American Sunni, British Shia Winners of split Muslims...

TEHRAN — Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khame-

nei said on Saturday that the “American Sunni” and “British Shia” are the two blades of the same scissors

who turn Muslims against one another, Khaemeni.ir reported.

The Leader made the remarks on the occasion of the birth anniversaries of Prophet Muhammad

and Imam Ja’far al-Sadeq’s (PBUT), addressing heads of government branches, a group of state officials, and invitees to the 30th International Uni-ty Conference. 2

Daewoo Engineering & Con-struction has signed a contract to build a thermal power plant in Iran, raising its profile to win more orders in the promising Middle Eastern market.

The Seoul-based construc-tion company said Friday that the deal will see the company build a 500-megawatt (MW) com-bined-cycle power plant in the

country’s southeastern city of Ker-man. The estimated value is some $500 million (550 billion won).

Under the deal with Iran’s in-vestment firm Omid, Daewoo E&C will team with the state-run Korea Western Power and Gohar Energy of Iran. The exact terms of the contract are yet to be un-veiled.

“Expectations are that we can

establish a stable revenue source, as Omid is one of the most influ-ential companies in Iran,” a Dae-woo E&C spokesman said. “We have taken an upper hand in the Iranian plant industry, which is gaining the spotlight as the next emerging energy market.”

“By 2020, the country is likely to install additional power plants whose combined capacity will

top 5,000 MW each year,” the of-ficial said. “On top of that, Iran is also planning to renovate some outdated power facilities gener-ating a total of some 17,000 MW.”

The company said the latest partnership will pave the way for the firm to diversify its revenue streams in such areas as plant re-habilitation.

(Source: Korea Times)

104 15 16Actor Jafar Vali dies at 83

Iran suggests UWW to hold World Solidarity tournaments for wrestling

Myth vs. fact: Iran tourism

Iran gets seat in ICC’s WCF

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

By Javad Heirannia

P O L I T I C Sd e s k

A R Td e s k


kha

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ei.ir

Deal reached to resume Aleppo evacuationsA new deal has reportedly been reached between the Syrian govern-ment and the militants in the city of Aleppo to resume the evacuations of civilians and the remaining armed groups from the east of the city, after an earlier halt in the evacuation oper-ations.

Evacuations were suspended on Friday after the militants fired on cor-ridors set up to let out the civilians and militants in eastern Aleppo and prevented residents from leaving the two militant-besieged villages of Fua’a and Kefraya in Idlib Province despite an agreement reached the day before.

Reports on Saturday quoted Syrian government sources as saying that the new deal would see a resumption of the evacuations. The fresh deal was reportedly reached after the militants agreed to allow residents out of the two villages.

Thousands have already been transferred out of Aleppo, where full government control was recently re-stored, before the suspension of the deal on Friday.

Earlier on Saturday, Syria’s armed opposition had said that a new agreement was struck to com-plete the evacuations from the mil-itant-held areas of eastern Aleppo. Al-Farouk Abu Bakr, a Syrian militant, told news channel al-Arabiya al-Ha-dath on Saturday that the deal in-cluded an evacuation from the two villages in Idlib as well as from the towns of Madaya and Zabadani.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a pro-op-position monitoring group, said some 4,000 people, including injured ones, could be evacuated from the villages starting from Saturday.

Meanwhile, Syrian state television said that the militants in the villages of Zakiya and Deir Khabieh in the south-western countryside of the capital, Damascus, have also laid down their weapons and surrendered to the Syr-ian authorities as part of another deal between the two sides.

The news comes as the Syrian troops continue to advance against the militants in the countryside of Da-mascus. 1 3

Winners of Islamic Unity International Film Festival

honored TEHRAN — The winners of the in-

ternational section of the first edition of the Islamic Unity International Film Festival were honored during the opening ceremony of the 30th edition of the International Islamic Unity Con-ference in Tehran on Thursday.

The awards were presented to the winners by President Hassan Rouhani and Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, secretary general of the World Forum for Prox-imity of Islamic Schools of Thought, Persian media reported on Saturday.

“3000 Nights” by Mai Masri (Leba-non) received the best director award and “Decaying and Vanishing” by Najdat Ismael Anzour (Syria) received the best film award. The film also brought the best screenplay award for Diana Kamaleddin.

“The Kingdom of Solomon” by Shahri-ar Bahrani from Iran won the award for best art and technical achievement.

Haicha Ladrouz director of “Hope in the Bottle” (France) won the best director award in the long documentary category, and the best long documentary award was presented to “Clouds Are Coming” by Mohammad-Ali Farsi from Iran.

15 films were competing in the in-ternational competition section.

The festival, dedicated to screening films promoting unity among Muslims, has been organized by Iran’s World As-sembly of Islamic Religious Proximity.

Zarif writes to Mogherini,

requests session over

U.S. sanctions renewal

TEHRAN — Iran’s Foreign Minister Mo-

hammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday he had written a letter to EU Foreign Policy chief Federico Mogherini, requesting for a session with signatories to an interna-tional nuclear deal over Washington’s extension of sanctions against Iran for another ten years.

Zarif’s call comes after Tehran an-nounced renewal of the Iran Sanctions Act by the U.S. Senate runs counter to the terms of the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers signed in July 2015 in Vienna.

Under the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Ac-tion, Iran reveled in sanctions relief in exchange for accepting some limits on its nuclear program.

“To maintain the integrity and coher-ence of BARJAM (Persian acronym for the nuclear deal) as well as its durabili-ty all parties to BARJAM require to pay heed to continuous implementation of its content,” Zarif said, according to the official website of Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran had already in a directive ordered Zarif to use all legal capacities of the country’s foreign policy to follow up on the U.S. move to re-introduce the sanctions.

2

021 - 430 51 603Tel:

[email protected]

The Tehran Times new pocket-sized glossary is now available on the market. The reader-friendly is a rich source of the most common journalistic terminology collected by the daily’s retired staff.

It can benefit a wide range of tastes from students to professional journalists. Persian equivalents have been given for all entries, including idioms and expressions. The glossary also includes example sentences for entries the authors thought it would be a bit difficult to learn.

For more information contact:

Daewoo E&C signs power plant deal in Iran

Beijing will endanger U.S. interests if Trump abandons one China policy: academic

TEHRAN – Professor Nader Entessar of South Alabama University believes that Bei-jing will react strongly and quickly to any con-test of the one China policy by the incoming Trump administration.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday that the “one China” principle is the basis for developing ties with China and no country can be an exception to this rule.

“Undoubtedly, Beijing’s reaction to this will be swift and detrimental to U.S. interests in East Asia and elsewhere,” Entessar tells the Tehran Times.

Following is the text of the interview: President-elect Donald Trump and Tai-

wan’s president had a telephone conversa-tions, a move which contrasted the one-Chi-na policy. What was the reason behind it?

A: Part of the reason is Trump’s inex-

perience with diplomatic protocol, and part of the reason is Trump’s desire to do things his own way. He will eventually have to learn that being the President of the United States is different from being a businessman. If he chooses to ignore this fundamental principle of governance, he will run into numerous obstacles in being an effective leader.

Given the economic dependency of the U.S. on China, what is the right approach toward Beijing by Washington?

A: It is true that the U.S. economy is heavily tied to that of China, but it is also true that the Chinese economy is even more dependent on the U.S. economy than ever before. So, neither side can afford a trade war. Trump may not want to acknowl-edge this publicly, but I believe he is aware of the importance of China to U.S. econo-my and would not want to adopt policies

that would lead to a full-blown U.S.-China trade war.

Some are of the opinion that Trump’s contact with Taiwan’s president was intended to exert pressure on China. What is your analysis of the Trump ad-ministration’s policy toward China once he is officially sworn in as president?

A: Trump’s unpredictability makes it very difficult to assess what his foreign policy towards China will look like. He has even stated that his administration is not bound by the “one China policy” that has been the bedrock of U.S.-Chinese relations since the two countries established diplomatic rela-tions with each other. If Trump changes the one China policy, the foundational principle of U.S. policy towards China will change. Undoubtedly, Beijing’s reaction to this will be swift and detrimental to U.S. interests in East Asia and elsewhere. 1 3

Iran parliament drafting motion to reduce ties with London

16 Pages Price 10,000 Rials 38th year No.12720 Sunday DECEMBER 18, 2016 Azar 28, 1395 Rabi’ Al Awwal 18, 1438

Darbandsar Ski Resort opens

after mountain snowfalls

Following recent mountain snowfalls, Darbandsar Ski Resort at Darband-sar Village, 60 kilometers North West of Tehran, has just opened.

Located on amazing slopes of a chilly region, the site is a unique opportunity for all who seek to refresh their white memories.

Ski lovers can see from the snow-clad area Mount Dama-vand, the highest peak in Iran and the Middle East as well as the highest volcano in Asia.

Hurling one snowball at the re-sort will count as one memorable moment of happiness for years. M

izan/

Iman

Sha

rafi

American Sunni, British Shia split Muslims: Leader

L Y Iran parlidraftingto reducewith Lon

TEHRAN — Iran’s par-liament is working on

a motion which demands that Tehran downgrades its diplomatic relation with London in response to recent hostile re-marks by Prime Minister Theresa May.

“Drafting a motion to downgrade relations with England is in line with the duties of the nation’s representatives,” said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.

During the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council’s annual summit on December 7 in the Bahraini capital Manama, May said she was “clear-eyed” about what she called “the threat” Iran poses to the region.

May had also stressed England would help the council “push back” against what she branded Iran’s “aggressive regional actions.”

The senior parliamentary figure fur-ther said Tehran had already warned London of drawing a commensurate re-sponse from Iran.

The Iranian parliament previously voted to diminishing ties with England in 2011, itself a consequence of London supporting stricter international sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

An ominous development Over the past five years, bilateral ties

between Iran and England have seen both low and high points, yet on a slug-gishly improving track.

In what was a low point in diplomacy between the two countries in November 2011, the Iranian Parliament voted to ex-

pel the British ambassador and reduce diplomatic relations with the country in retaliation for its new sanctions move against Iran.

Following the vote, England’s embas-sy compound in Tehran was raided by protestors who were demanding that the British ambassador be sent home imme-diately.

England retaliated against the move, ordering Iran’s embassy in London to be closed, with its staff given 48 hours to leave.

The two countries resumed their ties in 2015 by assigning chargés d’affaires, partially influenced by the prospect of a successful nuclear deal with Iran.

The deal was announced in July 2015 as foreign ministers of Iran, the U.S., Rus-sia, China, England, Germany, and France posed victoriously for cameras in Vienna on July 14, signaling a thaw in ties be-tween Iran and the West.

One month later, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond took a formal visit to Iran, re-opening the British Embassy in Tehran.

"Today's ceremony marks the end of one phase in the relationship between our two countries and the start of a new one - one that I believe offers the promise of better," he said during an appearance at the embassy.

In September 2016, Iran and the Unit-

ed Kingdom restored relations to the highest level by assigning and dispatch-ing their ambassadors to the other coun-try each.

Now Hamid Baeidinejad, a key figure in the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, and Nicholas Hopton, a Middle East spe-cialist, represent their countries in London and Tehran respectively.

May’s remarks come in stark contrast with Hopton’s hope for greater confi-dence between Iran and England.

“For me as the ambassador it’s a priority to try and establish greater trust to build more cooperation…” he told the Tehran Times in an interview in October.

DECEMBER 18, 2016DECEMBER 18, 2016

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

P O L I T I C S

MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

TEHRAN — The Iranian nuclear chief said on Friday that Iran can return to

its previous nuclear program in response to violations of the nuclear agreement, ISNA reported.

“On the nuclear issue, Iran has not burnt its bridges and can return to its previous condition,” noted Ali Ak-bar Salehi, director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

The nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Compre-hensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is an international con-tract that was reached between Iran and the 5+1 group (the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germa-ny) in July 2015.

Salehi suggested that Iran should have put more time on the text of the nuclear agreement as to prevent any misinterpretation and ambiguity.

“With our present experience regarding America’s sanctions and its failure to fulfill its duty, we could have

definitely reached a better deal,” he said.Tehran has on numerous occasions questioned

Washington’s commitment to the deal, accusing it of placing obstacles in the path of the JCPOA im-plementation.

The AEOI director further criticized Washington for not keeping its side of the bargain, saying, “Today, we clearly see that the Americans have broken their promis-es, and they have done so many times.”

On the implementation of the nuclear deal, Salehi, a nuclear physicist, said, “I’m responsible for the technical aspect of the nuclear negotiations and, Alhamdulillah, things go smoothly at the moment.”

“But we have run into troubles regarding the sanc-tions,” he said, adding that the other side – being the 5+1 group – has failed to meet its commitments.

TEHRAN — Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned British chargé d’affaires on

Friday for “unconsidered” remarks by UK’s officials about Iran’s policy toward the Syrian crisis.

“Following unconsidered remarks and position of the British officials on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s role in the Syrian crisis, the Foreign Ministry deputy director for Western European affairs summoned Britain’s charge d’affaires today (December 16) in absence of the coun-

try’s ambassador,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Friday.

Qassemi said the Foreign Ministry elaborated on Iran’s stance towards the crisis in Syria which is aimed at helping establish peace and stability in Syria and sending humanitarian aid to the country.

The Foreign Ministry also urged Britain to cut sup-porting the terrorist groups, Qassemi added.

During the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council’s

annual summit in Manama on December 7, British Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “clear-eyed” about what she called “the threat” Iran poses to the region. May also stressed England would help the council “push back” against what she called Iran’s “aggressive regional actions.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has said the remarks by May were “irresponsible” and intended to create divisions among regional countries.

TEHRAN — President Hassan Rouhani of Iran

said on Saturday that “convergence” is the only remedy to the problems afflicting the Islamic world.

“Divergence will stop us from making advances,” he told a number of state of-ficials and diplomatic representatives of Muslim countries as well as participants at an international unity conference in

Tehran.He described the situation in the

Middle East region as “worrisome”, noting, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has always stood and will stand be-side the oppressed people against terrorism.”

Rouhani also said that current crises in the region are “plots against unity among the Muslims”.

Iran attaches great importance to efforts to reducing threats, increasing opportunities, and promoting the ca-pacities of the Islamic world, the pres-ident stated.

He added, “It is surprising that some Islamic governments are sad about success of Syrian and Iraqi gov-ernment and people in fighting ter-rorism.”

Salehi: Iran capable of reversing nuclear program

‘American Sunni’, ‘British Shia’ split Muslims: Leader

Iran summons British chargé d’affaires

Only ‘convergence’ can heal wounds of Islamic world: Rouhani





TEHRAN — Vice President Is’haq Jahangiri will be travelling

to Turkey in the coming days to sit down with Turk-ish officials, Tasnim reported on Saturday.

The Iranian side has specified no date for the visit yet.

Likely on the agenda will be the latest regional developments in Syria and Iraq and expansion of bilateral ties.

Ankara and Tehran are split over the future of President Bashar al-Assad with Turkey backing a Syria without Assad.

This is while Iran has been supporting Assad in its logistics and advisory capacities.

VP on Turkey visit soon, no date set


TEHRAN — Mehdi Sanai, the Iranian ambassador to Moscow,

said on Friday that joint meeting of the Iranian, Russian and Turkish foreign ministers will be held by Decemebr 27.

In his speech during a ceremony, he said that Iran and Russia have established “strategic” ties.

He said that the two countries have taken step on the right path in spite of the Western countries’ interferences in the region.

Iranian, Russian, Turkish FMs to meet soon


Amano in Tehran for talks

TEHRAN — Director General of the International Atomic Energy

Agency Yukiya Amano will be visiting Tehran on Sunday to hold talks with Iranian officials.

