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Prayer Time
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Dawn: 4:58
Sunrise: 6:22
Noon: 11:48
Evening: 17:32
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Weather Guide
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THU |
FRI |
Tehran: |
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High: |
22 oC |
22 oC |
Low: |
11 oC |
11 oC |
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Athens |
17 |
16 |
Ankara |
3 |
3 |
Paris |
7 |
5 |
New Delhi |
15 |
14 |
Rome |
13 |
16 |
Riyadh |
17 |
17 |
Frankfurt |
7 |
7 |
Cairo |
19 |
17 |
Kuwait City |
17 |
17 |
Karachi |
21 |
21 |
Copenhagen |
5 |
7 |
London |
9 |
8 |
Moscow |
-1 |
-1 |
Madrid |
7 |
7 |
Vienna |
12 |
12 |
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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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Fresh Nuclear Talks Planned
VIENNA, Austria,
Oct. 27--Talks between European and Iranian officials on Tehran's nuclear program broke up here Wednesday without apparent agreement but will resume, according to a member of the Iranian delegation.
"We're negotiating and we're trying to come to an agreement. The next meeting will be soon," said Sirus Naseri, in quotes translated from Persian by journalists who monitored the talks in Vienna, AFP reported.
It followed a meeting behind closed doors at the French Embassy in Vienna.
At that meeting, Iran was to respond to an offer by Britain, France and Germany, the European Union's three biggest countries that would allow it to avoid potential UN sanctions and receive nuclear technology for indefinitely suspending uranium enrichment.
Meanwhile, Britain said the European Union made progress in talks on Wednesday with Iran aimed at freezing Tehran's uranium enrichment program.
"Some progress was made towards identifying the elements of a common approach to the issues and the two sides agreed to meet again shortly," a British Foreign Office spokesman told Reuters in London after Wednesday's talks.
Diplomats said earlier that they saw little prospect of a breakthrough.
In Tehran, a senior official said late Tuesday that Iran could take months to agree to the EU request because the offer was riddled with ambiguities and must be more balanced.
Iran had indicated earlier in the week that it was ready to consider the request, in what could be a major breakthrough toward ending a standoff over its nuclear program, which the United States claims hides secret weapons development.
Under the European offer, Iran would receive valuable nuclear technology, including a light-water research reactor which would produce less fissionable material than the heavy-water reactor Tehran wants to build.
The deal also includes a recognition of Tehran's right to peaceful nuclear technology, measures to increase trade and backing of some of Iran's regional security concerns.
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Kerry Calls Cheney "Minister of Disinformation"
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John Kerry
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SIOUX CITY, Iowa, Oct. 27--John Kerry Wednesday slammed Vice President Dick Cheney as "Minister of Disinformation," and accused the White House of "dodging and bobbing and weaving" to evade blame over missing explosives in Iraq.
Just six days before the US election, the Democratic challenger sought to fan the controversy over the missing 350 tons of high explosives, arguing the issue proved President George W. Bush unfit for a second term in office, AFP reported.
"What we're seeing is this White House dodging and bobbing and weaving in their usual effort to avoid responsibility, just as they've done every step of the way in our involvement in Iraq," Kerry said, at a rally in Iowa, where he is running neck and neck with Bush.
"Vice President Dick Cheney who is becoming the Chief Minister of Disinformation, echoed that it's not the administration's fault and even criticized those who raised the subject.
Cheney had led the Bush administration counter-offensive at a rally in Pensacola, Florida on Tuesday.
But a top Iraqi science official said Wednesday the 350 tons of high explosives could not have been smuggled out of the military site south of Baghdad before Saddam Hussein was ousted.
Mohammed Al-Sharaa, who heads the science ministry's site monitoring department and worked with UN weapons inspectors under Saddam, said, "It is impossible that these materials could have been taken from this site before the regime's fall."
He said he and other officials had been ordered a month earlier to insure that "not even a shred of paper left the sites".
The UN nuclear watchdog this week said the explosives went missing from a weapons dump some time after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in April 2003 by the US-led invasion.
The dump, Al-Qaqaa, is 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Baghdad.
The bulk of materials in question include HMX (high melting point explosive) and RDX (rapid detonation explosive), which can be used in major bombing attacks, making missile warheads and detonating nuclear weapons.
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Youth Reflect On Press Performance
TEHRAN, Oct. 27--A survey of the views of youths showed 74 percent believe the print media played an important role in facilitating political development, ISNA reported Wednesday.
