IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Kim Kardashian Gives Birth to Baby Girl

    {{Kim Kardashian gave birth to a baby girl on Saturday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.}}

    Kardashian, 32, had West, 36, by her side as they welcomed their daughter into the world.

    “Kim got sick last night and had the baby early,” a hospital source was quoted saying “They’re all doing great and amazing!”

    Despite reports that their baby was due in July, the date was always mid-June.
    “Kim told friends and family in weeks leading up to the birth that the name ‘will start with a K.’”

    West and Kardashian — both first-time parents — have been dating since April 2012. On December 30, 2012, West announced that his girlfriend was pregnant during his Atlantic City concert.

    “Stop the music and make some noise for my baby mama,” West said onstage, pointing to Kim, who was in the audience.

    The high-profile couple kept the gender of their baby quiet until June, when Kardashian revealed she was having a girl on the season 8 premiere of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

    “Who doesn’t want a girl?” Kardashian said, adding that West was hoping for a daughter as well.

    Although their baby’s gender was revealed on national television, Kardashian has vowed that her child will not appear on her hit reality show.

    And who can blame her? It certainly hasn’t been an easy nine months for Kardashian.

    {wirestory}

  • Pope Stimulates Gay Marriage Debate

    {{Pope Francis waded diplomatically into the gay marriage debate Friday, telling the Archbishop of Canterbury he wants to work together to promote family values “based on marriage.”}}

    Francis, who vigorously opposed gay marriage in his native Argentina, and Archbishop Justin Welby chatted, prayed and had lunch together at the Vatican in their first encounter since both were installed in March.

    Welby, the spiritual leader of the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion, has opposed proposed legislation in Britain that would legalize gay marriage, saying it seeks to abolish and redefine the institution and would weaken one of the cornerstones of society.

    He delivered a speech last week before the House of Lords before it moved the gay marriage bill one step closer to becoming law. The legislation would enable gay couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies in England and Wales.

    In his remarks to Welby, Francis said he hoped they could collaborate in promoting the sacredness of life “and the stability of families founded on marriage.” He noted that Welby had recently spoken out on the issue, a reference to his House of Lords speech.

    Significantly, though, Francis didn’t specify that marriage should be based on a union between a man and woman, which is how Benedict XVI and John Paul II routinely defined it in a way that made clear their opposition to same-sex marriage.

    Vatican officials said Francis’ phrasing was a diplomatic attempt to make his point without making a provocative pronouncement, particularly during an inaugural meeting with Welby that was aimed at getting to know one another.

    Francis though has steered clear of the gay marriage debate as it has recently roiled France and Britain, and in general has refrained from making headline-grabbing public comments on hot-button current issues.

    Welby said the pope’s remarks, both in the public speech he delivered and their 30-minute private meeting, showed that “we were absolutely at one on the issues, and equally at one in our condemnation of homophobic behavior and our sense that the essential dignity of the human being is where you start.”

    As archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio didn’t shy away from voicing strong opposition to gay marriage, though he was pragmatic in sensing Argentina was heading in that direction.

    Realizing the church couldn’t win the fight outright, Bergoglio urged his fellow Argentine bishops to lobby for gay civil unions instead, according to the then-cardinal’s authorized biographer.

    The bishops shot down the proposal and the church lost the issue altogether when the South American nation legalized gay marriage in 2010 — the first country in the region to do so.

    Bergoglio once called gay marriage an “anthropological step backward.”
    “If there’s a private union, then third parties and society aren’t affected,” he wrote.

    “But if they’re granted marriage rights and can adopt, there could be children affected. Every person needs a masculine father and a feminine mother to help them settle their identity.”

    Anglicans split from Rome in 1534 when English King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment. For decades, the two churches have held theological discussions on trying to reunite, part of the Vatican’s broader, long-term ecumenical effort to unify all Christians who have separated from Rome over the centuries.

    {agencies}

  • Russia Faces Falling Revenues

    {{In the coming years, the government will get less revenue than was expected before, and the budget policy for 2014-2016 has to be planned accordingly, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday while presenting the budget policy to senior government officials and lawmakers.}}

    Putin also said that while revenues from natural resources are decreasing, financing coming from other industries is so far limited.

    “The share of federal government revenues coming from oil and gas sales rose from 30 percent in 2004 to 46 percent in 2013,” Putin said.

    In 2007, with oil prices at $69 per barrel, the budget was in surplus, while last year, when oil prices were as high as $110 per barrel, it ran into a deficit, the president added.

