Sunteți pe pagina 1din 16

3

By sta & agencies

Guinea-Bissau President Malam Bacai Sanha dies

INTERNATIONAL
W W W . T E H R

4
A N

Venezuela seeks Iranian investment in industrial, infrastructure projects

E C O N O M Y
T I M E S . C O

13
M

Esteghlal edges Damash

16

Foreign storytellers to compete in Iranian festival

ART&CULTURE

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

D A I L Y

16 Pages Price 5000 Rials 33rd year NO.11343 Wednesday JANUARY 11 2012 Day 21 1390 Safar 17 1433

Iran FM to travel to Turkey to discuss nuclear issue

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has promised to hold a referendum on a new constitution in March. He also lashed out at foreign powers for attempting to destabilize Syria, criticizing the Arab League for its stance toward Damascus. We will defeat this conspiracy, Assad declared on Tuesday in a speech that lasted nearly two hours. The Syrian president said the Arab Leagues intervention is

Assad promises to hold referendum on new constitution


worse than international interference, Syrian media reported. He also cited the Syrian sovereignty as the most important issue for the Syrian nation. Assad blasted the foreign conspiracies against the Syrian nation, saying that Syria will remain free and independent despite crisis. He pledged to crush terrorism and sabotage. Assad denied that his government had ordered security forces to shoot on anyone, The New York Times reported. When I rule, I rule because that it is the peoples will, and when I leave oce, I leave because it is the peoples will, Assad said. Contd. on P. 3

Enrichment in Fordo meant to produce medical radioisotopes


Economic Desk rans ambassador
to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has brushed aside media commotion over the operation of nuclear activities in the Fordo enrichment facility, saying the purpose of enrichment activities in the facility is to provide radioisotopes needed for cancer patients. In an interview with the Mehr News Agency on Tuesday, Ali Asghar Soltanieh said, All nuclear activities in Iran including enrichment in Natanz and Fordo are under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency and everything is monitored round the clock by IAEA inspectors and the cameras installed by the IAEA. As Iran has informed the IAEA, Iran needs 20 percent enriched uranium to produce nuclear fuel plates for the Tehran research reactor, which produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment, he said. Contd. on P. 2 TEHRAN Teh-

OPEC says cant be involved in Iran sanctions


The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cant get involved in the dispute over Western sanctions against Iran, Venezuelas oil minister Rafael Ramirez said. Any Iranian action in defense of their sovereignty is Irans issue, Ramirez told reporters in Caracas Monday, where Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez. OPEC cant get involved in this issue. The U.S. tightened economic sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program on Dec. 31, and the European Union is weighing a ban this month on purchases of Iranian crude. Venezuela (OPCRVENZ), one of OPECs 12 member countries, pumped about 2.3 million barrels a day of oil in December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Iran produced 3.6 million barrels a day. Oil rose for the rst time in four days on growing concern that geopolitical tension in the Middle East may disrupt supply and as higher stock markets raised economic optimism. Oil gained as much as 2.1 percent as the European Union brought forward a meeting on a possible oil embargo against Iran to Jan. 23 from Jan. 30. U.S. and European stocks gained as French business condence climbed from a two-year low last month. Weve put in at least $10 a barrel, if not more, Iranian risk premium in the price of oil, said Phil Flynn, an analyst with PFGBest in Chicago. There is a certain optimism about whats going on in the U.S. economy and we are feeling a little bit better about Europe. Crude for February delivery climbed $1.24, or 1.2 percent, to $102.55 a barrel at 10:35 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. West Texas Intermediate oil traded on the Nymex has surged 20 percent in the past three months. (Source: Bloomberg)

Nothing can separate Iran, Venezuela: Ahmdinejad


Political Desk damage Iran-Venezuela reTEHRAN Nothing can lations and separate the two nations, because the two countries are determined to stand by each other until achieving their major goals which are peace, prosperity, and progress. Ahmadinejad made the remarks during a joint press conference with his Venezuelan counterpart President Hugo Chavez in Caracas on Tuesday. The Iranian and Venezuelan nations have always stood rm against the extremism of arrogant powers, he stated. In reply to a question about the roles that Iran and Venezuela can play in the management of the worlds aairs, Ahmadinejad said that today, even the worst analysts know that the capitalist system has failed to bring prosperity to the people and promote justice in the world. He went on to say that the logic of capitalist system is merely based on bullying, weapons and threats, and this means that the system lacks logic and this entails a new system in the world. Justice, respect for human dignity, the establishment of intimate relations between human beings, and the sitting of the righteous in the positions of power are among the main features of the new world order which can bring prosperity to all mankind. Ahmadinejad arrived in Venezuela on Sunday and was received by Vice President Elias Jaua and other Venezuelan ocials. During his ve-day trip, Ahmadinejad will also visit Nicaragua, Cuba, and Ecuador to meet with Latin American leaders. Ahmadinejad and Chavez were to travel to Nicaragua on Tuesday to participate in inauguration of newly re-elected President Daniel Ortega.Ahmadinejad has made ve visits to the region since 2005.

PERSPECTIVE By Foad Izadi


New U.S. military strategy is a campaign ploy
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hugs Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after a press conference in Caracas on Monday. IRNA/Ehsan Naderipour

Bahrainis protest at UN ofce in Manama


Protesters holding Bahraini ags participate in an rally at the United Nations ofce in Manama on January 10, 2012.

Taiwans president gets re-election boost


Supporters gesture to Taiwans President Ma Ying-jeou (C) in Xinbei city, northern Taiwan, January 9, 2012.

Nigerian fuel price protests grow on second day


LAGOS/KANO (Reuters) Nigerians took to the streets Tuesday in growing numbers on the second day of protests against a sharp increase in petrol prices, piling pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan to reverse his removal of fuel subsidies. Africas biggest oil producer on January 1 scrapped subsidies on imports of motor fuel, which many citizens see as their only welfare benet, more than doubling the price of petrol to about 150 naira ($0.93) a liter.

LATEST NEWS

Bahraini protesters have gathered in front of the United Nations oce in the capital Manama to hold an anti-regime demonstration. Security has been tight in front of the UN oce. Tuesdays demonstration was previously organized by the main Bahraini opposition party, al-Wefaq. On Monday, Saudi-backed Bahraini forces attacked protesters in the villages of Dair and Bani Jamrah northwest of the country, arresting several people including children. Chanting anti-regime slogans, the angry demonstrators demanded the downfall of the Al Khalifa regime and the release of political prisoners. The protesters also condemned the Saudi-backed crackdown on the demonstrators. Meanwhile, a Bahraini military court has sentenced a policeman to 12 years in prison for defecting from the police and

joining the protesters in February 2011. Ali al-Ghanami, a 25-year-old junior police ocer, left the police force following a deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters massing in the capital, Manama, where two protesters were killed and more than a hundred were injured. Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds more arrested or red from their jobs since the beginning of the popular uprising in Bahrain in February 2011. In addition, many health workers, teachers, opposition gures and human rights activists in Bahrain are still facing trial or serving prison terms over participation in anti-government demonstrations. Meanwhile, a report says that the Bahraini regime seeks to shift the demographic combination in the monarchy to protect the interests of the Sunni community. (Source: Press TV)

Taiwans President Ma Yingjeous re-election chances have increased after an inuential gure in eastern Hualien county threw his weight behind the proChina candidate ahead of Saturdays presidential elections. Hualien county magistrate Fu Kun-chi said on Sunday that despite his admiration for independent candidate James Soong he believed President Ma was the best choice for Taiwan, AFP reported. For Taiwans future, the public should bravely step up at this critical moment to support Ma Ying-jeou, Fu told a campaign gathering for Ma, who is seeking a second and last four-year term. The endorsement came as a spur for Ma, who is locked in a close contest against pro-Western candidate Tsai Ing-wen. Following massive rallies on Sunday, by both Ma, the chairman of the Kuomintang Party and Democratic Progressive Par-

ty chairwoman Tsai were back campaigning on Monday in the capital Taipei. Ma has planned to increase investment on women and younger people, including oering housing subsidies, and says that his partys policy of rapprochement with China has beneted the islands economy. Beijing appreciates Mas approach, which it says will lead to a political unication between China and Taiwan, but warns that Tsai victory can hinder economic progress and destabilize the Taiwan Strait. Beijing accuses Tsai of seeking Taiwans independence. Beijing and Taipei agreed on a 1992 Consensus, which, as described by observers, suggests that, on the subject of the One China principle, both sides recognize there is only one China. But Tsais party does not recognize that a consensus was reached. (Source: Agencies)

he new military strategy announced by U.S. President Barack Obama has one surprising section, which says that $450 billion should be cut from the countrys defense budget over the next 10 years. The open source document contains nothing secret, and Obama even used it as a campaign ploy for the 2012 presidential election in his address at the Pentagon on January 5. However, it is believed to have classied subsections that have not been made public. So why are U.S. officials publicizing their defense strategy, which is usually kept secret? The answer is that the Obama administration is attempting to influence public opinion in order to gain votes in the upcoming election. The content of the document also proves that it is a public relations move. For example, it requires Pentagon ocials to use technological innovations to modernize the structure of the military and decrease its dependence on human resources. Over the past few years, many U.S. soldiers have been killed due to the governments military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, causing great grief for their families. The use of unmanned drones and similar equipment is meant to reduce casualties and thus reduce the number of U.S. citizens experiencing emotional strain due to the loss of a loved one. The new document also calls for the U.S. military to shift its focus to East Asia in general and China in particular. Interestingly, the document mentions nothing special about Russia, which has been the United States traditional military adversary for decades. Contd. on P. 15

I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY

JANUARY 11, 2012

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / p o l i t i c s

PERSIAN PRESS HEADLINES


QODS: We are ready to counter any threat, IRGC commander says TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: Competition does not mean excluding others, Leader says JAM-E JAM: Who will be the president of the Islamic Azad University? HAMSHAHRI: Iran sentences American spy to death QODS: Where is central bank governor? TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: Deputy industry minister arrested, prosecutor general announces KHORASAN: Forensic Medicine Organization chief says use of cold weapons has decreased by 12% HEMAYAT: Alarm bells ring as age of drug abusers decreases JAVAN: Private medical centers refuse to admit car accident patients without prior payment TAFAHOM: Peoples participation in elections will be enemy-destroying turnout, Supreme Leader says KAYHAN: U.S. sanctions will not halt Irans oil exports, an Arab expert says SHARQ: House of Cinema is ours, Ezzatollah Entezami says in protest letter to ocials (Actor Entezami protests dissolution of House of Cinema) ARMAN: Iran ready to equip Iraqi army, Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani announces

SATURDAY

S U N D AY
M O N D AY T U E S D AY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

Initial report on approved parliamentary candidates released


Political Desk Tehrans election headquarters,
TEHRAN The director of Safar Ali Baratlo, announced on Tuesday that the qualications of 747 out of 1066 candidates who had registered to represent Tehran in next parliamentary election have been approved by the Interior Ministrys executive committees. The parliamentary election is scheduled to be held on March 2. The MPs will be elected for a term of four years. The qualications of the candidates have to be approved by the Interior Ministrys executive committees and the Guardian Councils supervisory committees respectively. According to Baratlo, the number of candidates representing Tehran who have gained initial approval accounts for 70% of the candidates. More than 5,200 candidates from across the country will compete for 290 seats. There is chance to protest results Tehran Governor General Morteza Tamaddon said on Tuesday that those who have failed to gain the approval of the executive committees can submit their written protests to the executive committees until January 14. There are unconrmed reports that the qualications of a number of current MPs, who had registered to run for the parliamentary elections, have not been approved. The Mehr reported that 30 to 40 candidates have failed to gain initial approval while the Fars put the number at 50. According to the Mehr, Ali Motahhari (a principlist MP and vocal critic of President Ahmadinejad) and Hamidreza Katoziyan (the chairman of the Majlis Energy Committee) have been found disqualied by the Interior Ministry. According to the same report, Dariush Qanbari, the spokesman of the Majlis minority faction, and Alireza Mahjoub, who is considered the voice of labor class in the parliament, are among the reformist lawmakers whose qualications have not been approved. However, an ocial at the Interior Ministry dismissed news reports claiming that Mahjoub has failed to be approved by the executive committees, saying he has been approved. The Fars also reported on Tuesday that 1295 reformists have registered for the parliamentary election.

Even if the candidates are not approved again, they will have one week to le protests with the Guardian Council, Tamaddon told the Fars News Agency. All the procedures carried out by the elections executive committees were in conformity with the law, and the assessment of qualications was conducted in line with the interests of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, he stated.

Salehi to travel to Turkey to discuss nuclear issue


Political Desk Iranian
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi is scheduled to make a trip to Ankara on January 18 to discuss the countrys nuclear issue and the latest regional developments with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Davutoglu, in his visit to Tehran on January 4 and 5, carried a TEHRAN message from EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to Iranian officials for a resumption of nuclear talks. The Turkish foreign minister has recently announced that Turkey will host new rounds of talks between Iran and the 5+1 group (the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany) in the near future.

163 Iranian nationals held in Thailands prisons


TEHRAN Iranian to Thailand has said that according to the latest statistics, 163 Iranian nationals are being held captive in Thai prisons. In an interview with the Fars News Agency on Tuesday, Ambassador Majid Bizmark said that among the prisoners, 149 people have been convicted of drug charges, and 140 prisoners are serving life sentences.

Political Desk Ambassador

Enrichment in Fordo meant to produce radioisotopes for patients


Contd. from P. 1

He also said that the media hype about the start of uranium enrichment in Fordo is politically motivated. Soltanieh also told the Fars News Agency on Tuesday that the IAEA has overseen various stages of the completion of the nuclear facility, saying that no member state has pursued its nuclear program as transparently as the Islamic Republic. According to the online magazine Firstpost, the IAEA has confirmed that Iran has started the production of uranium enriched up to 20 percent in the Fordo enrichment facility. The news has drawn strong criticism from Western governments. France has warned of stinging international retribution for this new provocation, the Firstpost reported on Tuesday. A French Foreign Ministry statement has claimed that the move leaves us with no other choice but to reinforce international sanctions and to adopt, with our European partners and all willing countries, measures of an intensity and severity without precedent. According to the report, British Foreign Secretary William Hague has also described Irans move as a provocative act which further undermines Irans claims that its program is entirely civilian in nature. Hague has also claimed that Iran already has sufficient enriched uranium to power the (Tehran research) reactor for more than five years and has not even installed the equipment necessary to manufacture fuel elements.

He said that the Iranian embassy in Bangkok has made eorts to put a break on the growing number of arrests in Thailand, adding that fortunately, with the assistance of relevant organizations, the eorts have been successful. He also said that an agreement on the transfer of convicts has also been signed between the Islamic republic and Thailand.

Rohani advises Turkey against hosting NATO radar system


TEHRAN The of the Strategic Research Center of Irans Expediency Council has called on Turkey to reconsider its decision to host an early warning radar as part of NATOs missile defense system. Hassan Rohani made the remarks during a meeting with Turkish Ambassador Umit Yardim in Tehran on Tuesday.

Political Desk director

Iranian ocials have expressed disapproval of Turkeys move and have repeatedly warned the Turkish government about the repercussions of the decision. In the meeting, Rohani said that cancelling the decision to host the radar would restore mutual trust between the two countries and pave the way for the expansion of ties. Elsewhere in his remarks,

Rohani commented on the popular uprisings that have challenged the governments of a number of regional countries, saying, Countries like Iran and Turkey should contribute to this auspicious event since better circumstances will be provided for all regional countries if democracy is established. And eorts should be made to prevent the hegemonistic powers and

the Zionists from taking advantage of the uprisings, he added. Rohani also said that Tehran and Ankara should play an inuential role in this regard. In addition, he commented on the crisis engulng Syria and said that outsiders should not be allowed to undermine the country, which is on the front line of the resistance in the Middle East.

Iran has right to develop nuclear energy: India


Amid mounting Western pressure to follow the U.S. sanctions against Iran, India Tuesday defended Tehrans right to develop its civil nuclear energy program but made it clear that it should be within the parameters set out by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). With reference to Iran, we have taken a very consistent position. We expect every nation to pursue its nuclear energy ambitions to its logical conclusion, External Aairs Minister S.M. Krishna said at a joint press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Jerusalem. Asserting that every nation is entitled to develop nuclear energy, Krishna, however, stressed that it should be subject to the parameters set out by IAEA. Krishna was responding to a question by an Israeli journalist on whether India will implement the U.S. sanctions on Iran. Responding to the same question, Lieberman said India is the largest democracy in the world and respects decisions of the international community. We expect that every country will respect the decision after it is cleared by the UN Security Council. On Monday, Krishna began a two-day visit to Israel, the rst by an Indian foreign minister to Israel in the last 11 years. India has consistently stood up for Irans right to develop civil nuclear energy. With the U.S. imposing new sanctions on Tehran, India has maintained that it will abide by the UN sanctions on Iran, but has aired its unease with unilateral sanctions by some countries which aect the market. Against this backdrop, New Delhi is keeping all options open on approaching the U.S. for waivers on ground that India imports around 12 percent of its oil from Iran and the Iranian oil is crucial for its energy security. India has kept all options open to access Iranian oil and is trying hard to resolve the issue of payment for Iranian oil. Among other things under discussion is a plan to persuade Tehran to accept payment in Indian rupees. (Source: The Economic Times)

N E W S
Parliament condemns attempts to Judaize al-Quds

I N

B R I E F

China rejects U.S. limits on Iran trade


China has rejected the U.S. trade restrictions on Irans oil industry, saying it has nothing to do with Tehrans nuclear energy program. A Chinese deputy foreign minister, Cui Tiankai, said on Monday that Beijing is against mixing the issues with dierent natures, rejecting linking Irans nuclear program to trade. Tiankai made the remarks on the eve of a visit by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to seek Beijings support for anti-Iran sanctions. The normal trade relations and energy cooperation between China and Iran have nothing to do with the nuclear issue We should not mix issues with dierent natures, and Chinas legitimate concerns and demands should be respected, he said. Tiankai went on to say that Beijing supports nuclear nonproliferation eorts but believes Iran is entitled to develop peaceful nuclear energy, and called for talks between Iran and the West in order to build mutual trust. We believe the normal economic ties between countries in the world and Iran should not be aected, he said. Earlier in the day, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said China is against unilateral sanctions against Iran, noting that dialog is the only way to resolve the remaining issues over Tehrans nuclear energy program. China opposes placing domestic law above international law and does not favor unilateral sanctions against other countries, he said. The unilateral sanctions on Iran have led to a clash of interests between Washington and its key commercial partners, including China. Iran exported about 622,000 barrels of oil per day to China in November, maintaining its place as the third largest crude supplier to the East Asian country. (Source: Press TV)

In a statement issued on Tuesday 210 Iranian lawmakers severely condemned the Knessets decision to declare al-Quds the capital of Israel. The Zionist regime, which has never shown commitment to international conventions on human rights, is seeking to gradually occupy all the Palestinian territories and commit ethnic cleansing against the regions people through making such a decision (the Judaization of al-Quds), the statement said. Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri said on Tuesday that the United States is increasing its threats against the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic system in a desperate attempt to intimidate the Iranian nation. However, he said attempts by Washington and other enemies of the Islamic Republic to bring new European countries into line with U.S.-Israeli anti-Iranian bloc and impose new sanctions will not help realize White Houses dreams. Army Commander Ahmadreza Pourdastan said on Tuesday that the Army plans to test its new advanced military equipment during the war games, which will be staged in eastern Iran in the near future. He said that the purpose of the maneuvers is to enhance armed forces military preparedness and the countrys deterrence capability. He also said that Armys ground troops will practice the tactics of asymmetric warfare during the war games. An Iranian ship carrying petrochemical materials has been seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the Mehr News reported on Tuesday. No further detail of the incident was available until the Tehran Times press time and no official source confirmed the report.

U.S. ratcheting up threats to intimidate Iranian nation

Iran puts a weak America in its sights, with big plans for the future
Addressing pilgrims on November 5, 2011, just over two weeks after President Obama announced U.S. troops would withdraw from Iraq, Irans Supreme Leader cited American failures in Iraq and Afghanistan as proof that, Today, the West, the United States and Zionism are weaker than ever before. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went further, declaring the American retreat was not enough. So long as the American empire based in the White House has not been overthrown, we have work to do, he thundered. In the weeks since, the Islamic Republic has ratcheted up both its rhetoric and its deance. Iranian antagonism toward the United States took an even more dangerous turn in the Persian Gulf. On December 28, 2011, Iranian authorities threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the 34-mile wide waterway through which more than one-third of the worlds oil tanker trac passes. Habibollah Sayyari, commander of Irans navy, likened the ease of closing the Strait to drinking a glass of water. In recent days, Iranian ocials warned the USS John C. Stennis, an aircraft carrier currently in the region, not to re-enter the Persian Gulf after it transited the strait during an Iranian exercise. Not only could Iranian authorities hold the international economy hostagethe net eect of acquiescing to Iranian claims to be the gatekeeper over the Strait but they also could threaten Americas strategic presence. (Source: Fox News)

Army plans to test advanced military equipment

Pirates seize Iranian ship in Gulf of Aden: report

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a l

JANUARY 11, 2012

INTERNATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL DAILY

Islamic parties ahead as Egypt vote enters nal leg


CAIRO (Reuters) Islamic parties aimed to cement control over Egypt's lower house of parliament as a nal phase of voting began on Tuesday. Banned under Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as a major winner from the uprising that toppled him, exploiting a well-organized support base in the rst free legislative vote in decades. Islamic parties of various stripes are expected to win 60 percent of the 498 elected seats in the assembly's lower house, with the Brotherhood taking some 41 percent, by its own count. Its showing will give it a stronger role in shaping a new constitution and make it a force to be reckoned with for the country's military rulers, but the Brotherhood has promised for now to cooperate with the armybacked government. Despite the Brotherhood's assurances, the strong Islamic parties showing has caused consternation among liberal opponents and Tuesday's runos were overshadowed by one party's surprise decision to boycott elections for the Shura Council. The Free Egyptians Party (FEP) cofounded by telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris said it would boycott in protest against what it said were violations committed by Islamic parties in earlier voting rounds. The process has turned into a religious competition rather than an electoral one, which amounts to a forging of awareness whose eect on the results is no less than the physical forgA woman speaks to soldiers outside a polling station during parliamentary run-off elections at Shubra in El-Kalubia, on the outskirts of Cairo, January 10, 2012.

