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Many Iranian youths rallied in streets across the country, shouting "Death to Ahmadinejad," in celebrations marking the end of the Persian calendar year. The last Wednesday of the Persian calendar is celebrated as the Fire Festival in Iran, with bonfires and firecrackers marking the occasion. In the western city of Ahvaz, angry mobs declared "Freedom is our legitimate right" while demonstrators in the western city of Sanandaj shouted "Death to (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad," Ynetnews reported Wednesday.

“U.S. offering friendship to Serbia� 14 February 2008 | 11:49 | Source: Beta, Tanjug WASHINGTON -- Condoleezza Rice says that America hopes Serbia will accept the solution for Kosovo’s future status. Condoleezza Rice (FoNet) The U.S. secretary of state told Congress yesterday that America was offering friendship to Serbia at a time when Kosovo Albanian leaders were preparing to declare independence from Serbia. Association Press reiterated that Serbia had stated that it would never recognize the independence of the province, which has an Albanian population of some 90 percent. AP adds that the U.S. and a majority of EU member-states...

Cuba & The War on Terror by: Heyecan Veziroglu, November 08, 2007 While the United States government focuses on the Middle East in its war on terror, closer to home, U.S. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., stresses that Cuba is a terrorist state. The Cuban regime maintains “bank accounts in Iran,” Rep. Diaz-Balart pointed out at the Heritage Foundation last month. The congressman himself was born in Cuba. On the same panel with the congressman, the State Department’s Robert Blau pointed out that every foreigner in Cuba is a target for espionage. Blau is the Deputy Director of the Office of...

Vast majority of Iranian lawmakers vote to move up presidential elections by 18 months, final say on matter up to Ahmadinejad's arch-rival. Will Ahmadinejad's term be cut short? The Iranian parliament voted on Sunday to unite the presidential elections with the upcoming parliamentary ones, this according to the official Iranian news agency. The proposal, which passed with a surprising 80 percent majority, may cut the term of sitting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by 18 months. The bill must still be ratified by the Iranian constitutional committee, which is headed by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad's arch-rival, a fact which many...

BEIRUT: Iran has distributed more than 40 power generators to municipal authorities in Southern Lebanon over the past week to temporarily restore electricity to villages most damaged during the Israeli offensive. Abdel-Raouf Adib, a representative for the Iranian Red Crescent, said the $1 million program will supply enough fuel to meet the power consumption needs of each southern village for at least three months. By the end of the week a total of 53 generators and the necessary equipment will be delivered - each town will receive between one and three depending on its size. A representative for the Energy...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) _ President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday challenged the authority of the U.N. Security Council as Iran faces a deadline to halt its uranium enrichment and he called for a televised debate with President Bush on world issues. The Security Council has given Iran until Thursday to suspend enrichment, a process that can produce either fuel for a reactor or material for weapons. ``The U.S. and Britain are the source of many tensions,'' Ahmadinejad said at a news conference. ``At the Security Council, where they have to protect security, they enjoy the veto right. If anybody confronts them,...

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has confirmed that Saudi financiers are backing the new regime with ties to Al Qaida that has taken power in Somalia. Officials said the so-called Islamic Courts Union, headed by an Al Qaida commander wanted by the United States, has garnered most of its foreign support from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. "I don't want to say the Saudi government is supporting any particular [Islamic] court," Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said. "But I do know that there is money coming in from Saudi Arabia." On June 29, Frazer told the House International Relations Committee...

Hamas to gain control of sec. forces Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 4, 2006 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed that the Hamas will take control of Palestinian security forces after it assumes power, a Hamas leader said Saturday after the group's first meeting with Abbas since routing his Fatah Party in elections. Abbas met with Hamas leaders Saturday evening for the first time since their victory in the Palestinian elections in late January. "There is no truth to baseless reports that President Abbas wants to take over the security institutions," Ismail Haniyeh said after the meeting concluded....