The survey, conducted by National Youth Organization, also showed 70 percent of youths believe the print media have not been able to move ahead of the public opinion.
Some 71 percent said they can find a newspaper that appeals to them among those available and nearly the same number said publications are easily accessible in their neighborhoods.
Based on the same report, some 54 percent of youths believe the print media fulfilled their responsibility of making constructive criticisms against the officialdom in an effective manner. Approximately 51 percent think publications helped them attach more credence to religious values and 73 percent believe they contain useful information.
Nearly 54 percent of the youths surveyed also maintained that the press corps need more freedoms.
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EU Commission Facing Turmoil
STRASBOURG, France, Oct. 27--The incoming head of the European Commission withdrew his proposed EU executive team on Wednesday to avoid an unprecedented European Parliament defeat, plunging the 25-nation bloc into turmoil.
Jose Manuel Barroso's last-minute retreat created political uncertainty just two days before EU leaders are to sign the recently enlarged bloc's first constitution in Rome, Reuters reported.
"I have come to the conclusion that if a vote is taken today, the outcome will not be positive for EU institutions or for the European project," Jose Manuel Barroso told the assembly an hour before the investiture vote had been due.
"In these circumstances, I have decided not to submit the new European Commission for your approval today," he said. "I need more time to look at this issue."
Barroso's team faced likely rejection after he refused to replace his nominated justice and security chief, Italy's Rocco Buttiglione, who outraged many lawmakers with his conservative Roman Catholic views on homosexuality and marriage.
The president-elect declined to say if he would now replace individuals or just reshuffle the 25-member team's portfolios.
The delay means the outgoing Commission led by Romano Prodi of Italy remains in office temporarily, but it should not seriously affect EU decision-making, officials said.
Commission Spokesman Reijo Kemppinen said Prodi had agreed to stay on at the request of Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Lawmakers from across the political spectrum hailed Barroso's climb-down as a victory for the growing power of the EU Parliament, often regarded as a talking-shop until it forced a previous Commission to resign en masse in 1999.
It could transform Friday's glittering constitution signing ceremony, meant to launch the public campaign for ratification in member states, into a crisis summit on the standoff between the bloc's main institutions, diplomats said.
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200 Activists Seek Freedom of Prisoners
TEHRAN, Oct. 27--Some 200 political activists, including academicians and writers, in a letter to the heads of the three branches of government called for the freedom of Taqi Rahmani, Reza Alijani and Hoda Saber, jailed members of the Nationalist-Religious Group, ISNA reported on Wednesday.
Signatories of the missive emphasized that the three prisoners have been mistreated and pointed out that they have already written several letters to top officials demanding their freedom.
"For about 16 months, a self-motivated current has violated the country's governing laws and kept these people in prison, exerting psychological pressures on both the prisoners and their families. Examination of the remarks made by judicial officials, especially the judiciary spokesman, about the reasons behind the arrest of these people shows that accusations leveled against them are baseless," the letter noted.
The activists pointed out that during the first few months of their arrest, it was claimed that these people acted against national security during the unrest of the summer of 2003 while security officials and the Intelligence Ministry have rejected this claim.
The letter noted that currently there is no reason to keep these people in prison.
"We were hoping that by presenting documented information to the president, the Majlis speaker and the judiciary chief as well as other judicial officials and upon the clarification of the truth, these people would no longer be mistreated ... But their mistreatment is continuing," it said.
The activists also reiterated that the continuation of this situation is very unfair and called for their immediate freedom to prevent further deterioration of the situation.
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Turkey Hopeful of Gas Price Resolution
ANKARA, Turkey,
Oct. 27--Turkey's energy minister said Wednesday he expected talks for a discount in the price of natural gas his country is buying from neighboring Iran to reach a positive outcome by the end of the year.
"The talks are going on in an atmosphere of understanding ... I believe we will reach a positive outcome by the end of the year," Hilmi Guler told NTV television, AFP reported.
Turkey demanded a renegotiation of its 1996 natural gas deal with Iran in October 2003, saying that it was paying too much.
Tehran first threatened to take the dispute to an international court, but then agreed to negotiations with Ankara.
The Turkish-Iranian natural gas pipeline, which runs from the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz to Ankara, started pumping in December 2001, two years behind schedule because of delays in the construction on Turkish territory and subsequent wrangling between the two sides over technical matters.
