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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 5:45
Sunrise: 7:13
Noon: 12:11
Evening: 17:34
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Weather Guide
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WED |
THU |
Tehran: |
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High: |
-10 oC |
-11 oC |
Low: |
-20 oC |
-21 oC |
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Athens |
13 |
15 |
Ankara |
-3 |
-5 |
Cairo |
17 |
17 |
Copenhagen |
6 |
5 |
Frankfurt |
8 |
7 |
Karachi |
24 |
24 |
Kuwait City |
9 |
9 |
London |
8 |
9 |
Madrid |
14 |
11 |
Moscow |
-3 |
-4 |
New Delhi |
23 |
23 |
Paris |
8 |
8 |
Riyadh |
7 |
9 |
Rome |
12 |
13 |
Vienna |
7 |
2 |
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Identification
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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: 88500616,88500617
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
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Algiers Accord Not Negotiable
TEHRAN, Jan. 15--Government Spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said both Iran and Iraq believe the 1975 Algiers Accord is not negotiable.
Talking to reporters on Tuesday, he added that the two neighboring states also believe that the accord is still valid.
The Algiers Accord was signed by Iran and Iraq in 1975 in the Algerian capital to settle territorial dispute, IRNA reported.
Referring to the current visit of US President George W. Bush to the regional countries and his efforts to encourage the Arab states to normalize ties with Israel, Elham said it was a futile attempt.
“Despite all these efforts, the Arab and Muslim states enjoy the best possible cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran,“ he said.
Commenting on growing relations between Iran and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC), the government spokesman said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Qatar on Dec. 2 was a crucial, effective and historic visit.
“The visit was a turning point in expansion of ties with the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council,“ he said.
As to Turkmenistan’s halt in gas exports to Iran, he said, “The Turkmen side has set forth increase in price and several technical issues. The issues are being seriously followed up by the foreign and oil ministries.“
Turkmenistan halted the daily delivery of up to 23 million cubic meters of gas to Iran in December, citing technical issues as the reason.
Referring to domestic issues, Elham said the political parties supported by the US government would have no place among the Iranian nation.
He made the remark while commenting on the recent support of the US President extending support for some Iranian political parties.
“The US support for any domestic group or party would bring them nothing but disgrace and scandal,“ Elham said.
He urged Bush to apologize for his wrong policies during his current visit to the region.
“President Bush had better apologize for the damage he has inflicted on the region through his bullying policies,“ he said.
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Haj Cultural Activities Highlighted
TEHRAN, Jan. 15--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei received a group of officials in charge of Haj affairs on Tuesday.
At the meeting, the leader voiced his appreciation to the officials in charge of the annual pilgrimage and said continuing cultural programs and utilizing all capabilities and facilities would turn the event into an ideal opportunity to properly demonstrate Islamic values and introduce the Islamic Revolution, IRNA reported.
“Haj is a suitable opportunity for undertaking spiritual and cultural activities,“ he said, adding that to better seize the opportunity there should be closer cooperation among intellectuals, scientific delegations and writers.
The leader noted that continuing related programs and setting up an independent course of studies to address people from all walks of live are very crucial.
Ayatollah Khamenei also expressed hope that collective cooperation among executive bodies would help render better services to Haj pilgrims in future.
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Advanced Artillery Production Launched
TEHRAN, Jan. 15--Iran has launched the production line of an advanced antiaircraft artillery in Aerospace Industries Organization, which is affiliated to the Defense Ministry.
The artillery system is equipped with the cutting-edge radar systems and fire control apparatus. It can target aircraft, helicopters and different types of missiles, IRNA reported.
In the ceremony held for launching the production line of the new Iranian artillery system, Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar noted that one of the main objectives of the Defense Ministry is to make the required military hardware for the armed forces inside Iran instead of importing them.
Najjar pointed out that the Defense Ministry experts produced the newly designed 35-millimeter artillery in a short duration.
“This was made possible thanks to the high spirit of Basijis, knowledge of Iranian experts, and the faith and sincerity of our experts,“ he said.
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Fuel Subsidies to End in 2012
TEHRAN, Jan. 15--The government will eliminate fuel subsidies, which annually impose a huge financial burden on state coffers, in 2012.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has notified his special representative in charge of developing public transport and fuel management on Tuesday of the Comprehensive Public Transportation Development Law, which obliges the government to stop paying subsidies for gasoline and diesel within the next five years.
Iran, sitting on the world’s biggest oil and gas reserves, has to spend huge amounts to import the heavily-subsidized gasoline since it lacks enough refining capacity. The parliament has approved the allocation of more than $23 billion for gasoline imports in the current fiscal year (ending March 20).
The law mandates the government to expand public transportation by developing railroads, unifying transportation management, revising prices and improving transport safety.
Phasing out dilapidated vehicles, manufacturing cars and heavy vehicles with bifuel engines, increasing the number of filling stations offering compressed natural gas (CNG) and building new roads and highways are envisaged in the new enactment.
The government is obliged to support inventions aimed at improving energy efficiency as well as the production of electric and hybrid light and heavy vehicles and motorcycles.
Private investors will entitled to a discount in tariffs for importing fuel-efficient vehicles, hybrid cars as well as machineries and equipment used for expanding the national fleet.
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Bush ’Terror’ Charge Dismissed
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Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan. 15--Malaysia disputes the United States’ labeling of Iran as the “world’s leading sponsor of terror“, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.
“That statement (by President George Bush) obviously will not be received well by Muslims,“ the Malaysian prime minister said. “We, too, do not agree,“ nst.com reported.
Abdullah was speaking to the Malaysian media late Monday, the day before he was to give a speech in the two-day Alliance of Civilizations forum in the Spanish
capital.