Palestinian militant group Hamas has won a sweeping victory in municipal elections in the West Bank. The Palestinian electoral commission said that in the biggest city, Nablus, Hamas took 73% of the vote, while the mainstream Fatah organisation took 13%.

Iran has supplied Hezbullah with more than 10,000 short-range rockets and most of the weapons are deployed in southern Lebanon within reach of Israel, an Israeli diplomat said Thursday. The rockets, some of which were provided by Syria, have a range of up to 110 kilometers, said Jeremy Issacharoff, the new deputy Israeli ambassador to Washington, at a conference on Iran sponsored The Israel Project, a nongovernment advocacy group. "In Israeli terms, that range can be a heavyweight," Issacharoff said. Iran is the leading supporter of terror groups in the world, he said. Besides backing Hezbullah, a Lebanese group that...

"A lot of Pakistani families living in Britain still have roots in Pakistan, particularly in the Punjab region, and visiting relatives are seen as an important part of maintaining those family links. "When children complete their formal education in Britain there is also an inclination among Pakistani families to send them to complete their schooling at a religious institution. "They send them to the mosques, often in Britain but also sometimes away from home, and as well as receiving religious instruction they will inevitably come into contact with more hardline elements. "For quite some time, there has been a network...

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Saudi Arabia is defying the United States, the European Union and Australia by resisting U.N. efforts to verify that it has no nuclear assets worth inspecting, according to a confidential EU document obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday. There is little concern the Saudis are trying to make nuclear arms, but Riyadh’s resistance to inspections adds another worry for a top-level meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency this week that is focusing on North Korea and Iran. Those two countries are the world’s major concerns about the spread of atomic weapons. On Tuesday, the IAEA...

'No al-Qaeda camps in Pakistan' Islamabad, June 09: Pakistan today denied claims that one of two terror suspects arrested in California had received training at an al-Qaeda camp in the South Asian country. "There are no training camps in Pakistan," senior Foreign Ministry official Naeem Khan told news agencies in Islamabad when asked to comment on reports in a number of newspapers in the United States and Pakistan. "We are the frontline state in the fight against terrorism. How could we allow such camps in our country?" Khan said, adding that Islamabad had asked its embassy in Washington to get...

Excerpt - TEL AVIV, June 2 - Syria test-fired three Scud missiles last Friday, including one that broke up over Turkish territory and showered missile parts down onto unsuspecting Turkish farmers, Israeli military officials revealed Thursday. These were the first such Syrian missile tests since 2001, the Israelis said, and were part of a Syrian missile development project using North Korean technology and designed, the Israelis contend, to deliver air-burst chemical weapons. The missiles included one older Scud B, with a range of about 185 miles, and two Scud D's, the Israelis say they believe, with a range of about...

'I'm self-sufficient now. I earn enough to support my family and I'm not dependent on benefits." The pride in Sandy Mitchell's voice is unmistakable. Given what he has been through, it is also justified. Five years ago, the tough Glaswegian was earning his living working in a hospital in Saudi Arabia as an anaesthetic technician, putt-ing in canulas, checking doses and weighing patients before they had operations. He and his Thai wife had just had a baby. He was happy and prosperous. Then, on December 17 2000, he was kidnapped by Saudi Arabian police as he got out of his...

Washington is reassessing its policy towards Syria, in light of increasing evidence that President Assad has no intention of keeping his promises to the US to stop cooperating with the Iraqi Sunni insurgency. A senior intelligence source has confirmed that the administration is currently conducting discussions over Syria at senior levels. These discussions are not only limited to the policy itself, but include possible operational scenarios in the event it is decided to change US policy. The main debate is whether any US military strike should be confined to a few targets, destruction of which would inflict enough pain on...

