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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 5:44
Sunrise: 7:11
Noon: 12:16
Evening: 17:40
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Weather Guide
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-12 oC |
WED |
Tehran: |
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High: |
-12 oC |
-13oC |
Low: |
-21 oC |
-14 oC |
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Athens |
16 |
16 |
Ankara |
-7 |
-7 |
Cairo |
16 |
18 |
Copenhagen |
1 |
4 |
Frankfurt |
6 |
4 |
Karachi |
19 |
19 |
Kuwait City |
12 |
12 |
London |
9 |
13 |
Madrid |
11 |
12 |
Moscow |
-1 |
-5 |
New Delhi |
19 |
21 |
Paris |
9 |
10 |
Riyadh |
13 |
17 |
Rome |
11 |
10 |
Vienna |
9 |
3 |
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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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Iran Ready to Discuss Arvand River Dredging
Offer to Host OIC Meeting
TEHRAN, Jan. 21--Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini voiced Iran’s readiness to discuss Arvand River dredging with an Iraqi delegation scheduled to visit Tehran next month.
Speaking during his weekly press briefing on Monday, he said, “Tehran is ready to negotiate with the Iraqi delegation on Arvand River dredging within the framework of the Algiers Accord on February 18-19.“
The Algiers Accord, which Iran and Iraq signed in 1975, set the border between the two countries in the middle of the waterway known as Arvand Roud that flows into the Persian Gulf.
Press reports in late December 2007 quoted Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as saying that the Algiers agreement was invalid. Tehran demanded clarification from Baghdad and the Iranian press also took a strong stance against the Iraqi leader.
The outcry was vocal, especially in light of the fact that Talabani is considered a close friend of Iran and a respected politician who commands respect among the Iranian people and statesmen.
Talabani’s office soon issued a statement, saying “The current agreement is valid and no single party has the right to cancel or discard it. This is a fact known by the president.“
Elsewhere in his remarks, Hosseini predicted that the meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany in Berlin over Iran’s nuclear program would come to nothing.
The spokesman said the Group 5+1, due to meet for talks on Tuesday, is simply using the Iranian nuclear program as a pretext to put pressure on Iran despite official reports confirming the peaceful nature of all its projects.
He was referring to last November’s report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran’s nuclear projects and the recent agreement between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog to clear up outstanding questions on Iran’s uranium enrichment program by mid-February.
While stressing continued and accelerating cooperation with the IAEA in the framework of “an action plan“ regardless of political moves by the West, Hosseini said participants in the Berlin meeting should stick to IAEA reports instead of complicating the issue.
Referring to the recent Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people, the spokesman expressed Iran’s readiness to host an emergency meeting in Tehran over Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip.
Hosseini said Iran would be ready to host an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) or attend a high-level meeting anywhere else.
Israel has tightened the closure it has imposed on Gaza since mid-June.
Electricity in the Gaza Strip areas was cut after the supply from the main power station was halted by a fuel shortage imposed by Israel, officials said on Sunday.
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Humanitarian Crisis Looming
In Gaza
Palestinian children hold up candles during a protest in Gaza City against the power cuts, following the closure of the Gaza Strip’s sole power station, Jan. 20.
See Page 9
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Ayatollah Khamenei:
All Gov’t Branches Should Respect the Law
TEHRAN, Jan. 21--Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Monday all branches of power should implement the laws passed by the Majlis.
This was in response to Majlis Speaker Gholamali Haddad Adel’s letter seeking the leader’s views on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s complaint about some Majlis ratifications, ISNA reported.
“Laws adopted through the process defined by the constitution must be respected by all institutions,“ Ayatollah Khamenei said in his letter.
Haddad said on Monday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had complained about some Majlis ratifications, including those related to city councils or change in working hours of banks.
The speaker pointed out that President Ahmadinejad believes such affairs concern the executive branch rather than the legislative body.