Amano’s one-day trip comes at the invitation of Ali Akbar Salehi, director of the Atomic Energy Or-ganization of Iran.

Amano visited Iran in January, a day after the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehen-sive Plan of Action, went into effect.

The IAEA is tasked to monitor the compliance of the parties to the JCPOA.


Iran parliament drafting motion to reduce ties with London

London marring Arabs’ ties with Iran to sell arms: MP TEHRAN — Chairman of the Majlis National Security and For-

eign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi has said London is marring relationships between Iran and neighboring Arab countries with the goal of win-ning more arms sales deals.

“From the very beginning of the Islamic Revolu-tion, England has been ruining relationships between Iran and neighboring countries, particularly Arab ones,” Boroujerdi said, Mehr reported on Friday.

The British do this to establish bases in the re-gion and sell more arms to regional countries, he added.


Iran, Russia discuss latest developments in Syria

TEHRAN — Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan on Sat-

urday exchanged views with his Russian counter-part Sergey Kuzhugetovich Shoygu on the latest developments in Syria’s Aleppo.

In a telephone conversation, the two sides stressed that the fight against Takfiri terrorists in Syria should continue until security is restored to the coun-try. They also underlined the necessity for greater coordination and continuous consultations between Tehran and Moscow during the course of the war. A stronghold of terrorists in Syria, Aleppo was recently re-captured by the Syrian government forces.


Cleric: Muslims shattered blasphemy in Aleppo

TEHRAN — Tehran's interim Friday prayer preacher has ex-

pressed satisfaction with the Syrian government’s victory over terrorists in Aleppo, saying “Muslims overcome heresy.”

Ayatollah Mohammed Emami-Kashani con-demned ISIS and other Takfiri terrorists for what he called misinterpretation of Islamic teachings, em-phasizing won’t count as a Muslim. “They want to advance their agenda through oppression, lies, and distortion of the truth,” he said, adding that the only path forward for Muslims is to stand up to such acts of cruelty.


1 He accused the United Kingdom of attempting, for decades, to foment discord among nations, saying, “For centuries, Britain has been the source of wickedness and evil among regional nations: the strikes that these Britons have blown against the lives of our neighbors are incomparable to others. In Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq as well as in Palestine, in which they have committed a vicious act by forcing the entire nation off their homeland. Now, the same Britain, shamelessly, claims that Iran is a threat to the region.”

Ayatollah Khamenei added, “The old British policy of divide and rule is being pursued.”

The Leader of the revolution stressed the importance of unity among Muslim nations, saying, “Today the Mus-lim world is suffering major plights and the solution is Islamic unity. If we are united and if we move in union towards the achievement of Islamic goals, the United States of America and the malicious Zionist network can no longer impose their wills on Muslims.”

He continued, “Today two wills are opposing one an-other in this region: one is the will of unity, and the other

is the will of discord. “If unity is realized, the situation would not be as it is

today, and Muslims could gain more dignity. Presently, Muslims from Myanmar to Africa are being massacred; some are killed by Boko Haram and some by the hands of a few Buddhists.”

He also advised Muslims to “read all Quranic verses about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): it is a comprehen-sive collection. The problem with what we do is that we neglect the divine teachings. If we pay attention to this comprehensive collection, then the right path will ap-pear before us.”

The Leader described the arrogant powers’ increased efforts against Islam, particularly after the Islamic Revo-lution, as a sign of fear towards the establishment and consolidation of a mighty Islamic system, which would serve as an ideal model and pioneering method for oth-er nations.

“The enemies — even if they claim to pursue flexibil-ity, and even if they appear fine — from within they are indeed aggressive and violent; thus, nations must pre-

pare themselves to confront their immoral, disbelieving, and unjust enemies,” he added.

Ayatollah Khamenei further said that unity is the most important form of preparation that the Muslim world needs.

“All Islamic denominations—whether Shia or Sunni—should avoid creating discord; and they should regard the noble and beloved prophet (PBUH), the holy Quran, and the Holy Ka’aba as the axis of unity and solidarity amongst themselves,” he emphasized.

The Supreme Leader called on the Muslim people and governments to be vigilant in the face of the domi-neering powers' conspiracies.

“Why do [certain] countries with an Islamic appear-ance accept the words of the enemies about the threats and the intra-animosity within the Islamic world, and openly obey their policies?” the Leader asked.

“Continuation of the prideful path of Imam Khomeini and the revolution, resistance against the enemies, and fearless defense of truth and the right will, undoubtedly, bring about dignity and prosperity, in this world and the next,” said Aya-tollah Khamenei, addressing the Iranian nation.

The United States more than doubled the bounty on the head of the shadowy leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to $25 million.

The announcement by the State Department “Rewards for Justice Pro-gram” came as the U.S.-backed local forces close in on the terrorist move-ment's main urban strongholds in Iraq and Syria, the cities of Mosul and Raqa.

The cash will be paid to anyone who can offer “information leading to the lo-cation, arrest or conviction” of the elu-sive militant, known to his followers as “Caliph Ibrahim”.

“Under al-Baghdadi, ISIL has been re-sponsible for the deaths of thousands of ci-vilians in the Middle East, including the bru-tal murder of numerous civilian hostages from Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States,” the State Department said.

“The group also has conducted chemical weapons attacks in Iraq and Syria in defiance of the longstanding global norm against the use of these appalling weapons, and has enabled or directed terrorist attacks beyond the borders of its self-declared caliphate.”

Baghdadi has kept a low profile, de-

spite having declared himself the leader of a renewed caliphate, but last month released a defiant audio message urg-ing his supporters to defend Mosul.

It is not clear if he is in the besieged city, where he declared his caliphate in 2014 af-ter the ISIL terrorist group seized territory covering much of eastern Syria and north-ern Iraq. The video, which showed a man with a black and grey beard wearing a black robe and matching turban, is the only one ISIL has released of Baghdadi to date.

He has been reported wounded in the U.S.-led coalition air strikes multiple times, but the claims have never been verified, and his apparent survival has added to his mystique.

According to an official Iraqi govern-ment document, Baghdadi was born in Samarra in 1971 and has four children with his first wife -- two boys and two girls born between 2000 and 2008.

An Iraqi intelligence report records that Baghdadi has a PhD in Islamic stud-ies and was a professor at Tikrit University.

Baghdadi apparently joined the in-surgency that erupted after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and spent time in an American military prison.

(Source: AFP)

Ban Ki-moon left the door open to possibly running for president of South Korea in his final press conference as the United Nations secretary general, noting that the country is “in turmoil.”

Ban, a South Korean citizen who leaves his current post at the end of the year, was at first evasive when asked on Friday about his political future.

“I am still the Secretary-General. I still have 15 days to go,” Ban said.

But after leaving the UN the 72-year-old plans to take a rest, then go to South Korea and “try to meet as many people as possible, which may include political leaders and leaders of the community, societies and my friends.”

“I will really consider seriously how best and what I should and I could do for my country,” he told reporters, noting South Korea is “in turmoil.”

Ban's statements follow days of pro-tests demanding the swift and perma-nent removal of impeached South Ko-rean President Park Geun-Hye.

Lawmakers on Dec. 9 voted to im-peach Park over a corruption scandal, opening a new period of national un-

certainty.Ban said that he understood “the as-

piration of people for a new type of in-clusive leadership,” and suggested that “social integration, reconciliation and much more mature democratic institu-tions” could help.

Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister who was widely believed to be angling to run for the presidency, was expected to run in elections next year as the leader of Park's party. The scandal however may have derailed his plans.

“I can understand and share the anxiety of people” about the country's future, he said on Friday.

“I know that they don't want to lose the hard-earned democracy and the economic development,” which transformed South Korea “from a recipient country to a global donor. That is one pride that the Ko-rean people have.”

Nevertheless, Ban said, “I'm confi-dent that the Korean people, with their resilience and very mature democratic institutions ... will be able to overcome these difficulties soon.”

(Source: AFP)

UN's departing Ban leaves door open for S. Korea president run

U.S. boosts reward on ISIL leader to $25 million

Palestinians decry Trump's choice for Israel ambassadorA senior Palestinian politician has condemned the United States President-elect Donald Trump's choice of ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, a right-wing lawyer who has vowed to move the U.S. embassy to al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv before a final agree-ment on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict “will be the destruction of the peace process”, Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Pal-estine Liberation Organization (PLO) told journalists on Friday.

Along with other Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese territories, Israel has occupied East Jerusalem (al-Quds) and the rest of the West Bank since the 1967 war and has built Jewish-only settlements throughout the territory in contravention of international law.

The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority says East al-Quds should be the capital of a Palestinian state in any future two-state solution agreement.

Erekat's remarks came as Israeli officials praised Trump's decision to nominate Friedman, who is also a staunch sup-porter of Israeli settlements.

Chaos, lawlessness and extremismErekat warned of the potential outcome of moving the

embassy and a change in the “long-standing position” of the United States that considers “the settlements as illegal”.

“I look David Friedman and Trump in the eye and tell them - if you were to take these steps of moving the embassy and annexing settlements in the West Bank, you are sending this region down the path of something that I call 'chaos, lawless-ness and extremism',” he said.

In a Trump transition team statement on Thursday an-nouncing his appointment, Friedman said he wanted to work for peace and looked forward to “doing this from the U.S. embassy in Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his right-wing government on Friday welcomed Friedman's nomination.

A source in Netanyahu's office told the AFP news agency that the premier was “pleased” with the appointment.

“He knows David Friedman has the full confidence of Pres-ident-elect Trump and looks forward to working closely with him,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Far-right deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely called the appointment “good news for Israel,” while Education Minister Naftali Bennett, of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party, said that Friedman was “a great friend of Israel”.

“His knowledge and wisdom of the issues will strengthen the bridge between our great nations,” Hotovely said.

The U.S. and most United Nations member states do not recognize Israel's claim to all of al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.

Trump may not formally abandon the U.S. support for an eventual “two-state solution” but Washington will likely not press its Israeli ally to make difficult concessions to revive moribund two-state negotiations.

Trump's spokesman Jason Miller said on Friday that Fried-man had the president-elect's full support and that the plan to move the embassy would stand.

Severely misinformedMore than 530,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied

Palestinian territory, according to the Israeli rights group B'Tselem.Between 2009 and 2014, settlements were expanded by

at least 23 percent. Netanyahu has vowed to continue settlement expansion.

In March 2015, the day before Israelis re-elected him, Netan-yahu promised to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state on his watch.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ramy Abdu, of Euro-Mediterra-nean Human Rights Monitor, said that the UN regarded “any actions taken by Israel, the occupying power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration” in East al-Quds (Jeru-salem) as illegal.

Referring to Trump's recent statement that he would like to broker a lasting agreement between Palestinians and Is-raelis, Abdu said: “If he is sincere, then he is severely misin-formed. There is no way to bring about a just or a lasting peace by being the first country in the world to legitimize Israel's occupation of a city long regarded as the cultural and religious heart of Palestine.” (Source: Al Jazeera)

DECEMBER 18, 2016DECEMBER 18, 2016 INTERNATIONALI N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

At least 13 soldiers were killed and 56 were wounded when a car bomb hit a bus carrying off-duty military per-sonnel in the central Turkish city of Kayseri.

The attack comes one week after a twin bombing targeted police personnel in tourist hub, Istanbul.

“The bus was full of soldiers going on their weekend leave,” said Al Jazeera's Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istan-bul. “The soldiers in the bus are from the commando brigade.”

Turkish authorities have so far de-tained seven people and are search-ing for another five in relation to the attack, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.

Saturday's blast is likely to further an-ger the Turkish public, who are frustrat-ed by a string of deadly bombings this year, several of which have been claimed by Kurdish fighters, including last week's Istanbul bombings which killed 44 and wounded more than 150.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Deputy Prime Min-ister Veysi Kaynak likened the attack to last Saturday's deadly violence outside the stadium of Istanbul soc-cer team Besiktas, later claimed by an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK/Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê).

“The car bomb attack resembles the Besiktas attack in terms of its style,” he told a group of reporters, adding the in-cident would not put Turkey off of its goal of fighting the group.

In a statement, Turkish President Re-cep Tayyip Erdogan said a “separatist ter-rorist organization” was responsible for the attack, adding that such attacks were not independent of developments in Iraq and Syria.

Erdogan frequently uses the term “separatist terrorist organization” to refer

to the PKK, which is considered a “ter-rorist group” by the United States, Turkey and the European Union.

Later on Saturday, a small group of people attacked pro-Kurdish Peo-ple's Democracy Party's (HDP/Halklar?n Demokratik Partisi) headquarters in Kayseri.

Protestors managed to get in to the building and set several pieces of furni-ture on fire, according to Turkish national daily Hurriyet.

Erdogan has previously called for members of the HDP to face prosecu-tion, accusing them of being the PKK's political wing.

The HDP, parliament's third-biggest

party, denies direct links with the PKK and promotes a negotiated end to the Kurd-ish conflict, which has claimed hundreds of lives since a peace process, once led by Erdogan and the Justice and Devel-opment Party (AKP/Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi), collapsed in 2015.

We will fight these cowardsIn Saturday's blast, the bus was

stopped at a red light near the campus of Erciyes University in Kayseri when a car approached it and then detonated, broadcaster NTV said.

Kurdish fighters have previously tar-geted buses carrying military or security forces.

Defense Minister Fikri Isik said on

Twitter that Turkey would redouble its efforts to fight militancy. “We will fight these cowards with a national mobili-zation,” he said.

Turkey faces multiple security threats including spillover from the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group in northern Syria, where it is a member of a United States-led coalition against the terrorist outfit.

It also faces regular attacks from Kurdish armed groups, who have waged a three-decade insurgency for autonomy in largely Kurdish south-east Turkey.

(Source: Al Jazeera)

Car bomb hits bus carrying soldiers in Turkey

Supporters of South Korean President Pak Geun-hye ral-lied on Saturday for her reinstatement while opponents gathered to repeat their demands that the leader im-peached over a corruption scandal steps down imme-diately.

The Park supporters, who last held a major rally in mid-November, began their demonstration first. Later, anti-Park protesters packed the streets of central Seoul for an eighth straight weekend.

Many of the opponents were angry that Park's law-yers argued on Friday that the impeachment had no legal basis.

“This is my first time out here, but yesterday when I heard about her opinion against the impeachment sub-mitted to the Constitutional Court, whatever pity I had felt for her disappeared,” Roh Yi-young, 55, said.

Park's lawyers struck a defiant note in their first com-ments since the impeachment vote, saying the motion should be overturned by the Constitutional Court, which has 180 days to review it.

The lawyers' submission to the court rejected all the points made in the impeachment motion approved by a wide margin by parliament on Dec. 9 which accused her

of violating her constitutional duty and breaking the law.Park's presidential powers have been suspended

since the vote for impeachment, which set the stage for her to become South Korea's first elected leader to be thrown out of office. The Constitutional Court must first uphold the motion.

Park, 64, is accused of colluding with long-time friend Choi Soon-sil, who has been indicted and is

in custody, to pressure big businesses to make con-tributions to non-profit foundations backing presi-dential initiatives.

Saturday's pro-Park rally near the court a few blocks from the presidential Blue House drew largely older peo-ple who said those behind the movement to oust her were misguided.

Park's supporters have been in the minority in the weeks of protests demanding her removal.

Organizers of Saturday's anti-Park rally estimated the crowd at about 300,000. It was largely peace-ful as were the previously rallies, with songs and speeches striking a festive tone mixed with angry calls for her to quit.

Park has indicated she would not step down, fuelling concern that the political crisis could drag on for months. She has denied wrongdoing but apologized for careless-ness in her ties with Choi.

