TEHRAN (AFP) ― Iran’s oil minister on Sunday renewed calls for OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to ease back their above-quota production as Libyan oil flows back into the market.“Today, supply and demand in the market is balanced and Iran’s policy is to keep OPEC member states from raising production,” Rostam Qasemi said on the oil ministry’s website ahead of a meeting by the cartel on Wednesday.Iran also wishes to see an “end (to) some countries’ extra production which started when Libya e

CHENGDU, China (AFP) ― Flashing bright green contact lenses and fake eyelashes, Li Xingyi struts through a shopping centre in southwest China clutching a Louis Vuitton bag and wearing a red fur coat.The 25-year-old entrepreneur is one of a growing number of Chinese living outside the booming metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai who can afford to splash out on expensive designer brands and luxury products.“I liked it, I could afford it, so I just bought it,” Li told AFP, pointing to her Louis Vui

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) ― A Pakistani Taliban spokesman denied Sunday an earlier announcement by the militant group’s deputy chief that it was holding peace talks with the government.The conflicting claims are a clear sign of splits within the movement, which could make it harder for Islamabad to strike a deal to end the violent insurgency gripping the country. At the same time, the cracks could make it easier to suppress the insurgency militarily.The Pakistani government, meanwhile, said the U.

MEXICO CITY (AP) ― The Mexican army says it has found a 50-meter long tunnel starting under a building in the northern city of Nogales, which is across the border from Nogales, Arizona.The Defense Department says the tunnel two meters under the surface may have been used to cross the border into the United States. However, the department’s statement Sunday does not say whether the tunnel actually reaches into U.S. territory or whether any entrance on the U.S. side has been found.Such tunnels fou

ABIDJAN (AP) ― Ivory Coast’s second national poll in 11 years drew little voter interest, a stark contrast to last year’s massive presidential election which later sent the West African nation spiraling into violence.The parliamentary election, the first the country has had since 2000, saw voters trickling into polling stations in the commercial capital, the scene of months of violence after the former strongman refused to accept his loss in last year’s poll.Some 1,100 candidates vied for 255 le

TRIPOLI (AP) ― Revolutionary fighters clashed with national army troops near Tripoli’s airport, leaving one person dead, officials said Sunday. The violence reflects the difficulties Libya’s new leaders face as they try to stamp their authority on the disparate militias that overthrew Moammar Gadhafi.Army spokesman Sgt. Abdel-Razik el-Shibahy said fighters from the western mountain town of Zintan, who control Tripoli’s international airport, opened fire on two occasions on Saturday on the convoy

DAMASCUS (AFP) ― A general strike was observed on Sunday in several regions of Syria to step up the pressure on the regime, activists said, as fears grew of an “invasion” of the besieged protest hub of Homs.In the latest bloodshed, 12 civilians were killed by security forces across Syria on Sunday, including three children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.Five people, including two of the children, were killed by gunfire in Homs, the group said, adding that at least 46 were also

LONDON (AFP) ― NATO will withdraw its Iraq training mission at year-end after Baghdad refused to grant it legal immunity, Iraq’s top security adviser said on Sunday, mirroring the nearly-complete pullout of U.S. forces.But a NATO official in Brussels denied that any decision had been taken.Iraq said the end of the mission was a surprise, with NATO previously having agreed in principle to staying through to the end of 2013.“NATO surprised us with this decision,” National Security Adviser Falah al

WASHNGTON (AP) ― After a dreary summer marred by the fight over government borrowing, rank-and-file Democrats say they are growing more optimistic about President Barack Obama’s re-election prospects in 2012. They cite his tougher, more populist tone and what they view as a chaotic presidential primary fight among Republicans.Many Democrats acknowledged that high unemployment and economic uncertainty create formidable obstacles for the incumbent. But interviews with more than a dozen Democratic

BEIJING (AFP) ― Oscar winning actor Christian Bale defended Sunday the upcoming Nanjing Massacre film “The Flowers of War,” by China’s most famous director, Zhang Yimou, as more than an anti-Japanese propaganda film.In the film, Bale plays an American drifter who becomes the unwitting protector of a group of Chinese schoolgirls and prostitutes trying to escape the Japanese army’s brutal sacking of China’s wartime capital.The Nanjing Massacre, in which Japanese troops killed tens of thousands of