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EU countries have informally told the European Parliament they want the Union’s foreign service to open an embassy in Iran. Tarja Cronberg, a Finnish Green MEP who chairs the parliament’s Iran delegation, said member states’ ambassadors in Tehran backed the idea when she met them in the Iranian capital on an official trip earlier this month. […] The EU already has embassies in other pariah states, such as Belarus. But Iran and the EU remain wary of each other despite the Geneva breakthrough. …

Explanation: What's happening behind those houses? Pictured above are not aurora but nearby light pillars, a local phenomenon that can appear as a distant one. In most places on Earth, a lucky viewer can see a Sun-pillar, a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere. Usually these ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground. During freezing temperatures, however, flat fluttering ice crystals may form near the ground in a form of light snow, sometimes known as a crystal fog. These ice crystals may then reflect ground...

AFTER 40 years of hesitation and seven hard years of reform and lobbying, Turkey is basking today in the most qualified of invitations to begin the process of joining Europe - a continent whose eastern half the Ottoman empire controlled for centuries. A European Commission report released yesterday, which paves the way for a deciding vote by the 25-member European Union at its December summit, was heavily qualified, and Turkish leaders were muted in their expressions of delight at their initial success. Presenting the decision to the European parliament last night, commission president Romano Prodi said it was a "qualified...

My sustainment of my children comes through INTENSE INTIMACY not just lament and prayer for there is a difference between Mary at my feet and those that knew me from a distance . Do you see I AM your lap of Pure Joy and Breakthrough and it is in my presence that you receive your breakthrough. So see that you break through all distractions to me for they are a wall of resistance to all the blessings already laid at my feet for you to discern and receive. Luke 10:38-42 38 Now while they were on their way, it occurred...

A Finnish man was abducted in Senegal after travelling to the West African nation to meet a woman he met on a dating site. The man travelled to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to meet who he thought would be a woman he met online; however, the trip turned into a nightmare when he was abducted and held for three weeks. A criminal gang in Senegal is suspected of conning a number of western men to travel to West Africa to meet local women they have met on the dating site. Senegalese police said that the Finnish man recently flew to...

Finland is boiling with rage this weekend over the $25 M bonus payment the CEO Stephen Elop is set to receive as he leaves Nokia NOK -1.35% after his two-year tenure. Questions are now being raised by the oddest aspect of the bonus: the board of Nokia seems to have given Elop a $ 25 M incentive to sell the handset unit cheaply to Microsoft MSFT -0.87% way back in in 2010. This effectively means that the board hired a man who was given a giant carrot to drive down Nokia’s overall valuation and phone volumes while preparing a sale...

MP Tuula Väätäinen (sdp.) is concerned that Finns participating abroad – such as in Syria – in the ongoing military conflict are without the added protection of soldiers’ compensation law.

The European Union (EU) is seeking to reassure Israelis who are concerned about the economic harm caused by the EU’s decision to forbid its member states from cooperating, transferring funds, or giving scholarships or research grants to bodies in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. A senior delegation from the European Union will arrive in Israel early this week to examine ways of preventing damage to Israeli entities operating beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines. …

European banks would leave London “in very short order” if Britain voted to exit the European Union, a senior Goldman Sachs executive said in a newspaper interview published on Monday. Michael Sherwood, a vice-chairman at the bank, said the prospect of a British withdrawal was a real worry given Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to hold a referendum on the subject if re-elected in 2015. … Goldman’s Sherwood predicted European banks would quickly relocate if Britain did sever its EU ties. “Forget what we would do. Every European firm would be gone in very short order,” he was quoted as...

Company to hold investor call; members of the media invited to attend. REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft Corp. and Nokia Corp. today announced that the boards of directors for both companies have decided to enter into a transaction whereby Microsoft will purchase substantially all of Nokia's Devices & Services business, license Nokia's patents, and license and use Nokia's mapping services.

Why is Poland purchasing Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles for its F-16s? As Rzeczpospolita broadsheet reports the Americans will allow Poland to purchase modern JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) missiles for Warsaw’s F-16s. This will significantly increase the Polish Vipers’ strike capabilities. Poland currently operates 48 F-16 airplanes in Block 52+ variant, where the ‘+’ means they have CFTs (Conformal Fuel Tanks). The strike capability of JASSM is immense, as it is able to destroy targets at distances of 370 km (ca. 220 miles). This allows the Viper to destroy the target outside of the SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles) envelope,...