Guinea-Bissau President Malam Bacai Sanha dies


The leader of the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau, Malam Bacai Sanha, died at the age of 64 Monday in a Paris hospital after a long illness, his oce said. Sanha died at the Val de Grace hospital, where he was admitted in late November. A French ocial said he had "been in a coma for a while." "The presidency informs Guinea-Bissau and the international community, with pain and dismay, of the death of his excellency Malam Bacai Sanha this morning at the Val de Grace in Paris where he was undergoing treatment," Sanha's oce said in a statement. Guinea-Bissau's opposition rejected Tuesday the appointment of the National Assembly speaker as interim head of the state after the death of Sanha. "The Democratic Collective expresses its complete Malam Bacai Sanha rejection of the ascension of National Assembly leader Raimundo Pereira to the post of interim president," read a statement from the 14-party umbrella group. The coalition said it could not endorse Pereira to a position where he would have power to "dismiss the current Attorney General to avoid prosecuting suspects in the suspected assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira and army chief General Batista Tagme Na Waie" in 2009. Vieira was killed by soldiers in revenge for the death of Tagma Na Waie hours earlier in a bomb attack at army headquarters. While investigations have never yielded clear suspects publicly, the opposition has often accused Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior of involvement in the 2009 events. Gomes is seen as very close to Pereira. Both are from the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde which holds 67 of 100 parliamentary seats. The Party for Social Renewal which holds 28 seats is among those refusing Pereira's role as interim leader. This will be the second time Pereira has had to step in as interim leader, after also taking the reins following Vieira's death. Sanha was elected that same year, vowing to reform a powerful army which has long been tangled with the state and implicated in cocaine tracking in a state whose history is studded with coups and political vengeance. Sanha was severely ill and out of the country on December 26 when a group of renegade soldiers attacked army headquarters in Bissau in the latest mutiny, which the regime said was an attempted coup. A military source told AFP the army had been placed on full alert after Sanha's death. However life went on as usual in Bissau with shops open and no security forces present. According to the country's constitution the head of the National Assembly has 60 days to organize fresh elections. (Source: AFP)

NEWS

ing that used to happen, the FEP said in a statement. Moderate image Keen to present itself as a potential government-in-waiting, the Brotherhood has portrayed a moderate image, distancing itself from street protests by pro-democracy activists demanding the army relinquish power immediately. Parliamentary run-os scheduled to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday and reruns in parts of Cairo, Alexandria and other cities where the vote was cancelled in the rst round due to irregularities, are set to ll the 11 percent of seats as yet undecided, according to Brotherhood gures. The outcome of the runos and re-

runs are unlikely, however, to alter the dominance of the Islamic groups who now look set to wield major inuence over the shape of a new constitution to be drafted by 100-strong body that the new assembly will pick. The Brotherhood has promised that Egyptians of all persuasions will have their say. The strong Islamic performance has alarmed some liberal Egyptians and Western governments that backed Mubarak, but it is far from clear whether rival Islamic groups will form any alliance in the new assembly. With the exception of the parties that are part of our coalition, we stand at an equal distance from all parties, Essam al-Erian, deputy head of the

Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, told Reuters. So far, we have begun limited consultations to gather the opinions of the blocs, parliamentary bodies and different parties but I will not announce these alliances until before parliament sits. Egypt's staggered three-stage parliamentary election began on November 28 and drew an unprecedented turnout. Under a complex system, a third of the seats are reserved for individuals, and some of these will be decided in the runos. The other two thirds are decided by proportional representation among party lists. The lower house will hold its rst session on January 23.

Bombing kills 35 in Pakistan's Khyber region


By sta & agencies

PESHAWAR A remote-controlled bomb blast killed 35 people and wounded more than 60 others on Tuesday in a tribal region of northwest Pakistan Tuesday in the deadliest such attack in months, ocials said. The explosion took place in a market in Jamrud, one of the towns of the troubled Khyber tribal region, which also used to serve as the main supply route for NATO forces operating in Afghanistan. The total number of deaths in the blast is 35 while 69 people were wounded, and of them the condition of 11 is critical, a senior administration ocial, Shakeel Khan Umarzai, told AFP. Another top ocial in Khyber, Mutahir Zeb, said the target of the attack was not immediately clear. According to initial information, it was a remote controlled de-

vice planted in a passenger pickup van, he said. "It was a huge blast and caused damage to a number of vehicles at (a) bus terminal," said Khyber tribesman Khan Zaman from the Jamrud bazaar, around 25 km (15 miles) west of the city of Peshawar. Tribesman said members of the pro-government Zakhakhel tribal militia were the target of the attack. Members of the militia -- or "lashkar" -- were filling their vehicles at the station when the bomb exploded, Reuters reported. "There was a loud explosion, everything shook," said Fariz Ullah, a fruit seller in Jamrud near the fuel station. "We all ran to the station. There were bodies everywhere. I saw bodies missing hands and feet," he said. Assistant Political Agent Jamrud Mohammad Jamil Khan said three members of the Khasadar

Rescue workers go through the wreckage of damaged vehicles at the site of a bomb explosion in Jamrud bazaar, about 25 km west of Peshawar in northwest Pakistan, January 10, 2012.

tribal police force were among those killed. The wounded were taken to hospitals in Jamrud and Peshawar. Ocials said there had been no claim of responsibility yet for the attack. Pakistani forces have targeted militants in Khyber, including the Pakistani Taliban, on and o for more than

four years. Tuesday's bombing is the rst major one of its kind this year. On December 30, 13 people were killed in a bombing in the southwestern city of Quetta. On August 19, 2011, a suicide bomber killed at least 48 people inside a mosque in Jamrud. The attack also comes amid conicting reports of peace talks between the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Pakistani government. The TTP, formed in 2007 and allied with the Afghan Taliban, is an umbrella group of militant organizations entrenched in Pakistan's unruly tribal areas along the porous frontier with Afghanistan. There were about 120 bomb attacks in Pakistan in 2011 and the same number in 2010 according to an AFP tally an increase from 2009, but far below the violence of 2009 when there were more than 200 bomb blasts.

Assad promises to hold referendum on new constitution


Contd. from P. 1 In his speech, given at the University of Damascus and broadcast on Syrian television, Assad sought to cast the violence in the country as solely a question of terrorism, and he drew parallels between the bombings in Damascus and a revolt in Syria in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which threatened the hold on power of Assads father, Hafez, who ruled for three decades. There can be no let-up for terrorism it must be hit with an iron st, he said. The battle with terrorism is a battle for everyone, a national battle, not only the governments battle. Occasionally interrupted by applause, he added victory is near. He dismissed Persian Gulf states as countries without culture. Countries can rent and import some history with their money, but money does not make nations and cultures, Assad said, in a not very veiled reference to the Persian Gulf emirates. He mocked the protesters characterization of themselves as revolutionaries. This is not a revolution, Assad said to an audience that chanted his name at the end of the speech. Is it possible that he is a revolutionary and a traitor at the same time? This is impossible. If there were true revolutionaries, we would be walking together. He touched upon the governments ban on some foreign media, noting that at the beginning of the unrest, foreign journalists could work freely, but their attempts to fabricate the developments forced some control. Arab League observers are currently in the country to investigate Syrias months-long unrest and to monitor the implementation of a peace initiative presented by the bloc to put an end to Damascuss crisis. The Syrian president also described the events of the past months as regretful, saying that the recent unrest has been a serious test for Syria. Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in favor of President Assad. Hundreds of people including the members of the security forces have been killed in the turmoil. The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing protesters. However, Damascus blames outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.

Suu Kyi to run for Myanmar parliament

Peace Now: Jerusalem settlement activity went sky-high in 2011

China's Wen to visit key Mideast energy powers

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has conrmed she will run for a parliamentary seat in April by-elections. Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party (NLD), said on Tuesday that the Nobel Peace Prize winner had announced during a party meeting that she would seek a seat in suburban Yangon, Myanmar's largest city and her hometown. Suu Kyi said last year that she would run for parliament but had appeared to backtrack since then. A victory would give the longtime political prisoner a voice in parliament for the rst time after years as country's most prominent democracy campaigner. Her presence will add signicance to upcoming by-elections that will be held almost a year after nominally democratic elections ended a half century of military rule. NLD decided to rejoin electoral politics following recent signs that the new government is easing years of repression. Government reforms The 2010 Myanmar election is alleged to have been arranged to produce a civilian government that the former military rulers wanted, with Thein Sein, a former general, elected president. (Source: Agencies)

Israeli authorizations for the construction of Jewish settler homes in east Jerusalem reached their highest number in a decade in 2011, an Israeli NGO said in a new report released on Tuesday. Peace Now, which opposes settlement construction, said Israel gave nal approval for the construction of 3,690 homes in occupied Arab east Jerusalem in 2011, despite Palestinian and international condemnation. The gures dwarf nal authorizations for east Jerusalem settlement homes over the previous decade. The closest number was in 2002, when the Jewish state approved 2,653 new homes. The report, entitled Torpedoing the TwoState Solution, said plans for another 2,660 east Jerusalem homes were deposited for objections in 2011, while construction began on 55 units located deep inside Palestinian neighborhoods. Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza, during the 1967 Six-Day War and considers all of Jerusalem its eternal, undivided capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state, and furiously denounce new settlement construction in the eastern sector of the city, as well as in the West Bank. (Source: Middle East Online)

BEIJING (Reuters) China's Premier Wen Jiabao will visit three key Middle Eastern oil and gas suppliers -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar -- from the weekend. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Wen would meet host leaders, including Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, to thoroughly exchange views on developing bilateral relations and on international and regional issues of common concern. Beijing faces pressure to go along with the U.S. sanctions by cutting what it pays for Iranian oil, if not the volume it buys. Wen's talks are sure to cover, at least in general terms, energy cooperation with his Middle Eastern hosts, said Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University in east China. On any visit to the Middle East, these issues will be discussed, Lin told Reuters by telephone. Generally, there will be something that comes out of a visit like this, because a visit by a premier is not your average visit, he said of discussions on oil and gas. China bought a combined 1.15 million barrels per day (bud) from these three nations in the rst 11 months of 2011, customs data showed, nearly a quarter of its total crude imports.

I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY

E C O N O M Y

JANUARY 11, 2012

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / e c o n o m y

Venezuela seeks Iranian investment in industrial, infrastructural projects


Economic Desk Menndez in a meeting with Iranian Industry, Mine and Trade Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari in Caracas on Tuesday called Iran to boost its investments in Venezuelas industrial and infrastructural projects. The two sides emphasized on completing the underway projects by Iranian companies in Venezuela as soon as possible and raising the two-way trade value through implementing approvals of the joint economic committee meeting which was held in Caracas in September 2011, the IRNA news agency reported. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad started a fournation Latin American tour on Sunday. Energy Minister Majid Namjou, who is accompanying Ahmadinejad along with a group of businessmen, said a number of deals will be signed during the current tour, including plans to build the hydroelectric plant in Ecuador. On September 22, Menendez and Ghazanfari inked a number of MOUs in Caracas in the elds of agriculture, housing and transportation. The two sides also discussed issues on constructing a cement factory and a tractor manufacturing line in Venezuela. Iran exported some 68 million dollars worth of goods to Venezuela last year. Iranian companies have launched several technical and engineering projects in Venezuela worth over 4 billion dollars. Venezuelan Minister of Industry Ricardo

NEWS

Indian team for Iran to work out oil payment methods


NEW DELHI - A multi-disciplinary ministerial team will leave for Iran on January 16 to work out the modalities for a payment plan to ensure smooth supplies of crude oil from Tehran, the second biggest exporter of oil to India, in view of impeding U.S. sanctions against Iran. Senior ocials associated with the development said the government was working on various fronts to ensure that things did not get out of control. Apart from monitoring the situation constantly by National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, a move is afoot in the government to get the U.S. administration on board on the issue of crude oil supplies from Iran. We are one among the biggest importers of crude oil from Iran. Japan is the biggest importer followed by South Korea. All are close U.S. allies and there is a feeling that any sanctions to block supplies will badly hit their people and the economy. Therefore, a channel needs to be opened with the U.S. to either ensure payment for the oil through some source or to ensure that crude oil imports are exempted from sanctions, a senior ocial remarked. The task of the team will be to work out a payment arrangement with Tehran in view of the Turkish bank having expressed its unwillingness to carry on with the transactions in future, probably under U.S. and European Union pressure. We could also be negotiating with Iran for payment through rupee mode but the Reserve Bank of India has some reservations on the issue and we are trying our best to work around things, a senior Petroleum Ministry ocial said . The ocial said that looking for alternative sources to meet the energy requirements was a long-term plan

Iran to build dam in Lebanon


Economic Desk sador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi and Lebanese Energy and Water Minister Gibran Bassil in Beirut on Monday, the two sides made an agreement for building a dam in north of Lebanon by Iranian companies, the IRNA news agency reported. The two sides also discussed exchanging experiences in technical and engineering elds, especially in oil, gas and electricity industries. The Iranian ocial expressed the countrys readiness to carry out oil exploration operations in Lebanon as well as constructing fuel reserve tanks in the city of Tripoli. According to Roknabadi, 26 MOUs have been inked between the two countries since the ocial visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Lebanon last year. The ocial bilateral trade has continued to expand, increasing from $78.4 million in 2006 to $180 million in 2010. In a meeting between Iranian ambas-

and the present situation demanded a solution that would not aggravate the already hotted up oil market. Under the proposal being prepared, National Iranian Oil Company will open a rupee account with Indian banks and can use the money to purchase non-strategic items like railway imports and buying commodities. It cannot, however, use the money to invest in India or buy shares or companies. A list of what Iran can do with the money and what it cannot is being prepared. India had in February last year started making euro payments through an Iranian bank based in

Germany. But under U.S. pressure, Germany soon stopped accepting money from India for onward transfer to Hamburg-based EIH Bank, sending India to the doorstep of Turkey. Mr. Menon has already held a round of meeting with ocials in the ministries of nance, petroleum and external aairs and the RBI after indications from Turkeys state-run Halkbank that it would have to stop settling payments on behalf of Indian companies. A meeting before the Indian team leaves for Iran has been scheduled in the oil ministry later this week. (Source: thehindu)

Iran to launch second phase of subsidy reform plan soon


Over a year since the launch of the subsidy reform plan back in December 2010, the Iranian government says the second phase will be implemented in the near future. The plan is aimed at overhauling the countrys economy by shelving energy and food subsidies. Under the Targeted Subsidy Law the revenues generated by price increases are distributed both among people and productive enterprises. The subsidy reform plan allowed the Iranian government to gradually slash subsidies on fuel, electricity, and certain goods over the course of ve years, with low-income families being compensated with direct cash handouts. But the plan has drawn dierent reactions from the people. When the law was passed by the parliament, half of the additional revenue was earmarked for individuals and families in the form of cash subsidies, while 30 percent was initially to go to industrial and agricultural enterprises. The gure was later reduced to 20%. Davoud Soheili, is an Iranian producer, who says that in the past one year no nancial or facility support has been oered to manufacturers. According to the Iranian deputy minister of economic aairs and nance Mohammad Reza Farzin, the policies and plans of the government in the second phase aim to contain ination and support the production sector. The second phase of implementing the Subsidy Reform Plan has envisaged removing subsidies of some three million Iranian families. The Iranian government is planning to pay more cash subsidies to the economically vulnerable strata and cut subsidies of the well-o families. (Source: PressTV)

Geithner in Beijing faces uphill struggle on Iran sanctions


BEIJING (AP) U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is visiting Beijing this week looking for support for U.S. sanctions on Irans oil industry but he is likely to be disappointed. China buys almost one-third of Irans oil exports and has rejected the U.S. sanctions as a tool to rein in Tehrans nuclear program. That sets Washington up for a public setback if the government of the worlds second-largest economy refuses to cooperate. China has no reason to go along with this, said Wang Lian, an Iran expert at Peking Universitys School of International Relations. China does not want to be seen as helping the U.S. when Chinas own interest is concerned. Geithner was due in Beijing for a dinner meeting Tuesday with Vice Premier Wang Qishan, his counterpart in a regular high-level U.S.-Chinese dialogue. Geithner is to meet Wednesday with Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice President Xi Jinping in line to become Chinas next leader and Vice Premier Li Keqiang, another rising star. Geithner also is due to visit Tokyo, another major buyer of Iranian oil, for talks after he leaves Beijing. China has criticized U.S. sanctions on Iran, approved by President Barack Obama on New Years Eve, as improper and ineective. Chinas oil imports have nothing to do with the nuclear issue, said a deputy foreign minister, Cui Tiankai, on Monday. We should not mix issues with different natures, and Chinas legitimate concerns and demands should be respected, Cui said. Wang said Chinese opposition might be reinforced by Washingtons latest military strategy report published last week. It singles out Beijing as a power with the potential to aect the U.S. economy and security. Industry analysts say that even if China agreed, it would face formidable challenges in trying to replace Iran as an oil source. Chinas fast-growing economy is the worlds biggest energy consumer and imports half its oil. Some 11 percent comes from Iran, or about 600,000 barrels per day in November, according to energy market analysts Argus Media. --- China rejects linking trade, Iranian nukes A TOP Chinese diplomat has rejected linking Irans nuclear program to trade on the eve of a visit by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to seek support for sanctions on Tehrans oil industry. Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai says Chinas trade relations with Iran, a major oil supplier, have nothing to do with the Iranian nuclear program. Cui said that sanctions alone cannot resolve the dispute and called for negotiations. (Source: agencies)

Pakistan directs placing IP project on fast track


Islamabad The Cabinet has directed the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources to undertake the IranPakistan (IP) gas pipeline project on fast track basis, and reduce unaccounted for gas (UFG) losses from 12 percent to 6 percent, ocial sources told reporter. The Cabinet gave these directions at a time when the country is facing ruthless gas load shedding, leading to law and order situation in the country. Last week, the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC) had approved the appointment of Financial Advisor (FA) as per the procedure and confirmed the decision of steering committee to the extent of provision of irrevocable sovereign guarantee and arranging equity committee by the public sector entities (PSEs). The Cabinet was informed on January 3, 2012 that the current gas production in the country is over 4 BCFD, whereas the demand is over 6 BCFD. The transmission and distribution of gas is done mainly by the two gas utility companiesSSGC and SNGPLand partially through direct supplies by producers. Historically, gas demand during winter increases due to manifold increase in consumption in the domestic sector, in almost all areas on SNGPL system and in some areas of SSGC system. (Source: pakobserver)

BOJ to forecast mild contraction in 2011/12 GDP -sources


TOKYO (Reuters) The Bank of Japan is expected to downgrade its gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for the scal year ending in March to a mild contraction from growth of 0.3 percent as seen three months ago, sources said on Tuesday. The central bank is likely to predict a contraction of 0.1-0.5 percent, which would be in line with forecasts by the government and private-sector economists, said sources familiar with the BOJs thinking. The governments Cabinet Oce last month lowered its estimate of real GDP for scal 2011/12 to a 0.1 percent contraction from growth of 2.7-2.9 percent to reect the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Economists likewise have downgraded their outlooks for the export-reliant economy several times in the face of an intensifying euro zone debt crisis and the yens persistent strength. Those polled by Reuters predict a contraction in the current scal year of 0.4 percent. The BOJ is set to give new growth forecasts at a rate review on Jan. 23-24. The central bank releases its long-term growth and price projections in a twiceyearly outlook report in April and October and reviews them in January and July. For the scal year that starts in April the BOJ currently projects growth of 2.2 percent, with the strength of emerging economies and reconstruction demand seen providing support. It will carefully examine the forecast by taking account of developments in the euro zone and the global economy but chances of a major revision are small, according to the sources. Japans economy likely slowed sharply in the October-December quarter following a strong rebound driven by companies restoring supply chains and production facilities after the March disaster. It may have already shrunk based on monthly economic data such as exports and output. On a monthly basis, Japans GDP likely fell 0.3 percent in October and 0.5 percent in November, according to the Japan Centre for Economic Research. The BOJ stood pat at last months rate review but cut its assessment of the worlds third-largest economy to say a pickup in economic activity was pausing due to the eect of an overseas slowdown and the yens strength. It remains on alert to the risk of the euro zone crisis further hurting the global economy due to the regions scal tightening and European banks reluctance to lend, and also regarding mounting tensions surrounding Iran, the sources said.

TEHRAN STOCK EXCHANGE


Index Overall Index Industry Index Free Float Index Main Board Index Secondary Index Value 25207.4 19686.5 32470.4 21304.2 31436.3 Change 124.7 119.8 117.7 106.9 142.1 Percent 0.49 0.61 0.36 0.5

OVERALL INDEX DETAILS


First Max Value Min Value Closing Variety Change end of year (%) Historical highest 25082.7 25207.4 25118.4 25207.4 124.7 216.42% (20110911) 27099.9 Source: tse.ir

NEWS IN BRIEF

0.45

Moodys upgrades Indias foreign currency rating

New Delhi: Global agency Moodys today upgraded Indias short-term foreign currency rating from speculative to investment grade, a development which will help domestic companies to raise funds from overseas markets at better rates. there has been another upgrade by Moodys with the short-term country ceiling on foreign currency bank deposit increasing from NP (not prime) to Prime (P-3), suggesting acceptable ability to repay short-term obligations, the Finance Ministry said. The P-3? ratings suggest acceptable ability to repay short-term obligations.

Iran crude exports to S. Korea up 48%

Iran is the second major oil exporter of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia. Irans oil exports to South Korea have increased 48 percent in November 2011, emerging as the second largest crude supplier to the South Asian country, a report says. According to Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC), Iran exported about 279,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to South Korea in November, indicating a 48-percent growth over the corresponding period last year.

Oil to continue rise above $100 on Iran sanctions

Benchmark crude oil prices will likely continue moving above $100 a barrel as an embargo on Iranian oil exports widens, CNBCs weekly survey showed. We are holding consistently above $100, noted Peter Turville-Ince, Director at Compass Global Markets. U.S. crude is rmly supported for an upside move right now given the Iran situation, better economic data and even as the USD rises we are seeing crude remain rm which is a bullish sign.

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a l

JANUARY 11, 2012

INTERNATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL DAILY

Renewed sparring over Scottish independence movement


By John F. Burns

Do Republican attacks on Obama strike a chord?


By Mark Mardell

N E W S

LONDON (The New York Times) The smoldering issue of Scottish independence has ignited again, this time in a political context that appears to give Scottish nationalists at least an outside chance of gaining popular support for the end of Scotlands constitutional ties with Britain in a referendum among Scottish voters within the next two or three years. The issue has stirred passionate intensity ever since the parliaments of England and Scotland voted to unite in a single kingdom, Great Britain, more than 300 years ago. The advantages of being part of a far more powerful country, particularly during the height of Britains imperial power, have long been weighed, among Scots, against the bloody history of English military depredations north of the border, especially during Bonnie Prince Charlies rebellion in 1745. The political alignment in Scotland in the wake of the outright victory in last years election by the Scottish National Party, a group that has campaigned for independence since the 1930s, has created an unmatched opportunity to press the case for an end to the union. How that fares will depend on a referendum that seems certain now to be held no later than 2015, when the mandates of the contesting governments in London and Edinburgh, Scotlands capital, expire. The potential for bitter dispute was etched in the testy exchanges that erupted on Monday when, at a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain took the position, according to Downing Street spokesmen, that issues aecting British sovereignty are the exclusive purview of the British Parliament, as specied in the statute that granted limited powers of self-government to Scotland what is known in Britain as devolution in

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond(R) greets Prime Minister David Cameron (le photo).

