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42 5 12Iran’s car output to reach 1.35m in current calendar year: official

Iran to unveil new laboratory centrifuges

Foreign tourists to explore Iran by luxury train

Tehran Metro exhibit to showcase photos of Finland

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 Y

s of Finland

A monitoring group says Takfi-ri mil itants continue to shell a Kurdish area in the city of Alep-po in nor thern Syria, in a bla-tant violation of a shaky cease-fire agreement.

The so-called Syrian Observa-tory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that militants affiliated with Ahrar al-Sham, an al-Qaeda-linked group,

and other terrorist groups continued their attacks against Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood on Wednesday.

The observatory’s head, Rami Ab-del Rahman, said the Takfiri militants aim to capture the neighborhood, which overlooks areas controlled by the Damascus government, in order to have “a launching pad for attacks” on government troops.

Wednesday’s attacks come a day after some 18 civilians were killed in

militant attacks on the same neigh-borhood.

“A major shelling attack on Tues-day has left 18 civilians dead, includ-ing three children and two women, a pregnant one and an elderly one,” the Observatory said, adding that 70 people, including 30 children, were also injured in the assault.

(Source: agencies)

Beating diabetes by promoting healthy diets in Iran

Today (7th of April) marks the World Health Day for 2016 and constituted an opportunity to

raise global awareness on Diabetes, the focused theme for this year, and its impact on millions of lives around the globe.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes, is a non-communicable disease (NCD) that affects mostly people in low- and middle-income coun-tries.

We presently live in a world where hundreds of millions suffer from dis-eases caused by excessive or un-balanced diets. More than half the world’s disease burden can be at-tributed to hunger, unbalanced en-ergy intake or vitamin and mineral deficiencies – and developing na-tions are quickly joining the ranks of countries dealing with severe health issues at both ends of the nutritional spectrum.

High energy intake, poor die-tary habits and faulty metabolism lead to an entirely different set of problems. Obesity and chron-ic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and hypertension are quickly becoming a social and economic burden in developing countries. Recent evidence also suggests that susceptibility to these diseases may be linked to undernutrition during pregnancy and early childhood.

While the specific health con-sequences vary, both the under-weight and the overweight share high levels of sickness and disabili-ty, shortened life spans and dimin-ished productivity. The result is that developing nations, their resources already stretched to the limit, must now cope increasingly with serious health issues at both ends of the nu-tritional spectrum.

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Saudi Arabia and Iran must work together

The Middle East is facing a total collapse. An ideology of terror is spreading, and dysfunction-

al Arab governments do not offer their people dignified alternatives to extremism. The decay is embedded in two smoldering crises: the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, which has made millions refugees and contributed to regional instability for decades; and the conflict between Saudi Arabia, a leading Sunni power, and Iran, a leading Shia power, which has entangled civil war and sectarian-ism in the region.

The collapse of the Middle East is dangerous for Europe, since the ide-ology of terror does not know borders and millions are fleeing the collapse. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide a mechanism for region-al cooperation, which re-establishes regional security. The United Nations has sufficient instruments available to defuse the conflict in Palestine. In the Persian Gulf, on the other hand, a re-gional security system must be created that is modeled after the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Eu-rope (OSCE) and the integration Eu-rope has experienced since the end of World War II.

The vessel that can initiate this pro-cess already exists: the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1), the grouping that diplomatically resolved the Iran nuclear dispute through negotiations. The foreign ministers of the P5+1 could negotiate with the foreign ministers of Iran, the six countries of the [Persian] “Gulf Cooperation Council” (GCC), and Iraq on a new security architecture for the Persian Gulf.

One of their first decisions should be to reinstate the security pact between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which had been operative until 2005. This was an agree-ment that demonstrated that good, neighborly relations between Saudi Ara-bia and Iran are possible.

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Yemen’s Ansarullah

calls truce in war-stricken

regionsYemeni forces have killed scores of Saudi mercenaries in the war-hit coun-try’s northern province of al-Jawf, local reports say.

According to a report on Yemen’s al-Masirah news website, the rocket hit a building belonging to Saudi merce-naries late on Tuesday and killed 70 of them. At least 100 others were injured in the attack, it said.

Local sources said the death toll may increase as the position was tar-geted while the mercenaries were dis-tributing arms and munitions among themselves.

The House of Saud regime war-planes bombed an area in al-Zabab region in southern Yemen and the Hayran city in the northwestern prov-ince of Hajjah, al-Masirah reported without saying if there were any casu-alties.

Meanwhile, Saudi state television said that three people were killed in shelling by Yemeni forces on the king-dom’s southern province of Jizan.

The report said the shelling hap-pened around 5 p.m. on Tuesday and the child died at a local hospital.

The attacks came despite a cease-fire announced by both Ansarullah (Houthi) movement and Saudi officials.

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28 countries to host Iranian

exhibits in current

calendar year TEHRAN — 28 countries will host

exclusive Iranian exhibitions in the current Iranian calendar year which started on March 20, the Trade Pro-motion Organization of Iran an-nounced.

Iraq with running nine Iranian fairs and Oman with holding five exhibi-tions are among the top destinations for Iranian companies to showcase their products and services, the INSA news agency reported on Wednes-day.

The countries that have already granted license for Iranian exhibitions include Oman, Malaysia, India, South Korea, Russia, Qatar, Indonesia, The United Arab Emirates, China, Lebanon, Algeria, Turkey, Afghanistan, Uzbeki-stan, Azerbaijan, Tunisia, Hong Kong, Armenia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, France, South Africa, Serbia, Turkmenistan, Ta-jikistan, Sudan, Egypt and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Iran will host 60 foreign exhibitions in the current Iranian cal-endar year, 22 of which are projected to open during the spring.

Iran has set a target of $77.5 billion in non-oil exports for the current year, according to Mojtaba Khosrotaj, the Iranian deputy industry, mining, and trade minister.

TEHRAN – Leader of the Islamic Revo-

lution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that he earnestly supports any “useful and essential”

action to resolve the people’s prob-lems.

“I seriously support any useful and essential action in line with maintain-ing the national interests and resolv-

ing the people’s problems,” he said during a meeting with a group of senior government, judicial, and par-liamentary officials.

He thanked the government for

its efforts to implement the resist-ance economy’s policies and high-lighted the importance of unity among officials to implement such policies.

Leader says backs any action to solve problems

See page 2

Indian FM to visit Iran

2

Militants continue shelling Kurdish area in Syria’s Aleppo: monitor

12 Pages Price 10,000 Rials 37th year No.12522 Wednesday APRIL 7, 2016 Farvardin 19, 1395 Jumada Al Thani 28, 1437

By Serge R. NakouziThe FAO Representative to Iran and to ECO

A R T I C L E

TEHRAN — A committee in Tehran has reached a verdict to

destroy a hotel built illegally near Jajrood River in northern Tehran, an official at Tehran governor general’s office said on Wednesday.

Hassan Karimi said the committee, consisting of the representatives from ministries of interior and

transport as well as Judiciary, has voted for the de-struction of the hotel, but the owner can appeal against the verdict.

Near Jajrood River a hotel has been built with a construction license for a hotel-restaurant in-cluding a seven story and a three story blocks. But after obtaining the construction license, the

owner built a thirteen and a five story buildings, IRNA reported.

The hotel not only has occupied the river side but also it will pose environmental threat in the future as its swage will pour into Jajrood and from there to Latian dam which is one of the main suppliers of potable water for Tehranis.

TEHRAN — On Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani made

telephone calls to his Armenian and Azeri counter-parts, urging them to show restraint in the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Rouhani told Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan to fully respect the ceasefire an-nounced by two countries.

The Iranian president expressed sadness over the loss of lives in the exchange of fire in border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is very sad over military and non-military people in the two neigh-boring and friendly countries,” Rouhani noted.

The president added that Iran is ready to use all his efforts “for a peaceful settlement of differences

between the two neighboring and friendly coun-tries through political dialogue.”

Rouhani urged his Azeri and Armenian presi-dent to use all their efforts to make sure that the ceasefire is fully “monitored.”

Resumption of clashes will not be in the interest of all regional countries, especially the Republic of

Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Iranian president re-marked.

“The region is already facing great crises and terrorists and their supporters are always seeking to spread the crises to the entire region. In such condition further tension and class can prepare the situation for their intention,” the president ex-plained.

Exchange of fire between Azerbaijan and Ar-menia broke out on April 2. Dozens of servicemen from both sides have been killed and some more injured.

While each of the two countries have been pointing the finger at each other, accusing each of war-mongering, the international community have invited the two sides to exercise restraint.

Illegally built hotel along Jajrood River to be demolished

Rouhani urges Azeri and Armenian presidents to exercise restraint

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By Seyed Hossein MousavianFormer Iranian nuclear negotiator

A R T I C L E

The changes to sanctions on Iran and what they mean for the business com-munity were analyzed during a dinner organized in Nicosia by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the American Chamber of Com-merce in Cyprus, in the presence of Minister of Commerce, Industry, Tour-ism and Energy, Yiorgos Lakkotrypis and the U.S. Ambassador in Nicosia, Kathleen Doherty. In his speech, Lak-kotrypis said that the Cyprus business community reacted to the changes to sanctions to Iran by conducting fact-finding missions to identify areas

for business cooperation within the Iranian market.

He noted that beyond opportunities in domestic exports of certain products, such as agricultural products and pharmaceu-ticals, the professional services industry is expected to have the primary role.

In this context, he added, the gov-ernment proceeded recently with the signing of a double taxation avoid-ance regime between Cyprus and Iran and a number of ministerial vis-its already took place by Ministers of Transport, Agriculture and himself.

He also said that opportunities in

the tourism sector are also expected. Noting that Iran offers tremendous

opportunities for businesses and that already a number of European coun-tries have made agreements with Iran, he urged the Cypriot business world to see how they can improve the trade relations with Iran.

In her speech, the U.S. Ambassador spoke about the recent changes to Iran’s sanctions policy and what those changes mean for businesses in Cyprus.

She said the Iran deal represents a huge diplomatic accomplishment and a significant achievement of non

proliferation and summarized some of the major changes in Iran’s sanc-tions regime brought about by the Iran deal.

The US Ambassador reiterated Sec-retary of State John Kerry’s message that the US in no way intends to stand in the way of legitimate businesses dealings with Iran. She pointed out that we are in the early days of significant changes in sanctions and many com-panies are in the very early exploratory phase of learning what sanctions relief means for them.

(Source: financialmirror.com)

Cyprus: opportunities after Iran deal

TEHRAN — An Iranian diplomat said on Tuesday that Israel is preventing a

Middle East free of nuclear weapons.“The Zionist regime is the only obstacle to achieve

this goal,” Gholam-Hossein Dehqani, the deputy per-manent representative of Iran to the UN, told a General Assembly meeting.

Dehqani also said Iran is “deeply concerned” about the lack of progress for a global nuclear disarmament.

“No significant progress has been made in fulfilling nuclear weapons disarmament’s commitments based

on Article 6 of Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),” Dehqani regretted.

He said the current complicated situation has resulted from lack of “political will” and this evil “doctrine” that equals nuclear weapons to security.

A “comprehensive strategy” should be adopted in or-der to have a world without nuclear weapons, the dip-lomat added.

He also slammed some countries’ double standards in adopting policies toward nuclear weapons disarma-ment.

TEHRAN — President Hassan Rou-hani has said that his government will

continue taking “practical” steps for “implementation of the resistance economy policies with more power” but the success of the move is dependent on “solidarity”.

Talking in a meeting of the Supreme Council of Cul-tural Revolution on Tuesday, Rouhani also said knowl-

edge-based economy is an important part of the re-sistance economy and that “important steps” have been taken to boost a knowledge-based economy.

He also urged the Supreme Council of Cultural Rev-olution to play its part in implementing the resistance economy.

The president also expressed hope that entrepre-

neurs and businessmen would be more active in the post-JCPOA atmosphere.

Iran and the 5+1 group - the United States, Brit-ain, France, China and Russia plus Germany - finalized the text of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in Vienna on July 14, 2015. The deal went into effect in January, 2016.

1 He added that the activities of state bodies should be monitored to see if they are following the resistance econ-omy’s policies.

“In this monitoring, the bodies that are moving within the framework of these policies [the resistance economy’s policies] should be strengthened, the bodies that are indifferent should be guided to the main path, and the bod-

ies’ actions that are contrary to the re-sistance economy should be prevented,” the Leader stated.

He said that the executive bodies are capable of implementing the resistance economy’s policies and the parliament should help the government in this re-spect.

Ayatollah Khamenei also said domestic capacities should be employed in order

to implement the resistance economy.‘U.S. cannot be trusted’

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Lead-er said that the U.S. cannot be trusted, noting that Iran should rely on its own capacities.

He attached great importance to do-mestic production, saying special empha-sis should be put on production in indus-trial sector and agriculture.

‘Unity needed among official’ He also said, “The Islamic Republic of

Iran has always enjoyed the privilege of national unity, but along with the national unity, there should be unity and solidari-ty among the officials and this unity does not contradict differences in views.”

The Leader also urged officials to pursue “fundamental and revolutionary goals”.

TEHRAN — Ali Akbar Salehi, the vice-pres-

ident and director of the Atomic Ener-gy Organization of Iran (AEOI), has said President Rouhani’s sensitivity to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is well-justified, ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

After more than a decades-long im-passe with the West over its nuclear pro-gram, Iran and the 5+1 countries signed the JCPOA in July 2015, under which Iran agreed to scale down its nuclear program

in exchange for sanctions relief. Speaking to a gathering of Foreign

Ministry officials, Salehi noted that the

president tried hard to clinch the deal. “Possibly, the JCPOA and nuclear ne-

gotiations are open to question at some points. And even from a legal standpoint, the other side may turn out to misinter-pret some points, but the document has been drafted so coherently that prevents any likely problem,” the official noted.

Salehi maintained that Iran will react appropriately to a loose commitment to the JCPOA, as emphasized by the Su-preme Leader.

Referring to the criticism leveled at the

contract in home, the AEOI head stated that criticism is good as far as it does not translate into national divergence.

“Some critical views are merely politi-cally motivated and we can’t help it. There are also some who yield to reasoning.”

Participating in the meeting were Abbas Araqchi, deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, Majid Takht Ravanchi, deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs, and Hossein Jaber Ansari, Foreign Ministry spokesman.

APRIL 7, 2016APRIL 7, 20162I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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MEDIA MONITORTEHRAN — Iran will unveil new labo-ratory centrifuge machines on April 8,

when Iranians will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the National Day of Nuclear Technology on April 8, ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

The report said the centrifuge machines will be put to use in the health industry, including vaccine production.

The machines had been ordered by the Health Min-istry and built by experts at the Atomic Energy Organi-zation of Iran (AEOI).

Whether the country puts on display more items on the day is not clear yet.

Iran began to decommission uranium enrichment centrifuges as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which the country and world powers

finalized in July 2015. Although the document limits Iran’s nuclear activities,

it allows the country to enter international nuclear coop-eration to develop its nuclear-related technologies and know-how.

This is the first time from then that Iran has an-nounced it will introduce new centrifuge machines.

Salehi, a nuclear physicist, said under its nuclear pro-gram, Iran has built so far more than 6 generations of centrifuge machines, the last one of which is “the IR8 which is 24 times more powerful than the first gener-ation.”

“Such is the status of our nuclear program now,” Ali Akbar Salehi, AEOI chief told the Tehran Times in a re-cent interview.

Rouhani did not write to Kuwait king: govt. spokesman

TEHRAN — The Iranian government spokesman has denied reports that President Hassan Rouhani has recently wrote a letter to Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah IV Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

“I do not deny that some countries have tried to mediate between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but our policy against Saudi Arabia is generally clear,” Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said, the president.ir reported.

