Tudor Sailor Bones Set for Exhibit

Oil ministry issues ultimatums to European refineries to sign long-term contracts

(AP) - Iran has halted oil shipments to Britain and France, the Oil Ministry said today, in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union's sanctions on Iran's oil exports. The EU imposed tough sanctions against Iran last month, which included a freeze of the country's central bank assets and an oil embargo set to begin in July. Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi had warned earlier this month that Tehran could cut off oil exports to "hostile" European nations. The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18% of Iran's oil exports. More»

Brazil, meanwhile, lands with Portugal in Group of Death

(NEWSER) - The US team was among the squads getting a favorable draw for next year’s soccer World Cup in South Africa, landing in a four-team group where it and England are the top sides. The top two teams advance from each of eight groups; while the Americans will be expected to advance, five-time champ Brazil isn’t as fortunate, finding itself in the so-called “Group of Death” with powerful Ivory Coast and Portugal. More»

Just how close were Diana and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing?

(NEWSER) - Did they or didn't they? That's what the French wonder now that Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has penned a steamy novel about a French president's affair with an "unhappy" English princess who could be Diana's doppelgänger, reports the Guardian. The pair consummate their love in The Princess and the President after D-Day celebrations. The former president, 83, left office the year Diana married Prince Charles, but they met at charity events. More»

(NEWSER) - Europeans may have longer lives and longer vacations, but red-blooded Americans don't want their socialist ways on this side of the ocean, right wing media mouths are eager to remind everyone, MIchael Freedman writes in Newsweek. Underlying much of the opposition to health care reform is the fear that it's part of an anti-American conspiracy to transform the US into a "European social welfare state," according to Rush Limbaugh. More»

(NEWSER) - Iran staged another mass trial of protesters today, charging a Frenchwoman, two employees of the French and British embassies, and dozens of Iranian nationals with spying and fomenting unrest following the election, Reuters reports. Once again, defendants offered confessions and sought leniency. “We deplore these trials and the so-called confessions of prisoners who have been denied their basic human rights,” a British official says. Iranian opposition leaders have also criticized the “show trials.” More»