1998. That prompted a shrill response from Scottish government leaders, who demanded that they alone should set the timing and the terms under which Scots would vote on the issue and accused Mr. Cameron of trying to interfere in Scottish democracy. Mr. Cameron sought to tamp down the emotions enveloping the issue later on Monday, telling reporters that in proposing that the central government have control of the terms and timing of a referendum he wanted to ensure that a Scottish referendum should be legal, fair and decisive, not to hijack the process. But Scotlands deputy rst minister, Nicola Sturgeon, accused Mr. Cameron of a blatant attempt to interfere in a matter that should be for the Scottish government and people, ve million in a British population of more than 60 million, to decide alone. This is Westminster trying to interfere, she told the BBC. Behind the sparring lay the competing objectives of the two governments: Scotlands rst minister, Alex Salmond, a former oil economist who is riding a wave of popularity in Scotland and is re-

garded among his adversaries north and south of the border as the most formidable advocate for independence Scotland has seen for generations, wants to delay a referendum until 2014 to allow time for the independence movement to build still further. He also favors posing the referendum question to allow voters unwilling to vote for independence to choose a lesser option, known among Scottish politicians as devolution max, under which Scotland would gain full autonomy in its domestic aairs, including the right to set taxes. Opinion polls in recent months have shown that independence has the support of roughly 30 percent to 40 percent of Scottish voters, the highest gures in many years, while the proposal for a broadening of the existing devolutionary powers has drawn support from as much as 70 percent of the electorate. On a BBC political program on Sunday, Mr. Cameron, whose party has seen a slump in its support in Scotland as the Scottish nationalists cause has gained ground, said, Lets not drift apart. Mr. Salmond, he said, knows the Scot-

tish people at heart do not want a full separation, and so he is trying to create a situation where that bubbles and happens, whereas I think we need some decisiveness so we can clear up this issue. The government said it was to plan to present its formal plan on the issue to Parliament on Tuesday. Conservative Party strategists in London have said that Mr. Cameron wants an earlier referendum in the hope of preempting further gains for the independence cause, and to end uncertainty among international investors, who are crucial to Scotlands hopes of ending its years as one of Britains perennial economic backwaters. In addition, they say, Mr. Cameron wants a straight up or down vote on the independence issue, in the hope that the groundswell for a breakup of Britain can be spiked. Robert Hazell, a constitutional scholar at University College London, told the BBC that Mr. Cameron appeared set on a shootout with Mr. Salmond, an approach that Professor Hazell called a big gamble. (Source: The New York Times)

aterville Valley, New Hampshire: Skiers in bright clothes snake down the mountain side in the brilliant sunshine of the White Mountains. But pus of ne fog further up the slope are a tell-tale sign of an unseasonable annoyance. No snow. The mist from half a dozen blowers is man-made snow. The skiing is ne, but the resort as a whole feels less wintry than it should. That is a worry to some in a state where tourism long ago replaced manufacturing as the main source of income. No-one blames President Obama for the weather. The White House isn't accused of stopping snow with too many regulations. That is almost a surprise. But the Republican candidates vying to become their party's candidate for president do blame him for most of the country's economic woes, and do so in strong language. They suggest he's killed jobs and is taking the U.S. on an un-American road. Front-runner Mitt Romney says in every speech that Obama is turning an enterprise culture into a European-style entitlement society. Given that the latest gures suggest the economy is picking up, I wonder how this plays now. Particularly in New Hampshire, a state that is richer, has less poverty and lower unemployment than most in the USA. The Waterville Valley ski resort's boss is Chris Sununu, the son of John, former White House chief of sta and New Hampshire governor. Chris Sununu says both as a businessman and a Republican he does blame Obama for the state of the economy. "When you have a strategy of big bloated government, a lot of regulation, and the sense that government can do better than the individual can, that's just not what America was built on, and that's not what drives a good free economy," he says. I put it to him that is ne as political rhetoric, but question whether Obama's policies have really hurt his thriving ski resort. "Without a doubt," Sununu said. "In the season, I have close to 500 to 800 employees at any given time. The healthcare costs alone can be enormous on that. But if I don't know what the regulations are gonna be, if I think government is going to be too overbearing on me, then I have to hold my cash. Contd. on P. 15

In ending ceremony of Seventh International Symposium of Iran Public Relations,

All ocials should leave their oce doors open to people/ Islamic Azad University has planned to train expert public relations forces in all provinces
Islamic Azad Universitys deputy president for training aairs:

Islamic Azad Universitys Public Relations Department Named Exemplary Nationwide

Special Trophy Granted to Dr. Jassbi as National Exemplary Value-Oriented and Popular Director

All Ofcials Should Leave Their Ofce Doors Open to People So That They Can Mention Their Criticisms, Suggestions and Problems

ddressing the ending ceremony of Seventh International Symposium of Iran Public Relations and granting special trophy of national exemplary value-orientated and popular director to Dr. Jassbi, Dr. Hassan Ahadi noted that the issue of public relations has been fortunately evolved in Iran and its signicance has been understood, in such a way that public relations has been promoted to the rst level of management in the country. Public relations departments and information dissemination centers have changed their approach from general to specialized; he said adding making balance between the factors inside and outside a unit is one of the responsibilities of public relations departments and they are also in charge of forming and illuminating the public opinion. Ahadi went on to say that for a public relations department, information dissemination is an issue more important than the formalities and public relations departments can form and lead the social ideas. He further explained that public relations perfor-

n the ending ceremony of the Seventh International Symposium of Iran Public Relations, which was held in the international conferences center of Milad Tower, special trophy and plaque of honor was granted to Dr. Jassbi, the president of Islamic Azad University, as the national exemplary value-oriented and popular director. The panel of jurors in this symposium selected Dr. Jassbi as the national exemplary value-oriented and popular director according to the evaluation factors and for appreciating his valuable services and eective eorts in establishing 490 university branches and training centers, developing relations in the scientic centers and universities of the country, promoting culture of public relations and research activities. Due to the simultaneity of the ceremony of granting the special trophy of Seventh International Symposium of Iran Public Relations and the inaugural ceremony of Pardis of IAU North of Tehran Branch, special trophy of Dr. Jassbi was received by Dr. Hassan Ahadi, the deputy president of IAU for training aairs. Also, in the Seventh International Symposium of Iran Public Relations with the subject of Excellence Factors in Public Relations which was held in the international conferences center of Milad Tower, Dr. MohammadReza Karimi, director general of Islamic Azad Universitys public relations department and also the head of information dissemination center of Islamic Azad University, was named the national exemplary public relations director and was honored in this due. Professor Johanna McDowell, the president of International Public Relations Association, Dr. Hassan Zoragh, university professor, Professor Denis Vikox, the university professor in the U.S., Professor Korshen Namorti, Dr. Tony Mozzi Falkni, professor in the University of Milan, Dr. David Philips, professor in London University, Dr. Lyrcia Kansine, professor in Bucharest University, and Professor Mohammad-Baqer Sarookhani, professor in Tehran University, delivered speech in this symposium.

mance is inside and outside the organization and its main pivot is making relation and connections with the addresses and customers and said that public relations departments should make balance in an organization through leading and controlling the trend of information and lay the ground for creating motivation and encouraging the human resources inside the organization. The Islamic Azad Universitys deputy president for training aairs noted that public relations departments should also make the manager informed about the way of oering services, quality and quantity of commodity and services, amount of addressees satisfaction and behavior of human resources inside the organization. Referring to the excellent public relations department, Ahadi said that an excellent public relations department acts to aect the public opinion through organizing properly and managing scientically in the form of dened performing plan by observing ethical

and professional principles and oering consultation data on time to the manager. By developing activities on investigating the public opinions and also public relations activities, an excellent public relations department tries to make the trend of transferring message between the organization and addressee mutual and make necessary feedback in the process of relation with the addressees in the national and international levels, to make positive eects in the organization and also in terms of national development plans and support the public opinion as a civil entity, he emphasized. Ahadi further referred to using information and promoting theoretical knowledge of the public relations, dominating social relations, and proper use of the new mass media to form the public opinion as some current necessities in the evolving process of the public relations departments and said that today public relations has become a science and art and those persons should perform it that enjoy enough experience and expertise, so training expert manpower is very serious in this eld. The Islamic Azad Universitys deputy president for training aairs further noted that training the manpower has been paid attention a lot in such a way that public relations experts are trained in different stages. We should promote training public relations expert in all universities in all provinces. he mentioned. While emphasizing that all ocials should lave their oce doors open to the people so that they can mention their criticisms, suggestions and problems, Ahadi noted: We have no private task with any body. So listen to the peoples problems and remove them. Elsewhere in his remarks, the Islamic Azad Universitys deputy president for training aairs pointed to creating happiness among all people specially the youth as the main and serious responsibility of public relations departments and noted that humans should strengthen love for themselves and love for each other inside themselves and should know that others love them as well. He denes loving oneself as knowing the abilities and disabilities and said: Expectations of the people should not annoy us and we should love every one. Ahadi further emphasized: Mental health is achieved when we are loved by others besides loving ourselves and other people.

Director General of Islamic Azad Universitys Public Relations Department Named Exemplary Nationwide in Seventh International Symposium of Iran Public Relations

n the Seventh International Symposium of Iran Public Relations with the subject of Excellence Factors in Public Relations which was held in the international conferences center of Milad Tower Dr. Mohammad-Reza Karimi, director general of Islamic Azad Universitys public relations department and also the head of information dissemination center of Islamic Azad University, was named the national exemplary public relations director and was honored in this due. In this symposium, which was attended by many domestic and foreign professors and experts in the eld of communications and public relations as well as the representatives of staterun and non-governmental organizations, the national exemplary public relations directors special trophy was granted to the Islamic Azad University. It is worth that Dr. Mohammad-Reza Karimi, the university faculty member, holds Ph.D. in the media management and has written several books as well as scientic and research essays and ISI. Professor Johanna McDowell, the president of International Public Relations Association, Dr. Hassan Zoragh, university professor, Professor Denis Vikox, the university professor in the U.S., Professor Korshen Namorti, Dr. Tony Mozzi Falkni, professor in the University of Milan, Dr. David Philips, professor in London University, Dr. Lyrcia Kansine, professor in Bucharest University, and Professor Mohammad-Baqer Sarookhani, professor in Tehran University, delivered speech in this symposium. It is worth mentioning that the Public Relations Department of Islamic Azad University was named exemplary nationwide for the sixth consecutive year.

I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY

ASIA/AFRICA

JANUARY 11, 2012

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a l

Tour dhorizon: An Iranian optic on the Middle East and its prospects
By Seyed Mohammad Marandi

lmost a year ago, in a well-remembered Friday prayer sermon delivered on February 4, 2011, Ayatollah Khamenei spoke at length, in Arabic, about the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. At the time, the Egyptian people were on the streets attempting to topple the Western-backed dictator, Hosni Mubarak. In his sermon, after praising the Tunisian people, Ayatollah Khamenei spoke of how Mubarak had humiliated Egypt by becoming an American pawn and an ally of Israel. He also recalled the sharp pain that Egyptians felt when Mubarak helped implement the Western-imposed, inhuman siege of Gaza and when his regime worked in partnership with Israel and the United States during the 22-day onslaught against women, men, and children there in late 2008. Iranians firmly Ayatollah Khamebelieve that nei went on to speak about the history stability or and intellectual tradiinstability tions that have given from the Egypt its unparalleled importance in Mediterranean the Arab world. In to the borders this context, he described the moveof India is ment unfolding in inextricably Egypt as both Islamic linked to peace and freedom-seeking, with its potential and stability in for signicant impact the Persian Gulf on the Middle East. Noting that the upregion. A look at a map makes risings in Tunisia and Egypt had parallels clear that Iran to Irans revolution more than three has the ability decades ago, he also to respond underscored that the situations are not to threats all identical; each is throughout unique, in accordthe region and ance with dierent beyond. If there geographical, historical, political, and is no security cultural conditions. Claims that Iran is for Iranians or seeking to export its for Iranian oil ideology or model exports, then, of government to Egypt, he said, were in Iranian eyes, dishonest attempts there will be no to keep the peoples security for Irans of the region divided. He went on to antagonists in warn that the United the region. Under States has recognized it cannot keep such conditions, its pawns in power, the United so it will attempt to move its pawns States and its allies should not around to preserve its hegemony and expect oil or gas should not be trusted. to flow out of Sharp criticisms the Persian Gulf, were leveled at Ayatollah Khameneis sernorthern Iraq, mon in the West and or Central Asia. by parts of the Arab It would be a media. Commentators attacked the grave mistake idea that these moveto underestimate ments constituted an Islamic Awakening, the Islamic claiming they had Republics nothing to do with remilitary power ligion. It was an Arab Spring, they intoned; and resolve the revolutionaries as well as the were looking to esregions popular tablish secular liberal democracies, not emresponse to yet brace theocratic another Western rule. However, as time act of aggression went by, it became clear that the Westin a very ern political establishunstable region. ment, the Western media, and most Western expertswho had not anticipated the coming revolutions in the rst place were once again incapable of correctly understanding the situation in Egypt or correctly interpreting the broader regions realities. Hence, their dismay with the results from the rst round of the parliamentary elections in Egypt, in which the Muslim Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice coalition and the Salast Noor coalition together received over two thirds of the votes, despite the fact that voting mostly took place in areas not normally considered to be religious strongholds. It is already apparent how the parliament that will emerge from these elections is likely to

steer the process of drafting a new constitution for Egyptif it is allowed to do so by the countrys U.S.-backed military. The Western (or Western-aliated) Middle East experts, who were previously so adamant that these revolutions were secular in nature, now wonder how to read unfolding events. Some are putting on a brave face, expressing hope that, after a few years, Islamic parties will fail and people will vote for Western-oriented liberal partiesas if people in the region do not remember who backed and continues to back Arab dictatorships. They do not seem to recognize that the social and economic crisis currently taking place throughout Europe and the United States has already raised serious questions about the nature and future of liberal capitalism, especially in the Middle East and other non-Western parts of the world. Western elites diculties in understanding the Middle East are exacerbated because their sources of information in the region are basically local secular eliteswealthy, Western-educated, and even Western-oriented Muslim intellectuals. Westerners collectively fail to recognize that such people are simply not representative of their societies. As in Iran, the large majority of Egyptians are religious. If past experience in Iran is something to go by, the Muslim Brotherhood will probably at some point split into two or more separate parties, which will then provide competing interpretations of how society should be run. Hence, religious parties will probably be the dominant forces in Egyptian politics for many years to comenot just for one or two electoral cycles. Indeed, if the Muslim Brotherhood does not meet popular expectations in the coming months and years, it is the Salasts who are likely to capitalize on this to expand their own inuence over Egypt, not Western-style, secular liberals. The Salasts strong electoral performance and substantial external funding positions them to declare, in the not-so-distant future, that it is time for true Islam to save the country. This is something that Western countries should be deeply concerned about, as the ideologies of these Salast groups have a great deal in common with those of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Of course, Americans and Europeans cannot complain about the Salasts religious intolerance or their externally backed rise to power, because they are heavily nanced by the Wests closest regional allies. For reasons largely linked to selfpreservation, Saudi Arabia and other Arab dictatorships in the Persian Gulf region are nancing such extremist groups all over the Arab World and beyond. Over the past three decades they have radically aected societies in signicant parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, creating a culture of intolerance and radically altering the local culture. In sumand notwithstanding the scorn directed at Ayatollah Khameneis observations a year agothis is looking very much like the manifestation of an Islamic Awakening. Many factors such as injustice, social inequality, despotism, and western domination contributed to the recent events, but they do not at all contradict the idea of an awakening. For those who kept their eyes open, there were clear signs of this from the prevalence of Islamic slogans as well as the role of mosques and Friday prayers. Signicantly, the term Islamic Awakening has been used by Ayatollah Khamenei in his public statements as leader nearly two hundred times over the past two decades. He has repeatedly stated that Islamic movements are on the rise and that the region is heading for major changes that are, for the most part, in sharp conict with Western interests. Unlike in the West, the Iranian leadership, along with others in the region, has expected these events for many years and is thus much better prepared than Europe and the United States to deal with this reality. The Islamic Republic is rapidly expanding relations with rising political entities throughout the region. It recently held the First International Islamic Awakening Conference, with over seven hundred participants from a host of key regional movements. In the Conferences Inaugural speech, Ayatollah Khamenei told attendees what he believed to be the principles and slogans of the revolutions: independence, freedom, the demand for justice, opposing despotism and colonialism, the rejection of ethnic, racial, or religious discrimination, and the explicit rejection of Zionism. All of these, he said, are Islamic values, based on the Quran. In the eyes of many Iranians, these ex-

traordinary changes in the Middle East and North Africaalongside Americas forced withdrawal from Iraq, its inevitable defeat in Afghanistan, the sharp social and economic decline in the West, and the rise of new international players such as China, India, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa will ultimately lead to a rapid decrease of American and European inuence, regionally and globally. From an Iranian perspective, this provides at least a partial explanation why the United States and the EU are now so explicit in their (so far unsuccessful) attempts to inict severe pain on ordinary Iranians through crippling sanctions. While, in the past, it was clear that the objective of sanctions was to make average Iranians sueras the Wikileaks cables conrmthere was at least a hypocritical attempt to portray these actions as humane and directed at the government. Now, the incessant and shrill calls to assassinate and murder Iranian scientists, military ocials, and politicians and to launch military strikes on the country reveals the existence of a disturbed mentality among many of the political elite in the West and in the United States in particular. The recent urry of absurd accusations made against Iran by the U.S., such as the so-called plot against the Saudi Ambassador to Washington, the rehashed IAEA report presented by a deeply biased director general, cyber attacks, and the attempts to impose sanctions on the Iranian central bank which politicians like Ron Paul consider to be an act of war, is also leading many in Iran to conclude that the United States is currently too irrational for any form of meaningful dialogue. The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the IAEA report had a set goal to deliver a guilty verdict, despite the fact that, as Russias Deputy Foreign Minister elsewhere pointed out, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to show that Irans nuclear program is anything but peaceful. That is why, contrary to the dominant narrative in the Western media, the majority of the international community, such as the 120 Non-Aligned Movement states, have consistently backed the Islamic Republics position on its nuclear program. Iranians well remember the American governments duplicity when President Lula attempted to nd a diplomatic solution to the refueling of the Tehran Research Reactor. The reactor, which each year produces medical isotopes for hundreds of thousands of dying cancer patients, was running out of nuclear fuel. Western governments were preventing it from being refueled in order to put pressure on Iran, eectively playing with innocent lives. In April 2010, Obama sent ocial letters to the Brazilian president and the Turkish prime minister stating the conditions that would have to be met for the United States to accept an agreement. When the conditions were met and Lula, Ahmadinejad, and Erdogan signed the Tehran Declaration, Obama shocked the three leaders by immediately rejecting it and pushing for a new UN Security Council resolution to increase sanctions against Iran. Not only did Obama lie to the Brazilian and Turkish leaders and publicly humiliate them, but it later became clear that his letters to them had been intentionally written to mislead both Brazil and Turkey. It did not take long for history to repeat itself. In July 2001 the Russians put forth a new step by step proposal to resolve the nuclear issue. Senior Russian ocials informed their Iranians counterparts that the proposal has the support of the United States and subsequently, despite reservations, the Iranians agreed in principle with the plan. It later became clear to the Iranians that the Americans had misled the Russians too and that they did not actually accept the Russian proposal. American actions make it reasonable for Iranians to conclude that the actual U.S. objective is for the nuclear issue not to be resolved and that the real problem for the United States is Irans opposition to and resistance against American hegemony. Contrary to claims made in the West, Obama has never seriously attempted to engage with the Iranians on the basis of mutual respect. The irony is not lost upon Iranians that they have had to experience four rounds of sanctions, even though they have never produced Weapons of Mass Destruction. Yet the countries that have actually pushed for the sanctionsmeaning the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany actually helped provide Saddam Hussain with WMDs to use against Iranian civilians and combatants, as well as against the Iraqi people. In other words,

