Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (IRNA Photo)

TEHRAN, Nov. 14--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday Iran is determined to commission 60,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium to meet the country’s nuclear fuel requirements.
Speaking to domestic reporters at his fifth press conference, the president said, “We will commission 3,000 centrifuges by the yearend,“ IRNA reported.
“We are determined to master the nuclear fuel cycle and commission some 60,000 centrifuges to meet our demands,“ he said.
Iran has said it is looking to install 3,000 centrifuges by March 2007, in itself a massive step from the two cascades of 164 centrifuges apiece it launched at its Natanz plant to enrich uranium on a research scale.
He said that two major technological achievements of the government will be made public during the Ten-Day Dawn (February 1-11) ceremonies.
Ahmadinejad announced that he will soon send a message to the American nation.
“I will soon send a message to the American people. The message is under preparation,“ he added, noting that his message would be in response to the American nation’s call.
He further said Iran is ready to talk to the United States if there was a change of attitude in Washington, which faces pressure to deal directly with Tehran to help ease violence in Iraq.
Referring to the fact that the domestic economic indexes are rapidly improving, the chief executive said one of these indices is the bourse performance.
“Bourse has suffered due to the irrational growth since 2004. Some people did their best to gain as much profit as they could from the bourse transactions. Since that year, the bourse showed a sharp decline,“ he said.
He maintained that the bourse is currently in a stable situation and bourse regulations have been fully revised.
“People are provided with transparent information about bourse transactions. The status of bourse is gradually improving,“ he said.
Stating that growth in non-oil export is another indicator of the rise in production, Ahmadinejad said although the projected volume of non-oil export was $8.4 billion last year, the actual figure was $10.5 billion.
Ahmadinejad also said foreign investments in Iran have also increased in 2005.
“During the last 14 months, $11.5 billion worth of foreign investments in the non-oil sector were approved,“ he said.

TEHRAN, Nov. 14--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday the victory of Lebanese people and the resistance movement during the 33-day war with Israel brought honor for all Muslims worldwide.
In a meeting with a delegation from Lebanon comprising Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and representatives from Hezbollah and Amal, the political parties whose members resigned from the cabinet of Fouad Siniora, the leader said the 33-day war (fought as of July 12), which was the war of the Lebanese people with the US-backed Zionist regime in its neighborhood, set a precedent in the fight against occupation, IRNA reported.
“The lofty aspects of the campaign and its outcome will become evident in future,“ he said.
The leader referred to Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah’s character as ’unique’ and appreciated the services of Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to the Islamic resistance movement of Lebanon.
“Solidarity and brotherly relations between Hezbollah and Amal of Lebanon were effective in the victory over the enemy,“ he said, advising the two political parties to reinforce solidarity.
Ayatollah Khamenei also said that the Zionist regime may hatch new plots to overshadow the great victory of Lebanon and recommended the Lebanese people to be well-prepared to thwart such conspiracies of the US-backed Zionist regime.
Nabih Berri noted that the victory of the Lebanese people over Israeli occupation forces was due to the bravery of the youth and the Lebanese nation’s solidarity with the Islamic resistance movement, adding that the outcome of the war proved that faith is stronger than US weapons.
“The countdown for the annihilation of US imperialism started from Lebanon,“ he said.
“The victory of the Lebanese people was effective in defeating the Republicans in the US midterm elections.“
Berri thanked Iranian support for the campaign of Lebanese people against the Zionist occupation forces.

TEHRAN, Nov. 14--The sixth annual commendation ceremony for luminaries from different field was held here late Monday by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Twenty-two national and 2 foreign scholars, who were honored for their lifetime achievements, are as follows:

1. Mohammad Nouri, music
2. Mahmoud Maheronnaqsh, fine arts
3. Ali Mohammad Haghshenash, linguistics
4. Ali Rezaian, management
5. Afsaneh Safavi, chemistry
6. Jamshid Mashayekhi, cinema
7. Yadollah Kaboli, calligraphy
8. Abbasali Amid-Zanjani, law
9. Jalil Tajlil, Persian literature
10. Gholamhosseini Shokouhi, education
11. Seyyed Ali Mousavi-Garmaroudi, poetry
12. Mansour Nikkhah-Bahrami, mechanics
13. Karou Louks, electrical engineering
14. Gholamali Afrouz, psychology
15. Hashem Rafiei-Tabar, theoretical physics
16. Sadegh Ayenehvand, history
17. Ahmad Rasoulzadeh, dubbing
18. Majid Samiei, neurology
19. Parviz Fattah, dam construction
20. Ali Eslami, veterinary
21. Mohammad Hossein Tamaddon, economics
22. Gholamreza Pourmand, urology
23. Alibaba Hajizadeh, Iran studies from Azerbaijan
24. Mikhail Bughalobov, Persian literature from Russia

BERLIN, Nov. 14--An international grouping of lawyers filed a lawsuit on Tuesday calling on German prosecutors to investigate outgoing US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for allegedly sanctioning torture.
The 220-page suit is being brought on behalf of 11 former Iraqi detainees of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and one Saudi currently being held at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, AFP reported.
The suit was filed to Germany’s federal prosecutor Monika Harms at her offices in the western city of Karlsruhe, said Hannes Honecker, the secretary-general of the Germany-based Republican Attorneys’ Association.
German law allows the pursuit of war crimes cases, regardless of where they originate in the world.
The German lawyer representing the detainees, Wolfgang Kaleck, told a press conference in Berlin, “We are not expecting that Rumsfeld will appear in a court, but we are hoping investigators will begin looking into the case.“
“If we fail here, we will try in France, or in Spain. We want to show that there will be no safe haven anywhere in the world for him,“ he said.
The lawyer for the Guantanamo detainee, Mohammed Al-Qahtani, claims Rumsfeld approved special ’tactics’ when he failed to break under interrogation.
The measures included sleep deprivation and a ban on praying, lawyer Gitanjali Gutierrez said.
The groups have former US Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who commanded 17 US-run jails in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib, as a witness on their behalf.
Former White House counsel and current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet, and other high-ranking US officials are also charged in the complaint.
Other groups involved in the suit include the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights and the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.
The Abu Ghraib scandal erupted in 2004 after photographs were leaked to the press showing US guards mistreating and sexually humiliating prisoners. Some pictures showed naked inmates cowering in front of unmuzzled dogs.