A day earlier, Nobakht had told reporters, “We will notify the media the minute any dialogue plays out.”

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Iranian delegation to meet Saudi hajj minister next week

TEHRAN — The head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization on Wednesday told Tasnim that Saudi officials have invited Iran for talks on new agree-ments for the upcoming Hajj.

“Based on the Saudi invitation, an Iranian del-egation will hold a meeting on April 14 with the country’s Hajj minister,” Saeed Ohadi said.

Expressing hope that a final decision is made in the meeting, Ohadi said the outcome of the talks will be made public in due time.

“The meeting on April 14 will be held after Saudi Arabia’s 3-month delay in signing of a memorandum of understanding,” he said, giving assurance that the appropriate decision will be made in the meeting.

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UN resolution does not ban Su-30 fighter jet sales to Iran: Russia

TEHRAN — Russia has rejected a U.S. claim that the sales of Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets to Iran were prohibited under a United Nation Security Council resolution. Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Con-trol, Mikhail Ulyanov, dismissed U.S. Department of State Undersecretary for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon’s claims that Washington would use its veto power in the Security Council to block the possible sales of the fighter jets to Iran, Press TV reported on Wednesday. “Such deliveries are not prohibited, they are allowed, and this follows from the text of the resolution,” the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

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Zarif visits Baku

TEHRAN — Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif left for Baku, Azerbaijan, on Wednesday.

He is slated to take part in the first tripartite meeting of Iranian, Russian and Azeri foreign ministers due to be held in Baku on Thursday, the YJC reported.Y

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Guardian Council approves polls in four more constituencies

Cavusoglu praises Ramsar meeting as helpful

TEHRAN — The Guardian Council has ratified the polling results in four more constituencies, leaving only one to be done.

The four includes Pakdasht, Dehloran, Boyer-Ah-mad, and Kahnooj, Mehr reported on Wednesday.

TEHRAN — The Turkish foreign minister has praised Tuesday’s meeting with his Iranian and Azerbaijani counterparts in the Iranian city of Ramsar as helpful.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency on Tuesday, Mev-lut Chavusoglu said the trilateral regional coopera-tion is regarded as highly precious by Ankara.

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Iran launches octogen explosives plant

TEHRAN — A factory for manufacturing HMX (octogen) explosives was inaugurated at the Defense Industries Organization of the Defense Ministry in Tehran on Wednesday.

Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan, address-ing the inaugural ceremony, announced plans to boost the penetration and destructive power of missile payloads along with the much improved precision-striking capability, Fars reported.

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Israel blocking nuclear-weapons free Mideast: Iran

Rouhani says resistance economy is dependent on ‘solidarity’

Leader says backs any action to solve problems

AEOI chief says Rouhani’s sensitivity to JCPOA justified

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Abe eyes visiting Iran in August

TEHRAN — Former vice president Mo-

hammad Reza Aref has said defensive capability and negotiation go hand in hand, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

Aref, a reform-minded politician who led the race for parliamentary seats in Tehran on February 26, said, “Iran is open to dialogue and this is not sepa-rate from defensive capabilities.”

“For negotiations to come to bear results we need a strong background, part of which is defensive capability; this has been always among our pri-orities since the revolution era.”

Referring to the Supreme Leader’s stance on boosting the country’s de-fensive clout, the Stanford-educated academician stressed that military de-terrence is high on the agenda.

Aref’s words are a broad hint at “the world of tomorrow is a world of discourse, not missiles” tweet on March 23, ascribed to the media team

of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Raf-sanjani, the chairman of the Assembly of Experts.

Ayatollah Rafsanjani, however, dis-missed the message.

Also, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had criticized those who think “the world of tomorrow is a world of discourse, not missiles,” declaring it “treasonous” if uttered knowingly.

Defensive capability and negotiation go hand in hand: ex-vice president

POLITICALd e s k

Iran to unveil new laboratory centrifuges

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj is scheduled to visit Iran on April 16.

Her trip is aimed at re-energizing ties with Tehran following the lifting of international sanctions on the

strategically important West Asian nation, the Livemint website reported on Wednesday.

Swaraj will co-chair a meeting of the India-Iran Joint Commission that will review bilateral relations with Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Tayyebnia, two people familiar with the developments said.

The last joint commission meeting took place in New Delhi in December, 2015.

Prior to her visit, Indian Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will also be in Iran, aiming to scale up oil and gas trade and investment in Iran’s energy sector as well as downstream industries like fertilizers and steel.

By staff and agency

Indian FM to visit Iran

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seeking to visit Iran in August to hold talks with President Hassan Rouhani, a government source said.

Abe envisions the first visit by a Jap-anese prime minister to Iran since Takeo Fukuda went there in 1978 as further boosting economic cooperation with the country rich with oil and gas resources, according to the source.

He is also eyeing exchanging opinions with Rouhani over Islamic State militants and civil war in Syria, the source said.

Abe hopes to travel to Iran shortly be-fore or after attending the sixth Tokyo Inter-national Conference on African Develop-ment, or TICAD VI, to be held in late August in Kenya, the source said.

The Japanese government is studying the feasibility of Abe also visiting Saudi Ara-bia, another major oil producer, according to the source.

Abe told Rouhani of his hope to visit Iran when they met in New York in September on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly.

Japan and Iran signed a bilateral invest-

ment pact in February aimed at helping Jap-anese firms do business in the resource-rich country amid intensifying foreign competi-tion for its market access.

The signing came after Tokyo lifted sanc-tions on Iran over its nuclear program in January following confirmation by a UN nu-clear watchdog that Tehran had implement-ed measures promised under a landmark deal it struck with six major powers last July.

(Source: Japan Today)

Obama on ISIL: ‘we will defeat them’ United States President Barack Obama is underscored that destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group is his top priority.

He said: it remains a difficult fight, but is expressing confi-dence in victory. Obama went on to say the group continues to lose ground in its strongholds in Iraq and Syria, and is being squeezed financially, adding “We are going to squeeze them and we will defeat them.”

Obama commented at a White House meeting on Tues-day with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the combatant com-manders. He said they’ll be reviewing defense strategies and the spending to carry them out.

(Source: AP)

U.S. military suicides remain high for 7th yearThe Pentagon reported on Friday that 265 active-duty ser-vice members killed themselves last year, continuing a trend of unusually high suicide rates that have plagued the U.S. military for at least seven years.

The number of suicides among troops was 145 in 2001 and began a steady increase until more than doubling to 321 in 2012, the worst year in recent history for service members killing themselves.

The suicide rate for the Army that year was nearly 30 su-icides per 100,000 soldiers, well above the national rate of 12.5 per 100,000 for 2012.

Military suicides dropped 20% the year after that, and then held roughly steady at numbers significantly higher than during the early 2000s. The 265 suicides last year compares with 273 in 2014 and 254 in 2013. By contrast, from 2001 through 2007, suicides never exceeded 197.

“Suicide prevention remains a top priority, and the De-partment will continue its efforts to reduce deaths by suicide among its service members,” said Marine Lt. Col. Hermes Gabrielle, a Pentagon spokeswoman. “Reducing suicide risk entails creating a climate that encourages service members to seek help, reducing access to lethal means and broaden-ing communication and awareness to service members and their families.”

Among efforts by the military to combat suicide was a $5 million, long-term study by the Army that eventually produced algorithms for predicting what group of sol-diers is most likely to commit suicide. The Department of Veterans Affairs has embraced the science and will soon launch a pilot program for helping its therapists concen-trate efforts on those veterans with strong self-destructive tendencies.

The increase in suicide in the military was driven largely by the Army, where suicides rose sharply from 45 in 2001 to 165 in 2012. The Army reported 120 suicides last year, the same as in 2013 and down from 124 in 2014.

(Source: USA TODAY)

Calls mount for immediate release of Nigerian cleric A Nigerian human rights lawyer has called for the immediate and unconditional release of senior Shia cleric and leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky.

In a Tuesday letter to the director general of the Depart-ment of State Services (DSS), Femi Falana said that Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat should be freed from “illegal detention” within 24 hours.

Zakzaky and his wife have been in detention since De-cember last year.

The clergyman is said to have been charged with “criminal conspiracy and incit ing public disturbanc-es.”

Falana said “even though our clients have not been told that they breached any law, they have been denied access to their lawyers, personal physicians, and family members for over three months.”

“Our clients were only permitted to meet with us last Friday after several requests made by us had been turned down without any legal basis,” he added.

Falana further noted that Zakzaky had lost his left eye due to the brutal attacks during his arrest, and that the doctors “are currently battling to save the right” eye.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission also called for the immediate and unconditional release of Zakzaky.

The London-based NGO slammed the persecution of Sheikh Zakzaky and his Islamic Movement in Nigeria as an affront to all civilized and democratic values.

It also urged the Nigerian government to bring to justice all those responsible for the unprovoked attacks on Zakzaky and his supporters.

On December 12, 2015, Nigerian soldiers attacked Shia Muslims attending a ceremony at a religious center in the city of Zaria, accusing them of blocking the con-voy of the army’s chief of staff and attempting to assas-sinate him.

The fol lowing day, Nigerian forces raided the Sheikh Zakzaky’s home and arrested him af ter re-por tedly ki l l ing those attempting to protect him, in-cluding one of IMN’s senior leaders and its spokes-man.

Both incidents led to the deaths of hundreds of mem-bers of the religious community, including three of the cleric’s sons. Human rights organizations have urged a full investiga-tion into the deadly assaults.

According to Islamic Human Rights Commission, the Nigerian military secretly buried hundreds of bodies in the graves after storming Zakzaky’s house.

(Source: Press TV)

Syria’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun says Damascus has been repeatedly offered a deal according to which the militants would cease their hostilities against the government if it made conces-sions to Israel.

Since the outbreak of the for-eign-backed militancy five years ago, the Syrian government has been re-ceiving offers to make a tit-for-tat deal to end the crisis, Hassoun said in an interview with the Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV channel.

Since 2011, “we have been re-ceiving unofficial offers to make a deal that would end it: ‘If you an-nounce you would end hostilities against Israel and if you expel the Palestinian resistance from your territory and cut your relations with Hezbollah, we would stop fighting against you.”

The grand mufti lashed out at mil-itant groups fighting against the Da-mascus government, saying they serve the joint Israeli-Western bid to ruin Syria.

“While previously it was France and Britain who divided Sham (Greater Syria) according to ‘political borders’, those who hit Sham today are Mus-lims who lost their mind and decided to prevent it from becoming a starting point for the liberation of al-Quds (Je-rusalem),” Hassoun stated.

The senior Muslim cleric said the foreign-sponsored Takfiri groups who are killing Muslims in the name of God “do not understand that they serve the interests of Israel.”

He further called on those who join

militant groups operating in Syria to go to Palestine to fight the Tel Aviv regime instead.

Referring to Takfiris, Hassoun said “40,000 Muslims from Europe are fight-ing in Syria. Why do none of them go to fight in Palestine?”

Critics say European governments are to blame for their lax control over the past years on the movement of their nationals into Syria and Iraq. They say militants would pose serious huge security threats to Europe when they returned home.

Those fears have come true after terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels killed nearly 160 people.

A new report by the Hague-based International Center for Counter-Ter-rorism said French, Germans and Brit-ons make up the highest number of foreign militants from European coun-tries in the ranks of armed groups in Syria.

On Monday, French Prime Min-ister Manuel Valls said adherents to the radical Saudi-backed Salafi ide-ology have gained the upper hand in France as they push to attract followers.

Salafism is often equated with Wahhabism, the radical ideology dominating Saudi Arabia and free-ly preached by clerics in the Arab country.

Wahhabism is also the ideology of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Le-vant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group, which claimed responsibility for last year’s deadly terrorist attacks in the French capital.

(Source: Press TV)

Bahraini regime forces have clashed with demonstrators holding a rally to denounce the death of a 17-year-old teenager who succumbed to injuries he sustained in a police chase.

Protesters on Tuesday took to the streets in the town of Shahrakan, lo-cated on the outskirts of Manama, to condemn the killing of Ali Abdulghani, who died of his wounds in a hospital in the capital four days after he was reportedly overrun by a police vehicle.

The demonstrators blocked a road with a large waste drum which they set ablaze and hurled stones at security forces. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters.

According to witnesses and a report from the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), police on March 31 stormed a property belonging to the vic-tim’s aunt while Abdulghani was present. Abdulghani fled the scene as the police attempted to arrest him.

Later in the day, he was seen and photographed while lying on the ground “with blood spilt from a serious head in-jury”. The victim was then transferred to the Bahrain Defense Forces Hospital.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry has made no comment about the incident yet.

Bahrain’s main opposition group, al-Wefaq, has described the circum-stances surrounding Abdulghani’s death as “vague.”

Prominent opposition figures, including senior member of al-Wafaq Seyyed Jamil Kazim, issued a message, saying the teen-ager died as a result of the government’s insistence on using security measures against political demands by the public.

Kazim urged the government to heed popular calls for change.

Rights organizations, including the European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, have demanded an im-mediate and impartial investigation into Abdulghani’s death, saying the injuries had been inflicted during his arrest.

On Sunday, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) condemned the ruling House of Khalifah regime for its policy of impunity for the abusers of human rights in the country.

The rights group has documented acquittal or reduction in the sentences of security forces involved in the tor-ture or killing of activists.

The center expressed outrage at what it called the courts’ “blatant pro-tection for abusers” while “human rights defenders and protesters receive harsher sentences” for practicing their right to free expression.

The BCHR further called on the Bahraini regime to comply with inter-national human rights standards and to end the systematic torture of detainees.

It also urged Manama to halt the impunity of security forces and de-manded that human rights violators be brought to justice regardless of their position or connections.

Bahrain has been the scene of an-ti-government protests since a popu-lar uprising erupted in the Persian Gulf kingdom in early 2011.

More than one hundred people have been killed in the demonstrations while hundreds more, including notable oppo-sition figures, have been put behind bars for their involvement in the uprising.

The House of Khalifah regime has ig-nored international calls for political reform.

(Source: Press TV)

With 28 killings in 2015, the United States is the only country in the Americas and among OSCE (Organiza-tion for Security and Cooperation in Europe) members to be on the list of top executioners published by Am-nesty International.

At least 1,634 people were put to death in 25 coun-tries in 2015, Amnesty International said.

The U.S., it appears, had more executions than Iraq last year – 28 in six states: Texas (13), Missouri (6), Georgia (5), Florida (2), Oklahoma (1) and Vir-ginia (1).

Last year, at least 2,851 people were under sentence of death in America, including 746 in California, 389 in Florida, 250 in Texas, 185 in Alabama and 181 in Pennsyl-vania, according to the report.

“While the 2015 figure was the lowest number of executions recorded in a single year since 1991, the decrease was in part linked to legal challeng-es that resulted in the revision of lethal injection protocols or problems faced by states in obtaining lethal injection chemicals,” the human rights watch-dog explained.

Thirty-two U.S. states still retain the death sen-tence. Texas carried out almost half of all execu-tions in 2015.

The state of Virginia carried out its first execution since 2013, while two states – Arizona and Ohio – had to put executions on hold because of issues concerning lethal injections.

“The USA continued to use the death penalty in ways that contravene international law and standards, includ-ing on people with mental and intellectual disabilities,” Amnesty said in its annual report on the use of capital punishment.

Amnesty cited the case of Warren Hill, who was executed by the state of Georgia despite the fact that all experts who had assessed him, including those provided by the state, agreed that he had an intel-lectual disability. “His execution amounted to the ar-bitrary deprivation of life in violation of Article 6 of the ICCPR [the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights], to which the USA is a state party,”

Amnesty said.The report also mentioned the case of the 74-year-

old Cecil Clayton, who was diagnosed with dementia and a psychotic disorder, but was executed in Missouri in March.