Saudi Arabia warned foreign residents Wednesday they must respect a prohibition on eating, drinking and smoking in public during daylight hours in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Violators would be dismissed from their work and deported, the Interior Ministry said. Ramadan, four weeks when Muslims fast and abstain from sex between dawn and dusk, begins about October 15, with the sighting of a new moon. Muslims believe it was during Ramadan about 1,400 years ago that the Koran, the Islamic holy book, was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed. "Resident non-Muslims must respect the feelings of Muslims and not eat,...

National Security Adviser Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland was quoted Monday by the Maariv daily as saying Iran will reach the "point of no return" in its nuclear weapons program by November, rather than next year as Israeli military officials said earlier. Concern about Tehran's nuclear development intensified last week when Iran's Vice President Reza Aghazadeh said Iran has started converting raw uranium into the gas needed for enrichment, an important step in making a nuclear bomb. The declaration came in defiance of a resolution passed three days earlier by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, demanding...

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa on Monday lambasted during a speech at a meeting of United Nations General Assembly. Al-Sharaa accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of deluding the world by trying to present his disengagement plan as a solution to the problems in the Middle East. Israel, he said, "has transformed its regular army into gangs bent on systematic killings and war crimes against Palestinian civilians..." "Israel bares an important share of the responsibility for intensifying and worsening the American predicament in Iraq by avoiding to resume the peace process despite the hand extended in peace by the Palestinians,...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has shown a new readiness to work with U.S.-led forces to stop arms, militants and money from crossing into Iraq and fueling insurgency, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday. "I sensed a new attitude from the Syrians," Powell told reporters after talks with the foreign minister of Syria, a nation Washington routinely accuses of supporting terrorism, seeking weapons of mass destruction and dominating Lebanon. "But of course it all depends on actions, not just on attitudes, so we will be working closely with them," Powell added, emerging relatively upbeat from a meeting with...

TEHERAN (AP) – President Mohammad Khatami on Wednesday called on the international community to recognize Iran's right to enrich uranium, once again insisting that Iran will pursue a nuclear program some suspect is aimed at developing weapons. "We clearly demand that our right to enrichment be recognized by the international community because it is our legal right and in accordance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," Khatami told reporters after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. "If it does so, it will open the way for greater cooperation," he said. The United States and many nonproliferation experts believe Iran is covertly developing nuclear...

Al-Qaida's cell in Saudi Arabia has recruited young men because they are easy to sway and then duped them into thinking there was no way out, two repentant terrorists said in confessions aired late Tuesday night on national television. Saudi television's Channel 1 aired what it called "Special Facts from Inside the Cell," a documentary featuring the confessions of terror suspects Khaled al-Juwaiser al-Farraj and Abdul Rahman al-Roshoud. Farraj was arrested in January after a raid on his Riyadh house that left six security agents dead. It was not immediately clear when Rashoud was arrested, but he is believed to...

North Korea said Monday that it will not give up nuclear development in light of unauthorized nuclear experiments by South Korea, where UN inspectors nuclear inspectors were conducting an investigation. Rodong Sinmun, an official North Korean newspaper, said in an editorial that the secret nuclear activities in South Korea in 1982 and 2000 were an "inevitable result of double standards" applied by the United States, the South's chief ally. The comments, which echoed other North Korean statements in recent days, were another blow to troubled efforts to hold another round of talks aimed at persuading North Korea to end its...

Security forces in Azerbaijan have arrested an Iranian citizen caught videotaping footage of the Israeli Embassy in the capital city of Baku, the Shin Bet internal security service announced Sunday. The suspect was arrested on September 1. The man was spotted by Israeli security personnel who notified local police authorities. The security establishment in Israel suspects the man was collecting information for Iranian intelligence. Security sources in Israel said Iranian intelligence is collecting information on potential Israeli terror targets overseas. The man was found with a photocopy of documentation permitting entry into a hotel located adjacent to the embassy. In...

