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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 5:37
Sunrise: 7:03
Noon: 12:18
Evening: 17:53
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Weather Guide
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SUN |
MON |
Tehran: |
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High: |
5 oC |
5 oC |
Low: |
-6 oC |
-6 oC |
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Athens |
16 |
15 |
Ankara |
-10 |
-7 |
Cairo |
20 |
19 |
Copenhagen |
4 |
4 |
Frankfurt |
4 |
6 |
Karachi |
20 |
20 |
Kuwait City |
12 |
12 |
London |
8 |
9 |
Madrid |
14 |
16 |
Moscow |
1 |
-1 |
New Delhi |
20 |
21 |
Paris |
7 |
10 |
Riyadh |
14 |
12 |
Rome |
13 |
14 |
Vienna |
4 |
10 |
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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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New Diabetic Drug Unveiled
World’s First
TEHRAN, Feb. 3--Health Minister Kamran Baqeri Lankarani said on Sunday production of a new medicine named Angi-pars used in treating foot scars in diabetic patients is a matter of national pride since it is the first such drug in the world.
Lankarani noted that Iran is the only country that has taken such big strides in the field of medical research over the past three decades.
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The diabetic drug Angi-pars was unveiled in a
ceremony held in Tehran, Feb. 3.
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“Diabetes is a disease that has claimed many lives throughout the world. The number of diabetic patients will reach 330 million by 2025. Iran is not an exception,“ he said.
Lankarani called on people to pay attention to sports and their diets in order to avoid the scourge of diabetes.
“Iran has published a total of 2,500 research papers in the international field,“ he said.
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Investors Welcome Petrochem Shares
TEHRAN, Feb. 3--Buyers on Sunday showed enthusiasm in buying the shares of Fanavaran Petrochemical Company at Tehran Stock Exchange.
Fanavaran is the first among 17 Oil Ministry-affiliated companies to be privatized.
An estimated 47,500 shares of the company, worth 320 billion rials, were sold in three minutes in line with Article 44 of Iran’s Constitution which calls for large-scale privatization, ISNA reported.
Each share is priced at 6,750 rials.
Commenting on the enthusiasm for the company’s shares, Mehdi Aqdaei, deputy head of Privatization Organization, said since the shares belonged to the Oil Ministry, they were sold out in no time.
Aqdaei depicted a bright future for the company.
Located in an area of 25 hectares in Mahshar Special Economic Zone, southwestern Khuzestan province, the petrochemical company is involved in establishing the third methanol, acetic acid and carbon monoxide units.
About 5 percent of the company’s stocks have been offered in the bourse.
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OIC Foreign Ministers Discuss Gaza
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 3--Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member-states opened an emergency meeting in Jeddah to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki attended the meeting that started on Sunday morning, IRNA reported.
The meeting is being held upon Iran’s urging and at the level of the OIC Executive Committee.
Participants are to deliberate on the latest developments in Palestine, particularly in Gaza Strip, following recent savage attacks of the Zionist Israeli regime against the defenseless Gazans in January.
The Executive Committee groups Malaysia, Qatar, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Uganda.
Other participants of the meeting include Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority.
According to media reports, over 96 Gazans lost their lives since January 16 when Israel escalated violent attacks on the defenseless people living in Gaza.
Israeli is pursuing “scorched-earth policy“ with the aim of throwing out the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza Strip, a Jeddah-based OIC diplomat told IRNA.
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Erdogan Defends
Lifting Headscarf Ban
ANKARA, Turkey, Feb. 3--Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused opponents of his government’s plans to end a ban on Islamic headscarves in universities of dividing society.
More than 100,000 Turks rallied here in a massive demonstration on Saturday against the planned reform, which they claim will erode the strict secular system of the mainly Muslim country and put pressure on women to cover up, AFP reported.
The protest came a day after leading academics warned that lifting the ban would lead to chaos and clashes in universities and pave the way for Turkey to become a religious state.
“Are you not dividing society by accusing those who do not think or dress like you of being enemies of secularism and the regime?“ Erdogan was quoted by Anatolia as saying late Saturday.
“Are you not contradicting the fundamental philosophy of the republic...by thinking that universal values, freedoms and liberties are only valid for you?“ he asked.
Erdogan argued that secular forces had nothing to fear from the pious masses and said his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) would ensure that the rights of everyone, regardless of their religious convictions, would be protected.
“People who are devout and who cover their hair are in favor of secularism just like anyone else. They are committed to the values of the Republic,“ he said.
