Iran's Khamenei rebuffs U.S. offer of direct talks

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday slapped down an offer of direct talks made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden last week, saying they would not solve the problem between them.

"Some naive people like the idea of negotiating with America, however, negotiations will not solve the problem," Khamenei said in a speech to officials and members of Iran's air force carried on his official website.

"If some people want American rule to be established again in Iran, the nation will rise up to face them," he said.

"American policy in the Middle East has been destroyed and Americans now need to play a new card. That card is dragging Iran into negotiations."

Khamenei made his comments just days after Biden said the United States was prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership. "That offer stands but it must be real and tangible," Biden said in Munich on Saturday.

With traditional fiery rhetoric, Khamenei lambasted Biden's offer, saying that since the 1979 revolution the United States had gravely insulted Iran and continued to do so with its threat of military action.

"You take up arms against the nation of Iran and say: 'negotiate or we fire'. But you should know that pressure and negotiations are not compatible and our nation will not be intimidated by these actions," he added.

Relations between Iran and the United States were severed after the overthrow of Iran's pro-Western monarchy in 1979 and diplomatic meetings between officials have since been very rare.

ALL OPTIONS STILL 'ON THE TABLE'

Currently U.S.-Iran contact is limited to talks between Tehran and a so-called P5+1 group of powers on Iran's disputed nuclear program which are to resume on February 26 in Kazakhstan.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland brushed off Khamenei's remarks and urged Iran to show up in Almaty "prepared to discuss real substance" either in a group setting or in bilateral talks.

"As the Iranians well know, the ball is in the Iranians' own court," she told reporters.

"We've always said that action on the Iranian side would be matched by action on our side, so it's really up to Iran to engage if it wants to see sanctions eased," said Nuland, adding that failure to address the nuclear concerns would bring more pressure on Tehran.

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said he was skeptical the negotiations in Almaty could yield a result, telling Israel Radio that the United States needed to demonstrate to Iran that "all options were still on the table".

Israel, widely recognized to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, has warned it could mount a pre-emptive strike on Iranian atomic sites. Israel says the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran threatens its existence, given Tehran's refusal to recognize the Jewish state.

"The final option, this is the phrasing we have used, should remain in place and be serious," said Meridor.

"The fact that the Iranians have not yet come down from the path they are on means that talks ... are liable to bring about only a stalling for time," he said.

Iran maintains its nuclear program is entirely peaceful but Western powers are concerned it is intent on developing a weapons program.

Many believe a deal on settling the nuclear issue is impossible without a U.S.-Iranian thaw. But any rapprochement would require direct talks addressing many sources of mutual mistrust that have lingered since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

Moreover, although his November re-election may give President Barack Obama a freer hand to pursue direct negotiations, analysts say Iran's own presidential election in June may prove an additional obstacle to progress being made.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams, and Paul Eckert in Washington; Editing by William Maclean, Jon Boyle and Mohammad Zargham)

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Gymnastics: Silver lining for Singapore gymnasts

SINGAPORE: Singapore's gymnasts may have missed out on the opportunity to compete in this year's South-east Asian (SEA) Games in Myanmar in December after their sport was axed by the hosts.

However, they will still get to compete in two regional championships - of similar standard to the gymnastics competition at the biennial Games - at the tail end of the year.

According to Singapore Gymnastics (SG) President Philip Chan, the South-east Asian Gymnastics Zone (SEAGZONE), a grouping of ASEAN affiliates in the Asian Gymnastics Union (AGU), has decided to organise the SEAGZONE Artistic Gymnastics Championships and the SEAGZONE Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships to make up for the sport's exclusion at the SEA Games.

The former will be organised by the Myanmar Gymnastics Federation in November, while the SG will host the Rhythmic Championships in December.

Chan told TODAY that, while the news of gymnastics' exclusion from the SEA Games was disappointing, it did not come as "a complete surprise".

"The decision by the Myanmar Olympic Committee to drop gymnastics from the SEA Games because of the host's bleak prospects of podium success is regrettable, but it is also within its rights as organiser," he said.

"Singapore Gymnastics and the other national affiliates of SEAGZONE had been hoping for the best, while planning for the worst."

Gymnastics, which produced a team gold medal, two individual silver medals and an individual bronze medal for Singapore at the 2011 SEA Games in Indonesia, was one of three sports dropped from this year's edition following a meeting by the SEA Games Federation last Tuesday. The other two sports were tennis and tenpin bowling.

