Iran's been reaching out to world powers to settle the impasse over its nuclear programme ahead of the nation's upcoming address to the UN General Assembly. The stand-off has dragged on for years, and now the country's new leader Hassan Rouhani pledged to re-start peace talks in return for an easing of painful sanctions. And as RT's Paula Slier reports, the restrictions are hurting the most vulnerable.
Puppet Masters
© AP Photo/Brendan McDermid, Pool
Hasan Rouhani, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, addresses the 68th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters, Tuesday.
Hasan Rouhani, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, addresses the 68th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters, Tuesday.
"I listened carefully to the statement made by President Obama today at the General Assembly... [I'm] hoping that they will refrain from following the short-sighted interests of warmongering pressure groups and we can arrive at a framework to managing our differences."Then he outlined what has always been the official Iranian position: "Talks can happen; equal footing and mutual respect should govern the talks."
Then he addressed the expectation (actually, the world's): "Of course, we expect to hear a consistent voice from Washington. The dominant voice in recent years has been for a military option."
But now he had another idea. So he sets the stage for the punch line: It's WAVE time. WAVE as in World Against Violence and Extremism. Not in Farsi, lost in translation; in English.
"I propose as a starting step... I invite all states... to undertake a new effort to guide the world in this direction ... we should start thinking about a coalition for peace all across the globe instead of the ineffective coalitions for war."So the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, has just invited the whole planet to join the WAVE. How come no "coalition of the willing" leader ever thought about that?
Kabul - Few companies showed up to Afghanistan's fresh appeal for investment in its vast mineral wealth on Sunday, apparently deterred by trouble plaguing two of its largest projects and allowing small firms to emerge as the main contenders.
The Mines Ministry pleaded to a handful of local and foreign firms to bid on a near billion dollar cement tender, luring interest with attractive terms like free currency conversions and 100 percent capital repatriation.
Hopes are pinned on Afghanistan's trillion dollar wealth in resources weaning the country off international aid, but early attempts to unlock its potential have hit serious setbacks.
These appeared to have deterred major international firms from attending - leaving the path open to small investors with unconventional backgrounds, prepared to take on deteriorating security and uncertainty ahead of next year's election.
Afghanistan has been at war for decades. It is now trying to inject life into attempts to negotiate an end to an Islamist Taliban insurgency as most NATO combat troops prepare to pull out by the end of 2014, leaving the country to handle its own security.
"Too many big international companies are too afraid about what is going to happen after 2014,"said Tom Watts, a director at SJH Group and former British paratrooper who served in Iraq.
The Mines Ministry pleaded to a handful of local and foreign firms to bid on a near billion dollar cement tender, luring interest with attractive terms like free currency conversions and 100 percent capital repatriation.
Hopes are pinned on Afghanistan's trillion dollar wealth in resources weaning the country off international aid, but early attempts to unlock its potential have hit serious setbacks.
These appeared to have deterred major international firms from attending - leaving the path open to small investors with unconventional backgrounds, prepared to take on deteriorating security and uncertainty ahead of next year's election.
Afghanistan has been at war for decades. It is now trying to inject life into attempts to negotiate an end to an Islamist Taliban insurgency as most NATO combat troops prepare to pull out by the end of 2014, leaving the country to handle its own security.
"Too many big international companies are too afraid about what is going to happen after 2014,"said Tom Watts, a director at SJH Group and former British paratrooper who served in Iraq.
© Richard Drew/AP
A television monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shows the decision the Federal Reserve made on Sept. 18, 2013.
A television monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shows the decision the Federal Reserve made on Sept. 18, 2013.
Last Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced it would not be tapering its bond buying program at 2 p.m. ET. The news takes seven milliseconds - about the speed of light - to reach Chicago. But before the seven milliseconds was up, a few huge orders based on the Fed's decision were placed on Chicago exchanges. CNBC broke the story:
How did this happen? Right now, we don't know. But in high-speed trading, where computer algorithms fed by data make trades based on pre-programmed strategies, the difference between trading at seven milliseconds after the news and two milliseconds after the news can be worth millions."According to trading data reviewed by CNBC, they began buying in Chicago-traded assets just before others in that city could possibly have been aware of the Fed's decision. By one estimate, as much as $600 million in assets changed hands in the milliseconds before most other traders in Chicago could learn of the Fed's September surprise - a sharp contrast to the very low volume of trading ahead of the Fed's decision."
