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Cops: Teens planned to bomb school, steal plane
ROY, Utah?? A Utah high school student bragged to police that he was smarter than the Columbine killers and was plotting with an older student to set off a bomb during a school assembly, then escape in a stolen plane, court documents say.
Dallin Morgan, 18, and the 16-year-old boy were pulled out of school Wednesday and arrested after authorities learned of the plot, Roy police spokeswoman Anna Bond said Thursday.
The students prepared by logging hundreds of hours on flight simulator software on their home computers, and they planned to take a plane at Ogden Hinckley Airport after the bombing, Bond said.
The juvenile hinted at the plan in text messages to a friend, writing that both suspects wanted “revenge on the world” and “we have a plan to get away with it too.”
He hinted at the plan by writing “explosives, airport, airplane” and added, “We’re just gonna kill and fly our way to a country that won’t send us back to the US,” according to a probable cause statement police filed to make the arrests late Wednesday.
The Associated Press isn’t naming the 16-year-old because he is a minor.
The juvenile told investigators he was so “fascinated” by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that he visited the Littleton, Colo., school and interviewed the principal about the shootings that killed 13 people. Roy police said the principal, Frank DeAngelis, confirmed that the boy made his visit Dec. 12.
‘Absolute knowledge’ of school security
Morgan was being held on $10,000 bail at Weber County jail on suspicion of conspiracy to commit mass destruction. The juvenile was in custody at Weber Valley Detention Center on the same charge. Prosecutors were weighing possible additional charges.
Both students had “absolute knowledge of the security systems and the layout of the school,” Bond said. “They knew where the security cameras were. Their original plan was to set off explosives during an assembly. We don’t know what date they were planning to do this, but they had been planning it for months.”
School officials said there were no imminent plans to hold a school assembly.
Local and federal agents searched the school, two vehicles belonging to the suspects and their homes but found no explosives. The FBI is examining the suspects’ computers, police said.
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The parents of both students “woke up in the middle of a nightmare,” Bond said. “They’ve been very cooperative.”
The other Roy High School student who received text messages tipped authorities to the plot Wednesday, said the school’s safety specialist, Nate Taggart.
The student “came forward and had some suspicions but not a lot of information ? enough that it gave administration the ability to make some connections and identify the students involved,” Taggart said.
The school has about 1,500 students.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46161271/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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Amazon offering the Galaxy Nexus for a deeply-discounted $100
We here at Android Central refuse to ignore a bargain, espcially one as great as this: Amazon is currently selling the Galaxy Nexus for a mere $99.99, a full $200 less than what you'll pay Verizon. The sale price is for new customers only, and you'll need to sign a two-year contract, of course. If you've held out for the current Android king, this is likely the best price you've seen to date, though the device is finally starting to see some respectable discounts (newegg.com, for example, is currently offering the Nexus for $200).
Given Amazon's name-brand and solid reliability, this deal is just too good to ignore for those who have been waiting patiently to take a bite out of Ice Cream Sandwich. Hit the source link for Amazon's product page.
Source: Amazon
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Greek unions, employers discuss wage cuts (AP)
ATHENS, Greece ? Greek workers and employers launched talks on private-sector wage cuts Wednesday with both sides trying to avoid any reductions in the minimum wage.
The negotiations, which were blocked last week by Communist protesters, follow intense pressure from debt-crippled Greece’s international bailout creditors for new labor reforms to boost the country’s lagging competitiveness.
Senior debt inspectors from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund ? known as the troika ? are in Athens to discuss reforms and cutbacks. Late Tuesday, the Greek Parliament approved a series of new measures demanded by the troika, including provisions to open up closed professions and easier payment schemes to help businesses settle mounting tax debts.
But even though the new government is a coalition made up of three parties and holds an overwhelming majority in Parliament it failed to push through one clause of the bill. Lawmakers rejected a proposal to deregulate pharmacy opening hours, with 101 voting in favor, 65 against and 87 abstentions.
The government has warned that if the talks on labor reform prove fruitless it could impose wage cuts by law. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said failure to address the issue could disrupt Greece’s international cash lifeline, precipitating a bankruptcy in March and Greece’s exit from the 17-nation eurozone.
Greece is in a fourth year of deep recession, with near-record unemployment.