If the impeachment is upheld or Park steps down vol-untarily, a new election has to be held in 60 days to pick a new leader who will serve a single five-year term. Park's term was originally set to end in February 2018.

(Source: Reuters)

Supporters, opponents of embattled Park stage big rallies in Seoul Bahraini forces clash with protesters marking Martyrs' DayBahraini forces have clashed with people demonstrating across the Persian Gulf tiny state to commemorate the Mar-tyrs' Day.

The protests were held in Sitra, Nawidarat and Abu Saiba on Friday, the Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported.

Regime troops used tear gas and rubber bullets to dis-perse the demonstrators.

Since 1994, Bahrainis mark the Martyrs' Day on December 17 following the extrajudicial killing of two nationals during the 90s uprising. Bahrain, a close ally of the United States in the Persian Gulf region, has seen a wave of anti-regime protests since mid-February 2011.

Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded or detained amid Manama’s ongoing crackdown on dissent and widespread discrimination against the Shia major-ity. Several human rights groups have frequently censured the House of Khalifah regime for rampant human rights abuses against the opposition and anti-regime demonstrators.

(Source: Press TV)

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

E C O N O M Y DECEMBER 18, DECEMBER 18, 20162016

Iran-based company launches CNG kit in India

India’s Swan Energy inks pact for developing gas field in IranSwan Energy Ltd has signed a MoU with Petronasr and Alpha Energy Limited for the development of Sephid Baghun gas field, which has approximately 20 trillion cubic feet (TCF) reserves, in Iran by constructing necessary on-shore surface facilities and offshore gas liquefaction facilities (OLNG).

The project, which is estimated to cost about $615 million, will be implemented by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to be registered in Kish Island (Iran). Swan Energy will have an option to participate in the equity of the SPV.

Petronasr has arranged for 20 percent of the project finance, while Alpha Energy is proceeding with front end engineering design (FEED) of the project with an initial investment of €10 million.

As per the MoU, Swan will offtake

around one million ton per annum (MTPA) LNG from the OLNG, which will be delivered to the FSRU (floating storage regasification unit) built by Swan in Gujarat.

Swan Energy, in joint venture with Belgium’s Exmar Marine, is setting up the country’s first jetty-moored floating, storage and regasification unit (FSRU) at the upcoming Jafrabad LNG port. To be commissioned in January 2019, the Jafrabad LNG port will see a 5 MTPA receiving terminal, with one FSRU. Swan has already tied up for an initial 4.5 MTPA over a period of 20 years with the likes of GSPC, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL).

(Source: Business Standard)

An Iran-based company has zeroed down on the diamond city to launch its CNG kit for the two-wheeler segment, first time in Gujarat and India.

Officials from ITUK Manufacturing India Limited, a subsidiary of TUK Manufacturing based out of Tehran, the capital of Iran, were in the diamond city to launch the CNG kit for two-wheelers at the Gujarat Gas Company Limited’s (GGCL) CNG filling station at Pal on Friday.

Company officials stated that Surat in particular has the highest penetration of CNG powered vehicles in the entire state. Apart from savings from CNG, there is a huge impact on environment as scooter segment comprises of nearly 17 percent of the total vehicle population of Surat and 23 percent of the total two-wheeler population.

Every year more than 25,000 new two-wheelers are purchased by the citizens in the diamond city and this number would be in exponentially higher in the State of Gujarat.

ITUK has its manufacturing plants including the one located in Pune, other than Tehran the capital of Iran, which manufactures all parts indigenously in India including the regulators, valves, mixers, seat and frames etc.

(Source: India Times)

TEHRAN — The gas extraction project from the phase 21 of Iran’s

South Pars gas field (in Persian Gulf ) was started targeting a daily capacity of 28 million cubic meters of gas, Shana reported Thursday quoting Alireza Ebadi, the operator of South Pars phases 20 and 21 development project, as saying.

The official noted that with this phase going online the total capacity of the South Pars field has increased to 515 million cubic meters per day.

The extracted sour gas will be transported to the phases 20 and 21 refinery and it will be injected to the national network after being sweetened.

The country’s Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) placed the platform of South Pars gas field’s phase 21 on its jacket in the Persian Gulf in July 2016.

South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, is estimated to contain a significant amount of natural gas, accounting for about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

Iran starts extracting gas from SP platform 21

PICTURE OF THE DAY IRIB NEWS/Behzad Hajabdolbaqi

ECONOMYd e s k

ECONOMYd e s k

ECONOMYd e s k

Iran gets seat in ICC’s WCFTEHRAN — The Islamic Republic of Iran’ s representative has been elected as a mem-

ber of the general council of World Chambers Federation (WCF) of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), IRIB news reported.

Pedram Soltani, vice president of Iran Chamber of Com-merce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), competing with 47 nominated candidates, has been selected as one of the newly elected council members.

ICC WCF chamber members from more than 130 countries voted for their 20 preferred representatives, using the online election platform Electionz from 1 to 30 November.

The World Chambers Federation (WCF) is the backbone of the global chamber community, uniting the network of local, regional, national, and bilateral chambers.

ECONOMYd e s k

IKCO launches representative office in Armenia

TEHRAN — Iranian automaker Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) launched its first repre-

sentative office in Armenian capital Yerevan, IRNA reported on Saturday.

Iranian ambassador to Armenia Seyed Kazem Sajjadi and a handful of Armenian officials attended the opening ceremony.

The company which has been actively present in Armenia’s auto market in recent years is now seeking to increase its market share and also set a base for future cooperation with Armenia in auto industry.

Azerbaijan’s parliament on Friday passed a budget for 2017 based on an oil price of $40 per barrel which foresees one percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) next year.

Oil and gas account for about 75 percent of Azerbaijan’s state revenues and 45 percent of the GDP, so the slump in crude prices since mid-2014 has hit the former Soviet republic particu-larly hard.

The Azeri government cut the base oil price in this year ’s budget to $25 per barrel and moved the currency to a managed float, easing pressure on foreign exchange reserves.

A unit of Deutsche Bank AG conceded that it misled investors and violated securities laws and will pay more than $40 million to settle charges that it misinformed clients about how it routed orders to anonymous trading plat-forms known as dark pools, regulators said.

The bank agreed to pay $37 million to set-tle charges from federal and New York state regulators, and an additional $3.25 million to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Wall Street’s self-funded regulator.

Airbnb Inc is looking to raise an additional $153 million as an extension of a recent fund-ing round, boosting its coffers as the company pushes forward with global expansion.

Airbnb on Friday authorized the sale of up to $153 million in equity to investors, according to venture capital database CB Insights, which obtained the company’s financial filing. The funding is an extension of a round in September, when Airbnb raised more than $555 million, ac-cording to financial filings.

Investors have valued the company at $30 billion.N

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Azerbaijan passes 2017 budget, expects GDP to rise 1% next year

Deutsche Bank to pay more than $40m to settle dark pool cases

Airbnb seeks to raise an additional $153m

ELECOMP 2016 hosting over 600 Iranian, foreign

companies TEHRAN — Over 600 Iranian and for-eign companies are taking part in the

22nd Iran International Exhibition of Electronics, Comput-er & E-Commerce known as ELECOMP 2016, Mehr news agency reported.

The four-day exhibition kicked off at the Tehran Perma-nent International Fairgrounds on Thursday in the pres-ence of Iranian Telecommunications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi and Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari.

As Mehr previously quoted Head of Iran’s Trade Or-ganization of Computer, Nasser Ali Sa’adat, 40 foreign companies mostly from China, South Korea and Taiwan are among the participants at the exhibition.

ELECOMP is the greatest commercial event in Iran’s market of electronics and computer products and servic-es. Since its first edition in 1995, numerous players of this stage in Iran have been introducing their latest achieve-ments in software and hardware in ELECOMP every year.

The Federal Reserve will likely need to raise interest rates more than three times next year and faces challenges in gradually cooling off the U.S. economy, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said on Friday.

“If we get behind, it’s hard to really calibrate,” Lacker said during a panel discussion in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The U.S. central bank raised its target range for rates by a quarter of a point on Wednesday and projected three more hikes next year.

Lacker, who did not have a vote but participated in the Fed’s policy meetings this year, said the U.S. economy would likely receive some fiscal stimulus under

the Trump administration.He said the Fed would still be able to

raise rates gradually, but perhaps not as slowly as is expected by the majority of policymakers. The Fed raised rates only once in 2016, which followed a single rate hike last year.

Before the two hikes, rates had been

held near zero since 2008 to nurse the economy back from recession.

Lacker said he will be looking out for signs of rising inflation given the apparent strength of the labor market, but that it would likely be a couple of years before policymakers know if they waited too long to raise rates in 2016. (Source: CNBC)

Fed’s Lacker says more than three rate hikes likely needed in 2017Iran’s Aseman Airlines to lease seven Airbus jets Iran’s Aseman Airlines has agreed to lease seven Airbus jets, two aviation industry sources said, scotching earlier reports that Iran had agreed to buy the aircraft directly from the European man-ufacturer.

Labour Minister Ali Rabii was quoted by the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) as saying that Iran, which is negotiating with Airbus through state flag carrier Iran Air, had agreed with Airbus to buy seven aircraft.

The report fueled French media speculation that a keenly awaited deal between Iran Air and Airbus for more than 100 air-craft had been watered down significantly.

But industry sources said the two deals were not connected and identified regional carrier Aseman Airlines as the company behind the much smaller deal to procure seven aircraft, which Ra-bii said would start arriving in May.

Those jets will be leased rather than purchased directly from Airbus, the sources said, without identifying the leasing company.

Aseman Airlines could not be reached for comment.Owned by Iran’s civil service pension foundation but managed

as a private company, Aseman is Iran’s third-largest airline by ac-tive fleet size, according to the CAPA consultancy.

Meanwhile, a delegation from Airbus is in Tehran for talks to finalize a deal for about 100 planes.

Iran has been seeking to renew its ageing aircraft fleet since the lifting of international economic sanctions in January under a nuclear deal reached with six major powers.

On Thursday Airbus denied having finalized a deal with Iran Air but indirectly confirmed that another carrier had agreed to acquire seven aircraft via a third party.

“Airbus has not finalized any contract so far with Iran Air and the agreement for seven airplanes that has been reported is not directly with Airbus,” a spokesman said. (Source: Reuters)

Nigeria calls for partnership with Iran The Minister of Labor and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, has urged Iranian businessmen to explore the Nigerian market and establish their companies and businesses in the country.

Ngige gave the advice when the Iranian Ambassador to Nige-ria, Morteza Rahimi-Zarchi, paid him a courtesy visit in his office on Thursday in Abuja.

He expressed delight over Iran’s quest for bilateral cooperation with Nigeria in the area of skill acquisition and training.

“We ask that in the area of foreign cooperation, Iranian business-men should come to Nigeria and establish their businesses and their companies.

“This could be in the area of manufacturing, industries and con-struction, among others, because Nigeria is a place to invest so you can help us create more jobs.”

The minister also called for cooperation in the area of the estab-lishment of an international migration scheme, adding that Nigeria was already working with European Union and other countries in this area.

It is a scheme where labor can be transported or exported to oth-er countries. Those labor migrants will become legal migrants instead of illegal migrants.

(Source: Daily Trust)

Poland’s PKN says buys 1m oil barrels from IranPoland’s biggest oil refiner PKN Orlen said it bought 1 million barrels of Iranian Light oil from National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

The state-run PKN, which mostly refines Russian oil, said that the Iranian oil will be delivered to Naftoport in Gdansk in January and then transported to PKN’s refinery in Plock.

“The processing of the feedstock most recently delivered from Iran will be a basis for further plans regarding supplies from that direction,” PKN said in a statement.

Earlier this year PKN signed and extended agreement to receive oil from Saudi Aramco. (Source: Reuters)

SPECIAL REPORTDECEMBER 18, DECEMBER 18, 20162016 5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

A new era for a new UN secretary

After a controversial election, during which gender was a big part of the campaign, the new United Nations secretary-general was sworn in on Monday.

Antonio Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, is the first secretary-general from a western European nation for decades – and therein lies the controversy. It was widely believed to be Eastern Europe’s “turn” for a secretary-general and there were several highly qualified candidates from that region, including women. It was also felt it was time for a female secretary-general.

Guterres therefore starts his tenure needing to show political acumen, and it is suggested he will do so by appointing Amina Moham-med, Nigeria’s environment minister, as his deputy. But Guterres also has a much bigger task to handle: the many world problems that require UN attention.

In his inaugural speech, he mentioned several: “the acute crises in Syria, Yemen, South Sudan to long-running disputes including the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.” All of those are urgent, and Guterres has

some experience of them, having spent 10 years as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The world is in the midst of its worse refugee crisis for decades. Not since 1945 and the aftermath of the Second World War have so many people been displaced, both inside their own countries and elsewhere. Yet the refugee crisis today is very different than the post world war era. For a start, for many, especially Syrians, there is no country to go back to. After the defeat of Germany, many refugees were able to go back but many of those in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and European countries have little hope of returning.

Secondly, the public mood is very different to 1945. In both the Middle East and Europe, refugees are straining resources and causing tensions with locals.

All of which means that Guterres will need the best attributes of the office – a focus on mediation, diplomacy and, when needed, a bully pulpit – to sustain the world’s attention on the problem. And success is urgently required. If in five years, Guterres has been unable to make needed changes, the world will face a much more difficult time.

(Source: The National)

By Daniel C. Kurtzer

DECEMBER 18, 2016DECEMBER 18, 20166I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

INTERNATIONAL

Friedman is unqualified for the position, but more important, he holds extreme views on the very

issues that he will need to manage as a diplomat.

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s selection of David Friedman as United States ambassador to Israel is

a serious mistake that should be rectified. Spoken and published statements by Friedman, a 57-year-old bankruptcy lawyer in New York, about Israel and American policies in the Mideast suggest he is unsuitable to represent America in one of the most high-pressure diplomatic positions in the world. This call to withdraw Friedman’s name also reflects a sober assessment of the damage that could be caused to American interests and to Trump’s presidency by the reckless words for which Friedman is already known.

American presidents have long bestowed diplomatic assignments on unqualified loyalists and campaign donors. The appointments to Israel, however, had been an exception because of the significance of the issues the ambassador must deal with every day. It is therefore regrettable that someone so lacking in experience and knowledge — and sadly, who appears to have little interest in broadening his understanding — will represent the United States in Israel.

Friedman is unqualified for the position, but more important, he holds extreme views on the very issues that he will need to manage as a diplomat. Friedman would be representing not the American people but a small, extreme minority of Americans who have in mind the interests of a small, extreme minority in Israel.

Friedman has been publicly arguing that Israel has a right to build settlements and annex parts of the West Bank. He believes that the United States should recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He considers pro-peace groups such as J Street the equivalent of the Jewish kapos who collaborated with

the Nazis at concentration camps.His appointment suggests that Trump

is comfortable with these positions, which is extremely perilous and unwise. If Trump does not agree with Friedman, but has appointed him because of personal ties and loyalty, then it is clear that Trump either does not know or does not care that the Friedman appointment could severely damage the United States and his administration.

An abruptly new directionThrough his other appointments thus

far, Trump has made it clear that he wants to take American policy in an abruptly new direction. In the Middle East, especially

in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump’s approach is a prescription for trouble and the loss of American credibility.

The consequences of acting upon Friedman’s public suggestions are clearly dangerous. Moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem — not a pressing issue for most Israelis — will inspire riots across the Islamic world. The United States will rightly be accused of violating the very advice we have given to others to avoid taking unilateral actions on inflammatory issues.