“I was surprised by the president writing to parliament to say a bill was against the constitution. This is unprecedented,“ he said, noting that it was the prerogative of the Guardians Council to decide whether legislation was in accordance with the constitution.
The speaker noted that Majlis never wanted to weaken the government, “on the contrary it has always tried to consult with the executive branch“.
According to Haddad, what is important is maintaining the independence of Majlis within the framework of the constitution and its laws.
“In order to prevent tensions between Majlis and government, I thought that the best thing would be to refer to the constitution itself,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad had criticized the parliament for overturning his decision to dissolve several institutions--including the Money and Credit Council, a key financial policymaker--as well as his abolition of daylight saving time, which was in force for 16 years.
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No Immediate Change in Oil Market
TEHRAN, Jan. 21--An Iranian oil official said any OPEC decision in February to hike output would affect the market in spring and not winter, the Oil Ministry’s website reported on Monday.
Iranian oil minister, Gholamhossein Nozari, said last week that he believes there was enough oil in global markets and sees no need for an output increase, Alalam.ir reported.
Senior Iranian oil official, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said a possible decision by OPEC to increase output in its February meeting will not have an impact on the oil market in this year’s winter and would affect the oil market in spring.
But Khatibi, deputy director for international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company, added that any decision “to increase output can have a positive psychological impact on the market and slightly impact prices“.
Earlier, US President George W. Bush hoped his talks in Saudi Arabia during a recent tour of the Middle East would help encourage OPEC to raise production and dampen oil prices.
However, oil prices rose on Monday in Asia amid expectations that OPEC will resist pressure from the US, the world’s largest energy consumer, to increase crude production.
US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told Saudi Arabia’s oil minister on Saturday that the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries should increase its oil output to meet growing demand.
Last week, Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali Naimi said his country would raise production levels only when the market justifies it.
The current inventory seems normal, he said.
Bodman’s visit to Saudi Arabia--which has the world’s largest oil reserves--comes just before a February 1 OPEC meeting in which it could consider increasing oil production.
Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore, said, “At this point, the market really does not expect an increase in output although there could still be a surprise.“
OPEC is unlikely to raise output “because the upcoming spring season is a period of weak demand“, he said.
Oil prices have retreated nearly $10 from a record of over $100 a barrel earlier this month, weighed by concerns that a flagging US economy would dampen fuel demand.
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Medvedev Candidacy Registered
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Dmitry Medvedev
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MOSCOW, Jan. 21--President Vladimir Putin’s handpicked choice as successor, Dmitry Medvedev, was officially registered on Monday for a March presidential election that he is seen as all but guaranteed to win.
A representative of Medvedev, a bureaucrat who also chairs the state natural gas behemoth Gazprom, collected the registration during a brief ceremony at the Central Election Commission, AFP reported.
There had never been any doubt about Medvedev, 42, breezing through the registration process for the March 2 poll.
In December, he was selected as the ruling United Russia party’s candidate and he was publicly endorsed by Putin.
Putin, who is barred by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive term, also said he would be ready to serve as Medvedev’s prime minister--a formula analysts believe is designed to ensure that Putin retains considerable influence for years to come.
Two other candidates have been registered: Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov and ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
According to the latest opinion polls, Medvedev faces no serious opposition in his bid to win the presidency in a single round of voting. Zyuganov and Zhirinovsky are expected to poll in single-digit figures, while two other candidates seeking registration, including ex-premier Mikhail Kasyanov, are forecast to win minimal support.
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India Launches
Israeli Satellite
BANGALORE, India, Jan. 21--India successfully placed an Israeli spy satellite into orbit in a boost to the South Asian nation’s efforts to win a share of the multibillion-dollar space launch market.
The launch of the Tecsar satellite by an Indian-made rocket was carried out in clear weather at 9:15 a.m. local time (0345 GMT) from the Sriharikota space station in southern India, the Indian Space Research Organization said, AFP reported.
