NOVEMBER 6, 2016 RRouhani calls culture more ouhani...

TEHRAN — Charles Taliaferro, a professor of philosophy at St. Olaf College predicts that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will win the November 8 presidential election with a narrow margin.

“I predict a narrow victory for Hillary Clinton,” Taliaferro tells the Tehran Times.

Following is the text of the interview:

What is your prediction of the U.S. presidential election?

A: Yes, he was recorded making debased, deplorable comments about women, regarding them merely as sex objects. He has

shown contempt for Muslims, women, Hispanics. Sadly, this has not prevented him from mounting a serious campaign for the presidency. I predict a narrow victory for Hillary Clinton

Basically, what groups or classes of society will mostly vote for Donald Trump?

A: The group most on his side are angry, older white males, especially those in the middle class who have not benefited from the economic recovery since the recession when the economy collapsed and witnessed the loss of millions of jobs. His other constituencies are those who oppose President Obama and his health care policies. The next president will probably appoint at

least two, maybe three Supreme Court Justices. Conservatives fear a Clinton presidency will create a liberal bench.

Trump blames the media for a coordinated action against himself. What is your judgment?

A: Trump is utterly not being attacked in the media, which has instead given him massive, positive attention. The media has reported, for example, many accusers who challenge his integrity, as in reporting the 11 women who have stepped forward recording Trump’s sexually harassing or assaulting him. He blames these accusers as lying, publicity seekers who are pawns in the Clinton campaign. Whatever

the truth of the matter, the fact that the media reported the testimony of these women is fair and what one would expect in a free democratic republic. So, the media has sought to uncover cases of duplicity in Trump’s life, but it has been relentless in doing the same with Clinton. So, I see no media imbalance.

Is Trump or Hillary is more aggressive toward Iran?

A: That is a very difficult question! Trump is so massively anti-Muslim that I cannot imagine he will open and receptive to a more respectful USA policy in the region. Hillary’s inclusive, pro-Muslim philosophy is more promising.

By Marzieh Afkham Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Malaysia

A R T I C L EBy Mahmood Monshipouri

San Francisco State University professor

PERSPECTIVE

42 12 16Iran, Poland sign MOU on oilfield study

Zarif likely to meet Hariri in Lebanon

Iran’s Samii inaugurates China International Neuroscience Institute

Parviz Tanavoli unveils his first artist’s book “Things and Nothings”

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 D A I L YIran, EU to sit for human rights talks Wednesday

16 Pages Price 10,000 Rials 38th year No.12690 Sunday NOVEMBER 6, 2016 Aban 16, 1395 Safar 6, 1438

By Jalal HeiranniaINTERVIEW

P O L I T I C Sd e s k

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Germany assures safe return of

TMCA Western collection

TEHRAN — German Foreign Minister

Frank-Walter Steinmeier has promised the full and safe return of a collection of Western art that the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMCA) plans to loan for a show at Berlin’s National Gallery.

He made the remarks in a letter sent to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad-Javad Zarif, assuring him that the works would not be confiscated in any case. Steinmei-er has noted that a guarantee would be issued based upon which all the artworks would be returned to the TMCA after the works go on display in Berlin.

The minister has noted that he will assure the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art will have all the necessary guarantee.

Steinmeier at the head of a German delegation visited the museum in his trip to Iran in October 2015.

The TMCA announced on October 26 that it will loan a selection of its Western artworks for a show at Rome’s MAXXI Museum. The selection will later be exhibited at Berlin’s National Gallery from December 2016 to February 2017.

The Iran Painters Association and a number of gallery owners have voiced their opposition to the TMCA’s plan.

The opponents of the plan said that the collection could be confiscated using some lame excuse. They also said that Italy and Germany may return copies of the artworks instead of the originals.

Iran, ITER sign confidentiality

agreement

TEHRAN — Iran’s nuclear chief Ali

Akbar Salehi and ITER Director General Bernard Bigot signed on Saturday a confidentiality agreement, a first step for further collaboration in the multi-national nuclear fusion project.

Launched by Europe, United States, China, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea 10 years ago, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project aims to build the world’s largest experimental reactor, or tokamak.

It would generate energy through nuclear fusion, rather than the fission process currently used in nuclear power stations around the world. Fusion could prove cleaner, safer and more efficient, according to Reuters.

“Under the document the two sides agreed to keep confidential each other’s information during their cooperation,” said Salehi.

Salehi, a nuclear physicist, also said a second agreement has already been drafted which details bilateral cooperation between the two sides which will be signed in the near future.

He gave no date. “We hope to sign the agreement in

the near future,” he added. Earlier in July, Salehi visited the

ITER headquarters in southern France, saying there was “general agreement” for cooperation on the ITER.

2

Trump and the American elections

Donald Trump has broken several longstanding norms in the US presidential election by insulting

Mexican migrants and undocumented workers, Muslims, women, and sever-al reputable, establishment Republican candidates. Yet, he has managed to remain as a leading presidential candi-date throughout the campaign season and now is widely considered by the Republic Party to be challenger to the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on Election Day, November 8. What ex-plains this anomaly in the US presiden-tial election?

Trump’s virulent nationalist messages has channeled a strong appeal with white Americans, who either are unemployed, or have lost a home to foreclosure, or who fear the growing, perceived menace of becoming a member of the minority group in the rapidly changing demographic order in America. This new America, one where non-whites and diverse ethnic, racial, and religious groups represent the vast majority of Americans, presents a fresh assault on a group that feels increasingly culturally, religiously, and economically marginalized. But perhaps most significantly, Trump, who has managed to avoid performing his civic duty to the country by paying federal/state taxes for nearly two decades, continues to lack the basic decency to speak to the elements of fairness and justice that represent the idealistic goals for the vast majority of Americans. Yet, his appeal—largely populist and misguided—has kept him a contender to Secretary Clinton.

Trump’s ascension to the White House would mean trouble for the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran at a time when the rest of the world sees this agreement as the best hope for a reduction of tensions in the Middle East. Hillary Clinton has come to a different interpretation of this deal, in that she broadly supports a diplomatic track that avoids the possibility for outright conflict with Iran. 1 3

Iran-Malaysia ties: To strengthen commonalities

It is an opportune time to extend our respects to the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s first

prime minister. When raising the Malaya flag

(now Malaysia) after achieving independence from the British, he did not only seek to establish a country politically, but also to present a new experience of Islam, putting peaceful co-existence with other faiths and moderation on top of his agenda to run the country.

Now, after half a century, the efforts have been fruitful.

As the envoy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the government which came into office raising the motto of moderation and respecting other nations and governments, I wish to deliver the Iranian government’s will to promote friendship and expand the brotherly ties between the two countries.

Iranians have played an important role in spreading Islam to East Asia.

According to the historical documents in books written by scholars in this region, elements of Persian mysticism and poetry have been translated into the Malay language.

Besides, traces of the presence of Persians in the region were discovered some centuries ago; they were engaged in trade in Lembah Bujang and Malacca.

Persian poet Sa’adi Shirazi (1210-1291 AD) had composed a piece of poetry, that reads: “ze taj malek zadehi dar melakh shabi la’li oftad dar sanglakh”, which refers to an incident when the ruby gem from the crown of a Malacca prince fell to the stony ground... and at the end, is a piece of advice from the poet. Persian literature researchers believe that melakh mentioned in the poem refers to the state of Melaka (Malacca).

The Malacca sultanate was known to receive many Persian merchants for trade.

1 3

2

I predict a narrow victory for Hillary Clinton: philosophy professor

See page 2

ECONOMYd e s k

TEHRAN — Iran sold its light crude oil at $47.41 per

barrel in the week ended on October 28, with $1.03 drop from its previous week, Shana news agency reported.

Iran’ light oil price stood at $39.72 on average since the start of this calendar year (March 20, 2016).

The country also sold its heavy crude oil at

$46.27 per barrel in the mentioned week, with 96 cents fall from its preceding week.

Iran’ heavy oil price stood at $37.66 on average since the start of current calendar year.

Meanwhile, with a 98 cent drop from its preceding week, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s basket price reached $47.44 per barrel in the week ended

on October 28.After major oil producers’ meeting in Algiers

on September 28, which ended in a preliminary accord on capping OPEC members’ oil production level, crude oil prices have experienced an increase. As predicted, in case of a final deal to freeze oil output, international oil prices would surpass $50 and will swing up to $60.

Iran sells crude oil at $47.41 per barrel in a week

C U L T U R Ed e s k

Foreign media reps to speak at Tehran’s Press ExhibitionTEHRAN — The representatives

of foreign news agencies and press will hold speeches today at The 22nd Press Exhibition, Iran’s most significant media showcase.

Mustafa Melih Ahishali, representative of Turkey’s Anadolu Agency will give a lecture on the role of the media during the Turkish coup attempt.

Iranian journalist Seyyed Reza Qorbanpur Ganji, the represent-ative of the London-based news agency The International Media Associates (TIMA) is scheduled to speak on foreign media in Iran.

The role of media in expanding the cooperation between Iran and China is the title of the lecture by Hua Sun from the

Chinese international newspaper, Wenhui Daily.

Veronika Krasheninnikova, an advisor to the Director General of the MIA “Russia Today”, the Russian news channel, will also deliver a speech.

Tehran’s 22nd Press Exhibition which is underway at Imam Khomeini Mosalla, will run until November 11.

Team Iran has suffered a 6-2 defeat against Brazil in the

Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup final to fin-ish second on Saturday.

Last year’s champion Russia beat Tahiti 4-3 in the third place match to finish third.

The Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup is an international beach soccer tournament which has been held annually starting in 2011. It will continue until at least 2017.

The competition bares many similarities to

the FIFA Confederations Cup, however is not so strict on entry requirements.

Russia (2011, 2012, 2015), Brazil (2014, 2016) and Iran (2013) are the most successful teams in the tournament so far.

Saturday’s MatchesPoland 3 - 3 (2 - 0) (PSO) Egypt (Fifth-place

play-off )UAE 4 – 3 the U.S. (Seventh-place play-off )Russia 4 – 3 Tahiti (Semi-final)Brazil 6 – 2 Iran (Final)

Iran finishes runner-up in the Beach Soccer Intercontinental CupS P O R T Sd e s k

g

L Y

Rouhani calls culture more Rouhani calls culture more powerful than weaponpowerful than weapon

TEHRAN — Iranian President Hassan Rou-

hani said on Saturday that culture is more powerful than weapon, noting media is a tool for promoting culture.

Rouhani made the remarks in a speech at the opening ceremony of the 22nd Press Exhibition in Tehran.

The president also praised the work of journalists, saying they lay the ground-work for development of society.

“Undoubtedly, media and those in-volved in it are involved in culture and link the public opinion with government and transfer the government’s view to the people and provide the ground for devel-opment,” he remarked.

The president added it is the “mission” of media to help maintain “national, social and internal security” and create a “calm” atmosphere in the society.

Rouhani also said the current insecuri-ty in the region cannot be countered only through “weapon” and “diplomacy”.

Elsewhere, he said the people should

“hear the voice of the country’s devel-opment”.

The president added boosting the integrity among the religious sects is re-quired, highlighting the importance role of media role in this respect.

“If society is attracted to terrorism and people cherish the voice of the ter-rorists, neither foreign policy nor mili-tary power could provide security,” he pointed out.

‘The country is in new situation’Rouhani went on to say that Iran has

entered a new situation which should be used for progress.

“We are in post-JCPOA and post-sanc-tions situation and we should use this atmosphere and situation and move for-ward,” he noted.

Iran and the 5+1 group - the United States, Britain, France, China and Rus-sia plus Germany - finalized the text of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action JCPOA in Vienna in July 2015 and the deal went into effect in January 2016.

NOVEMBER 6, 2016NOVEMBER 6, 20162I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

N A T I O N

MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

TEHRAN — Vice President Is’haq Jahangiri said on Saturday that Iran

does not tolerate others make “wrong” comments on its territory.

Calling the three Iranian islands of Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Mussa a matter of dispute bears an anti-Iran message, Jahangiri said during a meet-ing with Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekçi in Tehran.

On October 13, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his counterparts from the six Arab countries of the Persian Gulf issued a statement urging Iran to find a peaceful solution to its dispute with the United Arab Emirates over the three islands in the Persian Gulf.

Jahangiri also called on the regional countries to make efforts in line with stabilizing the Middle East

region.Commenting on relations with Turkey, he said, “The

Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey may have different views on some of the regional issues, yet these differenc-

es will never make Iran to leave Turkey alone in counter-ing regional threats and instabilities.”

He also highlighted the necessity of speeding up the process of removing impediments to expansion of economic ties including a removal of hurdles to banking relations.

He added Tehran welcomes presence of Turkish cor-porations given the removal of sanctions against Iran.

For his part, Zeybekçi said his trip to Iran was aimed at developing economic ties.

Expansion of economic relations will be beneficial for both countries, he said.

Iran and Turkey can increase cooperation in various areas such as industry and agriculture, he explained.

Elsewhere, the Turkish economy minister said Daesh is the most dangerous “disease” that can undermine the security of the Islamic world.

Zero tolerance for comments on Iranian territory: VP



TEHRAN — The Arbaeen pil-grimage march has started in

Iran with 6,000 convoys heading toward Karbala, the head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization told ISNA on Saturday.

So far 900,000 people have signed up for the pilgrimage, Saeed Owhadi said, adding that 71 percent of the applicants are male.

The online applicants have increased in number by 40 percent, the official said and estimated that Iran will be welcoming 2 million pilgrims back from Iraq soon.

6,000 Iranian convoys set off to Karbala


Zarif likely to meet Hariri in Lebanon

TEHRAN — The Iranian foreign minister who is planning to travel

to Beirut is likely to meet with the country’s new Prime Minister Saad Hariri, ISNA reported on Sat-urday.

According to the report, besides meeting with President Michel Aoun, Mohammad Javad Zarif will hold talks with his counterpart Gebran Bassil, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berry.

Zarif ’s decision to visit Lebanon was an-nounced on Friday, four days after Aoun was elected president.


Bush sent Blair to Oman for talks with Iran: ex-ambassador

TEHRAN — A former Iranian diplomat has said George W.

Bush during his presidency had proposed talks with Iran.

Nasser Nobar, who served as Iran’s ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987-1992, told Mehr in an interview published on Saturday that during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, then British prime minister Tony Blair had been commissioned for talks with Iran.

“Blair traveled to Oman saying he represented the West for talks and I was chosen by Tehran to go there as negotiator,” he said.


Judiciary chief back from Iraq after signing MOUTEHRAN — Iran’s judiciary chief on Saturday returned to Tehran

after his one-week stay in Iraq.Speaking to reporters upon arrival in Tehran,

Sadeq Amoli Larijani said during the trip a mem-orandum of understanding was signed between Tehran and Baghdad, ILNA reported.

The agreement related to fighting drug traffick-ing and terrorism as well as international and Islam-ic human rights.

He added the two countries also agreed on ed-ucating judiciary staff.


Iran set to mark martyrdom anniversary of Tehrani Moghaddam

TEHRAN — Iran is set to com-memorate the fifth anniversary

of the martyrdom of Major General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, an IRGC officer considered the father of Iran’s missile program.

Tehrani Moghaddam was martyred on No-vember 12, 2011, in a blast at the Alghad-ir missile base at Bid Ganeh, 30 miles away from Tehran. 16 others were also martyred in the blast.

Tehrani Moghaddam founded Iran’s long-range missile program and designed the Shahab, Ghadr and Sejjil missiles with an operational range of more than 1,000 kilometers.


Rouhani calls culture more powerful than gun

TEHRAN — Deputy Foreign Minister Majid

Takhtravanchi said on Saturday Iran and the EU will sit together in Brussels on No-vember 9 for the first time since the con-clusion of the nuclear deal to exchange ideas on human rights, one major sticking point in bilateral ties.

This round of high-level negotiations will be presided by Takhtravanchi and EU deputy foreign policy chief Helga Schmid, ISNA reported.

The human rights debate has increas-ingly emerged as an important compo-nent for stronger ties between the two sides.

In a recent document on the future of relations with post-sanctions Iran, the EU has particularly expressed opposition to Iran’s use of the death penalty as punish-ment for drug traffickers.

“The EU has a long standing policy of opposing capital punishment,” read part of the document.

The death punishment was also a ma-

jor theme of a March report by special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Ahmad Shaheed who called on Tehran to, inter alia, consider a mora-torium on “the use of death penalty.”

Thus far, Iran has not replied formally to the human rights section of the report.

Yet, earlier in October Mohammad Javad Larijani, Iran’s Human Rights Council chief, said the judicial system “may” reconsider capital punishment for drug smugglers, limiting it to drug lords only.

Also, last week Hassan Norouzi, a spokesman with the Iranian Parliament’s Legal and Judicial Committee, an-nounced a motion signed by 76 legisla-tors would be brought to the Majlis in an effort to rethink capital punishment for drug smugglers.

The motion, if passed, will rule out the capital punishment for first-time drug smugglers, many of whom are juveniles.

While the EU strategy document calls for the establishment of working commit-

tees for “a more credible and effective exchange” on a range of issues, including the human rights, Iran’s top judge Aya-tollah Sadegh Larijani has conditioned it on any relevant discussion being bilateral.

“It cannot be that only Iran is questioned,” Larijani said during a speech on August 3 on the oc-casion of Human Rights Day in Iran.

“We have ques-tions for Europe, too.”

From among Iran’s concerns, Larijani cited spread of Islamopho-bia in the

West, a ban on hijab in schools and the taboo status of the Holocaust.

Having said this, Iran and the EU have learnt a lot from the nuclear deal,

where they reached a common un-derstanding after nearly two years.

In fact, they have already been in talks over the human rights issue for years, what the EU forward-looking doc-

ument characterized as a “Critical Dialogue”

(between 1992-1997) and “Com-prehensive Dia-logue” (between 1 9 9 8 - 2 0 0 2 ) , which produced no tangible out-come.

Iran, EU to sit for human rights talks Wednesday

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stronger ties between Iran and the EU.


1 While details of the future co-operation document are unknown, a full membership to the project should not be the case, as Bigot told Reuters in an in-terview in July.

"After that they told us they had a long-standing interest in fusion and they would like to consider how to join the ITER project, but clearly not as a full member," he said.

Full members provide experienced engineers and scientists and substantial financial contributions.

"They felt that full membership is not best for them, but consider asso-ciation in some specific areas or fields where they can contribute. Now it's up to them to make up their mind," Bigot said.

Bigot’s July comments, whoever, are thrown into doubt by Salehi who said Iran

will enter into all-encompassing cooper-ation on the project.

“The project is an executive, technical, and scientific one which demands exten-sive scientific activity. That is why we enter into an all-encompassing cooperation,” he added.

