President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures to reporters after the cabinet meeting in Tehran, on Wednesday.

TEHRAN, Aug. 1--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged all executive bodies to serve the people more.
Speaking at the end of a joint Cabinet meeting with governors general on Wednesday, the president said administrative bodies should do their best to implement the government’s decisions, IRNA reported.
“If people were to pay attention to the government’s activities, it would help improve the trend of activities in administrative bodies,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad said governors general should materialize the government’s objectives on employment and procurement of housing for people through constant supervision and cooperation of banks.
The chief executive emphasized the necessity of planning and making fuel consumption cost-effective.
“Governors general should prepare the ground for reducing gasoline consumption by establishing more CNG stations,“ he said.
He also asked the governors general to control the state vehicles used by their employees.
Ahmadinejad thanked the banks for identifying job creation projects and allocating budget for those projects.

Mohammad Hafezi

TEHRAN, Aug. 1--A young Iranian researcher and a physics PhD candidate at Harvard University, Mohammad Hafezi, is working on a research that will revolutionize quantum physics.
Hafezi’s research will pave the way for observing very minute particles known as qubits.
Hafezi told Mehr News Agency that “if a computer is made on the basis of new quantum mechanics concepts, its computing performance will be much faster and better than what it presently is“.
The young researcher’s study will also resolve many problems in the field of atomic physics.
He pointed out that until 10 years ago, no serious attention was paid to quantum mechanics.
“However, the present advanced laboratories have provided people with an opportunity to observe these minute elements that make up the world as a unit and not as a group,“ he said.
Hafezi pointed out that his studies focus on two aspects of quantum mechanics.
“One aspect is related to new ideas that rely on quantum mechanics’ logic.The other aspect is related to quantum coding that can be used in the transfer of the most secret messages. This aspect can be practically used in transmitting bank and military messages,“ he said.
He added that if military and bank messages are conveyed in traditional format, the likelihood of information leak is much higher, but quantum coding will prevent such leakage.
Hafezi, also a research fellow of Professor Lukin Group in the field of laser cooling on optical cavities, pointed out that the use of this area of atomic physics in industries such as semiconductors has been astonishing.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Aug. 1--Minister of Culture and Information of Saudi Arabia Iyad Madani strongly dismissed the issuance of any fatwa (religious decree) by Saudi muftis on demolishing Iraqi holy shrines.
Speaking in a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mohammad Hosseini, the Saudi minister said, “No such Fatwa has ever been issued by any Saudi mufti or its senior religious figures. Such claims are definitely made by Zionists and enemies of Islam.“
Earlier this week, the Arabic-language site Nahrain had reported that demolition of Muslims holy shrines in Iraq had taken place upon the order of Saudi muftis.
The report provoked strong protests inside Iran.
The Saudi minister said immediately after the protests of Iran’s Shiite religious figures that he made inquiries in Saudi Arabia’s religious circles about the report’s accuracy.
“They astonishingly denied any information to this end,“ he said.
The Iranian ambassador said that the region, Iraq in particular, is at a critical juncture.
“Any sectarian and religious dispute could entail very dangerous consequences,“ he warned.
Hosseini noted that “if such sedition is not stopped soon, it will foment tensions in the Islamic world“.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 1--Thunderous car bomb blasts echoed around Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 70 people, as Iraq’s national unity coalition collapsed under the weight of sectarian tensions.
New government figures also revealed civilian deaths in the country rose by one-third last month, dealing a further blow to a five-month-old US security plan designed to stabilize Baghdad and allow for reconciliation, AFP reported.
Three large bombs tore through crowded districts of the capital, leaving at least 70 people dead.
In the largest blast, a truck bomb detonated near a filling station in the west of the city, setting fire to a huge fuel tank, killing at least 50 people and wounding at least 60 more, Iraqi security officials said.
As the explosions rumbled across the city, ministers from the Concord Front, Iraq’s largest Sunni bloc, resigned from the ruling coalition and effectively ended its claim to be a government of national unity.
“The Front announces its withdrawal from the government of Nuri Al-Maliki and the deputy prime minister and the ministers will submit their resignation today,“ said Rafie Al-Issawi, minister of state for foreign affairs.
Issawi made the announcement at a news conference inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone as Sunni Vice President
Tareq Al-Hashemi and other senior members of the bloc stood behind him.
Hashemi will remain vice president and the bloc’s 44 parliamentarians will return to the National Assembly in September after its summer recess, when they will swell the already growing ranks of the opposition.
The decision comes at a time when Maliki’s government is under intense pressure to make use of the space afforded by a five-month-old surge of US troops to hammer out political agreements between the rival factions.
But with parliament having gone on holiday without passing any of the benchmark reforms demanded by Washington, it is unlikely any progress will be made ahead of September’s progress report to the US Congress on the surge.
Meanwhile, the US military said four more troops were killed on Tuesday, bringing US losses since the March 2003 invasion to 3,653, with 83 killed in July, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