The 300-kilogram (650-pound) satellite, sometimes referred to as the Polaris, was steered into its orbit about 20 minutes later, said Antrix Corporation, the marketing arm of the Bangalore-based space agency.
“Antrix is happy to announce that its second full-fledged commercial launch has been successfully completed,“ said Executive Director K.R. Sridhara Murthi in a statement in this southern Indian city.
The satellite was designed, developed and fabricated by MBT Space, a division of Israel Aerospace Industries. It is equipped with a camera that can see through clouds and carry out day-and-night all-weather imaging.
The mission was executed under a commercial contract between Israel Aerospace Industries and Antrix, Murthi said.
The launch is another step in the commercialization of India’s 45-year-old space program, which put an Italian satellite into orbit in April last year for a fee of $11 million.
India wants to compete alongside the United States, Russia, China, the Ukraine and the European Space Agency in offering commercial satellite launch services.
Paris-based market research firm Euroconsult estimated last year that the launch market will grow to $145 billion over the next 10 years, from $116 billion in 1997-2006, as space-faring nations launch more satellites and deep-space probes.
“This is a major step forward in India’s efforts to penetrate the global satellite launch market,“ said defense and space industry analyst B.K. Pandey, a former air marshal in the Indian air force.
The successful launch showed that India had a launch capability with a “high degree of reliability“, he said in Bangalore.
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Collective Punishment
By Tahmineh Bakhtiari
Long oppressed by the western-armed Israelis and forgotten by the so-called civilized world, the poor and defenseless civilians of Gaza are now in the grip of new despair. As the tiny strip tries to survive under a full-fledged “war“ declared by Ehud Olmert, another humanitarian crisis is unfolding there only to make a bad situation worse for nearly 1.5 million Palestinians.
Israeli air strikes on the city have continued non-stop for several days and the inhuman siege, rightly seen as collective punishment by the Muslim world, has intensified.
For all practical purposes, the outlaw Zionist regime has turned the entire Gaza Strip into the world’s largest prison through military force and by blocking all its entrances.
Intensification of the Gaza crisis has been made much worse due to the power and fuel supplies cut off by Tel Aviv in the unusually cold season. The UN and NGOs have warned that the latest Israeli atrocity will certainly lead to a humanitarian disaster that will have regional repercussions.
The present conditions are so bad that even life-saving units in the few functioning Gaza hospitals are now in the process of closing down due to the lack of electricity.
Thanks to Israel’s systemic policy of death and destruction of the Occupied Palestine, dozens of Palestinians have been killed and wounded in the past week.
Despite the fast deteriorating conditions, the international community (read western community) has maintained its deadly silence and preferred to look the other way as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening under their very nose.
The indifference of international organizations and unquestioned western support for the usurper state has encouraged the formidable Israeli army to step up its air, land and sea strikes on Gaza.
Arab activists and political observers say during his tour of the Middle East last week, George Bush gave the green signal to the Zionist regime to take on the poor Gazans and make their life as miserable as militarily possible of course with full access to American weapons.
The ongoing degradation, that shames humanity and all that sells for human rights and rule of law, should be seen as the handiwork of the Bush administration.
The Zionist entity is trying to intensify pressure on the Gazans in the hope of augmenting Bush’s so-called roadmap for Middle East peace seen by many as three-legged table built to fit only one agenda: safeguarding Israel’s “border“. American warmongering politicians hardly ever make a secret of their love affair with Israel, its insatiable thirst for stolen land, and their desire to wipe out all resistance in and related to the occupied lands.
The international community in general, and Arab regimes in particular are now in the limelight for failing to fulfill their duties and help the Palestinians in agony and despair. Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, has castigated the silence of Arab countries against Israeli brutality and the plight of their Palestinian brothers.
Under the circumstances in which Israel continues to kill Palestinians with shocking immunity, the Islamic Republic as the declared supporter of the defenseless and oppressed Palestinians, has called for immediate action by the Organization of the Islamic Conference and find ways to aid the Gazans in these backbreaking times.
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