In August the governor of North Carolina signed into law House Bill 774, aimed at the resump-tion of executions in the state. The law allows for the participation of medical professionals other than a physician in executions, against ethical codes relevant to the profession, the report said, adding that it also allows the authorities to keep confidential any identi-fying information of any person or entity involved in the manufacture, preparation or supply of drugs used for lethal injection. Legislators in Texas also voted in favor of a law to allow for secrecy on the providers of chemicals, Amnesty said.

Pre-trial proceedings against six detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba, did not go unnoticed. The U.S. government intends to seek the death penalty if convicted for all six men, five of whom were charged with plotting the 9/11 attacks.

“Proceedings before the military commission do not meet international fair trial standards and the imposition of the death penalty in their cases would constitute arbitrary deprivation of life,” Amnesty stressed in the report.

(Source: RT)

The fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) risks turning into another Vietnam War if the admin-istration only gradually increases troops levels and other capabilities, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned on Tuesday.

“As a young military officer, I bore wit-ness to the failed policy of gradual esca-lation that ultimately led to our nation’s defeat in the Vietnam War,” McCain wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter. “Now as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I fear this administration’s grudging incremental-ism in the war against the Islamic State (ISIL) risks another slow, grinding failure for our nation.”

McCain, a frequent critic of the Oba-ma administration’s foreign policy, said he worries military commanders are not making recommendations based on what they think they need to win.

“My conversations with military com-manders both on the ground and in the Pentagon have led me to the disturbing, yet unavoidable conclusion that they have been reduced from considering what it will take to win to what they will be allowed to do by this administration,” he wrote. “And it will be the men and women serving in our military and our national security that will pay the price.

This is unacceptable.”McCain specifically wanted answers to

a slew of questions related to how many troops are in Iraq and Syria and what the plans are for retaking Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, from ISIL.

The Pentagon has recently come un-der fire after acknowledging the number of troops on the ground in Iraq is higher than the administration’s authorized cap of 3,870.

The issue emerged after a Marine was killed in Iraq. He was part of a company quietly deployed to northern Iraq that was not counted in the caps because it was there on a temporary basis.

Pentagon officials have also said they’re drafting recommendations for the president to send more troops to Iraq to help the Iraqis re-take Mosul.

McCain asked how many military and civilian personnel were in Iraq as of March 31, including those not counted by the official cap. He also wanted to know how many personnel were in Syria as of the same date.

McCain also asked how long it would take to retake Mosul and Raqqa with those levels and how many personnel are needed to retake both cities by the end of the year.

McCain asked about Libya, too. He wanted to know how many military and civilian personnel were there as of March 31 and how many may be need-ed to fight the growing ISIL presence there.

“As ISIL metastasizes and gains al-legiances throughout Africa, what U.S.

military presence is required to stop and roll back its advances on the continent?” he added.

McCain asked for answers in an un-

classified form, with a classified adden-dum if necessary, within two weeks.

(Source: The Hill)

U.S. among world leaders in death penalty

Bahraini forces attack protesters after teenager’s funeral

Militants offered peace in return for concessions to Israel: Syria mufti

APRIL 7, 2016APRIL 7, 2016 INTERNATIONALh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a l 3I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

McCain: War against ISIL turning into Vietnam

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E C O N O M Y h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / e c o n o m yAPRIL 7, APRIL 7, 20162016

Bright prospects for Iran-European Commission air transport co-op

‘Iran-Russia banking ties to start hopefully next month’“Relation between Russian and Iranian banks is in the process; hopefully, with-in the next month it will start”, said Mo-hammad Hazzar, the chief of Bank Melli Iran (BMI) Russian Branch Mir Business Bank.

BMI, the Islamic Republic’s national bank which is the largest in the Mid-dle East, hopes to restore correspond-ence and cooperation with major Rus-sian banks soon, now that the sanctions have been lifted from Tehran, the official noted.

Most of the large Russian banks have disconnected their relations with Iranian banks in the past few years amid West-ern sanctions against Tehran imposed over fears Iran was developing nuclear weapons. The sanctions were lifted earli-er this year, after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report

in January stating that it had found no evidence of nuclear weapons develop-ment in Iran since 2009.

“We have to restart our correspond-ent relationships with big banks. We have started this process now. Hopefully this relationship will be reestablished in a short period of time,” Hazzar told RIA Novosti.

According to Hazzar, BMI re-cently held negotiations with Russia’s Vneshtorgbank (VTB), Vneshekonom-bank (VEB), Gazprombank and Sberbank on the renewal of cooperation.

BMI participates in the Russia-Iranian $5-billion credit deal, which envisages funds for Iranian projects mainly connected with Russian exports and services. Transfers and settlements for these projects are ex-pected to be done by VEB through BMI.

(Source: Sputnik)

TEHRAN — Henrik Hololei, the Euro-

pean Commission’s director general for mobility and transport, said the ground is prepared for the commission to ex-pand its collaboration with Iran, espe-cially in the light of removal of sanc-tions on the country.

Hololei, heading a delegation, met Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, in Tehran on Tuesday when the two officials explored avenues of cooperation, the IRNA news agency reported.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed the possibility of signing a horizontal air transport agreement in the future.

A horizontal agreement is an inter-national agreement negotiated by the commission on behalf of EU member

states, in order to bring all existing bilat-eral air services agreements between EU member states and a given third country in line with EU law.

Security of Iran’s aviation industry and the condition of Iranian aviation com-panies were also discussed during the meeting.

According to the aviation roadmap depicted by Iranian Transport and Urban Development Ministry, Iran should be a hub of air transportation over the next coming years, securing a place in the aviation industry of the region.

Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi said in January that Iran has just 150 operational planes out of a fleet of more than 250. He added that Teh-ran is seeking to modernize its age-ing passenger plane fleet as soon as possible.

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F Mercedes-Benz achieved its highest ever monthly sales with passenger car deliveries up 8.4 percent in March, thanks to a 26.6 percent sales jump in China, which offset a 6 percent drop in the United States, parent company Daimler said.

Mercedes-Benz delivered 198,921 cars to cus-tomers in March, and 483,487 vehicles in the first quarter, the company said on Wednesday.

Sales of sports utility vehicles rose 44.4 percent, the company said, while unit sales of compact cars, including the A-Class, B-Class and GLA rose 21.9 percent.

Sales of the new Smart rose 34.5 percent in March, thanks to strong demand in Italy and Great Britain, Daimler said.

Nokia is planning to cut about 1,300 jobs in its native Finland following its acquisition of France’s Alcatel-Lucent, the telecom network equipment maker said in a statement.

Nokia started its global job cutting pro-gramme on Wednesday as it targets 900 million euros (725 million pounds) of operating cost synergies from the Alcatel deal by 2018.

Spokesman of the company declined to give further information on how many positions Nokia was planning to cut in other countries or globally.

Nokia currently employs about 6,850 people in Finland and around 104,000 globally.

Exim Bank of Thailand offered financial ser-vices to support trading with Iran, becoming the first Thai bank to do so following the UN Security Council’s removal of sanctions on Iran in January.

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said earlier Thailand and Iran’s trading value was ex-pected to jump to US$3 billion.

The banks’ chairman Manas Jamveha said the move is in line with government policy to promote exploring and penetrating new markets. Iran is a major market in the Middle East with high purchas-ing power and demand for Thai goods especially farm products and foods such as rice, canned and processed fruits, and rubber.

Mercedes-Benz posts highest ever monthly sales on China demand

Nokia plans to slash 1,300 jobs in Finland

Thailand’s Exim Bank supports trading with Iran

Iran’s car output to reach 1.35m in current calendar year: official

TEHRAN — The vol-ume of trade between

Iran and the U.S. in the first two months of 2016 hit $46.2 million and registered a 54-percent growth, compared to the same period in the preceding year, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

According to the recent statistics re-leased by the U.S. Department of Com-merce, Washington’s exports to Tehran augmented 47 percent during the said time and surpassed $44.1 million.

The country exported $33.9 million of goods to Iran in February, which docu-

mented 102 percent increase, compared to the same time in the year before when the number was a bit more than $16.7 mil-lion.

The Islamic Republic’s total exports to the U.S. was around $2.1 million in the past February, a while after the penned accord

between Iran and P5+1, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), came into practice in mid-January and anti-Iranian financial embargo started to get annulled.

Iran had no export to the U.S. in Janu-ary.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the country's crude output would reach four million barrels per day (bpd) by March 2017, state television reported on Wednesday.

"In the annual budget, the amount of oil export has been predicted around 2,250,000 bpd. This means our production this (Iranian) year will reach four million bpd," Zanganeh was quoted as saying by state TV. The Iranian new year started on March 20.

Zanganeh said Iran's oil output has increased after the lifting of international sanctions in January under a nuclear deal with six major powers.

Sanctions imposed on Iran in early 2012 by the United States and European Union over its nuclear program had cut crude exports from a peak of 2.5 million bpd before 2011 to just over 1 million bpd in recent years.

Iran has rejected freezing its output at January levels, which OPEC secondary sources have estimated to be 2.93 million barrels per day, and wants to return to much higher pre-sanctions production.

"Fortunately Iran's oil export has increased since the lifting of sanctions ... for 10 months since March 2016, Iran's average monthly oil export was around 1,350,000 bpd," Zanganeh said.

He said Iran's oil exports surpassed 2 million bpd in the Iranian months of Esfand and Farvardin, which ends on April 19.

Oil prices rose on Tuesday after Kuwait said it expect-ed major producers to agree later this month to freeze

output, even as key player Iran continued to balk at the plan.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Ex-porting Countries (OPEC) will meet with non-OPEC producers in Doha on April 17 to discuss a possible oil output freeze to prop up prices.

The Doha talks are expected to widen February's ini-tial output freeze deal by Qatar, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC member Russia.

Iranian officials have expressed Tehran's determina-tion to continue increasing its oil production and exports until it regains its pre-sanction market position.

Zanganeh said last month Iran would join oil produc-tion freeze discussions after its own production reached four million bpd, the Students News Agency ISNA re-ported.

Crude prices remain nearly 40 percent above 12-year lows struck in mid-February. A recent recovery has fiz-zled on skepticism over the output freeze proposed by producers. (Source: Reuters)

U.S.-Iran trade doubles in Jan.-Feb. 2016

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TEHRAN — Iran is scheduled to pro-duce 1.35 million of cars by the end of

the current calendar year of 1395 (which ends on March 20, 2017), Deputy Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade Mohsen Salehinia announced.

As Salehinia underlined, the government seeks to im-prove the quality as well as the quantity of the domesti-cally produced cars on the way to boost their exports, the IRIB reported on Wednesday.

“Iran has commenced cooperation with foreign part-ners in auto sector,” he added, “One of Iranian giant auto-makers has signed joint venture with one of the foreign eminent car-producers and the executive officials of the agreement have been assigned.”

The deputy minister also noted that the cooperatively produced cars will be unveiled and presented to the do-mestic market in the last two months of the current Iranian Year (February-March, 2017).

Iranian carmakers manufactured 878,644 vehicles in the first 11 months of the past Iranian calendar year of 1394 (March 21, 2015- February 19, 2016).

The automobile industry, the biggest non-oil sector of the Iranian economy, constituting around 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), boomed over the decade ending in 2011 due to government support and the dearth of international competitors in the domestic market.

Iran ranked 13th in the world sales of passenger cars,

hitting the sale of 1,055,400 cars in 2015, according to a recent report of the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers.

According to the report, the amount of passenger cars sold in Iran in 2015 accounted for 1.59 percent of the world’s total sale.

India exploring modalities of $6.5b oil payments to IranThe Reserve Bank of India is holding discussions with Tehran on modalities of payment of reported dues of $6.5 billion for oil imports, Governor Raghuram Rajan said.

“We are discussing with them (Iran) the way they want to be paid and certainly, we will work with them on when and how we pay them. I don’t think it will happen as a lump sum. It is going to be staggered,” Rajan said.

He, however, did not disclose the quantum of payments to be made to Iran.

In August 2015, a central government official had said RBI will be assisting Indian refiners to clear over $6.5 billion of past dues they owe to Iran for crude oil purchases.

The central bank, which previously facilitated payment of oil import bill to Iran, had agreed to help in creating the pay-ment channels to clear the past dues.

The then finance secretary Rajiv Mehrishi had led a four member delegation to Tehran in July 2015 to discuss modali-ties of clearing the dues.

After the U.S. and western powers in 2011 blocked pay-ment channels due to sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, RBI had facilitated oil payments to Iran via Turkey.

Iran and six world powers last year sealed an accord to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in return for end-ing sanctions. The lifting of sanctions is expected to open up banking channels for Tehran.

India is keen that repayment of dues since February 2013 should be done in a staggered manner so as to avoid a run on the rupee.

Since February 2013, Indian refiners like Essar Oil and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) have been paying 45 percent of payment dues on purchase of crude oil from Iran in rupees through Uco Bank, Kolkata. The remain-ing has been accumulating, pending finalization of a pay-ment mechanism.

They had last year paid nearly $3 billion in six installments through a limited payment channel following start of nuclear talks between the West and Iran. The outstanding has since climbed to over $6.5 billion.

Essar Oil owes $3.34 billion to Iran, MRPL $2.49 billion and IOC $581 million. (Source: Business Standard)

Iran expects 4m bpd oil output by March 2017: ZanganehAnnual unemployment rate stands at 11% in Iran

TEHRAN — According to the latest report released by the Statistical Center of Iran, the

unemployment rate in the last Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19, 2016) stood at 11 percent.

The figure registers a 0.4 percent rise compared with the pre-vious year of 1393, when the rate stood at 10.6 percent.

The data also indicates that 38.2 percent of population of ages 10 and above were economically active and have been categorized either under employed or unemployed ones.

According to the released data, the number of active population in Iran stands at 24,701,177, of who 2,729,092 are jobless.

Unemployment rate in rural areas is 8.1 percent and in ur-ban areas is 12.2 percent, the statistics revealed.

APBF lauds removalof non-tariff trade barriers with Iran As Pakistan and Iran recently decided to remove the non-tariff barriers in bilateral trade and begin talks on a free trade agree-ment (FTA), the All Pakistan Business Forum (APBF) has ex-pressed its appreciation for this valuable initiative.

These deliberations were aimed at strengthening the busi-ness relations and optimize the trade potential between the two friendly countries, through facilitation at the borders. Both the neighboring states have also agreed to work on issuing long-term multiple-entry visas to businessmen and increasing direct air flights to boost the trade prospects, especially encouraging the trade of perishable items.

Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan and Iranian Min-ing, Trade and Industry Minister Reza Nematzadeh held a meet-ing and addressed the trade and investment session of the Pak-Iran Joint Business Forum. The two ministers termed the signing of five-year Strategic Trade Cooperation Plan (2016-2021) as the beginning of a new era, which would provide a great opportu-nity for the two nations to enhance economic cooperation to new heights.

Dastgir stated; "The proposed measures also include begin-ning of negotiations on FTA, holding of single country exhibi-tions in each other's country, visits of delegations, regular meet-ings of committees for joint border trade, reactivation of Joint Business Council, opening of additional international border crossing points and establishment of border markets. Various fresh avenues will be explored to enhance bilateral trade to $5 billion in five years."

Nematzadeh informed the audience, "Iran will hold a trade and investment exhibition in Pakistan in September 2016. The private sector of both countries should take the lead in strength-ening bilateral relations in all sectors, including agriculture, en-gineering and the minerals sectors that offer tremendous scope. Export of services such as transportation, financial, communica-tion, insurance and IT also promise great mutual benefits. Iran desires to participate in the privatization program of Pakistan by investing in the entities, where Iran can offer its special ex-pertise."

