Daily News Channel
Iran is to send a female skier to the Winter Olympics for the first time at next year’s Games in Vancouver, Canada, the head of the Islamic Republic’s ski federation told state media Monday. The chosen competitor will ski in “full Islamic dress,” Iran’s National News Agency reported.
Before he was Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger would hold an annual summer retreat for his former theology students, focused each year on a single theme of acute concern. Three months after his rise to the papacy, Benedict XVI continued the tradition with a closed-door encounter in the Vatican’s breezy summer residence, Castel Gondolfo
Somali President Sharif Sheikh Hassan said Saturday he will give in to a rebel demand that he impose Islamic law, or sharia, in an effort to halt fighting between Somali forces and Islamic insurgents. However, Hassan told a news conference he won’t agree to a strict interpretation of the law, which forbids girls from attending school, requires veils for women and beards for men, and bans music and television. The president, speaking at his palace in the capital, Mogadishu, said local elders and religious leaders, acting as liaisons with the militants, brought him a message saying the rebels wanted a truce in the two-year-old fighting.
At this year’s U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar, speaker after Muslim speaker had nothing particularly awful to say about the United States. The Muslims were, in fact, hopeful about, and slightly amazed by, the new American President. Some even wondered aloud what they could do to help him succeed.
Iran’s president said Tuesday his country welcomes talks with the United States "in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect." Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the remarks a day after President Barack Obama said the United States is looking for opportunities for “face to face” dialogue with Iran, even though he has “deep concerns” about Tehran’s actions. “Right now, the world is entering the era of dialogue,” Ahmadinejad told hundreds of thousands of people in a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. “The new U.S.
Iran’s powerful parliament speaker said Monday the Islamic nation hopes the United States changes its approach to the Middle East, and called the Obama administration "an exceptional opportunity for Americans." “I don’t want to be pessimistic. I hope the Americans change their strategy and respect the nations,” said Ali Larijani in a wide-ranging interview with CNN affiliate Cuatro TV in Spain
Israel launched air strikes against a number of targets in Gaza Monday to retaliate against Palestinian militants who have fired a "barrage" of rockets inside the Jewish state in recent days, the military said. The targets in Monday’s air strikes included two Hamas outposts in southern and northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said. The IDF said militants fired two rockets at Israel Sunday.
Ending weeks of speculation, former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami announced Sunday that he will run against the hardline incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to Iranian media reports. “I declare that I will stand for the next elections,” Khatami told reporters on Sunday, according to Iran’s state-run news agency, IRNA.