The country’s main GSEE labor union has ruled out any cut in the euro751 ($977) minimum monthly salary, which the SEV employers’ federation has also said it wants to avoid. Other potential reforms include suspending automatic salary increases, reducing social security contributions and abolishing or trimming holiday pay known as the 13th and 14th salaries.
Many companies have already forced employees to accept salary cuts to avoid broad-scale layoffs, while workers’ income has been sapped by a spate of tax hikes since the European debt crisis began in 2009.
The extra two salaries per year have been slashed in the public sector as part of austerity measures imposed in return for Greece’s first, euro110 billion ($143 billion) bailout it started receiving from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund in May 2010.
A second bailout, worth another euro130 billion ($169 billion), was agreed upon in October but has not yet been finalized when it was clear the first bailout was not enough. A key part of that deal is a bond swap involving an estimated euro100 billion ($130 billion) writedown in Greece’s privately held debt.
But crucial talks with the country’s private creditors have faltered over the past few days, and on Tuesday finance ministers of the 17 countries that use the euro adopted a tough stance on the interest rate the new bonds will carry.
The ministers called for an average rate of less than 3.5 percent for the period until 2020. That is below the more than 4 percent average demanded by the Institute of International Finance, which is leading negotiations for the private bondholders.
A person close to the key bondholders said they were meeting in Paris on Wednesday to discuss how and whether to continue the talks. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the steering committee of the IIF is meeting “to really take stock” of the situation.
If the investors decide against moving ahead with talks for a voluntary deal, the eurozone would face a stark choice between a forced default for Greece or new aid payments to the country.
On Wednesday, about 100 members of a Communist-backed labor union protested peacefully outside the Athens hotel where the troika officials are staying, holding a banner that read: “Troika get out of Greece.” The same union had blocked the labor reform talks last week.
___
Gabriele Steinhauser contributed from Brussels.
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Video: Calculating Cost of High School Dropouts
A look at the average lifetime social burden cost of a 16-year-old school dropout, with Henry Levin, Teachers College economics & education professor.
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[OOC] Star Wars: A lost Episode: Abandoned Facility
Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
Please post all “Players Wanted” threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!
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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.
Okay so questions…
1. Can other be people be sith? Or is it only you.?
2. By the zombie tag don’t you mean Rhakghouls?
3. I’m running out of question…. ummm could you put a list of people available in that team? Your new right?
Duranin battle poem from Tales of the past 3:
When shadow comes to claim our souls,
Some must rise – the light of old.
Names in stone, spirits of legend.
Deeds unknown, yet never forgotten.
These are the Duranin!
Of honor within and of fear without.
Remember them, when in hope you doubt.
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Cheeseymonkey - Member for 2 years
Oh and another thing. You should get a pic for the roleplay ‘else nobody will see it.
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Cheeseymonkey - Member for 2 years
1: This is pretty unoriginal…
2: You should look over you RP page for some spelling/grammar mistakes. Maybe you should use Spell Czech
3: This does, however, sound like it might be fun… Although I’m not sure exactly what you want of your players. I’m not asking to be a Jedi or anything, but I’d certainly like to play something unorthodox and thus I’d need some back-and-forth discussion to get a good character up. You could always use an extra Ewok
4: Will there be any sort of posting order?
5: Bounty hunter definitely sounds interesting.
5:
Anzati are similar to humans, the only differences being two prehensile probosci and a somewhat enlarged nose. People of their species are rare, but they have an impressive lifespan that can last for over a millennium. The proboscises lie coiled and hidden in pockets within the cheeks and can be extended to drain a victim’s ‘luck’ or ‘soup’ by piercing the brain through the nose. The Anzati are capable of mild telepathic control to render their victims paralyzed, and are assassins of legendary skill. The Jedi hunting mercenary Aurra Sing was trained by these assassins, as was the Jedi Master Tholme. Their planet of origin has never been verified, as all sent to investigate the planet suspected to be Anzat are never seen again. Two more famous Anzati were Dannik Jerriko, an assassin of great renown who hunted Han Solo, as written in “Tales From Mos Eisley Cantina.”[3] and the dark Jedi Nikkos Tyris.I want to be a an Anzati assassin/bounty hunter
Do Robots Dream of Electronic Sheep?“Ego sum Alpha quod Omega, exordium quod End.” 3:6
Man, given the average Int of an Otyugh, I can just see the boss monologue now:
PC:”Before we fight, why don’t you tell us your master plan?”
