The EU slapped an embargo on Iranian oil in tough new sanctions aimed at blocking funds for Tehran’s suspect nuclear drive and reviving stalled talks, as Iran slammed the move unfair. The oil ban, along with sanctions against Iran’s central bank and other measures, came as western powers rounded on Tehran to return to negotiations amid concerns it is inching ever closer to building a nuclear bomb. As Iran furiously denounced the unprecedented European Union measures, the United States further tightened the noose, announcing sanctions against Iran’s state-owned Bank Tejarat, one of the few still accessing the international financial system. Piling on the » Read More

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Palestinian negotiators will not take part in any more talks with Israel after this week unless it stops settlement building. EU diplomacy chief Catherine Ashton is expected in the Middle East to try to convince the two parties to resume direct peace talks, which stalled in 2010. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, for his part, told Moscow that his “visits in Great Britain, Germany and Russia aimed to discuss what could be done if exploratory meetings in Amman failed,” WAFA news agency reported. The Middle East Quartet — the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — urged both parties on » Read More

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The French defense minister said that an Afghan soldier who killed four French troops was a Taliban infiltrator, as he appeared to dampen the prospect of an early withdrawal. Gerard Longuet flew into Afghanistan for emergency talks and to seek reassurances about safety a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened a swift exit of the 3,600 French troops on the ground fighting the 10-year war. That came just hours after an Afghan soldier shot dead four unarmed French soldiers at a base where they were having a joint sports session, also leaving 15 French soldiers wounded, eight of them seriously. Insurgents were seeking » Read More

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China will face “bigger challenges” in the New Year of the Dragon its Prime Minister Wen Jiabao warned as he pledged economic reforms to improve wealth distribution, state media reported. “We are going to face bigger challenges in the New Year,” Wen said in a meeting with top officials, ahead of Monday, the beginning of the Year of the Dragon, the most favorable and revered sign in the 12-year Chinese zodiac. The New Year is set to be key politically, as President Hu Jintao ends his second term as party head and hands over to a successor, widely expected to be Vice » Read More

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The temporary disabling of the US government websites is the latest exploit by the loose-knit hacker activists, or “hacktivists,” who have taken credit for scores of online attacks over the past few years. Anonymous, which briefly knocked the FBI and Justice Department websites offline in retaliation for the US shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload, is a shadowy group of international hackers with no central hierarchy. The attacks range from the nuisance-like — the FBI and Justice Department websites were back up within a few hours — to the truly damaging involving the loss of data and the exposure of private financial information. According » Read More

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President Nicolas Sarkozy suspended French military training and joint combat operations with Afghan troops, and sent Defense Minister Gerard Longuet to probe attack in which at least 15 French soldiers were also wounded, eight seriously. Sarkozy has warned he may accelerate the French withdrawal from Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier shot dead four unarmed French troops during a sports session inside a base. The French role in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan was already deeply unpopular at home and — less than 100 days before presidential elections — Sarkozy appeared to be preparing the ground for a rapid withdrawal. Sarkozy’s Socialist opponent Francois » Read More

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A website that advertises government contracts said the malleable, hand-squeezable items designed to relieve anxiety and frustrations were needed by the end of March, before the start of a new fiscal year. Canada’s military — facing belt-tightening, a spy scandal and having recently completed a major combat mission in Afghanistan — it wanted 20,000 stress balls, but then abruptly backtracked. But the order was canceled when the country’s defense minister caught wind of it in media reports. “As soon as Minister MacKay was made aware of this contract, he instructed officials to immediately cancel this unnecessary expense of taxpayer money,” his office told » Read More

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The latest deaths of French troops in Afghanistan will narrow choices in international efforts to bring potentially nuclear Iran to the conference table and halt Syrian President Bashar Assad’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy movement in that country. Despite the high price paid in American lives in both Afghanistan and Iraq, Europeans react quickly when European lives are put at risk in the military campaigns fought under the NATO command in Afghanistan. The French have been targeted frequently and lost 26 personnel last year, in a tally of 560 from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force killed in 2011. French President Nicolas Sarkozy reacted » Read More

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The UN atomic energy agency issued a statement saying “the items that have gone missing are low-level radioactive sources.” Experts are investigating reports that a safe containing radioactive material was stolen from a site where Egypt plans to build its first nuclear power plant, government newspapers said on Friday. The Vienna-based agency said it is “in touch with the Egyptian authorities.” Al-Ahram newspaper reported Thursday that a safe containing radioactive material was stolen from a site in Al-Dabaa, on the Mediterranean coast. Another safe was broken and some of its contents were taken, Al-Ahram said. Some villagers claiming the government has confiscated some of their land » Read More

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Pakistan police confirmed the explosion that ripped through a religious procession in Khanpur killing at least 18 people was caused by a bomb. At first, police said the explosion was caused by faulty high-voltage electrical distribution cable but later said it was a remote-controlled bomb planted near an electricity distribution location. Police near the explosion reported confusion as dust settled over the crowd, which initially turned on the officers as they tried to help the injured. The explosion went off as mourners came out of a mosque, a report by the Pakistan newspaper Dawn said. The bomb appeared to have been planted in the » Read More

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