Supporting Israeli settlement expansion will bring a quick death to the dream of a two-state solution, the only

solution to this conflict to which a majority of Israelis and Palestinians both have subscribed. The demise of the two-state solution will please right-wing Israelis and their right-wing American supporters such as Friedman. But would that be in the interests of the United States and the Trump administration?

Friedman’s strategyFriedman’s strategy of denigrating

American civil society groups that support peace in the region will deepen the demonization of political opponents that marks our current political discourse. After his election, Trump suggested that he wanted to bridge divisions within our country. Friedman proudly announces that he wants to widen and deepen those divisions. Will Trump’s stated desire to heal or will Friedman’s divisive calls define the direction of the incoming administration?

In his first interview after the election, Trump told the The Wall Street Journal that he wanted to make the “ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinians and end “the war that never ends.” How could he believe that appointing Friedman, whose views are congruent with those of the extreme right in Israel, will make a peace deal easier? Does Trump not understand that the realization of any of the positions advocated by Friedman would drive the Palestinians (and the wider Arab world) away from the negotiating table?

Every action by the American ambassador to Israel is monitored closely and every word spoken by him dissected for hidden meaning. Trump’s predecessors always chose a representative in Tel Aviv who could possibly advance our interests or at least not hurt them by wild comments and inappropriate actions. Trump would be wise to follow the tradition of appointing an experienced professional as our ambassador to Israel. Friedman is not that person.

(Source: The NYT)

Donald Trump’s Israel ambassador pick is hazardous to peace

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A N A L Y S I SDECEMBER 18 DECEMBER 18 20162016 7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

From the early days of finaliz-ing the historical nuclear deal, a large number of directors

of international companies active in oil industry have traveled to Tehran along with their respective country’s economic delegations and expressed their enthusiasm to recommence the cooperation cut-off for years.

Thanks to new model of oil con-tracts, dubbed as the Iran Petrole-um Contract (IPC) which aimed at attracting foreign companies and investments in Iran’s oil and gas de-velopment projects, a large number of officials of the most reputable European oil companies have so far negotiated with Iranian side aimed at fostering mutual cooperation.

NISOC-Schlumberger MoUOn Nov 2016, Iran said it has

inked a memorandum of under-standing (MOU) with Schlumberger – the world’s largest oil field services company - over the development of several southern oil fields.

The MOU was signed between

Schlumberger and the National Ira-nian South Oil Company (NISOC) – a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) – which is mostly in charge of the developments of pros-pects in Iran’s oil-rich Khouzestan province.

Accordingly, the French compa-ny would be required to study the formations of Shadegan, Parsi and Rag-e Sefid oil fields in Khouzestan. The projects would be carried out within the framework of Iran’s new generation of oil contracts.

According to Press TV, Schlum-berger would be the second giant energy corporation to win a deal in Iran’s oil industry. Earlier, Total signed a contract to develop a major gas project in Iran’s South Pars gas field. Total and Schlumberger now ap-pear to have provided France with a strong foothold in Iran’s oil industry given that both companies are head-

quartered in Paris. Earlier, Italy’s Eni also announced

that it is looking into Iran’s post-sanc-tions investment prospects, but em-phasized that it had to first wait for Iran’s outstanding payments over its previous investments in the country’s oil industry to be settled.

The southwestern province of Khouzestan which borders Iraq is generally considered as the heart-land of Iran’s oil industry. A province in which the world’s first commercial oil field was brought on stream back in the 19th century today hosts over 45 major oil fields and is responsible for around 80 percent of Iran’s total crude production.

IPC approvalOn Sept 17, Parliament Speaker

Ali Larijani endorsed the new model of oil contracts after a special com-mittee in parliament approved the conformity of terms and conditions of the new contractual framework with Iran’s upstream laws and regulations.

According to media reports, the outlines of IPC, which is aimed at attracting foreign companies and investments in Iran’s oil and gas de-velopment projects following years of limited or no cooperation with multinationals and inadequate in-vestment due to the international economic sanctions, were approved by the government in August shortly after it got the backing of so-called Resistance Economy Headquarters, a top government economic advisory body, after some amendments.

A large number of Iranian officials including Head of the Oil Contracts Revision Committee in Ministry of Petroleum Mehdi Hosseini believed that IPC is flexible in nature and any delay in its enforcement will cost the country eight to 10 billion dollars in damage a month.

Hosseini also assumed that speedy investment in projects for develop-ment of the oil and gas fields and recovery is essential in order to make up for any backwardness in the joint

oil and gas reserves and avoid more violation of rights of Iranian nation.

NIOC-HOA deal In November, NIOC signed a $4.8

billion heads of agreement (HOA) deal with French Total, China Nation-al Petroleum Corp and Iranian Pet-ropars company for development of the phase 11 of South Pars joint gas field.

Once the project is implemented, 56 million cubic meters will be added to Iran’s gas extraction capacity from the field which is shared with Qatar.

Under the agreement, the con-tractor will finance the project, thus luring billions of dollars of investment for the country.

Development of phase 11 of South Pars gas field the within framework of the new model of oil contracts under-lines high share of Iranian companies in various divisions of operations.

Iran has pitched some 50 up-

stream oil and gas projects under the newly revised framework of its oil contracts that is hoped to sweeten the previous not-anymore-popular buyback deals.

Eni returns to Iran On Nov 25, Italy’s oil giant Eni,

which was involved in the develop-ment of several oil and gas projects in Iran before a series of US-led sanc-tions barred international oil corpo-rations from investing in the country, announced that it has serious plans to return to Iran’s oil industry in a yet another indication of the growing in-terest of global energy corporations to approach the country’s post-sanc-

tions business opportunities. Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi told

Reuters that his company would start working again in Iran when it has been repaid investments previously made and when it understands the type of contracts Teheran will be of-fering.

“We are still in Iran... we never left... because they owe us a load of money and we are trying to recoup it ... We’ll come back when we will have recouped all our money and we know the contracts,” Descalzi said.

The projects that the Italian ener-gy giant was involved in Iran included the development of Phases 4 and 5 of the country’s South Pars oil field as well as the development of Dark-hovin, Doroud and Balal oil fields.

Descalzi visited Tehran in April 2015 for fresh investment talks with Iranian officials who included Petrole-um Minister Bijan Zangeneh.

The deal – which Iran signed last summer with the US as well as other members of the Security Council plus Germany – envisages the remov-al of a series of economic sanctions against Iran in return for steps by the country to restrict certain aspects of its nuclear energy program.

The removal of the sanctions against Iran – that took effect in Jan-uary – means that international com-panies will be now allowed to invest in the country’s oil and gas projects among other privileges outlined in the deal.

Indubitably, the new contract model unveiled by Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum for investment in its oil and gas sector, is more eye-catch-ing to foreign investments providing longer-term commitment from both sides.

By Maryam Azish

In November, NIOC signed a $4.8 billion heads of agreement (HOA) deal with

French Total, China National Petroleum Corp and Iranian Petropars Company for development of the phase 11 of South

Pars joint gas field.

Schlumberger would be the second giant energy corporation to win a deal

in Iran’s oil industry.

Descalzi visited Tehran in April 2015 for fresh investment talks with Iranian

officials who included Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh.

Schlumberger enters Iran again

DECEMBER 18, 2016DECEMBER 18, 20168I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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Duplex Villa in Niavaran1000 sq.m built up in 1200 sq.m

land, 4 bdrs, fully furn, pool, Pkg, stone floor, $8500

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Duplex Villa in Jordan850 sq.m land in 560 sq.m built up with 3 suit, 5 rooms, 2 Pkg, renovated, Suitable For Embassy &

Residency, $15000 Ms.Diba: 09128103206

Nice Villa in Farmanieh700 sq.m land in 550 sq.m built up,

3 bdrs, fully furn, outdoor pool, Pkg, $4900

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Villa in ElahiehFlat, 400 sq.m built up, 3 rooms +

one office, fully furn, garden green, pool, Pkg, $6500 Ms.Diba: 09128103206

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up, totally 8 apts, 4 units is 250 sq.m & 4 units is 350 sq.m

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“Lack of protection in some areas has made European companies feel hesitant about

transferring technology to Iran due to the risk of counterfeit and copying.”

Pharmaceutical sector is ‘backbone’ of Iran-Denmark trade: Danish ambassador

The Danish ambassador to Tehran has called pharmaceutical industry the “back-bone” of bilateral trade between Iran and Denmark.

“Our pharmaceutical exports has con-stituted around 48 percent of the total Danish exports so far this year,” Danny Annan said, pointing out the booming exports to Iran from Denmark after the implementation of the Joint Comprehen-sive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - the nuclear deal – in January 2016.

“In the first 9 months of 2016, there was an increase of 68 percent in exports to Iran and should the trend continues by the end of this year the total exports to Iran can reach 270 million Euros,” he noted, addressing a seminar titled “Phar-maceutical and IP Protection” in Tehran on Tuesday.

He went on to say that Iran’s Intel-lectual Property Center and Danish Pat-ent and Trademark Office have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to protect and promote innovative acti-vates.

On academic relations, the diplomat noted close cooperation is being devel-oped between the two countries’ univer-sities in the area of “archaeology, forestry and neurology.”

On Friday, Annan said, an MOU was signed in Denmark for closer coopera-

tion between Iranian and Danish entities in neurology.

He also called “investment” another

strategy that can “mutually benefit” both countries.

For instance, Novo Nordisk, a Danish

multinational pharmaceutical company, inked an agreement with Iran, prior to the lifting of the sanctions, through which the company invested a total of $80 million in pharmaceutical projects in Iran.

He went on to say that Denmark owes its strong economy to “ideas” and “innovations” that require proper protection.

Reinstating the importance of proper-ly protecting Intellectual Property Rights, the ambassador noted lack of protec-tion in some areas has made European companies feel hesitant about transfer-ring technology to Iran due to the “risk of counterfeit and copying.”

To further improve trade with less worries, he asked Iranian government organizations to improve industrial data protection.

He held out much hope that the as-sembly will lay the foundation for a closer cooperation between the two countries in pharmaceutical sector.

The Pharmaceutical and IP Protec-tion conference was organized by Iran’s Food and Drug Administration affiliated with the Ministry of Health, The Royal Danish Embassy in Tehran and the Danish Association of Pharmaceutical Industry with the focus on patent and trademark protection and opportunities of bilateral cooperation between Iran and Denmark within the pharmaceuti-cal field.

Stretching: The new mobility protectionA regular stretching program will help you stay active and independent.

A loss of flexibility may not seem like a big deal as we age. After all, it’s no longer necessary to do the kinds of athletic moves we did when we were younger. But flexibility is the se-cret sauce that enables us to move safely and easily, and the way to stay limber is to stretch. “People don’t always realize how important stretching is to avoiding injury and disability,” says Elissa Huber-Anderson, a physical therapist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

Losing flexibilityFlexibility declines as the years go by because the muscles

get stiffer. And if you don’t stretch them, the muscles will shorten. “A shortened muscle does not contract as well as a muscle at its designed length,” explains Huber-Anderson. Calling on a short-ened muscle for activity puts you at risk for muscle damage, strains, and joint pain. Shortened muscles also increase your risk for falling and make it harder to do activities that require flex-ibility, such as climbing stairs or reaching for a cup in a kitchen cabinet. “Warning signs that it’s becoming a problem would be having difficulty putting on your shoes and socks or tucking in the back of your shirt,” says Huber-Anderson.

Stretching benefitsWhen you stretch a muscle, you extend the tissue to its

full length. If you hold that tension long enough, the muscle will be longer once it relaxes again. “Stretching your muscle is similar to stretching an elastic band,” says Huber-Anderson. “The elastic’s resting length becomes longer.”

The more often you stretch your muscles, the longer and more flexible they’ll become. As a result, you’ll

. Increase your range of motion

. Reduce your risk for muscle and joint injury

. Reduce joint and back pain

. Improve your balance, thus reducing your risk of falling

. Improve your posture. Regaining flexibility

It’s a good idea to speak with your doctor before you start a stretching program, especially if you have chronic condi-tions that affect your muscles and joints, such as arthritis or Parkinson’s disease.

Your doctor will likely refer you to a physical therapist, who can evaluate your muscle health and tailor a stretching pro-gram to your needs. If you are healthy, you may be able to begin with an evaluation at a gym or YMCA.

An overall stretching program will focus on the calves, the hamstrings, the hip flexors in the pelvis, the quadriceps in the front of the thigh, and the muscles of the shoulders, neck, and lower back. Aim for a program of stretching every day or at least three or four times per week.

Types of stretchesIt’s crucial to warm up the muscles before you stretch

them. That means getting blood and oxygen to the tissue to make it more pliable and amenable to change. If you don’t warm up, a stretch can damage the muscle fibers.

One way to warm up is dynamic stretching. “This is when you move a joint through its available range of motion re-peatedly, without holding a position,” says Huber-Anderson. Types of dynamic stretching include rolling your shoulders, lifting your knees, and sweeping your arms out to the sides and up to the ceiling repeatedly. Huber-Anderson recom-mends two to five minutes of dynamic stretching.

Then you’ll be ready for the types of stretches that will help you regain flexibility, known as static stretching. These stretches are held for 10 to 30 seconds. Don’t bounce—that can cause injury.

Note: An aerobic or weight-training workout can also pre-pare the muscles for static stretching. However, static stretch-ing should not be performed before a workout, when the muscles aren’t ready. (Source: health.harvard.edu)

H E A L T HDECEMBER 18, DECEMBER 18, 20162016 9I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

What you do when you first get to the office sets the tone for the rest of your day. Learning how to prioritize and laser-focus can mean the dif-

ference between knocking out your to-do list before noon or getting knocked out by it. Instinctively, the first thing most of us do is check our email. And that’s a huge mistake, says Julie Morgenstern, a time-management expert who literally wrote the book on this (seriously, it’s called Never Check Email in the Morning).

Doing so first thing in the a.m. is the fastest way to make a detour into distraction city and kill your pro-ductivity. Email is reactive, not proactive, which lets out-side forces control your time and agenda. So the real question is: What exactly should we be doing? To get answers, we asked super successful people killing it in business, fitness, and life in general what they do to be productive (and resist the siren call of their inbox) the second they step foot into work.