DAMASCUS, Syria, Aug. 1--Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad returned to the controversial issue of Golan Heights in a speech to mark the 62nd anniversary of the Syrian Army’s creation.
“Our desire for peace does not mean that we have given up our rights,“ said Assad in the speech, published in the journal “Army of the People“, AFP reported.
Assad said Syria still wanted to return to the borders it had before June 4, 1967, before the Six-Day War, when the Zionist Israeli regime occupied all of the Golan Heights.
“The liberation of our occupied land is a sacred duty and a right guaranteed by international laws,“ he added.
Israel last month rejected a Syrian demand that it withdraw from the Golan Heights before peace talks could resume between the two countries, public radio reported on Saturday.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also reiterated the Israeli position that any talks with Syria must be direct, which Damascus rejects.
Direct peace talks have been frozen since January 2000.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Aug. 1--Saudi Arabia has said it could attend a Middle East peace conference proposed by the US president which would bring it to the same table as Israel.
But Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Saudi’s foreign minister, said his country would only consider attending the meeting if it tackled “substantive matters of peace“.
Saudi Arabia was the main proponent of an Arab peace proposal made at an Arab summit earlier this year which offers Israel full diplomatic ties with 22 Arab countries in return for withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967, AFP reported.
Israel and its US ally have said Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia who do not have ties with Israel should involve themselves in talks with Israel as a goodwill gesture.
“We welcome this initiative,“ Prince Saud said at a news conference with US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Olmert’s office responded by saying that Israel hopes “many Arab countries will attend this international meeting, including Saudi Arabia“.
Though Israel and Saudi Arabia are both US allies, representatives of the countries have never officially met and Saudi Arabia has never recognized Israel.
This is in line with the current US initiative of making the two countries forge ties, while Israel continues to kill Palestinians and refuse to give up an inch of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel has only agreed to ’consider’ the Saudi-promoted Arab peace plan that calls for Israel’s withdrawal from land captured in 1967, including Arab East Beit-ul-Moqaddas, the creation of a Palestinian state and a “just solution“ for Palestinian refugees.
On Wednesday, Israeli troops have martyred two Palestinians and wounded several others during an aggression in the northern Gaza Strip, residents and ambulance workers say.
Breaking Saudi barriers to contact would be a major diplomatic coup for Israel, because of the prestige Saudi Arabia wields as home to Islam’s holiest shrines.
But Riyadh will be wary of opposition from clerics and Islamist activists.

TEHRAN, Aug. 1--An official said Iran will host a conference on the aftereffects of chemical weapons late September.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Gholamhossein Dehqani, secretary of National Convention on Prohibiting Chemical Weapons, added that the confab’s main objective is to introduce the effects of using chemical weapons to the world, IRNA reported.
“Iran is the main victim of chemical weapons. After the war imposed by Iraq on the Iranian people, we have been suffering from the aftereffects of the chemical bombs used by the Saddam regime,“ he said.
He noted that the international convention on prohibiting chemical weapons was devised after the world observed the effects of chemical weapons on Iranians in 1993.
The official pointed out that according to the convention, all countries were obliged to implement the agreement before 1997.
“We will also discuss the world’s ignorance of the crimes of the Baathist regime against the Iranian civilians in the conference, which will be attended by officials from other countries,“ he said.
Dehqani pointed out that Iranian doctors are among the most experienced doctors in the chemical fields and the conference is a good opportunity for them to present their latest achievements to the world.
Noting that the US and Russia are obliged to destroy their chemical weapons before 2012, Dehqani said, “The US and Russia are the two main holders of chemical weapons and according to the 1993 convention, they are obliged to destroy their chemical weapons before 2012.“

WASHINGTON,
Aug. 1--In a unanimous vote, the US Congress passed a bill which criminalizes the formation and operation of any group of oil-producing countries.
The bill: “No Oil-Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2007“ (NOPEC), passed in on May 23, 2007, provides for court action against the indicted countries in the US and denies the “accused state“ sovereign immunity.
The proposed law which was predicated on the accusation by US lawmakers of price-fixing conspiracy by OPEC was meant to address the allegation that the oil group has unfairly driven up the price and cost of imported crude oil to satisfy the greed of oil-exporting countries, especially those in the organization, AllAfrica.com said.
The bill specifies that any country involved in such an action would be denied the defense of sovereign immunity from the jurisdiction or judgments in a US court once an action is brought against such a country in America based on the bill.
“No US court shall decline, based on the act of state doctrine, to make a determination on the merits in an action brought under this Act“.
From obvious indications, the US legislators hope to remove the one voice with which the group has succeeded so far in determining the prices of the product at the international market by the NOPEC law if it scales through the Senate. This is the American lawmakers’ will.
The enforcement strategy of the American anti-OPEC law may target the assets of culprit OPEC member nations in the US which may become subject to court action, including seizure or confiscation.
To ignore this dangerous development without proper contingency measures by OPEC members would be a mistake by member countries, especially primary producers. Nigeria, which is the kingpin of primary producers, supplies about 12 percent of the entire American crude oil import and is the third largest supplier of imported crude stock to the US.

MANILA, Aug. 1--The Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has ordered an investigation into reports that Filipino workers were forced to go to Iraq and work in the US embassy in Baghdad despite a travel ban, her top aide said Wednesday.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the Department of Foreign Affairs was instructed to immediately send a team to the Middle East for the purpose of straightening out the situation, Alalam reported.
Ermita’s comments were in reaction to testimony at a US Congressional hearing, saying that a company, First Kuwaiti, contracted to build the US embassy in Iraq had smuggled 51 Filipinos into the country against their will, telling them they would be working on hotels in Dubai.
“As far as the Department of Foreign Affairs is concerned, the First Kuwaiti Trading Co. has a contract with US contingent in Iraq, and it is this Company that probably would have to take responsibility for what is happening,“ Ermita said.