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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 4:37
Sunrise: 6:10
Noon: 13:01
Evening: 20:12
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Weather Guide
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TUE |
WED |
Tehran: |
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High: |
21 oC |
23 oC |
Low: |
13 oC |
13 oC |
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Athens |
23 |
22 |
Ankara |
12 |
13 |
Paris |
20 |
17 |
New Delhi |
31 |
34 |
Rome |
21 |
21 |
Riyadh |
36 |
35 |
Frankfurt |
23 |
17 |
Cairo |
26 |
27 |
Kuwait City |
35 |
35 |
Karachi |
39 |
33 |
Copenhagen |
16 |
15 |
London |
17 |
15 |
Moscow |
12 |
18 |
Madrid |
25 |
24 |
Vienna |
26 |
16 |
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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
Managing Director: Mohammad T. Roghaniha
Executive Editor: Amin Sabooni
Editorial Dept. Tel: 8755761-2
Editorial Dept. Fax: 8761869
Advertising Dept. Tel: 8753119, 8757702, 8733764
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
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World Keen To Revitalize NPT
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A protestor flashes an anti-nuclear flier as crowds make their way in New York during a United for Peace and Justice rally to abolish all nuclear weapons worldwide, May 1. (AFP Photo)
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UNITED NATIONS, May 2--Foreign ministers from around the world attempt on Monday to breathe life into a 35-year-old nuclear disarmament treaty whose credibility UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says is seriously challenged.
The United States, in the month-long conference that appears deadlocked before it even begins, wants the focus on Iran and North Korea, Reuters reported.
But the majority of nations complain that the nuclear powers, mainly the United States and Russia, have moved far too slowly in abiding by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which calls for them to move toward dismantling their arsenals.
Iran threatened on Saturday to resume producing nuclear fuel. And North Korea, which said it has nuclear weapons and withdrew from the NPT, on the eve of the conference apparently launched a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan, adding to tensions.
The 188 members of the 1970 treaty, the cornerstone in arms reduction treaties, meet every five years to review progress and set new goals. Only the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China are permitted to have nuclear arms while all other countries vow to give up atomic warheads for good.
Still, Annan has several times expressed his apprehension that the treaty is fraying. He told a forum in February the NPT “faces serious challenges to its credibility“.
Annan and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, open the conference after which a host of foreign ministers, including Iran’s Kamal Kharrazi, address the forum, which ends on May 27.
Kharrazi has scheduled private meetings with both ElBaradei and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. ElBaradei has called for a global moratorium on the enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of plutonium, the two ways of making fuel for atomic weapons.
Ironically, the United States and Iran are allies in opposing ElBaradei’s proposal.
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Theological Schools Highlighted
KERMAN, May 2--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Sunday theological schools now shoulder heavier responsibility in the technology era than in the past.
Addressing clerics and theologians of this southeastern province, the leader underlined the need for using a modern and diverse propagation system, IRNA reported.
“The clerics will suffer a great loss if they fail to utilize such a system,“ he said.
Appreciating the efforts made by theological schools to promote religious sciences and train efficient and committed clerics, Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated that the enemy has targeted all clerics since religious intellectualism is the main weapon of the Islamic society against the enemy’s attacks.
“The clerics play a key role in making use of such a weapon,“ he added.
As to the importance of Iran’s Constitution, the leader said since it is a progressive law, it has been targeted by the enemies. Prior to the leader’s remarks, Kerman’s Friday prayer leader briefed Ayatollah Khamenei on the activities of the provincial theological school.
The leader arrived in Kerman on Sunday for a 10-day visit to meet local people and become familiar with their problems.
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Ministry Focused On Maximum Voter Turnout
TEHRAN, May 2--Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said on Monday his ministry is duty-bound to facilitate political development and ensure a healthy presidential race.
Speaking to senior journalists, Lari noted that in view of the leader’s recent remarks on promoting a maximum voter turnout in the presidential election, the ministry is doing everything possible to facilitate the same, IRNA reported.
“However, it must be understood that the Interior Ministry cannot fulfill this task alone and needs the assistance of the press corps and supervisory organizations,“ he said.
He urged representatives of the local print media to disseminate electoral news in a transparent manner, underlining solidarity between officials and the press corps.
The minister further said despite differences of opinion regarding executive and supervisory affairs, the unnecessary interference of foreigners in the presidential race can be avoided.
Lari complained that in the past eight years, accomplishments of President Mohammad Khatami’s administration have been neglected.
“The sad part is that our political groups only think about the present and do not pay attention to the future. Important projects that became operational during Khatami’s tenure as president belong to the entire Islamic system,“ he said.
In this meeting, representatives of the press corps exchanged views about ways of ensuring maximum voter turnout in the June 17 presidential race.
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RSF: Reporting in Mideast Still Risky
PARIS, May 2--Reporters are putting their lives at risk in the Middle East, working in danger zones and facing increasing government repression in many countries, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Monday.
Twenty-one journalists were killed in the Middle East--19 in Iraq alone--in 2004, accounting for nearly half the total killed worldwide, RSF said, describing the region as “a deadly area for foreign and local media workers,“ AFP reported.
Another 27 were jailed during the year, almost half of them in Iran.
The Paris-based watchdog said the number of foreign reporters in Iraq has declined sharply due to the “lawlessness and impossibility of moving freely around the country“.
A Palestinian journalist was killed in the Gaza Strip in March, probably as part of score-settling, said RSF, but noted that security chaos in the territories was accompanied by increased violence against the media. This aggravated the obstructions caused by the Israeli army, it added.
But aside from the physical danger faced by journalists in conflict zones, repression remains the main problem in reporting on the region, RSF said.