Saturday, September 18, 2004 Text: State Department: Saudis export hate, restricts religous freedom; Secretary Powell: not showing displeasure with Saudis Text: State Department: Saudis export hate, restricts religous freedom; Secretary Powell: not showing displeasure with Saudis #1 Interview on Al Arabiya with Lukman Ahmed www.state.gov/secretary/rm/36226.htm Secretary Colin L. Powell Washington, DC September 15, 2004 (3:20 p.m. EDT) MR. AHMED: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for this opportunity, and we will start today with the religious freedom reports that you have just issued. After the report, the State Department said that Saudi Arabia is a great ally and cooperating with the...

Libya has missed its first payment under a US$35 million ( 28.53 million) compensation deal for 168 non-US victims of a 1986 Berlin disco bombing, a German lawyer said Wednesday. Libya's ambassador in Berlin has told the German Foreign Ministry that the US$15 million ( 12.23 million) installment, scheduled for Sept. 8, was held up by banking difficulties, said Sven Leistikow, who helped negotiate the settlement. "They said that it will be here in the next few days. I gather from that it will be here by Friday," Leistikow said. The payment plan was set in a compensation agreement signed...

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Lebanon has improved its military cooperation with the United States. Lebanese and U.S. officials have reported increased military cooperation between Beirut and Washington. The officials said the two countries have increased training of the Lebanese military and held high-level meetings to bolster the level of military and security cooperation. The U.S. effort was meant to increase Lebanese cooperation in the war against Al Qaida. Lebanese officials said that despite Washington's criticism over Beirut's support for Hizbullah and Palestinian insurgency groups, the Bush administration has sought to exploit the recent arrests and prosecution of Al Qaida operatives in...

LONDON - The brother of a British man killed in a May attack on an oil industry compound in Saudi Arabia accused Saudi authorities Wednesday of having allowed the gunmen to flee the scene. Douglas Hamilton, whose brother Michael, 61, died in the shootouts at two oil industry compounds in Khobar in May, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio that he could not see another explanation for the terrorists' escape. "The thought that 40 of the special security people went in through various doors and in through the roof and they could not contain four men appears to be totally beyond...

Iranian groups says has signed up thousands as human shields in case of military strike on nuclear reactor (Reuters)

BEIRUT, Lebanon - In a veiled swipe at the United States and its United States allies, Russia's foreign minister said Sunday his country opposed a Security Council resolution demanding free presidential elections here and a Syrian troop withdrawal out of Moscow's respect for Lebanese sovereignty. Sergey Lavrov made his comments after meeting Lebanese President Emile Lahoud in Beirut, marking his latest high level meeting during a Middle East tour that has included talks with the leaders of Egypt and Syria. He is expected to arrive in Israel later Sunday. A deeply divided UN Security Council narrowly approved a resolution Thursday...

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz issued a warning to Syria in comments he made to the cabinet Sunday, in which he referred to intelligence information about the growing involvement of the Damascus "terror headquarters" in terror attacks against Israel. Mofaz added that Damascus is providing terror organizations with guidance and financial support. Mofaz said, however, that there is not enough evidence to prove that Syria was involved in planning the double bombing in Be'er Sheva last week, in which 16 people were killed. Mofaz said that on the night before the Be'er Sheva attack, the Israel Defense Forces arrested about 30...

Translation from Hebrew to English by me Arab diplomatic sources in Amman claim that the leadership of Hamas in Damascus have left the city, because of the harshing of the Israeli words coming after the terror attack in Beer-Sheva. Among the terrorist leaders who live in Damascus is Haled Mashal, the head of the political office of the terrorist organization. The newspaper "A-Sherek Al-Oset" reports that a group of Hamas officials have moved to living in Beirut, under the sponsorship of Hizbullah officials, and another group has moved to Qatar. Syrian sources said in response that "there has not been...

NORTH Korea said today it won't attend working meetings ahead of the next round of six-party talks on dismantling its nuclear program and said it has no intention of immediately shutting down its nuclear facilities. "It is clear that there would be nothing to expect even if the DPRK sits at the negotiating table with the US under the present situation," an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name. The US has said it would like to convene...

