Iran nuclear talks resume in nervous atmosphere - Reuters
MOSCOW |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - World powers will seek to avert a collapse of diplomacy over Iran's nuclear program at talks starting in Moscow on Monday, hoping to win concessions from Tehran and forestall a potential new war in the Middle East.
Consequences of failure could be devastating. Israel has threatened to bomb Iran if no solution to the dispute is found, oil markets are nervous over the prospect of intensifying regional tensions and the frail world economy can ill afford further spikes in the price of crude.
But after two rounds of negotiations in as many months, the sides are hardly any closer to reaching an agreement than before diplomacy resumed in April following a 15-month hiatus.
In Moscow, the six powers - the nuclear armed United States, Russia, China, France, and Britain, plus Germany - will again push Tehran to address their most pressing concern, its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent fissile purity. Such production represents a major technological advance towards making weapons-grade material.
But they are wary of letting diplomacy drag on without clear progress, potentially buying Iran time to build up a program they fear is aimed to develop weapons, something Tehran denies.
"We are very much determined to pursue this process as long there is momentum to pursue, and as long as there is commitment (from Iran) to pursue the nuclear issue in substance," a senior European Union diplomat said.
Experts and diplomats say chances of a breakthrough in Moscow that could end the decade-long standoff are slim.
The six powers - led by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton - hope at least to win assurances that Tehran is willing to discuss concrete solutions, opening the way to further meetings.
"Ashton is willing to stay in Moscow as long as it takes," the diplomat said. "But there is a time limit also ... We will have to say 'no' to talks for talks' sake."
"DIAMONDS FOR PEANUTS"
Ahead of the Moscow talks, scheduled to start around 11 a.m. (0700 GMT) and last two days, each side has accused the other of obstructing diplomacy.
Iran has insisted progress will be only made if the six powers issue a public acknowledgement of its right to enrich uranium, something they have refused to do until Tehran agrees to in-depth U.N. inspections of its nuclear sites.
The Islamic Republic's chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, told a Russian television station Iran's right to enrich uranium ought to be "recognized and respected".
Iran is also seeking an end to increasingly tough economic sanctions which have in recent months directly targeted its ability to export oil.
Jalili has indicated the powers' offer of nuclear fuel supplies for a research reactor and relief in sanctions on the sale of commercial aircraft parts to Iran was not enough.
At the last talks, in Baghdad last month, the six nations asked Tehran in return to stop producing higher-grade uranium, ship any stockpile out of the country and close down the underground Fordow facility where such work is done.
A former Iranian negotiator, Hossein Mousavian, called that offer "diamonds for peanuts", telling Reuters that the Moscow talks would likely fail without substantial concessions by the six powers.
For their part, Western diplomats have said their concerns about the nature of Iran's nuclear work have intensified.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) failed to persuade Iran, in talks this month, to let it inspect a military site, Parchin, where it suspects atom bomb-related research took place.
"What is worrying is that the IAEA track has stalled. It seems to be a mirror image of what is happening in our negotiations," said the senior European diplomat involved in the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity.
SHOW TIME
Last week, after acrimonious letters and phone calls between EU and Iranian diplomats, EU officials said Jalili had agreed to give serious consideration to the six powers' proposal. But some experts say the apparent progress may be illusory.
"The Iranians bob and weave like a boxer before any major negotiation. They threaten, they are conciliatory," said Cliff Kupchan, a Middle East analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group.
"All that matters is what they say when it's show time."
Failure to at least agree further talks would be a diplomatic disaster for Russia, which opposes sanctions and military intervention in both Iran and its ally Syria and casts itself as a key player in the search for peaceful solutions.
"It's a matter of prestige for the Russians," said Emanuele Ottolenghi of the Washington think-tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
But U.S. and European diplomats have given no public indication of any willingness to scale back economic sanctions for now. An EU embargo on Iranian oil takes full effect on July 1 and new U.S. financial sanctions some days before that.
"Sanctions will enter into force in July unless something very dramatic happens," said a Western diplomat.
Measures including the EU ban on Iranian crude, are already taking a toll. Iran's exports have fallen by some 40 percent since this year, according to the International Energy Agency. Iran says it has no problem replacing customers that choose to boycott its crude.