1. Trap your anxieties on paper“The first thing I do when arriving at ‘work’ (which

is usually my wooden table next to a living wall in my house) is journal. I use a notebook like: The 5-Minute Journal to clarify my goals and priorities for the day, as well as perform a basic gratitude exercise. If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll drink pu-erh tea [a type of fermented dark Chinese tea] and free-associate for another two or three pages in a separate notebook. This often allows me to trap my anxieties on paper so I can be more productive with less stress throughout the day.” — Tim Ferriss, au-thor of The 4-Hour Workweek and host of the podcast The Tim Ferriss Show

2. Get your energy up with some movement“The first thing I do is take a walk. Then I spend the

next hour checking all my social media. I know experts advise that we don’t waste our morning alertness on low-value work like email and checking Twitter, but I know that I can’t focus on more challenging work until I’ve checked in on all the various forms of communica-tion.” — Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Pro-ject and Better Than Before

3. Go over your to-do list“The very first thing I do—even before I power on my

computer—is enjoy a cup of coffee while reviewing my to-do list, which I make before going to bed every night. This helps me get pumped and organized. After that, I’m ready to take on the day!” — Joy Bauer, R.D.N., nutrition and health expert on NBC’s Today Show and founder of Nourish Snacks

4. Do quick check-ins with team members“The first thing I do is say a quick hello and check

in with one or two members of my team. It’s important to me because it helps me start the day on a happy, positive note, and it lets me take the temperature of our group. Plus, it’s a good thing for overall productivity as creative teams run on good personal relationships and positivity. And in the event something is off or tense, it gives me a chance to find out what’s up before things go off the rails. Mostly, though, I just do it because I enjoy it. I am lucky to work with great people who are a lot of fun to be around.” — Pilar Gerasimo, founder of Expe-rience Life magazine and author of Being Healthy Is a Revolutionary Act

5. Complete the task that requires the most mental focus

“I pour a cup of coffee and get to work writing. I’m fierce about not letting anything interrupt that time. I write for two or three hours and then go to the office for meetings or teaching or student appointments. If I write every day, even for just an hour, there’s a momentum that works for me. I can just pick up where I left off. I don’t write quickly, but the consistency makes it all add up.” — Marion Nestle, Ph.D, professor of nutrition at NYU and author of forthcoming book, Soda Politics

6. Make (and use!) a really effective calendar“The first thing I do in the morning is check my cal-

endar. It is far more effective than a to-do list. This ap-proach radically reduces the number of decisions I have to make every day because I don’t have to decide what to do. I just do it. The calendar also has something called buffer days where I handle small things, focus days where I do things that matter the most, and free days where I do whatever I feel like that isn’t work. This is the only way I’ve found that makes sure I get time for myself, for family and friends, and for my company.” — Dave Asprey, creator of Bulletproof Coffee and author of the forthcoming Bulletproof: The Cookbook

7. Hydrate... with a kick“We have a morning trifecta that works like a charm

each day to make us feel alert, connected, and energized as soon as we hit the office. First, we always check in with our team, face-to-face. This interaction in the morning grounds us and connects us to our purpose as a united, productive team. Second, we prep our desks with huge mason jars of water. That way, once we sit down, we can be productive without interruption. Plus, getting hydrat-ed first thing in the morning gives us energy and keeps us healthy. Finally, we sip on a little caffeine, like coffee or tea, for a little boost.” — Kirsten Potenza and Cristina Peerenboom, creators of the POUND workout and the POUND Rockout Results System

8. Express gratitude for who (and what) is working“I like to start my day with a little gratitude. I walk

all the way through the office to the kitchen at the back and say hello to the people on my incredible team, making sure to let each one know how much I appreciate them!” — Kathryn Minshew, founder and CEO of The Muse.

(Source: greatist.com)

How the most productive people start their workday (Hint: it’s not email)

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مالكين محترم: ويال و آپارتمان مبله شما را جهت اجاره به ديپلماتها نيازمنديم

Nice APT. and nice villas in north Tehran and downtown

Affordable price

By Marjan Golpira

By Charlotte Andersen

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

T O U R I S Md e s k

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

HERITAGE & TOURISM DECEMBER 18, DECEMBER 18, 20162016

The stigma that Iran is a dangerous place where Western tourists – and particularly Americans – are neither

welcomed, nor permitted to visit the coun-try, could not be farther from the truth.

Where does this stigma come from? For one thing, when Americans picture Iran, they tend to envision scenes from the 1979 hostage crisis or the stereotypical cries of “Death to America” that they have seen in the U.S. media. However, these perceptions do not reflect the reality on the ground. Ac-cording to Jahandad Memarian of the tour operator, Apadana Journey:

“Unfortunately, Iran has been depicted in a negative light for most Westerners due to political tensions. As a result, many travelers naturally express concerns. However, upon their return the vast ma-jority of those visitors cannot find enough words to express how warm Iranians are, and how secure they felt in a region that is often associated with instability. Past travelers have unequivocally praised Iran for its hospitality, security and all around feeling of being welcomed.”

The emergence of the terrorist or-ganization ISIS, in the Middle East, has given Westerners another – false - rea-son for pause when considering travel to the region.

“Iran is very, very safe and we to try to convey that as clearly as possible. I find that having a possible traveler talk to someone who has recently returned from Iran to be a very effective way to address concerns about safety and we put people in touch with previous travelers a great deal. What better way to learn about a country than from someone who has re-cently returned.

We point to facts –There have not been acts of terrorism in Iran against tourists unlike many other countries in the world – from Istanbul (Turkey) to Par-is (France) and Orlando (USA) - the odds of American tourists being harmed, being part of a terrorist act or being kidnapped are close to zero.”

Another common fallacy is the assump-tion that Westerners (and Americans in particular) are not permitted to enter the

country. This misperception stems from Americans’ familiarity with the travel ban to Cuba. Many people assume that a similar

travel ban must have been in effect for Iran after the 1979 revolution, as a part of the extensive U.S. sanctions regime imposed on the country. However, there has never been a U.S. travel ban on visiting Iran.

The combination of all these myths -- that there is a travel ban to Iran, that Iran is dangerous and that the Iranian people are unwelcoming to Westerners -- leads to a further misconception: that Iran must be an isolated country devoid of visitors. In fact, its tourism industry is booming. According to Iranian officials, over 5 million tourists entered Iran in 2015, compared to 2.2 million in 2009.

After implementation of the JCPOA and lifting of international sanctions, tourism got an especially strong boost. More flights than ever have been enter-ing Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, with 516 landing there in the first week of October 2016 compared to 316 from the first week of May 2015, before the nuclear deal was signed. Looking to the future, President Rouhani has a plan for Western outreach to expand tourism to 20 million visitors by 2025.

What is there to do in Iran? Some Americans may imagine Iran to be nothing but desert landscape. In fact, the Islamic Republic is four times the size of California, with an extremely diverse landscape, countless cultur-al offerings, and plenty to do for the active traveler. Memarian of Apadana Journey notes:

“Luckily for us, Iran effectively sells itself. The country has numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It also has diverse climate regions, so visitors can experience all four seasons in Iran at any time during the year. And, of course, the food will keep you en-tranced throughout your whole trip.”

The crown jewel of Iran’s 19 UNESCO World Heritage Sites is Persepolis, the most visited site in Iran. The archaeo-logical site is located not far from Shiraz, a former capital and home of Persian culture known for poetry and gardens. Persepolis was the former capital of the Achaemenid Empire and is home to an incredible array of artifacts and ruins from 1500 years ago.

The nation also has a rich architectural history, which is exhibited in its magnifi-cent mosques, gardens, and palaces. Is-fahan, the capital of Persia under the Sa-favid dynasty, flourished and is summed up in a 500-year-old Persian proverb, “Isfahan is half the world.” It’s no wonder then that Isfahan is the top tourist city in Iran, with its incredible mosques, bazaars, bridges, and Naqsh-e Jahan Square, one of the largest squares in the world.

Tehran, the capital, is another popular destination, providing visitors a glimpse of daily life for urban Iranians. But for the more actively inclined, Iran boasts ski re-sorts, desert trekking, stretches of beach on the Caspian Sea and Indian Ocean, and mountain climbing.

(Source: us-iran.org)

Euromonitor report backs Iran tourism for growth

The partial lifting of sanctions against Iran is opening the country up to potential for tourism investment, ac-cording to new research.

A report by Euromonitor International suggests the Ira-nian government wants to encourage international tourism.

While the U.S. still has sanctions in place, hotel groups based in other parts of the world have already started to move in, led by AccorHotels this year.

Others are following including the UAE’s Rotana and Melia of Spain.

Six different international hotel brands are expected to be established in Iran by 2018.

Limited airport capacity re-mains a key constraint with more investment needed, although Brit-ish Airways recently started daily flights to Tehran from London.

Internet infrastructure - espe-cially online payment systems - is underdeveloped as a result of banking sanctions.

Yet the country aims to attract a huge increase in tourists by 2025, worth $35 billion a year. Tourism cur-rently accounts for less than $8 billion.

Increased tourism would enable Iran to compete against many regional destinations, such as Egypt, Dubai, Oman and Turkey. Euromonitor Middle East head of research Nikola Ko-sutic said: “Iran is a bright star. The potential is enormous when you consider where they are now, and what they could achieve in the near future.

“Iran is likely to become the leading tourism market in the Middle East and North Africa region, provided the infrastruc-ture is able to develop and cope with changes.”

The Euromonitor report on travel and tourism in Iran will be a main focus for discussion at the first Iran Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference (IHTIC) being held on February 7-8.

(Source: travelweekly.co.uk)

Hotels for book lovers“IT IS A SPECTATOR SPORT to look at someone else’s books, if not an act of voyeurism or armchair psychology,” wrote Hen-ry Petroski in “The Book on the Bookshelf.”

Yet when the books don’t belong to an individual, but rather to a hotel or a bar, it is not armchair psychology — it is an invitation to a chance encounter.

What books might be in your room in the Library Hotel in New York where each floor celebrates one of the 10 cate-gories of the Dewey Decimal System and a reading room is open 24 hours? Which volume will be brought to your table at the Gryphon, a cafe in Savannah, Ga., where diners receive their bill tucked inside the pages of a book? Might any of these books change your trip, your mind, your life?

Never mind that people are increasingly reading books on tablets and smartphones: Hotels, bars and restaurants around the world have made bound books a centerpiece of their themes and décor, just as home decorators have long anchored rooms with books displayed in any number of ways — by color, subject, height, chronology, spines that face out or in, stacked beside a bed, or made into a coffee table.

None of this is new. Rather, decorating with books is pos-itively ancient.

“You will find that Tyrannio has made a wonderfully good arrangement of my books,” the Roman scholar Cicero, who was born in 106 B.C., wrote to his friend Atticus. “Moreover,” he said in a subsequent letter, “since Tyrannio has arranged my books for me, my house seems to have had a soul added to it.”

Some hotels decorate with elaborate bookshelves; some with stacks of coffee table books. Others lean a few novels on a shelf, or make a vignette with an objet d’art.

Of course, some book décor is just for show. At the Euros-tars Book Hotel in Munich, where each floor is dedicated to a literary genre, a giant sculpture of an open book is on the wall behind the front desk. At the dark Library bar at the No-Mad Hotel in New York, only guests of the hotel can lounge amid the stacks after a certain hour.

For years, people have decorated by buying books by the foot or in bulk. One can buy hollow books too: boxes made to look like books with compartments for stashing cash or valuables, like a trio of travel-themed volumes with the word “Paris” on the spines for $35 (usually $39) a set at Homedec-orators.com.

There is a certain comfort in being greeted by a book (or several thousand) while checking into a hotel or settling down for a drink. Whether executed to one’s taste or not, whether acquired in bulk or one by one, book décor seems to say: Ideas are free and welcome here. And with the turn of a page, the traveler is off on a journey within the journey.

(Source: The New York Times)

By Gabriella Butler Research associate

“When someone travels to Iran, we

find that they cannot help but fall in love

with the country and its wonderful

people. They return with their eyes and their minds opened and they talk. They talk to their family,

their neighbors, their friends and their

hairdressers”.

Interested in traveling to Iran? Here are some things to note: Getting there: Many tour agencies offer private and group travel to Iran.

While most Americans feel more comfortable making their first visit to Iran as part of a group, Iran can also be discovered independently. The primary consideration for visitors traveling alone is that British and American citizens are required by the government of Iran to be accompanied by a guide during their visit, or have a friend or family member in Iran to take legal responsibility for them.

Travel to Iran is similar in many ways to visiting any other country, there are countless accommodation offerings, ranging from couch surfing to luxury resorts. Intercity transportation is simple with plenty of taxis, buses, shared taxis, and a met-ro in Tehran and Mashhad. And the country is connected by a web of trains, buses, and shared taxis.

Visas: Obtaining a visa prior to travel is required for citizens of the U.S., Can-ada, and the UK, along with a handful of countries. Most citizens of other nations can obtain a visa on arrival, but check your country’s foreign ministry for more information.

For U.S. citizens, the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Paki-stani Embassy can facilitate in the visa process. As a point of reference for American travelers, the Foreign Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland serves as the U.S. protecting power within the nation.

Financial Transactions: International credit and debit cards are not yet avail-able for use within the country, though MasterCard and Visa are in talks to extend services to Iran. It is advised to bring enough cash in your travels, with dollars and pounds accepted along with rials. There are also places to exchange money and you can also obtain prepaid debit cards upon arrival.

Attire: Iranian law requires women to be dressed modestly in public at all times. This includes wearing a headscarf and loose fitting clothing that covers from neck to ankles. The gasht ershad, or the morality police, enforces this attire. Men are recommended to wear long pants, yet short sleeve shirts are permissible

Culture: As a conservative nation, there are a number of customs regulating behavior that should be noted for a smooth visit to Iran. On public transportation, there are separate areas for men and women. Men and women should not em-brace or shake hands in public. Alcohol is also illegal.

Coming Home: Every person who travels to Iran becomes a mini-ambassador for the country. Moore of Distant Horizons explains: “When someone travels to Iran, we find that they cannot help but fall in love with the country and its wonderful people. They return with their eyes and their minds opened and they talk. They talk to their family, their neighbors, their friends and their hairdressers. They spread the word and eventually if enough people spread the word, then maybe a politician might listen and that politician might talk to other politicians. I don’t think tourism should be seen or become political – that is its beauty. Let it operate at the people level and let the people become the spokespeople.”

TEHRAN — Sprawled on about 110 hectares

of a mountainside parkland in northern Te-harn, the Sadabad Cultural-Historical Com-plex is used to be a royal summer residence during the Qajar and Pahlavi eras.

The complex was initially established and inhabited by some Qajar monarchs in the 19th century. It has underwent fur-ther expansions since the 1920s until the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The site embraces a variety of build-ings some of which turned to be house museums showcasing a wide range of royal families’ memorabilia including lav-ishly-made furniture, dishware, automo-biles, carpets, and miniature paintings.

The two-story Mellat Palace Museum, also called White Palace, is the largest mansion in the complex. It was completed in 1937, com-prising ten large ceremonial saloons filled with extravagant furnishings, paintings.

The two bronze boots outside the pal-ace are remains of a giant statue of Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi Dynasty.

Here is a select of comments that vis-itors to the historical complex have post-ed to TripAdvisor, one of the most popu-lar travel websites in the world:

Worth visitingWhen you queue up for tickets, have a

local buy the tickets as it’s cheaper for lo-cals compared with foreigners. There are so many places to visit and each one you have to pay into…

Lot of walking involved so wear sneak-ers! (Roryjdoyle from Kuala Lumpur, visit-ed August 2016)

Wonderful

The complex is a series of non-connect-ed building set in massive grounds. I visited the Green Palace, The White Palace, the Museum of Costumes, the museum of ce-ramics and the cars museum.

Glorious. Loved it. There is a shuttle service to get you around because it is vast and hilly is places but it’s also nice to walk around. (Craig G. form London,

visited June 2016) Peaceful break from the city

Gorgeous palace with interesting sto-ries to be told about the history of Reza Shah, and very helpful guides (in dif-ferent languages) to explain about the buildings, furniture and art. All set in the tranquil gardens where you can barely even hear the city! Lovely break, strongly

recommend this. (Chynalucia form Aber-deen, United Kingdom; visited April 2016)

Requires some time and some moneyLike with the Golestan palace [in cen-

tral Tehran] this place has many different small museums/exhibitions and if you want to visit them all you will need both a lot of money and time… (Alf Lundsten form Es-poo, Finland; visited November 2016)

Under visitors’ eyes: Sadabad Cultural-Historical Complex

A view of the Mellat Palace Museum at the Sadabad Cultural-Historical Complex in northern Tehran.

Myth vs. fact: Iran tourism

A view of the historical Si-o-Seh Pol (the bridge of 33 arches) on Zayandeh Rood (Zayandeh River) in Isfahan

By Phil Davies

A library café at the Boutique Hotel & Spa in Zurich, where 33,000 books line the shelves.

Increased tourism would enable Iran to compete against many regional destinations, such as Egypt, Dubai, Oman and Turkey.

Just like the moon and Mercury, the largest asteroid in Earth’s Solar System, Ceres, has cold pockets of perpet-ual darkness on its surface where researchers have now detected ice, a new study finds.