The staging of the two regional championships also means that the SG will have a strong case in ensuring that its annual funding from the Singapore Sports Council is unaffected.

"There is no concern over this because the results of the two SEAGZONE Championships are equivalent in standard to the SEA Games," Chan explained.

He also sees a silver lining emerging from this setback.

"This just means that our gymnasts have another reason to work harder in preparation for the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World Championships as well as the 28th SEA Games in Singapore in 2015, when we also hope to introduce the trampoline event for the first time."

Still, there was no denying the disappointment felt by the national gymnasts. "I was looking forward to taking part in the SEA Games. Now that it's cancelled, I just have to move on and wait for the next one," said Chermaine Yeo, 16.

Joey Tam, part of the women's team that won gold in 2011, rued the missed opportunity for both her and her younger team-mates.

"It's a missed opportunity. This would have been a good chance for the younger ones to gain experience and exposure," said the 19-year-old.

"Also, the SEA Games is one of the events that we athletes dream about competing in.

"When you're part of that huge Singapore contingent and you know that people at home are watching you and cheering you on, you can't help but feel proud and inspired." - TODAY

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Supreme Court permits Jafri to file fresh petition against Modi clean chit

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Jakia Jafri to file a fresh petition challenging the SC-appointed Special Investigation Team's "clean chit" to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and others in her complaint accusing them of abdicating constitutional duty to stop the 2002 communal riots.

A bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam, Aftab Alam and Ranjana P Desai set aside the trial court's order dismissing Jafri's protest petition. She had said that in her protest petition, she could not cite all the grounds for her challenge to the "clean chit" as she had not been given two reports that SIT submitted to the apex court on May 12, 2010 and November 17, 2010.

The bench agreed with Jafri's counsel Kamini Jaiswal and asked the SIT to give copies of the reports to her to facilitate filing of the protest petition afresh before the trial court.

Gujarat additional advocate general Tushar Mehta said the accused, who stood convicted in six sensitive cases investigated by the SIT, were not given copies of the probe report either. Moreover, he said in another case, probe into which was monitored by the apex court (Sohrabuddin fake encounter case), the sealed cover reports submitted to the court by the investigating agency was not shown to anyone.

But amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran said Jafri's complaint case was different from all other cases and urged the court to make a one-time exception with a caveat that this concession should not be taken as a precedent.

In her 2006 complaint, Jafri had alleged that mobs were allowed to go on rampage killing members of the minority community and complained that the CM and others had refused to take timely action which made them liable for the riots. Her husband and Congress leader Ehsan Jafri was killed by a mob at Gulbarg society.

On her complaint, the apex court had asked the R K Raghavan-headed SIT to "look into" the complaint. The SIT had said it found no prosecutable evidence against Modi and others to file charge sheet against them in the riot cases. The SC then asked the SIT to file a closure report before the trial court concerned with permission to Jafri to file a protest petition after getting all documents from SIT.

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.

It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.

Blacks were five times more likely than whites to have the Southern dietary pattern linked with the highest stroke risk. And blacks and whites who live in the South were more likely to eat this way than people in other parts of the country were. Diet might explain as much as two-thirds of the excess stroke risk seen in blacks versus whites, researchers concluded.

"We're talking about fried foods, french fries, hamburgers, processed meats, hot dogs," bacon, ham, liver, gizzards and sugary drinks, said the study's leader, Suzanne Judd of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

People who ate about six meals a week featuring these sorts of foods had a 41 percent higher stroke risk than people who ate that way about once a month, researchers found.

In contrast, people whose diets were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish had a 29 percent lower stroke risk.

"It's a very big difference," Judd said. "The message for people in the middle is there's a graded risk" — the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each Southern meal in a week.

Results were reported Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.

The federally funded study was launched in 2002 to explore regional variations in stroke risks and reasons for them. More than 20,000 people 45 or older — half of them black — from all 48 mainland states filled out food surveys and were sorted into one of five diet styles:

—Southern: Fried foods, processed meats (lunchmeat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk.

—Convenience: Mexican and Chinese food, pizza, pasta.

—Plant-based: Fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.

—Sweets: Added fats, breads, chocolate, desserts, sweet breakfast foods.

—Alcohol: Beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, salad dressings, nuts and seeds, coffee.

"They're not mutually exclusive" — for example, hamburgers fall into both convenience and Southern diets, Judd said. Each person got a score for each diet, depending on how many meals leaned that way.

Over more than five years of follow-up, nearly 500 strokes occurred. Researchers saw clear patterns with the Southern and plant-based diets; the other three didn't seem to affect stroke risk.

