Officials with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency begin a second round of talks Monday with Iranian officials over the country’s nuclear program, a day after Tehran cut off crude exports to British and French companies in retaliation for a new round of sanctions imposed on the regime. The two days of talks come amid heightened [...]
China’s presumptive next leader, Xi Jinping, is expected to meet with U.S. congressional leaders Wednesday on the third day of a visit that could influence relations between the two world powers for years to come. Xi, who currently holds the position of Chinese vice president, is also due to deliver a major policy address to [...]
Barack obama has set out the battles lines over the economy in this year’s presidential election by proposing a budget that favours stimulus spending over austerity, and commits to the increasingly popular demand to raise taxes on the rich. The president laid out $4tn in cuts to the deficit over the next decade as he [...]
ran is capable of carrying out military strikes on U.S. interests all around the world if the Islamic Republic is attacked by the United States, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow said on Wednesday. The United States has tried to force Tehran to scrap sensitive nuclear work by imposing sanctions targeting Iran’s central bank and giving U.S. [...]
Iran’s oil minister called on the European Union to review its decision to impose sanctions on the Islamic state’s oil exports and said that the international oil market was balanced. “Unfortunately the EU has succumbed to America’s pressure. I hope they would review their decision on sanctioning Iran’s oil exports … the oil market is [...]
The United States appears to have taken Kabul by surprise by announcing plans to end its Afghan combat role earlier than expected, and coinciding with a secret report that the Taliban is confident it can grab back control of the ravaged country. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking on Wednesday, said the United States would [...]
Mitt Romney headed west Wednesday to begin campaigning in Minnesota and Nevada after cementing his status as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination with a solid victory in Florida’s bitterly contested primary. Romney had 46% compared to 32% for Newt Gingrich, 13% for former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and 7% for Texas Rep. Ron [...]
South Korea and Japan will soon meet U.S. officials in Washington to ask how much oil they can import from Iran under new sanctions that leave the Asian nations with few alternative sources for energy, government officials said Wednesday. Japan is the world’s third biggest oil consumer, and South Korea is the fifth largest. Both [...]
It’s been a schizophrenic time for the U.S. solar industry. On the one hand, about $11 billion worth of solar power is set to be installed in 2012, with more than five times that figure in the investment pipeline. Demand for solar power rose eightfold between 2006 and 2011 — from 200 MW to 1,600 [...]
Tehran on Monday escalated its threats against the west after Europe struck at the Islamic republic’s lifeblood by agreeing to impose an oil embargo on it. Tehran threatened to respond by closing the strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil supplies pass, while a senior US official vowed that the west could [...]