    “The means to increase state spending have been exhausted, so this implies we must look for reserves, funds should be allocated for priority areas and projects that would create the basis for economic growth and implement the tasks that were spelled out in presidential decrees issued in May 2012,” Putin said.

    Dmitry Kamnev, deputy head of the public finance department at the Higher School of Economics, said that this way, Putin once again gave a reminder that he is closely watching how well his decrees are being enforced.

    “This is an obstacle, without overcoming it Putin cannot go on to new tasks,” Kamnev said. “The decrees cover many social aspects that are crucial for the people, so the President strives to solve both social and economic problems.”

    Putin also asked the Cabinet to work out Russia’s budget strategy up to 2030 within three months and, if necessary, revise the social and economic development outlook.

    {The Moscow Times }

  • First flight of Airbus A350 Reopens Competition with Boeing

    {{Airbus sent a new wide-body plane into the skies Friday that sets the stage for intensifying competition with U.S. rival Boeing – with consequences for jobs, airlines’ investments and the reputations of the powerful plane makers.}}

    After years of delays and a revamp that cost billions, the A350 cruised for four hours in partly cloudy skies above Toulouse in southern France.
    Most importantly, it then landed safely.

    It met ear-to-ear smiles – and some sighs of relief – among the Airbus engineers and executives who helped the plane reach its maiden journey.

    The flight marks a key step on the path to full certification for the jet, which can carry between 250 and 400 passengers and is the European aircraft-maker’s best hope for catching up in a long-haul market dominated by Boeing’s 777 and the 787, known as the Dreamliner.

    “At the end of the day you need to make it real, and this is the time for making it real. So I am very proud already,” Didier Evrard, head of the A350 program, said while watching the flight.

    “But I will be still nervous until it comes back.”

    Airspace over Toulouse, where Airbus has its headquarters, closed for both take-off and landing. With distinctive, upturned wing tips, the plane had a great big “A350” painted across its belly, heightening anticipation that it will fly at the Paris Air Show next week.

    The plane’s undercarriage remained down for the first part of the flight, so that they could run through a series of checks and ensure it was ready for the full flight.

    Airbus has 613 orders for the A350, and hopes Friday’s flight will bring it momentum heading into next week’s Paris Air Show, which is already shaping up as a battle of the wide-body planes.

    “There is a lot of money at stake, a lot of employment at stake. This is an extremely important political, social and economic issue,” said Gerald Feldzer, a French aviation expert and former airline pilot.

    Airbus’ potential customers, the world’s airlines, have all been squeezed by high aviation fuel costs and a fall in passengers because of the struggling world economy. Carriers are therefore looking for ways to run their fleets more cost-effectively.

    More than half of the twin-engine A350 consists of lightweight carbon-fiber designed to save on jet fuel, which makes up half the cost of long-haul flights.
    Airbus claims the A350 is 25 percent more fuel-efficient than comparable planes.

    The A350, which was delayed for two years as Airbus hashed out a new design, is a competitor to the 787 – minus the lithium ion batteries now under investigation for unexplained smoldering. Airbus abandoned its plans to use the lithium ion batteries despite their advantages in weight, power and re-charging speed.

    {The Airbus A350 takes off successfully on its maiden flight at Blagnac airport near Toulouse, southwestern France, Friday, June 14, 2013.}

    wirestory

  • France backs EU-U.S. trade talks

    {{France cleared the European Union to launch free-trade talks with the United States on Friday after fellow EU members accepted its demand to shield movies and online entertainment from the might of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.}}

    After 12 hours of talks, EU officials announced that the 27 EU trade ministers had finally agreed a negotiating mandate towards what could be the world’s most ambitious trade agreement.

    The breakthrough came only after the ministers telephoned their leaders, including French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, diplomats said.

    Paris had refused to join the 26 other EU governments unless television, movies and developing online media were left out.

    The final mandate given to EU trade chief Karel De Gucht, who will lead negotiations, does not include the audiovisual sector. However, it does give the Commission the right to ask member states for a broader mandate at a later stage.

    “I can live with this,” De Gucht told a news conference.

    French Trade Minister Nicole Bricq said it was “written clearly in black and white” that culture was excluded.

    “We are satisfied, but I don’t want to call it a victory,” she told reporters after the deal was struck late on Friday.

    Trade between Europe and the United States is worth almost $3 billion a day and an accord could boost both the EU and U.S. economies by more than $100 billion a year each – an attractive prospect when both are emerging from low or no growth and are keen to create jobs.

    Together the United States and European Union account for half of global economic output and a third of all trade.