It remains a mystery, however, why only small amounts of ice were detected in these shadowy crater floors, the authors of the new research say.

With a diameter of about 585 miles (940 kilometers), Ceres is referred to as both an asteroid and a dwarf plan-et. It is the dwarf planet closest to Earth and the largest member of the Solar System’s main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. Water is not entirely uncommon on Ceres — previous observations revealed plumes of wa-ter vapor erupting from Ceres, exposed water ice has been seen at mid-latitudes (although only in a rare instances), and the dwarf planet’s surface material is a mixture of rock and ice; additional research has suggested that Ceres pos-sesses a substantial amount of ice under its surface.

Ceres’ pathLike the moon and Mercury, the axis on which Ceres

spins is tilted only a few degrees with respect to the path it follows around the sun. This means Ceres’ poles are only ever slightly angled toward the sun. (In comparison, Earth has an axial tilt, or obliquity, of about 23.4 degrees,

which explains why the planet experiences seasons — long summer days occur in the hemisphere tilted toward the sun, and long winter nights happen in the hemi-sphere tilted away from the sun.)

The modest axial tilt of the moon and Mercury means that craters at their poles have spots on their floors where the sun never shines. These permanently shad-owed regions serve as “cold traps” where water ice can survive. In areas where the sun shines directly on the surface, water ice is warmed up and sublimates (turns directly into a gas).

Prior work suggested that Ceres might possess cold traps like those of the moon and Mercury. Now re-searchers for the first time have images of ice trapped within permanently shadowed regions on Ceres.

The scientists behind the new work analyzed images of craters in the northern polar region of Ceres taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. They identified locations of perpetual shadow in at least 634 craters. These dark re-gions account for about 822 square miles (2,129 square km) of Ceres’ surface.

Water iceOnly 10 of these craters had “bright spots,” which reflect

high levels of sunlight. By studying the wavelengths of light

reflected off these patches, the researchers identified one of these reflective surfaces as containing water ice.

On Mercury, water likely formed when hydrogen at-oms in the solar wind — a stream of particles coming from the sun — bombarded and chemically reacted with oxygen on Mercury’s surface. In contrast, much of the moon’s water may be ancient, mostly chemically bound to lunar rocks since the moon’s formation, with water vapor occasionally making its way to polar craters where it freezes to become ice.

(Source: space.com)

Scientists have been perplexed for years by a hypnotic, sym-phonic sound emanating from the deepest trench of the world’s oceans. Now they believe they have finally identified its source: elusive minke whales — but a type never before heard.

The eerie keening and clicks first recorded in the Mar-iana Trench east of Guam in 2014 was dubbed by discov-erers the “Western Pacific Biotwang.” The otherworldly “song” soars in frequency from 38 to 8,000 hertz.

“It’s very distinct, with all these crazy parts,” said lead bioacoustics researcher Sharon Nieukirk at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center.

“What makes this call special is the second part, and the way it sweeps way up and it sort of has that metallic twang sound to it,” she told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

The sound is described in the researchers’ report in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America as a “moan with both harmonics and amplitude modulation, followed by broad-frequency metallic-sounding sweeps.”

Nieukirk and her crew believe it’s the “novel” call of a minke whale, the smallest of the baleen whales. The singing is similar to other baleen whales but with an added unique signature. Researchers believe their re-

cording of the call is the first time it has ever been heard. Visual identification

The scientists are hoping other researchers may have or will gather data that can confirm their theory. “More data are needed, including genetic, acoustic and visual identification of the source, to confirm the species and gain insight into how this sound is be-ing used,” said Nieukirk in a university statement.

The five-part song, which lasts from 2.8 to 3.5 seconds, was recorded by an underwater robotic glider equipped with a sensor in the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015.

(Source: The Huffington Post)

Lowly sawdust, the sawmill waste that’s sometimes tossed onto home garage floors to soak up oil spilled by amateur mechanics, could receive some new-found respect thanks to science.

Researchers at the Department of En-ergy’s Pacific Northwest National Labora-tory have chemically modified sawdust to make it exceptionally oil-attracting and buoyant, characteristics that are ideal for cleaning oil spills in the icy, turbulent wa-ters of the Arctic. The nontoxic material absorbs up to five times its weight in oil and stays afloat for at least four months.

“Most of today’s oil remediation ma-terials are designed for warm water use,” said PNNL microbiologist George Bonheyo, who leads the modified saw-dust’s development from PNNL’s Marine Sciences Laboratory.

Fossil fuel“But as ice retreats in the Arctic Sea,

fossil fuel developers are looking north,

and we need new oil spill response meth-ods that perform well in extreme condi-tions,” added Bonheyo, who also holds a joint appointment in bioengineering with Washington State University.

The “chance of an oil spill in the Arctic is real,” said fellow PNNL microbiologist Robert Jeters, who is also part of the pro-ject. “We hope materials like our modified sawdust can help if an accident happens.”

Containing oil spills in cold waters is especially tricky, as bobbing ice chunks push oil below the water’s surface, mak-ing it difficult to collect. The same goes for rough waters, whose tall, clashing waves disperse oil.

The modified saw dust pulls double duty. Beyond absorbing oil, it also en-hances another approach to combatting oil spills - controlled burns. If changing weather or tides move spilled oil toward a sensitive area fast, oil can be burned before it can cause further harm. Called

in-situ burning, the practice can signifi-cantly reduce the amount of oil in water and minimize its adverse environmental effects.

Freezing waterBonheyo and his team looked to de-

velop an environmentally friendly and inexpensive material that floats despite rough or freezing waters and can support in-situ burning. Not wanting to create more pollution if emergency responders can’t retrieve oil cleanup material, Bon-heyo’s team considered other natural

ingredients like rice hulls and silica. But they ultimately found their winner in a fine dust called wood flour. A woodwork-ing byproduct, wood flour is often used to make wood composites.

To make the dust into a thirsty oil mop, researchers chemically attach com-ponents of vegetable oil onto the mate-rial’s surface. These attachments make the modified material oil-grabbing and water-shunning. The final product is a light, fluffy, bleached powder. The team is also trying out adding tiny, oil-eating mi-crobes - fungi and bacteria - to the pow-der’s surface so any left-behind material could naturally break down oil over time.

Applying the modified sawdust is sim-ple: sprinkle a thin layer over oil on the water’s surface. The material immediate-ly starts soaking up oil, creating a con-centrated and solid slick that stays afloat thanks to the material’s buoyant nature.

(Source: EurekAlert)

Scientists have unlocked some of the ge-netic secrets of the weird and wondrous seahorse including its exotic eccentricity of male pregnancy.

Researchers said on Wednesday they sequenced the genome of a seahorse species for the first time and identified the genetic underpinning for certain peculi-arities in this equine-looking fish group that inhabits coastal waters around the world.

Seahorses boast a host of oddities. Males, not females, carry and give birth to babies. They swim upright, not hori-zontally. They have horse-like heads, tube-like snouts and no teeth. They have grasping tails to grip seagrasses and cor-als to avoid being swept away by cur-rents.

Their bodies are covered in bony plates. Unlike most fish, they lack tail and pelvic fins. Their eyes work independently, letting them look forward and backward simultaneously. And they can change colors to camouflage themselves.

Iconic animals“They are such iconic animals, one of

the examples of the exuberance of evo-lution,” said evolutionary biologist and genome researcher Axel Meyer of Ger-many’s University of Konstanz, one of the researchers in the study published in the journal Nature.

“Their numbers are declining due to habitat destruction and harvest by hu-mans,” added molecular biologist Byrap-pa Venkatesh of Singapore’s Agency for

Science, Technology and Research (AS-TAR).

The researchers analyzed the genome of the Southeast Asian tiger tail seahorse,

which reaches 4 inches (10 cm) long and boasts a yellow-and-black banded tail. It had the fastest rate of molecular evolu-tion among any fish whose genome has been studied.

Brood pouchMale seahorses possess a brood

pouch. During mating, a female depos-its eggs into the male’s pouch. The male fertilizes the eggs internally and carries them in the pouch until they hatch, re-leasing the fully formed offspring into the sea.

A gene present in other fish that plays a role in egg hatching underwent dupli-cation in the seahorse and assumed a new role, helping the advent of the male pouch.

Genes that in people and other ani-mals play a role in tooth production were mutated in seahorses and lost function-ality. Lacking teeth, seahorses use their snout to suck in plankton and other tiny prey.

A gene involved in development of pelvic fins in other fish and legs in humans was absent in seahorses, and they lack these fins. Instead, seahorses swim by using a small fin on their back that beats rapidly, with tiny pectoral fins placed near the back of the head used for steering.

(Source: The Telegraph)

limitless energy: South Korea achieved a world record for plasma operationThe South Korea National Fusion Research Institute (NFRI) in Daejeon 160 km south of Seoul, is developing a tokam-ak-style reactor which aims to harness the energy of fusing atoms. According to World Nuclear News, the engineers have achieved a world record for plasma operation, Daily Mail reports.

Plasma is one of the four states of matter – the others being liquid, gas and solid – with ex-amples being lightning and the sun.

The South Korea team of Superconducting To-kamak Advanced Re-search (KSTAR) reactor managed to keep super-heated plasma in a steady state for 70 seconds.

“The world record for high-performance plas-ma for more than a minute demonstrated that the KSTAR is the forefront in steady-state plasma operation technology in a superconducting device. This is a huge step forward for realization of the fusion reactor,” the NFRI said in a statement.

While other groups, such as the Tore Supra tokamak in France, have maintained fusion reactions for more than five min-utes, the Korean team managed to sustain ‘high performance’ plasma, reducing the flux associated with the superheated state.

The goal for future reactions is to carry out sustained fu-sion reactions for up to 10 minutes, laying the groundwork for a fully functioning reactor.

(Source: joinfo.com)

How to secure health by tracking mosquitosIf you talk to a statistician about prediction, they’ll tell you that they can’t necessarily predict what one person will do, but they can predict what a large group of people will do (unless they’re a presidential pollster, perhaps).

So while a statistician couldn’t tell you what one mosquito will do, they could tell you the regions in which potential-ly virus-carrying species of mosquitos will settle, model the ways that different viruses spread, or even use data to help come up with an action plan for a bio-terrorist attack on a population center.

Given enough time and enough data, they could conceiv-ably even use a statistical model to discern communities at risk of outbreaks before they happen — and work to prevent them.

This is the kind of work that Dr. Abba Gumel and Dr. Heather Ross are doing in Arizona State University’s Global Security Initiative. Dr. Gumel is a professor of Mathematical Biology at ASU and Dr. Ross is a clinical assistant professor at ASU and a nurse practitioner.

There is a delicate balance that this kind of work has to strike between respecting the rights of individuals and moni-toring groups of people in aggregate. Dr. Gumel and Dr. Ross very much embody the sometimes polarizing viewpoints present in the space – Gumel with his 30,000-foot-view mod-els and Ross with her regular nursing practice.

Gumel’s work, which focuses on the design of robust mathematical models for gaining insight into the transmis-sion dynamics of emerging and re-emerging diseases, has proven useful in providing deeper insight into the spread and control of the 2014 Ebola outbreaks in West Africa, by high-lighting the crucial role traditional beliefs and local mistrust of government had on the virus.”

(Source: The CSM)

Researchers may have found elusive ‘host shark’One of the most elusive creatures on the planet — and one that’s even older than the dinosaurs — was captured on video by scientists and researchers from the Monterrey Bay Aquarian Research Institute in California when they filmed the deep-sea ghost shark, National Geographic reported Thursday.

Officially called chimaeras, but also known as the rat fish, spookfish or even rabbit fish, ghost sharks have roamed the Earth’s seas at of depths 8,500 feet. They are distant relatives of both sharks and rays, but they aren’t nearly as big as some of their prehistoric brethren, reaching nearly 5 feet in length. They also possess retractable penises on their heads.

The discovery was technically made seven years ago, but researchers couldn’t confirm whether or not what they were seeing was an actual ghost shark. In 2009, the institute sent a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) down as far as 6,700 feet off the coasts of California and Hawaii, and they made the find by sheer chance.

“Normally, people probably wouldn’t have been looking around in this area, so it’s a little bit of dumb luck,” program director of the Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories Dave Ebert told NatGeo.

The video captured was originally part of research by the California Academy of Sciences in pursuit of a new species of ghost shark off the coasts of southern California and Baja, Mexico, Science Daily reported.

Ebert’s team was brought in to analyze the video. They believe it’s a pointy-nosed blue chimaera, which are usual-ly found around Australia or New Zealand. If true, it could be the first time a ghost shark has been discovered roaming around the Northern Hemisphere.

However, the researchers require a DNA sample in order to reach a solid conclusion — something that will prove dif-ficult since chimaeras need to stay well below the ocean’s surface in order to live.

(Source: IBT)

S C I E N C EDECEMBER 18, 2016DECEMBER 18, 2016 11I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Undersea mystery: Seahorse genetic secrets unveiled

Water ice found on dwarf planet Ceres, hidden in permanent shadow

Mesmerizing deep ocean ‘symphony’ finally identified

Sawdust reinvented into super sponge for oil spills

Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) and its Indonesian counterpart inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for broadening and enhancing related coop-eration, Public Relations Department of IME reported.

Four cooperation documents were signed and sealed between Tehran and Jakarta in the presence of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Indonesian counterpart.

Moreover, Iran and Indonesian private sectors inked

a number of eight cooperation agreements, one of which is related to a contract inked between Iran and Indonesia Mercantile Exchange, the report added.

It should be noted that Indonesian President trav-elled to Tehran yesterday at the head of a high-ranking trade and economic delegation.

For his part, Chief Executive of Iran Mercantile Ex-change (IME) Hamed Soltaninejad pointed to the MOU inked between Iranian and Indonesian mercantile ex-

changes in line with facilitating and easing trade ties between the two countries.

Creating a mechanism for long-term cooperation through the development of communications channels, boosting bilateral relations between two mercantile ex-changes, developing financial market between Iran and Indonesia and also helping regulate financial markets of the two countries have been cited as the other fields of cooperation between the two countries, he ended.

Iran and Indonesia Ink MOU to Broaden Mercantile Exchange Cooperation

Researchers say they have sequenced the genome of a seahorse species for

the first time and identified the genetic underpinning for certain peculiarities in this equine-looking fish group that

inhabits coastal waters around the world.


S O C I E T Y DECEMBER 18, 2016DECEMBER 18, 201612

Aria Banader Iranian Chabahar Port and Marine Services Company

International Public Tender Announcement

Tender No. AE/1001/95Tender subject: Manufacturing, Shipment, Training and delivery of three Marine Search and Rescue (SAR) Helicopter units for Shahid Beheshti port of Chabahar.

It is hereby to announce that Aria Banader Iranian Chabahar Port and Marine Services Co. as the equipment supplier of Shahid Beheshti Port(Chabahar) Development Plan First Phase proceeds to hold an international public tender of Manufacturing, Shipment, Training and delivery of the above Helicopters in a two-stage way after quality assessment.

All domestic and foreign manufacturer companies with the experience in the field of manufacturing the similar Helicopters are invited to receive the relevant CD containing the quality assessment forms and Tender Documents, presenting a written introduction letter (National ID is mandatory), Valid ID card and the original bank receipt of 2,000,000 Rials deposited to account No. 0203568843007 of Aria Banader Iranian Chabahar Port and Marine Services Company, by Bank Day maximum till Tuesday January 03, 2017 at 16:00 refer to the following address.

The deadline for submitting the documents and completed quality assessment forms will be up to Saturday February 04, 2017 at 16:00.