Majority of the issues of the traders would be resolved with the implementation of TIR Convention, to which Pakistan has recently acceded. Iran has also offered facilitation in Pakistan's transit trade, through Iran, to the Central Asian Republics and Russia, where the demand for Pakistani food and agricultural products is consistently increasing.

(Source: dailytimes.com.pk)

What’s it really like to visit Iran? Adventure and first-time Iran visitor Leon McCarron reveals some of the surprises in store...

Iran is enormous Iran is huge. I hadn’t quite appreciated that

until I went there. It’s almost seven times larger than the UK; nearly as big as Alaska. Inevitably this means there is a lot more to it than just the dry, arid desert you might imagine. From the extreme north to south, and east to west, Iran’s climate and geography changes dramatically.

I began my journey along the Karun – the longest river in the country – in the southwest, at 3,500 meters in -15C and knee-deep in snow with jagged peaks all around. It looked more like the Alps than the Middle East.

The people are just as diverse as the land-scapes too; only just over half of the population is native Farsi speakers. There are seven major ethnic minorities. In short, it’s a country full of surprises.

The welcome is warmIt’s easy to get a negative impression of Iran

from the media, and to worry that western tour-ists may not always be warmly welcomed. I’m happy to report that I detected zero animosity towards the West – most people I met were excited to see foreigners, and keen to show us around. Some Iranians we met disagreed with British and American governments... but then we all do that at times.

It’s a bit of a taboo to talk about politics, and in general we stayed clear of the topic. Instead, during my time there, I found a population that were overwhelming young (nearly 60% at best estimate), ambitious and well-educated, with none of the prejudices that are sometimes as-sociated with the country.

Rural areas are more conservative than citiesIn cities like Tehran and Isfahan, the cultural

divide between Iran and much of the rest of the world doesn’t feel all that great at times – there is a bustling, vibrant and liberal buzz to life there. In rural areas however, it felt much more con-servative.

Tom Allen (my filming partner) and I trav-elled deep into the Zagros Mountains on foot and by kayak, and were extra careful to be cul-

turally sensitive when there. We followed basic self-imposed guidelines, like not taking any pho-tos of people without permission (a good rule to adhere to anyway!) and being cautious about approaching women in the street if we needed to ask for help – this can be frowned upon in certain areas.

Even if you do overstep a boundary, howev-er, the worst that is likely to happen is someone will take you aside and tell you what’s happened – the Iranian desire to please and be hospitable will almost certainly override any offence caused.

Ta’arofThis is Iran’s unique and (at first) bewilder-

ing etiquette system. When you attempt to buy something, the vendor will generally tell you it’s free – they will accept no money under any circumstances. They don’t really mean it – your

role as the buyer is to absolutely insist on pay-ing. It may take two or three goes, but eventually your money is accepted.

This, oddly, is the norm, and it’s quite en-dearing. The complication comes when you travel independently in remote places as we did, where quite often people really do want to give you things for free (food, drink, ac-commodation.) Your role then is to initially refuse, and to do so enough times until it feels right to accept. If it sounds weird, it is, a bit, but it’s good fun too and important to un-derstand.

People are awesomeThe landscapes are beautiful, the history

is breathtaking. The greatest thing about Iran, however, is the people. Hospitality is an intrinsic part of the culture. I’ve never been to a friendlier

country anywhere in the world. Whenever any-thing went wrong, an Iranian inevitably turned up to save the day.

Our closest shave with disaster came when I capsized my kayak on the Karun and lost my paddle. It could have been cata-strophic for our hopes of finishing the trip. Instead, the very first person we met in the closest town immediately decided our prob-lem was his too. He chucked some customers out of his taxi, closed business for the day and drove us off into the mountains in search of a new paddle.

Improbably, he found one – and we returned triumphantly to his house where a mad and mem-orable night was spent eating kebabs and listening to his stories of adventures in the hills.

(Source: wanderlust.co.uk)

Jajim or Jajem means a “Thick cloth” like “palas” and also a kind of two-sides carpet, which is thinner than Palas. Jajim is woven with colorful and fine threads of wool or mixture of silk and wool. It is a hand weave with no fluff and its two surfaces could be used. It is a tribal weaving and used as a coverlet or protector from coldness.

Before coming of quilt and blanket, Jajim has been the only coverlet of tribesmen. Although it is rough and coarse, it will become fine and delicate by continuous use very soon.

Weaving of Jajim is simpler than kilim and more com-mon, as well. A common Jajim with 2.5 meter length and 2 meter width could be woven in less than a month by two weavers, otherwise rug that has millions of knots or kilim that has tens of motifs in several colors.

There are fine Jajims woven in tribes, which have 3 to 4 mm thickness. These Jajims are used for decoration.

Jajim, like kilim, is woven on horizontal loom. Accord-ing to the pattern, which weaver has in mind, colorful warps with certain space have been prepared, on loom. Hand spun and fine wefts, prepared by tribe women,

passed through warps and beaten by a comb, to be pressed. Warps make images of Jajim. Wefts are not seem very much.

Common Jajims (Chahar-Koub) are like light and dark checkered in different colors. Motifs could be stripped, square, checkered, toothed, plain and parallel lines, and generally all motifs are along warps.

In “Qashqai” tribe, Jajim is also woven as needle lace (called “Rend”) and its motifs are the same as kilim. These Jajim are mostly common in “ Kashkouli” and “Dareshori” tribes.

Common Jajims could also be woven in two pieces or more. It means, that a narrow stripe with 5 meter length and 1.5 meter width, is woven; then divided into 2 pieces. These 2 pieces are sown together side by side. Salvage in between hides the sown points.

These Jajim are called “Double Width” and could be woven ever by a weaver. If weavers are more than one it is better to be woven in single width. Today it is woven with the width of 20 to 30 cm; mostly five parts sown together, made Jajim.

(Source: caroun.com)

HISTORY & HERITAGEh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m APRIL 7, 2016APRIL 7, 2016 5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

By Leon McCarron

British adventurers Tom Allen and Leon McCarron set out to follow Iran’s longest river Karun in 2015 (Photo: Tom Allen/Leon McCarron)

PICTURE OF THE DAY IRNA/Seyed Kazem Yusefi

Five things I learned while travelling in Iran

Iran, Qashqai tribe: Jajim weaving

Henry Ford facts that have almost nothing to do with carsToday marks the death anniversary of the American industrialist and the founder of the Ford Motor Company Henry Ford.

He was born on July 30, 1863 to William Ford & Mary Litogot on a wealthy Dearborn farm in Greenfield Township, Wayne County, Michigan.

On April 7, 1947, Henry Ford died of a cerebral hemorrhage, at the age of 83, near his Dearborn estate, in Fair Lane, Michi-gan. He and his wife Clara are buried in the Ford Cemetery.

In honor of the inventor hitting the century-and-a-half mark, here are some lesser-known facts about one of the most recognizable names in the automobile industry.

When he a young man, Ford repaired watches for his friends and family—and he made his own tools to do it. He used a filed shingle nail as a screwdriver and a corset stay as tweezers.

Ford became Chief Engineer of the Edision Illuminating Company’s main plant in 1893, and was on-call 24 hours a day to keep Detroit’s electricity running. He left the position 6 years later—with Edison’s encouragement to work on his plans for a gasoline automobile.

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson convinced Ford to run for a seat on the Senate as a Democrat. Ford obliged, sending a letter to the President saying, “If they want to elect me let them do so, but I won’t make a penny’s investment.” He didn’t spend a cent campaigning and still only lost by 4500 votes.

Long before Colonial Williamsburg, Ford tried to turn Sudbury, Massachusetts’ Wayside Inn—where Longfellow penned Tales of a Wayside Inn—into a living museum of American history. He purchased the Inn, and 3000 surround-ing acres, in 1923, and built eight buildings on it including a working grist mill.

In 1926, Henry Ford bought the Redstone School House in Sterling, Massachusetts. Ford claimed the school house was the one mentioned in nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and moved the building to his property in Sudbury.

Ford backed up his claims that the school house was the real deal by publishing a book: “The Story of Mary and Her Little Lamb and Ford Ideals”. Ford converted the build-ing, which was being used for storage, back into a proper school: Classes were taught at the Redstone School House until 1951.

During a 1928 interview with the Detroit Times’ George Sylvester Viereck, Ford expanded on his religious thoughts, owing his strokes of brilliance to a “Master Mind”: “Somewhere is a Master Mind sending brain wave messages to us. There is a Great Spirit. I never did anything by my own volition. I was pushed by invisible forces within and without me.”

Using wood scraps from his plants, Ford found he could make charcoal briquettes. When Ford’s brother-in-law E.G. Kingsford brokered the site selection for Ford’s charcoal manufacturing plant, Ford named the company Kingsford Charcoal in his honor.

During World War I, Ford tried his hand in the aviation business and started the Ford Airplane Company. The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission recognized Ford as a pio-neer of aviation in 2002, but the Ford Airplane Division shut down in 1933 due to lackluster sales.

In Aldous Huxley’s dystopian society of “Brave New World”, the world dates its years as Annum Fordum, or “Year of Our Ford”. Huxley’s characters also use Henry’s name as “Our Ford” instead of “Our Lord.”

(Source: mentalfloss.com)

A C L O S E R L O O K

O N T H I S D A Y30

Scholars’ estimate of Jesus’ crucifixion by Roman troops in Jerusalem

1348 Prague U, 1st university in central Europe, formed by Charles IV

1724 Johann S Bach’s “John Passion” premieres in Leipzig

1888 Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure “Yellow Face” (BG)

1923 1st brain tumor operation under local anesthetic performed by Dr K Winfield Ney

1933 1st 2 NAZI anti-Jewish laws, bars Jews from legal & public service

1934 In India, Mahatma Gandhi suspended his campaign of civil disobedience

1940 1st black to appear on U.S. stamp (Booker T. Washington)

1943 Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini met for an Axis conference in Salzburg

1946 Syria’s independence from France is officially recognised.

1948 World Health Organization forms by UN

1954 U.S. President Eisenhower in news conference first to voice fear of a “domino-effect” of communism in Indo-China

1969 The Internet’s symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.

1980 Jimmy Carter breaks relations with Iran during hostage crisis

1983 Oldest human skeleton, aged 80,000 years, discovered in Egypt

2001 Mars Odyssey is launched.

2003 U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein’s regime falls two days later.

2013 15 people, including 9 children, are killed by an air strike on Aleppo by the Syrian Air Force

Foreign tourists to explore Iran by luxury train

TEHRAN – The Golden Eagle Danube Express luxury train,

carrying 74 tourists from the U.S., the Netherlands, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Australia, ar-rived in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz on Tuesday.

The tourists paid visits to Azarbaijan Museum, Blue Mosque, and Grand Bazaar and left the city on Wednesday.

Tourists flew from Istanbul to Tabriz and get on the train, which had crossed the Turkey-Iran border empty due to ongoing unrests in Turkish cities.

During their eight-day trip, they will sojourn in the cities of Kashan, Isfahan, Shiraz, Yazd, Mash-had, and Tehran and then they will leave Iran by plane for Budapest.

It is the fourth time that the train has entered Iran since 2014. The Golden Eagle Danube Express is the first European luxury train allowed into both Turkey and Iran.

The train comprises 13 lavishly-decorated wood-paneled 1950s carriages and berths for about 70 guests and set off from Budapest.

The train passed Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey before reaching Iran.

T O U R I S Md e s k

APRIL 7, APRIL 7, 201620166I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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

The recent outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbai-jan in Nagorno-Karabakh seems

to have caught the international com-munity by surprise, with experts and commentators struggling to explain the causes and possible consequences of the ongoing clashes.

Meanwhile, international media coverage of the conflict is also prov-ing to be problematic, and far from impartial.

It is often difficult to convey the complexity of this long-standing re-gional conflict - with deep historical roots and a challenging geopolitical context, and taking place in a relatively remote corner of Europe, in the Cau-casus.

As the result, hostilities on the ground spill over into what can only be described as an information war, with both sides making claims and counterclaims, seeking to influence the way the conflict is presented to global

audiences.It is important, therefore, for in-

ternational media outlets to ensure that their coverage reflects a con-tested nature of various narratives that are being put forward by both parties.

History is arguably the most impor-tant battlefield in this information war. For the Armenian side it is essential to minimize Azerbaijan’s historical claim on Karabakh (meaning Black Garden in Azeri language).

Hence, the claim lies on the insist-ence that the region was incorporated into Azerbaijan as late as the 1920s by the Soviet authorities.

Roots of conflictFor Azerbaijanis the roots of the

conflict go back to the mass resettle-ment of Armenians from Ottoman and Persian empires in Karabakh in the first half of the 19th century, following the Russian imperial conquest of South Caucasus.

Yet, as historians argue, there is overwhelming evidence that the re-

gion was inhabited by both commu-nities for centuries, going back into antiquity.

As the great Armenian historian Ronald G Suny argues, nationalist nar-ratives of both sides obscure a com-mon Karabakh heritage in what is a shared homeland.

It is essential, therefore, that the international media coverage reflects the contested and complex nature of these competing historical para-digms, and avoids presenting any one perspective as the definitive universal truth.

Another striking feature of cur-rent debates around the Karabakh conflict is an almost total omission from the discussions of more than a million refugees and internally dis-placed people.

As the conflict began with unilateral demand for secession from the Ar-menian community of Nagorno-Kara-bakh, in the early stages of the conflict (between 1988 and 1990) ethnic Arme-nians were expelled from Azerbaijan,

while Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia.

This forced population exchange

was accompanied by pogroms and violence. In Nagorno-Karabakh, as Armenian forces advanced, the en-

tire Azerbaijani population was driven out in a campaign of ethnic cleans-ing, marked by massacres, such as the one that occurred at the Azeri town of Khojaly in February 1992.

Some 25 percent of the Karabakh population (40,000 people, including members of my family) was forced to flee. By the time ceasefire was signed in 1994, a further 600,000 Azerbaijanis were forcibly expelled from the seven regions around Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenians occupied in 1993-1994.

For Azerbaijan, the Karabakh con-flict is first and foremost about these people, and the right of return of Kara-bakh Azerbaijani community and refu-gees from other occupied regions is a non-negotiable redline.

This is a view shared by the interna-tional community. In 1993 the United Nations Security Council passed four separate resolutions demanding Ar-menian withdrawal from the occupied territories.

9

Nagorno-Karabakh: Contested narrativesBy Murad Gassanly

Armenian soldiers gather at their positions in Martakert Province.

It is essential, therefore, that the international media coverage reflects the contested and

complex nature of these competing historical paradigms, and avoids presenting any one

perspective as the definitive universal truth.

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WORLD ECONOMYh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / e c o n o m y APRIL 7, APRIL 7, 20162016 7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Oil rebounded amid optimism a deal will be struck to freeze output, spurring gains in Asian energy shares. The yen held near a 1 1/2-year high, while U.S. index futures rose and Treasuries retreated.

U.S. crude climbed a second day, jumping more than 2 percent after Kuwait indicated producers could reach an agreement to arrest output even if Iran doesn’t join in. A gauge of Asian energy producers rose for the first time this month, while the Malaysian ringgit led a rebound in emerging-market currencies. Copper advanced along with tin.

