Iran’s Ahmadinejad dismisses nuclear talks with other nations

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday ruled out nuclear negotiations with other nations, saying, "Iran’s nuclear issue is over, in our opinion." At a news conference in Tehran, the hardline president also said that if re-elected he again will call for a debate with President Obama. Ahmadinejad previously urged a debate with President Bush and offered to debate both Obama and Republican presidential candidate Sen.

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Refugees survive on food ‘cows won’t eat’

It’s an exodus on an almost biblical scale. And it has produced a mosaic of plastic and canvas that is now home to more than 93,000 people — with more arriving each day. This is Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, suddenly almost a city in its own right as thousands flee the violence raging between the Pakistani army and Taliban fighters

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Hezbollah denies link to Hariri murder

The militia group Hezbollah has dismissed a German magazine report that it was behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, calling the accusations "fabrications." The report in Germany’s Der Spiegel is intended to “influence” the outcome of the upcoming elections in Lebanon, Hezbollah said Sunday in a message posted on the Web site of its television station Al-Manar. A Hezbollah-led alliance is running against a U.S.-backed parliamentary majority in elections scheduled for June 7. “It is nothing more than police fabrications made by the same black room that has kept on fabricating such stories for over four years,” Hezbollah said.

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In Lebanon’s Election, a More Pragmatic Hizballah

The young men in gold-collared gowns collecting their certificates as beaming parents looked on could have been at any graduation ceremony in the U.S., except perhaps for the fact that the commencement speaker appeared via a video link from an undisclosed location, so as to avoid assassination. That, and the fact that the graduates’ job prospects are probably far better than those of their Western peers right now, by virtue of the fact that most are trained guerrilla fighters

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Israel removes illegal settler outpost on West Bank

In what could be a goodwill gesture to the Obama administration, Israeli security forces removed an illegal settler outpost Thursday in the West Bank. A spokesman for the Israeli military said a combination of police and military personnel carried out the action, removing several metal containers from a minor hilltop encampment at Maoz Esther

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Is There a Cure for Miami’s Soaring Health-Care Costs?

Hurricanes and housing busts have already battered South Florida’s image as an earthly paradise. But Miami’s reputation for dysfunction is on display again this spring as the Obama Administration shifts health-care reform into high gear — and a spate of studies slams the Magic City as the poster child for exorbitant medical costs. This week the Milliman Medical Cost Index listed the 2008 average private-provider costs for a Miami family of four — $20,282 — as the highest among the 14 major U.S.

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