Academics say one way Western countries could keep diplomacy on track would be to pledge not to introduce any further measures while substantive talks continue.
"The Iranians can say: 'If you commit to not introducing any new sanctions as long we are negotiating, we can engage in this proposal'. Then they argue about the details," said Ottolenghi.
(Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Moscow, Mohammed Abbas in London, Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Marcus George in Dubai; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Three contenders ... RSS reader apps - The Border Mail
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Flipboard, free.
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MobileRSS, free ($2.99 Pro removes ads).
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Pulse, free.
YOU probably don't have time to visit all of your favourite sites and services every day. Thankfully RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, can bring them all to you. Many websites include an RSS feed, usually indicated by an orange and white icon. By clicking on the icon and subscribing to the RSS feed you can be automatically notified when new content is posted.
To subscribe to an RSS feed you'll need an RSS reader, which acts a little like an email client. You'll find basic RSS readers built into many web browsers and email clients. But if you're looking for extra bells and whistles, you'll find stand-alone RSS applications for desktops, smartphones and tablets, along with online RSS readers that run in a browser. Google Reader is an impressive online RSS reader and some RSS apps rely on Google Reader for managing your RSS subscriptions. If you regularly jump between desktop and mobile devices, you might find the browser-based Google Reader is best for you.
People often use RSS to keep track of when new blog posts, news stories, podcasts or video clips are published. Often the RSS feed only contains a snippet and a link to the original webpage. But RSS isn't just for news junkies. It can also let you subscribe to everything from television guides, weather forecasts and news bulletins to daily shopping deals and auction results.
In the past few years services such as Facebook and Twitter have started to usurp the role of RSS. But while social media services rise and fall, RSS is a universal standard that can't be controlled, censored or shut down. Another benefit is that you don't need to create an account or hand over your details to subscribe to an RSS feed, so you're not inundated with advertising and spam.
RSS readers were initially simple, text-based affairs that looked like email inboxes. But the rise of touchscreen tablets has spawned a new generation of slick RSS readers that look more like newspapers and draw on a range of news sources. Some RSS readers can also tap into your social media feeds, displaying them alongside your RSS feeds. Today we're looking at three slick RSS readers designed for Apple and Android gadgets.
Flipboard
iPhone, iPad - free
flipboard.com
Reviewer's rating: 4.5/5
Flipboard draws news from a wide range of sources, but it also lets you tap into your Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader RSS feeds. Flipboard mimics the look of a newspaper, with editable sections such as news, sport and technology. You can change the publications from which they draw stories. Each section presents on a newspaper-style layout that mixes stories from different publications. You can swipe to turn pages, tap on a story to read it and then swipe to jump straight to the next story. The layout makes it easy to skim stories from a range of feeds. You can send stories to Facebook, Twitter or email. You can also save them to ''read it later'' services such as Instapaper, Pocket and Readability, but you can't access your saved lists from Flipboard.
MobileRSS
iPhone, iPad - free ($2.99 Pro removes ads)
mobilerssapp.com
Reviewer's rating: 4/5
Lacking a fancy interface, MobileRSS is purely an RSS reader that is entirely dependent on Google Reader. The two-column display lists your feeds on the left. On the right are the six most recent stories in the selected feed and you can swipe down to see more. When reading a story you can swipe across directly to the next item. MobileRSS doesn't contain a categorised library of high-profile RSS feeds, although Google Reader does. You can send stories to a range of services, including Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Pocket, Instapaper and Evernote, but you can't import feeds from social media or ''read it later'' services. Similar to Pulse, MobileRSS is better suited to people who want to scroll through a few important feeds rather than browse a wide range of news sources.
Pulse
iPhone, iPad, Android - free
pulse.me
Reviewer's rating: 3/5
Pulse presents your RSS feeds in rows, displaying four stories a feed. You can swipe across to see more stories or down to see more feeds. When reading a story you can swipe to jump to the next story. Pulse lets you add RSS feeds from its library as well social media feeds such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, Reddit and Digg. You can save stories to services such as Instapaper, Pocket (formerly Read it Later) and Evernote. Strangely you can't save to Readability but you can read stories you've saved to Readability by other means. Pulse is great if you want to scroll through a few important feeds but if you're looking to browse a wide range of news sources for interesting stories then Flipboard might be more appealing to you.