Investors remain cautious in the wake of last month’s optimism, with International Monetary Fund chief Chris-tine Lagarde highlighting risks to the global economy. More detail on the Federal Reserve’s dovish stance could be forthcoming Wednesday, with minutes of their March gathering due. U.S. political uncertainty was heightened as Texas Senator Ted Cruz beat Donald Trump in Wisconsin’s Republican presidential primary on Tuesday, and Bernie Sanders claimed a victory over Hillary Clinton in the Dem-ocratic contest. Pfizer Inc. decided to scrap a planned $160 billion merger with Allergan Plc, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

“It’s been a bit volatile the last few days, but emerging markets are quite resilient, ” said Soichiro Monji, chief strat-egist at Tokyo-based Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. in Tokyo. “At the start of the year, the argument wasn’t that Japan itself was bad. Rather, because emerging markets are bad, Japan and the U.S. will be dragged down too. That type of thinking was quite prevalent then, but as emerging markets are proving to be resilient, that kind of logic is breaking down.”

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was down 0.1 percent as of 2:21 p.m. Tokyo time, while the energy sub-gauge rose 0.8 percent, its first gain since March 31. The Topix slid 0.4 per-cent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index advanced 0.3 percent and the Kospi index in Seoul added 0.5 percent.

The Shanghai Composite index was down 0.2 percent while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong advanced 0.1 percent. Taiwanese equities slid 1.6 percent as markets in Taipei opened after two days of public holidays.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were up 0.3 percent following a 1 percent drop in the U.S. bench-mark last session. The index capped its biggest two-day slump since Feb. 9. The S&P 500 hadn’t moved more than 1 percent in either direction over the previous 15 sessions, a trend not seen since March 2015.

Oil continues to exert influence over global financial markets, with Kuwait claiming a deal on output can be reached without Iran when major suppliers meet April 17. Saudi Arabia spurred a selloff in oil earlier this week by questioning its own involvement in the freeze should Iran not take part.

“Oil is going to be very volatile in the lead up to the meeting,” Angus Nicholson, a market analyst at IG Ltd. in Melbourne, said by phone, referring to the mid-April talks on the freeze. “It’s so uncertain as to whether a deal is go-

ing to be reached.”West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery jumped

2.6 percent in New York to $36.82 a barrel, while Brent crude for June delivery rose 1.9 percent to $38.58 a barrel.

Gold retreated 0.2 percent in the spot market, while copper added 0.3 percent, climbing for a second day. Tin rose 0.1 percent. The yen was little changed at 110.29 per dollar, after climbing as high as 109.95 on Tuesday, its strongest level since October 2014. Australia’s dollar rose 0.2 percent, gaining for the first time this week, and the Canadian currency strengthened 0.1 percent.

A gauge of Asian currencies advanced, snapping three days of declines, with the Malaysian ringgit rising 0.3 per-cent and the Thai baht appreciating 0.2 percent.

Treasuries retreated, with the 10-year yield increasing one basis point to 1.73 percent. Japanese similar-maturity notes were up 1/2 a basis point to minus 0.065 percent. South Korean bonds were yielding 1.79 percent after reach-ing a record-low 1.77 percent on Monday.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Britain's Atom Bank kicks off mobile banking operationsAtom Bank said on Wednesday it had been given the green light from regulators to launch its mobile app to iPhone and iPad users in the latest phase in its bid to become Britain's first digital-only lender.

The so-called challenger bank, which is partly backed by Span-ish lender BBVA, received its full licence from the Bank of England in June and plans to provide fixed savings, current accounts, debit and credit cards by the end of the year.

Additionally, the branch-free bank will offer overdrafts and in-stant access savings and residential mortgages, all serviced via its mobile app, which will also be available to Android users.

Led by Chief Executive Mark Mullen, Atom will target small and mid-cap businesses by offering secured lending through a num-ber of specialist business intermediaries.

"We believe we have built a bank in record time, and we're not planning to stop here," said Atom's founder and chairman Anthony Thomson.

Atom was launched in April 2014 and employs 160 permanent staff. In November it sold a 29.5 percent stake to BBVA for 45 million pounds. (Source: NYtimes)

Oil continues to exert influence over global

financial markets, with Kuwait claiming a deal

on output can be reached without Iran when major suppliers meet April 17.

Oil bounce fuels Asia energy shares; yen near 1 1/2-year high

German industry output falls less than expected in FebruaryGerman industrial output fell less than expected in February after jumping in January, data showed on Wednesday, in a sign that the sector is likely to give Europe's largest economy a modest push in the first quarter of 2016.

Output edged down 0.5 percent on the month, data from the Economy Ministry showed. That was well above the mid-range forecast in a Reuters poll for a 1.8 percent decline.

The energy sector as well as factories that make consumer goods and investment products reported particularly weak out-put figures while construction companies posted strong gains.

The January reading was revised downward to an increase of 2.3 percent after an initially reported hike of 3.3 percent.

"Overall, the industrial sector got off to a relatively good start in 2016 although seasonal factors led to shifts in production and the construction sector benefited from the mild winter," the Economy Ministry said in a statement.

The manufacturing and construction sectors are expected to post solid gains in the first quarter, the ministry added.

(Source: NYtimes)

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M E D & S C I h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o mAPRIL 7, APRIL 7, 20162016

Lab researchers contribute to improvements to X-ray laserCampus researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Labo-ratory are contributing key components to a project that will improve the world’s brightest X-ray laser.

The project, called LCLS-II, is a joint effort of several laborato-ries across the nation, including the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, or SLAC, and Berkeley Lab. LCLS-II involves adding a second X-ray laser beam to the existing Linac Coherent Light

Source, or LCLS, a free-elec-tron X-ray laser at SLAC.

In addition to helping with the design of the X-ray la-ser, researchers at Berkeley Lab are also contributing two main components of the pro-ject: the injector source and the undulators. According to Erik Wallen, the UC Berke-ley team leader for magnetic field measurement, one-third of the project’s 55 undulators will be assembled by campus researchers.

The injector source houses tightly packed electrons in the device, and once the electrons from the injector source are accelerated through the machine, they are sent to the undulators, which produce the X-rays, ac-cording to John Corlett, the project’s senior team leader at Berkeley Lab.

Wallen noted that the researchers working on LCLS-II are building a second laser in order to create shorter pulses of X-rays at higher intensities. Because the new accelerator and un-dulator will increase the repetition rate of the X-rays, the inten-sity of the X-rays will also increase.

Whereas the existing LCLS laser operates at approximately 100 hertz, the new one will operate at approximately 1 mega-hertz — a repetition rate that is 10,000 times higher, Corlett said. John Galayda, the project director at SLAC, said the repetition of pulses will increase to 1 million times per second, compared to the current 120 pulses per second.

(Source: dailycal.org)

How to create opioids for the massesIt is an aroma you would normally find wafting around a bakery, or from a cellar of a home-brew enthusiast.

At Stanford University, however, the yeast emanating this odor isn't being used to create food or drink, but instead engi-neered to create powerful new medicines.

The American bioengineer pioneering this research is Christi-na Smolke and she's transforming the field of drug development by creating new opioid drugs from the humble baker's yeast.

Smolke's technique is anticipated to make opioid drugs within three to five days. She's confident her method will lead to drug advances for other conditions, such as cancer.

Smolke and her team have set up Antheia - a company cre-ated to commercialize their research and provide medicines to all who need them.

Poppies have been used for medicinal purposes for centuries by ancient civilizations all over the world. Today, they are the primary source for many painkillers.

Poppies have been used for medicinal purposes for centuries by ancient civilizations all over the world. Today, they are the primary source for many painkillers.

Current opioid production methods involve harvesting sap from poppies and processing them to produce opioid drugs, which takes one year.

Poppy farms face many challenges both from the perspective of trying to grow crops reliably each year and the movement of narcotic materials across borders.

The results of Smolke's work are a testament to her tenacity according to Kate Thodey, a strain engineer who has worked on the project for the past six years and watched Smolke refuse to believe it would not be possible.

(Source: CNN)

Pluto may have tipped over when Charon tugged at its heart

Sometimes you’ve just got to follow your heart, even if it means moving heaven and Pluto. The dwarf planet’s iconic heart, infor-mally known as Tombaugh Regio, was one of the biggest sur-prises in the first images beamed back by NASA’s New Horizons probe last July. Now a more detailed look at the spacecraft’s data suggests the heart is so heavy it may actually have tipped Pluto on to its side.

The west side of the heart, Sputnik Planum, is thought to be the remnants of a large crater that has been filled in with nitro-gen ice. The plain is unmarked by craters, suggesting it must be less than 10 million years old.

Researchers have noticed that the center of this crater lies very close to the tidal axis – an imaginary line linking Pluto to its largest moon, Charon. The two worlds are tidally locked, mean-ing they always show the same face to each other as they rotate.

It would be a bit of a coincidence for these two features to line up so well, but at the Lunar and Planetary Science confer-ence last month in The Woodlands, Texas, two teams offered a potential explanation.

If Sputnik Planum is denser than Pluto is on average, Cha-ron’s tug on it will be proportionally greater, swiveling the entire world. “Charon is going to try to pull it into the tidal axis – that just happens to be where you would minimize the energy,” says James Keane of the University of Tuscon, Arizona, who led one of the teams.

(Source: New Scientist)

Top Zika investigators now believe that the birth defect microcephaly and the paralyz-ing Guillain-Barre syndrome may be just the most obvious maladies caused by the mosquito-borne virus.

Fueling that suspicion are recent discov-eries of serious brain and spinal cord infec-tions - including encephalitis, meningitis and myelitis - in people exposed to Zika.

Evidence that Zika's damage may be more varied and widespread than initially believed adds pressure on affected coun-tries to control mosquitoes and prepare to provide intensive - and, in some cases, lifelong - care to more patients. The newly suspected disorders can cause paralysis and permanent disability - a clinical out-look that adds urgency to vaccine develop-ment efforts.

Scientists are of two minds about why these new maladies have come into view. The first is that, as the virus is spreading through such large populations, it is reveal-ing aspects of Zika that went unnoticed in earlier outbreaks in remote and sparsely populated areas. The second is that the newly detected disorders are more evi-

dence that the virus has evolved. Pandemic strain

"What we're seeing are the conse-

quences of this virus turning from the African strain to a pandemic strain," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National

School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

The Zika outbreak was first de-tected in Brazil last year and is spread-ing through the Americas. It has been linked to thousands of suspected cases of microcephaly, a typically rare birth defect marked by unusually small head size, signaling a problem with brain de-velopment. Evidence linking Zika to mi-crocephaly prompted the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency in February.

The suspicion that Zika acts directly on nerve cells began with autopsies on abort-ed and stillborn fetuses showing the virus replicating in brain tissues. In addition to microcephaly, researchers reported find-ing other abnormalities linked with Zika in-cluding fetal deaths, placental insufficiency, fetal growth retardation and injury to the central nervous system.

Doctors also are worried that Zika expo-sure in utero may have hidden effects, such as behavioral problems or learning disabili-ties that are not apparent at birth.

(Source: Reuters)

But a new study shows that children as young as 11 months are capable of learning two languages, and moreover, those who do show more brain activity in areas that are responsible for problem-solving, attention redirection and other important functions.

Researchers at the University of Washington's Insti-tute for Learning and Brain Sciences tested a crop of 16 11-month-old babies, half of whom were raised with solely English speakers; the other half grew up with both Spanish and English in their respective households.

The children were then nestled inside a brain-imaging helmet, where they listened to a series of "da" and "ta"

sounds that reflected both English and Spanish languages. Unsurprisingly, researchers found that while children

raised with a single language in the household were able to process only English sounds, babies raised with two lan-guages were naturally able to process both English and Spanish sounds.

Bilingual babiesHigher-functioning brains: Especially interesting is a

finding that bilingual babies had more activity in their pre-frontal and orbitofrontal cortexes. These areas of the brain are associated with executive functions like personality, decision-making and other complex cognitive tasks.

"Our results underscore the notion that not only are very young children capable of learning multiple lan-guages, but that early childhood is the optimum time for them to begin," the study's lead author, University of Washington research scientist Naja Ferjan Ramirez, said in a statement.

"Our results suggest that before they even start talking, babies raised in bilingual households are getting practice at tasks related to executive function," said Ramirez. "This suggests that bilingualism shapes not only language devel-opment, but also cognitive development more generally."

(Source: Mic)

There's even more scientific proof bilingual kids are smarter

Zika mystery deepens with evidence of nerve cell infections

Researchers have reported finding other abnormalities linked with Zika including fetal deaths, placental

insufficiency, fetal growth retardation and injury to the central nervous system.

Cornell researchers have discovered a way to open one of the major barriers to the brain, called the blood brain barrier (BBB), which prevents the entry of thera-pies to treat brain disorders, such as Alz-heimer’s disease.

The finding also has implications for treating all chemotherapy-resistant cancers.

For a century now, a major challenge in the treatment of diseases of the brain has been discovering how to safely de-liver drugs across the BBB. The BBB is composed of a layer of specialized cells, called endothelial cells, which line the brain’s blood vessels and safeguard the brain from unwanted substances. These cells also selectively allow entry of mol-ecules needed for brain function, such as amino acids, oxygen, glucose and water.

Cornell researchers report that an FDA-approved drug called Lexiscan, which is used in heart imaging, activates receptors – called adenosine receptors – that are expressed on these BBB cells.

“We can open the BBB for a brief window of time, long enough to deliver therapies to the brain, but not too long so as to harm the brain. We hope in the fu-ture, this will be used to treat many types of neurological disorders,” said Margaret Bynoe, associate professor in the Depart-ment of Microbiology and Immunology in Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Bynoe is senior author of the study ap-pearing April 4 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Do-Geun Kim, now a post-

doctoral associate in Bynoe’s lab, is the paper’s first author.

Chemotherapy drugsThe researchers were able to deliver

chemotherapy drugs into the brains of mice, as well as large molecules, like an antibody that binds to Alzheimer’s dis-ease plaques, according to the paper.

To test whether this drug delivery sys-tem has application to the human BBB, the lab engineered a BBB model using human primary brain endothelial cells. They observed that Lexiscan opened the engineered BBB in a manner similar to its actions in mice.

Bynoe and Kim discovered that a protein called P-glycoprotein is highly expressed on brain endothelial cells and blocks the entry of most drugs deliv-ered to the brain. Lexiscan acts on one of the adenosine receptors expressed on BBB endothelial cells specifically ac-tivating them.

(Source: Neuroscience News)

Now that 195 nations, including the U.S., have agreed to ambitious greenhouse gas emission reductions to slow the pace of climate change, the question everyone is asking is: How will we actually meet our targets set for 2035?

Given past performance, many don't think we will get there without so-called "geoengineering" solutions, such as blast-ing sulfur dioxide or other particles into the atmosphere to shade the planet and compensate for the warming effect of greenhouse gases. Clever, eh? Maybe not. Some recent modeling studies show these seemingly easy fixes could backfire in catastrophic ways, such as disrupting the Indian monsoon season and com-pletely drying out the Sahel of Africa.

Another risk is atmospheric chemical reactions that deplete the ozone layer. Do we really want to run global-scale ex-periments for 20 or 30 years and see what happens?

Carbon-rich soilThere is another way, one that is ze-

ro-risk and builds on something farmers around the world are already motivated to do: manage soils so that a maximum amount of the carbon dioxide plants pull out of the air via photosynthesis remains on the farm as carbon-rich soil organic matter. "Carbon farming," as it is some-times called, is Mother Nature's own geo-engineering, relying on fundamental bio-logical processes to capture carbon and sequester it in the soil, carbon that would otherwise be in the air as the greenhouse

gas, carbon dioxide. Over the past century soils worldwide

have been degraded due to expansion of agriculture and poor soil management. Today, there is a revolution in agriculture that recognizes the importance of build-ing "healthy" soils by replacing the or-ganic matter that has been lost over time. One way to do this is to use carbon- and nutrient-rich organic sources of fertilizers such as manure or compost rather than synthetic chemical fertilizers. Another is to include carbon- and nutrient-rich crops like legumes (e.g., peas, beans) in rota-tions, and plant winter cover crops that contribute additional organic matter in the off-season.

