state-wide health insurance...

FRANCE was helping prop up a psychotic dictator with its trenchant opposition to an American-led war on Iraq, government backbencher Cameron Thompson said tonight. France, along with Russia, Germany and China, helped sink a new resolution in the United Nations Security Council which would have paved the way for a UN-backed war in Iraq. Instead, France was pushing for UN arms inspectors to be given more time to scour Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. French President Jacques Chirac today condemned plans by the US, Britain and Australia to launch a unilateral strike to disarm Iraq, warning the decision ran...

Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal said Wednesday that a truce with Israel is finished and his group's militants can resume fighting following an Israeli tank attack that killed 18 Palestinians... "The truce (with Israel) ended at the end of 2005," Mashaal said. "The armed struggle is free to resume, and the resistance is dictated by local circumstances." The truce formally ended last year but had remained in effect.

BRUSSELS - A recent documentary "Questions à la Une" acts as whistleblower against the progression of the Belgian extreme right. French-speaking Belgian TV and radio organisation RTBF recently broadcast a worrisome documentary on the growing popularity of the extreme-right party, the Vlaams Belang, in the Flemish part of the country. A popularity, according to La Libre Belgique, that may bring the Vlaams Belang to victory and which is grossly underestimated in French-speaking Belgium. Christophe Deborsu's documentary is well structured. The investigation starts with an anecdote surrounding a street name and ends with the Vlaams Belang's highly effective campaign strategy. The...

PARIS - Al-Qaida has for the first time announced a union with an Algerian insurgent group that has designated France as an enemy, saying they will act together against French and American interests.

Nicolas Sarkozy is campaigning hard to be the next president of France on the jogging trails of Central Park and in the corridors of the White House. On a four-day trip to the United States, the 51-year-old minister of the interior, France’s leading presidential hopeful on the right, pinned the Legion of Honor on the police commissioner of New York, honored firefighters in Midtown Manhattan for their losses on 9/11 and signed hundreds of copies of his new best-selling book on France’s future. He told Jewish leaders of his love of Israel, American business leaders of his love of free...

President Chirac was accused yesterday of manoeuvring his former legal adviser into a key judicial post to avoid being tried on corruption charges after leaving office and losing immunity from prosecution... Chirac's critics believe that M Le Mesle, 55, will do everything in his power to block action, given his close relations with the head of state... With only the slenderest hope of re-election next year, M Chirac faces prosecution in connection with a series of scandals dating from his time as the Mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995. Three have resulted in court cases. In 2004 Alain Juppé,...

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on the most massive military buildups in history. Part of President Reagan's strategy for winning was to entice the Soviets into a competition it could never even hope to win. A communist economy by its very nature is ill-equipped to compete with a free-market, capitalist system whether it's foreign trade or weapons technology. And so, slowly the Soviet economy became a basket case due to the communists desire to exceed America in an enormously expensive arms race. After the Cold War, with the Soviet threat gone and with...

As the deadline set by the UN approaches, the US is pushing for swift sanctions against Iran for its lack of compliance with the international committee's demand to stop its nuclear enrichment program, American officials said Monday. Iran is expected to provide its response to the European incentive package on Tuesday, but the US is looking ahead to the UN deadline set August 31. Sources in Washington speculated that the Iranian response to the incentive package would not be conclusive, yet would include no sign of willingness to stop the uranium enrichment process. US President George W. Bush said Monday...

The Kremlin warned Monday of possible retaliation against the United States for sanctions imposed on two major companies in the Russian defense industry. "We cannot rule out certain negative consequences for bilateral relations" between Russia and the United States, presidential administration spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday. "This was an unfriendly act toward Russia, and it was not done in a spirit of cooperation." Rosoboronexport chief Sergei Chemezov suggested Monday that a proposed deal for U.S. companies to deliver up to $1 billion in Russian military hardware to Afghanistan and Iraq could be jeopardized by the sanctions, Interfax reported. Meanwhile in...

Russia could also refuse to take part in joint military exercises with the United States and use the sanctions as an excuse to increase exports of military hardware to regimes hostile to the United States, said Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy on Geopolitical Affairs and former head of the Defense Ministry's main directorate for military cooperation. "We can use these sanctions to expand our presence in the arms market by exploiting anti-American feeling in many countries around the world," Ivashov told Interfax on Monda

The French foreign minister, whose government is positioning itself to play a leading part in Mideast peace efforts, has described Iran as a respected country that plays a stabilizing role in the region. Philippe Douste-Blazy told a news conference in Beirut Monday that Iran was "a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region." Hours later, the Frenchmen met with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, at the Iranian Embassy. Tehran's mission in the Lebanese capital has been a key channel for Iran's support for Hizballah, and last...