Portugal V Netherlands : UEFA Euro 2012 Match Report - Football
Published: 17 Jun 2012 - 22:01:30
No great escape for Dutch as Portugal go through
Portugal beat the Netherlands 2-1 on Sunday to set up a Euro 2012 quarter-final with the Czech Republic and condemn the Dutch to a first group-stage European Championship exit since 1980.
Needing to win by two clear goals to stand any hope of progressing, Holland took an early lead through Rafael van der Vaart but were undone by goals in each half from man of the match Cristiano Ronaldo.
From a Dutch perspective, the final score was rendered immaterial as Denmark's 2-1 loss to Germany in the other Group B match meant they would not have qualified for the last eight even in case of victory.
Portugal, for whom Ronaldo belatedly reproduced his Real Madrid form at this tournament, will compete for a semi-final place against the Czechs in Warsaw on Thursday.
Runners-up at the World Cup two years ago and top scorers in qualifying, the Netherlands leave Ukraine with their tails between their legs after three consecutive defeats.
Mindful of the pressing need for goals, Holland coach Bert van Marwijk handed starts to both Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and van der Vaart, who replaced captain Mark van Bommel and inherited the captain's armband from him.
Van der Vaart needed less than 11 minutes to vindicate his manager's decision, collecting a pass from Arjen Robben and shaping a delightful 25-yard shot inside the left-hand post to put Holland ahead.
However, if the Dutch thought they were in for a comfortable evening, Portugal quickly had them on their toes with a flurry of chances sparked by Ronaldo drifting inside and brushing the post with a low strike.
Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg was allowed to shine on his 50th appearance, thwarting Helder Postiga following an errant back-pass by Gregory van der Wiel and then showing sharp reflexes to box away a Ronaldo header.
Holland failed to heed the warnings though, and in the 28th minute Ronaldo levelled, powering onto Joao Pereira's incisive, stabbed pass and clipping the ball past Stekelenburg from close range.
Strangely, scoring the opening goal seemed to have inhibited the Dutch, and they were cowed even further by Ronaldo's equaliser.
So often scorned for his international displays, Ronaldo was a man transformed, and after working Stekelenburg with an audacious dipping shot from 35 yards, he crashed a header narrowly wide from a corner.
Van Marwijk gambled in the second half, throwing on winger Ibrahim Afellay for left-back Jetro Willems, but still Portugal came, Nani spurning a good chance by firing at Stekelenburg after Ronaldo had rolled the ball across goal.
The Madrid man was not so forgiving when Nani returned the favour in the 74th minute, checking inside sharply to send van der Wiel sprawling and then calmly beating Stekelenburg at his near post.
Van der Vaart hit the post with a right-foot curler, but it was the only bright moment in what was a desperate second period for the Dutch, who saw Ronaldo wobble an upright in the final minute.
Related Portugal News
RSS favours Kalam but NDA divided over its Presidential candidate, Sangma insists he is in the race - indiatoday.intoday.in
Rashtriya Seva Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday came out in support of the candidature of A P J Abdul Kalam in the Presidential poll, saying he is apolitical and that it will be good if he is elected.
"It will be good if he (Kalam) is elected as President.
The comman man thinks that he is a nice man. While rest of the people have a political background, he does not. We can only give our opinion. But only lawmakers can elect the president," Bhagwat told reporters in Haridwar.
Bhagwat's remarks came on a day the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) deferred its decision on whether or not to contest the Presidential election as it was divided over opposing United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee Pranab Mukherjee.
While Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has rooted for Kalam, the former Indian President is yet to announce whether he will contest.
The NDA failed to firm up a position on the Presidential poll as it was divided over opposing UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee and there was lack of clarity on extending support to P A Sangma.
With an intention of using the Presidential poll to rope in parties like AIADMK and BJD and possibly Trinamool Congress, the main opposition BJP-led alliance decided at a meeting in New Delhi that talks would be held with these parties to have a common candidate against Mukherjee.
At a two-hour meeting of the NDA which was skipped by Shiv Sena, JD-U leader Shivanand Tiwari is believed to have disfavoured a contest against Mukherjee because of his stature, reflecting a divide in the coalition.
