IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency,) Tehran, March 7, 2013
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that the enemies are angry at the Iranian nation’s wonderful breakthroughs after lapse of 34 years.
Addressing Experts Assembly members, the Supreme Leader added that belief in Islam, firm resolve and maintaining an spirit of hopefulness are the main factors behind the country moving forward, achieving success and removing obstacles [....]
One million Syrians have fled their homeland, the head of the United Nations refugee agency today said, warning that in the absence of a political solution, humanitarian workers need additional funds to help the refugees and support the countries hosting them.
WASHINGTON — Deciding which drugs will be covered by Medicare can influence huge amounts of spending, but government officials do little to police conflict of interest among doctors and pharmacists who make those decisions, federal investigators said Monday.
By Laura Saunders, Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2013
We're still coming after you. That is the message from the U.S. government to Americans who evaded federal taxes by stashing money in secret offshore accounts, say lawyers who represent some of those people.
After getting a guilty plea from Switzerland's oldest private bank, which was ordered Monday to pay a total of $74 million for violating U.S. tax laws, federal investigators have fresh momentum thanks to leads gathered from interviews with confessed tax cheats.
By Stephanie Condon & John Nolen, CBS News, March 6, 2013
As part of his effort to improve relations between the White House and Capitol Hill, President Obama dined with a small group of Republican senators this evening and, according to the White House, he paid for the dinner out of his own pocket.
[....] my time in the Obama administration turned out to be a deeply disillusioning experience. The truth is that his administration made it extremely difficult for its own foreign-policy experts to be heard. Both Clinton and Holbrooke, two incredibly dedicated and talented people, had to fight to have their voices count on major foreign-policy initiatives.
NEW DELHI — The fading bungalow at 38 Amrita Shergil Marg does not immediately shout real estate bling. There is no tennis court, no infinity pool, no Sub-Zero refrigerator or walk-in closet. The paint is chipped, the bathrooms are musty and the ceilings have water stains. The house may ultimately be torn down.
Doctors in the US have made medical history by effectively curing a child born with HIV, the first time such a case has been documented.
The infant, who is now two and a half, needs no medication for HIV, has a normal life expectancy and is highly unlikely to be infectious to others, doctors believe.
KARACHI: At least 45 people including women and children were killed and over 140 others sustained injuries after a powerful blast ripped through a densely populated area near Abbas Town, Health Department of Sindh said Sunday.
According to sources, the perpetrators used a remote-detonated improvised explosive device (IED) planted at the entrance of Abbas Town to bomb their targets [....] The blast left a four-feet deep and ten-feet wide crater, security officials said later [....]
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman declared his eternal friendship with North Korea's supreme leader Thursday. "You have a friend for life," Rodman told Kim Jong Un after the two men sat next to each other watching an unusual basketball exhibition in Pyongyang, North Korea [.....]
By Charlie Savage, New York Times, Feb. 28/March 1, 2013
FORT MEADE, Md. — Pfc. Bradley Manning on Thursday confessed in open court to providing vast archives of military and diplomatic files to the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks, saying that he wanted the information to become public “to make the world a better place.” [....]
“No one associated with WLO” — an abbreviation he used to refer to the WikiLeaks organization — “pressured me into sending any more information,” Private Manning said. “I take full responsibility.”
By Charles Ornstein, Washington Post Op-Ed, Feb. 28, 2013
[....] You can know somebody’s wishes and still be confused about the appropriate thing to do. The past few weeks have been the most difficult of my life. I hope what I learned will make me a better, more compassionate journalist [....]
[Charles Ornstein is a senior reporter for ProPublica and the board president of the Association of Health Care Journalists.]
By Ezra Klein, Wonkblog @ washingtonpost.com, Feb. 27, 2013
Matt Yglesias notes that there seem to be no serious monetary policy doves in Congress. When Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke heads to the Hill, he gets either softballs from seemingly disinterested Democrats or tough questions from Republicans who favor tighter monetary policy.
By Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, guardian.co.uk, Feb. 27, 2013
[....] The fence-jumpers include Bonnie Klapper, who was feted for taking down the Norte del Valle cartel, Leo Arreguin, who headed the DEA's office in Bogota, and reportedly former members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, Ice. They work in separate legal practices with their own clients, not as a group.
Critics call Marcela Iacub's book on her affair a true objet d'art. France likes to justify moral transgressions in the name of art
By Agnès Poirier, guardian.co.uk, 22 Feb. 2013
By Brandi Grissom, Texas Tribune @ nytimes.com, Feb. 23/24,2013
[.....] Mr. Thomas, who confessed to the murders of his wife, their son and her daughter by another man, was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to death at age 21. While awaiting trial in 2004, he gouged out one of his eyes, and in 2008 on death row, he removed the other and ate it.
By Robert Mackey, The Lede @ nytimes.com, Feb. 21,2013
More than two years after tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Police Day to demand the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and an end to impunity for the security forces, activists report that civilians continue to be raped, tortured and killed in police custody. [.....]
followed by a compilation of links, tweets and videos from Egyptian activists, some, like the following, saying it's worse than before;