Iran’s participation in the project is an outcome of the nuclear deal it concluded with six world powers in July 2015, for-mally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Under the deal, EU and E3+3 coun-tries and international participants will engage in joint projects with Iran, includ-ing through IAEA technical cooperation projects, in the field of peaceful nucle-ar technology, including nuclear power plants, research reactors, fuel fabrication, agreed joint advanced R&D such as fu-sion.

Iran, ITER sign confidentiality agreement

Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi (L), ITER Director General Bernard Bigot (M), and Iran’s Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari attend a signing ceremony on Saturday in Tehran.

“The project is an executive, technical, and scientific one which demands extensive

scientific activity. That is why we enter into an all-encompassing cooperation,” Salehi says.

Undoubtedly, media and those involved in it are involved in culture and link the public opinion with government and transfer the

government’s view to the people and provide the ground for development.

TEHRAN — Former armed forces chief of staff Hassan Fir-

ouzabadi has said once Daesh attempted to ap-proach the Iranian border it was shot down by Iranian forces.

Speaking to Tasnim in an interview published on Saturday, he said Iran did not shoot down just members of Daesh, but a unit.

“Much of what we have done has not been publicized. But they know well. They have re-alized if they do that again we will shoot them again.”

Iran shot Daesh unit down near border: Firouzabadi


Turkey orders arrest of nine newspaper staff, detains more pro-Kurdish officials

Turkish authorities ordered the formal arrest of nine staff members of a leading opposition newspaper on Satur-day and detained more pro-Kurdish officials, widening an anti-terrorism probe that has drawn condemnation from the West.

The arrests, a day after the co-leaders of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP/Halklar?n Demokratik Partisi) were jailed pending trial, are likely to spark more concern among Turkey’s allies about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s intoler-ance of dissent.

More than 110,000 officials, including judges, teach-ers, police and civil servants, have been detained or suspended following a failed coup in July. Erdogan’s critics say he is using the coup as a pretext to squash the opposition. Ankara says the crackdown is necessary to root out terrorists.

Authorities ordered the formal arrest pending trial of nine executives and journalists from the secularist Cum-huriyet newspaper, including the editor and senior staff of the paper, broadcaster NTV and other media report-ed. They had been detained since Monday.

In addition, nine HDP officials, including some pro-vincial and district heads, were detained in the south-eastern province of Adana, a party official said.

The HDP, Turkey’s third-largest party, made history last year by becoming the first Kurdish-rooted party to win the 10 percent of the vote required to enter parlia-ment.

Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party ( AKP/Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi) accuse the HDP of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK/Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê), which has carried out a vi-olent insurgency in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast for three decades. The HDP denies direct links and says it is working for a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish conflict.

NATO memberOn Friday, the co-leaders of the HDP, Selahattin

Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, were jailed pending trial after being held in overnight raids. Ten other HDP law-makers were also detained, although some were later released.

The arrests heightened concern among Western allies about the political direction of Turkey, a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) member and a buffer between Europe and the conflicts raging in Syria and Iraq.

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said she was “extremely worried” by the ar-rests, and raised her concerns in a telephone call with Turkey’s foreign and EU affairs ministers late on Friday. The United States expressed “deep concern”.

News of the arrests also shook financial markets on Friday, with the lira currency falling to a record low.

Hours after the detentions on Friday, a car bomb killed 10 people and wounded more than 100 near a police station in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir where some of the lawmakers were being held.

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorists later claimed responsibility for the attack, ac-cording to the terrorist group’s Amaq news agency.

Critical mediaIstanbul prosecutors have said staff at the paper, one

of few media outlets still critical of President Erdogan, are suspected of committing crimes on behalf of Kurdish militants and the network of United States-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Turkey accuses Gulen of orchestrating the coup attempt, though he denies any involvement.

Cumhuriyet’s previous editor, Can Dundar, was jailed last year for publishing state secrets involving Turkey’s support for Syrian rebels. The case sparked censure from rights groups and Western governments worried about worsening human rights in Turkey under Erdogan.

Additionally, 170 newspapers, magazines, television stations and news agencies have been shut down, leaving 2,500 journalists unemployed, Turkey’s journalists’ association said in a statement protesting against Monday’s detentions.

Water cannon & Tear gas against protestersElsewhere, Turkish police used water cannon and tear

gas against crowds of protesters in Istanbul on Saturday, a Reuters cameraman at the scene said, in an attempt to block them from marching to the office of an opposition newspaper whose staff had been arrested.

The protest in central Istanbul came hours after Turk-ish authorities ordered the formal arrest of nine staff members of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper and detained more pro-Kurdish officials, widening an an-ti-terrorism probe that has drawn condemnation from the West. On Friday the co-leaders of the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP were also jailed pending trial.

Tear gas filled some streets in the Sisli neighborhood of Istanbul, another Reuters reporter near the scene said, while police helicopters were heard buzzing over-head.

(Source: Reuters)

NOVEMBER 6, 2016NOVEMBER 6, 2016 INTERNATIONAL 3I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

The Clinton Foundation has confirmed it accepted a $1 million gift from Qatar while Hillary Clinton was the United States sec-retary of state without informing the State Department, even though she had prom-ised to let the agency review new or sig-nificantly increased support from foreign governments.

Qatari officials pledged the money in 2011 to mark the 65th birthday of Bill Clin-ton, Hillary Clinton’s husband, and sought to meet the former U.S. president in person the following year to present him the check, ac-cording to an email from a foundation offi-cial to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta. The email, among thousands hacked from Podesta’s account, was published last month by WikiLeaks.

Clinton signed an ethics agreement gov-erning her family’s globe-straddling founda-tion in order to become secretary of state in 2009. The agreement was designed to increase transparency to avoid appearances that U.S. foreign policy could be swayed by wealthy donors.

If a new foreign government wished to donate or if an existing foreign-government donor, such as Qatar, wanted to “increase materially” its support of ongoing programs, Clinton promised that the State Depart-ment’s ethics official would be notified and given a chance to raise any concerns.

Clinton Foundation officials last month declined to confirm the Qatar donation. In response to additional questions, a founda-tion spokesman, Brian Cookstra, this week said that it accepted the $1 million gift from Qatar, but this did not amount to a “mate-rial increase” in the Persian Gulf country’s support for the charity. Cookstra declined

to say whether Qatari officials received their requested meeting with Bill Clinton.

Officials at Qatar’s embassy in Washing-ton and in its Council of Ministers in the cap-ital, Doha, declined to discuss the donation.

The State Department has said it has no record of the foundation submitting the Qatar gift for review, and that it was incumbent on the foundation to notify the department about donations that needed attention. A department spokeswoman did not respond to additional questions about the donation.

According to the foundation’s website, which lists donors in broad categories by cumulative amounts donated, Qatar’s gov-ernment has directly given a total of be-tween $1 million and $5 million over the

years.The Clinton Foundation has said it would

no longer accept money from foreign gov-ernments if Clinton is elected president and would spin off those programs that are de-pendent on foreign governments.

Foundation officials told Reuters last year that they did not always comply with central provisions of the agreement with President Barack Obama’s administration, blaming oversights in some cases.

At least eight other countries besides Qatar gave new or increased funding to the foundation, in most cases to fund its health project, without the State Department be-ing informed, according to foundation and agency records. They include Algeria, which gave for the first time in 2010, and Britain,

which nearly tripled its support for the foun-dation’s health project to $11.2 million be-tween 2009 and 2012.

Foundation officials have said some of those donations, including Algeria, were oversights and should have been flagged, while others, such as Britain increase, did not qualify as material increases.

The foundation has declined to describe what sort of increase in funding by a foreign government would have triggered notifi-cation of the State Department for review. Cookstra said the agreement was designed to “allow foreign funding for critical Clinton Foundation programs” to continue without disruption.

The State Department said it has no re-cord of being asked by the foundation to review any increases in support by a foreign government.

In another email released by WikiLeaks, a former Clinton Foundation fundraiser said he raised more than $21 million in connec-tion with Bill Clinton’s 65th birthday in 2011.

Spokesmen for Hillary Clinton’s cam-paign and Bill Clinton did not respond to emailed questions about the donation.

Republican presidential candidate Don-ald Trump has said that major donors to the Clinton Foundation may have obtained fa-vored access to Clinton’s State Department, but has provided little evidence to that ef-fect. Clinton and her staff have dismissed this accusation as a political smear.

Last month, New York Attorney Gener-al Eric Schneiderman ordered the Donald J. Trump Foundation to stop fundraising in the state, saying it had not registered to solicit donations.

(Source: Reuters)

Clinton’s charity confirms Qatar’s $1 million gift while she was at State Dept.

Dozens of civilians have lost their lives since foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants launched an offensive against the govern-ment-held part of the Syrian city of Aleppo more than a week ago, a Britain-based monitoring group says.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Saturday that 74 civilians, including 25 children, have been killed since Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (Front for the Conquest of the Levant), previously known as al-Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nu?ra), and so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) mil-itants launched counter-attacks against government soldiers and their allied forces to break a months-long siege on the eastern part of Aleppo, located some 355 kilometers north of the capital, Damascus, on October 28.

The group went on to say that three civilians were also killed in the militant-held eastern Aleppo during the mentioned pe-riod.

The report comes as Takfiri militants are employing heavy and indiscriminate shelling in their assault on the govern-ment-held part of Aleppo, leaving dozens of civilians killed and wounded.

Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city and the country’s industri-al and financial center, remains divided between government forces in the west and foreign-backed terrorists in the east, making it a frontline battleground.

On September 22, Syria announced the start of a new mil-itary operation in Aleppo aimed at driving out the terrorists.

The Syrian army campaign came three days after a week-long truce, brokered by Russia and the United States, came to an end across the crisis-stricken country.

The Damascus government refused to extend the deal after the so-called U.S.-led coalition, which is purportedly fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorists, violated the agreement by hitting a Syrian military base near the eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr, leaving more than 80 Syrian troops dead and some 100 others wounded.

Meanwhile, Syrian Air Force fighter jets struck terrorists’ positions in al-Jeneh, al- Mansurah, Dahret Abed Rabbouh, Khan al-Assal, al-Rashidin and Orum al-Kobra villages in the countryside outside Aleppo on Saturday, killing and wounding scores of Takfiris.

Syrian warplanes also pounded the positions of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and ISIL terrorists in the towns of Taybat al-Imam and Mourek as well as the villages of al-Lataminah and Latmin in the central province of Hama.

An unnamed military source told Syria’s official news agen-cy, SANA that a large number of militants were killed and their machinegun-equipped vehicles destroyed in the process.

Elsewhere in the Dara’a al-Balad district of Dara’a, located about 90 kilometers south of Damascus, several terrorists were

killed when Syrian army units shelled their hideouts in the area.The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which started in

March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 peo-ple, according to an estimate by United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.

Syrian forces gain ground near Damascus, mili-tant shelling wounds 2 Russian troops, Syrian journalist

Elsewhere, Syrian government forces have killed dozens of foreign-backed militants across the country in anti-terror oper-ations, including one that fully liberated an area on the outskirts of the capital Damascus.

Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing an unnamed mil-itary source, reported that, army units established full control over al-Taqi Mosque and its surrounding area to the north of Khan al-Shih Farms near Damascus, and killed a number of terrorists and destroyed their weapons in the process.

The Syrian forces also managed to destroy a command center and a 150-meter long tunnel used by terrorists to car-ry out attacks in Jobar neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital.

Syrian army warplanes also carried out airstrikes against terrorists’ positions in Khan Touman southwest of Aleppo, kill-ing dozens of them. The government forces also thwarted a militant attack in the vicinity of Minian village to the west of city, destroying two bomb-laden cars and killing several other militants.

The Syrian jets also pounded terrorists’ positions in al-Rastan, Deir Ful, Abu al-Tababaer and Khan al-Surah near the western city of Homs, destroying a number of their vehicles. The Syrian ground troops also foiled an ISIL strike near Unq al-Hawa village, some 73 kilometers east of Homs, killing a number of terrorists and inflicting injuries on some others.

Elsewhere in the countryside of the western city of Hama, Syrian army airstrikes left a large number of militants dead and destroyed some of their vehicles. The Syrian soldiers had raid-ed a weapons warehouse used by the militants in the southern parts of the city, seizing a large cache of ammunition and poi-sonous agents.

The army units also destroyed a command center of the Takfiri Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch for-merly known as al-Nusra Front, in the southwestern town of Yadoudah in Dara’a province, and killing a number of the ter-rorists.

Humanitarian pause starts in AleppoMeanwhile, Russia and Syria have started observing a uni-

lateral humanitarian pause in Aleppo to give civilians and mili-tants another chance to leave the city.

The 10-hour-long truce took effect at 0700 GMT on Fri-

day, the second such temporary truce announced in the city by Russia and Syria.

Drones filmed roadways and crossing points designated for the withdrawal of militants. Two corridors will remain open for the militants to leave eastern Aleppo and six others are re-served for civilians there.

A similar, three-day humanitarian pause ended last month. Moscow said on Thursday Russia and Syria were giving the ceasefire another try in an attempt to “prevent senseless casu-alties.”

Foreign-backed militants, however, have ignored the ges-ture and used the pause to launch one of their most ferocious offensives last week in order to break an army siege in eastern Aleppo.

Rocket fire on government-held districts killed at least 15 people on Thursday, bringing civilian toll in the area in recent days to 70, according to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, has said the militants had intentionally killed scores of ci-vilians in the west of the city.

Russian troopsIn another event, foreign-backed militants have fired rock-

ets at a humanitarian corridor established by Syria and Russia in Aleppo, wounding two Russian troops and a Syrian journalist.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the shelling targeted the western part of the key Castello Road in Aleppo during a uni-lateral humanitarian ceasefire.

The 10-hour-long truce took effect at 0700 GMT on Fri-day, the second such temporary truce announced in the city by Russia and Syria.

The corridor attacked by the militants was one of a total of eight passageways established to allow civilians and militants not affiliated to terrorist groups to leave Aleppo’s militant-held east.

The journalist wounded in the Friday shelling worked for the Syrian state TV.

The ministry said that around 50 representatives of Russian, Western and Arab media had to be evacuated from the area and online monitoring of the humanitarian corridor had to be temporarily suspended because of the shelling.

Syria’s state news agency (SANA) said the militants sought to prevent civilians from leaving by shelling the corridor, the second time they did so in the past month.

One Aleppo resident who managed to leave said people inside were being prevented from leaving the city by the ter-rorist groups of Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, for-merly known as al-Nusra Front.

(Source: agencies)

Militant offensive on Aleppo kills 74 Syrians in 8 days

Police use water cannon, tear gas against protesters

Three United States troops were killed in a shooting attack outside a Jordanian train-ing facility on Friday, a U.S. official said, fol-lowing earlier reports that one or two U.S. personnel were dead.

“A total of three U.S. service members died today in the incident in Jordan,” the official said. “Initial reports were that one was killed, two injured. The two injured service members were transported to a hospital in Amman, where they died.”

“The service members were in vehi-cles approaching the gate of a Jordanian military training facility, where they came under small arms fire,” the official added.

“We are working with the Jordanian government to gather additional details

about what happened.”The shooting took place at the gate of

the Prince Faisal airbase in al-Jafr, south-ern Jordan, when the car carrying the U.S. trainers failed to stop, the Jordanian army said, adding that a Jordanian officer was also wounded.

Jordan, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, is a member of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) in neighboring Syria and Iraq.

U.S. forces have trained a small group of vetted Syrian rebels in Jordan, and American instructors have trained Iraqi and Palestinian security forces in Jordan as well over the past few years.

The White House said on Friday it would work with Jordan to determine the circumstances that led to the shooting deaths of three U.S. military trainers.

“The United States is quite interested in getting to the bottom of what exactly occurred. Our expectation is that the gov-ernment and military officials in Jordan will assist us in that investigation,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

Friday’s incident comes almost a year after a Jordanian policeman shot dead two US instructors, a South African and two Jordanians at a police training center east of Amman, before being gunned down.

Washington said at the time that the two Americans killed in the November 9,

2015 shooting were employees of the pri-vate firm DynCorp contracted by the State Department to train Palestinian forces.

Two other Americans were wounded in that incident, which sparked concern in Washington and was condemned by the U.S. embassy.

Last year, the U.S. announced its inten-tion to increase overall assistance to Jor-dan from $660m to $1bn annually for the 2015-2017 period.

A government source told AFP that military training is provided at al-Jafr air-base by instructors of various nationalities, including Americans, to participants from different countries.

(Source: agencies)

Three U.S. troops killed in shooting at Jordan airbase

4I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

E C O N O M Y NOVEMBER 6, NOVEMBER 6, 20162016

Iran sells crude oil at $47.41 per barrel in a week

Iran, Turkey determined to boost economic ties

TEHRAN — In a meeting on Sat-

urday, Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi and Turkish Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekçi stressed the need for expansion of economic ties between the two countries, IRNA reported.

During the event, Vaezi, who is also the chairman of Iran-Turkey Joint Eco-nomic Committee, said Iran is willing to boost the trade turnover between the two countries up to $30 billion.

He went on saying that the two

sides are determined to increase the level of economic relations and a series of talks have been held in this regard.

The Turkish minister for his part ex-pressed hope to increase the number of items in the preferential trade list be-tween the two countries to 200.

“The two sides have decided to in-crease the number of items in prefer-ential trade list and we hope the final list will be approval and signed by the end of this year” he said.

Zeybekçi arrived in Tehran on Friday on the head of a high-ranking Turkish economic delegation.

TEHRAN — Iran sold its light crude oil

at $47.41 per barrel in the week ended on October 28, with $1.03 drop from its previous week, Shana news agency re-ported.

Iran’ light oil price stood at $39.72 on average since the start of this calendar year (March 20, 2016).

The country also sold its heavy crude oil at $46.27 per barrel in the mentioned week, with 96 cents fall from its preced-ing week.

Iran’ heavy oil price stood at $37.66 on average since the start of current cal-

endar year.Meanwhile, with a 98 cent drop from

its preceding week, Organization of Pe-troleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s basket price reached $47.44 per barrel in the week ended on October 28.

After major oil producers’ meeting in Algiers on September 28, which ended in a preliminary accord on capping OPEC members’ oil production level, crude oil prices have experienced an increase.

As predicted, in case of a final deal to freeze oil output, international oil prices would surpass $50 and will swing up to $60.

TEHRAN — National Iranian Oil Com-pany (NIOC) and Polish state owned oil

and gas company, PGNiG (Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo), signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Saturday, based on which the polish company will conduct primary studies on Iran’s Sumar oil field in the Iranian western province of Kermanshah, Shana reported.

The MOU was signed in Tehran by Gholamreza Man-ouchehri, the deputy managing director of NIOC for de-velopment and engineering affairs, and Piotr Wozniak, the managing director of PGNiG.