BJP leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj were said to be of the opinion that there should be a contest but there was no consensus as to whether to support Sangma, who has been propped up by AIADMK and BJD, or Kalam, who is being pushed into the race by Trinamool Congress.
There was a strong view that supporting Sangma would help NDA win back AIADMK and BJD. However, to finetune this, talks should be held with leaders of these parties before any decision is reached, sources said.
Business will benefit from Scottish independence: Salmond - Reuters
LOS ANGELES |
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. companies looking to move operations to Scotland would see a reduction in taxes if Scots approve a referendum, now scheduled for autumn 2014, to secure independence from Britain, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said on Sunday.
An independent Scotland would reduced the current 23 percent U.K. corporate tax to 20 percent, Salmond, the leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), said in an interview in Los Angeles, where he is set to start a four-day trade mission aimed at luring California companies.
The country, which Salmond said would gain a large share of the rich North Sea oil revenues after a split, already offers tax relief of as much as 100 percent to small businesses to encourage investment.
"We will gain more in investment and employment than we'd lose in tax receipts," said Salmond, a former economist with the Royal Bank of Scotland. "We're much more sympathetic to business than Westminster."
The SNP, the devolved government's ruling party, wants to hold the referendum on ending a 300-year union with England in the autumn of 2014. But Britain's Conservative Party-led coalition government has pushed for an earlier vote, warning that any prolonged uncertainty would deter investors and harm the economy.
CALIFORNIA DREAMING
The Scottish Development International agency, which organized the trip, has targeted more than 70 California companies it will encourage to build or expand operations in their country, including Apple (AAPL.O), Chevron (CVX.N) and Yahoo (CVX.N).
Salmond wrote letters to each company, and while in California will meet with executives of LifeScan Inc, a Milpitas, California-based company with a plant in Scotland that manufactures glucose test strips, according to SDI.
The Scottish leader's plans also call for him to meet with California politicians in the state capital in Sacramento, and to tour Stanford, which is collaborating with Scottish universities on research into photonics.
In the last year, online retailer Amazon (AMZN.O) and energy technology supplier FMC Technologies (FMC.N) have opened operations in the country, according to SDI.
Salmond said Scotland intends to be more helpful to new companies than Britain has been traditionally, and that it helped Amazon build a new plant in six months by streamlining the permitting process.
"They'd give testimonials to what it's like to work with us," he said.
The Scottish leader also said the country would provide other incentives, including research grants for companies involved with generating energy from ocean tides and currents.
On Monday, Salmond is scheduled to appear on CBS'S "The Late Late Show," and to take questions from viewers during the program's "Tweets and Emails" segment.
CBS said guests will also include Irish stars Kelly MacDonald and Kevin McKidd, who provided the voices for "Brave", an animated film set in Scotland that Walt Disney's Pixar unit will release on June 22.
Salmond is scheduled to appear at the film's Hollywood premiere on Monday.
(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
UK to order reactor for nuclear-armed submarine - source - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will order the first reactor for a new generation of nuclear-armed submarines next week as part of a 1 billion pound ($1.6 billion) contract with Rolls-Royce, a defence ministry source said on Sunday, in a move that could strain the coalition government.
The deal will include an 11-year refit of Britain's sole submarine propulsion reactor factory at Derby in central England, said Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, who will formally announce the plans to parliament on Monday.
"This is sustaining a sovereign capability in the UK and some very high end technical skills in the UK for the next 40 or 50 years," he told BBC television, without giving further details of the contract.
The investment will protect 300 jobs at the Rolls-Royce factory and many others at suppliers elsewhere, the source said.
The 1 billion pound value of the deal will be shared between Rolls-Royce and its other industrial partners, a source close to the company said.
The two-party coalition government is split over plans to replace Britain's four Vanguard submarines at an estimated cost of 25 billion pounds when they retire from service in the 2020s.
Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party - to which Hammond belongs - wants a new fleet of submarines that will continue to carry the Vanguard's Trident missiles, maintaining Britain's independent nuclear capability.
Their smaller Liberal Democrat partners are pushing for cheaper and less potent alternatives, arguing that the current capability - the ability to obliterate Moscow - is an outdated hangover from the Cold War.