There were 138 strokes among the 4,977 who ate the most Southern food, compared to 109 strokes among the 5,156 people eating the least of it.

There were 122 strokes among the 5,076 who ate the most plant-based meals, compared to 135 strokes among the 5,056 people who seldom ate that way.

The trends held up after researchers took into account other factors such as age, income, smoking, education, exercise and total calories consumed.

Fried foods tend to be eaten with lots of salt, which raises blood pressure — a known stroke risk factor, Judd said. And sweet drinks can contribute to diabetes, the disease that celebrity chef Paula Deen — the queen of Southern cuisine — revealed she had a year ago.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen Inc. and General Mills Inc. funded the study.

"This study does strongly suggest that food does have an influence and people should be trying to avoid these kinds of fatty foods and high sugar content," said an independent expert, Dr. Brian Silver, a Brown University neurologist and stroke center director at Rhode Island Hospital.

"I don't mean to sound like an ogre. I know when I'm in New Orleans I certainly enjoy the food there. But you don't have to make a regular habit of eating all this stuff."

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Suspect Tried to Flee Country Before Cop Shooting

The fired ex-California cop who set off a region-wide manhunt after allegedly shooting three police officers this morning -- one fatally -- had initially gone to a yacht club near San Diego where police say he attempted to steal a boat and flee to Mexico.

Police say that former police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, who officials believe posted an online manifesto outlining his plan to "terminate" his former colleagues and their families, is armed with a long gun and might have several other guns and high-capacity magazines. He is also believed to have access to military uniforms because he has served in the Navy.

"We are considering him armed and dangerous," Lt. Julia Engen of the Irvine Police Department said.

Police allege that he went to the yacht club Wednesday night at Point Loma, Calif., near San Diego to steal the boat. He aborted the attempted theft when the boat's propeller became entangled in robe, law enforcement officials said. It was at that point he is believed to have headed to Riverside, where he allegedly shot two police officers.

"He pointed a handgun at the victim [at the yacht club] and demanded the boat," Lt. David Rohowits of the San Diego Police Department said.

Police say the rifle marksman shot at four officers in two incidents overnight, hitting three of them: one in Corona, Calif., and the two in Riverside, Calif.

Sgt. Rudy Lopez of the LAPD said two LAPD officers were in Corona and headed out on special detail to check on one of the individuals named in Dorner's manifesto. Dorner allegedly grazed one of them but missed the other.

"[This is an] extremely tense situation," Lopez said. "We call this a manhunt. We approach it cautiously because of the propensity of what has already happened."

The Riverside Police Department said two of its officers were shot before one of them died, KABC-TV reported. The other is in stable condition with two gunshot wounds, police say.

"They were on routine patrol stopped at a stop light when they were ambushed," Lt. Guy Toussant of the Riverside police department said.

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In the manifesto Dorner published online, he threatened at least 12 people by name, along with their families.

"Your lack of ethics and conspiring to wrong a just individual are over. Suppressing the truth will leave to deadly consequences for you and your family," Dorner wrote in his manifesto.

A badge and identification belonging to Dorner have been found in San Diego, according to San Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick. Dorner's LAPD badge and ID were found by someone near the city's airport, and turned in to police overnight, The Associated Press reported.

Police around Southern California are wearing tactical gear, including helmets and guns across their chests. The light-up signs along California highways show the license plate number of Dorner's car, and say to call 911 if it is seen. The problem, police say, is that they believe Dorner is switching license plates on his car, a 2005 charcoal-gray Nissan Titan pickup truck.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said today that 40 protective details have been deployed to protect officers and their families.

"We are taking all measures possible to ensure safety of our officers and their families," he said.

Dorner is also believed to be responsible for the weekend slayings of an assistant women's college basketball coach and her fiancé in what cops believe are acts of revenge against the LAPD, as suggested in his online manifesto.

Lawrence was found slumped behind the wheel of his white Kia in the parking lot of their upscale apartment complex in Irvine Sunday and Quan was in the passenger seat.

"A particular interest at this point in the investigation is a multi-page manifesto in which the suspect has implicated himself in the slayings," Maggard said.

Police said Dorner's manifesto included threats against members of the LAPD. Police say they are taking extra measures to ensure the safety of officers and their families.

The document, allegedly posted on an Internet message board this week, apparently blames Quan's father, retired LAPD Capt. Randy Quan, for his firing from the department.

One passage from the manifesto reads, "I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty."

"I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own," it reads. "I'm terminating yours."