- Purchasing and delivery of tender documents address:

No. 40 ,Kish St., Jahankoodak Crossroads, Nelson Mandela Blvd., Tehran, IRAN, Postal Code : 1518814111, Phone: +982188190677-9 , FAX: +982188190679 or Email: [email protected].

- Tender deposit: unconditional and multiple extendable bank guarantee to the amount of 25,500,000,000 Rials and its equivalent sum of 600,000 Euro.

- To keep the date of documents delivery, any question is allowed only 72 hours before deadline of documents delivery.

- All manufacturers obliged to consider the Law Of Max Local Capabilities.

- The cost of advertising is undertaken by the winner.

- After quality assessment, to provide technical and commercial documents the competent companies will be invited.



Tender No. ME/1007/95Tender subject: Manufacturing, Shipment, Training and delivery of one Mother Search and Rescue Marine Vessel unit (Mother SAR) for Shahid Beheshti port of Chabahar.

It is hereby to announce that Aria Banader Iranian Chabahar Port and Marine Services Co. as the equipment supplier of Shahid Beheshti port(Chabahar) Development Plan First Phase proceeds to hold an international public tender of Manufacturing, Shipment, Training and delivery of the above vessel in a two-stage way after quality assessment.

All domestic and foreign manufacturer companies with the experience in the field of manufacturing the similar vessels are invited to receive the relevant CD containing the quality assessment forms and Tender Documents, presenting a written introduction letter (National ID is mandatory), Valid ID card and the original bank receipt of 2,000,000 Rials deposited to account No. 0203568843007 of Aria Banader Iranian Chabahar Port and Marine Services Company, by Bank Day maximum till Tuesday January 03, 2017 at 16:00 refer to the following address.











Tender No. ME/1008/95Tender subject: Manufacturing, Shipment, Training and delivery of two Fast Boat for Port and Flag State Control units for Shahid Beheshti port of Chabah ar.

It is hereby to announce that Aria Banader Iranian Chabahar Port and Marine Services Co. as the equipment supplier of Shahid Beheshti Port(Chabahar) Development Plan First Phase proceeds to hold an international public tender of Manufacturing, Shipment, Training and delivery of the above vessels in a two-stage way after quality assessment.

All domestic and foreign manufacturer companies with the experience in the field of manufacturing the similar vessels are invited to receive the relevant CD containing the quality assessment forms and Tender Documents, presenting a written introduction letter (National ID is mandatory), Valid ID card and the original bank receipt of 2,000,000 Rials deposited to account No. 0203568843007 of Aria Banader Iranian Chabahar Port and Marine Services Company, by Bank Day maximum till Tuesday January 03, 2017 at 16:00 refer to the following address.









MINISTRY OF ENERGYGUILAN REGIONAL ELECTRIC COMPANYGILRECExtension Invitation for Prequalification, International Tender No 9512003

Guilan Regional Electric Company (GILREC), intends to prequalify bidders for engineering, procurement and finance of a package of projects comprising Transmission and Sub Transmission Substations, Dispatching Center and Transmission Lines and Underground Cables at 63 and 230 kV voltage levels, during 18 calendar months and through a limited two stage tender.Interested applicants can receive prequalification documents, with due consideration of the following points:1- The proposed finance shall be approved by Central Bank of Iran (CBI).2- The law of maximum use of Iranian Technical Engineering, Manufacturing, and Industrial and Executive Capability, shall be observed.The eligible applicants may obtain documents on the submission of a written application during working office hours from Dec.18th, 2016 to Dec.31th, 2016 in the following addresses:1- Guilan Regional Electric Company, office of the finance deputy managing director, Imam Khomeini Ave. Ghods Crossroad, Rasht, I.R.Iran2- Ghods Niroo Engineering Company, No. 82, Motahari Ave., Tehran, I.R.IranMeanwhile, the above information is available at: Internet web sites of Guilan Regional Electric Company: www.gilrec.co.ir or Tavanir Company: www.tavanir.org.ir and National database portal of Iran tender’s information at: http://iets.mporg.ir.Applications for prequalification received in soft copy shall be filled in, printed and signed and sealed and be submitted in sealed envelopes to the above address item 1, against a written receipt, up to Sunday Apr. 9th, 2017 2:00 P.M (14:00) and be clearly marked as: “Engineering, procurement and finance (EPF) of Transmission and Sub Transmission Substations, Dispatching Center and Transmission Lines and Underground Cables at 63 and 230 kV voltage levels”.Note that: applications received after that date will be considered disqualified. Guilan Regional Electric Company will scrutinize the received documents in accordance with rules and regulations and will conduct prequalification of the applicants through procedures and qualified firms will be invited to receive tender documents.It shall be taken for granted that providing and presenting above mentioned documents will grant no rights to the applicants to be invited to tender. The cost of this tender notice shall be borne by successful bidder.

Guilan Regional Electric Company

How much quality time do you spend as a family? Learn what ‘quality time’ really means, and how you can build stronger bonds with your partner and children.

With an ever-growing list of tasks to accomplish each day, it’s easy to let time with your partner and children slip down your priorities.

But as Kristen Harding from My Family Care explains, spending quality time together is important it helps our children to feel more confident and secure, builds stronger family bonds and is good for our own emotional health.

What does ‘quality time’ mean?What exactly does ‘quality time’

mean? It’s an expression we hear often but is hard to quantify every family is different, and its meaning will vary from household to household.

For some people it may mean pulling out the board games once a week, for others it’s having in-depth conversations around the dinner table, and for some it may be enjoying a sport together.

Whatever it means to you, it’s essential that you make it a priority for yourself, your relationship and your family.

Building bonds can take effortYou’ll find that the ways your family

are important change throughout your life, from changing your nappies, to chauffeuring you around and teaching you to drive. From providing a shoulder to cry on when somebody breaks your heart to teaching you how to care for your own children and needing your support as you get older.

However and whenever you need them, the people you call family will be there but it takes effort.

Building the bonds between family members can be instantaneous, or it can take work. Take my brother and I for example. We used to fight like cats and dogs. We loved each other, but we weren’t always friends. Now as adults we appreciate each other’s differences and lean on each other’s strengths.

How to build strong bonds in your family

Here are a few tips on how to spend quality time together even in a busy world.

Set aside family time: Don’t just assume it will happen. Just like the meeting you talk about but never book, there’s always a risk it will fall between the cracks.

Whether it’s a promise to eat dinner together every night (at the table, not in front of the TV), or a weekly excursion to a museum or the park, schedule family time and make plans around it.

It’s easy to think ‘we see each other all the time, we can do it another time’, but once you fall out of the routine it’s much harder to schedule it back in there. Remember that this is not time you get to opt out of.

Find one-on-one time too: While it’s important to do things as a whole family, it’s also important to find time to spend with individuals including your partner!

So plan date nights together (this can even be a movie once the kids are in bed), and take turns to take one of your children to the park, for example, while your partner takes the other for a hot chocolate.

Find common ground: It’s a lot easier to spend time together when you are all doing something you enjoy. So take the time to find out what you all like to do or activities you can do with one of your children on their own.

It might be that you support a sports team or decide to train for a

charity run together (there are lots of runs on that offer a shorter event for children).

Or you may find that spending time in the garden or teaching them to ride a bike suits you more. If you work long hours, try to eat breakfast in the morning with them or curl up for a bedtime story even ten minutes of quality time is better than nothing!

Be present: We’ve all become quite proficient at multi-tasking in our busy lives, but spending quality time with your family means not answering the phone or checking emails.

It means not reading a magazine while you’re watching Peppa Pig we know she can be tedious, but engaging with your child is important! Knowing you are laughing alongside them or asking questions at the end means they feel like you’re a bigger part of something they enjoy.

Be a role model: Don’t forget that your every move is being watched. If family time is important to you, your children are more likely to want to join in.

So if you want your child to join in, lead by example! If you spend all your time on the phone during family time, you’re giving them the impression

that they can pull out their hand held games and not participate either.

Be supportive: It’s hard to watch your children grow up and start to make their own choices, especially when you don’t agree with them. But remember to be supportive you want your child to know that if they are in trouble they can talk to you.

There will be times you don’t want to know, and times when you won’t want to believe your child was involved in something. However, being there from

the beginning means they’re more likely to come to you when they really need your help. Be there no matter what but remember you don’t always have to say what they want to hear.

Kristen Harding was a nanny for eight years, taking care of five different families. Today she uses her experiences to help raise awareness of childcare choices through her role with My Family Care and their sister companies.

(Source: Talented ladies Club)

Why it’s important to spend quality family time togetherWhy it’s important to spend quality family time together

In many countries in the world, spitting on the streets is a common sight. This is especially in countries like Myanmar or Taiwan where chewing Betelnut are legal and filling the streets with red stains from the “juice” of the Betelnut. That will be a total different story in Singapore.

As to most of the foreigners, Singapore is well-known for its cleanness on the streets. That was also due to the strict enforcement by the government for such ungracious and unhygienic action. The enforcement was implemented as early as mid-1980s but it becomes more stringent after the 2003 SARs outbreak. National Environment Agency (NEA) stiffened its stand against the spitting habit in public.

From a medical point of view, spitting is not only just a social issue, but poses harmful to the environment. A research was conducted and studies show that coronavirus that is present in phlegm, sputum (mucus) and saliva can survive up to 6 hours in the air and more than 24 hours if the environment condition is optimal for the virus.

Hence, through spitting in the public, people are being exposed to virus that cannot be seen through naked eyes. It increases the risks of people being infected with the similar virus, for example SARs or MERS-CoV.

Since late 2012, a voluntary scheme was introduced, called “Community Volunteer Program” that focus on catching litterbugs. 153 volunteers from five non-governmental organizations like the Public Hygiene Council, Waterways Watch Society, Cat Welfare Society and Singapore Kindness Movement has been trained and authorized to engage litterbugs.

However, in 2014, the Singapore’s authorities looked into increasing the authority not only to litterbugs, but also to offenders whom spit, urinate and smoke in prohibited places. Though there was ongoing discussion for the

community volunteers to carry out such duties, the scheme has not yet been finalize.

A similar program was carried out in UK as well and they have successfully prosecuted two youngsters to pay up 300 pounds for spitting in public.

According to Environmental Public Health Act (Chapter 95, Section 113), spitting or expelling mucous from the nose, onto the street or floor which the public has access is liable of a fine not exceeding $1,000 for first offence, $2,000 for second offence and $5,000 for third and subsequent offence.

(Source: singapore-the-fine-city.com)

What is the price to pay for Spitting in the Public in Singapore?

With more than 20 nominees now se-lected, Donald Trump’s cabinet appears much like the president-elect himself: mostly older, white males, many of them wealthy, who see themselves as risk-tak-ers and deal-makers and prize action over deliberation.

Trump, who says Washington is “bro-ken” and controlled by special interests, has largely eschewed technocrats with long government experience. Instead, he has built a team of bosses.

Trump’s roster of agency heads and advisers conspicuously lacks intellectu-als, lawyers, and academics of the sort sought by some past presidents. In their place are titans of business and finance from the likes of Exxon Mobil and Gold-man Sachs and no fewer than three re-tired generals in key positions.

Many of them are people used to get-ting their way but will now have a boss to answer to - Trump - while navigating the sometimes frustrating and sprawling bureaucracy of the United States gov-ernment. The incoming Trump admin-istration is poised to undo as much of President Barack Obama’s accomplish-ments as possible, while also attempting to advance a conservative policy agenda in areas such as taxes and healthcare.

A former senior U.S. official who knows Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil CEO who is Trump’s nominee for secre-tary of state, and Marine General James Mattis, Trump’s pick for defense secretary, predicted a massive clash of egos in the cabinet.

Tillerson and Mattis are “accustomed to dominating whatever space they find themselves in, and that probably will now include the Situation Room and even the Oval Office.”

Trump’s transition team has said the cabinet is intended to be a mix of expe-rienced Washington hands and newcom-ers. But former presidents who brought in outside blood have at times seen po-litical neophytes make costly errors, ex-perts said.

Of the 21 cabinet members and White House advisers chosen to date by Trump, 16 are white men. There are four women, none of whom hold what might be con-

sidered a top-tier agency post. There is one African-American, one Asian-Amer-ican and one Indian-American. There are no Hispanics.

Like the real-estate magnate who chose them, several have no government experience. Others have been hostile to-ward the agencies they will lead if the U.S. Senate confirms them early next year.

Julian Zelizer, a presidential histori-an at Princeton University, said Trump is building a cabinet in his own image: blunt-talkers with real-world experience.

“Surrounding yourself with military guys and money guys sends a certain message,” Zelizer said. “A certain kind of cutthroat aggressive dealmaker is how [Trump] imagines himself to be.”

Obama, who leaves office in January, relied on experienced hands to form his cabinet in 2008. He named his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, as his secretary of state. Robert Gates, who served the previous administration, remained at the Penta-gon, and Obama made longtime Justice Department official Eric Holder attorney general.

Some of Trump’s picks do have similar experience, and he has packed his on-the-ground transition teams at various agencies with government veterans and ex-lobbyists, a Reuters review found ear-

lier this month. New challenges

The newcomers to Washington will rise to the administrative challenge, said those who know them.

Republican Representative Tom Price, Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is “de-cisive by nature,” said fellow Republican lawmaker Tom Cole. He credited Price’s career as a surgeon, which is also the former profession of Ben Carson, Trump’s choice for secretary of housing and ur-ban development.

Carson, said Henry Brem, a neuro-surgeon who worked with Carson at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, has a “cool head” and is unafraid to give strong opinions. “He’s a gentle-man, he speaks his mind, he has great ideas – and nobody in the world intim-idates him.”

Rick Perry, Trump’s choice for energy secretary, served three terms as gover-nor of Texas and had to “balance a very conservative and increasingly ideological grassroots (support base) with a very in-fluential business community,” said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Pro-ject at the University of Texas at Austin.

“Whether he can do that do that in a bureaucratic setting, in an environment as competitive as a cabinet with a lot of

obviously large egos, I think is another question,” Henson said.

Several of Trump’s picks have never held any sort of government post and have little, if any, background in poli-cy-making, including Tillerson, Treasury nominee Steven Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs alumnus, Commerce pick Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor, and Gary Cohn, the Goldman Sachs executive who would chair Trump’s economic council.

In 2008, Mnuchin purchased IndyMac, a lender that failed during the financial crisis and helped transform it into OneW-est, now a thriving retail bank in southern California.

Kevin Kelly, a managing partner at Recon Capital Partners, an investment firm in Stamford, Connecticut, said that kind of real-world savvy could make gov-ernment more effective.

Those with high-level corporate expe-rience are used to having to please share-holders, board members, employees, and the community, Kelly said. “It takes a very precise and dedicated person to deliver across those constituencies.”

The outsider approach hasn’t always

worked. In 2001, President George W. Bush’s treasury secretary, Paul O’Neill, the former chief executive of aluminum producer Alcoa Inc, rattled markets with a series of careless remarks that seemed to herald economic policy shifts that dif-fered with the White House’s stance. He ultimately was fired.

“Management of large, public agen-cies is really difficult and requires bring-ing in experienced and knowledgeable people and working in ways that doesn’t alienate people,” said Thomas Mann, an expert on governance at the Brookings Institution.

Anthony Scaramucci, an adviser to the Trump transition, has acknowledged that too much inexperience could be harmful to Trump’s young administration.

“Washington is a very healthy immu-nological system,” he said. “You’ll see a full-blown organ rejection if you put too many status-quo disruptors in Washing-ton.”

(Source: Reuters)

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

Trump builds team of bosses to shake up Washington

Beijing will endanger U.S. interests if Trump abandons one China policy: academic

1 Rex Tillerson - a figure who has a warm re-lationship with Russia - was finally picked by Trump as the secretary of state. How will his selection affect the U.S.-Russia relationship on one hand and the U.S.-EU re-lationship on the other?