According to Manouchehri, the Polish side should con-duct the studies and provide the results to NIOC within a six-month period.

The final decision for development of the field will be made after obtaining the results of studies; NIOC intends to put the development project on tender, the official stated.

Iran, Poland sign MOU on oilfield study

ECONOMYd e s k

ECONOMYd e s k

ECONOMYd e s k

Brexit ruling could cause Britain to drag its feet, muddying EU plans

European Union officials, feeling exasperated on Friday by the court ruling that imperiled Prime Minister Theresa May’s strategy to exit the bloc, have gone from pleading with Britain

to stay to wanting it out — fast.The ruling by Britain’s High Court — that she must gain Parlia-

ment’s approval to begin the process of withdrawal from the Eu-ropean Union, or Brexit — raised the possibility that negotiations could drag on far past Mrs. May’s deadline of the end of March.

That poses problems not only for the British prime minister but also for the political establishment on the Continent, where, among other things, France and Germany are heading toward important elections, with populist parties gaining strength.

The High Court ruling also is a reminder of the fragility of the European Union, which seemingly is buffeted by an existential threat every other week. Last week, it was Wallonia’s nearly killing a trade deal with Canada. Next month, it is a constitutional referendum in Italy.

The European Union was already struggling with a witches’ brew of problems: low economic growth; high joblessness; uncertainty in the eurozone, with Greece again in economic difficulties and ques-tions about the soundness of Italian banks; a crackdown in Turkey; and an aggressive Russia. Immigration from the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan, seemingly under control earlier this year, is on the rise once again.

Looming over all of this are the growing populist, nationalist and far-right movements in core European Union countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands, not to speak of newer members like Hungary and Poland.

Nor has faith in the European Union been helped by recent em-barrassments, like the hangup on the trade deal with Canada. That led Peter Ziga, the Slovak economy minister, to wonder, “If we don’t agree with Canada, with whom will we agree?”

Cecilia Malmstrom, the bloc’s trade commissioner, went further, saying with a smile, “If we can’t make it with Canada, I’m not sure we can make it with the U.K.”

The European Union found a way to buy off the Walloons, a tac-tic it often relies on when under great pressure. But few think lurch-ing from crisis to crisis without addressing fundamental problems is any way to manage an alliance of 28 nations that share important aspects of sovereignty including, for 19 of them, a single currency.

And then there is the vexed, complicated problem of Britain and its exit after more than 40 years, which few European countries ei-ther expected or wanted. Like the guest at a party who overstays his welcome, Britain and its internal psychodrama are getting on the nerves of its European partners, who fear further economic and political uncertainty to add to the already unhappy mix.

The British government and the ruling Conservative Party are deeply divided about what kind of relationship they want with the European Union, apparently having forgotten that the other 27 na-tions must unanimously agree to any new deal, and what Britain wants is not entirely the point.

The frustration for Brussels is that it cannot force Britain to act. It has to wait for the government to trigger Article 50, which begins a two-year negotiating period for exit. While many European lead-ers had wanted Article 50 to be invoked immediately after Britons voted to leave on June 23, they agreed to the March timetable.

That remains Mrs. May’s stated goal. But the High Court decision — which the government is appealing to the Supreme Court — has created the potential for months more delay, as well as the prospect that Parliament might lay down negotiating parameters that could make the talks even more difficult.

Mrs. May’s few public statements imply that she is leaning to-ward a “hard Brexit,” emphasizing control over immigration and Brit-ain’s borders, even if that forces the country to leave Europe’s single market and hurts the economy. But the pro-European forces who make up a majority in Parliament, emboldened by the court ruling, may now have the means to soften her stance enough to keep Britain in the single market.

That would mean compromising on immigration, which is anathema to hard-line supporters of Brexit in her party and right-wing nationalists. The haggling could go on for some time.

On Friday, in telephone calls with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, Mrs. May said she was confident she would meet the March deadline and that the government would win in the Supreme Court, which will hear the case in early December.

But not everyone is so sure, and the timing matters. The bloc’s leaders want Britain out before elections for the European Parlia-ment, scheduled for 2019, and to allow for planning a new Euro-pean Union budget.

As a measure of Britain’s febrile political mood, the largely right-wing British press, which mostly supports Mrs. May, attacked the three High Court judges for being “out of touch” and seeking to undermine the popular referendum in favor of Brexit. One paper, the popular and often rabid Daily Mail, had a huge headline under photographs of the judges, reading, “Enemies of the People.”

Even the more staid Daily Telegraph headlined its front page: “The judges versus the people.” With that was a front-page column by Nigel Farage, the leader of the pro-Brexit U.K. Independence Party, saying that the court ruling means that “a great betrayal is underway.”

Even though Mr. Farage and the “Leave” camp won the referen-dum handily, 52 percent to 48 percent, many, like him, are obsessed with the idea that Mrs. May is feigning support for Brexit and that the government, Parliament, the judges and “the elite” will betray the more than 17 million voters who wanted out of the European Union.

It is an obvious irony that one prime reason they had for sup-porting Brexit was to restore the full sovereignty of Parliament, a stance taken by the judges, too, but inconveniently now, because it might slow down Britain’s exit.

Mrs. May also faced criticism from another front on Friday, when a Conservative member of Parliament, Stephen Phillips, who sup-ported Brexit but has accused her government of trying to sideline Parliament, resigned his seat.

With a small majority in Parliament, Mrs. May is being urged by some, including The Times of London, to call an early election to win her own mandate and increase her majority at a time when the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties are weak.

She has vowed not to have an election before its scheduled date of 2020, but if Parliament creates too many difficulties and delays for her, she may have no choice. (Source: New York Times)

By Steven Erlanger

Gholamreza Manouchehri (L), the deputy managing director of National Iranian Oil Company for development and engineering affairs, and Piotr Wozniak, the managing director of Polish oil & gas company PGNiG, shaking hand in the MOU signing ceremony in Tehran (Photo: SHANA/ Narges Mokhtar)

Greek economy will grow 2% in 2017, while 2016 will

end with zero growth The growth rate of the Greek economy in the second half of 2016 will probably be positive, resulting in zero at the end of the year, according to a European Bank for Recon-struction and Development report.

The report, called Regional Economic Prospects in EBRD Countries of Operations, says that in 2017 the Greek gross domestic product growth rate will reach 2%.

“The Greek economy contracted 0.7% year on year in the first half of 2016, partly due to base results from the increase in consumer spending in the first half of 2015,” EBRD says, adding, “An encouraging sign this year is the positive contribution of fixed capital investment to growth, while other components of the national accounts like pri-vate consumption, public consumption and net exports, moved downward again.”

Early indications are that 2016 will be another record year for tourism, with international arrivals at the main airports in the first nine months of the year showing a rise of 7.6% annually. The business confidence also increased gradually, helped by the government’s progress in completion of the prerequisites of the economic adjustment program for the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the EBRD report says.

“As a result, economic growth is likely to be positive in the second half of 2016, giving zero growth for the full year,” the report says.

“For 2017, the outlook is more favorable, but the contin-uing capital controls (although they have eased some in re-cent months), further fiscal consolidation measures and the weaknesses in the financial sector, where non-performing loans remain important, will likely contain the growth rate to 2%,” the report further says.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

Kuwait launches foreign bond sale to finance deficit

Kuwait will issue billions of dollars worth of bonds in international markets to finance a budget deficit result-ing from low oil prices, a report said Saturday.

Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh said Kuwait will is-sue U.S. dollar-denominated sovereign bonds of up to $9.6 billion during the 2016/2017 fiscal year which ends March 31, Al-Qabas newspaper reported.

This comes on top of a $6.6 billion domestic debt program which is already underway.

Kuwait, like other energy-rich Persian Gulf Cooper-ation Council (PGCC) states, has already taken on tens of billions of dollars in foreign debt to finance budget shortfalls.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and United Arab Emir-ates have sold bonds or took syndicated loans to plug their deficits.

The minister ’s decree did not specify the share of Islamic sukuk bonds in the planned issue.

It will be the country’s first foreign debt in around two decades.

Kuwait recorded a budget deficit of $15 billion last fiscal year, breaking a 16-year run of surpluses.

(Source: worldbulletin.net)

ADVERTISEMENTNOVEMBER 6, 2016NOVEMBER 6, 2016 5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y


INTERNATIONAL

The U.S. election matters as much to the world as it does to Americans. The overriding reason is that an immense and present danger hangs over multilateralism and the notion of a rules-based global order. A Donald Trump victory would immediately make the world more worrying and unsettled than it already is. The U.S. may no longer be seen as the world hegemon, whether benign or threatening, but it is still the single most important power. Its behavior has unique potential to either make solutions possible or to add to areas of chaos. A Trump presidency would be bad for the U.S. and dangerous for the world. A vote for Hillary Clinton is the most effective way of preventing it.

Domestic politics and the clash of personalities have dominated this campaign. But the little that Trump has said is enough to know where the foreign policy risks and promises lie in the 8 November vote. A Trump victory would severely damage U.S. standing almost everywhere. His strongman antics are a liability, not an asset. They are as distressing as they are ridiculous. Clinton has a reputation for a hawkish outlook, but this will be tempered by war-weary public opinion in the U.S. She recognizes that in the 21st century, U.S. power has more chances of attaining goals if it acts inclusively, and not with go-it-alone reckless tactics. She has already applied much of this as secretary of state – playing a key role in pushing a new relationship with Cuba and managing the complex U.S. relationship with China. A Clinton presidency should rely on soft power in a smart way, a philosophy she touched upon in her Democratic convention speech this summer. She should pay close attention to climate change, development and working out fairer global trade arrangements. The U.S. should also take the lead on

international justice by signing up to the international criminal court – and Clinton has expressed “great regret” about Washington’s refusal to join.

There are questions that Clinton’s team, should they enter the White House, need to resolve. She’s revealed precious little of what she’d do about Afghanistan, a 14-year war that president Obama pledged to end, but

that is still grinding on. If she sits behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office she will have to work out what to do with the dozens of inmates remaining in Guantanamo Bay. When she talks of an intelligence surge, there are concerns about what this means for the spying powers of the National Security Agency. Clinton is a politician with the experience to tackle these matters. Trump is not.

He is more interested in pandering to dictators than in holding them accountable for crimes. He’s spoken in favor of torture. His approach to trade is in line with his approach to immigration – the building of walls. He has portrayed global warming as a hoax. Clinton can be trusted with the nuclear button. Trump cannot. A Trump presidency would be a leap into the unknown. His bigotry, his love of weapons, his impulsiveness and his America first-ism are all dangers. His victory would likely lead to more, not less, global confrontation.

The burning crises of the Middle East

The most pressing issues are the burning crises of the Middle East. These will continue to hinder a U.S. “rebalancing” to Asia. There are no easy answers here. Clinton may want to put as much emphasis on protecting civilians as on combating ISIL – she has spoken of creating a no-fly zone in Syria, a proposal that carries too much risk. She will have to search for better leverage in the region; heftier diplomacy that perhaps includes coercion through sanctions.

For Europe the stakes are high. Clinton is concerned about the old continent’s prospects. Trump plays on American isolationism – he supported Brexit and cares little for transatlantic security guarantees. Global governance is under increased strain. Geopolitical competition is rife. U.S. leadership has a key role to play. Clinton helped turn the page on the disastrous George W Bush era. The diplomatic accomplishments of the past eight years should not be minimized. Neither Bush nor Obama could have anticipated the crises that befell them once they reached office. How a president reacts matters greatly. On this count alone Clinton deserves to be elected.

(Source: The Guardian)

Clinton has a reputation for a hawkish outlook, but this will be tempered by

war-weary public opinion in the U.S. She recognizes that in the 21st century, U.S.

power has more chances of attaining goals if it acts inclusively, and not with go-it-

alone reckless tactics.

Hillary Clinton is the world’s best hopeSouth Korea’s metastasizing crisisSouth Korea’s President Park Geun-hye is embroiled in a lurid corruption scandal that threatens to hamstring her remaining year in office. The scandal has plunged Park’s approval ratings to record lows, sent thousands of angry demonstrators into the streets, and sparked demands that she resign.

The scandal involves Choi Soon-sil, a close friend of Ms. Park’s family. Ms. Choi’s father, Choi Tae-min, the founder of an obscure religious sect, was a spiritual adviser to Ms. Park’s father, the South Korean Park Chung-hee, and to Ms. Park after her mother was assassinated in 1974. After Mr. Choi’s death in 1994, his daughter took over her father’s role at Ms. Park’s side. In that capacity, Ms. Choi, — who has never held

a government job, has no security clearance and no policy background — was apparently deeply involved in state affairs. She also apparently used her influence to coerce companies into donating nearly $70 million to two foundations she controlled, and to secure her daughter admission at one of South Korea’s most prestigious universities. Last Wednesday, South Korean prosecutors said they would bring criminal charges against Ms. Choi.

When she was elected in 2012, Ms. Park promised that she would end the corruption that has long plagued South Korea’s political leadership, saying: “I have no child to inherit my properties. You, the people, are my only family, and to make you happy is the reason I do politics.” She also pledged to tackle growing economic inequality, rein in South Korea’s powerful chaebol, or family-controlled conglomerates, and improve relations with North Korea.

It is hard to see how Ms. Park can accomplish any of this now. Her term in office will end in February 2018, and she faces fierce resistance from opposition parties that constitute a majority in South Korea’s Parliament. Last Wednesday, Ms. Park replaced her prime minister and two other cabinet ministers, but opposition lawmakers vowed they would not approve the new appointments.

Though Ms. Park admitted in a televised speech last week that she shared “certain documents” with Ms. Choi and apologized to the South Korean people, she refused to allow prosecutors to search aides’ offices in the presidential offices.

(Source: nytimes)

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The former secretary of state has the experience to tackle pressing challenges. A Donald Trump victory would be dangerous for everyone

A N A L Y S I SNOVEMBER 6, NOVEMBER 6, 20162016 7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

S eyed Hossein Naghavi Hosseini of Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission read the

full text of Report by JCPOA Supervising Committee on Parliament open session on Sunday 30 October.

The report, a 15-page document, and drafted in several parts and sub-sections, is a report of the latest developments in JCPOA implementation by Iran and P5+1 countries. Iran’s section enumerates the achievements secured by the nuclear ne-gotiators. It also lists the cases where con-cessions had been made; the report on EU addresses EU’s share of commitments where there has been some progress. However, in the US part, it criticizes the country for breaching promises.

Iran’s commitment include the follow-ing, where Iran had been fully complied with the obligations JCPOA stipulates:

1- Measures to prove transparency; in-cluding but not limited to preparing and communicating to the IAEA of long-term statement of enrichment and Research and Development activities, statement of country’s 8 nuclear sites and facili-ties, statements of construction and pro-duction of any sort in nuclear industry, statement of construction and produc-tion activities of the Additional Protocol; statements of mines and manufacturing activities of enrichment, data on storing material, complementary data on nuclear material exempted by the JCPOA of Addi-tional Protocol provisions, a statement of a 10-year plan and other current private sector research and development;

2- Removing of calandria of Arak heavy water 40-mW power plant and filling with concrete to rule out further development;

3- Cutting the number of active cen-trifuges in Natanz facility of 19,000 cen-trifuges to current 5060 centrifuges, with SWU of IR1 in 30 cascades of 168 centri-fuges each; dismantling of surplus number of centrifuges, stipulating that if any single centrifuge stops working, new centrifuges would replace;

4- Fully stopping of enrichment of ura-nium above 3.67 per cent purity;

5- Decreasing in Fordow facility of 3,000 centrifuges to 1044 centrifuges in 6 cascades in one wing and removing addi-tional centrifuges from the facility;

6- Ending injection of UF6 gas to re-maining 1044 centrifuges and keeping centrifuges in standby position without further activity;

7- Changing the application of Fordow facility to R&D center to produce stable isotopes with cooperation of Russia;

8- Exchanging or selling of the uranium enriched with yellow cake and to receive the same amount of yellow cake;

9- Volunteer Implementation of Addi-tional Protocol;

The report then turns to achievements by Iran during the implementation of the JCPOA:

1- Securing the accord of the P5+1 in redesigning of Arak heavy water facility and converting it to a 20-mW heavy water reactor according to the latest international standards of safety and storing of fuel rods of metallic uranium of the past activities, under the supervision of the IAEA;

2- Keeping active heavy water produc-tion in Arak facility and selling of surplus heavy water in global markets;

3- Continuing to enrich uranium up to purity of 3.67 per cent with limitation that it should not exceed 300kg per annum;

4- Keeping R&D program and extending of mechanical testing of IR2, IR4, IR5, IR6, IR7, and IR8 machines, with single machine of IR5 receiving injection of UF6 along with 10 centrifuge chain of IR6;

5- Fully addressing and solving the Pos-sible Military Dimensions and its interna-tional consequences;

6- Preparing the international mentality for broader and more recognized nuclear cooperation with international participa-tion.

The report admits that during the im-plementation of JCPOA, some part of the P5+1 commitments had been realized in-cluding notably cancelling UN seven man-datory resolutions, namely, 1696 (2006), 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008), 1835 (2008), 1929 (2010) and 2224 (2015), with sanctions panel and committee having been resolved (which provisioned by Arti-cle 18 of the JCPOA).

It also says that the sanctions related to IAEA had been resolved, along with US secondary sanctions.

According to the report, the US has is-sued general permissions in line with its commitments in the JCPOA which made possible participation and investment by Iranian nationals in American firms; how-ever, this permission is stalled in more technical glitches, as it interfere with the workings of primary nuclear-related sanc-tions, thus depriving it from full usefulness for Iranian entrepreneurs. The US also permits selling of foods and fruits by Ira-nian nationals to American importers and making payment accordingly.

On the EU part of the sanctions, the report states that the EU had approved Decision 37 on the day of the JCPOA im-

plementation, which officially puts into ef-fect the removal of financial and economic sanctions according to Decision 1863. Ac-cording to the Decision, the EU financial and economic sanctions on Iran would re-move articles of Council Regulation (EU) 2015/1861 amending Regulation (EU) No 267/2012 concerning restrictive measures against Iran.

The report also accounts for other sanctions targeting private citizens and institutions related to Iran’s nuclear pro-gram; 606 individuals and firms along with 303 planes, oil tankers, and ships had been removed from the US and the EU lists of sanctions. It also adds that the Islamic Republic of Iran had held sessions with France, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Hungary, and Czech Republic on nuclear safety and other issues.