Dorner was with the department from 2005 until 2008, when he was fired for making false statements.

Randy Quan, who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against Dorner at the time of his dismissal, LAPD Capt. William Hayes told The Associated Press Wednesday night.

According to documents from a court of appeals hearing in October 2011, Dorner was fired from the LAPD after he made a complaint against his field-training officer, Sgt. Teresa Evans, saying in the course of an arrest she had kicked a suspect who was a schizophrenic with severe dementia.

After an investigation, Dorner was fired for making false statements.

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Tunisian leader to form new government after activist shot

TUNIS (Reuters) - The killing of an outspoken critic of Tunisia's Islamist-led government on Wednesday sparked street protests by thousands who fear religious radicals are stifling freedoms won two years ago in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Chokri Belaid was shot at close range as he left for work by a gunmen who fled on the back of a motorcycle; crowds poured on to the streets of Tunis and other cities, attacking offices of the main ruling party Ennahda, and by the end of the day the Islamist prime minister promised a national unity government.

There was no immediate local reaction to the plan by Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali of Ennahda to dissolve his coalition and bring in a wider range of political groups. After dark, hundreds of demonstrators were still fighting running battles with police in the capital, throwing rocks amid volleys of teargas.

Jebali, whose party has dismissed any suggestion it might be behind the assassination, said he would shortly announce the formation of a new government of non-partisan technocrats.

World powers, alarmed in recent months at the extent of radical Islamist influence and the bitterness of the political stalemate, urged Tunisians to reject violence and see through the move to democracy they began two years ago, when the Jasmine Revolution ended decades of dictatorship and inspired fellow Arabs in Egypt and across North Africa and the Middle East.

As in Egypt, the rise to power of political Islam through the ballot box has prompted a backlash among less organized, more secular minded political movements in Tunisia. Belaid, a 48-year-old left-wing lawyer who made a name challenging the old regime of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, led a party with little electoral support but his vocal opinions had a wide audience.

The day before his death he was publicly lambasting a "climate of systematic violence". He had blamed tolerance shown by Ennahda and its two, smaller secularist allies in the coalition government toward hardline Salafists for allowing the spread of groups hostile to international culture.

(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; Writing by Alison Williams and Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Football: Pedro's double sees Spain past Uruguay

DOHA: World and European champions Spain stretched their unbeaten run at senior international level to 17 games with a 3-1 win over Uruguay on Wednesday thanks to two goals from Pedro Rodriguez.

A goalkeeping error from Fernando Muslera gifted Spain the lead after just 16 minutes as he allowed Cesc Fabregas' long-range effort to slip through his grasp, but Uruguay were deservedly level before half-time as Cristian Rodriguez fired home after latching onto Martin Caceres' clever pass.

However, Pedro proved to be the match-winner in the second-half as he finished calmly from Barcelona teammate Gerard Pique's pass six minutes after the restart before tapping home Fabregas' cross to register his ninth goal in his last six internationals.

Vicente del Bosque's men were captained by Carles Puyol on his 100th international appearance in the absence of Iker Casillas who was out with a broken bone in his left hand.

Cesar Azpilicueta, meanwhile, was making his international debut.

The Chelsea defender was thankful for the experience shown by his skipper when he was late in stepping up to play Luis Suarez onside four minutes in but Puyol recovered well to disposes the Liverpool striker before he could get a shot off.

Spain went in front 12 minutes later thanks to a huge error from Muslera as he let Fabregas' swerving drive from 30 yards slip through his hands and into the net.

However, the South Americans responded well to going behind and Victor Valdes had to be quick off his line to prevent Edison Cavani having a clear run on goal from a long-ball over the top moments later.

Puyol then nearly marked his landmark appearance with just his fourth international goal but he was ruled to be just offside as he volleyed in a cross from the right.

Uruguay were level though just after the half-hour mark as a fine through ball from Caceres found Rodriguez free inside the area and the Atletico Madrid midfielder slotted the ball low past Valdes.

It took Spain just six minutes into the second period to restore their lead as Pique, who had replaced Puyol at the break, played in Pedro who drove the ball into Muslera's bottom right-hand corner.

Valdes had to make a stunning save to prevent Uruguay finding a second equaliser as he got an outstretched hand to Cavani's driven effort before David Villa could easily have had a third for Spain as his effort drifted just over.

Del Bosque then took the chance to also hand debuts to Isco and Mario Suarez as the game began to become stretched and it was no surprise when Spain broke with great efficiency to kill the game off 15 minutes from time.

