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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 5:25
Sunrise: 6:54
Noon: 11:53
Evening: 17:11
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Weather Guide
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THU |
FRI |
Tehran: |
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High: |
15 oC |
12 oC |
Low: |
-2 oC |
-3 oC |
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Athens |
13 |
16 |
Ankara |
3 |
6 |
Cairo |
21 |
22 |
Copenhagen |
7 |
7 |
Frankfurt |
1 |
5 |
Karachi |
29 |
29 |
Kuwait City |
21 |
22 |
London |
12 |
11 |
Madrid |
5 |
5 |
Moscow |
-3 |
-6 |
New Delhi |
26 |
27 |
Paris |
7 |
8 |
Riyadh |
27 |
28 |
Rome |
12 |
15 |
Vienna |
3 |
5 |
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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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Leader Highlights Faith, Self-Confidence
Sub Launched
TEHRAN, Nov. 28--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said Wednesday the most important support base of the armed forces is faith in Allah and strong belief in one’s own capabilities.
Speaking to a group of Navy personnel, the leader noted that planning and executing military strategy during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War is jut one example of the Iranian Army’s capabilities, ISNA reported.
Iran’s second submarine in the Ghadir class was launched in Bandar Abbas Wednesday marking the occasion of the annual Navy Day.
The relatively light submarine is equipped with the stae-of-the-art military equipment and electronic gear.
Iran’s universities of technology cooperated with the defense sector over past 10 years in helping design and manufacture the submarine.
Due to its light weight, the sub is capable of taking part in maneuvers at high speed.
Iran will manufacture semi-light submarines in the near future.
Earlier researchers of Malek Ashtar Industrial University and Submarine Research Center had unveiled a submarine named Nahang (whale) for the first time on March 5.
The submarine took part in war games in the past.
Nahang is an advanced military submarine capable of withstanding difficult weather conditions in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman.
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Majlis, Gov’t Cooperating
To Help Check Inflation
Image of Majlis Speaker Gholamali Haddad-Adel is seen on the screen of a video camera, during his speech at an open session of the parliament.
See Page 3
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Mideast Talks
Amid Skepticism
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28--President George W. Bush prepared to shepherd renewed Israeli-Palestinian settlement talks on Wednesday but faced deep skepticism over the prospects for securing a deal before he leaves office in 14 months.
Bush will bring together Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas one day after a 44-nation conference where both pledged to try to forge a peace treaty by the end of 2008 that would create a Palestinian state, Reuters reported.
All three leaders are politically weak at home, raising doubts whether they can make good on their commitments, and lingering mistrust between Israel and Palestinians will make any progress difficult.
In a sign of the obstacles ahead, Hamas who control the Gaza Strip rejected the new peace drive and vowed to undermine it. Violence also flared, with Israeli missiles killing two Palestinians in the southern part of the coastal territory, medical workers said.
Some analysts questioned the Bush administration’s commitment to Israeli-Palestinian peace. “There is, I think, considerable doubt remaining about whether the administration is prepared to take on the heavy lifting ... to make this work,“ said Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution.
Bush hopes for a foreign policy success to polish his legacy, but the unpopular war in Iraq, the main factor in his low public approval ratings, could limit his room to maneuver.
Olmert’s public standing is also low, partly due to last year’s Lebanon war, and rightist coalition partners have warned against concessions. Abbas lost control of Gaza to Hamas in June and only holds sway in the West Bank.
The Annapolis accord emerged from last-minute talks on a joint document meant to chart the course for negotiating the toughest “final status“ issues of the conflict Ð Beit-ul-Moqaddas, borders, security and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
The declaration was vague about key aspects of the US role.
Beyond accepting a framework for peace talks, neither Olmert nor Abbas gave any sign of ceding ground on their main differences when they addressed the conference.
The Israelis appeared to have come away with a greater share of what they were seeking at Annapolis, and many commentators in the Arab world dismissed the conference as a media event designed to repair Bush’s image damaged by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
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Baghdad Too Dangerous
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28--Nearly 90 percent of US journalists in Iraq say much of Baghdad is still too dangerous to visit, despite a recent drop in violence, a poll released on Wednesday said.
The survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center showed that many US journalists believe coverage has painted too rosy a picture of the conflict, Reuters reported.
Most journalists said they believe violence and the threat of violence have increased during their tenures.
Fifty-eight percent of US news organizations have had local Iraqi staff killed or kidnapped within the past year, the survey said. About two-thirds of news outlets said local staff face physical or verbal threats at least several times a month.
“Above all, the journalists -- most of them veteran war correspondents -- describe conditions in Iraq as the most perilous they have ever encountered, and this above everything else is influencing the reporting,“ the authors said in a report that accompanied the data.
At least 122 journalists and 41 media support staff have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003, the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists says. About 85 percent of those killed were Iraqis.
Despite claims by US officials that reporting from Iraq is negatively biased, 70 percent of those surveyed believe overall coverage is accurate, while 15 percent say the coverage makes the situation look better than it is.
Some 87 percent of respondents said at least half of Baghdad remains too dangerous for a western journalist to visit. Eighteen percent said the entire city of Baghdad is too dangerous for travel.
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President Wants Mousavian’s Full Case Exposed
TEHRAN, Nov. 28--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called for releasing the texts of Hossein Mousavian’s secret and unauthorized talks with foreigners.
Mousavian, a former member of the nuclear negotiating team, had been accused of a number of charges, including espionage, IRNA reported.
The senior official, nicknamed ’nuclear spy’ was cleared of espionage charges on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters at the end of a cabinet session, the president said, “Something has happened. He passed some information. Those who are against Iran know about it.“
Visibly unconvinced by the court verdict, the president said
“I strongly propose that the text of his talks be published for the public.“
He went on to say that the case is “not a technical issue, but rather a political one as was seen regarding our peaceful nuclear activities.“
On the same issue he noted “Mousavian met foreigners and talked to them at least 10 to 15 times. Everything will become clear if all the things mentioned by him during those talks become public knowledge,“ the president stressed.
Let the People Know
People are not more outsiders than foreigners, government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham said Wednesday commenting on President Ahmadinejad’s call for publishing the text of a former official’s secret talks with aliens.
Addressing reporters after the same cabinet meeting, Elham said, “When foreigners have the information, then our people too should be informed.“
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File Reopened
TEHRAN, Nov. 28--Public prosecutor of the capital has ordered investigations into the case of Hossein Mousavian continue.
Saeed Mortazavi said suspension of legal proceedings against the former member of the nuclear negotiating team contradicts the penal law and due process.
“Mousavian’s dossier will be returned to court for more investigations,“ Fars News Agency quoted him as saying.
In a letter to the Intelligence Ministry, Mortazavi demanded a news blackout over Mousavian’s case until the final
verdict is issued.
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AFC Futsal Award for Shamsaee
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Vahid Shamsaee
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SYDNEY, Australia, Nov. 28--Iranian’s futsal player, Vahid Shamsaee, was crowned the futsal player of the year 2007 during an award ceremony held at the Hordern Pavillion on Wednesday.
According to AFC, Shamsaee, who earned his second AFC Futsal Championship MVP award as Iran beat Japan in the 2007 final, was named AFC Futsal Player of the Year, while the Iran’s futsal team were also named AFC Futsal Team of the Year.
Japan League champions Urawa Reds won the AFC Club Team of the Year while Sepahan of Iran was a nominee for the award.
AFC Coach of the Year Award, which is reserved exclusively for Asian nationals, went to Rauf Inileev, after the 57-year-old oversaw an impressive Uzbekistan campaign at the AFC Asian Cup 2007. Iran’s Amir Qalenoee also was competing for the award but failed to win it.
Ali Daei, Iranian former striker, attended the ceremony as one of the players who has already won the AFC player of the year in 1999.
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Putin Tells World:
Keep Out of Russia Politics
MOSCOW, Nov. 28--President Vladimir Putin warned the world to steer clear of Russian politics Wednesday, four days from parliamentary elections that his party is set to win.