It said 27 journalists were jailed in the Middle East and North Africa in 2004 on various charges, including defamation, insulting the head of state, insulting Islam or putting out false news.
“When state control of news is not enough to keep the media in line and deny the populations democratic aspirations, regimes use threats and physical attacks.“
These issues include corruption, fundamentalism, social and religious taboos and relations with the United States.
RSF said the media in Syria was “suffocating under the heavy surveillance of the secret police and the Baath Party’s corrupt hold on power for the past 40 years“.
Reforms promised by President Bashar al-Assad did not affect the media which remains “outdated and backward“.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia “does not even try to hide its censorship and control of news,“ said RSF, claiming that the government regularly summons newspaper editors to tell them what they can say.
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German Party Demands Withdrawal of US Nukes
BERLIN, May 2--Members of Germany’s ruling coalition on Monday demanded that all US nuclear weapons in Europe be scrapped, ahead of a major non-proliferation meeting in New York.
Amid Greenpeace protests against the weapons in front of the German Foreign Ministry, Greens leader Claudia Roth told the daily Berliner Zeitung that the missiles were a relic of the Cold War, AFP reported.
“They should be withdrawn and destroyed,“ she said.
An estimated 150 atomic weapons are stationed on German soil out of a total of about 480 in Europe. In a case of self-defense after a nuclear attack, they would be carried by German Tornado jets under current pacts.
Foreign affairs spokesman for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats, Gert Weisskirchen, told the paper that Washington could “send a message in Russia’s direction to revive the non-proliferation process“ with a full withdrawal.
And the leader of the liberal opposition Free Democrats, Guido Westerwelle, said nuclear weapons in Europe were futile because they were all relatively short-range and would only be able to target states that are allies today.
He urged Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who is in New York for an international meeting to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to call on Washington to withdraw the weapons.
Members of the environmentalist group Greenpeace on Monday erected a six-meter-tall (20-foot-tall) mock nuclear weapon in front of the foreign ministry in Berlin demanding Germany’s complete withdrawal from what it called “the nuclear war scenario“.
Greenpeace Spokesman Wolfgang Lohbeck said Germany was in violation of the NPT because it would aid in a counter-attack by providing aircraft and pilots to the United States in the case of a nuclear strike.
The conference at the United Nations beginning Monday is aimed at overhauling the NPT, which went into effect in 1970.
Since the treaty was signed, the world faces a new era of ’rogue’ states, international nuclear smuggling rings, and transnational terrorist groups seeking weapons of mass destruction.
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Executive Bodies Will Face Budget Problems
TEHRAN, May 2--Executive bodies this year will face problems over their budgets, Tehran’s governor general said on Monday
Speaking in the provincial meeting of the Planning and Development Council, Ali Akbar Rahmani added that the 2005-6 budget law has been compiled in such a manner that all executive institutions will face problems.
“It is necessary that a committee comprising representatives from the provincial Planning and Development Council, Management and Planning Organization as well as provincial Economic Affairs and Finance Department constantly follow up on the financial problems of Tehran’s executive organizations in light of collective wisdom and prudence,“ he said.
Rahmani emphasized that the government is prepared to show flexibility and resolve the budgetary problems of various organizations.
“If the provincial executive institutions reach a point where they cannot continue their activities due to budgetary shortfalls, the Majlis deputies should cooperate and find a solution,“ he said.
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Illusion at Best
By Dorafshani
Retaining a united Beit-ul-Moqaddas as the permanent capital of Israel and expansion of Jewish settlements on the eastern flank of this holy city and the West Bank, more than being a harbinger of peace between Palestinians and Israelis are a big illusion for the former.
Remarks by Israeli deputy prime minister, Shimon Peres and defense minister, Shaul Mofaz about the conditions in Beit-ul-Moqaddas, Israel’s objectives regarding the arid Naqab Desert in southern Palestine, and building more illegal townships on the western banks of the Jordan River, indeed expose Israel’s true intentions in implementing the Gaza withdrawal plan.
Such pronouncements by Peres, a seasoned politician who has joined the coalition with the hard-line Likud Party under the leadership of Ariel Sharon, shows Israeli political currents are united when it comes to putting a final end to the Palestinian dilemma. It is also an indication of the more difficult times and serious challenges that lie ahead for the oppressed Palestinians.
Sharon’s Gaza withdrawal plan, and plans to dismantle houses in some occupied territories has apparently created a new situation in the half-century Israel-Palestinian conflict, particularly after the suspicious death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in November.
However, Israel’s plans for expanding the illegal townships, refusal to recognize and respect the 1967 borders, irresponsible claims to Beit-ul-Moqaddas and the construction of the new security wall reveals that Gaza withdrawal plan is not a step towards peace. It also belies the fact that some Palestinian factions, knowingly or otherwise, are demonstrating too much of optimism, which could best be described as misplaced.
According to Sharon’s controversial plan, 2,100 residential units will be evacuated in summer. But plans for expanding Jewish townships call for the construction of 6,900 new residential units.
In short, three times of what will be destroyed will be built. Political analysts believe despite Israeli attempts to prove that it is moving in line with calls by the so-called roadmap for Middle East peace, the disengagement plan is far divorced from the notion of peace and stability, and harmful to the Palestinians.
It seems that in his recent tour of Washington, Sharon managed to convince George Bush not to interfere too much in Israel’s programs for the Palestinians. He also advised the American leader and his regime to remain silent on his plans to create more illegal settlements despite earlier opposition to the destructive settlement policies by US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.
At any rate, given Israel’s covert and overt plans to deceive the world and the Palestinians, and ’let it be known that the geography existing before the June 1967 War is history, the search for real peace in the volatile region is nothing but a big illusion.
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