    {{G8 LAUNCH}}

    With a mandate agreed, European leaders and U.S. President Barack Obama plan to use a summit of the Group of Eight countries next week to launch talks. EU and U.S. negotiators aim to finish their work by the end of next year.

    Free-trade advocates Germany and Britain had argued that excluding an industry from the talks would prompt a similar U.S. opt-out, such as to protect its closed shipping sector.

    Nevertheless, they said it was vital to push ahead with what would be the world’s biggest trade agreement, because of the economic benefits it would bring, especially when much of western Europe is in recession.

    “This is historic,” said a contented Swedish Trade Minister Ewa Bjorling. “The Commission now has a broad mandate.”

    The United States has said it also wants to go into the talks with as broad a mandate as possible.

    “We do not think carve-outs for new audiovisual quotas before we even begin negotiations are helpful,” said a spokesman for the U.S. trade representative’s office in Washington.

    The European Union needed French agreement not just because it is Europe’s second largest economy but because under EU rules, trade deals touching on cultural issues need unanimous support.

    France, widely considered the birthplace of cinema, has a proud tradition of more than a century of publicly and critically acclaimed movies and pumps in more public funds to its film industry than any other EU member.

    The EU audiovisual sector is worth 17 billion euros ($22.68 billion) and provides jobs for a million people.

    The United States already sells the European Union far more music, movies, radio and television programs than it buys from Europe. Its net surplus for the sector averaged 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) a year from 2004 to 2011.

    France fears this imbalance will only increase under a trade deal as digital and Internet services – already dominated by U.S. technology companies – become ever more popular. ($1 = 0.7496 euros)

    {reuters}

  • Moderate Cleric Rouhani ahead in Iran poll

    {{Moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani has taken a commanding lead in Iran’s presidential election based on the latest results, with about 25% of the total votes counted, according to the interior ministry .}}

    Rouhani, a former nuclear negotiator, leads with 5,003,633 votes, 50.8 percent of counted votes.

    He is followed by Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf with 1,582,724, 16.1 percent of the votes.

    Mohsen Rezaei, a former head of the elite Revolutionary Guard, is now in third place with 1,298,597 votes racing past Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, who has 1,229,151 votes.

    Trailing the field were former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati with 620,908 votes, and little-known former minister Mohammad Gharazi with 124,129 votes.

    Earlier, Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar told state television on Saturday that his electoral staff would not “compromise accuracy for speed”.

    Iran’s state-owned news network Press TV said that voter turnout in the presidential election has been around 80%. That is about 40 million votes out of a possible maximum of 50 million.

    Polling stations stayed open for up to five hours later than planned as millions of Iranians turned out to cast their votes.

    An announcement of initial results by the Interior Ministry, scheduled for around 1:30am local time, was then postponed by several hours.

    {Aljazeera}

  • U.S. to Increase Military Support to Syria Rebels

    {{President Barack Obama has authorized sending U.S. weapons to Syrian rebels for the first time, a U.S. official said on Thursday after the White House said it has proof the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against opposition forces fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.}}

    The U.S. decision came as Assad’s surging forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies turned their guns on the north, fighting near the northern city of Aleppo and bombarding the central city of Homs after having seized the initiative by winning the open backing of Hezbollah last month and capturing the strategic town of Qusair last week.

    The White House said Washington would provide “direct military support” to the opposition but did not specify whether it would include lethal aid, which would mark a reversal of Obama’s resistance to arming the rebels.

    But the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the package would include weapons.
    Syrian rebel and political opposition leaders immediately called for anti-aircraft and other sophisticated weaponry.

    The arrival of thousands of seasoned, Iran-backed Hezbollah Shi’ite fighters to help Assad combat the mainly Sunni rebellion has shifted momentum in the two-year-old war, which the United Nations said on Thursday had killed at least 93,000 people.

    U.S. and European officials anxious about the rapid change are meeting the commander of the main rebel fighting force, the Free Syrian Army, on Friday in Turkey. FSA chief Salim Idriss is expected to plead urgently for more help.

    Obama has been more cautious than Britain and France, which forced the European Union this month to lift an embargo that had blocked weapons for the rebels.

    After months of investigation, the White House on Thursday laid out its conclusions that chemical weapons were used by Assad’s forces, but it stopped short of threatening specific actions in response to what Obama said would be a “game changer” for Washington’s handling of the conflict.

    “The president … has made it clear that the use of chemical weapons or transfer of chemical weapons to terrorist groups is a red line,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser.

    “He has said that the use of chemical weapons would change his calculus, and it has.”