World judo champion Arash Miresmaeili of Iran dropped out of the Olympics before his first match Sunday, which was to have been against an opponent from Israel, Ehud Vaks. Officially, Miraesmaeili was listed as a non-starter because he weighed in above the 66 kilogram-limit for his class. But Iran's official news agency quotes Miresmaeili as saying he withdrew from the match out of sympathy for the Palestinian people. The world judo champion says he has trained for months and is in shape to compete. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami praised Miraesmaeili, saying his refusal to compete will go down in Iranian...

Iranian President Mohammed Khatami praises judo champ`s decision not to compete against Israeli in Olympics IRNA: Khatami says withdrawal of judoka from Olympic match will be recorded in history of Iranian glories

CANBERRA (Reuters) - North Korea is capable of targeting Australia with a long-range missile, Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said, ahead of a rare visit to the communist state for talks on its nuclear programmes. Australia was ill-equipped to cope with such an attack, Downer said on Friday ahead of his talks in North Korea on August 17-18. "We believe they have developed a long-range missile that could go all the way from North Korea to the United States or, for that matter, here," Downer told Australian radio. "They could fire a missile from North Korea to Sydney." In...

The Iranians' last test of the Shihab-3 medium-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile was apparently intended to improve the missile's guidance system. The Shihab-3's range is estimated at 1,300 kilometers. From certain places in Iran the Shihab-3 can reach large parts of Israel. After almost achieving the missile's maximum range, the Iranian experts are focusing on improving the missile's accuracy and its warhead. This is not the first time the Iranians have tested the Shihab-3; in the past they had a few failures in launching the missile. Their progress may be slow but they are gradually succeeding in improving the missile. The...

The hardliners ruling Iran have decided to risk a showdown with the US, rather can make any concessions over their nuclear weapons development program. This has been confirmed to Maariv International by western intelligence sources. At a recent meeting of the Iranian leadership, currently totally dominated by the conservative hard liners, it was decided that Teheran could risk taking an uncompromising position. This position was supported by most of the participants, including former president Rafsanjani, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s most trusted and respected counselor regarding foreign affairs. Iran believes it can get away with stonewalling until it has amassed a...

TOKYO - A senior Libyan official has said his country is prepared to provide oil to Japan, which is under US pressure to invest in Libya instead of an Iranian oil project that has irked Washington, Kyodo news agency said. The United States, which has sanctions against US companies doing business in Iran, has persistently expressed its disappointment that its close ally, resource-poor Japan, would invest in a $2 billion project to tap the Azadegan oilfield. Last December, Libya decided to abandon weapons of mass destruction and in return won US economic and diplomatic rewards that could help its oil...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Defense Ministry on Wednesday carried out a field test of the newest version of its Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile, state television reported. Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said earlier this month Iran was working on improvements to the range and accuracy of Shahab-3, which defense experts say Tehran could use to strike arch-foe Israel or U.S. military bases in the Gulf.

Breaking an agreement with Europe’s big powers, Iran has resumed building and installing equipment that can be used to make nuclear weaponry, diplomats said today. The US and its allies accuse Iran of working on a weapons programme, something Tehran denies. Under international pressure last year, Iran agreed to stop enriching uranium and stop making assembling centrifuges, the equipment used for the enrichment process. In turn, France, Britain and Germany dangled the prospect of providing it with peaceful nuclear technology. The diplomats said that several weeks ago, Iranian officials broke seals placed on the equipment by the International Atomic Energy...

Iran on Monday repeated its threat to "wipe Israel off the map" if Israel attacked the Islamic Republic's nuclear sites. "The United States is showing off by threatening to use its wild dog, Israel," Revolutionary Guards Commander Seyed Masood Jazayeri was quoted as saying by the Iranian student news agency ISNA. "They will not hesitate to strike Iran if they are capable of it. However, their threats to attack Iran's nuclear facilities cannot be realized. They are aware Tehran's reaction will be so harsh that Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth and US interests will be...

Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia TV1 in Arabic, official television station of the Saudi Government, carries at 0928 GMT on 14 May 2004 a live sermon from the holy mosque in Mecca. Shaykh Abd-al-Rahman al-Sudays delivers the sermon, which he begins by saying that the nation has faced much sedition in history, but the worst is the current one of charging others with non-belief. "It is an unmatched wanton crime," he says, and wonders how a Muslim can repudiate his fellow Muslim. The imam cites Koranic verses and prophet's traditions that forbid repudiation of fellow Muslims, and asserts that repudiation...

The United States is ready to be a partner in helping Palestinians build their own state and will keep to plans to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. In a German television interview, Rice also said she felt "great shame" about the abuse of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad but insisted it had not undermined US moral authority in the world. Rice's comments came before talks in Berlin on Monday with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, part of a renewed Bush administration effort to bring about...

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States continues to doubt whether Saudi Arabia can sustain a major military aircraft procurement project. Saudi Arabia, despite increased revenues from oil in 2003, might not have enough funds or political will to sustain a multi-billion deal for new fighter-jets, government sources said. They said a review by the Defense Department has warned that Riyad could cancel any major aircraft deal and refuse to pay U.S. suppliers. "The Saudis would like new aircraft but there is clearly a problem of funding and political will," a Pentagon source said. "The Saudis have been known to stop...

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libya denounced the United States on Friday for its criticism of death sentences in a Libyan AIDS trial, saying the behavior of U.S. soldiers in Iraqi prisons has taken away the Americans' moral authority to lecture about rights abuses. "America has no right to talk about human rights — or even animal rights," foreign ministry spokesman Hassouna al-Shawish said at a news conference Friday night. The comments concerned a trial in eastern Libya on Thursday in which five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death on charges of intentionally infecting more than 400...

Israeli chess officials demanded Thursday that this summer's world chess championships be moved, after host Libya said it would bar Israeli players. Libya's announcement ended expectations that the chess tournament could help improve relations between the longtime Mideast enemies. "We did not and will not invite the Zionist enemy to this championship," Mohammed Gadhafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, told a news conference Wednesday. In response, the Israeli Chess Association demanded that the World Chess Federation, known as FIDE, move the championship from Libya, said spokesman Yerach Tal. "We demand that it be held in a country that will...

Israeli warplanes raided a suspected Hizbullah hideout in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, shortly after Hizbullah gunners fired on Israeli jets that violated Lebanese airspace, Lebanese security officials said. The Lebanese officials in southern Lebanon, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two Israeli fighter jets fired at least one missile at a valley near the village of Zibqine, southeast of the southern port city of Tyre. Hizbullah officials in southern Lebanon said at least four air-to-surface missiles were launched in the afternoon attack. Black smoke billowed from the area. There was no immediate word on casualties. The Israeli airstrike, the first...

Syria has banned a Greek, a Danish and two Maltese ships from its ports because they'd made stops in Israeli ports, and has placed nine Israeli companies on a black list, an Economy Ministry statement said Wednesday. The Economy Ministry usually acts on recommendations of the office of the Arab boycott of Israel, set up in 1951 by Arab nations to keep companies that did business with Israel from operating in the Arab world. It has little sway anymore, but Syria still acts on its advice. Mohammed al-Ajami, head of the local office of the Arab boycott of Israel, told...

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday the rejection by Israel's ruling Likud Party of a plan to pull out of Gaza showed the Jewish state was only interested in grabbing more Palestinian land rather than peace. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud Party voted down his unilateral pullout plan on Sunday. An Israeli official said Sharon was amending the U.S-backed plan which originally called for the evacuation of all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank. "The Likud party's latest stance exposed the hidden intents of this ruling party and...