Monday, October 20, 2014
Falling oil prices worry Iran’s leaders
TEHRAN, Iran
Iranian officials are expressing new worry over the global oil-price slump, which is threatening the country’s budget and could undermine its strategy in international nuclear negotiations.
As recently as Tuesday, Iran’s oil ministry was speaking confidently despite the 20 percent global price decline, insisting that it wouldn’t affect the budget. Deputy Oil Minister Rokneddin Javadi said the decrease would be “short lived,” an oil ministry information service said.
But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, clearly concerned, has directed the oil ministry to seek a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel next month to discuss holding up the price, Iranian news agencies reported.
Crude oil has fallen from more than $100 a barrel in spring to under $85 a barrel. About 75 percent of Iran’s government revenue comes from oil sales, and analysts say the country needs an oil price of about $140 a barrel to sustain its budget.
Obama attends campaign rally
UPPER MARLBORO, Md.
Marching onto the campaign trail, President Barack Obama accused Republicans of peddling fear and cynicism Sunday as he rallied voters for Democrat Anthony Brown’s campaign for governor in a heavily black corner of Maryland.
In front of a rowdy crowd of about 8,000 people — plus an overflow crowd in a gym next-door — Obama painted Brown as a champion for the American Dream during a rally that echoed many of the same themes as Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. Echoing an argument that’s become his party’s mantra this election season, Obama said the midterms would come down to one thing: “Who is going to fight for you?”
“The Republican Party can keep telling you what they’re against,” Obama said, riffing off a long list: affordable health care, immigration reform, action on climate change, to name a few. “But the good news is Democrats keep telling you what things we’re for. And the things we’re for are things that will help working families.”
Police detain man in deaths of 4 women
HAMMOND, Ind.
An Indiana man confessed killing a woman whose body was found in a Motel 6 and told police where the bodies of three more women could be found, police said Sunday.
Gary police found the bodies of three women at various locations in Gary late Saturday and early Sunday, following up on information the 43-year-old man provided during questioning, Hammond police Lt. Rich Hoyda said.
The Lake County coroner’s office on Sunday identified the victim found in Hammond as 19-year-old Afrika Hardy and ruled she had been strangled.
Australia lifts face-veil ban
CANBERRA, Australia
Australia’s Parliament House today lifted a short-lived ban on facial coverings including burqas and niqabs after the prime minister intervened.
The government department that runs Parliament House announced earlier this month that “persons with facial coverings” would no longer be allowed in the open public galleries of the House of Representatives or the Senate. Instead, they were to be directed to galleries usually reserved for noisy schoolchildren, where they could sit behind sound-proof glass.
The Oct. 2 announcement was made a few hours before the end of the final sitting day of Parliament’s last two-week session and had no practical effect.
Source: Combined dispatches