Top News Story Bad news for US on Iran at the G8 Summit. Amir Taheri, Arab News explains why the US is unlikely to getting help on Iran at next month's G8 Summit in Russia.   Khomeini's Grandson requests US military action in Iran. The Telegraph reported that the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, the inspiration of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, has broken a three-year silence to back the United States military to overthrow the country's clerical regime.   Iran prepares to respond to thePerm-5 proposal. The Washington Post reported that Iran's foreign minister said the government likely would suggest...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad again calls for an independent investigation of the Holocaust. Yahoo News reported that Iran's president said that the six-nation incentive package aimed at getting his country to halt uranium enrichment was a "step forward" but also repeated assertions that the Nazi Holocaust was unproven, saying it should be independently investigated.Khaleej Times Online reported British Prime Minister Tony Blair sees no need for an inquiry into the Holocaust.   US and Russia expect an answer from Iran on the Perm-5 proposal. Yahoo News reported that while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran had made...

Top News Story US Senate votes down Iran Freedom and Support Act and passes weaker version. DoctorZin reported that the Iran Freedom Support Act was to be voted on in the Senate Thursday.Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that faced with legislation that would force America to take a harder line on Iran, Secretary of State Rice worked closely yesterday with a key Senate Democrat to kill the Iran Freedom and Support Act.   Iran threatens to develop a "nuclear defense." The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran's defense minister vowed his country would "use nuclear defense as a potential"...

Top News Story Shiite Iraq's attacked Iranian Consulate in Basra. Yahoo News reported that about 500 followers of a Shiite cleric attacked the Iranian consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Wednesday, throwing stones and setting fire to a building in the diplomatic complex. Photos.   Iran no longer wants talks on Iraq with US. IranMania reported that Iran is no longer interested in direct talks with the United States over the situation in Iraq.   Iran claims no deadline was given to reply to the Perm-5. IranMania reported that Iran insisted it has not been given...

Top News Story Secret nuclear enrichment plants exposed. Kenneth R. Timmerman, News Max reported that new evidence is emerging that Iran has built a secret plant, located some 20 kilometers to the northeast of Tehran near the Lashgarak dam, which houses a clandestine centrifuge uranium enrichment plant, where Iran is making nuclear weapons material.   What are Russia and China up to? Yahoo News reported that China and Russia have again refused to join with other big powers in threatening sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.The Financial Times reported that a central Asian summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization which...

Top News Story A roundup of reports on the women’s demonstration in Tehran today. Photos. Iran Press News provided a detailed report on the Islamic Regime's attack and assault attendants of the peaceful Women's March. Among those present at the march were academics, well-known human and women's rights activists, student leaders, and members of the greater Tehran bus drivers union. Photos.Radio Free Europe reported on the Women’s March and eyewitnesses claimed there were maybe as many security forces as protesters.SMCCDI reported that Islamist female agents named by most Iranians as "Black Crows" (due to their black veils), used of...

Top News Story RFE Iran's top nuclear negotiator has urged Muslim countries to "choose the path" of nuclear development. Ali Larijani was speaking to reporters after arriving in Egypt for talks to discuss the controversy over Iran's nuclear program. In Tehran, Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said Iran will make its own offer in response to a Western incentives package aimed at persuading Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment. Mottaki added that Tehran's offer could be a variation of the proposal made by Europe, the United States, China, and Russia, or an entirely new package. Western powers have given Iran several...

Top News Story Major demonstrations on Iran expected in the next few days. Protests expected Sunday in Germany against Ahmadinejad during World Cup Games. The Observer reported that Iran's Football team will be met with a series of protests across Germany during their World Cup campaign as anger mounts against the country's viciously anti-Semitic President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Spiegel Online reported that in Bavaria, where Iran is set to play its first match in Nuremberg on Sunday, the state's interior minister has expressed concerns that Iranian intelligence agents may seek to stage what he described as a "provocative action" aimed at...

