Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck a rare conciliatory note Thursday, saying that the Islamic republic was ready for nuclear cooperation with Western powers."We welcome the exchange of fuel, technical cooperation and construction of power plants and reactors and we are prepared to cooperate (in those areas)," he said. Iran shocked the world in September by revealing the existence of a previously unknown nuclear plant near the city of Qom. The IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, sent a team of ...

For the 18th year in a row, the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted to condemn the 47-year embargo against Cuba by the United States."You can't read a novel, but you could read a manual about procedures or about the airplane," the former Boeing 767-400 pilot said. "You can't read a newspaper. You can't use a laptop. That's strictly prohibited." However, some airlines make documents, including manuals, available only in digital form and provide company laptops for pilots to ...

There is a well-known saying in Afghanistan: "You can rent an Afghan, but you can't buy him.""There's been an amnesty program for low-level Taliban in place for many years now and thousands of people have taken advantage of it," he said. "So this is not entirely a new idea. The idea of bribing people, local guys, to come over. ... It's one of the most cost-effective ways to get people to lay down their arms, either to negotiate a peace ...

United Nations-backed nuclear inspectors on Sunday visited a newly disclosed Iranian nuclear facility near the city of Qom, Iranian media has reported.That proposal calls for low-enriched uranium produced in Iran to be sent abroad for further enrichment and then returned for use in medical research and treatment. Tehran is studying the draft proposal and will have an answer next week, Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Soltanieh said on state-run Press TV. Iran informed IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei that it is ...

Two days after negotiators reached a draft agreement over Iran's nuclear activities, Tehran left it unclear Friday whether it would ultimately sign on. If Iran agrees to the proposal -- reached Wednesday at the Vienna headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog -- it could serve as a major step toward resolving an international showdown. The draft stemmed from talks among representatives of the United States, France, Russia, the United Nations, and Iran. ...

Three U.N. ambassadors on the front lines of the fight against radical Islamist terrorism presented a united front Thursday against extremism in an unprecedented joint public appearance on a major television news program.

Pier Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's eldest son and a top official in his media empire, says his father was "always there for me." Berlusconi, 40, is vice chairman of Mediaset SpA, the Italian commercial television network founded by his father and now owned by the Berlusconi family through the holding company, Fininvest. He's held several positions at the company since joining in 1992, at the age of 23, following a serious motorcycle accident. He started in the ...

A mass H1N1 immunization program began in the UK Wednesday, with the country's health minister urging all priority groups to take up the vaccine. Health and social care workers are among those identified in the "priority" group given first access to the vaccine against the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu. Others include pregnant women, those over 65, people with asthma, diabetes and those having cancer treatment, the country's Department of Health has said. From Monday, this ...

Lindsay Lohan will be heading to jail if a judge hears again the actress has not been attending a required alcohol counseling program. "This is the last time we are going to be talking about re-enrolling and doing what you need to do," Judge Marsha Revel told Lohan on Friday in extending her probation for a 2007 conviction for driving under the influence. Revel had ordered the actress to appear in court Friday after she was notified by the program ...

An impassioned U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking to students at Moscow State University on Wednesday, admonished those in the U.S. and Russian governments who haven't moved beyond a Cold War mentality. Clinton said such people are "living in the past" and aren't able to cooperate on issues such as missile defense because they "don't trust each other." She also called on the nations to find common ground, saying they "shouldn't end all cooperation" just because they can't agree ...