Seyed Mohamed Marandi

these countries were deeply implicated in crimes against humanity; they compounded their complicity by preventing the UN Security Council from even declaring that Iraq had used such weapons, much less condemning it. Iran on the other hand, despite its capability, refused to produce or use such weapons. In fact, the Islamic Republic has, to this day, never produced chemical weapons, because it considers them inhumane. As war veterans and civilian casualties in Iran continue to die because of the WMDs provided to the former Iraqi regime by the West, it is an understatement to say that Iranians are angered by these governments continued attempt to strangle the Iranian economy. More recently, the extraordinary capture of the unmanned American stealth plane by the Iranian armed forces, not only reveals the extent of Iranian military competence; it also exposes the extent of U.S. hostility towards Iran as well as its sheer disregard of international law, including Afghan sovereignty. What is the point of talking with the United States, Iranians ask themselves, when it carried out such provocative acts of hostility with such total unaccountability and impunity? Many in Iran feel that, to a large extent, the Syrian public has also been made the target of sanctions and foreign intervention because of the Wests extraordinary hatred towards the Islamic Republic. In other words, Syrians must cease to earn a living, because their government, alongside Iran, stands in opposition to the Israeli regimes apartheid policies. From almost the start of the troubles in Syria, Iranians were aware that external forces were involved, notwithstanding repeated denials by Arab regimes in the Persian Gulf, Turkey, and Western countries. As time passed, this has become even clearer, despite unending media propaganda claiming that it is simply a struggle between unarmed street protestors and the Syrian army and intelligence services. Indeed, the dictatorships of the Arab League are even having problems forcing their own monitors in Syria to tow the ocial line and now even a poll funded by Qatar, whose results have clearly been spun and completely ignored by the Western media, reveals that the majority of Syrians actually support President Bashar Assad. There is no doubt that the foreign anti-Syrian alliance is, responsible for arming groups, for the devastating car and suicide bombings, and, thus, for the many deathsincluding the large number of sectarian murders, largely ignored in the Western mediathat have occurred as a result. When American ocials and the Western media speak of Syrian brutality and constantly repeat unsubstantiated casualty gures presented by Western funded Syrian NGOs, it would be good for them to recall how many tens, if not hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iraq were killed during the insurgency against U.S. occupation. The regular killing of civilians in Afghanistan and the regular drone attacks in Pakistan among other countries are, of course, ongoing tragedies. Iran believed that the Syrian president should have been given a chance to carry out the reforms which were promised, but that from the start, Western governments and Arab dictatorships were adamant that reforms should not succeed under President Bashar Assad. Hence, they attempted to overrun the legitimate internal opposition with an external one that backs Western military intervention. While the Islamic Republic was critical of the treatment of peaceful protestors with legitimate grievances by Syrian security forces, Iranians knew that, unlike other Arab regimes, President Assad had and continues to have signicant popular support. His stance against the Israeli regime, his support for resistance groups, and the fact that unlike other Arab leaders he lives a

relatively normal lifestyle, gives him much more street credibility that Saudi, Jordanian, Bahraini, Yemeni, or Egyptian rulers. On multiple occasions in recent months, enormous crowds have taken to the streets in simultaneous pro-Assad demonstrations in major Syrian cities; in contrast, none of the Arab dictatorsincluding his current antagonistshave ever been able to muster such public support for themselves. Indeed, Iran believes that this is the main reason why cruel sanctions have been imposed on Syria: they are meant to do nothing but hurt the general public and cause discontent among the population. President Assads foreign adversaries recognize that he has signicant popular support; hence, the Syrian people must be punished until this support is diminished. As in Gaza and Iran, the goal is to punish people for backing political forces critical of the West. In the 1980s the United States had success with such a policy, as they removed the Sandinistas from power in Nicaragua by making life unbearable for ordinary people through sanctions and a bloody insurgency. While Iranians recognize that international law has been unfairly constructed to favor Western powers, the increasing Western, Turkish, Saudi, and Qatari disregard for Syrian sovereigntyand even for their own UN Security Council resolution on Libyais creating a strong sense of lawlessness and chaos. Add to this, of course, the regular and arrogant violation of Iranian sovereignty through drones and crippling sanctions as well as active support for anti-Iranian terrorist organization. In an extraordinary Wall Street Journal interview, the pro-Western Syrian National Councils spokesman, Burhan Ghalioun, revealed clearly where things stand. He eectively said that if the Syrian state is overthrown, the new regime would relinquish the Resistance against Israel and would move politically towards the principal Arab powers, meaning the current Arab dictatorships. Therefore, while there is no doubt that the Syrian government has major deciencies and that excessive force has been used by army soldiers and security service members, leading to the deaths of innocent people, Iranians do not believe that the U.S., EU, Qatari and Saudi led attempts for regime change in Damascus are being carried out for the sake of freedom or democracy. If only for selfpreservation, these absolute monarchies will, with the aid of their Western backers, try to deter any meaningful move towards democracy near their borders, at all costs. Hence, the continued U.S. support for the Jordanian king, the Egyptian military, the Yemeni regime, the Saudi occupation of Bahrain, and the Al-Khalifa dictatorship. The United States has a policy of deterring democracy in the region, so why should anyone believe, they have a sincere interest in freedom for Syrians? There is evidence indicating the United States has been viewing sectarianism as a potential tool for weakening its adversaries for quite some time now. This ts well with the current situation in Syria. The fact that Turkey, which seems to be showing Neo-Ottoman tendencies, has allowed Abdulhakim Belhadj (who was close to both the al-Qaeda leadership and the Taleban) to meet with leaders of the so called Free Syrian Army in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey is mind boggling. In addition, Sala clerics close to the insurgency repeatedly incite religious, racial, and sectarian violence, such as the well known Saudi cleric Saleh Al-Luhaidan, who said a third of the Syrian population should be killed so that the rest could live. The foreign-backed extremists even murdered the son of the Syrias Grand Sunni Mufti, just as their allies killed many Sunni clerics and sheikhs in the Anbar province in Iraq. Contd. on P. 15

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m

JANUARY 11, 2012

HISTORY&HERITAGE

INTERNATIONAL DAILY

The Stone Town of Zanzibar


For many centuries there was intense seaborne trading activity between Asia and Africa, and this is illustrated admirably by the architecture and urban structure of the Stone Town. Its historic centre, known as Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site. Zanzibar also has great symbolic importance in the suppression of slavery because it was one of the main slavetrading ports in East Africa. Two major cultural traditions merged to form the Swahili civilization on the East African coast. A series of harbor towns developed under inuences from the interior of Africa and from the lands across the Indian Ocean. There was a loose confederation of small coastal city states known as the Zenj bar (Black Empire) which operated in the 8th-10th centuries. The best preserved of these towns is Zanzibar, the name of which is derived from the Perso-Arabic word meaning 'the coast of the blacks.' The Swahili economy was destabilized with the arrival of the Portuguese at the end of the 15th century. A church and some merchants' houses were built at Zanzibar, built from simple wattle-anddaub thatched with palm leaves since the 10th century. The Portuguese later added a massive fort on the sea front.

Ernest Rutherford: Father of nuclear physics


Ernest Rutherford (1871 1937) was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics. A consummate experimentalist, Rutherford was responsible for a remarkable series of discoveries in the elds of radioactivity and nuclear physics. In early work he discovered the concept of radioactive half-life, proved that radioactivity involved the transmutation of one chemical element to another, and also dierentiated and named alpha and beta radiation, proving that the former was essentially helium ions. This work was done at McGill University in Canada. It is the basis for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry he was awarded in 1908 "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances". He is widely credited with rst "splitting the atom" in 1917 in a nuclear reaction between nitrogen and alpha particles, in which he also Rutherford's path to the Nobel Prize discovered (and named) the proton. This led to the rst experiment to split the nucleus in a fully controlled manner, performed by two students working under his direction, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, in 1932. He discovered alpha and beta rays, set forth the laws of radioactive decay, and identied alpha particles as helium nuclei. Most important, he postulated the nuclear structure of the atom: experiments done in Rutherford's laboratory showed that when alpha particles are red into gas atoms, a few are violently deected, which implies a dense, positively charged central region containing most of the atomic mass. Born on a farm in New Zealand, the fourth of 12 children, Rutherford completed a degree at the University of New Zealand and began teaching unruly schoolboys. He was released from this task by a scholarship to Cambridge University, where he became J. J. Thomson's rst graduate student at the Cavendish Laboratory. There he began experimenting with the transmission of radio waves, went on to join Thomson's ongoing investigation of the conduction of electricity through gases, and then turned to the eld of radioactivity just opened up by Henri Becquerel and Pierre and Marie Curie. Throughout his career Rutherford displayed his ability to work creatively with associates, some of whom were already established at the institutions to which he was appointed and others of whom he attracted as doctoral or postgraduate students. At McGill University in Montreal, his rst appointment, he worked with Frederick Soddy on radioactive decay. At Manchester University he collaborated with Hans Geiger (of Geiger counter fame), Niels Bohr (whose model of atomic structure succeeded Rutherford's), and H. G. J. Moseley (who obtained experimental evidence for atomic numbers). During World War I, this Manchester research group was largely dispersed, and Rutherford turned to solving problems connected with submarine detection. After the war he succeeded J. J. Thomson in the Cavendish Professorship at Cambridge and again gathered a vigorous research group, including James Chadwick, the discoverer of the neutron. Like Thomson, Rutherford garnered many honors. He received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for 1908; he was made a knight, then a peer with a seat in the House of Lords. After his death in 1937, he was honored by being interred with the greatest scientists of the United Kingdom, near Sir Isaac Newton's tomb in Westminster Abbey. The chemical element Rutherfordium (element 104) was named after him in 1997. (Source: chemheritage.org)

N O T A B L E S

A bird view of the old Stone Town

The slave trade, started by the Portuguese, assumed large proportions in the 18th century, when they were required in large numbers for the French sugar plantations in the islands of the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean. The ruling Islamic dynasty of Zanzibar and its foreign merchants became

very rich and embellished the Stone Town with palaces and ne mansions. These were built in a variety of styles and traditions, which were amalgamated and homogenized into a characteristic Swahili architecture. In the 19th century, this Swahili tradition was overwhelmed by new styles brought in

by the oods of immigrants: the Minaret Mosque dates from this period. The vernacular architecture is preponderantly of two-storey buildings with long narrow rooms disposed round an open courtyard, reached through a narrow corridor. (Source: UNESCO)

New early warning system spotlights endangered archaeological sites


The Global Heritage Network (GHN), the world's first early warning and site monitoring system dedicated exclusively to endangered cultural heritage sites in developing countries, became operational in March of 2011. Since then, GHN efforts have been joined by hundreds of conservation experts around the world. The Network features updated satellite imagery for 175 of the developing worlds most significant archaeological and cultural heritage sites, including profile information on at least 80 of those sites. The Network has been spotlighted by major media organizations such as National Geographic and USA Today. What may come as a surprise to many, however, are some of the world's long-held, well-known "celebrity" sites that the GHN has determined to be in need of urgent rescue: Egypt's Ancient Thebes with its necropolis, as well as Ancient Abydos; Leptis Magna, Libya; Great Zimbabwe National Monument in Zimbabwe; and Tiwanaku, Bolivia. Using Google Earth and social networking, combined with scientic mapping software from Esri, satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe, and imagery analysis software from Exelis Visual Information Solutions (formerly ITT Visual Information Solutions), GHN has now provided a real-time interactive database tool for international experts, local communities, fundraisers, volunteers and visitors/travelers. It is hoped that the database will help global efforts to protect, preserve and sustain critical archaeological and cultural heritage sites, sites that exhibit signicant cultural value to the world -- and an untapped potential for facilitating much-needed economic growth in the developing country hosts. Although much has been accomplished in a short time, GHN administrators know that there is a long way to go before the ultimate purpose of the network can be fullled. (Source: Popular Archaeology)

2,000 year-old cave paintings found in Mexico

Look into the eyes of a rare ancient African sculpture

Mexican archaeologists found some 3,000 cave paintings, some almost 2,000 years old, in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said. The discoveries were made between August and October 2011, but were not announced until specialists conrmed their antiquity and completed their analyses. The oldest images refer to rites of passage, healing, prayers for rain and mountain worship, and were created by ancient hunter-gatherer societies that occupied the area during the rst centuries A.D. These paintings, with yellow, red and black the predominating colors, generally represent human gures with headdresses, robes and shields, as well as some as yet unidentied in-

struments. Often in hunting and battle scenes they carry bows and arrows. Also discovered in the area were religious images and inscriptions from the colonial era painted by Otomi Indian communities, along with others created by ranchers and clergy of the 19th and 20th centuries. The discoveries are added to the more than 70 rock-art locations discovered in Guanajuato since the late 1980s. Mexico has hundreds of cavepainting sites, with outstanding examples in the states of Baja California, Chihuahua, Yucatan, Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, Durango and Nuevo Leon, as well as in the Valley of Mexico. The oldest artwork documented in Mexico up to now is in Baja California and dates back some 7,400 years. (Source: Latin American Herald Tribune)

If they exist at all, most unglazed clay objects from ancient times are now rubble, mere fragments of their former glory. This terracotta head, at around 2000 years old, is a rare exception. Excavated from a village in Nigeria, this is one of the best-preserved examples of its kind ever discovered. It is a product of the Nok culture that flourished from about 1000 BC to AD 500, when it mysteriously died out, and provides examples of the earliest figurative art in sub-Saharan Africa. Archaeologists Peter Breunig and Nicole Rupp of the GoetheUniversity Frankfurt in Germany uncovered the head during the 2010 field season. It was found in Kushe, a small village north of the capital Abuja.

Amazingly, this specimen was very close to the surface - only 60 centimeters down. The Nok terracottas are a mystery. No one knows for sure what they were used for. They may represent dead members of the Nok community and could have been a votive oering at a shrine. Africa has seen a resurgence of archaeological activity to investigate Nok culture. Part of this has to do with interest in Iron Age societies in Africa, which is surging as anthropologists consider how technologies - especially those based on iron - spread. The Nok are considered to be one of the earliest, if not the earliest, people to smelt iron on the African continent. (Source: New Scientist)

O N T H I S D AY
1758 Russian troops occupy Konigsberg, East-Prussia 1787 Titania & Oberon, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Herschel 1861 Alabama secedes from the United States 1879 Zulu war against British colonial rule in South Africa begins 1892 Hawaiian Historical Society founded 1913 1st sedan-type car (Hudson) goes on display at 13th Auto Show (NYC) 1919 Romania annexes Transylvania 1920 French passenger ship Afrique sinks near La Rochelle; 553 die 1923 French & Belgian troops occupy Ruhr to collect reparations 1942 Japan conquers Kuala Lumpur, Malaya 1943 U.S. & Britain relinquish extraterritorial rights in China 1954 2 ton locomotive swept into ravine by avalanche, 10 die (Austria) 1957 The African Convention is founded in Dakar. 1957 Mass-murderer Jack Gilbert Graham is executed via the Gas Chamber 1960 Chad declares independence from France 1962 Volcano Huascaran in Peru erupts; 4,000 die 1964 Panama ends diplomatic relations with U.S. 1982 Honduras adopts constitution 1989 140 nations agree to ban chemical weapons (poison gas, etc) 1991 Congress empowers Bush to order attack on Iraq

Slaves or not, Babylonians were like us, says book


This is one of the cuneiform tablets that Jonathan Tenney, assistant professor of ancient Near Eastern studies, addresses in the new book, "Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society: Servile Laborers at Nippur in the 14th and 13th Centuries, B.C." The book is based on Tenney's dissertation at the University of Chicago, for which he received the 2010 Dissertation of the Year Award by the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq. Tenney translated more than 500 cuneiform tablets in his hunt for the truth. By using quantitative measurements to create demographic data, he was able to look at population dynamics, family structure and the legal status of this population. He then compared the Babylonian group's demography with other better-studied groups, such as those in Roman Egypt, medieval Tuscany and on American slave plantations. "Whether they're slaves is not what's valuable to me about this work," Tenney says. "The point is we don't have an historical demography of Babylonia at all. We don't even know how many people were living there at any given time." His book is the most detailed study yet done of any population group in Babylonia. The picture Tenney draws of family life in this servile population is surprising in its mundanity. By far the majority of households were nuclear, husbandwife-children or a single parent with children, usually a widow, instead of slaves living together or in groups. Tenney was able to track some families for as long as 32 years. "As you start to work with slavery you realize how many misconceptions we have," he says. "Being a slave doesn't necessarily mean you can't have a family life and raise children and develop your own individual culture and identity. I think that slavery and freedom exist on a continuum of varying degrees." He left it to his readers to decide where the Babylonians about whom he wrote fit on that continuum. The tablets Tenney translated were excavated by scholars from the University of Pennsylvania in the 1890s in what is now Iraq; they are some of the earliest Babylonian texts ever found. Tenney will publish the raw data from his research in the forthcoming "Middle Babylonian Administrative and Legal Documents Concerning the Public Servile Population of Nippur." (Source: archaeologica.org)

One of the cuneiform tablets Tunney addresses in his new book

I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY

JANUARY 11, 2012

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / s c i e n c e

Belgian doctors carry out countrys rst face transplant


Belgian surgeons have successfully performed the countrys rst-ever face transplant, the 19th in the world, doctors announced Saturday. Ocials at the University Hospital of Ghent said a team of 65 surgeons and medical sta had performed the 20-hour operation a week earlier on a Belgian man with a severely mutilated face. Hes ne, hes doing very well after six days, surgical team leader Phillip Blondeel told Belgian television. Hes already swallowed a little water. Blondeel said the patient, whose name was not disclosed, was already able to speak, surpassing doctors expectations. We didnt think he would be able to speak so soon. The patient had been missing skin around the central part of his face, as well as lips, facial muscles and nerves. The operation brings to 19 the number of face transplants carried out worldwide. The rst was a partial face transplant on Frenchwoman Isabelle Dinoire in 2005. Belgium is the third European country after France and Spain to have carried out the operation. (Source: AFP)

IN THE NEWS

FDA warns of mix-up in pills by no Novartis


By Jennifer Corbett Dooren

Couch potato pill may also prevent heatstroke


A drug discovered nearly four years ago that builds muscles in lazy mice may also prevent heatstroke, according to lab research reported. If further tests work out, the compound could help athletes or soldiers who are so sensitive to heat that they could die from exertion on a hot day, its authors say. In 2008, a drug known as AICAR became dubbed the couch potato pill after it was found to develop muscles and boost endurance among completely inactive laboratory rodents. It is now being explored as a treatment for several muscle diseases and metabolic disorders. In a paper published by the journal Nature Medicine, researchers in the United States said they discovered by chance that AICAR also protects mice against a disorder called malignant hyperthermia. This deadly condition is linked to a basket of aws in a gene called RYR1, a trait which exists in mice as well as humans. A rise in body temperature causes a leak of calcium in muscle cells, triggering a molecular cascade that eventually makes the muscles contract and break down. Potassium and protein then pour out of the crippled muscle cells and into the bloodstream, reaching toxic levels that lead to heart or kidney failure. Tests on mice genetically engineered to have the RYR1 mutation found that AICAR worked perfectly in preventing malignant hypothermia, says the study. When we gave AICAR to the mice, it was 100 percent eective in preventing heat-induced deaths, even when we gave it no more than 10 minutes before the activity, said Susan Hamilton, a professor of molecular physiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. AICAR -- full name 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside -- works by stopping the calcium leak, thus preventing the vicious circle from getting under way. The nding may lead one day to a drug that would be used preventatively for heat-sensitive young athletes or soldiers in the desert who must wear heavy gear. Abnormalities in the RYR1 gene are believed to occur in about one person in every 3,000. But the researchers theorise that the future drug may also work for people without the RYR1 aw. We think the fundamental process that occurs during heatstroke in individuals with RYR1 mutations is likely to be similar to what happens even in their (the mutations) absence, said Robert Dirksen, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. (Source: AFP)

he Food and Drug Administration warned of potential mix-ups involving certain prescription pain pills and over-the-counter medicines that were made at a Novartis AG manufacturing plant in Nebraska. Novartis is recalling 1,645 lots of its Excedrin, NoDoz, Buerin and Gas-X medicines because the products could contain stray capsules or caplets from other products, or contain broken or chipped tablets. The plant in Lincoln, Neb., where the products are manufactured was shut down last month. The plant also makes some opioid prescription painkillers for Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc., including Opana, Percocet and an extended-release version of morphine tablets. Both Novartis and the FDA said they werent aware of any adverse events in patients from any mix-ups. Novartis said it was oering customers a refund. The company said Gax X Prevention is the only Novartis product manufactured on the same line as the Endo products and that it doesnt have any reports of any mix-ups of those medicines. List of recalled drugs The recall aects 1,645 lots of Both Novartis and these medicines: Excedrin, expiration the FDA said they of Dec. 20, 2014 or earlier dates werent aware NoDoz, expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2014 or earlier of any adverse Buerin, expiration events in patients Dec. 20, 2013 or earlier dates of Gas-X Prevention, expiration from any dates of Dec. 20, 2013 or earlier mix-ups. Novartis is the most recent Novartis said company to suer from production problems. Just last month it was offering Johnson & Johnsons McNeil Concustomers a sumer Healthcare unit recalled 12 million bottles of Motrin, sayrefund. ing some pills may not dissolve as quickly as intended. That company has been plagued by manufacturing quality problems since 2009 and has dozens of product recalls including Tylenol and Benadryl. However, given existing inventories, the expected restart of Novartis production and our ability to shift production to other facilities we believe the supply constraints of our products should be

limited, said Julie McHugh, the companys chief operating ocer. Novartis said it would take a charge estimated at $120 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 related to the recalls and the work needed to x the Lincoln facility. We are committed to a single quality standard for the entire Novartis Group and we are making the necessary investments and committing the right resources to ensure these are implemented across our entire network, Joseph Jimenez, the Swiss companys chief executive, said. Edward Cox, a director in FDAs oce of new drugs, said theres a potential for tablets to be retained in a machine involved in the product packaging process but said the FDA couldnt comment further on the ongoing investigation into the plants problems. Mr. Cox said the agency opted against asking for a recall of Endos prescription pain products because the potential for drug mix ups appeared to be low and pharmacists can screen for any problems before the pain pills reach consumers. He said theres been three reports of mix-ups

since 2009 that were caught by pharmacists. Endo on Monday said there may be a short-term disruption in the supply of some of its pain products and recommended that doctors refrain from starting new patients on the extended-release version of Opana to preserve supply for existing patients. A July inspection report released by the FDA cited several consumer complaints of certain formulations of Excedrin being mixed up. For example some consumers said they found Excedrin Migraine Tablets being mixed with Excedrin Migraine caplets or geltabs. The agency said Novartis failed to adequately investigate 166 complaints related to foreign tablets in your drug products since 2009. Specically Novartis is recalling three types of Buerin, an aspirin product, and Gas-X Prevention, a food-enzyme supplement, with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2013 or earlier. The company is recalling certain bottle sizes of its pain medicine Excedrin and NoDoz products with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2014 or earlier. NoDoz contains caeine and is marketed as an alertness product. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

Is caffeine an effective weight-loss aid?


If losing weight was one of your New Years resolutions, you might already be growing weary of counting calories and working out. Wouldnt it be great if you could slim down without so much eort? Anyone looking for a shortcut to weight loss might be tempted to try one of many supplements that claim to burn fat and boost metabolism. These products often contain a not-especially-exotic ingredient thats already a staple of the American lifestyle: caeine. The morning coee drinkers at Dunkin Donuts notwithstanding, caeine has a strong reputation as a weight-loss aid. The stimulant is one of the key ingredients of Zantrex-3, the popular weight-loss supplement from Zoller Laboratories, based in Salt Lake City. The company claims each capsule contains up to 160 milligrams of caeine and caeine-like stimulants (from green tea and yerba mate, among other sources), while a government database of supplements says each capsule of Zantrex-3 contains more than 160 mg of caeine. Thats slightly more than youd get from a typical double shot of espresso. Other ingredients include ginseng and damiana, a Latin American herb traditionally used as an aphrodisiac. Users are instructed to take two capsules with a glass of water before a meal or anytime during the day when they need an energy boost. According to the label, they shouldnt take more than six capsules in a day. Zantrex-3 is available at many drugstores. You can expect to pay about $20 for a package of 30 capsules. LipoFuze, a weight-loss supplement from E Nutrition Research, based in Orem, Utah, also packs a signicant amount of caeine. The label says that each capsule contains 200 mg of a green tea extract that is 50% caeine. Other ingredients include vitamin D, chromium and coenzyme Q10. Users are instructed to take two capsules a day. A package of 60, a one-months supply, costs about $50. The claims The website for Zantrex-3 says it provides both extreme energy and rapid weight loss 546% more weight loss than the leading ephedra-based diet pill, The bottom line Caeine shows up in a lot of weight-loss products, but it doesnt seem to be any sort of silver bullet against ab, says C. Michael White, a professor of pharmacy at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. White says that, to his knowledge, there are no well-designed studies showing that caeine works better than a placebo when it comes to weight loss. White notes that caeine is a diuretic, which means that people taking large doses might shed some weight through water loss, but thats not the kind of slimming most users are looking for. As reported in a 2010 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, caeine may in fact be able to increase a persons metabolic rate by 4% or 5%. But, according to White, theres no clear evidence that this translates into actual weight loss. One possible explanation: Any increase in metabolism might go hand-in-hand with a boost in appetite, he says. Caeine does seem to enhance the weight-loss powers of some other ingredients, White says. For example, green tea contains antioxidants that encourage cells to burn extra calories, and caeinated green tea seems to promote more weight loss than decaf versions. But even this combination yields very modest results. In clinical trials, the weight loss is 2.5 to 4 pounds, not 40 pounds, White says. Gerald Endress, the tness director of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center at Duke University in Durham, N.C., says patients often ask about caeine as a weight-loss aid. I tell them its denitely not going to be as helpful as 30 minutes of exercise. Endress says a little caeine before a workout might help a person exercise harder and longer, which could theoretically help them control their weight. But the real credit would go to the exercise, not the caeine. Endress also warns that too much caeine such as the high doses found in Zantrex could cause jitteriness, anxiety, spikes in blood pressure and rapid heartbeats in some people. (Source: Los Angeles Times)

SUBSCRIPTION FORM
W W W . T E H R A N T I M E S . C O M INTERNATIONAL DAILY

Tehran Times subscription form


First name: ................................................... Family name: ............................................... Company: .................................................... 12-month subscription: 1,600,000 rials 6-month subscription: 800,000 rials 3-month subscription: 400,000 rials Phone No.: .................................................... Fax: .............................................................. Address: ...................................................... Postal code: ................................................. E-mail: .......................................................... ATTENTION: The money can be deposited into Tehran Times account number 6973086221 in Bank Mellat at any branch. Send the subscription form along with the deposit receipt to No. 18 Bimeh Lane, Nejatollahi Street, Tehran, or fax to number 88808895 (special for Tehrani citizens). Interested individuals in other cities can contact the subscription oce at 8880-3025

to be exact. The site features a picture of reality TV star (and ocial product endorser) Nicole Snooki Polizzi of Jersey Shore pulling a bottle of the pills out of her purse. (The website calls her a celebrity, and, yes, the term is in quotation marks.) Amy Heaton, director of scientic aairs for Zoller, says that caeine and caeine-like compounds have been proved to improve energy, stamina, concentration, mood and metabolism. But, she says, they have not been shown to signicantly increase weight loss. Heaton adds that its not just about weight loss. Its about fat loss and increased energy. To drive home the message, she points to Snookis transformation from a self-professed meatball to a sexy and slim reball. The website for LipoFuze says that the supplement increases the metabolic mechanism in your body. The site also says the green tea and caeine will rev up your metabolism and increase energy, focus and physical performance. The site features testimonials it says are from users who claim they have lost huge amounts of weight with the help of LipoFuze. One man says he dropped more than 100 pounds, although its unclear how long that took. A woman says she lost 40 pounds in less than a year, including 20 pounds in her rst month. Attempts to reach E Nutrition Research for comment were not successful.