    AP

  • Toyota Industries to Inject $3Billion over three years

    {{Japanese machinery maker Toyota Industries Corp (6201.T) plans to invest about 300 billion yen ($3.18 billion) over the next three years as it looks to make itself more competitive, the Nikkei said.}}

    The company will make the investments through fiscal 2015, its new President Akira Onishi told the Japanese daily.

    Toyota Industries will expand its overseas output of car air-conditioner parts and other products, as well acquire businesses, the Nikkei reported.

    The company acquired the U.S.-based lift truck parts maker Cascade Corp in October 2012 to boost its global customer base.

    Toyota Industries’ automobile division was spun off in 1937 to form Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T). ($1 = 94.2250 Japanese yen).

    {reuters}

  • EU Persuades France to Back Free-Trade Talks with US

    {{The European Union will try to overcome French resistance to free-trade talks with the United States on Friday and keep alive plans for a deal that could boost their struggling economies by dramatically increasing transatlantic business.}}

    Paris, which is trying to shield French-language culture from the global might of Hollywood, has refused to join the 26 other EU governments that want talks to start in July, unless movies and digital media are left out of any deal.

    EU trade ministers must resolve the issue when they meet in Luxembourg. They need French agreement not just because it is Europe’s second largest economy, but because under EU rules, trade deals touching on cultural issues need unanimous support.

    “We need to work this out. It’s about finding language that people would be satisfied with,” said Richard Bruton, Ireland’s minister responsible for trade, who will chair Friday’s talks.

    Free-trade advocates Germany and Britain say it is vital that Europe push ahead with what would be the world’s biggest trade agreement, because of the economic benefits it could bring, especially when much of western Europe is in recession.

    Together the United States and EU account for half of global economic output and a third of all trade.

    The European Commission, which normally negotiates the bloc’s trade deals, is ready to give member states a much greater say on cultural issues in the talks with Washington, an EU source said on Thursday.

    EU trade chief Karel De Gucht will propose at Friday’s meeting that the trade ministers be consulted before the Commission negotiates on audio-visual services, said the source.

    First considered three decades ago but knocked down by France in the 1990s, the idea of an EU-U.S. free-trade deal has gathered momentum since last year because the United States is also achieving only modest economic growth, while China’s rise is another incentive to deepen Western integration.

    A deal would essentially shape the future global trading system, something that raises concern in Beijing.

    Following mutual gestures of goodwill, such as lifting bans on some of each other’s meat imports, European leaders and U.S. President Barack Obama will use a summit of the Group of Eight countries next week to mark the opening of negotiations – provided the ministers reach agreement in Luxembourg.

    A trade deal, called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), could boost the EU economy by 119 billion euros ($159 billion) per year, and the U.S. economy by 95 billion euros, according to an EU-commissioned study.

    An agreement would go much further than bringing down already low tariffs. It would also aim to synchronies U.S. and European regulations in areas ranging from car seatbelts to pharmaceutical packaging, lowering the cost of doing transatlantic business, particularly for smaller companies.

    {Agencies}

  • Iran Votes for New President, Khamenei Slams U.S. Doubts

    {{Iranians voted for a new president on Friday urged by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to turn out in force to discredit suggestions by arch foe the United States that the election would be unfair.}}

    The ballot, the first presidential poll since a disputed 2009 contest led to months of unrest, is unlikely to bring profound change in Iran’s rocky ties with the West, but it might bring a softening of the antagonistic style adopted by outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    World powers in talks with Iran over its nuclear program are looking for signs of a recalibration of its negotiating stance after eight years of intransigence under Ahmadinejad.

    Iran’s Gulf Arab neighbors are also wary of Iran’s influence in Iraq next door and its backing for President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese allies Hezbollah in the Syrian civil war. The Sunni Arab kingdoms are backing the rebels in Syria.

    Voting in the capital Tehran, Khamenei called on Iranians to vote in large numbers and derided Western misgivings about the credibility of the vote.

    “I recently heard that someone at the U.S. National Security Council said ‘we do not accept this election in Iran’,” he said.

    “We don’t give a damn,” he added.

    On May 24 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called into question the credibility of the election, criticizing the disqualification of candidates and accusing Tehran of disrupting Internet access.

    Iran’s Guardian Council, the state body that vets all candidates, has barred a number of hopefuls from the roster in the ballot, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is seen as sympathetic to reform.

    Iranians can choose from a slate of six candidates, all of whom were approved to run by the Guardian Council.

    “What is important is that everyone takes part,” Khamenei said. “Our dear nation should come (to vote) with excitement and liveliness, and know that the destiny of the country is in their hands and the happiness of the country depends on them.”

    {agencies}