He promoted a dialogue among civilizations

It’s going to be a great, great move for us…I think he’s really gained their (coaches) respect with just how serious he is about the game.”After learning of the high praise by the team’s captain and coach Afflalo commented, “…you can’t make excuses. You have to continue to work on your game and when you get your opportunity, be your best.”Those are very veteran words from such a young player.The Nuggets begin their preseason this Thursday at Utah in their NBA preseason opener and their first experience with the replacement referees.. BUCHAREST, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Romanian zinc and lead makerSometra, owned be Greece's Mytilineos (MYTr.AT), said onWednesday it will temporarily halt production and dismiss 80percent of its employees in response to falling metal prices. "We will temporarily stop activity and we will oust 80percent of our 1,050 employees because of the global crisis,"said Sometra's spokesman Eugen Secmerean. "Zinc and lead pricesfell dramatically and this causes us great losses." On London Metal Exchange, lead MPB3 was bid at $1,150 atonne, while zinc MZN3 was bid at $1,155 a tonne, both atabout half of the prices registered in early 2008.

Secmerean said a resumption of production would depend onglobal market conditions. Sometra produced 65,000 tonnes of zinc and 20,000 tonnes oflead last year. In recent months, several industries across Romania havehalted production to reduce the impact of the global cashshortage which has trimmed demand for their exports (Reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by James Jukwey). (Reuters) - The new U.S.

administration needs to show a "fundamental" change in policy not just tactics, Iran's president said on Wednesday after U.S. President Barack Obama offered to extend a hand of peace to the Islamic Republic. WorldUnpicking decades of confrontation and mutual hostility will be no easy task - here are some details of turbulent relations between Iran and the United States. 1953 - A COUP: In August 1953, the CIA helped orchestrate the overthrow of Iran's popular prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, restoring the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, to power. Washington acted after Britain, opposed to Mossadegh's policy of nationalizing the British-controlled oil industry, convinced U.S officials the prime minister was turning to communism. As Britain's power faded, the United States became the symbol of what many Iranians saw as Western imperialism. 1972 - CEMENTING A RELATIONSHIP: A 1972 visit by U.S. President Richard Nixon cemented a close strategic relationship between Iran and the United States.

But opposition to the Shah, led by exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, mounted. 1979 - KHOMEINI RETURNS: After bloody clashes between protesters and troops, the Shah fled into exile in January 1979. The next month, Khomeini returned to Iran in triumph to seal victory for a revolution whose mantra was "Death to America." In November 1979, Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 90 hostages; 52 were held captive for 444 days, prompting Washington to break relations in 1980. 1986 - AN ARMS DEAL U.S. The trade was aimed at winning the release of Americans held by pro-Iranian Shi'ite militants in Lebanon. Money from the sales was secretly passed to U.S.-backed Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua. He promoted a "dialogue among civilizations." During his term, Iranians staged an impromptu vigil in Tehran when hijacked planes struck U.S. targets on September 11, 2001. After those al Qaeda attacks, Iran offered support in a U.S.-led war to topple Afghanistan's Taliban leaders shielding al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.