Senator warns FDA on danger of newest painkillers


ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Following fatal shootings in two New York pharmacy robberies, a U.S. senator is warning that a new batch of super painkillers now under review could force repeats of recent violent robberies that left six people dead. Its tremendously concerning that at the same time policymakers and law enforcement professionals are waging a war on the growing prescription drug crisis, new super-drugs could well be on their way, ooding the market, said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. The FDA needs to grab the reins and slow down the stampede to introduce these powerful narcotics. A message seeking comment from the Food and Drug Administration was not immediately returned. The Associated Press reported last month about addiction experts fears over four drugs being tested that contain a more powerful version of one of the nations most abused painkillers hydrocodone. Schumer is particularly concerned about legalizing the drugs for prescriptions because they would be prized commodities in the black market. Experts say painkiller addiction has been driven partly by a loophole in the 1970 Controlled Substances Act that classied pure hydrocodone a super painkiller as a strictly controlled Schedule II drug. But the law put combination products, such as pills containing hydrocodone and acetaminophen, into the less strict Schedule III. Because of the loophole, patients can rell a prescription for a hydrocodoneacetaminophen drug like Vicodin up to ve times. A prescription for a similar oxycodone product, such as Percocet, can be lled only once. Critics say the loophole has ooded American medicine cabinets with hydrocodone. In 1999, the Drug Enforcement Administration and FDA began reviewing whether they should reschedule hydrocodone combination products. But an AP review of regulatory documents and court lings shows the agencies have repeatedly passed the rescheduling study back and forth, with no nal decision made.

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / s c i e n c e

JANUARY 11, 2012

S C I / T E C H

INTERNATIONAL DAILY

Scientists unveil biggest ever map of universes dark matter


By Clara Moskowitz cientists have created the largest scale rendering of dark matter across the universe, revealing a picture of the invisible stu thought to represent 98 percent of all matter in the universe. Dark matter has never been directly detected, but its presence is felt through its gravitational pull on normal matter. Scientists suspect dark matter is made of some exotic particle that doesnt interact with regular atoms. We know very little about the dark universe, said co-leader of the study, Catherine Heymans of the University of Edinburghs School of Physics and Astronomy, during a press conference announcing the ndings here at the 219th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. We dont know what the dark matter particle is. Its very widely believed that the nal understanding of the dark universe is going to have to invoke some new physics. The new map reveals the distribution of dark matter over a larger swath of space than ever before. It covers more than 1 billion light-years. One light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). To trace invisible dark matter, the researchers searched for signs of its gravitational tug on other matter. They measured an eect called gravitational lensing, which occurs when gravity from a massive body bends space-time, causing light to travel along a curved path through space and appear distorted when it reaches Earth. The scientists measured warped light from 10 million distant galaxies in four dierent regions of the sky, caused when those galaxies light passed by large bundles of dark matter that bent its path. It is fascinating to be able to see the dark matter using space-

Newly discovered carnivorous plant devours underground worms


The rare plant Philcoxia minensis is found in the tropical savannas of Brazil, areas rich in biodiversity and highly in need of conservation. Although some of the plants millimeter-wide leaves grow above ground as expected, strangely, most of its tiny, sticky leaves lie beneath the surface of the shallow white sands on which it grows. We usually think about leaves only as photosynthetic organs, so at rst sight, it looks awkward that a plant would place its leaves underground where there is less sunlight, said researcher Rafael Silva Oliveira, a plant ecologist at the State University of Campinas in Brazil. Why would evolution favor the persistence of this apparently unfavorable trait? Researchers suspected the mysterious subterranean leaves of Philcoxia minensis and its relatives were used to capture animals. They share a number of traits with known carnivorous plants for instance, Venus ytraps possess leaves covered in glands with protruding stalks that help the plant detect prey. Like P. minensis, Venus ytraps also live in nutrient-poor soils, which is apparently why they seek out prey in the rst place. To see if Philcoxia minensis is carnivorous, the scientists tested whether it could digest and absorb nutrients from the many nematodes, also called roundworms, which end up trapped on its sticky underground leaves. They fed the plant nematodes loaded with the isotope nitrogen-15, atoms of which have one more neutron than regular nitrogen-14. Essentially, the scientists placed these Caenorhabditis elegans worms on top of underground leaves of plants kept in a lab setting. Chemical analysis of the leaves that had been covered in nematodes revealed signicant amounts of nitrogen-15, suggesting the plant broke down and absorbed the worms. The leaves also possessed digestive enzyme activity similar to that seen in known carnivorous plants, suggesting that the roundworms did not decompose naturally; the researchers speculate the leaves trapped the worms and then secreted enzymes that digested the worms. (Source: The Christian Science Monitor)

N E W S

time distortion, another co-author of the study, Ludovic Van Waerbeke of the University of British Columbia, said in a statement. It gives us privileged access to this mysterious mass in the universe which cannot be observed otherwise. Knowing how dark matter is distributed is the very rst step towards understanding its nature and how it ts within our current knowledge of physics. Distribution of dark matter Scientists hope that by plotting out the distribution of dark matter throughout space, they will come closer to understanding what it is. By analyzing light from the distant universe, we can learn about what it has travelled through on its journey to reach us, Heymans said. We hope that by mapping

more dark matter than has been studied before, we are a step closer to understanding this material and its relationship with the galaxies in our universe. What we see here is very similar to the simulation, Van Waerbeke said. Dark matter is concentrated in lumps and the rest stretches in laments. The web of dark matter throughout the universe revealed by the map agreed well with predictions made by computer simulations based on scientists best theory of dark matter. So far we havent seen any o things, or any deviation from what we expect, Van Waerbeke told SPACE.com. To create the map, the astronomers used data collected by the Canada-France-Hawaii

Telescope in Hawaii during a veyear project called the CanadaFrance-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey. These lensing maps are very important tests of our cosmological paradigm, said astronomer Rachel Mandelbaum of Carnegie Mellon University and Princeton University, who was not involved in the new study. These results could be used as a test of dark matter, dark energy and even the theory of gravity. In a separate study also presented today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Sukanya Chakrabarti of Florida Atlantic University developed a new method of mapping the dark matter in individual galaxies. Chakrabarti studied ripples on the outskirts of spiral galaxies to trace the shape The new map of the dark matter within and reveals the surrounding the distribution galaxies. This research, of dark targeting the matter over a invisible stu on larger swath of a much smaller scale than the space than ever rst study, also before. It covers helps astronomers hone in on an more than 1 understanding of billion light-years. dark matter. One light-year is These results with spiral galaxies the distance light allow the study travels in a year, of matter in a about 6 trillion regime of individual galaxies, which has miles (10 trillion not been possible kilometers) with weak lensing, Mandelbaum said. Both of these results represent two important ways of studying the dark mater, but theyre in two very dierent regimes. (Source: The Christian Science Monitor)

Intel exploring ways to help Stephen Hawking speak again

Glasgow scientists say telomeres indicate life length

Hands on with Sonys rst independent smartphone, the Xperia Ion


Sony plans to introduce its rst Sony-branded phone on AT&Ts LTE network this year, the company announced at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 9. The Xperia Ion has impressive specs and a beautiful screen, though it wasnt a perfect experience in our hands. The Xperia Ion has a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 16GB of internal storage behind a gorgeous 1280x720 display. Only a few companies have managed to eschew the lesser PenTile displays, but with the force of the Bravia brand behind Sonys phones (the Sony Ericsson brand in the photos is just an anachronism, were told), we expect theyll lead the charge for high-quality screens. How the battery life will be on those phones is another matter. The Xperia Ion felt light and not too big in hand for its 4.6-inch screen sizein fact, we barely noticed its large size, despite usually balking at phones of similar girth. The edges werent very comfortable to hold, but the rounded back may do better work in that area. The sleep and volume buttons on the sides had nice give, but the navigation buttons along the bottom of the screen were very under-responsive. Those soft buttons are stylized with an underscoring light, and we seemed to have better luck tapping at the light than the icon itselfa little misleading given the history of how Android buttons are used, but we would learn. If that was the correct way. Other than the iy soft buttons, the screen was very responsive and took swipes and taps beautifully. The phone has 12-megapixel camera that we didnt get to test out, but Sony boasts that the app can go from launch to the rst shot in 1.5 seconds. One big issue was left unaddressed by Sony: there was no mention of an upgrade trajectory to Android 4 in its press release. Given that Sony is new to handling its own phone business, wed tread carefully with that. The Xperia Ion also allows it to t in a dock and be used with a large display. This works much like the media side of the webtop experience Motorola launched earlier in the year: we could send text messages, play music, and view photos. The phone was controllable with the TVs remote, and a Sony representative told Ars that it would work with any TVs remotenot just Sonys. However, the phone also displays a browsing app on the TV, which cant be used without a keyboard worked into the mix. (Source: Ars Technica)

Intel Corp. is looking for ways to help famed British physicist Stephen Hawking reverse the slowing of his speech, according to a senior executive with the American chipmaker. Hawking was 21 when he was diagnosed Lou Gehrigs disease, an incurable degenerative disorder that has left him almost completely paralyzed. While an infrared sensor attached to his glasses translates the pulses in his right cheek into words spoken by a voice synthesizer, the nerves in his face have deteriorated and those close to him say his rate of speech has slowed to about a word a minute. birthday in the English city of Cambridge, Intel Chief Technology Ocer Justin Rattner said his company had a team in England to explore ways to help the celebrity scientist communicate more quickly. This is a research project, Rattner told The Associated Press, saying the teams task was to gather data for further study. Hawking has gained world renown as an expert on cosmology and the author of a best-selling series of books popularizing the eld of theoretical astrophysics. His achievements have been all the more remarkable because of his condition. Most of those with Lou Gehrigs disease die within two to ve years of their diagnosis, but Hawking has spent nearly half a century carrying out pioneering research work.

Finding ways to keep Hawking communicating has long been a challenge. Lou Gehrigs disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, attacks the cells that control muscles - leading to weakness, slurred speech and paralysis. Hawking managed to overcome his deteriorating speech for a while by dictating scientic papers to a secretary, or speaking through an interpreter. He lost his voice entirely after a tracheotomy in 1985, and a computer was built to synthesize his speech in a distinctive, robotic monotone that has since become almost as famous as the scientist himself. At rst, Hawking retained some limited hand movement and could manage about 15 words a minute. Now that even the nerves in Hawkings cheek are beginning to fade, Rattner argued it was time for a new approach - saying that solutions based on brainwaves or eye tracking were among the technologies being considered. But Rattner said his best bet was on high denition cameras that pick up on the minute movements in Hawkings face to synthesize his speech. My wager is some form of facial feature recognition will unlock it for Stephen, he said. Rattner did not give any specic timeframe for the companys work, and Intel didnt immediately respond to a request for further information. (Source: FoxNews.com)

Scientists at Glasgow University say they have found a key genetic indicator of how long an individual will live. They say the lengths of tiny pieces of DNA called telomeres indicate whether a young creature is likely to live long into old age. But before you rush out to get your telomeres stretched - were such a process possible - it is worth pointing out that the creatures they have been working with are not humans but altogether shorter-lived zebra nches. Everything that is made up of living cells contains chromosomes: the genetic code that makes us what we are. At the ends of each chromosome lie the telomeres. They have been likened to the caps on the ends of shoelaces - they stop things from unraveling. Over time they wear down - and when they do, the DNA they protect is compromised and the cell can malfunction or die. This is where the zebra nches came in: how early and accurately could longer telomeres predict a longer life? To nd out, the Glasgow researchers collaborated with colleagues at Exeter University, with Glasgows Prof Pat Monaghan leading the team. Tiny blood samples were taken from a group of 99 zebra nches and the lengths of their telomeres measured. They were tested again

throughout their lifetimes. To nd out how long the birds lived, the researchers had to wait until they died. The rst turned up its claws in just over six months. But the last hardy specimen kept them waiting almost nine years. In every case the longest lived birds had the longest telomeres, but the best predictor of lifespan was the length of the telomeres at just 25 days old. Prof Monaghan says the study shows the importance of processes acting early in life. The next step will be to nd out why the length of telomeres can vary so much from individual to individual. We now need to know more about how early life conditions can inuence the pattern of telomere loss and the relative importance of inherited and environmental factors, she said. The results of the research have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. They are certain to raise the question of whether our telomeres are similar predictors of how long we will live. But it is a big leap from the laboratory to the real world - whatever our telomeres may say, human life spans also have to contend with additional factors like diet, drink and stress. (Source: BBC)

10

I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY

ADVERTISEMENTS

JANUARY 11, 2012

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m

FIRST CHOICE REAL ESTATE AGENCY


We exceed your expectations

Mr. Shahin (Ghanizadeh)

Elahieh: Cozy Apt: 150 Sq.m, 3 Bdrms,in 5th oor, beautiful building, quiet area, s/p, Sauna & Jac $3000 Aghdasieh: Villa, 1500 Sq.m land, 700 sqm b/up, 6 bdrm + ofce, outdoor s/p, servant quarter, pretty garden $12000 Farmanieh:Apt: 235 sqm, 3 bdrms, with huge yard, s/p, Sauna $4000

Apartment Villa - Ofce


* Long- and Short-Term Rentals

Nobody does it better!

* Purchase Properties Properties

Tel: (+98 21) 22021616 - 22056621

021- 22 72 31 21

MR. ALEX (0912-811-8191)

Jordan: 300 sq.m, 3 large bedrs, marble oor, balcony, f.furn. $3500 Jordan: 140 sq.m. 2 bedrs, nice view, s/p, furn. $1800 Elahieh: 170 sq.m. 3 bedrs, 2 bathrs, indoor s/p, furn. $2200 Farmanieh: 150 sq.m, 2 bedrs, marble oor, furn. $1700 Villa in Farmanieh: (Renovated)1200 sq.m. land, 500 sq.m. built up, Duplex, 4 bedrs, nice garden, heated s/p, unfurn. $6500

Fax: (+98 21) 26201635 Mobile: (0098) 9121081212


No. 24, E. Nahid St., Africa (Jordan) Ave., Tehran E-mail: property@firstchoiceco.com www.firstchoiceco.com (Even Holidays)

The Ultimate in Foreign House Renting


Apt in Zaferanieh
240 sq.m, 3 bedrooms, nice garden, fully furn, price 3500$
whole building in Mahmoudieh for residence or embassy 1300 sq.m land, 1400 sq.m b/up, 13 bedrooms, s/p, new built

Ofce in Jordan
Admin license, 2 storeis 700 sq.m (400+300) open space

Villa in Ghaytarieh
1000 sq.m land, 1000 sq.m b/up, 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, ceramic oor, indoor s/p

Apt inVelenjak
110 sq.m, 2 bedrooms, fully furnished, full facilities

Apt in Shahrak e Gharb


420 sq.m, 4 bedrooms, fully furnished

Apt in Elahieh
130 sq.m, 2 bedrooms, fully Furnished, full facilities

Apt in Zaferanieh
200 sq.m, 3 bedrooms, fully Furnished, full facilities

for more information and visiting the properties please call

Direct: 22049027 (45 lines) Fax: 22049578 Email: amani_aba@yahoo.com


No.31, Africa Blvd, corner of Modarress Express way, Tehran
--

Mr. AMANI: 09122070670

IRANIA HOME

SPECIALIST & REGISTERED HOUSING AGENCY FOR FOREIGN RESIDENTS


Tel: 88 88 80 07 Fax: 88 67 59 36 E-mail: info@iraniahome.com Website: www.iraniahome.com

Zaferanieh $4000 250 sq.m, 3 bdrms, 3 srvcs, s/p, sauna, Jacuzzi, newly built,f.furnished.
Mr. Lavasani: 09123103526

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / s p o r t s

JANUARY 11, 2012

WORLD SPORT

INTERNATIONAL DAILY

11

Messi crowned world's best


Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi has won the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or to claim the title of world player of the year for the third time in succession. Messi beat Barcelona team-mate Xavi Hernandez and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo to emerge triumphant from the nal three-man shortlist to scoop the award at Monday evening's Ballon d'Or gala at the Kongresshaus in Zurich. The 24-year-old becomes only the fourth player in history to win the trophy three times, along with Dutch legends Johan Cruy and Marco van Basten, plus Frenchman Michael Platini. The Ballon d'Or award caps a hugely successful year in which Messi won the Spanish Liga title, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said Messi deserved to be ranked among the all-time greats. "I would agree with that completely,'' Ferguson said. "Critics have always questioned whether players like Pele from the 50s could play today. "The answer to that is great players would play in any generation. Lionel Messi could play in the 1950s and the present day, as could Di Stefano, Pele, Maradona, Cruy because they are all great players. "Lionel Messi without question ts into that category.'' Xavi supported Ferguson's view, saying: "He's still young, only 24, and I think he's going to break all the rethe trophy with Mourinho and Ferguson, and with all coaches around the world." Ferguson had some consolation as he received the FIFA presidential award for services to football and said: "It is an honour for me in the twilight of my life and very, very much appreciated. "I have been a very, very lucky manager to have had so many good players who have shared my vision and passion, and that's what makes Manchester United such a special club. "They retain the courage to play, the courage to try and win. You don't always win in football - sometimes you lose but we always try to win." Neymar claimed the FIFA Puskas Award for the year's best goal, his fine solo effort against Flamengo voted above Wayne Rooney's overhead kick in the Manchester derby and Messi's strike against Arsenal in the second round of the Champions League. Rooney secured a prestigious accolade, as he found his way on to the fpro Team of the Year. He was joined in the team by his Manchester United colleague Nemanja Vidic, while nine of the side either play for or operate in Spain. Team: Iker Casillas,Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Nemanja Vidic, Andres Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney (Source: Soccernet)

Carmelo saves Knicks in narrow win


Carmelo Anthony swooped in to score eight of his 22 points in the last three minutes and deliver the New York Knicks a 91-87 home victory over the Charlotte Bobcats. The Knicks had lost a double-digit lead in the second half and the game was tied 82-82 when Anthony made his decisive intervention to lead New York to their third consecutive win. D.J. Augustin missed a potential game-tying three-pointer in the nal seconds for the Bobcats (27) as they fouled Anthony, who added another free throw to the score. "A wide open three from our best shooter? I'll take that," Charlotte coach Paul Silas said of Augustin's miss. "I really love the way we stuck in there and battled. We really gave ourselves a chance." New York (5-4) fell to Charlotte at home last Wednesday before embarking on their current streak. Amar'e Stoudemire finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds despite making just 7-of-25 shots in what was a difficult shooting night for both teams. Anthony connected on only six of his 18 eld goal attempts but his accuracy improved when his team needed it the most. The scoring forward made two layups to give the Knicks an 86-82 lead then made four free throws in the last 35 seconds to seal the game. "I'm trying to get to the basket every time. And tonight I was able to get there, the shots just wasn't falling," Anthony said. "I'm pretty sure I'm capable of making those shots." Boris Diaw had a team-high 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Bobcats, who lost their third straight game. Charlotte opened the contest on a 10-0 run but it was a short-lived advantage. The visitors trailed by 11 late in the third before clawing back to make it a nail-biter. New York has regularly struggled defensively under fourth-year coach Mike D'Antoni, but they showed signs of life for a second straight game. After holding Detroit to 80 points in a win on Sunday, the Knicks restricted the Bobcats to 41 percent shooting. Tyson Chandler led the way with three blocks and three steals to go with his 20 points and 13 rebounds. (Source: Reuters)

NBA

cords that exist in this sport. He's going to be one of the best footballers in the history of the sport.'' Messi dedicated the award to his coach and team-mates, reserving special mention for Xavi. "It is a huge pleasure and honour to win my third award," Messi said. "I wanted to share it with those who voted for me, my coach and my teammates at Barca and in the Argentina national team. "Moreover, I want to share this

award specially with my friend Xavi. This is the fourth time that we are are together at this ceremony and it is a pleasure for me to be with him on the pitch. This Ballon d'Or is also yours. Without your help I would not be here." Pep Guardiola was named the FIFA Men's Football Coach of the Year, nishing ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho. "I dedicate this trophy to Tito Vilanova, my assistant," Guardiola said. "It's an honour to share

Sawa: A very exciting night

Messi: Im very proud

Lionel Messi may have claimed top billing, but this years FIFA Ballon dOr Gala was also dominated by Japanese football. In winning the 2011 FIFA Womens World Player of the Year crown, Japan midelder and captain Homare Sawa brought to an end Martas ve-year reign at the top of the women's game. FIFA.com spoke to the happy, elegantly dressed winner shortly after the ceremony. FIFA.com: Your kimono certainly caught the eye tonight. Can you explain why you chose to wear it? Homare Sawa: The kimono is part of Japanese culture. For us this dress signies purity and also allows us to look graceful for special occasions like this one. It was a way of representing my country with pride, and it also forces me to walk nice and straight! How did you feel the moment your name was read out? It was a very exciting night. It was actually when I heard the name of my international coach being announced as Womens Coach of the Year that my legs started to shake and I began to feel very excited and nervous. And then when I heard my own name, my mind just went blank. I almost couldnt believe it. To whom would you like to dedicate the prize? This award is not just for me. Im able to play at such a level because of all the great people I have around me: my coach, my team-mates and my family. So Id like to dedicate it to all of them.