Otyugh:”I like poop.”
PC:”Umm, what?”
Otyugh:”Do you have poop?”
That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.
Life is a gamble, roll the dice. If your life is like cards, rig the deck.
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Nevermore90 - Member for 1 years
Post a reply
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Keli Goff: Are You Smart Enough to Be a Religious Bigot in the Voting Booth?
Whenever he was asked about the impact of his race on the 2008 election, President Obama would predict that while his race may cost him some votes, it might gain him some votes, just like a lot of other characteristics over which he has little to no control. Of course, as we later learned, there was another trait President Obama has little control over that had, and continues to have, the potential to cost him and other candidates even more votes than race: perceived religious beliefs. The fact that one in five Americans believe President Obama is not a Christian and view that as a justification for questioning his leadership and patriotism represents a political landmine for the president, one that increasingly his 2012 GOP opponents are in danger of stepping on as well.
Newt Gingrich’s win in South Carolina has now made the unthinkable not just possible but virtually certain: a non-evangelical Christian is poised to become the Republican nominee for president. Of the four remaining candidates, just one Dr. Ron Paul, is a protestant. Two, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, are practicing Catholics, while former frontrunner Mitt Romney is Mormon. Though I know this will elicit a lot of angry comments from Paul supporters, by now everyone besides them seems to know that he has as much chance of becoming the GOP nominee as I do. This means that the party for which faith has been as fundamental as family values (in messaging at least) will soon join the thousands of Americans each year who embrace another religion for love, or more specifically for marriage; in this case, a political marriage of convenience. (It’s worth noting that Gingrich did this, quite literally, converting to Catholicism at the behest of his third wife.)
But here’s a question. As we have evolved into a country in which divorce, out-of-wedlock births, premarital sex and other religion-inspired one-time taboos have lost most, if not all, of their stigma, why do we continue to be a country in which our religious beliefs significantly affect how we vote? A Gallup poll taken just months ago found that 22% of Americans — across party lines — will not vote for a Mormon candidate. Keep in mind that like discussions of race and sex, religion is a topic about which some people lie out of embarrassment, which means the number of Americans possessing some religious bias about Mormons, or any other group, is likely even higher than the numbers contend.
A 2007 survey found that 46% of Americans said they would be less likely to vote for someone who is Muslim but that pales in comparison to the number who said they were less likely to vote for an atheist: 63%. As of 2011 that number is still holding pretty steady at 61%. In fact a separate study released just last month found that atheists are as distrusted by Americans and Canadians as rapists. Yes, rapists. (Click here to see a list of atheists who have been elected to office along with other religious trailblazers in American politics.)
Religious prejudice has officially become one of the last remaining bastions of surface-based voter bias, with the number of Americans saying they would not vote for a racial minority, a woman, or a gay American decreasing significantly in recent decades. This is somewhat surprising for a number of reasons. For one, it is arguable that religious labels alone mean very much. For instance, Sen. Ted Kennedy and his brothers were devout Catholics, yet their interpretation of their faith and its role in their politics is miles apart from the interpretation of Sen. Santorum.
But perhaps the most ironic thing about all of this is that according to yet another study, an overwhelming majority of those who believe in God are ignorant of basic Biblical facts, and facts about other religions. A 2010 Pew study found only 2% of those surveyed could answer 29 of the 32 questions asked correctly. Most could answer about half. This means that people who aren’t well-versed in their own religious beliefs, or anyone else’s, are making decisions in the voting booth fueled by prejudice that isn’t even well-informed prejudice.
You know who is well versed in religion, and well-informed too? Atheists, that’s who. They were among the top scoring groups on Pew’s religion pop quiz. Mormons also scored well. (You can test your own knowledge with questions from the quiz here.)
So this begs the question. If most of us are not knowledgeable enough of our own faiths to truly know if another faith is at odds with our own, then how can a vote based in part on someone else’s designated religion be rooted in anything other than prejudice?