“If anyone sees their lifestyle under threat and feels social pressure, they should know that the secular system and we, the protectors of secularism, are their guarantee.“
The parliament is expected to vote next week on the AKP-sponsored reform which seeks to amend the constitution to ease the decades-long ban on headscarves for university students.
The AKP has won the backing of a nationalist opposition party for the planned changes and the two parties easily have the two-thirds parliamentary majority required to amend the constitution.
The AKP, the offshoot of a now-banned Islamist party, has long opposed the ban on wearing the headscarf in universities, arguing that it violates both the freedom of conscience and the right to education.
Secularist forces, including the army and senior judges, are toeing the western line that the headscarf is a symbol of Muslim defiance whereas it is only an expression of their Islamic faith.
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Fierce Battle
For Chad Capital
NDJAMENA, Chad, Feb. 3--Fierce fighting with tanks and helicopter strikes rocked the Chad capital for a second day on Sunday, as rebels surrounded President Idriss Deby in his palace and hundreds of foreigners fled the country.
With international aid organizations reporting bodies in the streets and hundreds of people wounded, anti-tank and automatic weapons fire was heard around the presidential palace, where Deby has been holed up since Friday, AFP reported.
French Defense Minister Herve Morin said the new fighting could be ’crucial’ in the battle for control of the former French colony in West Africa.
The campaign by three rebel commanders has opened up a new conflict next to Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region and the deployment of a European peacekeeping mission in Chad and neighboring Central African Republic has been suspended, Morin said in Paris.
Chadian authorities accused Sudan of giving military backing to rebels who launched a new attack on Sunday on an eastern town near the border.
Chadian army helicopters attacked a rebel column in the south of the capital near the national radio station. They also fired at other rebel vehicles in the city.
An army tank defended the entrance to the national radio and was firing at anyone who showed themselves on the street, a witness told AFP.
“We did not take the airport so as not to hinder the evacuation of foreign nationals and now the French Army is letting these helicopters take off and attack us,“ a rebel spokesman, Abderaman Khoulamallah, told AFP.
The fighting closed in on the airport and forced a temporary halt to the airlift of foreigners. But the French military said a Hercules plane carrying 104 people left Sunday morning in a calm during the unrest.
A French Foreign Ministry statement said 217 French nationals and 297 foreigners had been flown out of Ndjamena.
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Unity of Purpose
By Mohammad Asgari
Most of the 1.5 million Palestinians living under oppression in Gaza have pinned their hope on the ongoing meeting of OIC foreign ministers in Saudi Arabia to help relieve them from the latest Israeli crimes.
Representatives of Muslim nations have finally gathered in Jeddah following a proposal by Iran to find a way to avert another humanitarian crisis in the long-pauperized piece of land known as the Gaza Strip.
Top diplomats of the 56-nation Organization of Islamic Conference have expressed their desire to help the defenseless Gazans. Over the weeks large-scale anti-Israeli rallies have been held in many Muslim countries and Europe amid growing calls for effective international action to aid the besieged Palestinians and censure the lawless state in Tel Aviv.
Left to fight its own battles against the western-armed and financed occupying power, Gazans are suffering for years and live under the bombs of the Israeli regime and its economic strangulation.
Heart-rending developments in Gaza now effectively turned into the world’s largest concentration camp where women and children are dying only because they remain opposed to Israeli occupation, are not random. For this and a whole set of other reasons, the crisis there should not and cannot be ignored by the world, particularly those laying permanent claim to defending human rights and rule of law.
Recent events in Gaza are part of the US-Israeli strategy to further ensure the survival of the usurper state and its “borders“.
There is little doubt that ongoing killing of Palestinians in the strip is aimed, inter alia, at breaking the strong will and resistance of Palestinians and end their Intifada.
After its humiliating defeat in the 33-day war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 and the findings of the Winograd report, the Israeli regime has been seeking a pretext to settle scores and avenge the Palestinians for its humiliating setbacks against the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Moreover, the failed Annapolis conference plus Bush’s Mideast tour last month were seen as another green signal for the Zionist entity to spread more carnage, death and destruction in Occupied Palestine.
The final aim of the United States and Israel in the Middle East is domination on the Islamic world. Since Palestine is holy to most Muslims, addressing its problems is a top priority for the believers and seekers of justice.
As the most influential Muslim grouping, the OIC bears special responsibility for defending the rights of all Muslims including the people of Palestine. Its foreign ministers should rise to the occasion and demonstrate their unity of purpose to the world.
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