The award will now be put on display at the Japanese Football Association, where lots of fans will be able to see it; that thought really thrills me. It was a great night for your country because, in addition to the two individual prizes that were handed out, the FIFA Fair Play trophy was awarded to your national association, after what was a very tough year for Japan. If you had to choose a special moment in 2011, what would it be? Thats dicult, but I think it has to be winning the Womens World Cup in Germany. That success came just a few months after the terrible earthquake that hit Japan. Many people suered enormously. And although all we did was win a football competition, so many people told us that our victory raised their spirits and gave them the courage to carry on. Helping my compatriots to feel that way made me very happy indeed. You are due to play in the upcoming Olympic Games. Do you hope to repeat the personal and collective success that you experienced in Germany? Im not thinking about personal awards for the year to come. Id rather win as a team, and in that sense I hope that we can secure the gold this summer Id be delighted with that. And if because of that another individual accolade comes my way, that would be fantastic, but my priority is to win with my team-mates alongside me. (Source: FIFA)

Lionel Messi was the undoubted star of Monday evenings FIFA Ballon dOr 2011 Gala, the ever-humble Argentinian winning the award yet again. Wreathed in smiles as he clutched on to the coveted accolade, he gave his rst impressions to FIFA.com. FIFA.com: Youre the rst player since Michel Platini to win the Ballon dOr three times in a row. How do you feel? Lionel Messi: Im very proud to have won it three times, especially one after the other. Its hard to win one, let alone three. Im very happy and this award gives me as much pleasure as the rst. You dedicated the award to Xavi in particular. Do you think he might stop passing the ball to you so that he can win the Ballon dOr himself? No! Hes said lots of times what he thinks of me and Ive said the same about him. We need each other and the friendship we have goes beyond any award. Youre still very young. Have we seen the best of Messi or is there still more to come? I hope I can keep on performing like this and win more team titles, which is what you need to make it to wonderful occasions like this. I want to achieve things with my national team and keep playing the way I am.

Do you think you still have something to prove with Argentina? Yes. Id love to win a title with the national team and I hope thatll happen one day. In which ways do you think you can still improve? Like I said I just want to keep on performing. This is the fth time Ive had the good fortune to be at the Gala and I hope to come back many more times. Did you ever think youd ever achieve so much in such little time? To be honest I didnt. I dreamed about playing in the first division, but I never imagined that all these things would happen to me. How does it feel to be the centre of attention on a night like this, with so many great players alongside you, many of whom you no doubt admired as a youngster? (Blushes) I just want to keep on playing and enjoy this sport and the team weve got, and I hope we can keep our run going. Whats your next objective for 2012? The same as the start of every year: to try and do it all over again. We know its getting more and more dicult though. (Source: FIFA)

Neymar: It was the perfect move


Brazilian tyro Neymar enjoyed every minute of the FIFA Ballon dOr 2011Gala, with the culmination of a perfect evening coming when he made o with the FIFA Puskas Award for scoring, in the eyes of the experts and over 1.5 million internet users, the best goal of 2011. FIFA.com spoke to the happy-golucky star after he picked up his prize. FIFA.com: What went through your mind when you heard your name being read out? Neymar: I was almost in a state of shock (laughs). I'm delighted to have won the award, though, and Im very grateful to all my teammates for their help in whats been a wonderful year. Id also like to thank God and my family, friends and colleagues because theyve helped me a lot. Talk us through that winning goal again. I think its the best goal Ive ever scored. I picked up the ball on the left, went past two opponents and laid the ball off to a team-mate. We played a great one-two and I managed to wriggle clear of two more opponents and put the ball away. It was just about the perfect move. Why have you decided to stay with Santos and turn down the chance to move to Europe? Im still very young I think, and its not the right time. Im very happy in my country and at Santos. I hope 2012 will be another wonderful year and that I win a lot of things on a personal and team level. Can you see yourself scoring a goal like that at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil? Well, theres a long way to go yet. Ive got to keep working very hard, to be a better person and a better player too. It would be a dream to play in the World Cup, especially with it being at home. Lionel Messi was voted the best player in the world again. Do you agree with the decision? Yes, no question. Hes a fantastic player and Im a big fan of his. My congratulations to him and I hope he keeps it up. (Source: FIFA)

Cantona to run for French presidency


Former Manchester United star Eric Cantona wants to run in this year's presidential election in France and is trying to gather the signatures needed to do so, the newspaper Liberation said. The former United striker, who would need the backing of 500 elected ocials by the end of February to run, has sent a letter to French mayors describing himself as an "engaged citizen" and asking for their support, the left-leaning newspaper said. "This engagement obliges me to speak, more earnestly than usual, but also with a keen sense of my responsibility, at a time when our country faces dicult choices which will be decisive for its future," said the letter, quoted in Liberation. In his letter, Cantona denounced the limited opportunities for young people in France and social injustices which were "too numerous, too violent, too systematic", the newspaper said. Election candidates will compete in a rst round in late April, with the two biggest vote-winners going through to a decisive second round in early May. Socialist candidate Francois Hollande is currently leading President ond round as an individual outsider. It is not the rst time Cantona, who earned large sums as a footballer from sponsorship by brands like L'Oreal and Nike, has tried to draw public attention to social inequality. In December 2010, he called on French savers to stage a nationwide bank run by withdrawing their money from nancial institutions because of their role in triggering the global nancial crisis. Panned by the media as a op, almost no one in France heeded the much-hyped call. (Source: Reuters)

Nicolas Sarkozy in the polls. Even if Cantona were able to get 500 signatures, a dicult task without the backing of a party, he would have virtually no chance of reaching the sec-

12

I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY

S O C I E T Y

JANUARY 11, 2012

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / s o c i e t y

Chinese build hi-tech 30-storey hotel in 360 hours


An innovative Chinese construction company mass produces sustainable, earthquake-proof skyscrapers that cost up to ten times less than conventional structures. Weve all heard the amazing and sometimes hairraising stories about construction in China. This story just about takes the cake, but instead of some slapped-together monstrosity, we are looking at a 30-story hotel built to withstand a Magnitude 9 earthquake with puried air conditioning and, wait for it, erected from scratch in just over two weeks. Built in Hunan Province, near Dongting Lake, by Broad Group, the structure is composed of pre-fabricated sections based on a diagonally braced steel structure. The company claims their building is ve times more earthquake resistant, ve times more energy ecient and their own design of 3-stage heat-recovery air conditioning creates air 20 times purer than the outside air. Even more enthralling is the fact that the pop-up hotel is the second of the companys demonstration projects and it is preparing to build a 200-storey, 600m steel building in Dubai which will accommodate 110,000 people. The rst project was the Ark Hotel in Changsha, which rose to 15 stories in just six days while using one sixth the material of a similar conventional structure and costing 20 per cent less. Broad famously built its pavilion in the Puxi side of the Shanghai Expo Garden within 24 hours to showcase its innovations in construction. (Source: DigitalJournal)

NEWS

Why all parents have a favorite child?


By Jemima Lewis

Conict over, 1.2 million children to return to school in Libya


TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (UNICEF) -More than 1.2 million children return to school in Libya, 10 months after evacuating classrooms because of the ghting during the countrys popular uprising. The conict took a heavy toll on Libyas education system, with schools closed, damaged and used for military and humanitarian purposes. Many children suered deep scars from the violence and the loss of loved ones. This is a massive operation and a huge achievement for the people of Libya, said Maria Calivis, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, in Amman. At a time of great hope and upheaval, no sector has more potential than education to improve society and restore normalcy for children. With support from UNICEF and other partners, the Government worked round the clock to rehabilitate infrastructure and clear rubble, landmines and unexploded ordnance from schools. A total of 27 million revised textbooks are being printed, 10 million of which are already being distributed by the Ministry of Education throughout the country. Severely distressed children and their families are receiving psychosocial support and work is underway to track internallydisplaced and other vulnerable children to ensure that they are enrolled. Many challenges remain, including the plight of the displaced, a shortage of desks and books and transport for children to and from schools. With assistance from the European Union and other donors, UNICEF will support Libyan authorities in broadbased reforms. Libya has good levels of education indicators, though better quality and more relevant teaching are required to ensure that the system is more responsive to gender disparities, minorities and children with disabilities.

Hong Kong air pollution at worst levels ever: report


HONG KONG (Reuters) Air pollution levels in Hong Kong were the worst ever last year, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday, a nding that may further undermine the citys role as an Asian nancial center as business executives relocate because of health concerns. Worsening air quality in Hong Kong caused by vehicle emissions and industrial pollution from the neighboring Pearl River Delta is already forcing many in the nancial community to move to Singapore. Readings at three roadside monitoring stations in Hong Kongs Central, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok commercial districts showed that pollution levels were above the 100 mark more than 20 percent of the time, the newspaper said, citing the citys Environmental Protection Department.

n front of me I have two socalled baby books, both given to me as presents, in which I was supposed to chronicle the infant achievements of my sons, George and Johnny. Georges has been meticulously filled in: everything from the names of the midwives who delivered him, to the order in which his teeth came through, his first illness (conjunctivitis) and an account of his first Christmas so overwrought with emotion that it makes the Nativity itself seem like the warm-up act. And Johnnys baby book? Empty. Not a thing. Not even a record of his birth weight, or his middle names which, I must admit, I am struggling to remember. Thats not all. On my computer, there are more than 2,000 photographs of Georges first few years and 300 of Johnnys. So do I love Johnny less? Certainly not! The very idea of it. Yet if this isnt favouritism the urgent desire to document for posterity every twitch, dribble and grunt of one child, while blithely consigning the other to obscurity what is? Jeffrey Kluger, no doubt, would say I am in denial. The American science writer has just published a book in which he argues that, whether we admit it or not, parental favoritism is hard-wired into the human A firstborn psyche. It is my automatically belief that 95 percent of the parents in the absorbs a world have a favorite huge amount child, and the other of parental five percent are lying, he declares time and in The Sibling Effect: energy; and What the Bonds Among Brothers and once youve Sisters Reveal About invested that Us. much in one That particular figure may be child. guesswork, but there is plenty of evidence that would seem to back him up. Kluger cites a Californian study of 384 families, who were visited three times a year and videotaped as they worked through conflicts. The study found that 65 per ent of mothers and 70 percent of fathers exhibited a preference for one child. And those numbers are almost certainly under-representative, since people behave less naturally when they are being watched. Every couple of years, in fact, a new report comes out purporting to lift the lid on parental favoritism. Most often though as we shall see, by no means always older siblings seem to come out on top. In 2009 two British professors, David Lawson and Ruth Mace, published a study of 14,000 families in the Bristol area. They found that each successive sibling received markedly less care and attention from their parents than their predecessors. Older siblings were even fed better, as a result of which they were likely to be up to 3cm taller than their younger siblings. They also had higher IQs, probably because they had the benet of their parents undivided attention for the rst part of their lives. Anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists argue that there is a sound Darwinian logic to this. A rstborn automatically absorbs a huge amount of parental time and energy; and once youve invested that much in one child, you might as well keep going if only to protect the investment. I dont like to think of myself as a survival-of-the-ttest type parent but, once again, the evidence is against me. I breastfed George for longer and weaned him like a king. Nothing passed his infant lips but fresh, organic meat and vegetables, hand-pured by moonlight. He wasnt allowed any sugar until he turned one, and my husband used to bake him bread made from spelt our and aromatic spices, rather than pollute his pristine body with processed our. By the time

Johnny came along, needless to say, standards had slipped. He was simply handed a supermarket sachet of baby mush and left to suck out the contents unaided. In Darwinian terms, it would appear, my mothering style is about as evolved as a gerbils. Johnny should count himself lucky I havent absent-mindedly eaten him. Which boy will turn out cleverer remains to be seen; but its certainly true that I have always monitored and fussed over Georges developmental progress far more than I do Johnnys. Somehow, it seems to matter more perhaps because the oldest one is always the test case. I have no idea what Im doing as a parent, or whether it will turn out all right. Its anxiety, really, but it could be mistaken for favoritism. As the oldest of two children myself, I can testify that being fussed over doesnt necessarily feel like preferential treatment. Quite the reverse, in fact. My sister got away with far more mischief than me, simply because my parents were much less anxious about enforcing the rules As my mother herself admits, I was harder on you because I was always worried about whether I was doing the right thing. Youre much madder with a first child. With a second one, you dont have time to be so neurotic. Indeed, depending on how you frame it, the benign neglect of younger siblings can itself be seen as a form of favoritism. Just last month, a survey of 1,803 British parents with two children claimed to show that younger siblings were given preferential treatment 59 percent of the time. Parents were more likely to side with a younger child in an argument, lavish them with affection and see? See? let them have their own way. The truth is that favoritism is an awfully blunt word for such a complicated subject. How we treat our children is aected by any number of shifting, interlacing factors: birth order, gender, changes in circumstances, our own childhood experiences. Then, too, some characters just hit it o better than others. My friend Anna, the third of four sisters, says it has always been obvious which one her mother loves best: the second-born, Maggie. The thing is, Maggies my favorite too, Anna told me. Shes incredibly funny, inventive, rude and naughty. More than anything, my mum loves people who can make her laugh and Maggie makes her cry with laughter. Maggie also happens to be unusually beautiful and accomplished. My mum never normally pays anyone a compliment, unless its something backhanded like You dont sweat much for a fat girl. But with Maggie shell say really egregious things, like, You look like Grace Kelly. My other sisters and I tease her about it, but she still doesnt seem to realize what shes

doing. Now married with a baby of her own, Anna is only just starting to appreciate how much Maggies supremacy has shaped her own personality. Im sure it explains why I care desperately whether people laugh at my jokes. Im never going to be as glamorous as Maggie, so being funny is the only way I can compete. It is a testament to the essential niceness of both sisters that they have managed to remain close through all this. Not all siblings are so lucky. Terri Apter, a psychology professor at Cambridge University and author of several books on family dynamics, says the scars left by parental favoritism often run deeper than anyone realizes. Buried resentments may suddenly are up when elderly parents need looking after, or die and leave a controversial will. I have seen grown siblings quarrelling at funerals over who was Mums favorite, who gave her more happiness, Apter tells me. The psychological fallout is unpredictable: favored children may be left brimming with condence, or they may suer from terrible guilt, deliberately sabotaging their own careers or relationships because they dont feel they deserve to be happy. Unfavoured children, meanwhile, may grow up feeling unworthy of love or they may become adept at nding it outside the family. Its at this point, I must admit, that I start to feel a bit impatient with the headshrinkers. A science that can absorb so many contradictory variables hardly seems like science at all. And if, as the experts all seem to agree, favoritism is so common as to be almost universal, doesnt that make it just well, normal? Undoubtedly there are families where favoritism is blatant and sustained enough to be seriously destructive. But in most cases, surely, it does not merit such anthologizing. When I solicited confessions of favoritism from my fellow parents, I had no luck at all. Lots of people admitted to treating their children dierently at dierent times, according to their needs (and how annoying theyre being). But not one felt this reected any fundamental preference. It is simply part of the warp and weft of family life. I think most of us have shortterm favorites, depending on whos going through a phase, says Suzanne, a mother of four. You can feel immense aection for one child on a Tuesday who then drives you to distraction on Wednesday. But the underlying love is just as intense for all of them. I think long-term favoritism is bookselling nonsense in the majority of cases. In an anonymous online survey for the website Mumsnet, 16 percent of mothers admitted to having a favorite child. Thats quite a lot its a big deal to admit to such parental malpractice, if only to yourself but it hardly amounts to the psychological pandemic of

Klugers imaginings. On the other hand, things do tend to look different from a childs perspective. Even in the happiest families, siblings instinctively compete for their parents love. Scrupulous emotional accountants, they are constantly totting up incidents of perceived unfairness. So it makes sense for parents, too, to keep a watchful eye on their own behavior. Despite my failures as an archivist, I truly believe that Johnny feels and is every bit as loved as his brother. For now. In February I am having a third baby. Everyone knows that in three-child families, its the middle one who gets squeezed out. And to make matters worse, the new baby is a much-longed-for girl. Could she prove to be Johnnys final nemesis? Second and subsequent pregnancies tend to come laced with this kind of apprehension. Will I love this child as much as the last one? Too much? What will it do to the delicate equilibrium of our family? Yehudi Gordon the celebrity obstetrician, birthing guru and founder of the parenting organization Babies Know believes that, even in the womb, babies can sense how wanted they are. If, for example, the mum has a preference for a boy or a girl, he told me, that information will be picked up by the child before birth. Babies might not understand language, but they understand feeling. The scientific explanation he offers for this seems a bit vague something about molecules crossing the placenta but Im not one to quarrel with an obstetrical legend. What, I ask him, can a pregnant mother do to mitigate the effects of her own ambivalence? Its essential to be honest with your kids, he says, because if youre not, theyll know anyway. If youre disappointed by the sex of your child, he suggests, talk to them about it both in and ex utero. Tune into the baby and say, I really was hoping youd be a girl, and thats been difficult for me. But Ive got a lot of people supporting me and I want you to know that Im coming through it and working hard to overcome those feelings. Myself, Im not so sure. Though a pre-verbal child (or, lets face it, a post-verbal one) might not understand the exact meaning of such a statement, there are some things that are better left unsaid. Voicing a feeling doesnt necessarily exorcise it. In fact, it may make it harder to escape both for you and your children. Apter, too, believes that favoritism is one form of love that should not speak its name. Dont admit it, she says. Even if you think you have a favorite, the likelihood is that feeling is transient. But if you speak it, if you tell either child, it will become fixed in their minds forever. (Source: Telegraph)

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / s p o r t s

JANUARY 11, 2012

INTERNATIONAL DAILY

13

Samuel looks forward to new challenge


S p o r t s D e s k Jlloyd Samuel has
said that he joined the Iranian team, looking for a new challenge. Jlloyd Samuel joined Esteghlal on a ve-month deal for an undisclosed fee last week. "It was through a friend who had the contact, I had a look at it and it seemed to add up for myself. Obviously it's a new challenge, something out of the ordinary but I'm willing to take that chance, the 30-yer-old told Sky Sports. "They are one of the biggest clubs in Iran, they have 100,000 people watching their derby games and the fans here are unbelievable really," Samuel Esteghlal defender added. Samuel will be reunited with former Bolton team-mate Andranik Teymourian in Esteghlal. The Iranian midfielder has been out of action after breaking his toe against Shahrdari of Yasuj. "When I was at Bolton Andranik talked about it quite a bit and he's playing here now but he's injured at the minute," said Samuel. "I did have options to stay in England, and I had offers from quite a few teams abroad but for me this is a new challenge and a chance to enter the Asian market, he added.

King Henry takes just 10 minutes to settle it with trademark strike


Arsenal are a bit like Thierry Henry these days: not quite as good as they used to be. But nobody here at the Emirates cared. Not when the nest player to have so far graced the Barclays Premier League, in the opinion of this observer anyway, marked an emotional return with a goal that secured victory in this FA Cup tie. I dont want to be a hero, declared the 34-year-old Frenchman prior to the encounter but, seriously, who was he trying to kid? The supporters who witnessed a 78th-minute nish that generated the kind of roar Arsenal feared had been left behind at Highbury will be naming their children after him. The roof almost came o their smart new home last night. There was a split second when the Emirates held its breath, when Henry dropped o Zac Thompson to receive a super pass from Alex Song. But then came the trademark Henry nish. The shape of the body, the shape of the foot and the shape of a shot that curled beyond Andy Lonergan and inside the far post. Hes still world class, Arsene Wenger had argued in justifying his decision to bring his former captain back on loan. Nobody was going to argue. It looks like the best transfer business is to bring back your old players, said Wenger afterwards. Prior to Henrys arrival from the bench after 68 minutes, Arsenal had made hard work of this contest. It was not as tense as last years meeting with Leeds, when Cesc Fabregas scored a late penalty to secure a replay at Elland Road and Simon Graysons spirited side seemed to be on the verge of condemning Wenger to his rst defeat as Arsenal manager by lower league opposition. But it was no less impressive, the class of 2012 struggling to capitalise on the possession they enjoyed with a goal that would see them through to a fourth-round tie with Aston Villa. In the end, though, it felt like it was simply part of the script. As Grayson said it was written in the stars. From the front cover of the match programme that declared hes back to the sight of Henry looking to the heavens, arms aloft, at the sound of the nal whistle. Afterwards he said it felt dierent to the 226 goals he had scored in the 370 games that marked his rst spell with the club. In his words it was like a fan scoring for his team. He could not have put it any better. Sitting there on the bench for the opening hour, Henry must have wondered what had happened to the club he left in 2007. The side, after all, was a poor imitation of the one he was once part of. Of those who started, only Alex Song was a member of the rst-team squad he left for Barcelona. It did not take long for them to demonstrate why they needed him back, Andrey Arshavin squandering an opportunity which Henrys statue would have handled better. Arsenal were dominating in terms of possession, with Aaron Ramsey, Song and Mikel Arteta all impressing and Sebastien Squillaci going close with a header. But a rst half summed up by the sight of injured midelder Jack Wilshere yawning on television demanded that a certain Arsenal legend joined the action. The fans started to cry Henrys name from the moment the second half began, and the fact that Adam Clayton and Tom Lees were impressing as much as they were for Leeds was clearly making them anxious. Wenger waited until there were 22 minutes left before caving in to their demands by taking o Arshavin and the equally ineective Marouane Chamakh. On went Henry, wearing 12, as did the young man who inherited his No 14 shirt, Theo Walcott. One has to wonder if the Frenchman asked the Englishman to swap as they stood there on the touchline. No matter. Within 10 minutes Henry had marked his return in the most magical manner imaginable. The days when he would also beat six players might have disappeared with the inevitable loss of pace that comes with age. But the talent, the touch, the sheer beauty of what he does with a football those remain. It was actually never va va voom. It was more graceful than that. The strikers equivalent to the midelder that was Paul Scholes. As Henry reminded us, they just made it look easy. (Source: DailyMail)

F O O T B A L L

Esteghlal edges Damash


S p o r t s D e s k al League (IPL)
Iran Professionleader Esteghlal edged past Damash thank to a goal from Goran Jerkovic on Tuesday. In the match held at the Azodi Stadium in Rasht, a city in north of Iran, Jerkovic scored Esteghlals only goal after 37 minutes. I am not satisfied with the way we played in the second half. Esteghlal took advantage of its only chance and won the match, newly appointed Damash coach Mehdi Tartar said. Elsewhere, Naft beat Mes of Kerman 1-0 and slipped four points behind IPL leader Esteghlal. Sepasi defeated Sanat Naft 2-0, Rah Ahan lost to Malavan 1-0 and Traktorsazi saw o Zob Ahan 2-1.