Villa fed Fabregas and his cross to the back post was perfectly measured for Pedro to slide home.

International football friendly results:
Macedonia 3 Denmark 0
Turkey 0 Czech Republic 2
Israel 2 Finland 1

Albania 1 Georgia 2
Hungary 1 Belarus 1
Croatia 4 South Korea 0

Bosnia-Herzegovina 3 Slovenia 0
Norway 0 Ukraine 2
Spain 3 Uruguay 1

- AFP/de

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At Kumbh, Rajnath says Ram temple if BJP gets own majority

LUCKNOW/ALLAHABAD: BJP president Rajnath Singh on Wednesday assured seers and saints gathered for the Maha Kumbh Mela that a Ram temple at Ayodhya was a matter of faith for Hindus and that the BJP was committed to its construction "once it comes to power with a majority".

"It was our pledge and will remain our pledge to build a Ram Temple in Ayodhya," Rajnath said while attending the Marg Darshan Mandal meeting organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad at the Kumbh Mela, giving a broad hint that the Ram Temple might return as its centre-piece before the 2014 elections.

Rajnath also raised the issue of the poor quality of water in the Ganga while expressing solidarity with the river. "Large amounts of money have been siphoned off in the name of schemes for cleaning the Ganga," Rajnath said, adding, "Policy-makers should think about the status of all the rivers of the country."

"No city, big or small, should be allowed to discharge untreated effluents into the Ganga," he said.

Earlier, Rajnath reached Sangam area at around 12 noon and left for a dip. Accompanying him was the UP BJP chief. After the dip, Rajnath told waiting reporters that he will not talk on any political issue and that "the BJP's pledge is to work for the betterment of the country". He then offered prayers at the Hanuman Temple at Sangam.

The VHP demanded that a bill be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament so that Ram Janmabhoomi land could be handed over to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas for the temple.

The resolution also said, "Hindus won't tolerate any memorial after Babar or any Islamic cultural centre at the Ram Janmabhoomi site" and appealed to all political parties to cooperate in getting such a legislation passed "unanimously".

Meanwhile, UP BJP chief confirmed that Gujarat CM Narendra Modi will visit the Maha Kumbh Mela on February 12, amid speculation that seers and saints may extend their blessings to him as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.

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FBI Releases Alaska Serial Killer's Handwritten Notes

Serial killer Israel Keyes' blood smeared suicide letter, obtained by ABCNews.com, is a creepy ode to murder in which he clearly enjoys killing his victims and expresses his disgust with peoples' everyday lives.

"You may have been free, you loved loving your lie, fate had its own scheme, crushed like a bug you still die," Keyes wrote.

At another point he writes about the "nervous laugh as it burst like a pulse of blood from your throat. There will be no more laughter here."

The arrest of Keyes, 34, on March 12, 2012 for the murder of Alaskan barista Samantha Koenig ended more than a decade of traveling around the country to find victims to kill or to prepare for future crimes by burying murder kits of weapons, cash and tools to dispose of bodies. Since March he had been slowly telling police about his hidden life and how he operated. But the tale abruptly ended when Keyes committed suicide in his jail cell on Dec. 1.

Police are now left trying to fill in the details of his vicious life. Police believe he killed between 8 and 12 people, including Koenig, but only three victims have been definitively tied to Keyes so far.

The FBI released Keyes' four-page document today describing it as "a combination of pencil and ink on yellow legal pad." The pages were discovered under Keyes' body, "illegible and covered in blood," the FBI said.

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Click here to see the original letter.

The papers were sent to an FBI laboratory in Virginia for processing and the FBI was able to restore the notes to a mostly legible condition for review and analysis.

"The FBI concluded there was no hidden code or message in the writings," the FBI said in a news release today. "Further, it was determined that the writings do not offer any investigative clues or leads as to the identity of other possible victims."

The FBI said it would not offer any commentary as the meaning of the writings, but the chillingly morbid writings speak for themselves.

Keyes seems to refer to his victim as a "pretty captive butterfly." He describes what appears to be the victim's final moments:

"Now that I have you held tight I will tell you a story, speak soft in your ear so you know that it's true. You're my love at first sight and though you're scared to be near me, my words penetrate your thoughts now in an intimate prelude.

"I looked in your eyes, they were so dark, warm and trusting, as though you had not a worry or care. The more guiless the game the better potential to fill up those pools with your fear.

"Your face framed in dark curls like a portrait, the sun shone through highlights of red. What color I wonder, and how straight will it turn plastered back with the sweat of your blood.