We've also discovered that reduc-ing the amount of plowing and tilling of the soil ("conservation tillage") slows the microbial breakdown of organic matter that leads to carbon dioxide emissions from soils.

(Source: The Hill)

Carbon farming is a zero-risk strategy for curbing climate change

Opening the blood-brain barrier to deliver drugs for brain diseases

A bulldozer operator at a sand pit in northwestern Okla-homa got quite a surprise this month when he spotted a huge skull that belonged to a Columbian mammoth.

These giants were plentiful across the plains of Oklaho-ma during the Pleistocene epoch, which lasted from about 1.8 million to 11,700 years ago, said Leland Bement of the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey.

The discovery was not unheard of, as the Survey typi-cally receives about three "mammoth-sighting" calls a year, Bement said. That made it now less exciting, though. "Ar-chaeological fieldwork is always exciting. You never know what you are going to find," Bement told Live Science in an email.

He added, "When it comes to mammoth finds, we are always on the lookout for the next one that has projectile points or stone tools associated with it to indicate that the animal was killed and butchered. We have so few of these sites across North America and only one so far in Oklahoma."

The skull had been deposited on the sandbar of a river channel, the archaeologists said. So far, the archaeologists have unearthed the animal's skull with a single tooth in place; apparently, another tooth had been removed from the skull during the clearing of the sand.

"We don't know the cause of death. There is no sign that people killed or butchered it," Bement told Live Science in an email. "Its skull was washed around in the river. The rest

of the animal could be anywhere." The exact age

Though the scientists have not pinpointed an exact age for the skull, they know it’s more than 11,000 years old — the period when mammoths and other megafauna went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene.

Scientists have put forth several reasons for the ex-tinctions, ranging from rapid climate warming to ice age human hunters. Others have suggested a perfect storm of culprits. One group of dwarf mammoths is thought to have survived in the Arctic, on Wrangel Island, until about 3,700 years ago.

Like other Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus colum-bi), this one was not the cold-adapted type and preferred more temperate stomping grounds in southern and central North America. The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primi-genius), the kind portrayed in the "Ice Age" movies, would have called the chilly tundra home.

(Source: Live Science)

Giant mammoth skull discovered by bulldozer operator

WORLD IN FOCUSh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a l 9I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

J U M P

1 On Monday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that a del-egation of Ansarullah was in the Arab kingdom to hold peace discussions.

An Ansarullah spokesman, Moham-med Abdulsalam, said on Tuesday that a ceasefire was reached with Saudi Arabia to halt operations in a number of Yemeni provinces.

He said the truce would pave the way for peace talks between Ansarullah and former fugitive president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s loyalists.

Last month, the United Nations spe-cial envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, announced that the former gov-ernment and the Ansarullah movement had agreed to halt hostilities on April 10 ahead of a new round of peace talks to be held in Kuwait on April 18.

The House of Saud regime is un-der growing pressure as its protracted war has ground into a no-win situation. In February, Saudi military spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri acknowl-edged that the kingdom was stuck in a

“static war” against its southern neighbor.Riyadh is also coming under an un-

precedented chorus of criticism from

around the world over rising civilian casualties and destruction in Yemen.

Negotiations suggest Riyadh’s submis-

sion to Ansarullah demands. The group had long maintained that any talks must be held with the Saudis as their main ad-versary in the war, and not with Hadi.

Elsewhere, Ansarullah movement has announced a ceasefire in several bor-der regions with Saudi Arabia in a bid to pave the way for upcoming political talks among Yemeni groups.

The movement’s spokesman, Mo-hammed Abdulsalam, said on Tuesday that as a “first step”, the truce would halt military operations in a number of Yem-eni provinces, including the Midi border area in the northwestern Hajjah province.

Saudi Arabia has been waging a war on Yemen since late March 2015 in a bid to return Hadi to power. Nearly 9,400 Yemenis, including 4,000 women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.

Yemenis, in return, have been carrying out retaliatory attacks on the Saudi forces deployed in the country as well as targets inside Saudi Arabia.

(Source: Press TV)

EU outlines options for change to asylum systemThe European Union executive made proposals on Wednes-day to reform EU asylum rules in response to the chaotic arrival of over a million migrants and refugees last year that has strained the bloc’s cohesion.

Reflecting divisions among member states, the European Commission offered options for amending what is known as the Dublin rules, under which people claim asylum in the first EU state they enter. That system has left Greece and Italy unable and unwilling to offer asylum to all arrivals and seen many trekking north, prompting border closures that threat-en the EU’s hallmark Schengen system of passport free travel within Europe.

A first option is to create a “corrective fairness mechanism” that would relocate asylum seekers from frontline states to elsewhere in the bloc - a method now being employed on an ad hoc basis. A second is to create a new system that would ignore where people arrived in the EU and send them around the bloc according to a “permanent distribution key”.

Longer term, the Commission also proposes centralizing the entire asylum process within EU institutions, rather than basing it on national laws - though this is very unlikely to find much support among member states for the time being.

“The current system is not sustainable,” the European Commission’s First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said in presenting the proposal.

“We need a sustainable system for the future, based on common rules, a fairer sharing of responsibility, and safe legal channels for those who need protection to get it in the EU.”

Germany, which took in a million people last year who mostly arrived initially in Greece, wants to stick to the main Dublin principle of first point of entry but have a perma-nent relocation scheme in place for asylum-seekers. Italy has pushed for the abolition of the first-country rule alto-gether.

Britain, which will vote in a referendum in June on whether to quit the bloc, does not take part in most EU asylum policies.

With no compromise yet in sight, the Commission has shied away from presenting concrete legal proposals and in-stead laid out various options for future changes.

However, the proposals rule out maintaining the status quo, despite some governments not wishing to see any change in a system under which they take in very few ref-ugees.

Different asylum rules in EU states have also encouraged chaotic flows of potential refugees within the EU as they trekked from the frontline countries to Germany, Sweden and other states whose laws, or economic prosperity, offer them the most beneficial conditions.

The Commission outlined legal changes to harmonize asylum rules in EU states to prevent that in the future. It floated an idea to introduce legal punishment for irregular movements by non-Europeans between countries in the bloc and proposed a stronger mandate for the European Asylum Support Office.

In another plan likely to draw mixed response from EU states, the Commission said the bloc needed a long-term resettlement scheme to bring in people into Europe directly from crisis zones to create an alternative to the current cha-otic and dangerous routes.

Separately, the Commission also rolled out on Wednes-day a number of technical proposals to strengthen the bloc’s external borders in an attempt to tackle both the migrant influx and security threats following deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels.

(Source: Reuters)

Nagorno-Karabakh: Contested narratives

6 Effective control

Last year the European Court of Human Rights con-firmed that the Republic of Armenia “exercised effective control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding ter-ritories”.

And in a statement on Sunday, the President of the Parlia-mentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Pedro Agramunt called for the “withdrawal of all Armenian armed troops from occupied Azerbaijani territories in compliance with UN Secu-rity Council resolutions”.

Paradoxically, none of these facts seem to be reflected in media coverage of the current fighting.

One glaringly obvious fact is that the breakdown of the ceasefire regime is a direct result of the failure of the international mediation effort, led by the so-called Or-ganization for Security Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France. The Minsk Group experience is marked by 20 years of failure and ineptitude, and it is now widely seen as defunct.

For Azerbaijan full implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions is of utmost priority.

Yet, after two decades of fruitless talks, it is increasingly clear that Armenia has no incentive to make the necessary concessions to start a real peace process in accordance with those resolutions. (Source: Aljazeera)

Yemen’s Ansarullah calls truce in war-stricken regions

1 I myself was involved in ne-gotiating rapprochement between Teh-ran and Riyadh and making this security pact a reality. In mid-1996, then-Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani instructed me in his penultimate year to hold talks with the Saudi government. Prince Tur-ki al Faisal coordinated my first meeting with then-Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in Casablanca, Morocco. A short while after, I negotiated with Crown Prince Abdallah in his private palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In open, frank, and sincere discussions, we reviewed all bilateral is-sues that had been between us. We re-fused to quarrel, rather we wanted to find solutions. We managed to agree to a comprehensive bilateral package for co-operation in the fields of politics, security,

and economics.After that, I negotiated with then-Sau-

di Interior Minister Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on security issues. Then I brought the package to King Fahd, who agreed, and in Tehran to Supreme Leader [Rev-olutionsführer] Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Rafsanjani, who agreed also. Later, Hassan Rouhani, the then sec-retary of the National Security Council, travelled to Jeddah to sign the Security Pact with Prince Nayef, the then-interior minister. Immediately, the pact was filled with life, and a Joint Security Commit-tee was set up. As a result, Saudi Ara-bia and Iran experienced from 1996 to 2005, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president, the best era in their bilateral relations since the 1979 Iranian

revolution. Their relations were even bet-ter than in the time of the Shah in some respects.

More than a decade later, we should take up fostering this cooperation again. In Iran, the conditions are favorable. As in 1996, Ayatollah Khamenei and Rou-hani, who is president today, are leading Iran. In Saudi Arabia, a similar approach as pursued by then-Crown Prince Abdul-lah is needed. He had negotiated flexibly, based on principles and not on maximal-ist positions.

The stability that would be created by the revival of this agreement from 1996 would be in the interests of Saudi Ara-bia. The fact is that it is not Iran or Shia Muslims who threaten Saudi Arabia and claim ownership of the holy places of Is-

lam, Mecca and Medina, but an ideology of terror led by ISIS, which has its origin in Wahhabi Islam—which should not be equated with mainstream Sunni Islam. The stability and integrity of Saudi Arabia and other neighboring Arab countries of Iran in the Persian Gulf is an indispen-sable part of Iran’s security and stability. Therefore, Saudi Arabia should have an interest in cooperating with Iran. It is the time for Riyadh and Tehran to cooperate on the establishment of a regional secu-rity structure in the Persian Gulf, focusing on issues of common interest, fighting together against common threats, and saving the Middle East from a total col-lapse. The way forward should be based on cooperation, not confrontation.

(Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine)

Saudi Arabia and Iran must work together

Beating diabetes by promoting healthy diets in Iran 1 Malnutrition, in all its forms, including under-

nutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity, not only affects people’s health and wellbeing by impacting negatively on human physical and cog-nitive development, compromising the immune sys-tem, increasing susceptibility to communicable and non-communicable diseases, restricting the attainment of human potential and reducing productivity, but also poses a high burden in the form of negative social and economic consequences to individuals, families, com-munities and States.

Different forms of malnutrition as part of food inse-curity co-exist within most countries; while dietary risk affects all socio-economic groups, large inequalities ex-ist in nutritional status, exposure to risk and adequacy of dietary energy and nutrient intake, between and within countries.

However, ensuring food security for all is at the heart of FAO’s mandate, its programmes and activities. Rais-ing levels of nutrition, securing improvements in the ef-ficiency of the production and distribution of all food

and agricultural products, and improving the standards of living and conditions of rural populations constitute the fundamental pillars of FAO’s constitution.

In this endeavour, since its founding, FAO has been acknowledged as a global authoritative body that pro-vides a neutral forum for all nations to negotiate agree-ments and debate policy on defeating hunger in the world as well as a source of knowledge for strengthen-ing agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices to secure sustainable agricultural and rural development.

FAO’s strategy and vision for nutrition seeks to im-prove diets and raise levels of nutrition of low-income, resource poor, food insecure, socially excluded and eco-nomically marginalized, most nutritionally vulnerable households in gender-sensitive and sustainable ways.

The purpose of the strategy is to reposition and pri-oritize FAO’s work in nutrition and to reinforce its lead-ership role in bringing stakeholders together, in gener-ating and communicating knowledge to build political commitment and guide actions, and in strengthening capacities of governments and other implementing

partners to act effectively.According to the information published by the Ira-

nian Diabetes Society, the country is equally confront-ed by the challenges of diabetes, as approximately 12% of the adult population is affected by and suffer from different types of this non-communicable dis-ease.

At the country level, FAO is seeking to forge a closer collaboration between key stakeholders to address the challenges. In this endeavor, the Organ-ization pursuing joint programmes with WHO, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Jihad-e Agricul-ture to promote a concerted effort towards securing enhanced nutrition and healthy diets, strengthened food quality and safety for the nation in line with the recommendations that emanated from the Second International Conference that was held at the Organi-zation’s headquarters in Rome in 2014. I believe that a multidisciplinary approach and inter-sectoral collab-oration in this process is essential if we are to “beat” diabetes definitively in Iran.

APRIL 7, 2016

IMIDRO to inaugurate new steel projects

BMI Chairman & CEO meets with members of HKCC

TEHRAN — New steel projects will be

inaugurated in May 2016, Chairman of the board of Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development & Renovation (IMIDRO) announced.

According to the report of public relations of IMIDRO, seven provincial steel projects and two sponge iron production projects will be inaugu-rated in May 2016 and also three projects will be inaugurated by the

end of the current Iranian year, in a meeting with employees of IMIDRO and its subsidiaries, Mehdi Karbasian said.

Referring to the exploration of new mines for these projects, Karbasian em-phasized the need for attracting foreign investment. IMIDRO started new explo-ration projects in an area of 250 thou-sand kilometers and spent over $33 million in exploration sector last year, he added.

TEHRAN — Dr. Ab-dolnaser Hemmati,

The chairman of Bank Melli Iran (BMI) met with Andrew Wales, Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce director for Asia-Africa committee, a number of the members as well as some Chinese mul-tinational company representatives.

In this meeting, referring to the im-portance of post-sanctions era, Dr. Hem-mati emphasized the significant role of BMI in economic relations between

the two countries. He also mentioned the re-opening of the BMI Hong Kong branch and getting the relevant licenses regarding Melli Bank PLC London in the near future. Andrew wales, for his part, mentioned Iran and china’s development programs and said this meeting could pave the way for the expansion of cooper-ation with BMI in the near future. The offi-cials in this meeting believed mutual trade relations could not happen without the cooperation of the two countries’ banks.

ECONOMYd e s k

ECONOMYd e s k

Libya’s United Nations-backed unity government moved to cement control over the country’s finances and institu-tions on Wednesday after the rival administration in Tripoli ceded power in a boost to efforts to end years of chaos.

The concession late on Tuesday by the militia-backed ad-ministration that had controlled Tripoli since 2014 was a major about-turn for a body that had made every effort to block the arrival of prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj.

It came after UN envoy Martin Kobler held talks with Sarraj at the naval base where he has established his headquarters since his arrival under escort by sea last Wednesday.

The international community has pleaded with Libya’s warring sides to stand behind the unity government, which it sees as vital to tackling an extremist expansion and ram-pant people smuggling in the North African state.

The Government of National Accord (GNA) has yet to secure a similar concession from another rival administra-tion based in the far eastern town of Tobruk, which has long claimed international legitimacy because it was appointed by the parliament elected in the last polls in 2014.

In a directive published on its official Facebook page on Wednesday, the GNA ordered all government “ministries and institutions and committees” to respect its authority and use its logo.

It also ordered the Central Bank and the Audit Bureau to freeze all state accounts immediately, except for salary payments to government employees.

Italy hails ‘encouraging’ moves The Tripoli-based administration had said it was step-

ping aside in the national interest.“We inform you that we are ceasing the activities en-

trusted to us as an executive power,” it said in a statement.The statement, bearing the logo of the so-called Na-

tional Salvation Government headed by Khalifa Ghweil, said the unrecognized Tripoli prime minister, his deputy premiers and cabinet ministers were all stepping aside.

It said the Tripoli authorities took the decision to quit be-cause they were determined to “preserve the higher interests of the country and prevent bloodshed and divisions.”