Sheys Rezaei on trial in Germany


DUSSELDORF, Former Iran and Persepolis defender Sheys Rezaei is currently on trial at German second Bundesliga side Fortuna Dsseldorf, the club confirmed on Monday. The 27-year-old defender, was banned from Iranian football in autumn together with teammate Mohammad Nosrati for inappropriate goal celebration. Rezaei was fined 30.000 USD and was suspended for six months. Rezaei meanwhile went on trial with Dutch topside Twente Enschede, however, failed to impress the coaching sta there. The versatile defender had already been on trial with German sides V Stuttgart and Karlsruhe SC in summer 2008, without nally earning a contract. (Source: Persianfootball)

Guangzhou play down Drogba interest


China's Guangzhou Evergrande have played down their interest in Chelsea striker Didier Drogba after claiming that they have not been in contact with the Ivorian. Guangzhou were believed to be lining up an astonishing $625,000 a week deal for Drogba, according to Tuesday's China Daily, but the defending national champions have moved to end speculation over a bold transfer swoop. "We have (had) no contact with Drogba whatsoever, nor... authorised anyone to contact him," the club said on its ocial website. "The recent Drogba reports are pure speculation, he is not in our plans." Chinese rivals Shanghai Shenhua are now in pole position after bringing in Drogba's Chelsea striking partner Nicola Anelka last month. Shanghai director Zhou Jun was quoted as saying: "We will wait for Guangzhou for 10 days... if they do not act, we will." Drogba, 33, is entering the last six months of his current contract with Chelsea and will be available on a free transfer in the summer. (Source: Soccernet)

Inter conrm Tevez interest

QPR appoint Hughes as new boss

Internazionale president Massimo Moratti has conrmed the club are exploring the possibility of signing Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez. The Argentine, who has not played since September due to disciplinary reasons, has been in talks with Italian champions Milan and was expected to sign for the Rossoneri. However, it is now said Inter are hoping to usurp their city rivals to sign Tevez and are ready to take him on loan for the remainder of the season, with an option to buy the 27-year-old for 22.3 million in the summer. Though Tevez may favour a move to Milan - a club currently challenging for the Serie A title - Moratti says Inter could be in contention. "If you do something you don't do it as a joke, but because you think it can be a good operation," Moratti "We've acquired information on how things are going, there's room to act, we'll see if we can do it or not. There are still three weeks left. It's not about being optimistic but rather seeing how things are."

Meanwhile, Mario Balotelli insists he is happy at Manchester City amid reports linking him with a move to AC Milan. The Italy international has been a reported target of the Italian champions since moving to City in 2010 from Inter Milan. Balotelli told Italian radio station Radio Radio: "The newspapers are saying that I want to get away from Manchester but I've never spoken to them. "They can say what they want, but I'm in Manchester, I am under contract with City and until the right time, will not talk about a new contract." The 21-year-old striker is tied to City until June 2015 and has no intention of leaving the club in the near future. The Premier League has been a new experience, even if at rst it was dicult," he said. "But if I have to tell the whole truth now, it's that I'm really happy here." When asked about his relationship with City coach Roberto Mancini, Balotelli described it as "great". (Source: PA Sport)

Queens Park Rangers have announced the appointment of Mark Hughes as their new manager. The 48-year-old had opened talks with the west London club on Monday following the sacking of Neil Warnock at the weekend, and has signed a two-and-a-half year contract at Loftus Road. The Welshman, whose most recent job was a year-long spell at QPR's neighbours Fulham last season, begins work by taking rst team training on Tuesday afternoon. QPR are currently 17th in the Premier League table, one place and one point above the relegation zone. Hughes's rst match in charge will be Sunday's trip to Newcastle United. Hughes told the club's ocial website: "It's a great feeling to be back in football and to be the Manager of QPR. "I'm fully aware of the challenge in the short and long term and I am genuinely excited about the ambition of the owners. "Nobody can doubt the history of this great Football Club and the passion of its fantastically loyal supporters. "Now the immediate priority is to consolidate our place in the Barclays

Premier League, but beyond that, the future is very bright and lls me with great enthusiasm." QPR chairman, Tony Fernandes, added: "Mark has a proven track record in the Premier League, bringing a wealth of experience at both Club and international level. "He has a great passion to achieve as a Manager and has already been hugely successful in his career. "His ambitions match those of the Board and we are delighted to have him at the helm." Hughes quit Fulham at the end of last season after less than a year in charge, suggesting the club's ambitions did not match his own. He therefore sought assurances on that front from QPR before agreeing to join the Championship winners, who were taken over earlier this season by Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes. Reports suggest Fernandes is ready to bankroll a January recruitment drive which could see between 20 million and 30m of new talent arrive at Loftus Road, with plans for a new 30,000 seater stadium also in the pipeline. (Source: Eurosport)

I want to play under Fergie until I retire - Rooney


Wayne Rooney has scoed at reports that he is on his way out of Manchester United, claiming he wants to remain under Sir Alex Ferguson's management for the remainder of his career. Reports over the weekend suggested Ferguson was "ready to let Rooney go", which was strongly denied by both parties. Rooney was dropped for United's defeat to Blackburn on New Year's Eve, prompting speculation of a rift between striker and manager. But Rooney claims Ferguson was the reason why he moved to United in the rst place, and insists he never wants to work under anybody else. "Sir Alex is the greatest manager of all time," Rooney told The Sun. "Of course I would like to play under him for the rest of my career. "He's a great manager and is a big reason why I joined Manchester United. If I could nish my career playing under Sir Alex then I won't have gone far wrong." Although Ferguson missed out on the FIFA Coach of the Year award to Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, he was recognised for his 25 years at Old Traord, picking up the Presidential lishman named in the fpro Team of the Year, believes that despite Guardiola's award, Ferguson is the better manager. "He is, in my eyes, the best ever," Rooney said. "His success and his trophies speak for themselves. He's an incredible manager and has done so much for football and so much for my game as well. "His every-day commitment to his job is what makes him stand out. He's in before the players every morning and leaves after you. His commitment, his desire to win and his dedication is incredible." (Source: ESPN)

Donadoni takes charge of Parma


Former Italy coach Roberto Donadoni is back in management with Serie A club Parma after replacing the sacked Franco Colomba. Donadoni will be unveiled as Parma coach at a press conference on Tuesday and is charged with keeping the club in the top ight after a disappointing season that has resulted in just ve wins. Former AC Milan midelder Donadoni was in charge of Italy from 2006 to 2008 and then had spells in charge of Napoli and Cagliari. Parma suered a 5-0 defeat at Inter Milan on Saturday and Donadoni's rst league match in charge will be against Siena on Sunday. (Source: Reuters)

award for services to the game at the gala event in Zurich on Monday. And Rooney, who was the only Eng-

14

I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY

WORLD ECONOMY

JANUARY 11, 2012

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / e c o n o m y

Resolving European crisis key to buoying global economy


A somber new year has begun for the global economy, with no victory in sight in the battle to solve the nancial crisis that started in Europe. Can we prevent the crisis from spreading further and stave o a rapid slowdown in the global economy? Many hurdles lie ahead, and rough going is expected for the global economy. Last autumn, the International Monetary Fund forecast the global economy as a whole would grow 4 percent in real terms in 2012. But it is highly likely the IMF will revise this projection downward to the mid-3 percent range as early as this month. The eurozone economy could log negative growth due to its nancial crisis and scal austerity policy. The agging economies in eurozone countries are expected to weigh down not only the United States and Japan but also emerging economies, including China, that have been enjoying robust growth. An economic slowdown in those countries is considered unavoidable. However, we must avoid a stall that could cause the global economy to nosedive. To do so, it is critical to resolve the European crisis soon. Last year, credit uncertainty triggered by Greeces lax fiscal management spread to countries such as Italy and Spain, which are saddled with massive fiscal deficits. The market was unsettled and stock prices remained low. The euro became mired in its most serious crisis since its introduction in 1999. The depreciation of the euro accelerated and it fell below 100 yen around the change of the year. In December, a summit meeting of the European Union, including countries that use the euro such as Germany and France, nally agreed on countermeasures whose main pillars include strengthening scal discipline in the respective countries. It is praiseworthy that Europe, which has always been reactive in dealing with the crisis, began taking action. However, bondholders continue to unload Italian and other European bonds, and their yields continue to rise. The Italian and Spanish governments will redeem a large amount of bonds. The market appears to be increasingly wary over whether the two countries can get through the redemption. (Source: Yomiuri Shimbun)

IN THE NEWS

U.S. debt is now equal to economy


WASHINGTON The soaring national debt has reached a symbolic tipping point: Its now as big as the entire U.S. economy. The amount of money the federal government owes to its creditors, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other programs, now tops $15.23 trillion. Thats roughly equal to the value of all goods and services the U.S. economy produces in one year: $15.17 trillion as of September, the latest estimate. Private projections show the economy likely grew to about $15.3 trillion by December a level the debt is likely to surpass this month. The 100% mark means that your entire debt is as big as everything youre producing in your country, says Steve Bell of the Bipartisan Policy Center, which has proposed cutting nearly $6 trillion in red ink over 10 years. Clearly, that cant continue. Long-term projections suggest the debt will continue to grow faster than the economy, which would have to expand by at least 6% a year to keep pace. President Obamas 2012 budget shows the debt soaring past $26 trillion a decade from now. Last summers decit reduction deal could reduce that to $24 trillion. Many economists, such as the Brookings Institutions William Gale, say a better measure of the nations debt is how much the government owes creditors, not counting $4.7 trillion owed to future Social Security recipients and other government beneciaries. By that measure, the debt is roughly a third less: $10.5 trillion, or nearly 70% the size of the economy. That is still high by historic standards. The total na-

A national debt clock of U.S. in Exeter, N.H.

tional debt topped the size of the economy for three years during and after World War II. It dropped to 32.5% of the economy by 1981, then began a steady climb under President Reagan, doubling over the next 12 years. The combination of recession and stimulus spending caused it to soar again under Obama. Among advanced economies, only Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Portugal have debts larger than their economies. Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Italy are at the root of the European debt crisis. The rst three needed bailouts from European

central banks; Italys books are monitored by the International Monetary Fund. The White House and Congress agreed in August to cut about $1 trillion from federal agencies over 10 years. An additional $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts looms beginning next year if lawmakers cant agree on a better way to do it. Economist Mark Zandi of Moodys Analytics says reaching the 100% mark shows the grave need to address our long-term scal problems. (Source: usatoday)

East Asian economy shows a downward trend


Thailand, one of the promising economies in the Pacic, was struck brutally by the Monsoon oods during the latter half of 2011. The adversity took its toll on factories and countless equipment. The mechanized industry is getting back on its feet but the lack of exports to Europe still keeps the downward trend unchanged. Same is the case with Philippines, which showed a disappointing decit in exports and imports. Surprisingly, the countries that remained unaected by the European disaster were Indonesia and Malaysia. Both of the conglomerates showed a steady growth in exports, particularly Indonesian, where exports grew 6.5 percent. Malaysian economy was mainly supported by 2010 export performance. However, Kuala Lumpur seems a little worried for this year. Despite all odds, China remains the main actor in the region. The Chinese economy has to play the lead role in getting the East Asian countries out of these unfortunate times. With a population of 1.3 Billion, the country is not only the biggest consumer market in Asia but also the world. The East Asian countries should be the rst to take the opportunity into their stride. However, this is not possible until the Chinese government steps up to encourage domestic consumption. The country is living through the miseries of its own. While the export demand is at its record low, Chinathe major exporter in the worldis nding it hard to sustain the balance in exports, gross domestic product and internal consumption. (Source: newspakistan)

Fitch warns of European rating downgrades in Jan


LONDON (AP) A number of euro countries, including Italy, could see their credit ratings downgraded by the end of this month as they struggle to cope with too much debt and slowing economic growth, Fitch Ratings said Tuesday. Though the agency remains condent that the 17-nation eurozone will not break up over the next year, it is concerned about the weak economic outlook and is urging the European Central Bank to step up its involvement in solving the crisis, notably by buying more government bonds in the markets. Fitchs head of sovereign ratings David Riley said the agency will give its verdict on several euro countries by the end of January. Fitch currently has Italy, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Slovenia and Cyprus on so-called ratings watch negative and Riley said the reductions could be up to two notches. Much interest in the markets centers on Italy, the third-largest eurozone economy and considered too expensive to bail out. Riley says it is the front line of Europes debt crisis especially as it has to tap bond market investors heavily this year. The future of the euro will be decided at the gates of Rome, he said at a conference in London. Though Italy has a relatively low budget decit in comparison to its economy, the country is saddled with massive amounts of debt and

Wall Street considers pay freeze on junior bankers


Wall Streets biggest rms, facing a slump in investmentbanking revenue, are considering freezing compensation levels for some junior bankers, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) is likely to suspend its practice, an industry norm, of boosting pay automatically each year for analysts, associates and vice presidents within the investment- banking division, a person with direct knowledge of the decision said. While those employees will get their regular annual salary increases, bonuses probably will be lowered to keep total pay flat from a year earlier, said the person, who requested anonymity because the plan isnt public. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) are being watched by competitors for signs the companies are planning similar moves, said people at four other firms. Cutting pay can be perilous if your rivals dont because its easier for junior bankers to defect, draining a future generation of talent. Wall Street firms may make the change en masse only if one or more of their biggest rivals act first, the people said. Theres always the risk that people may go across the street for a better deal, said Joseph Sorrentino, a managing director in New York at Steven Hall & Partners, an executive- compensation consultancy. Among junior bankers you have some potential future stars and you want to make sure you keep them engaged and keep them happy and performing. JPMorgan, which doesnt plan to alter its practices, may change course if other rms do so, a person briefed on its decisions said. (Source: Bloomberg)

America hits the brakes on health care spending


Health spending stabilized as a share of the nations economy in 2010 after two backto-back years of historically low growth, the government reported Monday. Experts debated whether its a eeting consequence of the sluggish economy, or a real sign that cost controls by private employers and government at all levels are starting to work. The answers will be vital for Medicares sustainability, as well as for workplace coverage. U.S. health care spending grew by 3.9 percent in 2010, reaching $2.6 trillion, according to the report by the Health and Human Services department. Thats an average of $8,402 per person -- far more than any other economically advanced country. Still, the increases for 2010 and 2009 were the lowest measured in 51 years. And health care as a share of the economy leveled o at 17.9 percent, the rst time in a decade theres been no growth. (Source: businessweek)

N E W S
Canada jobless rate rose for third month in December to 7.5%

I N

B R I E F

OPEC oil supply hits three-year high


The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil output rose in December to the highest since October 2008, a Reuters survey found, as members showed little sign yet of lowering output to make room for recovering Libyan supplies. Supply from all 12 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries according to Reuters, averaged 30.74 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up from a revised 30.62 million bpd in November, the survey of sources at oil companies, OPEC ocials and analysts found. The survey indicates OPEC, source of more than a third of the worlds oil, is producing more than the target of 30 million barrels daily it adopted at a December 14 meeting, as oil prices well above $100 a barrel provide little incentive for supply cuts. In December, the biggest increase in OPEC supply came from Libya, where production continues to recover after being virtually shut down during the uprising which toppled Muammar Gadda. Its quite surprising how successful the Libyans have been so far, said Samuel Ciszuk, consultant at KBC Energy Economics. Decembers total is OPECs highest since October 2008, shortly before the group agreed to a series of supply curbs to combat recession, based on Reuters surveys. Libyan oil exports and renery demand have climbed to 750,000 bpd in December, according to the survey,

Canadas unemployment rate (CANLXEMR) rose for a third month in December, the longest advance in two years, as a gain in jobs trailed growth of the labor force. The jobless rate increased to 7.5 percent from Novembers 7.4 percent and the recent low of 7.1 percent in September, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Employment (CANLNETJ) rose by 17,500, the first gain in three months. Over the past six months, the number of jobs has grown by 7,400, compared with a gain of 191,800 in the rst half of 2011.

U.K. recession The best that can be hoped for the U.K. fears build economy is that it will stagnate rather than

MAJOR CURRENCIES
Currency US dollar British Pound Swiss franc Swedish krona UAE dirham Kuwait dinar To U.S. Dollars 1 1.546 1.055 0.145 0.272 3.580 To IR. Rial 11240 17398 11857 1632 3061 40244 Currency 100 Japanese yen Canadian dollar Australian dollar Saudi riyal Chinese yuan Euro To U.S. Dollars 1.302 0.983 1.034 0.267 0.158 1.280 To IR. Rial 14639 11026 11585 2998 1781 14363

fall back into recession in the first half of 2012, according to a survey of British businesses published Tuesday. And while a separate survey indicated that British shoppers spent heavily in December, they did so only because of heavy discounting, which will likely mean sales gures in coming months will be weak. The British Chambers of Commerces quarterly survey found that growth in the manufacturing and services sectors was minimal in the nal quarter of 2011. Chinas exports and imports grew at their slowest pace in more than two years in December as foreign and domestic demand ebbed, data showed on Tuesday, bolstering expectations of more policy action from Beijing to support the worlds number two economy. Annual export growth of 13.4 percent in December was in line with expectations, albeit the slowest since November 2009 except for a February distortion caused by Lunar New Year holidays. But it was a big downside surprise for import growth that caught investor attention, sinking to a 26-month low of just 11.8 percent year-on-year versus the 17 percent forecast by economists in the benchmark Reuters poll.

U.K. house prices show property-market strains


A U.K. house-price index (UKRXPBAL) showed the property market continued to face strains last month from a deteriorating economic outlook and stretched consumers, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The gauge by London-based RICS gained one point to minus 16 from the previous month, it said in a statement today. The reading is the highest since July 2010. A separate British Retail Consortium report showed retail sales rose in December. Its encouraging that sales activity held up relatively well toward the end of the year, Ian Perry, RICS housing spokesman, said in the statement. Still, continuing problems with the economy and the ongoing instability in the euro zone seem to be weighing heavily on the U.K. housing market. The report is the latest to show the sovereign debt crisis in Europe is restraining demand for property in Britain, after Halifax said last week prices fell to the lowest level in 2 1/2 years. The Bank of England will probably maintain emergency stimulus for the economy at this weeks policy meeting. RICS measure of sales per surveyor fell to 15.2 in December from 15.4 in November. A gauge of expected sales dropped to zero from 4, and its measure of new buyer inquires declined to 2 from 7. London recorded a price gauge of 20 in December, and the capital was the only one of 12 regions tracked by RICS to show a positive result.

Sources: cbi.ir & xe.com

China trade growth slows to 2-year lows in December

MAJOR COMMODITIES
Light Crude Gold Copper 101.31 1,608.10 3.42 Silver Platinum Wheat 28.78 1,429.60 641.75 Source: cnnmoney.com

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a l

JANUARY 11, 2012

WORLD IN FOCUS
requires nothing short of a change in Indians mindset. For every Indian bribe-taker, there is a bribegiver looking for a shortcut or an undue advantage. To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, we need to be the change that we wish to see in India. Corruption will not end until Indians stop giving bribes as well as stop taking them. Indias parliament must continue to debate all the options available. It is important that we do not betray public expectations; but nor can we act irresponsibly. We must do the right thing, but we must also do the thing right. Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician and a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Kerala. He previously served as the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information and as the Minister of State for the Ministry of External Affairs. He is also a prolic author, columnist, journalist and a human rights advocate. (Source: The Project Syndicate)

INTERNATIONAL DAILY

15

Anti-corruption contest in India


COMMENT
By Shashi Tharoor

ndia ended 2011 amid political chaos, as the much-awaited Lokpal Bill, aimed at creating a strong, independent anti-corruption agency, collapsed amid a welter of recrimination in the parliaments upper house, after having passed the lower house two days earlier. The episode, which leaves the bill in suspended animation until its possible revival at the next session, raises fundamental issues for Indian politics which will need to be addressed in the New Year. The need for the bill Lokpal loosely translates as ombudsman was rst mooted in 1968, but eight subsequent attempts to create one had never reached a parliamentary vote. The credit for imparting urgency to an issue that had become a hardy perennial of Indian politics goes to the mass campaign that coalesced around a Gandhian leader, Anna Hazare, who insisted that a Jan Lokpal Bill (Peoples Ombudsman) drafted by his followers had to be enacted in toto. Two well-publicized fasts by Hazare, attended by hundreds of thousands and breathlessly covered by Indias news channels, pushed the government to expedite preparation and consideration of a bill. The draft diered in many respects from Hazares, but it retained what most people sought an independent agency with its own investigative resources and prosecutorial powers. After parliamentarians were summoned back to work after Christmas in an unprecedented extended winter session, the bill passed the Lok Sabha (the lower house), where the ruling coalition commands a narrow majority. But the governments attempts to entrench the law in a constitutional amendment, thereby elevating the authority of the oce, failed to command the necessary two-thirds support. Still, the bills passage after 43 years of stalemate was little short of historic. Blame game The action then shifted to the Rajya Sabha (the upper house), where the government lacks a majority. After a session lasting until midnight, punctuated by the introduction of 187 amendments (most by the opposition but some by coalition allies of the ruling Congress Party), the government pleaded incapable of processing all the amendments in time. Agitated members shouted their dissatisfaction (one rather melodramatically tearing up the draft bill), and the Rajya Sabhas chairman, Indian Vice-President Hamid Ansari, halted the proceedings without a vote. All sides have ung accusations at each other. Some allege that the governments bill, by requiring a similar ombudsman in each of Indias states, was an assault on Indian federalism. Others claim that the government colluded in the disruptions in the Rajya Sabha, because it knew that it could not win the vote; some, preposterous-

ly, suggest that the government did not want the bill to pass; still others claim that it would have created such a weak Lokpal that it was not worth passing. The government has grimly suggested that it would go back to the drawing board with a view to reviving the bill during the parliaments budget session, due in March. Whatever happens, the need to tackle corruption is undeniable. In a recent survey by the anti-corruption watchdog group Transparency International, 54 per cent of Indian respondents said that they had paid bribes in the last two years, in interactions with police, bureaucrats, and even educational institutions. Petty corruption has often affected people more directly. The mass outpouring of support for Hazare reflected the genuine frustration that most Indians feel over the corruption that assails their daily lives, rather than a
By Jeffrey D. Sachs

clear understanding of Hazares proposals to combat it. Every time a poor pregnant woman must bribe an orderly to get a hospital bed (to which she is entitled), or else deliver her baby on the floor; every time a widow cannot get the pension that should be hers by right, without bribing a clerk to process the papers; and every time a son cannot obtain his fathers death certificate without greasing the palm of a petty municipal official, Indians know that the system has failed them. The Lokpal will not be a panacea. It is one instrument among many that are needed, along with reforms, to increase transparency, protect whistleblowers, prevent tax evasion, clean up campaign financing, and reduce officials discretionary power, which allows them to profit from the power to permit. Inspectors and prosecutors can catch only some criminals; India needs to change the system so that fewer crimes are committed. Corruption isnt only high-level governmental malfeasance; overcoming it