He was commenting on Bush’s comments made in Abu Dhabi on Sunday where the US president had also asked allies to join the US in confronting Iran “before it is too late“. Top Iranian officials have also heaped scorn on Bush’s visit to the Middle East and accused Bush of fomenting tensions in the region.
Earlier, Abdullah had a busy afternoon with several high-profile talks, meeting Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Conference Ekmelleddin Ihsanoglu and discussing preparations for the 11th session of the Islamic Summit in Senegal in March.
In a separate meeting later, he exchanged views with the high representative of European Union, Javier Solana, on the situation in Darfur and Palestine.
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Israel Kills
15 Gazans
GAZA CITY, Occupied Palestine, Jan. 15--At least 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Tuesday as fighting around the Hamas-run Gaza Strip escalated a day after the two sides launched talks on the core issues of their conflict.
In the deadliest single day of violence in months, activists in Gaza also shot dead an Israeli just inside the occupied lands in a rare sniper attack, AFP reported.
The fighting erupted a day after a meeting of top Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, hot on the heels of US President George W. Bush’s visit and his prediction of a peace treaty by the time he leaves office in a year.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas branded the Gaza operation a ’massacre’ and warned that it flew in the face of the peace efforts re-launched at a US conference less than two months ago.
“What happened today is a massacre, a slaughter against the Palestinian people,“ Abbas told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. “Our people cannot keep silent over these massacres. These massacres cannot bring peace.“
Since the two sides formally re-launched peace talks at the US-hosted conference in late November, some 115 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza, according to an AFP count.
The Israeli assaults on Gaza have sown further discord between the Zionist regime and the Palestinians, who are also angry over the expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied land in the West Bank despite the revived negotiations.
Tuesday’s operation saw a heavy exchange of fire between soldiers and Palestinians in eastern Gaza City, medics and witnesses said.
Among the dead were 10 members of Hamas’s armed wing, including the son of Hamas leader Mahmud Zahar, who vowed “to answer Israel in the only language that it knows“.
The identities of the others killed were not immediately known. About 45 other Palestinians, both militants and civilians, were wounded.
The occupied regime launches near-daily air and ground raids in Gaza aiming to stop rocket and mortar fire from the territory which has been under Hamas control for the past seven months.
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UN Civilization Forum Opens
MADRID, Spain, Jan. 15--World leaders and personalities from some 60 countries launched a new UN forum on Tuesday with the aim of averting the “predicted clash of civilizations“ in the wake of September 11 and other terror attacks.
The first Alliance of Civilizations Forum seeks to “mobilize those great majorities of the population who want to, and know how to, live in peace,“ Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in an inaugural speech, AFP reported.
“It does want to contribute to isolating extremist and intolerant discourses on the part of those who try to utilize religion or culture for political purposes.“
The forum will aim to “avoid the predicted clash of civilizations, by promoting security, understanding, tolerance, and mutual respect in a globalized world“, he said.
Zapatero first proposed the initiative at the UN General Assembly in September 2004, six months after the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, and three years after the September 11 attacks in the United States that claimed nearly 3,000 lives.
Around 350 people from 63 countries are attending the forum, including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a co-sponsor along with Zapatero, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and former Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, the UN high representative for the Alliance of Civilizations.
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Nothing for Arabs
By Mohammad Asgari
The last leg of his controversial Middle East tour will take George Bush to Egypt on Wednesday where he is scheduled to spend four hours.
A not very warm welcome awaits him as Egyptians in large numbers from different walks of life have already taken to the streets demanding their government not allow Bush in their country.
From what is known, protests against the undesirable visit of the highly unpopular president to the seemingly most important Arab country are not limited to the man on the street. Senior Egyptian officials have also expressed strong reservations.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has reportedly described the Bush tour of the Middle East as fruitless, and has even been quoted as saying that the self-appointed superpower has been misled.
Mohammed Mahdi Akef, leader of an Egyptian opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said in a statement that his countrymen will not welcome Bush because the world’s top warmonger has Muslim and Arab blood on his hands.
In exposing the neocon-White House spin on concepts such as human rights, freedom and democracy, the Egyptian Bar Association also singled out pro-western Arab leaders for accepting Bush’s empty promises to help promote peace in the strategic but volatile Middle East, underwrite political reform, and end the crises in Iraq, Lebanon and PalestineÉ
In light of the opposition of a growing number of Arab nations and their political organizations to America’s dangerously biased pro-Israeli policy manifested in the street protests against the Bush tour, it is not difficult to see to what extent he and his war planners have damaged US credibility in this part of the world.
Few doubt that Bush’s senior aides made another major error of judgment by scheduling the 8-day tour at the worst possible time.
As one Arab commentator told this writer “For the past quarter century we have got nothing from America save for more pain, despair and misery. Arabs would want the US and its nonsense out of our region sooner rather than later.“
Most observers have rightly pointed out that this is Bush’s last year in office and he is simply not in a position to turn things around for the better even if he wanted to.
After all, they stress, coming to Occupied Palestine and some Arab capitals in the Middle East and Persian Gulf at the eleventh hour is indeed a reflection of the Bush team’s policies and priorities vis-ˆ-vis this region.
War and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, unquestionable support for the Zionist regime in Israel, and the killing of defenseless Palestinians are just few examples of how Washingtonian powerhouses perceive the Middle East and its future.
The fact that successive US regimes have fully supported Israel and its half-century atrocities against the Lebanese and Palestinian civilians speaks volumes.
With this dark past, how would the embattled Bush administration succeed in mobilizing Arab support for its so-called “roadmap“ for Middle East peace or for the matter any other map remains to be seen.
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