SINGAPORE: The current buzz phrase in the Republic's education system, "every school is a good school", is in fact the principle on which the Finnish education model was built over the last four decades. But as Singapore strives to realise this vision, Finland's widely praised education system is being challenged because of an increasingly diverse student population, said the country's Minister for Education and Science Krista Kiuru. In an interview with TODAY, Ms Kiuru also responded to doubts about her country's education system, given the high number of jobless youths. The solution does not lie in changing the education system...

On Wednesday two Moroccan men were sentenced for a racist assault on three people in Helsinki in May. The men asked two passing women and a man if they were Finns. When the answer was yes, they attacked the three - this was a racist act according to the Helsinki District Court which sentenced the men to six months' imprisonment suspended and damages and fines. One man, in his 40s, was found guilty of four counts of assault (one of the victims was beaten twice), defamation, theft, an immigration violation and obstruction of an official. The other, in his 30s,...

Viking gold ingot which was found at Brickland, Co. Down and dates to the later ninth/tenth century. Sean Barden/Armagh County Museum A rare piece of Viking gold dating back more than a thousand years was discovered by an amateur with a metal detector in Northern Ireland, it was revealed. Tom Crawford was pursuing his hobby in farmland in Co Down last year when he found the small but precious ingot, which may have been used as currency during the 9th and 10th centuries. It is one of only a few nuggets known from Ireland, experts said. Mr Crawford also uncovered...

CONTEND TO OVERCOME ! Contend for your coming graduation day , The life of the overcomer with me and say , To the arrow by night be gone i deny you , And the lies of the enemy I do not receive you , But to my words of promise I receive every one , As Deuteronomy I repeat them as my song, So take my authority with you as you go , For just as I did in the desert my word you must speak "declare" and know, For I am the Way the Truth and the Life, So...

While on a trip to Finland today, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters that wanted NSA Leaker Edward Snowden is still in the transit area of Moscow's airport, and thus, technically not on Russian soil. He also confirmed that Russian law enforcement will not arrest him or extradite him to the United States, saying he is "a free man," but the sooner he chooses his final destination, the better. Putin also deployed one of the better similes we've heard in a while: "In any case, I would like not to deal with such issues because it is like shearing a...

The potential for social unrest in European Union countries is higher than anywhere else in the world and the already yawning gaps between rich and poor, a major trigger, are likely to widen globally, the International Labour Organisation said on Monday. Those most vulnerable, the report said, were Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. However the risk of social unrest had declined in Belgium, Germany, Finland, Slovakia and Sweden since 2010. Overall, the risk of unrest in the EU "is likely to be due to the policy responses to the ongoing sovereign debt crisis and their impact...

Government officials in Jerusalem accused Ireland on Wednesday of leading opposition inside the EU to placing Hezbollah, or at least its “military wing,” on the European Union’s terrorist black list. According to the officials, Ireland—which holds the EU’s rotating presidency—was supported in this position by Sweden and Finland at a working group on Tuesday that debated the issue. A consensus of the EU’s 27 states will be needed to blacklist Hezbollah’s “military wing,” a move now even backed by Germany and France. In the past these two countries have opposed this step, arguing that it could destabilize Lebanon, make European...

You are my chosen in whom I have found , Loyalty that abounds , Eager and ready to do MY will , A vessel in which the heavens I fill , To whom "has" been given ALL Autority , To take back land and break the neck of the enemy , There is no wall or boundary around , You can not take down , A "Mighty LOYAL" woven into , My Tapestry and Kingdom ready to do , Whatever I ask whenever it is , You do My business for ALL of My kids , So continue on for...

The gilded lifestyle of MEPs has been compared to the uncontrolled excesses of ancient Rome after research showed their perks have not been dented despite biting austerity measures. From Italian MEPs who enjoy free haircuts to Maltese ones who get 52 free gallons of petrol a month, the perks—and expenses—continue unabated for the representatives of European Union nations. MEPs from the 27 EU nations are paid salaries of £137 million ($207 million) a year, according to research by German pricing watchdog Preisvergleich.de, and some earn 740 percent more than the average citizen. …