© Gianluca Colla/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Robert Benmosche, CEO of AIG.
Robert Benmosche, CEO of AIG.
Now a third AIG executive enters the pantheon of tone-deaf AIG bigwigs: CEO Robert Benmosche, who just told the Wall Street Journal that the post-crash public outcry over the use of bailout money to pay bonuses to executives in Cassano's Financial Products unit was comparable to - get this - lynchings in the deep south. From reporter Leslie Scism's interview:
For sheer "Let them eat cake"-ness, this ranks right up there with Lloyd Blankfein's "I'm doing God's work" riff and Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Charlie Munger's line about how it was proper to bail out Wall Street, but people in foreclosure should "suck it in and cope."The uproar over bonuses "was intended to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitch forks and their hangman nooses, and all that - sort of like what we did in the Deep South [decades ago]. And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong."
© Boniface Muthoni/Corbis
Smoke rises from the Westgate mall on Monday.
Smoke rises from the Westgate mall on Monday.
A British woman who has allegedly taken part in terrorist activity "many times before" was among the attackers who laid siege to a Kenyan shopping mall, the country's foreign minister has said.
Amina Mohamed said the militant acted alongside "two or three" Americans during the atrocity in Nairobi which has killed at least 62 people, including six Britons.
The announcement will fuel speculation that the British terrorism suspect Samantha Lewthwaite, who was married to the 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, was involved.
© The Washington Post
Monday: The Senate will convene briefly, with just a few members on hand. Reid is expected to call up the House bill, known as a continuing resolution, and file a motion that sets up initial votes on the measure. Under Senate rules, there will be two votes just to determine whether the chamber gets to a vote on final passage of the bill. These are the "cloture" votes, which require 60 ayes to choke off a filibuster; Reid will file a motion one day, then there must be an intervening day of debate, then the filibuster-busting vote comes. Reid will file the first of these Monday, setting up a vote Wednesday.
The House is not in session.
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, discuss the US Federal Reserve Bank as 'the greatest hedge fund' in history and ask whether or not their quantitative easing policy is like trying to pass pork off as a prime cut of beef. In the second half, Max interviews precious metals trader, Andrew Maguire, about JPMorgan whistleblowers and the Federal Reserve Bank taper hoax.
© Jonathan Kalan/AP
Civilians who had been hiding in the Westgate mall in Nairobi are led to safety by armed police.
Civilians who had been hiding in the Westgate mall in Nairobi are led to safety by armed police.
By Monday evening, Kenyan security forces said they controlled much of the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall, although several militants from al-Shabab, a group allied with al-Qaeda, appeared dug in, determined to fight to the death.
With the standoff apparently drawing to a close after three days, there was a growing focus on the identity of the militants and how they could pull off a sophisticated assault that killed at least 62 people and kept security forces at bay for three days. Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said Monday that "two or three Americans" and "one Brit" were among the perpetrators of the attack.
© Reuters
Some lawmakers and analysts in the United States are urging President Obama to launch strikes against al-Shabaab with the aim of preventing more terror attacks in Kenya and possibly the United States.
Some lawmakers and analysts in the United States are urging President Obama to launch strikes against al-Shabaab with the aim of preventing more terror attacks in Kenya and possibly the United States.
''We're talking about very significant terrorist groups here which are showing a capacity to attack outside of their borders and actually recruit people from here in the United States," Republican Congressman Peter King, a member of the House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee, said on US television on Sunday.
"They're not on the decline," added Senator Tom Coburn, the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee. ''They're on the rise, as you can see from Nairobi."
US counter-terrorism officials warn that Shabaab's sophistication and reach are increasing due to connections the Somalia group has made with al-Qa'ida forces in Yemen and with Boko Haram militants in Nigeria.
Comment: The way in which economic sanctions target the state is through the people... they purposely target the people who - it is hoped - will blame their government and thus pressure them into submission before the High Court of U.S. Imperialism, or rise up and overthrow their leaders, presenting opportunities for the U.S. to insert its choice of leadership.