The deal, signed in August 1996 by the government of Turkey's former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, has been criticized by the United States on the grounds that it rivaled a major project to carry natural gas from Turkmenistan to western markets via Turkey.
Under the 25-year deal, Turkey was supposed to import 4 billion cubic meters (140 billion cubic feet) of gas in 2002 and the amount was planned to reach 10 billion in 2007.
Ankara had already secured a discount following negotiations in 2002, when it suspended imports for several months, citing the poor quality of gas.
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Sharon GovŐt on the Brink
BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Oct. 27--After navigating his way through a political minefield and winning MPs' backing for his Gaza pullout plan, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appears in a stronger position to reject an ultimatum from adversaries who want a referendum but his government remains on the brink.
During the course of an often fractious debate, which culminated in a 22-vote majority on Tuesday night for Sharon's flagship project, the former general displayed nerves of steel and did not flinch in the face of battle, AFP reported.
"Many things can be said about Sharon's wars, but when it comes to wars of nerves, he is the champion," said Nahum Barnea of the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily whose front-page was dominated by a photo of a beaming Sharon under the single word headline "Victory".
But while Sharon was milking the plaudits for his dramatic and unexpectedly large 22-vote majority win in the 120-seat Knesset, commentators said his arch rival, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, shot himself in the foot by trying and failing to bounce the premier into calling a referendum.
After the vote, Netanyahu threatened to quit along with three other ministers unless a plebiscite was agreed to within a fortnight. But Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, at best luke warm about disengagement and a supporter of a referendum, said Netanyahu's ultimatum was ill-conceived.
Seventeen of the 40 MPs from his own Likud party voted against the government.
If Netanyahu and his three allies follow through with their threat Sharon will then be faced with a hostile majority within Likud ranks.
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Enemy Within
By Amin Sabooni
Looking at the latest Transparency International scoreboard, one cannot help but feel a deep sense of humiliation and pain at how things are in our Islamic state. For the year 2004 Iran came a poor 88th on the TI's Corruption Perceptions Index with a score of 2.9 out of 10. Last year we got 3.0 and were expected to move upwards with better scores.
Alas, that was not to be and now the Berlin-based non-governmental organization has lumped Iran with some of the most corrupt countries in the world starting from Azerbaijan to Yemen.
According to CPI2004, a total of 106 out of 146 scored less than 5 against a clean score of 10. Several countries moved up after showing verifiable progress in curbing the scourge while many others declined following increase in corruption levels. The top ranks went to Finland, New Zealand and Denmark, while Haiti, Bangladesh and Nigeria were at the bottom end.
One important measure of any respected and responsible society is the way it performs and tries not to hide its flaws and weaknesses. Another is the willingness and ability of its authorities to combat graft, nepotism and cronyism. Corrupt practices at high levels over time trickle down to ordinary folks and then it becomes almost impossible to defeat the hydra-headed evil.
In our country, things look fine on the surface! Theorists and theologians never lose the opportunity to advise their audiences about the virtues of a simple livelihood, piety and staying away from tainted money. Day after day for the past quarter century we have heard the top brass say that "honesty is the best policy." But below the surface, things are much different and the stench of corruption is spreading.
What have all these lessons taught us and our children who will be tomorrow's leaders, lawyers, teachers, police officers...? Make money while the sun shines! Enrich yourself at the expense of the state and forget all those divine teachings about good and evil!
To the shock and awe of millions wanting to live in a clean and honorable society, greed has become a growth industry in the Islamic Republic of Iran, that is if you go by the corruption index. The trend is all the more troubling when one sees the long list of regulatory bodies and anti-corruption courts in the country.
There are close to two dozen major state organizations with the mandate to impose checks and balances on the system, promote transparency and accountability, and ensure that higher ups do not offer themselves and their cronies the privileges that belong to others.
So, the logical conclusion would be that all these 'filters' for making society a better place are simply not working. They are useless and a huge drain on the public treasury as they take a lot and hardly give anything tangible in return.
This is where civil society comes in. Governments, including ours, have often shown that they are poor masters when the stakes are high and there is a crucial need for setting strict criteria in all key aspects of governance.
NGOs, the free press and think tanks involved in fighting corruption and promoting accountability now have a more challenging job.
One person or group cannot take on this mammoth task. It is for all of us to rise to the occasion, introduce ombudsmen of the highest integrity and tell those upstart politicians sitting in their ivory towers that enough is enough.
Corruption is today the most dangerous enemy within and must be defeated if we really want to be regarded as a decent society.
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