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said recent de-velopments were “encouraging” in moving towards a “unit-ed, stable and secure Libya”.

“I hope that the spirit of compromise prevails on all parties involved,” he said in a statement, offering the full support of Italy, the former colonial power in Libya, to the new government.

The UN Libya envoy, in Tripoli on his first visit since Sar-raj’s arrival, hailed the announcement as “good news” but added that “deeds must follow words”.

Kobler praised the “courage and determination” of the unity government, whose growing authority has raised hopes it will be able to restore some stability in Libya, which has been plagued by chaos since Muammar Gaddafi’s 2011 overthrow.

UN offers ‘all support needed’“We want to show that the UN and the international

community support Prime Minister Sarraj and members of the presidency council,” Kobler told AFP.

He said the UN was ready to provide “all the support needed” towards an “immediate and peaceful handover of power”.

The unity government was formed under a power-sharing deal agreed by some lawmakers in December.

The new administration had in recent days been broad-ening its support, winning the backing of the Libyan In-vestment Authority, the National Oil Corporation and the Central Bank.

Mattia Toaldo, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Kobler’s visit was a clear signal that the GNA was putting down roots in the capital.

“Kobler’s visit to Tripoli, after the many times he was re-fused landing and access... shows the degree of control of Tripoli by the GNA,” Toaldo said.

An adviser to Kobler said the UN envoy discussed with Sarraj “ways to support the action” of the unity government.

Western governments are deeply concerned that Lib-ya’s disarray has allowed ISIL terrorist group to gain an im-portant foothold in the country, but have said a foreign intervention can only take place at the request of a unity government.

(Source: AFP)

Libya unity govt. cements control after rival cedes power

Without earth no birth!

40,945 births registered S O C I E T Yd e s k

S O C I E T Yd e s k

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 h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / s o c i e t yAPRIL 7, 2016APRIL 7, 201610

TEHRAN — Within the 13-day Noruz holi-days (March 20-April 1), 1,331 multiple births,

including 628 twins and 25 triplets were reported nationwide, an official with the Civil Registration Organization said.

The most multiple births happened in Tehran with 217 infants, including 107 twins and one triplet, Fars News Agency quoted Ali-Akbar Mahzoon as saying.

He went on to say that, 40,945 births were registered during the same period.

Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, and Khuzestan provinces with 5,074, 4,092, and 3,129 births held the first three places over other provinces in Iran respectively, he added.

The official also noted that 10,470 deaths occurred over the same period and provinces of Tehran with 1,688 and Khorasan Razavi with 900 deaths had the highest death rates in this period in the country.

1,331 multiple births reported during Noruz holidays in Iran

IN FOCUS IRNA/ Bahman Zarei

Once again water flowed through Tafeh waterfall located in Bisotun preserved area, Kermanshah province, after 15 years.

LEARN ENGLISHDealing With Corrupt Officials Vera: I can’t believe that Stan has been arrested. I know that he wasn’t always on the up-and-up, but he’s being accused of in-fluence peddling and taking bribes. Keigo: Stan has been getting kickbacks for years. Everybody knew that if you wanted to get what you wanted from this de-partment, you had to grease Stan’s palms. There isn’t a more corrupt official than Stan. Vera: But he was always so nice to me. Keigo: That was part of the problem. He was always good to his friends and family. That’s why he’s also known for his nepo-tism and cronyism. He gave friends and family plum jobs with big salaries. He had an entire good old boy network. Vera: Do you really think he’ll go to jail? Keigo: I’m sure of it. On second thought, if he can find a judge who’s on the take and is as corrupt as he is, he has a fighting chance.

(Source: eslpod.com) Words & phrases

on the up-and-up: if a person or business is on the up and up, they are honest and do things legallyaccuse: to say that you believe someone is guilty of a crime or of doing something badinfluence peddling: the use of position or political influence on someone's behalf in exchange for money or favorsbribe: money or a gift that you illegally give someone to per-suade them to do something for youkickback: money that someone pays secretly and dishonestly in return for someone's help; bribegrease someone’s palms: to give someone money in a secret or dishonest way in order to persuade them to do somethingcorrupt: using your power in a dishonest or illegal way in order to get an advantage for yourselfnepotism: the practice of unfairly giving the best jobs to mem-bers of your family when you are in a position of powercronyism: the practice of unfairly giving the best jobs to your friends when you are in a position of power - used to show disapprovalplum job: a good job etc. that other people wish they hadgood old boy network: referring to someone who engages in cronyism among men who have known each other for a long period of timejail: a place where criminals are kept as part of their punishment, or where people who have been charged with a crime are kept before they are judged in a law court; prisonon the second thought: used to say that you have changed your mind about somethingon the take: to be willing to do something wrong in return for moneyhave a fighting chance: a small but real possibility that you might do or achieve something

TEHRAN — Three 5, 9, and 12 year-old sisters were drowned in an irrigation

pool in Jiroft, southeastern Kerman province, chief of the disaster management and emergency response of the Jiroft University of Medical Sciences said.

The incident took place on Tuesday evening and a medical team was at the scene as soon as possible, Ebra-

him Mohammadi said, Mehr News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Sadly all three of them died at the scene and their bod-ies were transferred to the forensics to decide the exact time and cause of death, Mohammadi added.

He further warned the public not to swim in irrigation pools and canals in summer to avoid such events.

Three sisters drowned in irrigation pool in Kerman

Estate agents dealing with the sale of an entire English village say they have been inundated with inquiries despite the £20 million price tag.

West Heslerton, near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, has been put up for sale - including its 21-bedroom mansion, 43 houses, a pub, a range of other buildings and more than 2,000 acres of farmland.

The village has been owned by the same family for generations but a decision has fi-nally been taken to sell following the death of Eve Dawnay, the last owner, five years ago, at the age of 84.

Miss Dawnay’s benevolent management of West Heslerton has meant very little has changed among the rented cottages for 50 years.

Tom Watson, director of Cundalls, the es-tate agents handling the sale, explained that a sale was the best option given that Miss Dawnay had no single heir.

He said that the family would like sell to someone who shared her philosophy towards the people of the village. But, he

stressed, it would be an open sale available to all potential buyers.

“We’ve had an incredible amount of inter-est already,” Mr. Watson said.

“My phone’s been ringing off the hook. We’ve had about 50 requests for details al-ready.” Mr. Watson - who went to the village primary school - said: “It’s a once-in-a-gener-ation opportunity.”

He said “she was very kind and the prop-erty rents are, and have always been, very low. This has helped keep a vibrant village community with a mixed group of ages and there are obviously a lot of people hoping that somebody with a similar benevolent na-ture will come along to take over the estate.”

“It would be perfect for somebody want-ing to build up and leave a legacy. The estate has been very much untouched in the past 50 years and is now a blank canvas, ready to be shaped for the next generation.”

“Of course, there can be no denying that the estate is also going to be very attractive

to developers and investors as, in many re-spects, time has stood still in West Heslerton.”

“There are now endless possibilities - be it to convert buildings, develop possible plots and commercial opportunities - but I know that in an ideal world Miss Dawnay’s family would really like to see the estate carry on in a similar vein.”

Miss Dawnay inherited the estate in 1964. It has been in her family for 150 years.

But she moved out of West Heslerton Hall 30 years ago and it has not been lived-in since. The hall is the centerpiece of the £20 million offer which also includes Miss Dawnay’s purpose-built four-bedroom home and even the village petrol station and more than 100 acres of woodland.

Mr. Watson wondered whether the sale would boost lottery ticket sales in the area.

He said “this really will be a dream pur-chase for somebody and it will be interesting to see how the new owners manage the es-tate going forward”.

Miss Dawnay’s sister, Verena Elliott, said “we all loved it and it would be very hard to find a village with more loyal and lovely peo-ple living in it. There is a real sense of com-munity which is hard to find these days.”

“There are generations and generations of families who have lived in estate houses. There was a time when nobody ever seemed to move away.”

Mrs. Elliott’s daughter Bridget still lives in the village and has been the shepherd on the estate. She said “I can’t say strongly enough, though, what the village and the people who have lived there meant to my family.”

“The loyalty of those villagers has been tremendous.”

“It will be strange to return and not be able to just wander around like I always have; that it will belong to somebody else.”

“But times have changed. Especially when it comes to farming, and it will be lovely to see new life breathed into the estate.”

(Source: Daily Mail)

Scarborough’s West Heslerton village: Yours for £20 million

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination. Nelson Mandela

Stray mortar shell hits Iran’s rural house A stray mortar shell hit a rural house in suburbs of Khoda Afarin town in East Azerbaijan province on Tuesday morning, leaving no casualties, the deputy gov-ernor-general for political and security affairs of East Azarbaijan province has said.The mortar shell which hit the yard of the rural house also shattered windows of the nearby buildings, Saeed Shabestari told IRNA on Tuesday.He said the shell was fired during military clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Karabakh.

اصابت تركش خمپاره به خانه ى روستايىصبح روز سه شنبه تركش خمپاره اى به خانه ى روستايى در حومه ى شهرستان خداآفرين اصابت كرد و به گفته ى معاون سياسى و امنيتى استاندار آذربايجان شرقى اين حادثه هيچ گونه تلفات جانى اى نداشته است.

در گفت و گو با ايرنا سعيد شبسترى گفت: يك گلوله توپ به حياط يكى از خانه هاى روستايى اصابت كرد كه بر اثر اين حادثه شيشه هاى خانه هاى مجاور نيز شكست.

وى گفت: اين خمپاره در جريان درگيرى بين ارمنستان و جمهورى آذربايجان بر سر منطقه ى قره باغ شليك شده است.

LEARN NEWS TRANSLATION

Rub out Meaning: erase For example: Write it in pencil so that you can rub it out.

P H R A S A L V E R B

E N G L I S H P R O V E R B

QUIZ OF THE DAY136) We have _____ days to do the homework.a) littleb) anyc) several(Quiz No. 135 answer: c)

Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know

Explanation: t’s better to deal with someone difficult but familiar than change and risk dealing with somebody worse

S P O R T Sh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / s p o r t s APRIL 6, 2016APRIL 6, 2016 11I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

F O O T B A L LKlopp the focus as Dortmund meets Liverpool in Europa League Rarely has one man been the focus of such attention in the Europa League.

But Juergen Klopp’s return to Borussia Dortmund as Liv-erpool manager for the first leg of the quarterfinals was al-ways going to be an emotional affair with such a strong bond between him and his former club after seven largely successful years.

Klopp oversaw steady progression after taking over Dortmund in 2008 and led the young side to back-to-back Bundesliga titles by 2012, when the club claimed its first double by humbling Bayern Munich in the Ger-man Cup final. A Champions League final appearance in 2013 was as good as it got after that.

The end, when it came in 2015, was mourned by Dort-mund fans who remembered only the good times, as well as Klopp’s infectious good humor and enthusiasm.

“Danke Kloppo” (Thank you Kloppo) was trending on Twitter at the time.

Klopp is already extremely popular among Liverpool fans and players for much the same reasons, with his passion for the game and his new club clear to all from his behavior on the touchline and in news conferences.

Klopp quickly put his stamp on Liverpool through the team’s high-energy approach and fierce pressing game. Results have generally been inconsistent but are starting to improve, like they did at Dortmund, and Anfield has become something of a fortress. Fans appear happy to give him time to build his own team.

It’s widely felt that Liverpool will be a force under Klopp, especially once he gets his own players in, and that the pair are a perfect fit - just like it was at Dortmund.

Here are some things to know about Thursday’s matches:---

DORTMUND-LIVERPOOLOf course Liverpool’s trip to Germany isn’t just about Klopp

- even if German broadcaster Sport1 was reportedly planning a “Kloppo Cam” focused only on the Liverpool manager for the duration of the game.

For Dortmund, the Europa League represents arguably a better chance of silverware than the Bundesliga, where it trails Bayern by five points despite producing the best-ever cam-paign by a second-place team.

Dortmund also has a German Cup semifinal match to come against Hertha Berlin, but progression in Europe is a priority.

Ilkay Gundogan, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Mats Hum-mels took part in Tuesday’s training session and look set to return, leaving Neven Subotic the only player on Tuchel’s injury list.

Liverpool playmaker Roberto Firmino looks set to miss out with a hamstring injury.

--- BILBAO-SEVILLA

Fernando Llorente returns home to face the player who took his place in the hearts of Athletic Bilbao’s supporters.

Llorente joined Sevilla this season from Juventus, but the Spanish striker grew up playing for Bilbao from 2005-13 before heading to Italy.

“I spent 17 wonderful years of my life in Bilbao,” Llorente said. “It was always an honor to play for them. Now it is my turn to play against them, and I will give everything for the Sevilla shirt. It will certainly be a very hard match.”

Bilbao is now led by veteran striker Aritz Aduriz, who recent-ly got a call-up for Spain based on his excellent scoring form since taking over for Llorente.

The 35-year-old Aduriz leads the Europa League this sea-son with eight goals, making Bilbao the competition’s top-scor-ing team with 20 goals in 10 matches.

Two-time defending champion Sevilla has struggled on the road this season and has yet to win away from home in five European matches.

--- VILLARREAL-SPARTA PRAGUE

With a berth in next season’s Champions League just about assured, Villarreal can now focus on winning an elusive title.

A 2-1 win at Eibar on Sunday gave Villarreal control of fourth place in the Spanish league with an eight-point cushion over fifth-place Celta Vigo.

Villarreal has twice reached the semifinals of the Europa League, to go with one semifinal appearance in the Champions League, and is aiming for another shot to add to its InterToto trophy from 2003.

Playing some of the most attractive passing football in Spain, Villarreal is anchored by midfielder Bruno Soriano. At Eibar, the captain played his 364th match for Villarreal, surpass-ing Marcos Senna’s club record of 363.

“The most important thing now is to achieve all the exciting goals we have this season,” Soriano said.

Villarreal hasn’t conceded a goal while winning all five of its home matches in Europe this season.

Sparta, meanwhile, is undefeated in 12 Europa League matches and has won its last three away matches in the tour-nament.

--- BRAGA-SHAKHTAR

Braga, the only Portuguese club with a chance to win four competitions, is unbeaten in five European home matches this season.

The northern Portuguese club still has a chance to win ti-tles in the Europa League, Portuguese Cup and the Portuguese League Cup, as well as lying fourth in the domestic champi-onship

Shakhtar has yet to lose in this season’s Europa League.(Source: Olympian)

Iran has shown in-terest in hosting FIFA

Futsal World Cup in 2020.A record 13 Member Associations have

stepped forward, spanning five Confedera-tions, registering their interest in bringing the tournament to their country in four years’ time.

The full list features Iran, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Geor-gia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Neth-erlands, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and USA.

The only continent not to have a na-tion in the running is South America, who will be seeing the competition arrive on their soil at Colombia 2016 – which kicks off in September.

The 2020 tournament will be the ninth

edition of futsal’s premier competition, which has thus far been played on four of the six confederations, since beginning life at Netherlands 1989.

Iran shows interest in hosting Futsal World Cup 2020

Behrouz Ataei has been named as

head coach of Iran U-20 volleyball team on Wednesday.

He will take charge of the Iranian team in the 18th Asian Men’s U-20 Championship, which is scheduled to take place in Koahsiung, Chinese Tai-pei from July 9-17.

The defending champion Iran has been drawn in Pool B with Qatar, a team from Central Zone and Hong Kong.

Ataei was late Hossein Madani’s assistant in senior Iran volleyball team from 2010 to 2012.

He also coached the Iranian team in Boys’ Youth World Championship in

2011 in Argentina. Ataei has already headed Iranian

volleyball clubs Matin Varamin and Kalleh.