Though the Romney campaign has certainly been plagued by its own share of candidate-made missteps, it is hard to believe that were he a Methodist, instead of a Mormon, that Mitt Romney would be struggling the way that he is. As far as candidates go, he is practically perfect on paper, checking every box a political consultant could dream of for a “Franken candidate” resume, except of course one. (Some political analysts have even speculated that his tax release debacle was bungled in part out of fear of allowing already jittery evangelical voters to see just how much of his fortune the governor has donated to the Mormon Church over the years.)
When family values obsessed, evangelical die-hards who normally consider one divorce grounds for suspicion, two divorces grounds for derision, and proven adultery grounds for candidate ineligibility, choose Newt Gingrich over the guy who’s been with his wife for life but just so happens to be Mormon, that tells you something about the role religious prejudice continues to play in American politics. The bigger question of course becomes whether or not Mitt Romney will ever have the temerity to say so out loud, or if it will take losing the nomination for him to finally understand and acknowledge that forms of bigotry still exist in America, and still hold people back.
For some people it may be their skin color keeping them from a job that they need. For others it may be their religion keeping them from the presidency they so desperately want.
Question: Would you be willing to vote for a candidate who practices a different religion than your own or doesn’t practice one at all? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Keli Goff is the author of The GQ Candidate, a novel about a black, Jewish candidate for president. She is a contributing editor for Loop21.com where a version of this post originally appeared.
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Follow Keli Goff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/keligoff
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keli-goff/religion-voters_b_1225293.html
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Drug May Slow Early Prostate Cancer: Study (HealthDay)
TUESDAY, Jan. 24 (HealthDay News) — New research suggests that Avodart, a drug used to treat an enlarged prostate gland, may help slow the progression of early stage prostate cancer, reducing the need for aggressive treatment in some men.
Prostate cancer can grow and spread slowly, which is why some men are urged to engage in so-called watchful waiting when the cancer is first diagnosed. Avodart (dutasteride) may help such men feel comfortable with surveillance as opposed to radical treatment, the researchers noted.
“The concept of active surveillance is gaining traction in most parts of the world,” said study author Dr. Neil E. Fleshner, head of the division of urology at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. Still, some men are uncomfortable with doing nothing in the face of a cancer diagnosis, he said. “By using this drug, we can improve the proportion of men who remain committed to the surveillance.”
The findings are published online Jan. 25 in The Lancet.
According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, one out of every six men in the United States will develop prostate cancer in his lifetime. But because many of those cancers are low-grade, most will die of something else.
Avodart belongs to a class of drugs called 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. These drugs work by interfering with the effects of certain male hormones on the prostate. In the three-year study, prostate cancer progressed in 38 percent of 144 men with early prostate cancer who were treated with Avodart and 48 percent of the 145 men who received a placebo.
Men seem less anxious about the cancer diagnosis when they are doing something more proactive, Fleshner said. “The drug augments active surveillance and avoids most of the side effects associated with surgery and radiation,” he said. Prostate removal surgery and/or radiation can lead to impotence and incontinence, he said.
The medication does have side effects, however, including reversible breast enlargement and tenderness and some sexual dysfunction.
“We know that we are over-treating prostate cancer,” said Dr. Louis Potters, chairman of radiation medicine at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Manhasset, N.Y.
“In the U.S., patients have a tendency to hear the word ‘cancer,’ and want to treat it right away,” he said. “In these men with early prostate cancer, we can now say, ‘Let’s put you on this medication, and see what happens over the next couple of months.’”
However, some experts have concerns about 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently issued a warning that men who take these drugs to treat enlarged prostate glands may be at increased risk for high-grade prostate cancer.
Dr. Ryan Terlecki, an assistant professor of urology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., said this may dampen enthusiasm for use of the drug to treat cancer.
“The overall role that these medications will play for urologists will decrease,” Terlecki said. Doctors will likely begin looking toward noninvasive and/or non-medical treatments such as the use of thermal heat to cope with some of the symptoms of prostate conditions, he added.
More information
Learn more about prostate cancer at the American Cancer Society.
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Sumatran elephants driven closer to extinction: WWF (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? The Sumatran elephant could be extinct in the wild in under 30 years unless immediate steps are taken to protect its rapidly diminishing habitat, environmental group WWF said on Tuesday.
IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, raised its listing of the Sumatran elephant subspecies from “endangered” to “critically endangered” after nearly 70 percent of its habitat and halve its population has been lost in one generation.