On oil and gas, Iran’s economy had been enjoying more easing of the sanc-tions according to the report; Iran’s oil in the global market has increasingly found customers; its exports reached 2 million barrels per day ten months after the im-plementation day from ludicrously low 970,000 barrels per day in which was a record low in the second quarter of 2013. On marine and shipping industries, Iran’s fleet and shipping and oil tanker com-panies were also removed from the list of sanctions and found opportunities to normal activities. They had been receiv-ing legal permits for ships and interna-tional insurance companies had started to provide insurance coverage, with Iranian ports now frequented with international cargo ships.

The EU has contributed to Iran’s oil and energy industry through removing sanctions. These include: 1. Improved oil production and export capacities and im-provements in gas condensate and other petrochemical production; 2. A general movement forward to addressing coun-try’s issues in marine transportation; 3. Reduced risk in Iran’s credit conditions; 4. Receiving of overdue debts from interna-tional partners and improved economic conditions; 5. Cancellation of the US res-olutions under Chapter 7 of the Charter ; 6. Resolving of PMD of Iran’s nuclear pro-gram; and 7. International recognition of Iran’s nuclear rights.

In insurance sector, notably Iran’s oil tankers enjoyed services by P&I Club of Risk Managers in the US (a prestigious in-surance holding). Now, risk inherent to oil and energy, and air industries are covered by European insurance companies.

In banking sector however, the pro-gress has been slow, with small banks pi-oneering opening transactions with Iran’s financial sector, with larger bank hesitat-ingly awaiting further inspection of the situation. Iran’s frozen assets have large-ly been transferable to domestic banks; however, problems still persist in currency change and sanctions not related to nu-clear program still restrict Iran’s financial transactions with the world.

In an important part, the report turns to the US breach of promise in keeping its sanctions and adding to previous sanc-tions which the report believed was in line with the US animosity toward the Islamic

Establishment; according to the report, the US has been waging efforts to keep sanctions, through its dominance over in-ternational financial systems and the fear that US supervisory and punitive meas-ures would be a nemesis for any banks cooperating with Iran. On international insurance, the coverage still has to be completed. The US, the report reads, “has continued and perpetuated sanctions on Iran’s abilities to transfer money and has deprived Iran of capacity to trade in dol-lar, with subsequent problems hitting the financial sector.”

The report laments that still sanctions bite Iran’s banking and financial sector, where the effectiveness of the JCPOA im-plementation has been subject to public suspicion as well as government officials voicing discontent that JCPOA has not brought concrete outcomes to the gen-eral public. Despite the alleviations of some sanctions by Office of Foreign As-sets Control (OFAC), the general empha-sis on documents is on ‘strict compliance with sanctions against Iran.’ This poses challenges which the international bank-ing system and individual banks should deal with. The European banks are large-ly reluctant to work with Iranian financial sector, with US punitive measures loom-ing around. Even if they receive guaran-tees from the US Treasury, there remains the fear that the elites in financial sector of the US provide very different interpre-tations of the law, thus implicating the EU banks in illicit financial activities with Iran which are subject to sanctions. OFAC is the major body to issue necessary finan-cial permits, however, it has largely avoid-ed issuing more comprehensive permits

and usually has been terse on questions posed by the EU banks. The overall situa-tion is far from satisfactory.

The report also states that in are-as where removal of sanctions provided modicum of hope, yet other sorts of sanc-tion under diverse pretexts had persisted to bite Iran’s economy. On the day of im-plementation of JCPOA, the US added some 11 Iranian legal and real individuals. Most controversial of the new restrictions was Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act by the US congress which largely restricts entry to the US of individuals visiting Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Sudan beginning March 2011, and these individuals should apply for US visa to come to the country. It large-ly affects EU individuals swarming Iran as tourists or trade delegations and is in line with Iranophobic sentiments promoted in the US to hit the influx of investments to Iran. In April 20, 2016, the US Supreme Court approved the court verdict that the victims of terrorists where Iran had been implicated, would file for reimbursements provided by Iran’s frozen assets in the US banks. This is outright expropriation of Iranian assets and was condemned by Tehran as a hostile measure which would exacerbate the already tense relations.

Barack Obama signed Continuation of the National Emergency with respect to Iran on March 9, 2016 which extended sanctions approved in March 15, 1995. This was in great contradiction with im-plementation of the JCPOA in January 16, 2016. In April 2016, Mark Toner, the Deputy Department Spokesperson told reporters about a decision by the Admin-istration not to allow Iran to trade in dol-lar. In April 14, 2016, the US government presented the Congress with its 40th Hu-man Rights Report, which as usual, had levelled unfounded human rights charges on Iran. Josh Earnest, the White House spokesperson accused Iran of supporting terrorism. The US government has delayed issuing permissions for Boeing and Airbus in selling planes to Iran which violates the JCPOA provisions.

The report concludes with some rec-ommendations to the government which includes reconstruction of the Arak heavy water facility. “The government is respon-sible to strictly watch any violations of the JCPOA provisions in returning sanctions or putting new sanctions by any member of the P5+1 to initiate possible retaliatory measures or to stop volunteer coopera-tion and implementation of the Additional Protocol and to return to situation before sanctions as rapidly as possible,” it reads. “During 3 years, such retaliatory measures should increase the enrichment capacity to 190,000 SWO (predicted by the Leader during negotiations); the Supreme National Security Council will be responsible to pur-sue the issue; the government also would provide the Council with a 4-month plan for approval.”

“The IAEA inspections should comply with the international regulations and country’s expediencies set by the SNSC; the govern-ment should closely watch the process to strictly protect the classified information and nuclear secrets especially in military and se-curity grounds; the amount of cooperation with the IAEA should hinge upon the protec-tive measures to protect Iran’s information from third-party access; any access for the IAEA to military individuals and centers is not allowed. Exceptions are where the SNSC ap-proves such isolated cases requested by the IAEA,” it concludes.

By Samad Habibi

In banking sector however, the progress has been slow, with small banks pioneering opening transactions with Iran’s financial sector, with

larger bank hesitatingly awaiting further inspection of the situation.

According to the report, the US has been waging efforts to keep sanctions, through its dominance

over international financial systems and the fear that US supervisory and punitive measures would be a nemesis for any banks cooperating

with Iran

The report laments that still sanctions bite Iran’s banking and financial sector, where the effectiveness

of the JCPOA implementation has been subject to public suspicion as well as government officials voicing discontent that JCPOA has not brought

concrete outcomes to the general public.

Parl. JCPOA Supervising Committee releases report


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Is walking as good a workout as running?There are many reasons why people

start running: Busting stress, boost-ing energy, or snagging that tread-

mill next to a longtime gym crush are just a few. What's more, running can keep your heart healthy, improve your mood, stave off sickness, and aid in weight loss. But depending on your personal goals, going full speed isn't the only route to good health.

Now walk (or run?) it outWhile walking can provide many of

the same health benefits associated with running, a growing body of re-search suggests running may be best for weight loss. Perhaps unsurprisingly, people expend 2.5 times more energy running than walking, whether that's on the track or treadmill. Translation: For a 160-pound person, running 8 mph would burn over 800 calories per hour compared to about 300 calories walk-ing at 3.5 mph.

And when equal amounts of energy were expended (meaning walkers spent more time exercising), one study found runners still lost more weight. In this study, not only did the runners begin with lower weights than the walkers; they also had a better chance of maintaining their BMI and waist circumference.

Plus, running may regulate appetite hormones better than walking. In another study, after running or walking, par-ticipants were invited to a buffet, where walkers consumed about 50 calories more than they had burned and runners ate almost 200 calories fewer than they'd burned. Researchers think this may have

to do with runners' increased levels of the hormone peptide YY, which may suppress appetite.

But aside from weight loss, walking has definite pros. Researchers looked at data from the National Runners’ Health Study and the National Walkers’ Health Study and found that people who ex-pended the same amount of calories saw many of the same health benefits.

Regardless of whether they were walk-ing or running, individuals saw a re-duced risk of hypertension, high cho-lesterol, diabetes, and improved better cardiovascular health.

And running does have downsides: It puts more stress on the body and in-creases the risk for injuries like runner's knee, hamstring strains, and shin splits (which plague even the most consistent

runners). Your action plan

When running isn't in the cards, walking with added weight might be your next best bet for an effective work-out. Research shows that walking on the treadmill while wearing a weighted vest can increase the metabolic costs and relative exercise intensity. Similarly, increasing the incline on the treadmill makes for a more effective walking workout. A study showed that walking at a slow speed (1.7 mph) on a tread-mill at a six-degree incline can be an effective weight management strategy for obese individuals, and help reduce risk of injury to lower extremity joints. And picking up the pace slightly almost always helps. One study found speed walkers had a decreased risk of mortal-ity over their slower counterparts.

No matter what pace feels right, lis-tening to your body and completing a proper warm-up and cool-down are all ways to prevent injuries. That way you can spend more time running on the treadmill—and less time running to the doctor.

The takeawayRegular cardio (at any speed) is part

of a healthy lifestyle. But, lap for lap, run-ning burns about 2.5 times more calo-ries than walking. Running may also help control appetite, so runners may lose more weight than walkers no matter how far the walkers go. Still, running isn't for everyone, and going full-speed might in-crease injury risk. Adding weights or an incline can help pick up the intensity while maintaining a slower pace.

(Source: verywell.com)

5 ways to eat less saltYour body needs a little bit of salt every day for the sodium it contains. But too much sodium can boost blood pressure and stress the heart and blood vessels. The low-sodium Di-etary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet is high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; moderately high in nuts and low-fat dairy products; and low in red and processed meats. Following it can lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

The DASH diet is a good way to eat healthy. But there's no need to follow that specific diet to get measurable results. If you want to tackle cutting back on sodium, try these six tips:

Choose unprocessed or minimally processed foods. Canned, processed, and frozen foods are

often loaded with added salt.

Read labels and choose lower-sodium products. When you do buy processed foods, choose items

where the sodium content is less than or equal to the calories per serving.

Know where hidden sodium lurks. Some of the highest-sodium foods that are common in the

American diet include: pepperoni pizza, white bread, pro-cessed cheese, hot dogs, spaghetti with sauce, ham, ketchup, cooked rice, and flour tortillas. Make these items a small part of your diet.

When eating out, keep an eye on salt content. Some chain and fast-food restaurant items can top

5,000 to 6,000 milligrams of sodium per serving — about four times the healthy daily limit. Downsize your portions by skipping the super-size or sharing a dish, or try to find the lower-sodium choices (many franchises have nutritional in-formation on their websites). When eating out, ask that your dish be prepared with less salt.

Use your sodium "budget" wisely. Rather than spending your sodium allowance on salty snacks

and heavily processed foods, use small amounts of salt to en-hance the flavor of produce, whole grains, nuts and legumes, and other healthy ingredients. (Source: health.harvard.edu)

HEALTH & MEDICINENOVEMBER 6, NOVEMBER 6, 20162016 9I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Running may also help control appetite, so runners may lose more weight than walkers no

matter how far the walkers go. Still, running isn’t for everyone, and going full-speed might

increase injury risk.

The one thing we should always do, as long as we are breathing, is to look for ways to grow and maximize our potential.

Here are five ways to improve your life for tomorrow.Get connected with your whyConnecting with your why will help you to

increase your energy levels, think more clearly and be able to overcome adversity and setbacks. Your why is the reason you do what you do on a daily basis. It excites you so you can barely sit still. When you discover your life's purpose, your why, your life will never be the same again. There is no greater advantage than getting con-nected with your why.

Take your health and fitness to the next level

One of the biggest mistakes is putting your health and fitness at the bottom of your priority list. I see it all of the time. People will put making money and getting the promotion ahead of taking care of the one body they will ever carry throughout their lifetimes. Little do they know, working on your health and fitness actually helps you to achieve all of those things and more.

Stop with the made-up story of not having enough time or how it doesn't matter. Your mindset, emotional health, productivity levels and well-being all are boosted when you take your health and fitness to the next level.

Take a gratitude walkI first heard about the gratitude walk from

bestselling author Deepak Chopra. This simple daily practice incorporated into your everyday routine can drastically change your mental and emotional state in an instant.

Whether first thing in the morning, during your lunch

break or in the evening, set aside 20 minutes and walk in your neighborhood, through a park or somewhere in beautiful Mother Nature. As you begin your walk, start to think about all of the things that you are grateful for in your life. Take a deep breath after each acknowledgement and feel the air that is making your life possible at that moment.

It doesn’t matter how big or small, just pay attention to all that you are grateful for while you are on your walk. This is an extremely powerful way to shift your mood and improve your overall quality of life.

Get started on your one game-chang-er goal

When I travel the world, speaking to organizations of all sizes, I encourage audience members to pick one goal that is going to be a complete game changer both personally and professionally -- the goal that will completely change the trajectory of their lives when they achieve it.

When you have this goal set and know exactly what you have to do to reach your mark, you will wake up with a burning desire to be better than you were the day be-fore and maximize your output. Most people may have goals, but very few sit down to take the time to think about their game-changer goal.

Read MINDSET: THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS by Carol Dweck

This is a phenomenal book by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck. It provides decades worth of research on how powerful our minds truly are and what separates those that achieve greatness and those that don’t. It has nothing to do with talent. From children to business lead-ers, I encourage everyone to read this book and rediscover the power of your mind and how to make it work to your advan-tage. Our goal every day should be to improve and enhance the quality of our lives. It's my hope that these five things will help you do just that. (Source: entrepreneur.com)

5 ways to improve your life for tomorrow

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By Katie Golde

Why the FDA wants to know how much Nutella you scoop out of the jarThe Food and Drug Administration considers Nutella a des-sert topping, as Angela Chen, who writes for the Verge points out, but its manufacturer wants the FDA to put it in the same category as honey, jam, jelly, fruit butter and molasses or to create a separate classification for a nut-based cocoa spread.

Why would you care? “The main difference,” Chen says, “is that the serving size on the food label for jam is one ta-blespoon, while the serving size for dessert topping is two tablespoons.”

If you glance at the Nutella label, you’ll see “200 calories.” That’s for two tablespoons, the serving size for a dessert topping.

“If Nutella were reclassified as a ‘jam,’ its food label would say that it has 100 calories per tablespoon,” Chen writes, “and that could make people think it’s healthier than it is. People are already bad at reading food labels. . . . We often don’t keep track of how much we eat and are easily tricked by a small number next to the ‘calorie’ box — which is exactly what would happen in this case.”

The FDA is seeking public comment. You have until Jan. 3 to tell the agency whether you consider a normal serving of Nutella to be one tablespoon or two.

And if you’d like a little background, consider this: The spread was created in postwar Italy by the Ferrero family of candy fame. It was originally shaped in a loaf so it could be cut to fit nicely on a slice of bread. In 1964, it was put in a jar and named Nutella. And today? The company says that the amount of Nutella produced in a year weighs as much as the Empire State Building. That’s a lot of tablespoons.

(Source: washingtonpost.com)

One of the biggest mistakes is putting your health and fitness at the bottom of your priority list. People

will put making money and getting the promotion ahead

of taking care of the one body they will ever carry

throughout their lifetimes. Little do they know, working

on your health and fitness actually helps you to achieve all of those things and more.

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By Matt Mayberry

R O U N D T H E G L O B E

Meh

r/Am

in B

eren

jkar

T O U R I S Md e s k

T O U R I S Md e s k

10I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

HERITAGE & TOURISM NOVEMBER 6, NOVEMBER 6, 20162016

The Arg-e Karim Khan is an immense

brick fortress that has dominated the southern city of Shiraz since the 18th century.

Part of a historical complex, the Arg is named after the founder of Zand Dynasty Mohammad Karim Khan Zand who ruled Iran from 1751 to 1779 and selected Shiraz as his capital.

The massive walls of the citadel feature ornamental brickwork designs in particular on the four circular tow-er-like structures punctuating each of its corners.

However, the southeastern tower generally catches the eyes of the pas-sersby due to its noticeable lean, hav-ing subsided into a concealed cistern which once supplied the bathhouse of the Arg.

Walking inside, one encounters a typ-ical design of the Persian garden that in-terweaves different fields of knowledge such as water management and engi-neering, architecture, botany and agri-culture.

The citadel was used to be a prison for a while in the 20th century, howev-er the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization has turned it into a museum showcasing aspects of Zand-era Iran.

It also features a variety of wax figures and effigies representing the king, his courtiers and some others who are clad in traditional outfits.

Frescos embellishing the walls and ceilings, well –furnished rooms along with rich architecture of the interior contribute to the charm of the place.

Here is a select of comments that vis-itors to the historic fortress have posted to TripAdvisor, one of the most popular

travel websites in the world: “The leaning tower of Shiraz”

Sorry to say, but this old fortress and former prison is more interesting viewed from the outside, so if you are short of time and/or money - just shoot it from the corner, where the pictur-esque tower leans heavily as its sister in Pisa, Italy. (Mogeltoft from Denmark, visited July 2016)

“Inspiration for the ‘Tower

of Pisa’ ”Have a looking at the leaning tower

on the Southern side of the Citadel and you'll be strongly reminded of the lean-ing tower of Pisa in Italy. Fantastic mud-brick architecture, well worth a visit inside. (Markus U. from Austria, visited Septem-ber 2016)

“Impressive walls suggest a fort”The impressive walls suggest a fort but

in fact they are just for show and inside

was a residence. Nothing much to see in-side. (Martin W. from France, visited Oc-tober 2016)

“Center of attractions”A standout attraction in Shiraz that

you won't miss. Inside it, however, is nothing much to bode. Most interesting area is actually the bath hall. Beautiful and quite technologically advance for its time. (Chai T. from Thailand, visited October 2016)

My beloved British friends! It has been 25 years since I threw that goodbye party in Brixton, com-

plete with saffron-laden rice dishes, to bid you farewell before I returned to Iran. You were the cast of my life from the day I arrived as a homesick 12-year-old. From schoolgirl, to undergraduate, to London-er, you were at my side…

You will need to organize a visa and travel through a tour operator though, since Britons can’t get a visa at the door, unlike many other nationalities. But that is easily done, so many Britons and Amer-icans are visiting these days – and from Monday British Airways has daily flights to Tehran from London.

We can’t possibly see everything Iran has to offer in one visit, but let me take you south to the cities of central Iran, veering off the tourist map here and there…

TehranThe capital. This is where you’ll get a

chance to see, first-hand, the Iran you know from news bulletins. The wall murals often seen in stock media images are a great way to step into the recent history of the place.

Having explored the political veneer of the city, we’ll head to Golestan Palace in the heart of old Tehran. Here, Nas-sereddin Shah, the 19th-century Qajar king, introduced photography to Iran and practiced his hobby taking pictures of the mustachioed women of his harem. The palace has an impressive archive of Irani-an photography, thanks to him.

By now you’ll be hungry, so we’ll take a short walk to the entrance of the Grand Bazaar, the bustling hub of commercial ac-tivity. You can find almost anything here, but we are stopping for the famous lunch at Moslem restaurant. We’ll queue to get into this congested delight, but it’s worth it: it serves the best tah-chin in town. Por-tions of saffron and yogurt rice, served with chicken and barberries, easily feed two Ira-nians – and we know how to eat!