Behrouz Ataei appointed Iran U-20 volleyball coach

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I want to win both Tehran derby and league title, says Persepolis coach Ivankovic

Persepolis head coach Branko Ivank-ovic, whose team is just two points shy

of the league leader Esteghlal, stated that he wants to win both Tehran derby and the league title.

“We had a poor start in the league but we are back then I told the media that we are one of the title contenders this sea-son. Nobody takes it serious as we had earned just four points after six weeks but now we have not lost in the past 18 weeks and we are two points behind the table toppers,” Branko said.

“We have very important games in front of us. Tehran derby against Esteghlal is such as the league final and we will try our best to win this match because nothing less than a win will not satisfy me. After a win in derby we will be close to win the league which is our main objective from the start of the season,” Branko added.

Former Team Melli head coach then talked about the chance of Iran national team to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

“I think Japan and South Korea are not at the top level anymore while Iran team has a new generation and their young squad could easily book a place in the World Cup finals,” the Croatian coach added.

Ivankovic revealed that he had an offer to coach Croatia national team but decided to remain at Persepolis.

“I had many offers while one of them was from Croatia Football Federation but I decided to remain at the biggest club in Asia with millions of fans. Current Croatia national team is one of the best during the last decade and I believe they are capable of winning the Euro 2016,” Branko added.

Sepahan of Iran was defeated against Loko-motiv of Uzbekistan 1-0 in Group A of the

AFC Champions League at Lokomotiv Stadium on Wednesday.The win left the Uzbek side in a strong position to qual-

ify for the knockout stage for the first time.Temurkhuja Abdukholikov scored the only goal of the

match in the 54th minute. Sepahan had lost to Lokomotiv 2-0 in its home match. Sepahan’s Brazilian striker Luciano Pereira had a goal

ruled out for offside before defender Saeid Ghaedifar was dismissed for a second bookable offence late on as Loko-motiv completed the double over their opponents to re-main unbeaten in Group A.

The Uzbek side then missed a golden opportunity to dou-ble their advantage on the hour mark when the unmarked Timur Kapadze misdirected his header on the edge of the six yard box after Djeparov’s corner from the left.

Sepahan finally began to show their attacking capabil-ities in the final 20 minutes as the visitors searched for an equaliser and Ali Karimi fired in a shot from distance on 80 minutes that was well held by Nesterov.

Pereira and midfielder Hossein Fazeli both had chances to level with six minutes remaining before the Brazilian striker was flagged offside when he finished from six yards out.

And Sepahan finished the game with 10 men as Ghae-difar was sent-off in the closing stages.

AFC Champions League: Iran’s Sepahan loses to Lokomotiv

Jose Mourinho wants a written agreement with United, Yaya Toure wants to stay in the Premier League and Man-chester City get a prized youth international.It’s Wednes-day’s Paper Round.

Jose Mourinho demands written promise for United jobAccording to the Sun, Jose Mourinho wants a written

promise from Manchester United that he’ll take over from Louis van Gaal in the summer. The story says that while Mourinho has a verbal assurance the job will be his, Sir Alex Ferguson has publicly backed current manager Van Gaal, which has the former Chelsea boss wanting his future in writing.

Paper Round’s view: These plays for power at United are starting to get tiresome. It’s probably a slap in the face for Mourinho, who’s long claimed him and Fergie are good friends. Judging by Van Gaal’s still quite indifferent results,

this is probably more about the faction at United that does not want Jose Mourinho to manage the club.

Yaya Toure opts to stay in Premier League The Mirror are reporting that Yaya Toure will snub a

potential move to Inter Milan and potentially anywhere outside of England, as he’s stated that he likes the Pre-mier League and does not want to leave the country as his family are settled. Toure’s revelation has scuttled a potential reunion with former City boss Roberto Mancini, with the report adding he’s unwilling to take a pay cut.

Paper Round’s view: If Toure is unwilling to take a pay cut, it is unlikely that many Premier League sides will be willing to take someone on for £220,000 a week despite no longer being at their peak. Toure and his agent will be learning very quickly about the absurdity of their de-mands by the limited amount of open market attention

they’ll attract. Demba Ba tells John Terry to come to China Former Chelsea and current Shanghai Shenhua striker

Demba Ba has called on his former team-mate John Terry to make a move to China, saying that despite the 35-year-old still competing at a top level, he’d get a “once in a life-time” cultural experience by coming over to play for a year. Sven-Goran Eriksson and Luiz Felipe Scolari, the current managers of Shanghai SIPG and Guangzhou Evergrande respectively have enquired about how open Terry would be for a move to the Asian nation.

Paper Round’s view: Terry will likely try his hardest to get one more season out of Chelsea, despite it being an extraordinarily diminished role. But with things like these, you can never say never, and ultimately, money talks.

(Source: Eurosport)

McLaren will arrange further medical tests for Fernando Alonso ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, but believes he is confident of making his Formula 1 return at Shanghai.

Alonso was ruled out of the Bahrain GP last Thursday after tests conducted at the cir-cuit medical centre showed up a fractured rib in the wake of his crash in Australia.

With concerns over inflicting further dam-age should he be involved in another acci-dent, Alonso made way for reserve Stoffel Vandoorne to make his debut.

It is hoped the additional time off the track will be sufficient for a full recovery, but ultimately Alonso's fate lies in the hands of the Shanghai track doctor who will make a judgement next Thursday.

When asked about Alonso's chances of being ready, McLaren racing director Eric Boullier said: "I think he's confident.

"But he's going to go through the scans. The FIA will inspect them and decide yes or no."

Pirelli has cited Alonso as McLaren's sec-ond driver for its Chinese GP tyre selections.

Alonso spent the remainder of the week-end helping the team and Vandoorne, who went on to qualify ahead of team-mate Jen-son Button and finished 10th in the race.

Boullier can appreciate Alonso was prob-ably frustrated, but added: "It was a good experience as well.

"He passed on some very nice comments on the radio. They were very constructive."

Boullier also feels Alonso's service over

the weekend, rather than flying home, un-derlined his commitment to McLaren - which has sometimes been questioned.

"I never had any doubt about it. It's just you guys [the media]," said Boullier.

Boullier, meanwhile, has confirmed it is investigating Button's power unit that failed early in the race at Bahrain, with the possibil-ity new parts may be needed going into the event in China.

While McLaren has clearly made progress this season, Vandoorne's point is the only one to the team's name from the opening two races.

Despite that, Boullier can see the positives. "Our car performance, car balance are good,

and the drivers were happy with the car," he added. "When both the chassis and PU converge

to something a little better then we'll be there. "The fact we are fighting for points, al-

ready that's an improvement, and we know where we can gain.

"We know we don't have the most powerful PU, which is one of the reasons why we know we can make some gains from where we are today."

(Source: Eurosport)

Jose Mourinho wants written assurance from United, Yaya Toure to stay in England

Fernando Alonso expects to make Formula 1 return at Chinese GP

b

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

Ours is not a caravan of despair.Come, even if you have broken your vow.

Rumi

Poem of the day

SINCE 1979Prayer Times

TEHRAN — Actor Reza Kianian said on

Wednesday that Iranian cinema is the world’s sole film industry that has not been colonized by U.S. cinema.

“European countries have lost their independent cinema in the wake of the invasion by Hollywood,” Kianian told the Persian service of ISNA.

“Today, there are only a few coun-tries like Iran, Indian and somehow China that enjoy their own national cinemas,” he added.

“If Iran has maintained its national cinema against the giant Hollywood cinema, it means that our cinema has some unique characteristics that cause international festivals to praise it,” noted Kianian, who is also an au-thor of several books including “Act-ing”, “Acting Analysis” and “Spell of Acting”.

He said that Iranian officials have ignored the “unique characteristics” and added, “Some of them believe that the allegedly bad image that Iranian films portray of Iran is the reason international festivals show the films.”

“None of them [Iranian officials]

regard the positive aspects of Iranian cinema and they also disregard these points that our cinema has its own national and independent character,

and is the world’s sole cinema that has not been defeated by the U.S. cinema,” Kianian stated.

He also praised auteur Abbas Kia-

rostami, who is currently hospitalized with a severe gastrointestinal prob-lem in Tehran, calling him “a pioneer of Iran’s independent cinema.”

TEHRAN — Gizella Varga Sinai, the Tehran-based Hungarian art-

ist, will take a collection of her paintings back to her homeland in Budapest.

The collection will go on display in an exhi-bition called “Travelogue” during the Budapest Spring Festival running from April 12 to May 16, the artist told the Tehran Times via an email on Wednesday.

“When I look back on the journey I have tak-en, which has lasted almost half a century, I feel like the heroine of a tale, who has found treas-ures and is now returning to her parents’ home to show them with pride,” reads part of the artist’s travelogue.

It continues, “It was a long, long journey, excit-

ing, beautiful, full of adventure, sometimes dan-gerous but certainly worth it! I studied the East with Hungarian roots, a Hungarian wistfulness.

“A door was opened for me in Iran, I came to know the life and culture of a people with a long history, and through my art, I became the integral part of a vigorous art scene that was in search of new eras!

“This exhibition is like an autobiography. It wasn’t merely an exotic journey. It wasn’t merely getting to know foreign lands and a new, magical poetry – Hafez, Omar Khayyam, Ferdowsi. It was also a spiritual journey”, the artist added.

Gizella is married to the renowned filmmaker Khosrow Sinai. She came to Iran about 50 years ago.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Just as au-thor J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” stories unmask hidden magical secrets, Univer-sal Studios’ new “Wizarding World of Harry Potter”, opening Thursday, has also concealed little magical mysteries for fans to uncover.

Blurring the lines of reality, The Owl Post is an actual post office where visi-tors can have their mail branded with the Hogsmeade stamp if they buy Hogwarts stationery. Be like Hermione and stack up on parchment paper and quills, or watch

a Howler scream and then shred itself in the window display.

With the aid of an interactive wand, purchased at Ollivanders wand store for about $50, attendees can perform spells at 11 windows throughout Hogsmeade. Just as Hermione corrects Ron’s “Win-gardium Leviosa” levitating spell, make sure to point the wand directly at the windows with a flick of the wrist, which will activate a reaction in the window display, such as spinning cake stands. The windows can be identified by little

markers embedded in the cobblestone streets.

Remember when Ron warned Har-ry to be careful about Bertie Bott’s Every-Flavor Beans, which range from chocolate to boogers? Watch out for the earwax and vomit-flavored beans at Honeydukes sweet shop, which provides an assortment of treats from pumpkin pasties, chocolate frogs and the precar-ious jelly beans in detailed packaging, just like the films.

Props from the eight “Harry Potter”

films are embedded throughout Hog-smeade. Step behind the Hogwarts Express train station and there’s the in-terior of a train compartment featuring luggage racks and seat fabric from the set. In Gladrags Wizardwear, Hermione’s Yule Ball gown stands in a display cab-inet. Those waiting in line for the For-bidden Journey ride will go through the Defense against the Dark Arts class-room, featuring the actual desks that Harry, Ron and Hermione sat at during the films.

Noon:13:06 Evening: 19:50 Dawn: 5:14 (tomorrow) Sunrise: 6:41 (tomorrow)

PICTURE OF THE DAY Reuters/Lucas Jackson

Managing Director: Ali Asgari Editor-in-Chief: Hassan Lasjerdi Editorial Dept.: Fax: (+98(21) 88808214 editor@tehrantimes.com Switchboard Operator: Tel: (+98 21) 43051000 Advertisements Dept.: Telefax: (+98 21) 43051450 ads@tehrantimes.com Public Relations Office: Tel: (+98 21) 88805807 Subscription & Distribution Dept.: Tel: (+98 21) 43051603 www.eshterak.ir Distributor: Padideh Novin Co. Tel: 88911433 Webmaster: webmaster@tehrantimes.comPrinted at: Kayhan - ISSN: 1017-94

N E W S Iranian cinema not colonized by U.S. films: actor

The chair used by British author J.K. Rowling while writing “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” is shown in the window of Heritage Auctions in New York April 4, 2016.

Reza Kianian in an undated photo

Cinema Guild to distribute “Starless

Dreams” in U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico

TEHRAN — The New York-Based film dis-

tributor Cinema Guild has received the franchise for distribution in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico of “Starless Dreams”, a documentary by Mehrdad Oskouei on juveniles in an Iranian de-tention center.

The French company Dreamlab of Nasrin Mirshab is the international dis-tributor of the documentary, the Persian service of ISNA reported on Wednes-day.

“Starless Dreams” (Daybreak Dreams) has won the Amnesty International Film Prize in the Generation 14plus section of the 66th Berlinale, in February this year.

Oskouei also received the True Vision Award for his outstanding body of doc-umentary work at the 13th True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, USA in March 2016.

“The Last Days of Winter” and “It’s Always Late for Freedom” are two other documentaries by Oskui to be distribut-ed by the Cinema Guild.

N E W S I N B R I E FPoet, translator Hassan Najafi dies at 83

TEHRAN — Poet Hassan Najafi, who was also famous for translat-

ing Persian Islamic poems into English, died of natu-ral causes at his home in Qom on Tuesday.

He also translated a selection of poems by Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, into English.

Library of Congress to screen doc on Iranian songwriter Abbas Yamini-Sharif

Tehran Intl. Book Fair motto sounds alarm for reading

Sadi Foundation calls on developers to design games promoting Persian language

TEHRAN — Iranian director Hooman Zarif’s documentary

“Children’s Songwriter” on the life of Persian poet Abbas Yamini-Sharif will go on screen at the Afri-can Middle Eastern Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. on April 19.

Hooman Yamini-Sharif is the producer of the film, which also gives a brief history of children’s literature in modern Iran.

The screening is part of “The Persian Book Lec-ture Series”, a program which has been organized by the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland and the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress.

TEHRAN — The Tehran Inter-national Book Fair (TIBF) has

chosen “Tomorrow: Too Late to Read” as the motto for its 29th edition.

Shahre Aftab, a vast, newly-constructed fair-ground venue in southern Tehran, will play host to the upcoming TIBF that in prior years has been held at the central Tehran sites of the Permanent International Fairgrounds or the Imam Khomeini Mosalla.

Russia will be the guest of honor at the 29th Tehran International Book Fair, which will be held from May 5 to 15.

TEHRAN — ran’s Sadi Foun-dation, a Tehran-based organ-

ization on a mission to promote the Persian language overseas, asked developers in a call published on Wednesday to design cell-phone games, which help the promotion of the Per-sian language.

The best designs will be selected in a com-petition and the foundation will help the de-signs to be developed.

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Gizella takes collection back to homeland Budapest

Tehran Metro exhibit to showcase photos of Finland

TEHRAN — Tajrish Metro Station in northern Tehran will be playing host to

an exhibition of photos displaying the natural attrac-tions of Finland.

Entitled “Four Seasons of Finland”, the exhibition will open on April 8 in conjunction with a trip by members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Finland to Iran, Finnish Ambassador Harri Kamarainen has announced in a press release published on Tuesday.

“Tajrish Metro Station is a very good atelier, which can provide a good chance for citizens to see the pho-tographs on show,” the ambassador said.

“This also means that all citizens must make use of the metro station to see the works and not their per-sonal automobiles,” he added.

He also said that Finland has long been active in the preservation of the environment and has made the de-cision on holding the exhibit after observing Iranians’ interest in environmental protection.

The ambassador, who has long made efforts in pro-tecting nature, says he was overwhelmed to see Irani-an’s interest in green lifestyle protection.

Works by Finish photographers including Juha Sahl-gren, Lasse Niskala, Minttu Saarni, Thomas Kasai and Hannu Hautala will be displayed until May 4.

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Owl post, sweets and spells: Universal’s “Harry Potter” world highlights

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“From West to East” by Gizella Varga Sinai