"Your wet lips were a promise of a secret unspoken, nervous laugh as it burst like a pulse of blood from your throat. There will be no more laughter here."

Keyes also criticized elements of daily life including waiting to die in retirement homes, watching reality television shows, vanity and going to a mindless job.

"Land of the free, land of the lie, land of scheme Americanize!" he wrote twice as a refrain. "Consume what you don't need, stars you idolize, pursue what you admit is a dream, then it's American die."

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Iran's Ahmadinejad kissed and scolded in Egypt

CAIRO (Reuters) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was both kissed and scolded on Tuesday when he began the first visit to Egypt by an Iranian president since Tehran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

The trip was meant to underline a thaw in relations since Egyptians elected an Islamist head of state, President Mohamed Mursi, last June. But it also highlighted deep theological and geopolitical differences.

Mursi, a member of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, kissed Ahmadinejad after he landed at Cairo airport and gave him a red carpet reception with military honors. Ahmadinejad beamed as he shook hands with waiting dignitaries.

But the Shi'ite Iranian leader received a stiff rebuke when he met Egypt's leading Sunni Muslim scholar later at Cairo's historic al-Azhar mosque and university.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, head of the 1,000-year-old seat of religious learning, urged Iran to refrain from interfering in Gulf Arab states, to recognize Bahrain as a "sisterly Arab nation" and rejected the extension of Shi'ite Muslim influence in Sunni countries, a statement from al-Azhar said.

Visiting Cairo to attend an Islamic summit that begins on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad told a news conference he hoped his trip would be "a new starting point in relations between us".

However, a senior cleric from the Egyptian seminary, Hassan al-Shafai, who appeared alongside him, said the meeting had degenerated into an exchange of theological differences.

"There ensued some misunderstandings on certain issues that could have an effect on the cultural, political and social climate of both countries," Shafai said.

"The issues were such that the grand sheikh saw that the meeting ... did not serve the desired purpose."

The visit would have been unthinkable during the rule of Hosni Mubarak, the military-backed autocrat who preserved Egypt's peace treaty with Israel during his 30 years in power and deepened ties between Cairo and the West.

"The political geography of the region will change if Iran and Egypt take a unified position on the Palestinian question," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Al Mayadeen, a Beirut-based TV station, on the eve of his trip.

He said he wanted to visit the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory which neighbors Egypt to the east and is run by the Islamist movement Hamas. "If they allow it, I would go to Gaza to visit the people," Ahmadinejad said.

Analysts doubt that the historic changes that brought Mursi to power will result in a full restoration of diplomatic ties between states whose relations were broken off after the conclusion of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

OBSTACLES TO FULL TIES

At the airport the two leaders discussed ways of improving relations and resolving the Syrian crisis "without resorting to military intervention", Egyptian state media reported.

Egypt is concerned by Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is trying to crush an uprising inspired by the revolt that swept Mubarak from power two years ago. Egypt's overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population is broadly supportive of the uprising against Assad's Alawite-led administration.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr sought to reassure Gulf Arab allies - that are supporting Cairo's battered state finances and are deeply suspicious of Iran - that Egypt would not jeopardize their security.

"The security of the Gulf states is the security of Egypt," he said in remarks reported by the official MENA news agency.

Mursi wants to preserve ties with the United States, the source of $1.3 billion in aid each year to the influential Egyptian military.

"The restoration of full relations with Iran in this period is difficult, despite the warmth in ties ... because of many problems including the Syrian crisis and Cairo's links with the Gulf states, Israel and the United States," said one former Egyptian diplomat.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he was optimistic that ties could grow closer.

"We are gradually improving. We have to be a little bit patient. I'm very hopeful about the expansion of the bilateral relationship," he told Reuters. Asked where he saw room for closer ties, he said: "Trade and economics."

Egypt and Iran have taken opposite courses since the late 1970s. Egypt, under Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat, concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and became a close ally of the United States and Europe. Iran from 1979 turned into a center of opposition to Western influence in the Middle East.

Symbolically, Iran named a street in Tehran after the Islamist who led the 1981 assassination of Sadat.

Egypt gave asylum and a state funeral to Iran's exiled Shah Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 Iranian revolution. He is buried in a mosque beside Cairo's mediaeval Citadel alongside his ex-brother-in-law, Egypt's last king, Farouk.

(Additional reporting by Ayman Samir, Marwa Awad and Alexander Diadosz; Writing by Paul Taylor and Tom Perry; Editing by Andrew Roche and Robin Pomeroy)

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