|
Prayer Time (Tehran)
|
|
Dawn: 5: 04
Sunrise: 6:30
Noon: 11:48
Evening: 17:25
|
|
Weather Guide
|
|
|
MON |
TUE |
Tehran: |
|
|
High: |
20 oC |
23 oC |
Low: |
3 oC |
6 oC |
|
|
|
Athens |
20 |
16 |
Ankara |
10 |
10 |
Cairo |
35 |
34 |
Copenhagen |
7 |
8 |
Frankfurt |
10 |
10 |
Karachi |
36 |
34 |
Kuwait City |
32 |
32 |
London |
15 |
11 |
Madrid |
20 |
20 |
Moscow |
-2 |
-3 |
New Delhi |
32 |
32 |
Paris |
12 |
12 |
Riyadh |
29 |
29 |
Rome |
19 |
16 |
Vienna |
8 |
7 |
|
|
Identification
|
|
Published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Address:
Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #212 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran/Iran
Executive Editor:
Editorial Dept. Tel: 88755761-2
Editorial Dept. Fax: 88761869
Advertising Dept. Tel: 88501499, 88737250
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
|
|
|
|
Salutations
“No eyes have ever seen, no ears have ever heard and no heart has ever found anybody greater than Jafar ibn Muhammad Al-Sadeq (AS) in knowledge, piety and worship“
Malik ibn Anas, the leader of a Sunni school of thought Muslim scholars of various schools never agreed unanimously on a matter as much as they agreed on the wisdom and virtues of Imam Jafar Al-Sadeq (AS), who is known as the theoretician of the Shiite school of thought.
Iran Daily expresses heartfelt condolences to its Muslim readers on the occasion of Imam Jafar Al-Sadeq’s (AS) martyrdom anniversary (Nov. 6).
|
|
|
Pour-Mohammadi Commends Public Support
Majlis Election Crucial
|
|
Iranian students hold up posters and shout anti-US slogans during a demonstration outside the former US Embassy in Tehran to
celebrate the Day for Fighting Against Global Arrogance, Nov. 4.
|
TEHRAN, Nov. 4--Despite the ill-intentions of the US and its allies, Iran has been able to resist all pressures because of people’s support, the interior minister said on Sunday.
Addressing a gathering on the occasion of the Day for Fighting Against Global Arrogance, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi added that the Americans exerted heavy pressures to denounce Iran, but the nation withstood all the pressures and illegal sanctions, and did not divert from its declared course of action, IRNA reported.
Stressing that the people are able to withstand the sanctions, the minister urged officials to prevent any impediments in the drive for advancement through prudent measures and plans.
Pointing to the next Majlis elections, he said, “Political parties and dignitaries should try to actively and intelligently participate in the momentous event. This will thwart all enemy plots. The more glorious the public participation in elections, the more enemies will lose hope (in pursuing their ominous intentions).“
He emphasized that presently the will of the people is the dominant criterion in the international political system.
“If money and military might were viewed as the yardstick, then after the lapse of four years since the occupation of Iraq and spending hundreds of billions of dollarsÉthe US should have met all its political objectives in the war-ravaged country. Today we see that the will of Iraqis is the main criterion in all Iraqi affairs,“ he said.
Pour-Mohammadi referred to the exile of the late Imam Khomeini to Turkey in 1964 as the turning point in Iranian history.
“This incident marks a huge sociopolitical movement in the history of the country,“ he said.
Referring to the US Embassy in Tehran as the center of corruption, cruelty and crime, he said the occupation of the Den of Spies (aka the US Embassy in Tehran) by students (following the path of Imam Khomeini) was a divine and everlasting move that pushed the enemy back.
On Nov. 4, 1979, which also marks the anniversary of Imam Khomeini’s exile to Turkey during the former monarchical rule, students took the US Embassy staff hostage.
|
|
|
US Embassy Takeover Understandable
By Amir Tajik
|
|
Noam Chomsky
|
TEHRAN, Nov. 4--Professor Avram Noam Chomsky said the takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 was understandable.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Iran Daily on Sunday, Chomsky said history can justify the move.
“I think the embassy takeover was understandable in the context of the history of the preceding 25 years, the US-British military coup and earlier history as well,“ he said.
Chomsky, an eminent political scientist and linguist, added that taking over embassies is a wrong thing to do in general, but the move by Iranian students in 1979 was understandable.
Asked about the spying activities of the American Embassy staff before the takeover of the embassy, Professor Chomsky added that this is true.
“I think every embassy in the world probably has intelligent agents under the cover of what they’re called political officers or something else. That’s one of the characteristics of embassies. So yes, in that sense it was true,“ he said.