“We’ve done everything to protect Russia from internal shocks, to firmly put it on the route to evolutionary development and Ð I need to repeat -- we will not allow this process to be corrected from the outside,“ Putin said at a Kremlin meeting with foreign ambassadors, AFP reported.
The warning echoed Putin’s broadside last week against domestic opponents whom he described as “jackals“ scrounging outside foreign embassies.
Putin told the diplomats that Russia would follow “the path of democratic development.“
However Sunday’s parliamentary election, in which the ruling United Russia party is forecast to win more than two thirds of seats, is increasingly overshadowed by accusations that the Kremlin is stifling opposition, as well as mystery over Putin’s future.
Wednesday marked the official start to next year’s presidential election on March 2, after which Putin is required to step down.
The formal start to the race appeared to close a constitutional loophole under which Putin might have been able to bypass a ban on serving more than two consecutive terms.
So far only about a dozen figures with marginal public support have launched a Kremlin bid, leaving the country waiting for Putin to name his preferred successor.
Fueling criticism of the fairness of the parliamentary polls, aides complained that former chess champion Garry Kasparov, arrested during a banned opposition rally in Moscow last Saturday, had been barred access to lawyers and visitors.
Kasparov, considered by many the greatest chess player in history and now a bitter opponent of Putin, was arrested while leading an unauthorized protest march and sentenced to five days in jail. The following day some 200 activists were arrested at a similar rally in Saint Petersburg.
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Change of Era
By Amir Ali Abolfath
After eight years of wearing the uniform of Army Chief, General Pervez Musharraf eventually stepped down Wednesday to join Pakistan’s civilian political class. Now the retired military chief, who was soon replaced by General Ashfaq Kiani, is a civilian president.
By saying farewell to the Joint Chief of Staff, Musharraf fulfilled a key demand of the opposition a day before he was to be sworn in as a civilian president.
His political opponents were strongly against the extended practice of the president doubling as military chief and wanted a permanent end to it.
Former primer minister Benazir Bhutto and leader of the main opposition party, the PPP, set a pre-condition before returning to Pakistan: as president Musharraf should get rid of his military fatigues.
Musharraf who starts a new career as civilian president, is, however, ignoring another demand by opposition leaders: lifting the emergency (imposed on Nov. 3).
The president has refused to budge on this one on the premise that martial law is “necessary for holding healthy elections“.
Musharraf had promised to retire from the army by the end of 2004. But he reneged on that pledge, saying the Muslim country still needed strong leadership. Now that is history in line with the Constitution, and only after he secured a new term as president.
He was reelected to the top post by Parliament in October, but the Supreme Court held up his confirmation following complaints that a military man could not constitutionally serve as elected head of state.
With his final departure from the military, Musharraf has indeed added an important chapter to the annals of Pakistan.
Yet, it should not be perceived that now the former general’s influence over the military establishment will diminish. The fact is that the embattled leader handed over the baton to one of his closest confidants. Many believe by doing so he has safeguarded his clout in the powerful military ranks.
Retirement from the Army is expected to calm the political barometer after months of storm and widespread uncertainty.
After all, it is the first time in recent memory that politics and military will be two different functions.
With the change in poles of power in Islamabad, Musharraf can expect to prepare the groundwork for key parliamentary elections with the participation of all players and parties. It’s obvious that the main clash in the vote will be between supporters of Musharraf and a coalition of his opponents led by Bhutto and another ex-premier Nawaz Sharif who had threatened to boycott the elections scheduled for Jan. 8.
Ongoing developments notwithstanding, the future government, coalition or otherwise, could be different from what Bhutto and Sharif may have perceived. But it will at least appear more democratic.
After all, it is the first time in recent memory that politics and military will be two different functions.
With the change in poles of power in Islamabad, Musharraf can expect to prepare the groundwork for key parliamentary elections with the participation of all players and parties. It’s obvious that the main clash in the vote will be between supporters of Musharraf and a coalition of his opponents led by Bhutto and another ex-premier Nawaz Sharif who had threatened to boycott the elections scheduled for Jan. 8.
Ongoing developments notwithstanding, the future government, coalition or otherwise, could be different from what Bhutto and Sharif may have perceived. But it will at least appear more democratic.
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