Tehran hosts women's rights conference

Egypt, Sudan and Libya to confer ahead of key vote
KHARTOUM, Sudan - Leaders of Sudan's two Most Powerful neighbors will be meeting with the president in Khartoum Tuesday to discuss the future of the country ahead of a Referendum that could well split Africa's largest nation in two. The meeting comes less than three weeks before the people of south Sudan vote in a Jan. 9 Referendum on the Secession of their mainly animist and Christian south from the Arab and mainly Muslim north. The southerners, embittered and scarred by nearly four decad...

Egypt, Sudan and Libya to confer ahead of key vote
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Leaders of Sudan’s two Most Powerful neighbors will be meeting with the president in Khartoum Tuesday to discuss the future of the country ahead of a Referendum that could well split Africa’s largest nation in two. The meeting comes less than three weeks before the people of south Sudan vote in a Jan. 9 Referendum on the Secession of their mainly animist and Christian south from the Arab and mainly Muslim north. The southerners, embittered and scarred by ...

Iran's president says plan to slash energy, food subsidies to start within hours
Last updated Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010 6:02PM EST Iran's president on Saturday announced the start of a plan to slash energy and food Subsidies, part of government efforts to boost the country's ailing economy. In an interview with state television, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the deep cuts to the subsidies “will start beginning Sunday,” and vowed to fully cut all subsidies by the end of his term in 2013. The cuts come as Iran remains deadlocked with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's ...

Iran's Ahmadinejad seeks "win-win" outcome from Iran talks
By Mitra Amiri Tehran (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday he hoped for a "win-win" outcome from talks with world powers concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions, striking an unusually conciliatory tone. The comments, in a... Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad listens to a question during a news conference in Tehran November 29, 2010. Tehran (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday he hoped for a "win-win" outcome from talks with world powers concerne...

Iranian president announces start to subsidy cuts
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's president on Saturday announced the start of a plan to slash energy and food Subsidies, part of government efforts to boost the country's ailing economy. In an interview with state television, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the deep cuts to the subsidies "will start beginning Sunday," and vowed to fully cut all subsidies by the end of his term in 2013. The cuts come as Iran remains deadlocked with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's disputed Nuclear Program. The U.N. Sec...

Iranian president announces start to subsidy cuts
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's president on Saturday announced the start of a plan to slash energy and food Subsidies, part of government efforts to boost the country's ailing economy. In an interview with state television, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the deep cuts to the subsidies "will start beginning Sunday," and vowed to fully cut all subsidies by the end of his term in 2013. The cuts come as Iran remains deadlocked with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's disputed Nuclear Program. The U.N...

Iran's Ahmadinejad seeks win-win outcome from Iran talks
TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday he hoped for a "win-win" outcome from talks with world powers concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions, striking an unusually conciliatory tone. The comments, in a live television interview, echoed the stance of his new Foreign Minister who, earlier in the day, used his Inaugural Speech to call for "positive interaction" with the European Union, usually a target of Iranian hostility. While giving no hint that Iran would change its...

Iran's Ahmadinejad seeks "win-win" outcome from Iran talks
By Mitra Amiri Tehran | Sat Dec 18, 2010 3:49pm EST Tehran (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday he hoped for a "win-win" outcome from talks with world powers concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions, striking an unusually conciliatory tone. The comments, in a live television interview, echoed the stance of his new Foreign Minister who, earlier in the day, used his Inaugural Speech to call for "positive interaction" with the European Union, usually a target of Iranian hos...

Iranian president announces start to subsidy cuts
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's president on Saturday announced the start of a plan to slash energy and food Subsidies, part of government efforts to boost the country's ailing economy. In an interview with state television, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the deep cuts to the subsidies "will start beginning Sunday," and vowed to fully cut all subsidies by the end of his term in 2013. The cuts come as Iran remains deadlocked with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's disputed Nuclear Program. The U.N. Secu...

Iran forces on alert as economic 'surgery' begins
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Security forces flooded Iran's capital in a warning against possible unrest as fuel prices surged 400 percent Sunday under plans to sharply cut government subsides and ease pressure on an economy struggling with international sanctions. The so-called economic "surgery" has been planned for months, but was repeatedly delayed over worries of a repeat of gas riots in 2007 and serious political infighting during the standoff with the West over the Islamic Republic's nuclear prog...

Police in Iran streets as subsidies are cut
TEHRAN, Iran — The Iranian government sent squads of Riot Police to man the major intersections of the capital as sensitive cuts in energy and food Subsidies came into effect Sunday. Eye witnesses reported a heavy police presence in the squares and junctions of Tehran such as Enghelab square and Sadeghieh and Valiasr squares as well as some western neighborhoods of the city, though so far the city has been quiet. In 2007, angry Protesters set dozens of gas stations on fire after the ...

Heavy security on Iran streets after subsidy cuts
An Iranian baker takes breads at his bakery in central Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday announced the start of a plan to slash energy and food Subsidies, part of government efforts to boost the nation's ailing economy. In an interview with state television, Ahmadinejad said the deep cuts to the subsidies "will start beginning Sunday," and vowed to fully cut all subsidies by the end of his term in 2013. Iran deployed squads of Riot Police aro...

Are Iranian Nuke Sanctions Finally Kicking In? Ahmadinejad Announces Subsidy Cuts
Mahmoud Worships the Nuclear Allah A girl can hope, can’t she? (MSNBC) — Iran’s president on Saturday announced the start of a plan to slash energy and food Subsidies , part of government efforts to boost the country’s ailing economy . In an interview with state television, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the deep cuts to the Subsidies “will start beginning Sunday,” and vowed to fully cut all Subsidies by the end of his term in 2013. The cuts come as Iran remains d...