Moving on, we will go find Tehran’s buzz-ing art scene, where the young and the hip spend Friday afternoons gallery-hopping. New galleries around town are helping re-generate the old center of Tehran…

KashanMany Iranians like to go north to take in

the Caspian Sea’s lush vegetation and hu-mid climate. But most foreign visitors go south to see the historic cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Yazd. We’ll start in Kashan, the gateway city to the central desert region and will stay at Manouchehri House (dou-bles from £70), a 19th-century property, now a boutique hotel, renovated even as

the country was experiencing the worst of the sanctions….

In Kashan we’ll also visit the Agha Bo-zorgi seminary, the only mosque in Iran with a sunken garden. Before we turn away from the city, we’ll visit Fin Garden too, which had the dubious honor of housing Amir Kabir, one of Iran’s mod-ernising prime ministers in exile. He was killed in the bath house. To lighten the mood, we’ll grab a kebab, sitting on beds alfresco, at Gholam’s Kebab House before hitting the motorway towards Yazd.

On the way to YazdThere can be stops at any town that

takes your fancy as we travel along the edge of Dasht-e Kavir, one of Iran’s two central deserts. There are significant historical sites in Natanz, Naeen and Ardestan, the latter home to a mosque built on the remains of a Zoroastrian fire temple dating from 1158. There’s also the Moon Qanat, an ancient double-tier aq-ueduct. The underground irrigation sys-tem associated with it dates from 1,000BC, and is an early technological wonder that brought water to Persia’s many arid cit-ies, employing a system of underground wells and canals…

Camping in Dasht-e KavirBefore getting to Yazd, we’ll make a

detour to join an off-road group to camp amid the desert dunes, where the land-

scape is spectacular and the unexpected flora otherworldly…

Everyone brings their own 4WD vehi-cle (spare seats are shared around). We’ll help dig the car out of soft sand as we traverse the dunes, and pitch camp our-selves – it’s tents and sleeping bags here.

Travelers report that they feel a surge of energy under the desert skies. Walking barefoot in the sand exfoliates your feet but it also cleanses the soul. You certainly come out of the desert feeling lighter…

YazdTo Yazd, the city of wind towers, which

suck the hot desert air down on to a shal-low pool of water and cool the house. One of these has been recreated in a wonderland mall in Dubai but here, in Dowlatabad Garden, we can see the tall-est functioning wind tower in the world. No other city in Iran has been preserved so meticulously by its residents, who have resisted the lure of building the classical pastiche high-rises so beloved of the nouveau riche in Tehran…

Shiraz How can we not visit Shiraz, the gar-

den of Iran and the heart of its poetic soul? Venerated poets Sa’di and Hafez are buried here. Iranians use Hafez’s mystic poetry for divinations, and visit his grave as if on a secular pilgrimage…

The city’s sublime air, laced with the scent

of orange blossom wafting from the many citrus orchards, is legendary. The Shirazi ar-omatic lime is indispensable to our cooking, and is served liberally with faloodeh, the local frozen noodle dessert. The Vakil bazaar is one of the most colorful in the country. The prox-imity of Shiraz to the homelands of nomadic tribes means the place is full of the bright, glittery fabrics favored for traditional clothes…

PersepolisAn hour ’s drive north-east of Shi-

raz is our portal to the ancient past. Persepolis, the ceremonial palace built by the Achaemenid king Darius in 518BC, was a significant site in the Persian Empire.

Our ancient history is sometimes lost in the noise of contemporary politics, but images and words from this era abound in our daily life, serving as the glue that binds the nation. The Achaemenids were expansionists and ruled more than 40% of the then known world, but the fact that the palace was built by hired hands and not slaves marks the Achaemenids as progressive for their time…

Next morning, on our way to Isfahan, we’ll stop at Pasargad, the Tomb of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Em-pire and the first king of Iranians…

Isfahan Isfahan should always be the last city

on any travel itinerary in Iran. OK, I’m biased (it is my home town) but this tru-ly is the jewel in the crown. Most of what we’ll see was built by Shah Abbas in the 17th century, when his capital was es-tablished here. The magnificent Nagh-she Jahan Square, with its turquoise domes, and palace of Alighapou, po-sitioned around an old polo field, are wondrous and you’ll want to see them again and again…

Finally, a major feature of Isfahan is the river, along the banks of which Isfahanis go to take the air. There are a number of old bridges here, from the plain-brick Si-o-se pol with its 33 arches, to the Kha-ju bridge with its decorative motifs and tiles, where the king would sit to enjoy the sound of water falling over special-ly designed steps. Nowadays, the river runs dry most of the year, but that hasn’t stopped Isfahanis continuing to use its banks in their leisure time.

Staying in the Abbasi hotel (doubles from £130 B&B) is a must. The old car-avanserai has been converted into pos-sibly the most beautiful hotel Iran has to offer. The quince-laden trees and the dome of the Chaharbagh seminary vis-ible in the garden make this a magical end to your stay. But only if you come!

(Source: The Guardians)

Centuries-old Arg-e Karim Khan still stands tall

Germany’s most monstrous castle Monsters, mad scientists and macabre experiments may be what’s evoked when someone says “Frankenstein”, but the German name has a history stretching back centuries before Mary Shelley wrote her famous novel.

With “Frank” being an ancient Germanic tribe and “Stein” meaning stone, many places in Germany share this moniker. But the place most associated with Shel-ley’s novel is Castle Frankenstein, seated 400m above the Rhine Valley within the Odenwald, a tree-lined mountain range in southern Germany. Overlooking the city of Darmstadt, the 13th-century hilltop castle has long been shrouded in folklore and myth.

Alchemy and anatomy at workNo resident was more notorious than Johann Conrad

Dippel. Born in the castle in 1673, he eventually became its official alchemist. Dippel dabbled in elixirs and exper-iments seeking the secret to immortality.

Frequently experimenting with animal cadavers, he created “Dippel’s Oil” made of a distillation of horns, blood, leather and ivory. He claimed the black concoc-tion was the “elixir of life” and could be used to cure everything from epilepsy to the common cold.

The ruins behind the literary legendRumours persist that the Brothers Grimm shared Dip-

pel’s dark history with Shelley’s stepmother, who was an English translator of fairy tales. Shelley herself was travel-ling through the Rhine region near the castle in 1814, four years before Frankenstein was published, but she never claimed the castle or Dippel as a direct inspiration.

This hasn’t stopped visitors to the castle from im-mersing themselves in the legend. (Source: BBC)

Iran holiday guide: from Tehran to Isfahan and beyondBy Haleh Anvari

Oman cuts visa fees for seafaring Iranians

TEHRAN — Oman has lessened visa fees by about 50 percent for Iranians trave-

ling to the country through the new cruise route which was launched in September, IRIB reported on Thursday.

The route, connecting the Iranian port city of Bandar Ab-bas, Hormozgan Province, to the Omani port city of Khasab, would contribute to a boom in tourism ties between the two countries, Mohsen Ziai, the director of Hormozgan Province’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Department, said.

The cruise route was launched in line with the goal of wid-ening bilateral cooperation in the areas of economy, trade, politics, and tourism.

Back in July, another marine route started linking Khasab to Qeshm Island in Iran. It takes passengers one hour and a half of sailing.

The distance between Khasab and Bandar Abbas is ap-proximately 113 km.

A passenger ship departs from Bandar Abbas neighboring the Persian Gulf in an undated photo.

Many Iranians like to go north to take in the Caspian Sea’s lush vegetation and humid climate.

But most foreign visitors go south to see the historic cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Yazd.

The Agha Bozorg Mosque in Kashan, central Iran. (Photo: Getty Images)

Thailand still expects 32.4 million tourist arrivals this yearThailand still expects to reach its forecast of 32.4 million visi-tors this year, the tourism and sports minister said on Friday, a target that was revised lower in early October.

The military government declared a year-long period of mourning to mark the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej who died on Oct. 13 at the age of 88, after 70 years on the throne. It advised festivities be curtailed for the first 30 days of the king’s death, although it also urged businesses to stay active.

Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul told reporters that visitor arrivals rose 1.8 percent in October from a year earlier, or about 1.9 million.

“Visitor numbers in October were still positive but there were five days missing and we will get them later,” she said, noting the preliminary data captured only 26 days.

“For the whole year, we still expect to achieve our 32 mil-lion target. But I don’t want you to focus on the numbers but rather on revenue,” she said.

Tourism accounts for about 10 percent of Thailand’s GDP, and the industry has been a rare bright spot for an economy that has struggled to gain traction since the army seized power in May 2014 to end political unrest. The country’s exports and domestic consumption have both been stubbornly sluggish. (Source: Reuters)

An undated photo depicts passersby looking at Arg-e Karim Khan, the 18th-century immense fortress dominating downtown Shiraz in southern Iran.

The China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC), one of the world’s largest train manufacturers, recently announced that it had begun work on a new type of magnetic levitation train that will able to achieve a top speed of 373 mph (600 km/hr), which is faster than any other train currently in operation.

According to Smart Rail World (citing a report by the Chinese press agency Xinhua), the state-owned company has started building a three-mile track on which to test out this maglev train.

The firm is also working on a more modest 124mph maglev train, with the goal of “establishing domestic technology and standard systems for new-generation medium- and high-speed maglev transportation that can be applied globally,” Sun Bangcheng, a CRRC official, told Xinhua.

China’s high-speed rail network is the world’s largest, with over 12,400 miles of track already built, funded with $538 billion in government money. In recent years, train operators from around the world have been chasing faster and faster speeds.

Long tracksLast year, a maglev train in Japan

reached a speed of 366 mph, breaking a

world record that had stood for 12 years. But the train won’t be ready for commer-cial use until 2027, due to the concerns about the infrastructure and costs to build the long tracks.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai Maglev is currently the world’s fastest commercially operational train, routinely zipping back and forth between the city and Pudong International Airport at 267 mph.

Maglev trains are able to reach such dizzying speeds by swapping out the traditional fitted-wheels-on-track design for a magnetically powered cushion of air. Electromagnets simultaneously pull the train from the front and push it from the rear.

Diesel-powered trainsThe costs of constructions are

astronomically more than traditional diesel-powered trains, but maglev is more sustainable and faster, which is why China is so bullish.

CRRC is not just building high-speed rail projects in China. The company is also spearheading projects in the UK, Australia, Southeast Asia, Iran, Mexico, Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia, and Russia. Noticeably absent from that list is the U.S., which is still struggling to get its own high-speed rail network off the ground.

For what it’s worth, the U.S. Air Force holds the world speed record for maglev at 633 mph. Earlier this year, a rocket-powered sled covered a distance equal to seven football fields in about two seconds. It’s unclear how long this current record will stand, though, as the 846th Test Squadron say its engineers are already back to the drawing board looking for ways to go even faster.

(Source: The Verge)

China’s high-speed rail network is the world’s largest, with over 12,400 miles of track already built, funded with $538 billion in government money. In recent years, train operators from around the world

have been chasing faster and faster speeds.

Get ready for November’s big supermoonNovember might be known as a dreary month when we set back the clocks, but it will also feature a special full moon, and it’s coming up soon.

The full moon on November 14 will look like an extra-bright spotlight in the sky — that’s because it will be a notable “supermoon” that won’t be this close to Earth again for another 18 years.

In fact, the last time it looked this big was 1948, according to Space.com.

The moon only appears full from Earth when our planet is between the sun and the moon. But since the moon’s orbit has an elliptical shape, sometimes it is closer to Earth than other times.

Astronomers call the c l o s e s t- t o - t h e - E a r t h moment the perigee.

What makes November 14 special is that the moon “becomes full within about two hours of perigee — arguably making it an extra-super moon,” NASA explained.

This year actually has three supermoons. Besides Novem-ber’s, there was one on October 16 and will be another on December 14, although neither are as close as this month’s.

The November 14 supermoon is not only the closest full moon of the century so far, it won’t be matched until 2034. So if you miss this one, mark your calendar for November 25 of that year.

(Source: BGR)

Herbivorous mammals have bigger belliesWhat do enormous dinosaurs have in common with tiny shrews? They are both four-legged vertebrates, otherwise known as tetrapods. In the course of evolution, tetrapods de-veloped various body shapes and sizes -- from the mouse to the dinosaur -- to adapt to different environments. Their feeding habits range from pure herbivory to fierce carnivory, and their body structure reflects this feeding diversity.

As plants are usually more difficult to digest than meat, herbivores are thought to need larger guts and more voluminous bellies. Nevertheless, this hypothesis had never been tested scientifically.

A European team of researchers headed by the University of Zurich and the Technical University Berlin has now stud-ied the shape of the ribcage in more than 120 tetrapods -- from prehistoric times up to the present day. With the aid of photogrammetry and computer imaging techniques, the scientists produced a 3D database for skeletons of dinosaurs, reptiles, birds, mammals and fossil synapsids (mammal-like reptiles). Using the computer-based visual evaluation of this data, they reconstructed the volume of the body cavity, which is delineated by the spinal column, the ribcage and the pelvis.

On average, herbivorous mammals have a body cavity that is twice as big as carnivores of a similar body size. “This is clear evidence that plant-eating mammals actually have larger guts,” explains Marcus Clauss, a professor of comparative digestive physiology in wild animals at UZH. Far more surprising, however, is the fact that this pattern is not evident among the remaining tetrapods. “We were amazed that there wasn’t even the slightest indication of a difference between herbivores and carnivores in dinosaurs,” explains the first author. Numerous fossilized species were examined in the study - from the earliest amphibians to the largest herbivorous dinosaurs and mammoths.

(Source: EurekAlert)

Hundreds of millions of songbirds are disappearingYou might think that what happened to the passenger pi-geon couldn’t happen today. We know better than to allow a species with a population in the billions to dwindle away to nothing over the course of a few decades, don’t we?

Sadly, no. In fact, it’s not just one species this time. It’s an entire world of migratory songbirds — turtledoves, skylarks, cerulean warblers, wood thrushes, yellow-breasted buntings, and many more — on flyways touching every continent.

The sort of industrial-scale hunting that wiped out the passenger pigeons a century ago is once again part of the story: For instance, a study early this year estimated that hunters and trappers, mostly in the eastern Mediterranean, are illegally taking 11 million to 36 million birds each year for food, the pet trade, and sport.

Likewise, hunting of entire flocks in China has caused a 90 percent decline in populations of yellow-breasted buntings, once common across Eurasia but now more easily found on the dinner plates of the nouveaux riches.

But while the scale of this needless killing is shocking, the bigger problem for migratory birds, according to a new anal-ysis published in the journal Science, is less sensational but even harder to address — “land-use changes and connected habitat degradation and loss.”

Franz Bairlein, director of the Institute of Avian Research in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, set out to write his analysis for Science, he said in an interview, when he realized that the headline-making study of killings did little to explain the steep migratory songbird declines in Western Europe. Those birds travel the western flyway back and forth to West Africa, largely bypassing the areas where hunting of songbirds is a major problem. And yet when Europeans walk out the door these days, they hear or see an estimated 421 million fewer birds than in 1980.

(Source: takepart.com)

S C I E N C ENOVEMBER 6, 2016NOVEMBER 6, 2016 11I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

In 2005, New York City officials discovered Asian long-horned beetles in Central Park elms. To combat these pernicious pests, which can destroy entire forests, park personnel sprayed insecticides known as neonicotinoids on tens of thousands of trees infested by that beetle and another invasive pest, known as the emerald ash borer.

The treatment worked, but the spraying had an unforeseen effect: It led to an explosion of spider mites. These tiny arachnids, which weave small webs and puncture holes in plants to feed, sickened the trees, many of which began to drop their leaves.

This dilemma was the beginning of a long scientific quest for Texas A&M University agricultural entomologist Ada Szczepaniec. Why, she wondered, would neonicotinoid pesticides such as clothianidin and imidacloprid — which can kill a wide variety of insects — cause a boom in spider mites?

Szczepaniec began to seek the an-swer, in part because neonicotinoid pesticides, which were introduced on a large scale in the 1990s, are now nearly ubiquitous. She says that while they are considered to be safer than older insecticides, concerns about their unintended consequences have gen-erally been downplayed, especially in the United States — though research

shows the chemicals are relatively toxic to bees. For that reason, the European Union has banned several of them.

Spider mitesHer initial work led to a 2011 PLOS

One study that showed elms treated with neonicotinoids — neonics for short—hosted smaller populations of creatures that attack spider mites. Her more important discovery: Mites that fed on treated elm leaves had 40 percent more offspring than those that fed on regular leaves. This suggested the insecticide was doing something unusual to the trees to make them more palatable to the mites.

Next, Szczepaniec turned her atten-tion to agriculture, where she found sim-ilar results in corn, cotton and tomatoes. For all those crops, treated plants fos-tered larger populations of mites.

(Source: NewsWeek)

Dazzling eyelid-like features bursting with stars in galaxy IC 2163 formed from a tsunami of stars and gas triggered by a glancing collision with galaxy NGC 2207 (a portion of its spiral arm is shown on right side of image).

Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered a tsunami of stars and gas that is crashing midway through the disk of a spiral galaxy known as IC 2163. This colossal wave of material - which was triggered when IC 2163 recently sideswiped another spiral galaxy dubbed NGC 2207 - produced dazzling arcs of intense star formation that resemble a pair of eyelids.

“Although galaxy collisions of this type are not uncommon, only a few galaxies with eye-like, or ocular, structures are known to exist,” said Michele Kaufman, an astronomer formerly with The Ohio State University in Columbus and lead author on a paper published today in the Astrophysical Journal.

Galactic eyelidsKaufman and her colleagues note

that the paucity of similar features in the observable universe is likely due to their ephemeral nature. “Galactic eyelids last only a few tens of millions of years, which is incredibly brief in the lifespan of a galaxy. Finding one

in such a newly formed state gives us an exceptional opportunity to study what happens when one galaxy grazes another,” said Kaufman.

The interacting pair of galaxies resides approximately 114 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Canis Major. These galaxies brushed past each other - scraping the edges of their outer spiral arms - in what is likely the first encounter of an eventual merger.

Using ALMA’s remarkable sensitivity and resolution, the astronomers made the most detailed measurements ever of the motion of carbon monoxide gas in the galaxy’s narrow eyelid features. Carbon monoxide is a tracer of molecular gas, which is the fuel for star formation.

(Source: phys.org)

Tsunami of stars and gas produces dazzling eye-shaped feature in galaxy

Widely used pesticides are causing huge spider mite outbreaks

China is building a magnetic levitation train that can go an insane 373 mph

The most leading-edge gearbox produc-tion line in Iran has been inaugurated in an affiliated company of Iran Khodro in-dustrial group.

