IRAN DAILY

License Holder: (IRNA) www.irna.ir ● Number 4301 ● Wednesday August 8, 2012 ● Mordad 18, 1391 ● Ramadan 19, 1433 ● Price 2,000 Rials ● 12 Pages ● www.iran-daily.com

Salehi In Turkey

Six-Year Steel Production at 80m Tons

UK Coalition in Crisis Over Parliamentary Reform

Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival Awards Iranian Actors

Capitalist System Root of West’s Economic Problems

President: Media Must Tell Truth Despite Threats

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday media must be noble and tolerant and tell the truth even if it is to their own detriment.
Addressing a ceremony remarking ‘Journalist Day’ in Tehran, he said Iranian journalists ‘must be the standard bearers for justice, tolerance and patience’.
“I suggest to myself, colleagues and all authorities that media is not a field for merely putting freedom of speech on show but actually serve as a field for exercising freedom of speech,” IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
Pointing to the problems and demands of some journalists, he said a media person is a fellow citizen and if he criticizes an official, he should not be subject to punishment.
Responding to a question by a journalist on filtering or shutting down of weblogs for supporting the government, he said had it been to save somebody by closing weblogs, many other events might have happened.
“It is not logical for an authority to take a journalist or media person to court and pass a judgment himself,” Ahmadinejad said.
‘Journalist Day’ in Iran marks the death anniversary of IRNA journalist Mahmoud Saremi, who was martyred along with eight other Iranian diplomats, when Taliban gunmen broke into Iranian consulate in Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif on August 8, 1998 forcing them to stand on a line and sprayed them with bullets in cold-blood.
Death is the ultimate price many journalists pay for reporting from war zones to the world about what is happening on battlefields particularly in zones of conflict such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, etc. For example, the war in Iraq has proved to be the deadliest since World War II.

Iran Develops Nanosensors For Sulfonamide Detection

Iranian researchers at Al-Zahra University in Tehran modified a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs...

Pedestrian Death Rate Alarming

Pedestrians constitute 50 percent of motor vehicle accident deaths in Tehran and this is alarming, said Tehran’s traffic police chief.

Swiss Banks Facing Slow Death

Swiss banks must lure affluent clients from emerging markets or face a “slow death” as the pursuit of tax dodgers by US and European authorities results in outflows of assets, industry officials and investors said.
Reyl Group Chief Executive Officer Francois Reyl said, “Those banks which don’t adapt will die a slow death,” Bloomberg reported. Julius Baer, Sarasin and other Swiss banks are investing onshore branch networks to retain European clients repatriating money.
Compliance and regulatory costs, plus competition from local banks, mean the profit margins on those customers are lower.

Western Europeans Pull $139b
Western Europeans may pull as much as 135 billion francs ($139 billion), or 15 percent of their holdings, from Swiss banks, said Herbert Hensle of Cap Gemini SA. Bank Sarasin & Cie.
AG reported last week that private clients withdrew 3 billion francs from Swiss locations in the year through June.
Switzerland built the world’s biggest offshore wealth center during an era of “black money” that ended when the US sued UBS AG three years ago.
Many of the highest fee-generating European and American customers are withdrawing funds as the hunt for tax evaders widens. As many as 100 Swiss banks will vanish, according to Vontobel Holding AG Chief Executive Officer Zeno Staub.

American Judoka Fails Drug Test

American judoka Nicholas Delpopolo has been thrown out of the Olympics after a failed drug test he blamed on inadvertently eating food that had been baked with marijuana.
The 23-year-old has been disqualified from the 73-kilogram class competition by the International Olympic Committee, after finishing seventh, CNN wrote.
Delpopolo is the first athlete at the 2012 Games to fail an in-competition drug test and in a statement released by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) he said he was embarrassed by his mistake. “My positive test was caused by my inadvertent consumption of food that I did not realize had been baked with marijuana, before I left for the Olympic Games,” Delpopolo said.
“I apologize to US Olympic Committee, to my teammates, and to my fans, and I am embarrassed by this mistake. I look forward to representing my country in the future, and will rededicate myself to being the best judo athlete that I can be.”
Delpopolo won his opening bouts against fighters from Hong Kong and Belgium before defeats to South Korea and Mongolia put him out of medal contention.
He was tested on July 30--the day of his competition--and accepted his disqualification after admitting the offense.
“Nick Delpopolo has failed an in-competition drug test (THC, marijuana) and as a result, he has been disqualified from the Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee,” a statement from the USOC said.

Assad Critical of Foreign-Backed Terrorism

Iran for Dialog Among Syria Groups

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Tuesday decried terrorism sponsored by foreign powers in his crisis-hit country.
“Foreign powers support terrorism in Syria. They supply terrorists with weapons. Such measures are not acceptable,” Assad told visiting top envoy Saeed Jalili on Tuesday. He underlined that Syrian government’s intention is to address public demands through democratic means, IRNA reported.
Jalili, who is the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, for his turn, referred to enemy objectives in Syria, saying, “One should not allow enemies to take revenge on the Syrian people for the defeat of resistance movement.”