Chomsky explained that not only the US embassies have such activities, but other countries also pursue the same agenda.
“Probably all embassies,“ he stressed.
|
|
|
Oil Industry Performance Outlined
TEHRAN, Nov. 4--Acting oil minister said the conclusion of the contract for a unit of Iran LNG Plan indicates the hard work, constructive efforts and merits of oil projects, despite all the external pressures.
Addressing the special ceremony to mark the Day of Fighting Against Global Arrogance, Gholamhossein Nozari added that the implementation of the upstream section of South Pars Phase 12, which will procure the natural gas needs of Iran LNG Plan, has been quite successful, IRNA reported.
Farab Company, which has signed the contract with Iran Natural Gas Liquidification Company for the construction of the gas sweetening unit, leads the consortium in this project.
“There are also other firms in the consortium, but Farab is technically speaking the most qualified among the other participants. The fact that various phases of Iran LNG Plan has been assigned to local companies demonstrates to foreign companies that in case we do not reach a final agreement with them, we have the means to use the services of local companies,“ he said.
Referring to the Peace Pipeline Project, the official said negotiations between Iran, India and Pakistan have ended.
“The contract for this pipeline will be concluded in the presence of the leaders of the two or three countries,“ he said.
Nozari underlined that the country’s daily crude oil production averages 4.135 million barrels.
“Our production capacity is 4.3 million barrels per day. We hope that by the year end, our daily production level will reach 4.2 million barrels,“ he said.
The acting oil minister, who has been recently proposed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as his choice for oil minister, recalled that the Chinese firm Sinopec has faced delays in declaring the rate of capital return and signing the final agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company regarding development of Yadavaran oilfield.
“The local company Arvandan has been notified of the project for early production from the oilfield,“ he said.
He pointed out that the declared liquefied natural gas production level stands at 77 million tons per annum.
Nozari emphasized that the ministry is fully prepared to procure the country’s winter fuel needs, but the public should help optimize the country’s natural gas consumption.
|
|
|
Egypt Unveils King Tut
CAIRO, Egypt, Nov. 4--The linen wrapped mummy of King Tut was put on public display for the first time on Sunday--85 years after the 3,000-year-old boy pharaoh’s golden enshrined tomb and mummy were discovered in Luxor’s famed Valley of the Kings.
Archeologists removed the mummy from his stone sarcophagus in his underground tomb, revealing his shriveled leather-like face and body, AP reported.
“The golden boy has magic and mystery, and therefore every person all over the world will see what Egypt is doing to preserve the golden boy, and all of them I am sure will come to see the golden boy,“ Egypt’s antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, told reporters under the intense Luxor sun.
Hawass said scientists began restoring King Tut’s badly damaged mummy more than two years ago after it was removed briefly from its sarcophagus and placed into a CT scanner for the first time for further examination. Much of the mummy’s body is broken into 18 pieces that Hawass described looked like stones that were damaged when British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the mummy, took it from his tomb and tried to pull off his famous golden mask.
The mystery surrounding King Tutankhamun and his glittering gold tomb has entranced ancient Egypt fans since Carter first discovered the hidden tomb on Nov. 4, 1922, revealing a trove of fabulous gold and precious stone treasures.
In an effort to try to solve the mysteries, scientists removed Tut’s mummy from his tomb and placed it into a portable CT scanner for 15 minutes in 2005 to obtain a three-dimensional image. The scans were the first done on an Egyptian mummy.
The results did rule out that Tut was violently murdered but stopped short of definitively concluding how he died around 1323 B.C. Experts for the time though suggested that days before dying, Tut badly broke his left thigh, apparently in an accident, that may have caused a fatal infection.
|
|
|
75% of Americans Want Change
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4--Decade-high discontent marks the political landscape a year before the 2008 election, with economic worries compounding the public’s war weariness, deep dissatisfaction with the sitting president and growing disapproval of the Democratic-led Congress.
Seventy-four percent of Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say the country is headed in the wrong direction, the most since the government shut down in a contentious budget battle in early 1996, ABC’s website reported.
And while George W. Bush remains at his career low in job approval, he now has company: A year after they won control of the House and Senate, approval of the Democrats in Congress has fallen to its lowest since 1995.
At play are two of the most powerful forces in politics: an unpopular war and economic anxiety. On Iraq, 63 percent of Americans continue to say the war was not worth fighting. And at home, nearly two-thirds rate the economy negatively, with nearly seven in 10 seeing some likelihood of a recession in the year ahead.
A clear demand is for change: 75 percent want to see the next president lead the nation in a direction different from Bush’s.