Top News Story SMCCDI Tens have been arrested, in the last days, in several Iranian cities with the approach of Iran-Mexico World Cup soccer game on Sunday June 11th (18:00 Germany's Local time). Plainclothes agents and militiamen have arrested several of those qualified as potential "hooligans or trouble makers", in an effort to avoid any massive popular unrest to take place following the game. Arrests have been made in cities, such as, Tehran, Mashad, Esfahan, Hamedan, Bookan, Rasht, Kermanshah, Shiraz, Marivan and Oroomiah (former Rezai-e). More repressive measures are to take place with the start of the Sunday's game,...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad: the West has been "defeated!" Breitbart.com reported that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, discussing the West's nuclear proposal, said that the "international monopolists have been defeated."   Iran tries to provoke the West: it begins new nuclear enrichment. The New York Post reported that Iranian researchers began a new round of nuclear enrichment on the same day that a European proposal for ending the crisis over Iran's nuclear program was presented in Tehran.   Diplomats convinced Iran will reject Perm-5 proposal. The Guardian reported that diplomats believe that Iran will reject the Int'l. offer in the...

Top News Story The Perm-5 +1 offers Iran "the world," but fails to give Iran what it really wants. Michael Ledeen, National Review Online pointed out that while some have suggested that we send Bill Clinton to negotiate with the mullahs on our behalf, it isn’t necessary; we’ve just adopted his methods.Khaleej Times Online reported that the United States and other world powers have offered possible guarantees for Iran’s �terroritorial integrity� as part of its nuclear proposal.Times Online thinks that the world’s latest offer to Iran — a "clever one" — has prompted the most civil response from Tehran...

Top News Story Iran receives the Perm-5 +1 Proposal. Yahoo News reported that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana handed Iran an international proposal on the nuclear crisis and the two sides held "good" talks.Bloomberg reported that President George W. Bush said Iran's response to a U.S.-backed initiative aimed a resolving a standoff over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is a "positive" first step.New York Post reported that while the Bush administration offered to join the negotiations with Iran, Ahmadinejad quickly rejected any cessation of enrichment. But the U.S. government is refusing to take no for an answer.Reuters reported...

Top News Story What the Iranian regime really wants. The Washington Post reported that a senior Iranian official said: "What we need is an American president who will follow the example of Richard Nixon going to China."   US makes more offers to Iran. Reuters reported that the incentives to be offered on to Iran include a proposal to allow Tehran to purchase aircraft parts from Boeing Co. and Airbus.   US counting on China as a mediator with Iran? SFGate reported that the U.S. is counting on China as mediator with Iran.   US and Iran in secret...

Top News Story Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji is in Moscow. Moscow Times reported that Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji arrived in Moscow to receive this year's Golden Pen of Freedom award.   Iran's Supreme threatens to cut off the world's oil supply. The Herald reported that the Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said attempts to punish Tehran would jeopardize the world's oil supply.Yahoo News reported that Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned: "If you make any mistake (and invade Iran), definitely shipment of energy from this region will be seriously jeopardized."Yahoo News reported that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali...

Top News Story Reuters The former American president, Jimmy Carter, has said that the United States should begin talks with Iran without preconditions. Mr Carter believes prerequisites could present the Iranian Government with too great an impediment to overcome. His comments are significant, given that he was the president when US relations with Iran hit an all-time low. He witnessed the Iranian revolution and the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979. He struggled for 444 days to release the US Embassy staff held hostage. A failed rescue attempt led by the US military brought about the...

Top News Story Russia and China reportedly will not to oppose sanctions. ABC News reported that a European Union diplomat said: "There is something like a catalog of sanctions and we can pick and choose from them. The agreement reached ... is also that Russia and China can abstain from any sanctions, but not say no."   But military force against Iran "is not on the agenda." The Guardian reported that Britain said that military force against Iran is not on the agenda in the international impasse over Iran's uranium enrichment program.Reuters reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov...

Top News Story Perm-5 + Germany agree on Iran. Yahoo News reported that the six world powers agreed on a "significant" package of incentives to convince Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Becket said. "I am pleased to say we have agreed (on) a set of far-reaching proposals."   Iran now on the defense? The Financial Times reported that pressure has mounted on Iran to consider carefully the US offer of conditional talks as world powers met in Vienna.Times Online considered the question: How should we read the Iranian Foreign Minister's declaration, is he...

Top News Story US offers Iran talks, if... Secretary Condoleezza Rice, U.S. State Department published a major statement on Iran: "Thus, to underscore our commitment to a diplomatic solution and to enhance the prospects for success, as soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table with our EU-3 colleagues and meet with Iran’s representatives." Full Text.US State Department released a transcript of the Rice interview with Wolf Blitzer, CNN about her statement on Iran.Michael Ledeen, The Corner responded to Rice's offer to Iran.Wall Street Journal examined Condi's...