The main culprit is deforestation of habitat or its conversion to use for agriculture, a practice that has also raised the specter of extinction for the Sumatran tiger and the Javan rhino.
“The Sumatran elephant joins a growing list of Indonesian species that are critically endangered, including the Sumatran orangutan, the Javan and Sumatran rhinos and the Sumatran tiger,” said Carlos Drews, Director of WWF’s Global Species Programme, in a statement.
“Unless urgent and effecting conservation action is taken these magnificent animals are likely to go extinct within our lifetime.”
There are only an estimated 2,400 to 2,800 elephants of the Sumatran subspecies alive in the wild, down about 50 percent from a 1985 estimate. Scientists say that if current trends continue, the animals could be extinct in the wild in less than 30 years, WWF said.
The organization called on the Indonesian government to prohibit all forest conversion in elephant habitats until a conservation strategy is devised.
Although Sumatran elephants are protected under Indonesian law, a vast majority of their habitats are outside protected areas and could be converted to agricultural use, IUCN was quoted as saying.
The situation is particularly critical in central Sumatra’s Riau Province, where rapid deforestation has cut elephant numbers by 80 percent in less than 25 years, WWF added.
“Riau Province has already lost six of its nine herds to extinction,” said Anwar Puroto of WWF-Indonesia.
“Forest concession holders such as pulp and paper companies and the palm oil industry have a legal and ethical obligation to protect endangered species within their concessions.”
Last May, a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear primary forests came into effect in Indonesia, part of a $1 billion deal with Norway that could spur projects to cut emissions and slow expansion of plantations. But the long-delayed moratorium was breached on its first day, an environmental group said.
In the last 70 years, Indonesia has lost both the Bali tiger and the Java tiger.
(Reporting by Elaine Lies; editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
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Iran slams EU oil embargo and warns could hit U.S. (Reuters)
TEHRAN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Iran accused Europeans on Monday of waging “psychological warfare” after the EU banned imports of Iranian oil, joining the United States in new sanctions aimed at preventing Tehran from getting nuclear weapons.
The Islamic Republic, which denies trying to build an atom bomb, scoffed at efforts to choke its oil exports, as Asia lines up to buy what Europe scorns. Some Iranians also renewed threats to stop Arab oil from leaving the Gulf and warned they might strike U.S. targets worldwide if Washington used force to break any Iranian blockade of a strategically vital shipping route.
Yet in three decades of confrontation between Tehran and the West, bellicose rhetoric and the undependable armory of sanctions have become so familiar that the benchmark Brent crude oil price edged less than 0.5 percent higher, and some of that was due to unrelated currency factors.
“If any disruption happens regarding the sale of Iranian oil, the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be closed,” Mohammad Kossari, deputy head of parliament’s foreign affairs and national security committee, told Fars news agency a day after U.S., French and British warships sailed back into the Gulf.
“If America seeks adventures after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran will make the world unsafe for Americans in the shortest possible time,” Kossari added, referring to an earlier U.S. pledge to use its fleet to keep the passage open.
The United States, which imposed its own sanctions against Iran’s oil trade and central bank on December 31, welcomed the EU move, as did Israel. It has warned it might attack Iran if sanctions do not deflect Tehran from a course that some analysts argue could potentially give Iran a nuclear bomb next year.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: “This new, concerted pressure will sharpen the choice for Iran’s leaders and increase their cost of defiance of basic international obligations.”
CALLS FOR TALKS
Germany, France and Britain used the EU sanctions as a cue for a joint call to Tehran to renew long-suspended negotiations on its nuclear program. Russia, like China a powerful critic of the Western approach, said talks might soon be on the cards.
Iran, however, said new sanctions made that less likely. It is a view shared by some in the West who caution that such tactics risk hardening Iranian support for a nuclear program that also seems to be subject to a covert “war” of sabotage and assassinations widely blamed on Israeli and Western agents.
European Union foreign ministers who agreed an anticipated ban on imports of Iranian crude at a meeting in Brussels were so anxious not to penalize the ailing economies of Greece, Italy and others to whom Iran is a major oil supplier that the EU embargo will not take full effect until July 1. And the strategy will be reviewed in May to see if it should go ahead.
Curbing Iran’s oil exports is a double-edged sword, as Tehran’s own response to the embargo clearly showed.