That compares to just 47 percent who held that view at this point in Bill Clinton’s presidency, 55 percent in Ronald Reagan’s. Even among Republicans, a bare majority wants a change in direction from Bush’s.
Indeed, while 67 percent of Republicans still approve of Bush’s job performance, that’s a career low within his own party. (Among all Americans, just 33 percent approve.) And a majority of Republicans, 53 percent, say the country’s off on the wrong track; that soars to 74 percent of independents and a nearly unanimous 91 percent of Democrats.
Approval of the Democrats in Congress has dropped by a remarkable 18 points since spring. And in the presidential race, Hillary Clinton, while highly popular within her party, remains a divisive figure more broadly. Nearly half the public views her unfavorably, and more view her ’strongly’ unfavorably than any other leading candidate in either party.
Challenges to the Republicans are deeper still. While Giuliani retains the advantage for the nomination, he’s still comparatively weak in the Republican base. And his own personal favorability rating--the basic measure of a public figure’s popularity--has dropped sharply, from 67 percent in December to 50 percent now, on par with Clinton’s.
|
|
|
Futsal Team Ranks 5th Globally
TEHRAN, Nov. 4--Following its outstanding performance in Brazil’s Grand Prix, Iran’s futsal advanced to the fifth spot with 1,608 points in the world rankings released on Sunday.
Brazil stays on top of the list with 1,931 points while it is followed by Spain (1,895), Italy (1,780) and Portugal (1,675), IRNA reported.
In the rankings, Japan, Uzbekistan and Thailand are placed behind Iran.
The team ranked second last week behind Brazil, as host, which won the Grand Prix.
Iran’s futsal team won the championship of the Second Asian Indoor Games in Macau on Saturday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Emergency in Pakistan
By Majid Vaqari
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan finally declared a state of emergency on Saturday and suspended the constitution. Earlier he had warned that an emergency was indeed possible, especially in light of the deteriorating law and order situation.
But the main question is what actually compelled the general to take the decision at this point in time.
Above all other considerations, observers of the Pakistan scene say it seems the move was a sort of coup against the Supreme Court as Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry was removed from his post for the second time.
Chaudhry’s first dismissal in May resulted in massive protests across the country. After weeks of sit-ins coupled with violence and confusion, Supreme Court judges voted for his immediate reinstatement. The embattled Musharraf complied.
However, the top judicial official soon got involved in the job of issuing verdicts which the government deemed unacceptable and blatant interference in executive affairs. For instance, the court ruled that exiled prime minister Nawaz Sharif was free to return home.
What indeed made Musharraf furious about the attitude of the Supreme Court was its hesitation in making the final decision about the Oct. 6 presidential elections. The court had announced that it would make a decision on that vote by Oct. 17. It had a change of heart and later said its decision would be made known
three days before the end of Musharraf’s second term as chief executive.
Given the rumors that the Supreme Court was expected
to disqualify Musharraf on grounds that he cannot run for the presidency so long as he retains the post of military chief, he made the unsurprising move.
By dismissing the chief justice and some judges he paved the way for having his election victory endorsed. Since Musharraf ousted Chaudhry hours after he declared martial law, it could be said that overhauling the configuration of the Supreme Court is essentially in the cards.
Another point worthy of mention is the speculation about Musharraf planning to share power with the Pakistan’s People Party (PPP) chief and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. With tacit Anglo-American backing she had returned to Karachi on Oct. 19 from Britain after eight years of self-imposed exile.
Her homecoming was a bloody and tragic event as more than 130 people died during the welcoming ceremonies when two powerful bombs exploded within yards of her heavily guarded convoy.
Nevertheless, Bhutto’s recent recommendation that Pakistani intelligence collaborate closely with British and American spy agencies to eliminate extremism and Talibanism from the troubled country was seen in Islamabad as a clear sign that she sought to interfere in the ruling establishment.
Although the government had warned Bhutto about the impracticality of her proposal, she refused to budge and sent a letter to the Interior Ministry officially outlining her demand.
In wake of the imposition of martial law the political equations have changed including the prospect of the Musharraf sharing, albeit reluctantly, power with the PPP opposition. In the present climate the Pakistani Army will see a renewed opportunity to intensify its operations against radical groups. This is one issue Musharraf specifically mentioned in his two-page emergency order.
“Some hardcore militants, extremists, terrorists and suicide bombers“ had been posing a grave threat to the life and property of the citizens of Pakistan, the proclamation said.
In so far as General Musharraf has not commented on parliamentary elections and as arrests of opposition figures intensify, it can be said that the political landscape in the neighboring country has become more complicated. Future of the country looks all the more uncertain.
|
|
|
|
|
|