Tour dhorizon: An Iranian optic on the Middle East and its prospects
Contd. from P. 6 Whether the Syrian regime survives in its current form, reforms itself, or falls is not really the central issuethough in Tehran it is widely believed that President Assad will survive this crisis and most probably remain in power. What is striking is how the Americans and Europeans simply do not learn from history. One would imagine that, after the September 11 attacks, they would have learned a thing or two about blowback. If extremist ideologies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, funded by the Saudis and other oil-rich Arab regimes, can create such immense diculties for Western countries, imagine the problem when their sphere of inuence reaches North Africa, India, Nigeria, Central Asia, and Turkey. In any case, despite American attempts to preserve the old order, the region is rapidly changing. This has enormous implications for the Islamic Republic, the United States, and Israel. There is no doubt that future political orders in Egypt and Tunisia will, to say the least, be highly critical of Zionism. It is even possible to imagine the rise of radically dierent political orders in the future in countries like Jordan. Iran will no longer be an isolated voice in its opposition to Israeli apartheid. This alone will be a major breakthrough for the Islamic Republic, since it will signicantly decrease Western pressure on the country. Ongoing events in Yemen also have the potential to help bring about major change in the Persian Gulf region, especially after the role that the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others have played to preserve the current regime. In the midst of all this, oil-rich countries to the north of the Islamic Republic are also beginning to show signs of instability. It is important to note that, contrary to Western propaganda, no Iranian leader has at any point advocated the dismantling of Israel through military annihilation. Despite the often willful distortion of the Iranian presidents words in the Western media, the Islamic Republics position has consistently been that Israel, like apartheid South Africa, is a colonial entity entitling a particular group of chosen people exceptional rights while denying those rights to the majority of the native population, thereby leaving the regime without any legitimacy. Irans stance against Israel is based on what it sees to be an important moral principle. The Islamic Republic followed the same principle in its opposition to apartheid South Africa, at a time when Western countries backed the regime. From the Iranian perspective, the only way for the Palestinian issue to be resolved is for the Zionist ideology to be relinquished, so that Muslims, Christians, and Jews can live as equals in the land of Palestine. If the Palestinian people as a whole, including refugees, come to an agreement with Israel, the Islamic Republic would respect the Palestinian decision and refrain from interference. Nevertheless, on moral grounds it will not recognize the Israeli regime as legitimate. Of course, the extremist ideologies promoted by wealthy Arab dictatorships have a very dierent view of religious diversity and coexistence. The claim that the Islamic Republic is somehow a military threat is not only dishonest, but the reverse of reality. The United States and Israel, along with other Western countries have repeatedly made military threats against the Iranian people, while the Iranians have never made threats of their own. Of course, Iranians believe that an attack on Iran is unlikely, because even senior American leaders admit that the consequences would be highly detrimental to the United States and its interests. However, the mere threats themselves are seen as inhuman and irrational; because of such American behavior, Iran has prepared itself for any potential American miscalculation. Ayatollah Khamenei recently stated that, while Iran will never carry out aggression, from now on the Islamic Republic will respond to threats with threats. Iranians rmly believe that stability or instability from the Mediterranean to the borders of India is inextricably linked to peace and stability in the Persian Gulf region. A look at a map makes clear that Iran has the ability to respond to threats throughout the region and beyond. If there is no security for Iranians or for Iranian oil exports, then, in Iranian eyes, there will be no security for Irans antagonists in the region. Under such conditions, the United States and its allies should not expect oil or gas to ow out of the Persian Gulf, northern Iraq, or Central Asia. It would be a grave mistake to underestimate the Islamic Republics military power and resolve as well as the regions popular response to yet another Western act of aggression in a very unstable region. Hence, it is in the interest of the declining Western powers to take a more rational approach towards regional issues and a more reasonable approach towards the Islamic Republic. Any attempt to hurt or humiliate Iranians will simply harden Irans stance and have an opposite eect, whereas reason and respect can lead to a solution acceptable to all sides. As things stand; however, the Islamic Republic has no option but to make conditions more dicult for the United States and its allies in the Persian Gulf region. It is also in the interest of those so-called Iran experts in Western countries who consistently distort reality inside Iran to behave more responsibly. Their constant caricature of Iranian society as well as their unfounded claims of fraud in the 2009 presidential elections, have largely served the interests of unwise advocates of confrontation within the United States who need to delegitimize the Islamic Republic in the eyes of the American public. Iranians know quite well that a country engaged in perpetual warwhere even establishment gures such as Helen Thomas, Rick Sanchez, and Octavia Nasr are silenced, where academics are denied tenure for their political views,, where people are imprisoned for making television channels like Al-Manar available to the public, and where innocent citizens are regularly harassed by the FBI and IRS or arrested on trumped-up charges, simply because they are antiwar, anti-Wall Street or because of their sympathy for Palestinians, Lebanon, or Iran has little right to speak about Iran. Those who do so anyway should at least have the decency to wait until the last Iranian gas victim dies. Seyed Mohamed Marandi is an Associate Professor at the University of Tehran and is currently spending asabbatical year in Beirut. He is a regular commentator on various international news channels.

JUMP

Nigeria hurtles into a tense crossroad


oping countries such as Brazil and India are now making breakthroughs in poverty reduction and economic growth, Nigeria could become the surprise winner of the coming decade. It is lled with talented and energetic people, fertile agriculture, and vast energy resources. Oil-dependent Nigeria exemplifies the infamous resource curse. When an economy depends excessively on one or two key resources like oil, gold, or diamonds, politics all too easily descends into megacorruption and a brutal struggle over the resource earnings. To add to the curse, foreign governments and companies often amplify the corruption. Nigerian courts recently convicted the U.S. oil-services company Halliburton of massive corruption committed while the chief executive was none other than Dick Cheney. Oil exporters like Nigeria very often keep domestic oil prices low as an easy sop to powerful local interests. Nigerias oil prices were among the lowest in Africa until the subsidies were abruptly ended Jan. 1. According to the governments estimates, the oil subsidy in 2011 amounted to a staggering $8 billion, roughly 4 percent of G.D.P. (the equivalent share of G.D.P. in the United States would be $600 billion per year). Nigerias well-todo households, with their cars and large diesel generators, and also some adroit oil smugglers, captured much of the subsidy. The government ended the subsidies to redeploy the 4 percent of G.D.P. toward long-term development needs, including health, roads and power. The reform logic is sound. Using the 4 percent of G.D.P. in a strategic manner can do far more for Nigerias poor and the countrys long-term growth than haphazard giveaways of cheap oil. Yet the fury at the governments removal of the oil subsidies has been huge, with strikes, violence and political uproar. The removal of subsidies creates short-term pain for many social groups, and considerable short-term fear. The governments actions are easy targets of the political opposition. The public understandably frets that the government might simply steal the budget savings, since governments have stolen so much of the oil wealth in the past. The fears of corruption are absolutely understandable, but glimmers of hope that this time will be different are also in the air. When Nigeria won relief on its external debt in the mid-2000s, the savings on debt service were actually redirected to meaningful social investments in the states and local governments. The government is now promising to turn the outlays on subsidies into outlays on specific and closely monitored investments in health care, infrastructure, job training and other areas. To share the pain, the president has ordered cuts in top salaries in the government, and special programs for mass transit to help poor workers over the hurdle of higher transport costs. The government should also tax high-income individuals in order to raise revenues for urgent pro-poor investments and a fairer society. Civil society is on the alert. Labor unions, Occupy Nigeria and other social groups are on the streets protesting the subsidy cuts. More importantly, they are demanding transparency and honesty from a national government that has offered far too little of these virtues over the past half century. If the president and his team carry through on their plans for bold, honest, equitable and transparent reforms, they are well placed to usher in a new day for Nigeria. Skepticism is running high, but so too are cautious hopes that nally, this decade, Nigeria will join the ranks of the worlds most dynamic emerging economies. Jeffrey D. Sachs is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of The Price of Civilization.

ABUJA, NIGERIA (The New York Times) Tensions are running high in the streets here, days after the removal of gasoline subsidies at the start of the year and two weeks after horrific Christmas Day bombings of several churches around the country by extremists. Yet the government of President Goodluck Jonathan is steering through these hazards, giving Nigeria a chance to cast off the instability, poverty and corruption that have long plagued this country. And Nigerias powerful governors, for the moment, are coalescing around the reform agenda. Meeting with the president and his economic team in Abuja last week, in the midst of protests against the subsidy removal, conrmed my view that the Nigerian government has an unprecedented opportunity to clean up its act and win back the support of a long-suering population. The president spoke of taking the tough medicine necessary to build the foundations for long-term growth. His lead economic architect is Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, newly returned from a top spot at the World Bank. I dont envy their task. At 155 million people and rising, Nigeria is the worlds eighth-most-populous country and one of the hardest to govern. The country is deeply splintered, with more than 250 ethnic groups, 500 languages, a stark and sometimes violent Muslim-Christian divide, and a population now evenly divided between urban and rural areas. If these fracture lines were not enough, corruption is rampant, income inequality is sky-high, poverty and disease are pervasive, and the youth population is bulging, with half of all Nigerians under the age of 20. Ive advised dozens of countries, including Nigeria, on economic development and public health, and very few come close to Nigerias scale and complexity of challenges. Yet just as other large and complicated devel-

Do Republican attacks on Obama strike a chord?


Contd. from P. 5 I have to hold back. I cant expand. I cant be creative. I cant give my employees the benefits that they might need because I dont know whats coming down the road. Its that uncertainty that so many businesses in America are facing today, that we just gotta get out from underneath. Not everyone agrees that the language of the campaign reects reality. At the house party for Republican candidate Jon Huntsman which I mentioned yesterday, I ran into Donald Byrne. Mr. Byrne is the boss of a software company and an independent whos re-registered as a Republican so he can vote for the former ambassador to China and Utah governor. He says the language used about Obama is pandering to the base. I think the Republican party in the United States has shifted very far to the right, he says. Being a moderate is a negative in this campaign and thats very unfortunate, because the majority of Americans are moderate and well balanced in their thought process. There is too much pandering to these right-wing extreme sides. It is the nature of elections that choices are put in stark, easy-to-understand terms. I have no doubt that in 2012 two very dierent visions of America will be on oer. But does a polarized politics force cruder choices than might be good for a countrys economic health? I meet Bob Bastani, a senior New Hampshire Republican and economist, in his home over-looking New Hampshires beautiful coastal basin near Newmarket. He worked in the treasury team under the first President Bush, most recently headed a bank in the Philippines and ran unsuccessfully for Congress. He told me that while politics still was a battle between the economics of Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes, in reality, neither theory can cope with the current crisis. That battle between those two views has been the central debate in economics for almost 100 years now, but they have converged somewhere in the middle, Mr. Bastani said. If you look at Keynesian economics, they have moved much more towards an acceptance of monetary policy. Thats part of the problem: the two have sort of met in the middle, and are stuck there with no real policy prescriptions. So there is no real blackand-white answer much as we would like to have black-and-white answers. So if you have the two principal instruments of economic management no longer working, then what do you do? And thats the central conundrum. Still, campaigning in primary colors works well, even if you have to govern in grey. Republican voters choosing a candidate on Tuesday may be looking for the man best able to excoriate Obama, rather than the one most suited to replace him. By the time the polls close, he may even have been blamed for the lack of snow. (Source: BBC)

New U.S. military strategy is a campaign ploy


Contd. from P. 1 This provides more evidence that the document is a campaign ploy meant for public consumption and not the real U.S. defense doctrine. In other words, the core of the U.S. military strategy has not been revealed to the public. The document has also caused an uproar in the Republican camp, which has been very critical of the Obama strategy for dealing with military threats. Chinese ocials have adopted a harsh stance toward the document and have asked U.S. ocials to revise their policy toward Beijing. In light of all this, the new defense strategy document is obviously just a campaign ploy devised by the Democrats to influence public opinion and attract votes in the next presidential election. Foad Izadi is a professor of U.S. studies at the University of Tehran.

Tomorrows weather
11 2 14 4 5 -3 18 5 18 2 16 1 19 1 2 14 1

TEHRAN

SHIRAZ

TABRIZ

YAZD

RASHT

MASHHAD

AHVAZ

ISFAHAN

http://www.tehrantimes.com/culture No. 18, Bimeh lane, Nejatollahi st., Tehran, Iran P.o. Box: 14155-4843 Zip Code: 1599814713

I N T E R N AT I O N A L D A I L Y

Poem of the day

An intelligent man will not give a reply Unless he be asked a question. Because though his words may be based on truth, His claim to veracity may be deemed impossible. Sadi

Managing Director: Reza Moghadasi Editor-in-Chief: Abolfazl Amouei Editorial Dept.: Tel: (+98 21) 88895450 Fax: (+98(21) 88808214 editor@tehrantimes.com Switchboard Operator: Tel: (+98 21) 88800293-5 Advertisements Dept.: Telefax: (+98 21) 88896970-71 ads@tehrantimes.com Public Relations Oce: Tel: (+98 21) 88805807 Subscription & Distribution Dept.: Tel: (+98 21) 88808895 Webmaster: webmaster@tehrantimes.com
Printed at: Kayhan - ISSN: 1017-94

SINCE 1979

Prayer Times
Noon:12:12

Evening: 17:30

Dawn: 05:46 (tomorrow)

Sunrise: 07:14 (tomorrow)

Tehran exhibit reviewing Persian calligraphy in Iranian modern art


Art D e s k of Mellat Park is playing host to an
TEHRAN Tehrans Pardis Gallery exhibition of calligraphy works reviewing calligraphy in Iranian modern art. Works by 30 artists are on display at the exhibit A Review of Calligraphy and Writing Elements in Iranian Modern Art, which opened Monday, attended by a group of veteran calligraphers and artists, Persian news agencies reported. I always assumed that the medium of cinema and theater are better means for artists to transfer concepts, but the current exhibit made me recognize I was making a mistake, gallery director Masud Banasiri said at the opening ceremony. Iran with its long history plays a major role in the art and cultural changes in the world, and our present generation is the sole heir to this signicant history, veteran calligrapher Yadollah Kaboli next said. He continued that calligraphy enjoys an essential position in todays modern art and that it is the young generation of artists who can help preserve the traditional art of the calligraphy of the past. Kaboli next asked the art and cultural ocials to help organize seminars and auctions, currently being held in the neighboring countries, in our country to boost calligraphy here in Iran. Artist Naser Palangi talked about how calligraphic painting developed in recent years, Master Mahmud Javadipur and his students as well as Mansureh Hosseini and (deceased) Morteza Momayyez were actually the pioneers of calligraphic painting. He expressed his thanks to the Tehran Municipality as sponsor of the exhibit. Works by Mohammad Ehsaii, Nasrollah A eii, Fereidun Omidi, Javad Bakhtiari, Jalil Rasuli, Reza Ma, and Mehdi Fallah and many more will be on show until February 14.

NEWS

Fajr lmfest announces lineup for Iranian competition


Crystal Simorghs are ranged on a table during the closing ceremony of the 23rd Intl. Fajr Film Festival in Tehran.

Art

D e s k be contending for the Crystal

TEHRAN Twenty-six lms will

Simorgh in the Iranian lms competition at the 30th Fajr International Film Festival, the organizers announced on Tuesday. Celebrated lmmaker Dariush Mehrjuis The Orange Dressed, on a photojournalist who turns into a sanitation worker due to his enthusiasm for the environment, is one of the entries to the festival, which is Irans most important cinematic event. Mehdi Sabbaghzadeh has returned with Way to Heaven, which is about the early history of Islam. Actor-turned-director Peyman Moadis debut Snow on the Pines, a social drama, will be screened at the festival.

A number of renowned Iranian directors are also to premiere their latest lms at the event. Following is a list of some of the lms: The Guidance Patrol by Saeid Soheili, We Will Say Amen by Saman Salur, The Bear by Khosro Masumi, A Simple Love Poem by Saman Moqaddam, The Queen by Mohammad-Ali Ahangar, Growing in the Wind by Rahbar Qanbari, Kissing the Moon-Like Face by Homayun Asadian, A Simple Entertaining by Mani Haqiqi and Waiting for a Miracle by Rasul Sadr-Ameli. The lms have been chosen by a selecting board composed of nine cineastes. However, festival secretary Mohammad Khazaii had previously said he would personally rule out the

lms that will likely provoke protests. Needlessly and Causelessly by Abdorreza Kahani and Tehran 2121 by Bahram Azimi, Laboratory by Hamid Amjad, The Private Life of Mr. and Mrs. M. by Ruhollah Hejazi and 11 other have been left out. Last week, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which is the main organizer of festival, announced the dissolution of the Iranian House of Cinema (IHC) that is the guild of the countrys cineastes. The decision to disband the society was allegedly made due to a breach of the IHC chapter. Analysts have said the Fajr festival will be overshadowed by the row if the Culture Ministry does not settle it before the beginning of the event.

Foreign storytellers to compete in Iranian festival


of the 15th International Storytelling Festival will be hosting a group of international storytellers from across the globe to compete at the festival this year. The storytellers will share tales

Iranian novel Age Forty published in Italy


Culture D e s k Nahid Tabatabaiis popular novel
Age Forty was released and distributed by Ponte 33 Publications in Italy. The novel narrates the life of a 40-year-old woman named Alaleh whose life is aected after the return of the love of her youth from abroad. The book was released in 1998 by Cheshmeh Publications in Iran. Mostafa Rastegarpur also wrote a screenplay according to the book which was turned into a lm under the same title by Alireza Raissan. I received the Italian version of the book yesterday but I do not have any information about how the book was received in Italy, Tabatabaii told the Persian service of Mehr News Agency. Established by Irene Chiellini, Felicetta Ferraro and Bianca Maria Filippini, Ponte 33 is the Italian translation of the name of the renowned bridge in Isfahan, Si-o-SePol, and the rm aims to introduce Iranian literature to Italians. TEHRAN The Italian version of

Culture D e s k Organizers

TEHRAN

from their motherlands with Iranian children at the festival running from January 26 to 29 in Urmia, West Azerbaijan Province. Seventeen storytellers are invited for the festival, out of which 12 will be taking part in the competition section, four will be attending the
ByAbbas Azizpur/ISNA

side section, and one storyteller from Tajikistan is among the jury members. The 12 storytellers are coming from Thailand, Afghanistan, Canada, Lebanon, Kenya, Romania, Indonesia, the United States and Denmark. The festival has been organized

by the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA), the Public Relations Office of IIDCYA reported on Tuesday. Storytellers Hans Laurens from Denmark and Eric James Wolf from the U.S. are among the participants, the report added.

PICTURE OF THE DAY


Art

Theater expert Jean-Marie Pradier invited to Tehran festival


TEHRAN Francetheater expert Jean-Marie Pradier has been invited to a seminar, which will be held on the sideline of the 30th Fajr International Theater Festival in Tehran. Pradier is scheduled to deliver a lecture during the seminar, which will discuss holding performances in nontheatrical places. Tehrans several theaters will playing host to Iranian and foreign troupes

D e s k based

during the festival, which will be held from January 25 to February 11. Pradier was a professor at the University of Paris VIII and has headed the Theatrical Investigation Department since his retirement in 2009. Pradier, 73, was born in Morocco. He has doctorates in psychology and literature. He is the author of numerous publications.

Guggenheim proposes $178 million museum in Helsinki


HELSINKI (Reuters) The Guggenheim wants to build a 140 million euro ($178 mln) museum on the Helsinki waterfront as it expands its satellite of contemporary art galleries to new locations such as Bilbao in Spain and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which oversees the original, Frank Lloyd Wrightdesigned museum in New York as well as four overseas sites, proposed that it and the Finnish capital jointly develop a new museum. The Guggenheim chose Helsinki due to strong local interest and tradition in art and design, as well as the citys plans to develop its harbor properties, it said in a report Tuesday after a year-long feasibility study. It also noted the city lacked a significant modern art collection, a gap it said the museum could fill and help draw tourists. Helsinkis cultural landscape is rich, but it is also fragmented Helsinkis art scene lacks a center of gravity, the report said, recommending the city move forward with an architectural competition. It proposed a museum be built on a city-owned site in Helsinkis south harbor, next to the Alvar Aalto-designed headquarters of Finnish forest company Stora Enso. Its 140 million euro estimate includes the construction and design of the museum. The Guggenheim is also counting on public, private and corporate funding to cover operating costs. The city is due to decide in the next few weeks whether to go ahead with the project.

Dahl stamps honor writers most popular characters


LONDON (BBC) A series of stamps celebrating Roald Dahls classic childrens books have been released by the Royal Mail. They include illustrations of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Fantastic Mr. Fox. The Cardi-born authors other books featured on stamps are James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Twits, The Witches and the BFG. Ophelia Dahl said her father, who died in 1990, would have been thrilled by the tribute. Each stamp features illustrations by Quentin Blake, whose drawings are synonymous with the childrens classics. The 30th anniversary of The BFG, or Big Friendly Giant, one of Dahls most popular characters, is marked by a sheet of four stamps all of which feature scenes from the book. His daughter said: My dad wrote thousands of letters home throughout his life and never dreamed that one day one of his own characters would grace a stamp. Hed be thrilled. This is an excellent way for us to kick o a year of celebrations to mark 30 years in print for The BFG and its great that the stamps include a collectors set, devoted to The BFG and other characters from this book. Dahl was born and grew up in Llanda, Cardi, and spent his later years in Buckinghamshire.

Iranian nomad children play ball in the Hosseinieh Andimeshk region, in northern Khuzestan Province, on January 9, 2012.

Directors Guild chooses film award nominees


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Filmmakers Woody Allen, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne and Frances Michel Hazanavicius were nominated for Directors Guild lm awards Monday -- a honor that is often a key indicator of Oscar success. Hazanavicius, 44, scored his rst Directors Guild of America (DGA) nomination for his black and white silent movie about old Hollywood, The Artist, which has wowed critics since its premier at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The French director joined U.S. veterans Scorsese and Allen, who were nominated for their work on 3D family lm Hugo and comedy Midnight in Paris, respectively. Fincher scored his third DGA nomination for the U.S. version of Swedish writer Stieg Larssons thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, while Payne notched up his second nod for dysfunctional family drama The Descendants starring George Clooney. The DGA has a strong track record of foreshadowing the eventual winner of the best director Oscar, and the Academy Award for best movie also goes to the winner of best director. Since 1948, there are only six occasions when the DGA award winner has not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award. The DGA hands out its award at ceremony in Los Angeles on Jan 28 in Hollywood, and it will be hosted this year by former Frasier star Kelsey Grammer.

S-ar putea să vă placă și