Middle East Star news

Work starts on creation of new Dubai island

Work began on Monday on the development of a man-made island in Dubai, 500 metres directly opposite the Jumeirah Beach Residence complex. To be known as Bluewaters Island, the new development will house five star hotels and resorts, al fresco dining and entertainment zones, and residential apartments and villas. The focal point of the island city, which will cost $1.6 billion, will be a 688 ...
Iran Bars Candidacies of Rafsanjani Ahmadinejad Aide

IA conservative body in Iran has barred two prominent figures from competing in next month's presidential election: moderate former president Hashemi Rafsanjani and a leading conservative allied to current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian interior ministry said Tuesday the Guardian Council of clerics and jurists excluded the two politicians from a final list of eight candidates ...
Kerry Mideast Talks on Syria to Include Russian Call for Involving Iran

STATE DEPARTMENT U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in the Middle East this week for talks to promote an international peace conference on Syria. Russia wants Iran to be part of the process. In this fight for control of Syria, Iran is one of the biggest backers of embattled President Bashar al-Assad. So Russia says Iran should be part of the peace process. "Iran has ...
4 killed 68 wounded in bomb attacks in Iraq

Beijing, May 21 (Xinhua-ANI): At least four people were killed and 68 others wounded in deadly bomb attacks in war-torn Iraq on Tuesday, police said. At least three people were killed and more than 43 others wounded when two car bombs exploded in the Hussein district in Tuz Khormato, some 170 km north of Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The blasts caused ...
Egypt passes new tax law in bid for economic reform

according to the Associated Press , describing the measure as one that will shift the burden on the poor to that of the nation's struggling small business sector. As for the nation's powerful and wealthy elite, the new law won't touch ...

Movie Review

The Moment of Truth (Il momento della verità) [Blu-Ray]

Part rise-and-fall melodrama and part documentary about the culture of bullfighting, The Moment of Truth (Il momento della verit) was Italian director Francesco Rosis first film made outside his native Italy although it bears his neorealist political and aesthetic ... ...

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Iran blocks ex-President Rafsanjani from election race report

Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (C) arrives to register his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election at the interior ministry in Tehran on May 11, 2013. Reports say Rafsanjani has been blocked from running in the next election. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty ...
After deadly day new attacks in Iraq kill 13 people and wound dozens officials say

An Iraqi policeman runs his metal detector over the body of Mohammed Adnan, 22, at a checkpoint as the body arrives for burial in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 20, 2013. A wave of car bombings across Baghdad's Shiite neighborhoods and in the southern city of Basra killed and wounded dozens of people, police said. (AP Photo/ ...
UN says it sees a major drop in number of Syrian refugees arriving in Jordan unsure why

GENEVA - U.N. officials said Tuesday that the number of Syrian refugees arriving in Jordan has suddenly fallen from an average of 2,500 a day to fewer than 20, and they are trying to quickly figure out why. Millions of people have been displaced in Syria as the civil war there has engulfed large areas, and Jordan has become a main refuge for Syrians who choose to flee their country. U.N. ...
New Evidence of Iran Support to Assad

May 21, 2013 7:43pm The United States has new evidence that Iran and Hezbollah have direct involvement with the Syrian regime, a senior State Department official told reporters traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry in Oman. The official said that, according to the Free Syrian Army, Hezbollah and Iranian fighters have been helping the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad in Qusayr, ...
Russia opposes the initiatives of the west to create a no-fly zone over Syria the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Tuesday. Unfortunately these destructive ideas keep popping up over time but no one ever bothered to think a

Russia opposes the initiatives of the west to create a no-fly zone over Syria, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Tuesday. "Unfortunately, these destructive ideas keep popping up over time, but no one ever bothered to think about the consequences," said Gatilov. It is worth mentioning that on March 19, the Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty ...

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Iran Bars Candidacies of Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad Aide

IA conservative body in Iran has barred two prominent figures from competing in next month's presidential election: moderate former president Hashemi Rafsanjani and a leading conservative allied to current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian interior ministry said Tuesday the Guardian Council of clerics and jurists excluded the two politicians from a final list of eight candidates approved for the June 14 vote. Hundreds of people had applied to be candidates for the election.

A Guardian Council spokesman said Monday the body would exclude any candidate deemed physically too weak to do the president's job. Many observers saw that as a reference to Rafsanjani, who is 78.

Ahmadinejad aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei also was disqualified. Ultraconservatives loyal to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had strongly opposed the potential candidacies of both Mashaei and Rafsanjani.

The approved list of candidates is dominated by ultraconservative loyalists of the Supreme Leader.

Ahmadinejad and his aides have fallen out of favor with ultraconservatives after years of power struggles with Iran's ruling clerics. The Iranian president is constitutionally barred from running for a third term in office. ...