The line was opened on November 1st in Charkheshgar Company during a cere-mony attended by a number of provincial officials as well as IKCO’s managers.

Established with a three-million-euro investment, Charkeshgar line is expected

to produce JHQ gearbox which is a new generation of integrated manual gearbox.

With its hydraulic Clutch System, JHQ gearbox enables the driver to shift gear easier. The average oil consumption of this gearbox is 0.7 liter below that of pre-vious generation.

With the establishment of the JHQ production line, Iran Khodro is the first company in Iran localizing gearbox

production. The production capacity of Chark-

heshgar line is 300,000 units each year. The company is now capable of export-ing some of its products given their ad-vanced technology and high quality.

The second and third phases of Charkheshgar production line, “localiz-ing gearbox crusts” and “shaft and gears” respectively would be launched in the

future. The line is capable of producing all J-family gearboxes and it’s system is highly automated and infallible.

Charkheshgar Company used to pro-duce gearboxes for diesel-engine vehi-cles and different types of trucks. But re-cently, after in-depth research, the French car manufacturer, Renault, decided to in-vest heavily in the company to produce JHQ gearboxes.

In order to promote its services on Android system and gain satisfaction of customers, Bank Melli Iran (BMI) has launched new services on its mobile and online pack-age, Public Relations Dept. of the bank announced.

In its new version of mobile banking system, direct charging of SIM cards special of IRANCELL and Hamrah Aval as well as e-payment of bills special of organizations and companies as contract parties with the bank have

been activated, the report added. Receiving invoice, statement, announcing the bal-

ance, paying interbank and intra-bank installments, transferring money from one account another and to ATM cards of the bank have been considered as other salient services of the bank.

Of the other packages offered by the bank, it should be referred to offering services based on banking cards

and checks, buying mobile charge codes for all SIM cards of mobile phones, etc.

All these services are accessible without connecting to internet system and only money transfer to SHETAB card will be available via internet. For further informa-tion, customers can refer to the following website ad-dress in order to access new version of mobile bank sys-tem of the bank: www.bmi.ir

National Merited Badge of Management was awarded to the Chief Executive of Bank Shahr Dr. Hossein Mohammad-Pourzarandi, Public Relations Dept. of the bank reported.

In a Congress held for honoring 100 merited managers across the country, the chief executive of the bank was introduced as able and competent director of the country.

The Congress was attended by academic and scientific lecturers, senior officials of the country,

managers of Iranian Specialists’ Group, Iranian Supreme Elites Assembly, Iranian Eternal Figures’ Foundation and also a number of Majlis deputies, etc.

A number of 100 merited and competent managers were appointed according to the indicators such as entrepreneurship, development, innovation, creativity and history of performance.

Accordingly. Dr. Hossein Mohammad-Pourzarandi Chief Executive of Bank Shahr was awarded a merited award by Iranian Specialists’ Group.

Leading-edge Gearbox Production Line in Iran

BMI Launches Two New Banking Services

Bank Shahr Chief Named Competent & Merited Manager in National Level

Every action has

a reaction. We

have one planet;

one chance.

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

S O C I E T Y NOVEMBER 6, 2016NOVEMBER 6, 201612

Madrid poised to restrict cars in city center amid air pollution fearsMadrid’s city council is on the verge of temporarily slashing the number of cars allowed into the city center by half as the Spanish capital struggles with high levels of air pollution.

With levels of nitrogen dioxide rising above permitted lev-els, the city authorities have activated a series of anti-pollu-tion measures, reducing the speed limit on the M30 orbital motorway around the center and banning parking in the area for non-residents. Authorities are also urging people to use public transport wherever possible.

The boina, or beret, of smog that hovers over Madrid prompted the council to introduce a raft of strict traffic proto-cols last year. In mid-November 2015, nitrogen dioxide levels in the city center reached almost double the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

On Tuesday, the council said that although the threshold had been met to enact a measure forbidding 50% of vehicles from entering the center; those with number plates ending in even numbers allowed on even days and those ending in odd ones on odd days.

“However, the Madrid city council asks people not to head into the central area in order to lower the levels of NO2 pollu-tion,” it said in a statement. “As an alternative, we recommend the use of public transport.”

Should nitrogen dioxide levels remain high on Wednes-day, the council will bring in the odd/even ban in Madrid’s seven central districts. Emergency services vehicles are ex-empt from the ban, as, among others, are taxis, zero-emis-sion cars, motorbikes and removal vans.

In March, the WHO warned that outdoor air pollution has risen 8% globally in the past five years, with billions of people around the world now exposed to dangerous air.

Outdoor air pollution causes more than 3m deaths a year more than malaria and HIV/Aids and is now the biggest sin-gle killer in the world. (Source: The Guardian)

TEHRAN — Majid Samii, the eminent

Iranian neurosurgeon and the president of the International Society for Neuro-surgery, inaugurated China International Neuroscience Institute in Beijing on Fri-day.

“To open this institute we started to discuss the matter with the Chinese side in 2002 and after two years we finally reached an agreement and I myself was put in charge to establish this institute,” IRNA quoted Samii as saying in the inau-gural ceremony.

Moreover, an exhibition showcasing works and services done by professor Samii over the past years was held before the ceremony.

China International Neuroscience In-stitute has some 500 beds and 14 opera-tion rooms and teaches some 100 inter-national students annually.

Owing to professor Samii, the center will also administer some special treat-ments which is a big step for China in neurosciences in the world.

Samii has been interacting with Chi-nese medical community for years and he was also awarded with the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award which is the highest award for foreign ex-perts who have made outstanding con-tributions to the country’s economic and social progress in 2007.

He also teaches at China Xuanwu Hospital Capital Medical University.

S O C I E T Yd e s k

IN FOCUS IRNA/Ali Hamed Haghdoust

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People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

Explanation: you should not criticize other peo-ple for having the same faults that you yourself have

For example: Jill: Richard sure was drinking a lot at the office party. Jane: I noticed you had quite a few cocktails yourself. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

Border on something Meaning: to be very close to being something

extreme For example: His confidence bordered on ar-

rogance.

Like the back of one’s hand

Explanation: if you know something like the back of your hand, you are very familiar with it and know it in detail; to know something very well

For example: Of course I won’t get lost. I grew up here I know London like the back of my hand!

ENGLISH PROVERB PHRASAL VERB ENGLISH IDIOM

ENGLISH IN USE

Cooperatives showcasing achievements and potentials at Tehran exhibitAn exhibition on achievements and potentials of cooperatives opened in Tehran on Tuesday.The exhibition will last for four days with 50 pavilions of goods-producing, service producing and handicrafts sectors, IRIB reported.The exhibition aims at promoting commercial and economic growth of the cooperatives, Peyman Babakhanlou who is in charge of organizing the exhibition said. Cooperatives as the most important sector in Iran’s economy are being presented in this exhibition in fields of industry, mining, commerce, agriculture, construction and tourism.

افتتاح نمايشگاه دستاوردها و توانمندى هاى تعاونى ها در تهران

نمايشــگاه دســتاوردها و توانمنــدى هــاى تعاونــى هــا روز ســه شــنبه در تهــران آغــاز بــه كار كــرد.

بــه گــزارش خبرگــزارى صداوســيما در ايــن نمايشــگاه چهــار روزه 50 غرفــه در بخــش هــاى خدماتــى، توليــدى و صنايــع دســتى برپــا شــده اســت.

ــو مســئول برگــزارى ايــن نمايشــگاه گفــت: هــدف از برپايــى ايــن نمايشــگاه پيمــان باباخانلارتقــاى ســطح تجــارى و اقتصــادى در بخــش تعاونــى هاســت. در ايــن نمايشــگاه، توانمنــدى هــاى تعاونــى هــاى كشــور بــه عنــوان مهمتريــن بخــش اقتصــادى ايــران در حــوزه

ــت. ــده اس ــكيل ش ــگرى تش ــاورزى و گردش ــى، كش ــى، بازرگان ــى، عمران صنعتى، معدن

LEARN NEWS TRANSLATIONLEARN NEWS TRANSLATION

Iran’s Samii inaugurates China International Neuroscience Institute

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message on World Tsunami Awareness Day, 5 Novem-ber 2016, said since 1996, 250,900 people have died in 21 countries affected by 30 tsunamis.

The full text of his message reads:Today marks the first observance of World Tsunami

Awareness Day. On this day, in 1854, a Japanese village leader recognized the signs of an approaching tsunami and improvised a remarkably effective early warning sys-tem – he set fire to his rice sheaves, saving the lives of the many villagers who saw the smoke and ran uphill to help put out the flames.

Over the years, early warning systems have grown more sophisticated, particularly since the 2004 Indi-an Ocean tsunami, which claimed nearly 226,000 lives. That tragedy prompted the introduction of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System.

In September this year, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO invited dis-

aster management officials from 24 countries around the Indian Ocean to participate in one of the largest tsunami simulation exercises ever organized. The im-portance of simulation exercises and evacuation drills is underlined in a report released today by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. It highlights that population growth has greatly increased exposure to

tsunamis and other hazards in many regions.Since 1996, 250,900 people have died in 21 countries

affected by 30 tsunamis. Tsunamis also pose a signifi-cant threat to major infrastructure either already built or planned for coastal areas. The significance of this threat was demonstrated in March 2011 by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, which claimed many lives, left many more homeless and triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

World Tsunami Awareness Day serves as a reminder of the importance of reducing current and future lev-els of risk. This should be a clear guiding principle for all those working in the public and private sectors who have to take decisions on major infrastructure projects in seismic zones and near exposed coastlines. Tsunamis may be rare but, like any other natural hazard, if we fail to prepare and raise awareness, then we risk paying a heavy price.

(Source: UNIC)

250,900 people have died in 21 countries affected by 30 tsunamis since 1996

Parts of the Body Sonia: What in the world is that?! Nadir: It’s a life-size figure of George Washington. It’s

for Leon’s school project. Sonia: Then why are you making it? Nadir: I’m not. I’m just helping him. Sonia: Uh-huh. Why does George Washington have really

big hands and flat palms ? Nadir: He cut down the family’s cherry tree. Remember?

He probably needed big hands to do that. Sonia: And why does he have little tiny feet with six toes on

each foot and no ankles ? Nadir: I made a little mistake with those, but they’ll be

covered up with shoes, so no one will see them. Sonia: And why is George’s head shaped like an egg?

His ears are lopsided and his earlobes are dispropor-tionate to his other facial features .

Nadir: That’s why I made the forehead and chin big-ger, so no one will notice those ears. We’ll probably put a hat on him anyway.

Sonia: But his legs look really thin on top and thick on the bottom, with kneecaps that stick out .

Nadir: I’ll put pants on him, so no one will see those either. Sonia: Good thing this isn’t for science class!

(Source: eslpod.com)

Words & phraseslife-size: a picture or model of something or someone

that is life-size is the same size as they really arefigure: a person in a painting or a model of a personpalm: the inside surface of your hand, in which you hold

thingsankle: the joint between your foot and your leglopsided: having one side that is lower or heavier than

the otherearlobe: the soft piece of flesh at the bottom of your eardisproportionate: too much or too little in relation to

something elsefacial feature: a distinguishing element of a face, such as

an eye, nose, or lipsforehead: the part of your face above your eyes and be-

low your hairchin: the front part of your face below your mouthkneecap: the convex bone in front of the knee joint; the

patellastick out: if something sticks out, you notice it because

part of it comes out further than the rest of a surface

Drastic temperature

drop hits western Iran

TEHRAN — Mid-autumn snow

has caught some of cities in the west-ern part of Iran by surprise to the ex-tent that the temperature plummeted to 4 to 6 degrees below zero.

The provinces of Ardebil, Hamedan, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, Ilam, Kerman-shah, and Lorestan have experienced drastic temperature drop over the weekend, Mehr news agency reported.

Additionally, heavy snow in the province of Ardebil last week made of-ficials to shut down schools.

It is predicted that precipitations will start again by Sunday in the western provinces of the country and will last until Monday. Despite early snow fall in some of the provinces of Iran it is pro-jected that the average precipitations would be less compared to the long term indices and the autumn would not be as wet as expected.

S O C I E T Yd e s k

At least 10 people have been killed and 37 others wounded in a series of bomb explosions that ripped through residential neighborhoods in and around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, security and medical officials say.

A security source, speaking on condi-tion of anonymity, said three people lost their lives and nine others sustained injuries when an improvised explosive device went off close to a market popular with mechan-ics in Sheikh Omar neighborhood of cen-tral Baghdad on Saturday.

Other bomb attacks struck the southern al-Obaidi and al-Rashid neighborhoods plus the town of Abu Ghraib, located some 25 kilometers west of Baghdad.

There were no immediate claims of re-sponsibility for the acts of violence. How-ever, Iraqi authorities usually blame such attacks on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says a total of 1,792 Ira-qis were killed and 1,358 others injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in October.

According to the UN mission, the num-ber of civilian fatalities stood at 1,120. Vio-lence also claimed the lives of 672 mem-bers of the Iraqi security forces. A great portion of the fatalities was recorded in the capital province of Baghdad, where 268 ci-vilians were killed.

Iraqi army soldiers and fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units (al-Hashd al-Shaabi) are trying to win back mili-tant-held regions in joint operations.

Iraqi troops push into last town before Mosul

Iraqi troops have pushed into the center of the last town before Mosul where the ISIL terrorists await a final offensive by the army and volunteer forces to drive them out.

Units of the police force on Saturday moved into the town of Hammam al-Al-il which includes a vast territory on the banks of the Tigris River and hoisted the Iraqi flag over buildings.

They also captured six villages near the

town, which is located some 25 kilometers south of Mosul, after launching an offen-sive on Friday.

To the southwest of the city, troops liberated three villages and killed an ISIL commander.

Iraqi police commander Major-Gener-al Thamer al-Husseini said federal police forces had entered the Salahiya district of Hammam al-Alil, adding the town and its surrounding areas will be liberated “with-in hours.”

Elsewhere in the northern city of Kirkuk, 32 members of ISIL terrorist group were killed in two car bomb blasts. The circum-stances of the explosions were not imme-diately clear.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Popular Mobiliza-tion Units forces, liberated three villages west of Mosul.

The development comes as Iraqi army troops, backed by Popular Mobilization Units and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, are closing in on Mosul, ISIL’s last stronghold in Iraq, from almost all directions in a full-scale

operation launched on October 17.On Friday, Iraqi Special Forces

launched an assault to advance deeper into the city’s urban center, and engaged in fierce fighting with ISIL terrorists, es-timated to number between 3,000 and 5,000, in the sprawling city.

The Iraqi troops managed to enter Mosul’s limits earlier this week for the first time since June 2014, when the city fell to ISIL amid a large-scale terror campaign in northern and western Iraq.

So far, a large number of the villages and districts around the city have been purged of the terrorists. Iraqi Prime Minister Haid-er al-Abadi has vowed that the country’s second largest city will be fully recaptured by year-end.

In another development, two roadside bombs struck a convoy carrying Iraqi fam-ilies fleeing ISIL in Mosul late on Friday, kill-ing 18 people.

The incident took place late on Fri-day as the Iraqi citizens from the town of Hawijah, about 120 kilometers south of

Mosul, were being taken to al-Alam, next to the Tigris River.

Police say 17 civilians and one police-man lost their lives in the incident.

Thousands of people have fled Mosul and its surrounding areas since Iraqi forces launched their offensive three weeks ago to liberate the city from ISIL terrorists.

ISIL-run jailMeanwhile, residents of the ISIL-

held Iraqi city of Mosul have managed to storm the city’s main prison and free dozens of inmates amid a major military operation by the Iraqi forces who are tightening the noose around the terror group holed up in the northern city.

Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Sumaria satel-lite television network quoted an unnamed security source as saying that the Mosul residents on Friday evening broke into the city’s main prison, located in the eastern part of Mosul, and freed at least 45 pris-oners after killing all of the ISIL terrorists manning the jail.

(Source: agencies)

WORLD IN FOCUS 13I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Multiple bomb blasts leave ten civilians dead in, around Baghdad

Huma Abedin speaks for first time since latest Weiner scandal, says she is ‘sad’Hillary Clinton’s closest aide Huma Abedin has come out of seclusion for the first time since the email uproar involving estranged husband Anthony Weiner broke last week.

Photographers found her at Union Station in Washington, D.C., and asked how she was feeling.

“Sad,” she replied.FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) agents are still in-

vestigating how Clinton emails ended up on Weiner ’s pri-vate computer.

At the train station, she was asked if Weiner’s “antics could hurt Hillary’s campaign” and if Trump could win.

Abedin did not respond to those particular questions. Abedin was still supporting Clinton at a glitzy private fund-

raiser in the nation’s capital with fashion icons Anna Wintour and Diane Von Furstenberg.

The candidates and their surrogates are in a full sprint to the finish line before Tuesday’s election. They are actually bumping into each other at airports in the battleground states.

Trump Force One was on the runway in Miami, Florida, on Thursday as President Obama’s Air Force One was seen in the background.

In North Carolina, Clinton’s plane was on a runway at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Thursday evening while Trump’s jet was spotted nearby.

(Source: Inside Edition)

Park Geun-hye: South Koreans back on the streetsTens of thousands of South Koreans have taken to the streets of the capital Seoul, calling for President Park Ge-un-hye to step down over a political scandal that has gripped the nation.

The protests on Saturday, expected to draw more than 40,000 people, come after Park addressed the country on Friday, admitting that she had allowed her friend and confi-dante Choi Soon-sil to become too close to the corridors of power and decision-making.

Choi allegedly helped her with political appointments and policy decisions, even though she is a private citizen with-out security clearance. Park apologized for the scandal. She called the controversies that allegedly allowed her confidante to manipulate power as “heartbreaking”.

But thousands of South Koreans are refusing to accept her apology. The main opposition issued a set of demands to Park, including the call for a full investigation by politicians and an independent counsel.

Smaller protests have taken place daily in the past few weeks amid growing calls for Park to step down, although opposition parties have yet to make a serious push for her resignation or impeachment for fears of negatively affecting next year’s presidential election.

Park’s comments on Friday come at what may well prove to be the crucial moment of her presidency. Park is attempt-ing to show the contrition and sense of responsibility that South Koreans demand, while re-establishing her tarnished credibility.

She is in the fourth year of a single five-year term and faced criticism even before this scandal, particularly for the government’s response to a 2014 ferry sinking that killed more than 300 people.

Only Choi has been formally arrested in connection with the scandal.

Prosecutors on Friday requested an arrest warrant for Ahn Jong-beom, a former Park aide, for his alleged involvement in extracting $70 million in donations.