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has pardoned a member of a left-wing guerrilla group that carried out one of Italy's most notorious murders. Ovidio Bompressi, of the Lotta Continua group, was serving a 22-year jail term for the murder of Milan police chief Luigi Calabresi in 1972. Justice Minister Clemente Mastella says he will also seek a pardon for Lotta Continua leader Adriano Sofri... The murder of Chief Calabresi was commemorated on a set of stamps last year, but left-wingers still blame him for the death of a young anarchist who either jumped or was thrown from the fourth-floor window of...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad: Europeans should side with Iran or suffer only damage. Spiegel published its aggressive interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discussing the Holocaust, the future of the state of Israel, mistakes made by the United States in Iraq and Tehran's nuclear conflict with the West.   Iran: "there is no such country" as Israel! Ha'aretz reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said: "there is no such country" as Israel.   Iran denies it is slowing it nuclear program. Bloomberg reported that Iran said it is pressing ahead with its nuclear program, rejecting reports that it...

Top News Story Iran raises the stakes again: resumes its nuclear fusion research. Reuters reported that Iran is pressing ahead with research tests on nuclear fusion, a type of atomic reaction which has yet to be developed for commercial power generation, but is used to produce thermonuclear bombs.   World leaders agree on incentives and penalties for Iran. Yahoo News reported that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying that the world's major powers are ready to guarantee Iran's right to develop nuclear energy provided Tehran cooperates fully with the UN nuclear safety agency.CTV reported that U.S., Russian,...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad's strategy. Amir Taheri, The Jerusalem Post reported that while some in Washington still talk of "preemptive war" against "rogue states," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is practicing what could be labeled "preemptive diplomacy." An examination of the Iranian strategy.   Ahmadinejad speeds to consolidate power. The New York Times reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to consolidate power in the office of the presidency in a way never before seen in the 27-year history of the Islamic Republic.   The student protests in Tehran. A must read. Rooz Online provided a detailed report on the...

Top News Story Payvand Tehran, Iran, May 26 – More than 100 radical Islamists affiliated to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) gathered on Thursday in Tehran’s most famous cemetery vowing to blow themselves up in suicide attacks to kill Americans, Britons, and Israelis. The “martyrdom-seeking volunteers”, most of whom had covered their faces with a chafieh, issued a warning to Washington that they would blow up United States interests around the world if Iran’s nuclear installations came under attack. Mohammad-Ali Samadi, spokesman for the Headquarters to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a government-orchestrated campaign to...

Top News Story Reuters BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by a sense of guilt over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the Holocaust even happened. In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Ahmadinejad said he doubted Germans were allowed to write "the truth" about the Holocaust and said he was still considering traveling to Germany for the World Cup soccer tournament. "I believe the German people are prisoners of the Holocaust. More than 60 million were killed in World War Two … The question...

Top News Story The Growing Unrest inside of Iran. Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that while foreign ministers met in London to finalize measures to persuade the Iranian regime to suspend uranium enrichment, the country's ruling clerics will be facing the most determined opposition they have seen in three years. A must read.Iran Press News reported on the anti-regime slogans in the protest gathering of students in Tehran University campus. A must read.Rooz Online reported on the growing unrest in Azerbaijan.Rooz Online reported that during the week that just ended, Iranian society expressed its concealed and suppressed...

Top News Story Student Protests across Iran. Turkish Press reported that two of the Iranian capital's main universities have been rocked by overnight protests and clashes between students and police.Iranian Student News Agency published photos of the protests at Tehran Universities with translations of several signs.SMCCDI reported that sporadic clashes have continued, on Wednesday, in several Iranian universities, such as, Tehran, Hamedan and Zanjan.Yahoo News reported that stone-throwing Iranian students fought police and Islamic vigilante in protest against restrictions imposed by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.SMCCDI reported tbat several students were critically injured during clashes that happened, today,...

Top News Story Iran test launched its Shihab-3 just prior to Bush and Olmert meeting. The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran conducted a test launch Tuesday night of the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which is capable of reaching Israel and US targets in the region. The test came hours before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with US President George W Bush in Washington.   Russia expects unity among Perm-5 on Iran. RIA Novosti reported that Russia's foreign minister said the talks between the EU3 negotiators, the United States, Russia and China would produce a consensus.   Taheri responds to...