Police in Iran streets as subsidies are cut
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The Iranian government sent squads of Riot Police to man the major intersections of the capital as sensitive cuts in energy and food Subsidies came into effect Sunday. Eye witnesses reported a heavy police presence in the squares and junctions of Tehran such as Enghelab square and Sadeghieh and Valiasr squares as well as some western neighborhoods of the city, though so far the city has been quiet. In 2007, angry Protesters set dozens of gas stations on fire after the gover...

Iran fuel prices soar as subsidies scrapped
Iranian petrol prices surged four-fold on Sunday as the government started scrapping Subsidies as part of a long-awaited overhaul of The Economy, despite staunch opposition from Conservatives. The move comes after much debate and strong opposition from part of the Iranian parliament which had criticised the plan as inflationary at a time when the economy was reeling under sanctions and high Unemployment. Police and security forces were deployed across main squares and fuel stations in Tehran to ...

Obama presses region on Sudan referendum
US President Barack Obama has written to regional leaders to rally support for a peaceful and timely Referendum on the independence of south Sudan, the White House said Sunday. Southerners are set to vote in a Referendum on January 9 on whether to remain united with the north or break away and form their own country. Sudan's neighbors can exact pressure on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The vote is a key plank of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the mainly Muslim north ...

Sharia law for Sudan if south gains independence
Sudan's president has said the country will adopt an Islamic constitution if the south splits away in a Referendum due next month, in a Speech in which he also defended police officers who were recently filmed flogging a woman in public. "If south Sudan secedes, we will change the constitution and at that time there will be no time to speak of diversity of culture and Ethnicity," Omar Hassan al-Bashir told supporters at a rally in Gedaref yesterday. "Sharia (Islamic law] and Islam wi ADVERTISE...

Bashir set to turn Sudan into Islamic state
JUBA, Sudan: The Sudanese President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has promised to turn his country into an Islamic State governed by Islamic law if the south chooses to secede in a Referendum next month. ''We'll change the constitution,'' Mr Bashir said in a televised Speech. ''Sharia and Islam will be the main source for the constitution, Islam the official religion and Arabic the official language.'' The comments were some of Mr Bashir's strongest words to date seeming to acknowledge the likelihood ...

US officials call WSJ 'doomsday-in-motion' scenarios on Iran talks, "inaccurate"....
"The U.S. and representatives of the European Union have agreed to impose joint sanctions against Iran in January and are considering breaking off talks with the country, as patience with Tehran's nuclear activities wears thin, according to people familiar (like my cousin Vinny?)with the matter. Western officials are discussing making further talks with Iran contingent on Tehran's progress toward compliance with existing United Nations Security Council resolutions, (not true say US officials) w...

Heavy security on Iran streets after subsidy cuts
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran deployed squads of Riot Police around the major intersections of the capital Sunday, bracing for any kind of violent backlash in the tightly controlled Islamic Republic on the day deep cuts in food and energy Subsidies went into effect. Angry Taxi Drivers complained as the price of fuel rose four times overnight in one of the world's leading oil producers. "I don't know what to do," said one frustrated Cab Driver, who did not want to be identified for fear of retributio...

Iranian Foreign Minister Fired While Abroad Calls Ouster 'un-Islamic'
The man who carried the water for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by defending his confrontational policies abroad was unceremoniously sacked. But it's the manner in which Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was fired that has him telling the Islamic Republic that it's acting downright un-Islamic. Mottaki was on a diplomatic mission to Senegal last week when Ahmadinejad announced that the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, would replaced Mottaki as fo...

Unrest fears as Iran forced to raise super-low petrol prices
SQUADS of Riot Police were deployed across Tehran yesterday as a Controversial plan to cut food and energy subsidies and quadruple the price of petrol went into effect. • Tehran residents rushed to fill their tanks ahead of the weekend's petrol price increase. Picture: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images Witnesses reported a heavy police presence in the squares and junctions of Tehran as well as some western neighbourhoods of the city. In 2007, angry Protesters set dozens of petrol stations on fir...

Iran ex-foreign minister says sacking 'un-Islamic'
Iran's former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has hit out at his sacking this week by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, branding the move both "un-Islamic and offensive." "Sacking a minister while (he is) on a mission is un-Islamic, undiplomatic, offensive and outside the practices of politics," Mottaki was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency on Sunday. Ahmadinejad announced his decision to oust Mottaki on Monday while the 57-year-old career diplomat was on an official visit to Senegal. "I...

Iran fuel prices rocket as subsidies cut
Iran levied up to a five-fold hike in fuel prices from Sunday as the government started scrapping Subsidies as part of a long-awaited economic overhaul, despite initial resistance by Conservatives. The move comes after much debate in parliament which had criticised the scheme at a time when Iran's economy is reeling under Inflation, high Unemployment and sanctions. But on Sunday lawmakers welcomed the plan. Security forces were deployed across main squares and fuel stations in Tehran to prevent ...

Top Diplomat's Ouster Hints At Political Battle In Iran
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision this week to abruptly sack his Foreign Minister shocked some Iranian commentators. The two politicians have had their differences, but Ahmadinejad's move to replace a career diplomat with a Nuclear Scientist sparked a new debate about Iran's nuclear intentions. It also shed some light on the infighting among Iran's conservative factions. On Tuesday, a day after Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was fired while still on state business in the West African...