(Source: agencies)

Philippine mayor Rolando Espinosa killed in jailA Philippine mayor President Rodrigo Duterte named as be-ing involved in the illegal drug trade was shot dead in jail on Saturday, police said, the second local official implicated in drugs to be killed in two weeks.

Duterte, 71, won May elections in a landslide victory on a promise to kill tens of thousands of criminals to prevent the Philippines from becoming a narco-state, and has launched an unprecedented war on drugs that has left more than 4,000 people dead.

He had named several local officials, policemen and judg-es as being involved in the narcotics trade and urged them to surrender.

In August, he accused Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of Albuera town in the central island of Leyte, and his son of drug trafficking and demanded they turn themselves in, giv-ing police a “shoot on sight” order if the two resisted arrest.

Espinosa then surrendered to the national police chief, saying he feared for his life, and was arrested last month.

But early on Saturday morning, police said Espinosa was killed in his cell in the provincial jail after he shot at officers during a search for illegal firearms.

“He fired on the raiding team. The raiding team fired back and this led to the mayor’s death,” Chief Inspector Leo Laraga of the regional police told AFP news agency.

He added that another inmate accused of drug trafficking was also killed, after he too fired at the officers.

The national police said that it was investigating the cir-cumstances surrounding Espinosa’s death as well as possible collusion between guards and inmates to get guns and drugs into the jail. Police chief Ronald dela Rosa previously said that Espinosa had been listed in official records as a “drug protec-tor”, whose son Kerwin controlled the narcotics trade in the Albuera region.

Kerwin was arrested in the United Arab Emirates last month and is to return to the Philippines to face drug trafficking charg-es. In August, six of the Espinosas’ supporters died in a gunfight with police outside the mayor’s property in Albuera where of-ficers said they recovered guns and several grenades.

(Source: agencies)

NOVEMBER 6, 2016

A bomb blast in the southeastern Turkish province of Sirnak killed at least two children, local officials said on Saturday.

Four more children were also wounded in the attack, the governor’s office said in a statement, which blamed the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK/Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê) for the explosion.

Earlier on Saturday, authorities appointed a new mayor to the Sirnak municipality.

Turkish authorities have been replacing municipal of-ficials in the mainly Kurdish southeast, accusing them of supporting the PKK.

The government has also stepped up a military cam-paign in the troubled southeast to eradicate PKK fight-ers, who have launched repeated attacks since the rup-ture of a fragile ceasefire last year.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984, with the aim of carving out an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.

ISIL terrorist group claims responsibility for Diyarbakir car bomb

Meantime the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group said on Friday that it was

behind a car bombing that killed nine people in Kurd-ish-dominated southeastern Turkey, according to United States-based monitors.

“An insider source for Amaq Agency: Fighters from the Islamic State (ISIL) detonated an explosives-laden vehicle parked in front of a Turkish police headquar-ters in Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey,” the SITE In-telligence Group said, citing Amaq, which is a name ISIL often uses when claiming responsibility for attacks.

In an audio message released earlier this week, iso-lated ISIL Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi broke a nearly year-long silence to call for attacks against Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia, and for his fighters to hold their ground in their stronghold of Mosul, Iraq.

Ankara has troops stationed at a base just outside Mosul and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s es-calating rhetoric has raised fears of an expanded Turkish military intervention in Iraq.

Turkey views the People’s Protection Units, or YPG (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel?), as an extension of the out-lawed PKK which it initially blamed for the blast outside the police station in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s main majori-ty-Kurdish city.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the PKK had again shown its “ugly face” with the attack.

The attacks came as Turkey jailed the two leaders of the country’s main pro-Kurdish party and 10 of the par-ty’s MPs.

Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, co-lead-ers of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP/Halklar?n Demokratik Partisi), were jailed pending trial after being held in overnight raids, officials said. Ten other of the party’s MPs were also detained, although some were later released.

The arrest of elected members of the Turkish parlia-ment’s third largest party, and the detention or suspen-sion of more than 110,000 officials since a failed coup in July, may “go beyond what is permissible”, the United Nations human rights office said.

The United States expressed deep concern, while Germany and Denmark summoned Turkish diplomats over the Kurdish detentions, and European Parliament President Martin Schulz said the actions “call into ques-tion the basis for the sustainable relationship between the EU and Turkey”.

(Source: agencies)

1 Although Hillary Clinton has not indicated that US-Iran relations are likely to drastically change in coming years, she is less inclined to confront Iran’s regional prowess and legitimate interests in the region. She knows that Iran’s role in reducing some regional tensions is crucial, while also acknowledging some fundamental policy differences with Tehran in certain areas. She might be inclined, however, to turn the heat on Iran by keeping the multifaceted first-order financial

sanctions on banking and trade with Iran. This signals a new layer of complexity for the future of US-Iran relations but not necessarily more complicated troubles to come. Regardless of who the next president is, there exists a unique opportunity to build on the Obama administration’s attempt to engage Iran for the sake of fighting terrorism and promoting stability in the region. Isolating Iran is no longer in the US interests and the Western world more generally. On both prudential and pragmatic grounds,

Hillary Clinton will be a better bet for stability and order in the future relationship between Tehran and Washington.

Mahmood Monshipouri, PhD., is a professor of international relations at San Francisco State University and he is also a visiting professor at UC-Berkeley, teaching Middle Eastern Politics, and editor, most recently, of Information Politics, Protests, and Human Rights in the Digital Age (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016).

1 It is interesting to know that the impact of Persian literature on Malay lan-guage is so deep that many Malay terms come from a Persian root and, more interesting is that many words in Malay trade and business terminology have come from the Persian language such as saudagar, dewan, daftar, nakhoda and bandar.

Today, under the new circumstances, Iran and Malaysia are trying to revive what once existed in the history of the two countries’ relationship.

After the nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers, there are bright prospects for the country’s pro-gress in all fields.

Iran enjoys a vast capacity for trade and can provide traders and economic activists with unique opportunities.

Due to her outstanding geographical situation and enjoying enormous energy resources, Iran can be Malaysia’s region-al centre in the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe.

On the other hand, Malaysia, due to her geographical situation as well as cul-tural and religious commonalities, can be Iran’s regional centre in Asean or Asia Pacific.

During the visit and negotiations be-tween Iranian president Dr Hassan Rou-hani and Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, it was agreed to expand

cooperation in different areas of science, tourism, oil, gas and petrochemicals, building highways and car industry, as closer ties between the two nations will eventually lead to strengthening the po-sition of the Islamic world in the interna-tional arena too.

Our countries have common views on fighting extremism and promoting moderation.

In my opinion, all Islamic sects, Shiism or Sunnism, are equal and brotherly.

Unfortunately, what we witness today in some parts of the world is a school of thought authorising itself to deprive oth-ers of the right of life.

Daesh, as the most sinister instance, has

taken its toll on both Sunnis and Shias. In today’s world, where extremists re-

sort to war, it is wise and imperative for the moderates to unify.

Avoiding separation and encouraging brotherhood are the best way to fight extremism.

“Bersatu kita teguh, bercerai kita roboh” (united we stand, divided we fall) beautifully depicts the value of unity in the Malay language.

As the ambassador to Malaysia, I have come to strengthen those commonalities and appreciate the goodwill and cooper-ation by the government and the people of Malaysia.

(Source: New Strait Times)

Bomb blast kills children in Turkey’s Sirnak ISIL claims responsibility for Diyarbakir car bomb blast

Trump and the American elections

Iran-Malaysia ties: To strengthen commonalities

England’s interim manager Gareth Southgate has cast doubt on whether he will accept a full-time position if it is offered by his Football Association employers.

The former England Under-21 boss was put in charge for four matches after Sam Allardyce was sacked in September for behaving “inappropriately” when seeking a lucrative sideline role while talking to undercover reporters.

“I think when you are in the position I am in you need to be clear of what is being asked,” Southgate told a Football Journalism degree class at the University of Derby.

“There is a big difference, for example, between being asked to take

the team over the summer or to take the team for three years or take the team for a year and a half.

“I don’t think it is as easy as saying, ‹yes I would like the job’. I would also like to see how it is affecting my family and my health probably,” said Southgate.

The former England defender has two more games in charge after having led the side to a 2-0 home win over Malta and a 0-0 draw against Slovenia in World Cup qualifying matches.

Southgate’s men host bitter rivals Scotland in a World Cup qualifier on Nov. 11 before entertaining Spain in a friendly four days later.

(Source: Reuters)

Paris Saint-Germain boss Unai Emery says his side need to improve ahead of Sun-day›s home clash with Rennes.

The reigning Ligue 1 champions are currently third in the table, six points adrift of leaders Nice having drawn two and lost two of their first 11 league games.

Fifth-placed Rennes will provide a stern challenge at Parc de Princes having lost just one of their last seven games in all competi-tions and Emery is expecting a tough battle.

«Recently, the team has progressed, but there is still much room for improvement,» he told French newspaper Le Parisien.

«We are third, we need to do better in the league. We still lack a significant per-centage and I have spoken with the team

[about the need] to improve.«Rennes is a difficult game against an

opponent who is [doing] well, who has 20 points. It›s important for me to win, but it is also important how we win tomorrow. We have lost zero games at home. We need all our opponents to have great difficulties when they come to Parc de Princes.

«I want a team that plays well, that attacks and defends with intensity and which is aggressive. I want our opponents to suffer when they play us.»

PSG successfully booked their passage into the last 16 of the Champions League with a 2-1 win at Basel in midweek, while Rennes› most recent outing saw them edge out Metz 1-0. (Source: Goal)

Emery calls for PSG improvement

Gareth Southgate could reject offer of full-time England job

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

W O R L D S P O R T NOVEMBER 6, 201614

Steph Curry’s record three-point streak ends as Lakers stun Warriors While the Los Angeles Lakers shouted and shoved each other with elation, Luke Walton managed to look unsurprised by the incredible upset unfolding before them.

The Los Angeles Lakers were battering the mighty Golden State Warriors. Walton’s championship-tested former team just couldn’t catch up to his young, hungry new squad.

Although it’s far too early in the season to truly celebrate anything, Walton thinks the Lakers’ future is fascinating.

Lou Williams scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quar-ter, and the Lakers snapped Stephen Curry’s NBA-record streak of 157 games with a three-pointer during their 117-97 victory Friday night.

Julius Randle had 20 points and 14 rebounds, and D’Angelo Russell added 17 points for the rebuilding Lakers. They built a 21-point lead in the third quarter and hung on to shock the Warri-ors at Staples Center for the third consecutive season.

“It obviously feels better because they’re the best,”

Walton said. “They’re as good as it gets … But it was just good to see the progress continuing.”

After his first meeting with his former team and his coach-ing mentor, Steve Kerr, Walton claimed the win meant nothing special to him – but he could understand why the Lakers and their fans might feel differently.

Los Angeles has made a habit of surprising the Warriors recently, but as Williams put it: “This one was valid.”

“We’ve got a lot of young talent here,” Williams added. “Finally it’s starting to look like we have some pieces in the right places.”

Kevin Durant scored 27 points and Draymond Green had 16, but the Warriors never led and couldn’t entirely close the huge gap in the second half while falling to 4-2. Golden State didn’t lose its second game under Walton last year until Dec. 30.

One night after Durant scored 39 points to beat his former Oklahoma City Thunder teammates, the Warriors scored a season-low 15 points in the first quarter and never fully recovered.

“You don’t like the feeling at all,” Curry said. “But you’ve got to wrap your head around where you are in the season, and the good we’ve shown early in the year, but also focus on the things we need to work on. Regardless of a game like last night or tonight, we still have some things we need to work on.”

Curry scored 13 points while going 0 for 10 from 3-point range, ending several incredible long-distance streaks. He had hit a three-pointer in every regular-season game since 11 November 2014.

Including the postseason, Curry had at least one three in 196 straight games, and he had also hit in 116 straight regu-lar-season road games – both NBA records.

“That was a cool little ride,” Curry said. “Would have loved to finish my career making one every game, but hey, start a new one. What was it, like two years? Kind of weird not to make one, but I will keep shooting.”

Eight months ago at Staples Center, the pre-Durant Warriors also lost 112-95 to the worst Lakers team in franchise history, one of Golden State’s mere nine losses last season. Another bad Lakers team also beat Golden State at home on 23 December 2014.

“It’s our annual beatdown at Staples by the Lakers,” Kerr said. “They do this every year. Let’s just give them credit. They came in sky-high with a ton of energy, played really well, and we were flat, right from the beginning.”

(Source: AP)

Jose Mourinho is a better boss than Pep Guardiola, insists KarankaAitor Karanka believes Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho is a better manager than bitter city rival Pep Guardiola.

The Middlesbrough boss, who was the Portuguese’s assistant at Real Madrid, is insistent that his former mentor has the edge,

despite the struggles he has had since taking over at Old Trafford in the summer.

United have picked up only two victories from their last seven matches and are eighth in the Premier League, eight points behind Guardiola’s Manchester City.

Karanka said: “For me, yes Jose is better than Pep. I have been working with him [Mourinho] for three years and I know his methodology, I know his character, I know everything. For me, it has

been amazing to work with him, so I know him better than Pep.” The 43-year-old also said he is not particularly close with

his compatriot Guardiola, who was manager of Barcelona during his time at Madrid.

“We are not really friends because Real Madrid versus Barcelona were such big games and I wasn’t with him in the national team so I didn’t have a relationship with him,” Karanka added.

“He is one of the best coaches, but I don’t think one is much, much better than the rest because we have Jose, we have Pep, but we also have Diego Simeone in Spain, Jurgen Klopp here, Mauricio Pochettino, Antonio Conte with Chelsea and Massimiliano Allegri in Italy.”

(Source: Eurosport)

Milos Raonic withdrew from his Paris Masters semi-final against Andy Murray at the last minute on Saturday, handing the Scot the world No1 spot for the first time.

The Canadian said he tore his right quad during his quarter-final win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday. His withdrawal means Murray will overtake Novak Djokovic at the top of the rankings, ending 76 weeks at No2 and 122 weeks of the Serbian’s reign.

Murray will face John Isner in Sunday’s final, his 12th of 2016, after the American beat Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-3 earlier on Saturday.

“I have put myself in a position to do something that takes a lot of consistency, a lot of concentration for a long period of time,” said Murray on Friday, following his quarter-final win over Tomas Berdych.

Martina Navratilova led the tributes to Murray’s achievement, tweeting: “Congratulations @andy_murray for reaching the pinnacle of our sport – #1!!! And that’s not a hash tag – that is #1.”

Confirming his decision to withdraw, Raonic said: “Yesterday at I believe 4-2 in the first set I started feeling some pain in my leg. I didn’t think too much of it at that point. This morning I had trouble waking up and getting

out of bed. So I went to sort of clear any serious diagnosis. Did some tests. Did an MRI. So they found that I have a tear, Grade 1 tear in the right quad.”

AdvertisementAsked if it endangered his participation in the ATP World

Tour Finals in London, which starts on Monday week, Raonic said: “Yes, it does. I still have the possibility of making it, but I was told five to 10 days. So I’m on the borderline for that. I still have a possibility that I might be able to play more this

year, on one of the biggest stages, important moments in tournaments, for us as tennis players. Now, I just rather than feeling bad about it, I try to put the attention on trying to make the most of these days.

“I have, I believe, at least eight days before I play a first-round match. The muscle that is damaged is very close to the bone. So any kind of external sort of rehab is ineffective.”

Raonic has had one of his best seasons but has also struggled with injury, and arrived in Paris nursing soreness in his legs and arms after a tough campaign in Asia. “I couldn’t remember exactly what happened or what I did,” he said, “because it wasn’t that I felt it during the point. The point was finished, and the next point I started feeling it. I thought maybe my muscles were just getting tight. Where I sort of felt it a bit more was standing and getting up and out of the seat on the changeover, sort of when I had cooled down a little bit. During play, staying warm, wasn’t too obvious of an issue. So I didn’t give it too much thought.”

How Murray has risen to the topYear-end ranking: 2003 – 540. 2004 – 411. 2005 – 64.

2006 – 17. 2007 – 11. 2008 – 4. 2009 – 4. 2010 – 4. 2011 – 4. 2012 – 3. 2013 – 4. 2014 – 6. 2015 – 2.

(Source: Guardian)

Andy Murray becomes world tennis No1 after Raonic walkover in Paris

Arsene Wenger: Mesut Ozil can only be an Arsenal legend if he staysArsene Wenger says Mesut Ozil can only become an Arsenal legend if he commits his long-term future to the club in the same way Dennis Bergkamp did.

Ozil, 28, has taken his game to another level this season by becoming a consistent goal scorer for the Gunners, and his partnership with Alexis Sanchez up front is a major reason why Arsenal are joint Premier League leaders going into Sunday’s North London derby against Tottenham Hotspur.

And the Emirates fan favourite built his legacy further by scoring a spectacular 88th-minute winner against Ludogorets in the Champions League on Tuesday, a solo effort that drew immediate comparisons to Bergkamp.

But with talks about a contract extension dragging out and Ozil yet to sign a new deal, Wenger said the German will only reach the same status as the former Dutch great “if he commits.”

“Dennis Bergkamp committed for a long period. He played until the age of 38 at Arsenal Football Club ... To become a legend at the club you need to stay for a long time,” Wenger said. “If he stayed two years he would not be a legend.”

Ozil’s current contract expires in 2018, having signed a five-year deal when he joined from Real Madrid in 2013. Wenger would not be drawn on how talks are progressing on a new long-term deal -- saying only that “we work on it” -- but insisted he thinks the 2014 World Cup winner is happy at the club.

“A player needs to meet his needs inside the club and where he lives. He’s certainly happy in London, it’s difficult not to be happy in London,” Wenger said. “But I believe the happiness a player has when he plays in a football team comes out by his performances. And I hope he’s happy.”

Judging by his recent performances, he should be. Ozil has evolved from being a pure playmaker and assist-master to more of a well-rounded attacker who is consistently getting himself into scoring positions. He has seven goals in all competitions so far, having netted eight in total last season.

“I think the main transformation we got from him is he

makes more runs in behind to score goals,” Wenger said. “I think today he understands that he can have his [passing] qualities but as well he can be at the end of things because the timing of his runs is good.

“In training I noticed that he is a very good finisher, so when you have that in your locker you have to try to get it out ... On top of that he has a fantastic attribute for a guy who is a good finisher: he is calm. And you notice that all the finishers are killers. That means they keep their nerve in front of goal, and he has that.”

He certainly had it against Ludogorets, when he came clear on goal and used a delicate chip to lift the ball over goalkeeper Milan Borjan before calmly waiting for two defenders to go to ground before slotting the ball into an empty net.

Ozil’s performances, and particularly that goal, has raised expectations even more going into Sunday’s crucial North London derby against Tottenham, where the German could take another step toward cementing his status among fans.