The two parties have postponed a final decision till 2016, after the next parliamentary election, while agreeing in the meantime to fund the advance work needed to allow the submarines to be built on schedule should they be commissioned.
The Liberal Democrats insist that the advance contracts do not represent a commitment to a like-for-like renewal, but some analysts say it is unlikely that cash-strapped Britain would lay out huge sums on design and equipment that it would later ditch.
Hammond insisted the government had not yet made up its mind about Britain's future nuclear deterrent.
"The government's policy is very clear. We are committed to maintaining a credible nuclear deterrent and we are placing orders now for the long-lead items that will be necessary to deliver a successor to the Vanguard class submarines in the late 2020s," Hammond said.
"But the actual decision to go ahead and build them won't have to be taken until 2016 and what we are doing at the moment is ordering the things that have to be ordered now to give us that option."
The government said last year it expected to spend 3 billion pounds by 2015 on preparatory work for the new submarine fleet.
The Rolls-Royce deal also includes a contract to build the reactor for the last of seven Astute class nuclear-powered attack submarines that Britain already has on order.
The nuclear propulsion plant for the Vanguard's successor will be the more advanced Pressurised Water Reactor 3 (PWR3) system, the government said last year.
Last month Hammond announced 350 million pounds of contracts, mainly with defence contractor BAE Systems, to design the Vanguard's successor submarines.
(Additional reporting by Rhys Jones; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Rodney King, symbol of 1992 L.A. riots, dies - CBC
Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by police led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, has died, California police said Sunday. He was 47.
King's fiancée called 911 at 5:25 a.m. local time to report she found him at the bottom of the swimming pool at their home in Rialto, Calif., said police Lt. Dean Hardin.
Officers arrived to find King unresponsive in the water, Hardin said. He was transported to Arrowhead Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:11 a.m.
There were no signs of foul play, Hardin said. The San Bernardino County coroner will perform an autopsy within 48 hours.
The Los Angeles riots erupted on April 29, 1992 when a mostly white jury acquitted three of the four officers accused of beating and kicking King and failed to convict the fourth.
Rodney King is seen in May 1992 in Beverly Hills at a news conference, where he called for the end of violence in the city. (Robert Sullivan/Getty)A bystander with a video camera recorded the beating after King, a black motorist, was pulled over by the officers on March 3, 1991.
During the riots, there was another shocking scene, this time involving a white motorist. Reginal Denny was dragged from his truck and nearly murdered on live television. He was rescued by strangers and taken to hospital.
Fifty-five people were killed during the riots that followed the verdicts and King became a symbol of police brutality and racial tension in the city. Looting, vandalism and arson left an estimated $1 billion in damage.
Rev. Jesse Jackson called the incident a "wakeup call."
"It illuminated the darkness," said Jackson, speaking to CBC News from Washington D.C. on Sunday. "He showed us how ugly and unfair racial profiling is. We have not yet stopped it ... blacks remain the weak link in the justice chain."
Jackson said King moved on but "the beating lingered and the impact on his emotional and mental health, we'll never know."
At the time of the incident, the 25-year-old King was on parole after a robbery conviction. In a CNN interview in 2011, he recalled he had been drinking and was headed home when he saw a patrol car following him. He thought he would be sent back to prison, so he panicked after stopping the car.
Eventually, four LAPD officers — Theodore Briseno, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Stacey Koon — were indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police officer.
After a three-month trial in 1992, three of the officers were acquitted of all charges. The jury, which had mostly white members, were deadlocked on one charge of excessive force against Powell, and a mistrial was declared on that charge.
'Can we all get along?'
The result triggered rioting in LA that lasted for three days, leaving more than 2,000 injured and swaths of the city on fire. At the height of the violence, King pleaded on television: "Can we all get along?"
A year later, the four officers stood trial in federal court on civil rights charges. Koon and Powell were found guilty and sentenced to 30 months in prison, while Briseno and Wind were acquitted.
King also sued the city for damages and got $3.8 million US.
In 2008, he released a memoir, The Riot Within, chronicling his difficult upbringing and his reflections on the beating. In several interviews, King said he had forgiven the officers.
In an interview with The Associated Press this year, King was in relatively good spirits: "America's been good to me after I paid the price and stayed alive through it all. This part of my life is the easy part now."
With files from The Associated Press
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