Source: Back-channel talks but no US-Iran deal on one-to-one nuclear meeting
By Andrea Mitchell, NBC News
A senior administration official told NBC on Saturday that there have been back-channel talks between the U.S. and Iran about meeting bilaterally on the Iranians’ nuclear program – but that no meeting has been agreed to.
Expanding on a statement issued by the White House after The New York Times reported that there was an agreement, the official says that the backchannel talks have been done in full consultation with the allies – the P5 + 1 and Israel.
The official pointed out that there have been bilateral talks in the past – but that Iran refused to even meet with the P5 +1 during the recent United Nations meetings. He said the Iranians know there will be no agreement unless they give up their nuclear program.Asked about the impact on Monday’s foreign policy debate between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, the official said the administration is not happy that the story came out before the debate, but said the American people might be happy to know the administration is willing to explore all possibilities to get Iran to give up its nuclear program.
A year after Gaddafi’s death, rebel hero is abandoning hope for peace in Libya
When Muhsen al-Gubbi entered the dictator’s palace, he thought the war was over. But he is still waiting for it to end
Chris Stephen in Misrata
The Observer, Sunday 21 October 2012One year ago Libyan rebel fighter Muhsen al-Gubbi shot to international fame after marking the capture of Muammar Gaddafi’s compound by draping a pair of the dictator’s underpants over one of his prized works of art.
In a remarkable account for the Observer of the ferocious battle for the dictator’s Bab al-Aziziya palace in Tripoli, al-Gubbi recorded the horror of seeing comrades slain, the triumph of liberating his country from 40 years of brutal dictatorship and his decision on the day of liberation to mark it with ridicule by draping Gaddafi’s underpants over a sculpture in the palace grounds depicting a steel fist clutching a US fighter plane.
A year later, he is sadder, wiser and more sanguine about the fate of his country that remains in the grip of violence and chaos.
Anti-immigrant Golden Dawn rises in Greece
By Anthony Faiola, Sunday, October 21, 4:11 AM
At first glance, the shop on a nondescript street in this chaotic capital looks standard-issue military. Fatigues. Camouflage. Hunting gear. Deeper inside, the political message emerges. Black T-shirts emblazoned with modified swastikas – the symbol of the far-right Golden Dawn party – are on sale. A proudly displayed sticker carries a favorite party slogan: “Get the Stench out of Greece.”
By “stench,” the Golden Dawn – which won its first-ever seats in the Greek Parliament this spring and whose popularity has soared ever since – means immigrants, broadly defined as anyone not of Greek ancestry. In the country at the epicenter of Europe’s debt crisis, and where poverty and unemployment are spiking, the surplus shop doubles as one of the party’s dozens of new “help bureaus.” Hundreds of calls a day come in from desperate families seeking food, clothing and jobs, all of which the Golden Dawn is endeavoring to provide, with one major caveat: for Greeks only.
Afghanistan’s agony bears fruit at last
How one man overcame war, picked up the pomegranate, and saw it ripen it into a £20m business
REUTERS KABUL SUNDAY 21 OCTOBER 2012
From a gritty walled compound in a fringe of Kabul better known for bombs and violent demonstrations, Mustafa Sadiq is building a global empire on fruit, selling Afghan produce to the health-conscious in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Gaudily painted trucks line up outside Mr Sadiq’s “Omaid Bahar” factory, and workers in juice-stained clothes unload sacks of pomegranates, the dark red seeds of which are prized for their abundant antioxidants.
“Besides a thousand things negative said about Afghanistan, no one can ignore the quality, the taste of our fruits, which is admired everywhere,” says Mr Sadiq, a quiet 47-year-old with ambitious plans to expand his two-year-old, $30m (£19m) venture into a $100m Afghan-born fruit behemoth.
No easy formula for Syrian ceasefire, say analysts
UN envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi is pushing for a ceasefire in Syria during the upcoming religious holiday. But experts see major obstacles and hope his previous peacemaking experience will prove decisive.
The outlook is not all that bright, but Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Arab League special envoy for Syria, is going to try his best. He has not given up hope of a ceasefire during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which runs from October 26 to 28 – a pause in violence that several countries and institutions have called for. That’s why he has traveled to Damascus to negotiate with the government and the opposition.
He has good reason to try all he can. The war raging in Syria has already claimed 30,000 lives, and is also impacting neighboring countries. Whether it is the skirmishes between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Lebanon, the military confrontations on the Syrian-Turkish border, the preparations for salvaging Syrian chemical weapons in Jordan, or the alleged Iranian transport flights over Iraq – the Syrian conflict is increasingly affecting the entire region.
Caught in the current of reverse migration
Thousands of U.S.-born children now live throughout Mexico as a result of deportation of a family member. Disoriented, they struggle in a society that views them with a mix of envy and pity.
By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times
October 21, 2012In this hardscrabble farming village, an American teenager like Luis Martinez was bound to stand out.
Raised on Little Caesars pizzas and Big Gulps, Luis, 13, was portly. The village kids, subsisting on bowls of chicken broth, were all bones and elbows.
Luis wore Air Jordan high-tops. The kids wore sandals made of rubber tires.
He shot at birds with his BB gun and pedaled around on a Mongoose bike. They scurried up mango trees and chased iguanas.
He seemed like many visitors from America, with new clothes and good health, and the quiet confidence of someone who knew he wouldn’t have to endure this place very long.
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