Wenger said Ozil is ready to dominate a big game like Sunday’s derby, but cautioned against putting too much weight on his shoulders.

“I believe that will depend on the team performance. If the team performance is strong, Ozil will always shine. Because that means we will have the ball, and if we have the ball Ozil is a strong player,” Wenger said.

“What you want from him is to continue to play like he plays at the moment. And that means make these runs like he made in Sofia on Tuesday night. After that of course he can be dangerous. In big games there is always a lot of expectations of him.

“But we must not think, ‹OK he will do it.’ We have to produce a team performance. We have plenty of players who can make the difference on the day and not expect Ozil to deliver anything special.”

(Source: ESPN)

NOVEMBER 6, 2016NOVEMBER 6, 2016

score goals,” Wenger said. “I at he can have his [passing] at the end of things because

e is a very good finisher, so cker you have to try to get

a fantastic attribute for a e is calm. And you notice s. That means they keepd he has that.”st Ludogorets, when he a delicate chip to lift the

rjan before calmly waitinground before slotting the

articularly that goal, has e going into Sunday’s against Tottenham,

ake another step mong fans.

to dominate derby, but

oo much

on he g,se all,is a

m is ays at the moment. And thathe made in Sofia on Tuesdaye can be dangerous. In bigf expectations of him.

OK he will do it.’ We have to e. We have plenty of players

on the day and not expectl.”

(Source: ESPN)

S P O R TNOVEMBER 6, NOVEMBER 6, 20162016 15I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Anthony Martial ‘hurt’ after losing No. 9 to Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Man UnitedAnthony Martial was “hurt” to lose his number to Zlatan Ibrahi-movic after the superstar Swede joined Manchester United this summer, his advisor has confirmed.

Martial was given the No. 9 shirt after moving from Monaco to Manchester in a record £36 million move for a teenager be-fore the start of last season.

The French forward appeared to live up to the price tag, be-coming a regular starter and fan favourite for Louis van Gaal’s side over the course of the campaign. But he was forced to give up the number after Ibrahimovic joined the Old Trafford club in June.

“I am not going to lie about it, it hurt him when Manchester United took the No. 9 jersey off him. He was surprised by it and he was disappointed for a few days,” Martial’s advisor Philippe Lamboley said to RMC on Friday.

“But he is a professional. He knew that he had to fight back.“Personally, I did not accept the decision, which I thought was

disrespectful and misplaced. I let the United hierarchy know how I felt. You do not do things like that. We have turned the page, but not forgotten about it.”

Now wearing No. 11, Martial has struggled to find his best form under new boss Jose Mourinho, causing some to wonder if he’s happy with Red Devils.

However Lamboley insists there is no issue between the play-er and Mourinho.

“It is not true that Anthony has a bad relationship with Mour-inho,” Lamboley said.

“They have a professional relationship. I’m sure Mourinho will get the best out of him, just like Louis van Gaal did before him.

“Anthony is happy at United. We are trying to get out of a bad spell, he is no longer smiling all the time. People who know him know that he likes to smile.

“He is very committed to United and his teammates. He wants just one thing and that is to enjoy a great season with United and win titles. Just let him do his job, let a 20-year-old enjoy himself. What he has already achieved is incredible. And I can promise you that the best is yet to come.”

(Source: ESPN)

City’s Pep Guardiola happy to move on from Yaya Toure disagreementPep Guardiola has accepted an apology from Yaya Toure but the midfielder still faces a fight to get back into the Manchester City team.

Toure, 33, issued a statement on Friday saying sorry for “misunderstandings” after he was frozen out of the squad following statements made by his agent Dimitri Seluk.

Guardiola told a news conference ahead of City’s game with Middlesbrough on Saturday that he had spoken to Toure privately about the issue.

“I have spoken with Yaya today,” the City boss said. “Of course, it was a private conversation. I know what happened, what he said, of course.

“It’s good news for Manchester City -- that’s the most important thing -- and for Yaya, whom I appreciate. I have known him from a long time ago.”

He will now be considered for the first team but is behind fellow midfielders Ilkay Gundogan, Fernandinho, Fernando and Aleix Garcia in the pecking order after being left out of Guardiola’s Champions League squad, which sparked the row with Seluk.

A source has told ESPN FC that he is not expected to be in the squad for the clash with Middlesbrough.

Guardiola added: “Yaya is in all our meetings and all our training sessions. You know the situation, nothing has changed.

“I answer about Yaya, I do not answer anymore. I spoke with him, that’s good, that’s all. Now I’m focused on Middlesbrough and you know the situation.”

Toure has played only once for City this season, in the 1-0 Champions League victory over Steaua Bucharest on Aug. 16.

Guardiola said he would not consider him for the first team after remarks from his agent saying that the City boss was “humiliating a great player” by benching him.

Toure posted a statement on Facebook saying: “I wish to apologise -- on behalf of myself and those who represent me -- to the management team and all those working at the club for the misunderstandings from the past.

“Those statements do not represent my views on the club or the people who work there.

“I have nothing but respect for Manchester City and only wish the best for the football club.”

(Source: Soccernet)

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S P O R T Sd e s k

A photo and multimedia exhibition named ‘Outcome of the Rio 2016

Paralympic Games’ opened in memory of Para cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad in Tehran on Thursday.

The exhibition will run until November 7 at the Saba Art and Cultural Institute in Tehran.

“Bahman will be forever missed. He could have won a gold medal but I think he will always be remembered with his efforts for Paralympics,” head of Iran National Paralympic Committee Mahmoud Khosravivafa said.

Iranian Paralympian Golbarnezhad died on 17 September following an accident in Rio 2016’s road race C4-5, soon after arrival to the nearby Unimed Rio Hospital in Barra.

Around 100 photos are being showcased in the exhibition, some of which show Golbarnezhad’s life and career in Para sports. The cyclist, who also competed at London 2012, took up the sport in 2002.

IRI Secretary General Masoud Ashraf hopes the collective effort “create a global thinking and share a common understanding about this accident.”

‘Outcome of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games’ exhibition opens in Tehran

Iran Football Federation (IFF) and Football Association of the UAE

signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to intensify the development process of the sport in both the countries on Saturday.

The MoU was signed between IFF president Mehdi Taj and the President of the UAE Football Marwan Ahmad Bin Ghalita in Dubai.

The MoU calls for expansion of cooperation in the fields of beach soccer, futsal and holding football

training camps.“We had a very good meeting with the UAE football

officials. We are going to help them in beach soccer and futsal as we are one of the best in Asia while they promised to provide training camps and facilities for our football teams,” Taj said.

“Mr. Ahmad Bin Ghalita follows our football closely as he congratulated us for qualifying for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India and 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea.

Papua New Guinea will pit themselves against the top-ranked football team in Asia later this month.

The 159th ranked Kapuls will play a friendly international against 27th ranked Iran next Friday in Kuala Lumpur before taking on the host nation, Malaysia, three days later.

PNG did not play in the last two FIFA windows and head coach Flemming Serritslev is looking forward to his team’s first competitive matches in five months.

“Of course Iran is a huge challenge for (us). I have been coaching in Iran for one year so I know about the strengths of Iranian football, and they’re number one in Asia, so it will be very tough but we will do our best,” he said.

“And I think the same with Malaysia. We won (against) Malaysia here (in Port Moresby in June) and I’m sure they are eager to get revenge in Kuala Lumpur now.”

Flemming Serritslev said Papua New Guinea were offered the opportunity to play against Iran after Thailand pulled out, following the death of the Thai King.

“You could say that the Iran game is absolutely a bonus and it’s a very big bonus. I know it’s a friendly but it might actually be one of the biggest games in the history of PNG football,” he said.

Papua New Guinea are not involved in the first round of matches in Stage 3 of Oceania FIFA World Cup qualifying.

Group rivals Tahiti and Solomon Islands square off in Pirae on Monday before the return leg in Honiara next weekend and Flemming Serritslev said, because he is away in Malaysia, he will have a scout in attendance at both games to analyse their rivals.

(Source: RNZ)

Iran, UAE football federations sign MoU

Sedigheh Daryaei from Iran claimed a gold medal in the 8th Sanda World Cup Coming Up underway in China.

On Saturday, Daryaei defeated two-time world champion Vietnamese wushu practitioner Nguyen Thi Trang in the women’s -60kg weight class and claimed a gold medal. The 8th Sanda World Cup represents the “best of the best” in Xian,

China from November 4 to 6.The competition has brought a total

of 71 world champion athletes from 19 countries comprised of top placing sanda athletes from the previous World Wushu Championships together.

Iran has participated in the prestigious competition with seven athletes.

(Source: Tasnim)

Iran’s Sedigheh Daryaei wins gold medal at Sanda World Cup

Iranian international handball player Shahoo Nosrati has joined CSA Steaua Alexandrion Bucuresti.

Nosrati has joined the Romanian team on a one-year contract for an undisclosed fee.

Nosrati played in Qatar Handball League last year.

The 28-year- old player has also

played in Iranian teams Sanat Mes and Bafgh Yazd.

Iranian handball players Alireza Mousavi and Esteki brothers are members of Dinamo Bucuresti team.

Afshin Sadeghi also penned a contract with Switzerland’s Fortitudo Gossau last week.

(Source: Tasnim)

Iran’s Nosrati joins Steaua Bucuresti handball club

Shahin Mohandesi from Iran claimed a bronze medal at the 7th Asian Seniors 50 Chess Championships 2016.

The competition took place at the Hotel Hazel in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Mohandesi finished in third place with 7.5 points.

Iran participated in the competition with four chess players.

A total of 38 players from eight countries took part in the 7th Asian Seniors 50 Chess Championships 2016.

(Source: Tasnim)

Iran’s Mohandesi takes bronze at Asian Seniors Chess Championships

TEHRAN — Majid Zareian has been

appointed as head coach of Iran national judo team. It’s his second stint in the national team. Zareian was coach of Iran national team but was dismissed from his job ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games.

Newly-appointed Iran judo federation president Mohammad Derakhshan has chosen Zareian as new head coach of the national team. The federation is going to hire a foreign coach as Zareian’s assistant as well as a foreigner as head coach of Iran’s women team.

Zareian named Iran judo national team head coach

PNG footballers to take on the best in Asia

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No. 18, Bimeh Lane, Nejatollahi St., Tehran, IranP.o. Box: 14155-4843

Zip Code: 1599814713

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Yh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / c u l t u r e

He comes, a moon whose like the sky ne'er saw, awake or dreaming.Crowned with eternal flame no flood can lay.

Rumi

Poem of the day

SINCE 1979Prayer Times

TEHRAN — Veteran Iranian modern artist Parviz Tanavoli, mostly famous

for his sculpture series “Heech” (meaning “nil” in Per-sian), unveiled his first artist’s book entitled “Things and Nothings” during a ceremony in Tehran on Friday.

Art expert Alireza Sami-Azari, culture minister advisor Hossein Kazemi and a large number of art enthusiasts at-tended the ceremony that held at Tehran’s Art Center.

The book, which has been produced in a limited edi-tion, contains prints of Tanavoli’s works created during the various periods of his art career spanning over a half century.

In a brief speech, Sami-Azari said, “Modernism faces two types of responses in its arrival in Iran; some people neither acknowledged it nor gave it a warm welcome.”

“Other people totally accepted modernism and have tried to created works based on it.

“These artists did their best to merge elements from Iranian culture and art with modernism to create an Ira-nian modernism.

“Tanavoli not only acknowledged modernism but also showed ways to make the transition from it; this was his great achievement.

“His semantic ability led him in a way to create sculptures with conceptual schemes, for example his series ‘Heech’.”

Tanavoli autographed some copies of “Things and Nothings”, which were sold at 150 million rials (over $4,100).

Copies of the book will be on display in an exhibition at the center until November 8.

TEHRAN — Seyyed Reza Salehi-Amiri, the

new director of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, has called the press exhibit a symbol of cultural dia-logue and a sign of tastes and thoughts.

He made the remarks at the 22nd Press Exhibition now underway in Teh-ran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla.

Salehi-Amiri was accompanying Presi-dent Hassan Rouhani who visited the ex-hibition on Saturday, the second day of the event.

He called the press a bright light to help in realizing the highest achieve-ments.

“As long as this light gets bright-er, there will be more progress lead-ing to less deviation. This exhibit is a good place for cultural exchange between the media and the manag-ers through talks.

“We need to talk more these days and in a place where there is more dialogue, there is less chance for the possibility of rumors,” he added.

“Over the past years that I have ac-companied the president, I discovered that his dialogue is based on four prin-ciples of justice, moderation, wisdom and honesty, and we must learn to re-define this dialogue within the media,” he remarked.

“Media justice and due attention to local and private media have so far been taken into consideration and will still con-tinue,” he concluded.

The exhibit will run through Novem-ber 11.

TEHRAN — Asghar Farhadi’s ac-claimed drama “The Salesman” has

won the Best Feature Film Award at the 7th London Ira-nian Film Festival.

The movie is about Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidusti) who move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous ten-ant dramatically changes the young couple’s life.

A lineup composed of the latest works from Iranian cinema were screened at the festival, which was held from October 28 to November 6.

“Bodyguard” by Ebrahim Hatamikia won the Audi-

ence Award, and the Best Documentary Award went to “76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami” by Seifollah Samadian.

The Best Short Film Award was given to “Gas Pipe” (Hossein Darabi) and “Entracte” by Mohammadreza Kheradmandan received the Best Animation Film Award.

The London Iranian Film Festival is the only annual festival to present Iranian films in the UK. It showcas-es films that explore Iranian culture and identity in four categories of short film, documentary, animation and feature film.

Noon:11:48 Evening: 17:23 Dawn: 5:07 (tomorrow) Sunrise: 6:32 (tomorrow)

PICTURE OF THE DAY Honaronline/Hassan Motahhari

Members of a troupe led by director Amin Delpazir perform “Icy Summer” at the Persian Gulf Hall of Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center on November 4, 2016. The children’s play, which was also written by Delpazir, is about Sara, a young girl who feels sad over an unhappy relationship between her parents. Arctic animals join Sara to help thaw their icy relations.

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“The Salesman” named best at London filmfest

Meryl Streep to get Golden Globes

lifetime awardNEW YORK (Reuters) — Meryl Streep, regarded as the finest actress of her generation, will get the Golden Globes Lifetime Achievement Award at the an-nual ceremony in January, organizers an-nounced on Thursday.

Streep, a three-time Oscar winner, will be presented with the Cecil B. DeMille award in recognition of her 40 years in the industry.

“She has always taken roles with strong female leads, creating art by showing vulnerability and portraying truth on the big screen. Simply put, she is a trailblazer, having paved the way for women in tel-evision, film and stage,” Hollywood For-eign Press Association (HFPA) President Lorenzo Sofia said in a statement.

“For shattering gender and age barriers, all with finesse and grace, the HFPA is humbled to bestow this honor upon her,” Sofia added.

The HFPA organizes the Golden Globes awards for film and television, one of the biggest ceremonies in Hollywood’s long awards season. The 2017 ceremony will take place in Beverly Hills on Jan. 8.

Streep’s most recent film was the 2016 comedy “Florence Foster Jenkins” in which she plays a rich, elderly American with no talent for singing but big ambitions.

The 67 year-old actress won Oscars for her performances in “The Iron Lady”, “Sophie’s Choice” and “Kramer vs. Kram-er”. She has received a record-setting 19 Oscar nominations during her career.

Veteran Iranian sculptor Parviz Tanavoli autographs a copy of his first artist’s book “Things and Nothings” at Tehran’s Art Center on November 4, 2016. (Honaronline/Mojtaba Arabzadeh)

“The Return” to hit silver screens in Lebanon

Russian festival to screen Iranian animations

TEHRAN — Iranian director Mo-hammad Amin Hamedani’s ani-

mation “The Return” will go on screen in Lebanon on November 10.

The animated film is about an imaginary world, which symbolizes the Zionism. People of this world try to form a union with Christianity against the rest of humanity.

Produced by Owj Media , the f i lm has been dubbed in Arabic for screening in Lebanon.

TEHRAN — Two Iranian short animations will be screened at

the Zero Plus International Film Festival, which will be held in Tyumen, Russia from November 27 to December 3.

“One Nice Day” directed by Susan Salamat and “Bed Time” by Mahnaz Yazdani are scheduled to go on screen at the festival.

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N E W S I N B R I E F

Painting Paintings by Amirali Golriz

are on display in an exhibition at Mehrva Gallery.

The exhibit entitled “Simorq” will be running until November 14

at the gallery located at 38 South Aban St. off Ka-rimkhan Ave.

A collection of paintings by Naser Ramezani is on display in an exhibition at Hepta Gallery.

The exhibit entitled “The Gile-mard and the Sea” runs through November 9 at the gallery locat-ed at No. 3, Nikushahr Dead End,

Iranshahr St., Karim Khan Ave.

Calligraphy Persian Idea Gallery is play-

ing host to an exhibition of callig-raphy works by Meisam Taraqi.

The exhibit will run until No-vember 9 at the gallery, which can be found at No. 28, Azar Alley,

Kolahduz St., Shariati Ave.

W H A T ’ S I N A R T G A L L E R I E S

Parviz Tanavoli unveils his first artist’s book “Things and Nothings”

C U L T U R Ed e s k

Minister calls Press Exhibition symbol of cultural dialogue

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Two first-timers named as 2017 Oscar producers, no host yetNEW YORK (Reuters) — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Friday named two first-timers as pro-ducers of next year’s Oscars show, the first step in planning the ceremony and choosing a host.

Hollywood movie and television producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd will produce the Feb. 26, 2017, show that will be broadcast around the world, the Academy said in a statement.

It will be the first time that De Luca, a producer of movies including “The Social Network” and “Fifty Shades of Grey,” and Todd, whose credits include the “Austin Powers” comedy spy franchise, have produced the Os-cars ceremony, where the highest honors in the film in-dustry are handed out.

Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said the pair had “shared an early vision for the show that is inspired and in keeping with the films they’ve produced: entertaining, unexpected and of the highest caliber.”

The Academy has been unusually late this year announcing who will produce the 2017 ceremony, or host it.

U.S. talk show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel has been widely mentioned as a potential host but Holly-wood trade publication Variety on Friday reported that Kimmel was now said to be out of the running for the high-profile job, one of the trickiest balancing acts in show business.

Black comedian Chris Rock hosted the 2016 Oscars amid a controversy over the all-white acting nominee lineup and the wider lack of diversity in the industry. The show drew the lowest U.S. TV audience in eight years with just 34 million viewers.

The Oscar producers have a major say in deciding who will host the more than three-hour show, and also in imparting its tone, theme and look. Recent hosts have included TV star Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres and Seth MacFarlane.

Taraneh Alidusti (L) and Shahab Hosseini act in a scene of “The Salesman”.

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