Loss of revenue is painful for a clerical establishment that faces an awkward electoral test at a time of galloping inflation which is hurting ordinary people. But since Iran’s Western-allied Arab neighbors are struggling to raise their own output to compensate, the curbs on Tehran’s exports have driven up oil prices and raised costs for recession-hit Western industries.
A member of Iran’s influential Assembly of Experts, former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian, said Tehran should respond to the delayed-action EU sanctions by stopping sales to the bloc immediately, denying the Europeans time to arrange alternative supplies and damaging their economies with higher oil prices.
“The best way is to stop exporting oil ourselves before the end of this six months and before the implementation of the plan,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
“PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE”
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast, quoted by state television, said: “European Union sanctions on Iranian oil is psychological warfare … Imposing economic sanctions is illogical and unfair but will not stop our nation from obtaining its rights.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told the official IRNA news agency that the more sanctions were imposed on Tehran “the more obstacles there will be to solve the issue.”
“The European countries and those who are under American pressure, should think about their own interests. Any country that deprives itself from Iran’s energy market, will soon see that it has been replaced by others,” Mehmanparast added.
China, Iran’s biggest customer, has resisted U.S. pressure to cut back its oil imports, as have other Asian economies to varying degrees. India’s oil minister said on Monday sanctions were forcing Iran to sell more cheaply and that India planned to take full advantage of that to buy as much as it could.
The EU measures included an immediate ban on all new contracts to import, purchase or transport Iranian crude and petroleum products. However, EU countries with existing contracts to buy oil and petroleum products can honor them up to July 1, and there would be a review of the plans before then.
EU officials said they also agreed to freeze the assets of Iran’s central bank and ban trade in gold and other precious metals with the bank and state bodies.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said of the new sanctions: “I want the pressure of these sanctions to result in negotiations … I want to see Iran come back to the table and either pick up all the ideas that we left on the table … last year … or to come forward with its own ideas.”
Iran has said lately that it is willing to hold talks with Western powers, though there have been mixed signals on whether conditions imposed by either side make new negotiations likely.
IAEA INSPECTORS VISIT
The Islamic Republic insists it is enriching uranium only to produce electricity and for other civilian uses. The start this month of a potentially bomb-proof – and once secret – enrichment plant has deepened skepticism abroad, however.
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed plans for a visit next week by senior inspectors to try and clear up questions raised about the purpose of Iran’s nuclear activities. Tehran is banned by international treaty from developing nuclear weaponry.
“The Agency team is going to Iran in a constructive spirit, and we trust that Iran will work with us in that same spirit,” IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said in a statement announcing the December 29-31 visit. “The overall objective of the IAEA is to resolve all outstanding substantive issues.”
Iran, whose ‘great power’ ambitions face a setback from the difficulties of its Arab ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has powerful defenders in the form of Russia, which has built Iran a reactor, and China. Both permanent U.N. Security Council members argue that Western sanctions are counter-productive.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, classifying the EU embargo among “aggravating factors,” said Moscow believed there was a good chance that talks between the six global powers and Iran could resume soon and that Russia would try to steer both Iran and the West away from further confrontation.
His ministry issued an official statement expressing “regret and alarm”: “What is happening here is open pressure and diktat, an attempt to ‘punish’ Iran for its intractable behavior.
“This is a deeply mistaken approach, as we have told our European partners more than once. Under such pressure Iran will not agree to any concessions or any changes in its policy.”
But that argument cuts no ice with the U.S. administration, for which Iran – and Israel’s state willingness to consider unilateral military action against it – is a major challenge as President Barack Obama campaigns for re-election against Republican opponents who say has been too soft on Tehran.
“We and the EU are looking at ways to increase the pressure on Iran not because we want to go to war, not because we are looking for a military resolution but because we are looking for a resolution that has been a problem for a decade,” Ivo Daalder, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said on Monday in London.
“We are ready at any time to sit down with them and have a serious conversation about how to resolve this issue through negotiations … Let’s just try to continue to go down this path. The alternatives are much more difficult.”
(Additional reporting by Robin Pomeroy and Mitra Amiri in Tehran, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Adrian Croft in London, John Irish in Paris, Alexei Anishchuk in Sochi, Ari Rabinovitch and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Rachelle Younglai and Andrew Quinn in Washington and Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Robert Woodward)
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