Nasrallah: US, Allies Against Syrian Gov’t-Rebels Dialog

Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Monday the United States and its allies will not allow the Syrian opposition to enter dialogue with the Syrian government.
“Dialogue is prohibited in Syria because the Americans, the West, and Israel are not allowing the Syrian opposition to engage in dialogue,” said Nasrallah during a fast-breaking ceremony south of Beirut on Monday, Press TV reported.
He reiterated that Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia have stressed that the fighting must end and the two sides should start negotiations without preconditions.
The West is seeking the destruction of Syria, Nasrallah went on to say.
The Hezbollah leader, meanwhile, condemned a violent attack on an Egyptian border post in the Sinai Peninsula, which claimed the lives of 16 Egyptian border security guards.

US Demining Drill Unable to Affect Iran

Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari has downplayed Washington’s forthcoming minesweeping drill in the Persian Gulf, noting that such measures will have no effect on the Iranian nation’s resolve.
“The US thinks that it can impress Iran by announcing [its plan for] staging a minesweeping exercise in the Persian Gulf but this is not true,” Sayyari told Iran Majlis official news agency, ICANA, on Monday.
He underlined that Washington’s decisions, moves and military maneuvers will have no impact on the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The United States has announced plans to hold extensive demining drills near the Persian Gulf on September 16-27, in cooperation with 20 countries.
The Los Angeles Times quoted unnamed US officials as saying that SeaFox submersibles equipped with TV cameras, homing sonar and explosive charges, are part of a military buildup intended to keep Iran from following through on a threat to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Sayyari further noted that the Persian Gulf littoral states should know that they cannot increase their might by joining hands with the global Arrogance and should, instead, rely on their people’s capacities.
The Islamic Republic can easily maintain security in the Persian Gulf in cooperation with littoral states and there is no need for the presence of other countries, the commander pointed out. In response to illegal US-engineered European Union (EU) embargoes on Iran’s oil industry, Tehran has repeatedly said that it may close the strategic waterway to a large portion of the global energy flow if necessary.

Swiss Envoy Summoned

US, Turkey, Qatar Responsible For Abductees’ Safety

Foreign Ministry has summoned the Swiss chargé d’affaires to Tehran to protest the abduction of 48 Iranian pilgrims by the insurgents in Syria, who are supported by the US government.
Reza Zabib, director general of the North America Bureau of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, told the Swiss envoy that Washington is responsible for the lives of the Iranian nationals kidnapped while on pilgrimage in Syria.
He said that the US should use its influence on the insurgents in Syria to free the abducted Iranians ‘without any preconditions’.
Switzerland’s chargé d’affaires said that Iran’s protest will be conveyed to the US administration and its response will be submitted to Iran.
The Swiss embassy in Tehran has represented US interests in Iran since Tehran and Washington severed diplomatic relations in 1980.
The Iranian pilgrims, traveling on a bus from Damascus International Airport to the shrine of Hazrat Zainab (SA) on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, were abducted by insurgents on August 4.
Iran has asked Turkey and Qatar to help secure the release of the kidnapped Iranian pilgrims.
In separate phone conversations with his Turkish and Qatari counterparts, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi urged the pilgrims’ immediate release.
Davutoglu responded by promising “to study the issue and to carry out efforts as in previous cases,” the Iranian media reported.

Standard Chartered Denies Concealing $250b in Iran Trade

Standard Chartered bank on Tuesday rejected allegations from US regulators that it hid $250 billion in transactions with Iranian banks for almost a decade in violation of US sanctions.
In the latest US move against foreign banks dealing with Iran, New York state regulators branded the lender a ‘rogue bank’ and threatened it with fines and the suspension of its license, AFP reported.
The Department of Financial Services (DFS) said the London-based giant systematically disguised foreign exchange deals with Iran.
But Standard Chartered said it ‘strongly rejects ... the portrayal of facts as set out’ by the DFS.
“The group does not believe the order issued by the DFS presents a full and accurate picture of the facts,” group secretary Annemarie Durbin said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Standard Chartered was ordered to appear on August 15 to explain the ‘apparent violations of law’ and demonstrate why its license to operate in New York should not be revoked.
“For almost 10 years, SCB schemed with the government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250 billion,” the regulator said.
Standard Chartered falsified transaction reports and obstructed oversight ‘in its evident zeal to make hundreds of millions of dollars at almost any cost’, it added.
The transactions mainly involved US dollar transfers for state-owned Iranian banks, including the central bank, that fell under US controls aimed at undermining Tehran’s civilian nuclear program.
The bank, which focuses on Asia, the Middle East and Africa, said it was surprised at the claims as it had informed US agencies in 2010 that it had voluntarily launched an internal compliance review.
It said the review ‘did not identify a single payment on behalf of any party that was designated at the time by the US government as a terrorist entity or organization’.
The bank also said it had stopped all new business with Iranian customers more than five years ago.