A: We have to remember that Rex Tillerson’s relationship with Russia was established in his capacity as the head of ExxonMobile and when Mr. Tillerson was a private citizen. As the secretary of state, Tillerson will have to act differently than he did as the head of a major private corporation. We have many examples of top business and corporate officials who became high-level government officials and created a new persona for themselves. Mr. Tillerson will have to function differently from the way he operated as a private citizen.

Deal reached to resume Aleppo evacuations West, allies getting revenge for Aleppo victory: Syria’s UN envoy

1 Revenge for Aleppo victoryThe development follows as Syria’s envoy to the United

Nations said that the West’s recent initiatives at the United Nations over the situation in Syria are the “saddest images of diplomatic and political hypocrisy”.

“All these initiatives are getting blind with regard to identi-fying the criminals and they are just seeking the distortion of the facts and the definition of the Syrian government and its allies and getting revenge for the triumph of the Syrian army and its allies over the terrorists in Aleppo,” Bashar Ja’afari told Press TV in an exclusive interview.

The senior Syrian diplomat also stated that the main spon-sors of terrorist activities in Syria, including Britain, France, and the United States, are getting “frantically hysterical” in the wake of the liberation of Aleppo from the clutches of for-eign-backed militants.

The Syrian ambassador’s comments came a few hours af-ter diplomats said France was drafting a UN Security Council resolution in a declared bid to ensure international observers for Aleppo evacuations and enable humanitarian aid to reach the city.

Commenting on an evacuation deal for the former mili-tant-held areas of the northwestern city, Ja’afari said the main problem affecting the process was the “non-respect” and “non-observation” of the agreement by the “most radical el-ements” within terrorist groups.

Therefore, he said, Syria had no option but to halt the last part of the evacuation process until things are clarified and stronger guarantees are offered by the terrorists’ foreign sponsors.

The Syrian diplomat added that the terrorists’ “heinous” practices will definitely prevent thousands of civilians from returning to their homes which were used as the militants’ “strongholds.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ja’afari argued that Syria is facing an international terrorist war on its soil.

“It is a multi-faceted war taking place on the Syrian soil right now for too many different reasons, and each gov-ernment is taking its own advantage over this mess taking place in Syria, and this is why we have no other choice but to combat terrorists and find out a political solution to our own problem by our own selves without any foreign interfer-ence, without any preconditions, and this is the only option we have,” he said in conclusion.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which started in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 peo-ple, according to an August estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.

(Source: agencies)

DECEMBER 18, 2016

At least eighteen civilians have lost their lives when Is-lamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorists launched two separate car bomb attacks in Mosul as Iraqi government forces and allied fighters are engaged in massive operations to drive the extremists out of the strategic northern city.

Security officials, speaking on condition of ano-nymity, said the explosions took place in al-Noor and in al-Tamim neighborhoods of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers north of the capital, Baghdad, on Sat-urday afternoon, Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news network reported.

Major General Maan al-Saadi, a commander of the Iraqi army’s Special Forces, which are spearheading the operation to retake Mosul, announced on December 12 that government troops had liberated al-Noor district from the grip of ISIL terrorists.

Earlier on Saturday, Aero L-159 ALCA fighter jets of the Iraqi Air Force pounded an ISIL communication center in the central Bab al-Toub neighborhood of Mo-sul, in addition to an arms depot in al-Darnaj village.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry said in a statement that the airstrikes were conducted in cooperation with the Directorate General for Intelligence and Security.

Another weapons depot belonging to ISIL terrorists was bombarded in Albu Saif village. Iraqi military aircraft also struck Ghazlani military base near Mosul.

The statement added that three ISIL weapons caches, a command center and a financial and cash-distribution center were targeted and destroyed inside Mosul.

Moreover, ISIL positions, workshops for booby-trap-

ping vehicles and manufacturing bombs, as well as a major depot for the storage of the terrorists’ weapons and ammunition were destroyed in airstrikes across the city of Tal Afar, situated 63 kilometers west of Mosul.

Iraqi Air Force kills 20 ISIL commanders near Mosul

Nearly two dozen high-ranking figures of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group have been killed when Iraqi Air Force fighter jets carried out an airstrike near Mosul as government forces and their allied fighters are trying to boot the extremists out of the strategic northern city.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry, citing information provid-ed by the Directorate of General Military Intelligence, announced in a statement that the military aircraft tar-geted ISIL terrorists during a meeting west of Mosul.

The ministry added that 20 commanders and 50 members of the terrorist group were killed in the aerial attack.

The slain militants were apparently planning attacks on the strategically important city of Tal Afar, situated 63 kilometers west of Mosul.

The statement came on the same day that Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Military Command (JOC), said security personnel have liberated half of the districts in the northern province of Nineveh from ISIL’s grip.

Rasool stated that government troopers have wrest-ed control over 46 neighborhoods out of a total 56 on the eastern flank of Mosul, noting that counter-terrorism forces are controlling 40 neighborhoods while army sol-

diers hold sway in six others.The senior Iraqi military official added that the Ira-

qi forces and their allies have laid complete siege to Mosul, noting that operations inside the city are go-ing ahead cautiously in order to protect civilians and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jaw-dat, commander of the Iraqi Federal Police Forces, said security forces arrested a member of ISIL media center, identified as Saleh Najem Abdullah, during an operation in al-Shura area south of Mosul.

Saraya al-Jihad (Jihad Brigades), a division of the pro-government Popular Mobilization Units (Al-Hashd Al-Sha’abi), also announced that its fighters killed nine ISIL terrorists and destroyed four vehicles rigged with explosives, when the terrorists sought to launch an as-sault west of Mosul.

Separately, Popular Mobilization Units fighters fired a Kornet missile at an explosives-laden ISIL bulldozer in the village of Sharia, which lies west of Tal Afar, destroy-ing the crawler as it was moving towards pro-govern-ment forces.

On October 17, Iraqi army soldiers, supported by Popular Mobilization Units and Kurdish Peshmerga forc-es, launched a joint operation to retake Mosul from ISIL terrorists.

The Iraqi forces’ advance has, however, been slowed down due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom are prevented from leaving Mosul by ISIL.

(Source: Press TV)

A trade deal between Britain and the European Union following Brexit might take 10 years to finalize and could still fail, British ambassador to the bloc has told Prime Minister Theresa May’s gov-ernment.

The British envoy to the EU, Ivan Rog-ers, warned ministers that the European consensus was that a deal might not be done until the early to mid-2020s and that national parliaments of EU states could still reject it, the BBC reported.

May’s spokesman said this was not the view of Rogers or the government. “The government is fully confident of negotiat-ing a deal within the time frame we have already established,” Greg Swift, told re-porters in London.

“It’s wrong to suggest that this is ad-vice from our ambassador -- he is re-flecting views that were put to him which

is a role that all ambassadors have,” he added.

However, EU officials have said that ne-gotiating a trade deal with the bloc can take years, pointing to the fact that Canada started talks in 2009 for a free-trade agree-ment that has yet to enter force.

The British leader has said she will in-voke Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, a two-year process for leaving the bloc, by the end of March.

Negotiating a final Brexit deal would take “at least five years,” former British cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell pre-dicted. “We certainly won’t have come to any final arrangements in two years’ time,” he told BBC Radio.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said that a withdrawal will not be a better deal for Britain than staying in the EU and London could not “cher-

ry pick” on issues such as the EU single market.

Retaining access to the single market has been one of the major worries for

Britain businesses ever since the country voted to leave the EU in a referendum on June 23.

(Source: BBC)

Putin to Erdogan: Russia ready to increase anti-terrorism cooperationRussian President Vladimir Putin told Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a telegram on Saturday that Russia was ready to increase cooperation against terrorism after a car bomb attack in the Turkish city of Kayseri, Russian news agencies reported.

Putin also expressed his condolences to Erdogan and said he was sure the response to such attacks should be a more resolute struggle against extremist groups.

Meanwhile, Erdogan referred to a car bomb attack on a bus carrying off-duty military personnel and said in a statement that “The style and goals of the attacks clearly show the aim of the separatist terrorist organization is to trip up Turkey, cut its strength and have it focus its energy and forces elsewhere”.

The blast, a week after deadly twin bombing targeted po-lice in Istanbul, is likely to further outrage a public angered by a series of attacks this year - several claimed by Kurdish militants, others by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group and a failed coup in July.

“We know that these attacks we are being subjected to are not independent from the developments in our region, especially in Iraq and Syria.”

Erdogan frequently refers to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK/Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê) as “the separatist terrorist organization”. The PKK, which wants autonomy for the Kurd-ish minority, is considered a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.

Turkey, a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) mem-ber and part of the U.S. coalition against the ISIL, has also been angered by Washington’s backing of the Syrian Kurdish fighters against the ISIL.

(Source: AP)

ISIL car bombings leave 18 civilians dead in eastern MosulIraqi Air Force kills 20 ISIL commanders near Mosul

Brexit trade deal with EU may take 10 years


W O R L D S P O R T DECEMBER 18, 2016DECEMBER 18, 201614

Televisa affiliate surfaces in widening FIFA bribery probeAn unnamed company described in a sweeping probe of corruption in soccer’s world governing body FIFA matches the description of a close affiliate of Grupo Televisa (TLVACPO.MX), the largest broadcaster in Latin America, according to a Reuters review of U.S. and Swiss government documents.

In court papers filed on Tuesday, U.S. prosecutors said an affiliate of a major broadcasting company headquartered in Latin America helped to pay millions of dollars in bribes to obtain the rights for the next four World Cup tournaments in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Reuters has determined that the affiliate is Mountrigi Management Group Ltd., a Swiss company formed by Televisa that obtained the rights to broadcast the 2018 and 2022 games in those countries and across the region.

Swiss company registration documents show that Mountrigi and Televisa are registered in that country under the same address and share several board members.

The court documents do not state that either the companies or their executives are targets of the investigation. Neither company has been charged with wrongdoing.

“We have no knowledge it refers to us,” a Televisa spokesman said in an email, adding that the Department of Justice has not contacted the company to ask about the FIFA case.

In the court documents, prosecutors said “Broadcasting Company Executive #1” helped pay the bribes to the FIFA official. The Televisa spokesman denied the documents referred to one of its executives. Reuters was unable to determine the identity of the executive.

“We are certain all of the people from Mountrigi or Televisa that have dealt with FIFA have acted correctly and have not paid any bribes nor any kickback to FIFA official related to the acquisition of rights,” the Televisa spokesman said.

Willi Dietschi, a Swiss attorney who is listed in Swiss company registration documents as the president of the board of directors of both Mountrigi and Televisa’s corporate entity in Switzerland, referred questions to the Latin American broadcaster.

John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York located in Brooklyn, which is handling the case, declined to comment.

The reference marks the first time a Mexican company has come under scrutiny by U.S. prosecutors in the sweeping FIFA investigation. Mexican broadcasters have played an outsized role in international soccer since the early days of the sport’s move into lucrative television markets.

So far 43 individuals and businesses from 20 countries have been indicted by U.S. prosecutors on racketeering, wire-fraud, money laundering and other charges arising from the probe. Twenty people and two related companies have pleaded guilty.

OTHER BROADCASTERSOther unnamed broadcasters have previously been

referred to by prosecutors in the wide-ranging investigation, which exploded on to the international stage in May 2015 when law-enforcement agents swept into a luxury hotel in Zurich and arrested more than half a dozen top FIFA officials.

An unnamed Miami sports marketing company that appeared in the indictment coinciding with the arrests turned out to be Media World, an affiliate of Spanish media giant Imagina Group. Later that year the FBI raided Media World’s offices, and two executives pleaded guilty in the case. They have yet to be sentenced.

Another sports marketing company described in a superseding indictment as having paid bribes has longstanding ties to the U.S. entertainment company 21st Century Fox [NWSNA.UL], according to securities filings and other government documents.

Fox has not been accused of wrongdoing and has declined to comment on the case.

A media company could potentially be held criminally liable for bribery if it benefited from a wrongful payment and its employees had knowledge of or were willfully blind to the transaction, legal experts have said.

LATEST ALLEGATIONS The allegations relating to the Latin American broadcaster

surfaced in papers filed on Tuesday in Brooklyn as part of a hearing on a deferred prosecution agreement between U.S. authorities and another company, the Argentine sports marketer Torneos y Competencias.

Torneos agreed to pay more than $112 million in penalties for wire fraud conspiracy.

In the criminal charging documents filed against Torneos, prosecutors allege that a wholly-owned subsidiary - called TyC International - obtained the rights to broadcast future World Cup tournaments through a series of contracts with a major Latin American broadcaster ’s affiliate.

That affiliate went on to pay millions of dollars in bribe and kickback payments to a high-ranking FIFA official with “enormous influence” to secure the World Cup rights, prosecutors allege. Those rights were awarded long before the host countries were even picked for some of the tournaments.

After FIFA awarded the World Cup rights in 2018 to Mountrigi Management, the company licensed them to TyC international, FIFA documents show. Torneos declined to comment.

The FIFA corruption case is ongoing.(Source: Reuters)

Ivory Coast legend Didier Drogba has spoken out in the defence of professional footballers in Africa, demanding change to improve working conditions.

Drogba, 38, is the honorary president of the African division of FIFPro, the global professional footballers’ union. With the online publication of a map detailing the working conditions of footballers around the world, the former Chelsea striker said Africa’s players were being let down.

“Professional footballers in many African countries do not have the clearly defined status they deserve -- or any status at all,” Drogba, who left Montreal Impact recently following their exit from the MLS playoffs, said.

“Many African footballers have no holiday entitlement and are left without the medical care they need to do their jobs. This has to change. Africa’s professional footballers must

be treated as proper employees.”The map claims 85 percent of

professional footballers in the Democratic Republic of Congo do not have a written contract with 57 percent of them not having a day off in the week. Their salaries are between $300-600 a month.

According to FIFPro, the central African nation is also the most dangerous in which to play with 35 percent of players threatened by fans and one in four the victim of violence.

The union also claims that players in Gabon, the host nation for the next African Nations Cup, which starts on Jan. 14 next year, are the most likely to suffer delays in the payment of their salaries.

“Half of the players [in Africa] questioned said they’d had problems getting paid on time in the last two years,” Drogba said. “That’s unacceptable.”

(Source: ESPN)

Schumacher suffered severe head injuries in a skiing accident nearly three years ago, spending six months in a medically-induced coma following the incident at the end of December 2013.

The hashtag #keepfightingMichael has been popular on Twitter since Schumacher suffered the injuries, and now his family have moved to harness the support from the German’s fans.

“Keep Fighting seeks to channel the positive energy received by Michael Schumacher and the Schumacher family as a force for good in the world,” the initiative states. “The non-profit initiative hopes to unite that positive energy as a global movement and to prove that giving up is not an option.

“Keep Fighting plans to develop projects in house to bring joy to

Michael Schumacher’s many fans and supporters as well as to strengthen the community of people who are inspired by the career and character of the seven times Formula One world champion.”

Sabine Kehm, Schumacher’s manager, says the aim is to try and find positives in the 47-year-old’s situation.

“This is a first step of a movement which we hope can do good in the future,” Kehm said.

“The intention of the Keep Fighting Initiative is to spread the belief that giving up is not an option, a message that is valid not only in motor racing.

“In this way, we hope to turn a terrible event, which affects the whole Schumacher family, into something positive.”

(Source: Eurosport)

Didier Drogba calls for changes to African footballers’ working conditions

Schumacher family launches ‘Keep Fighting’ initiative

There has never been any question about both Arsenal and Manchester City having style, but the debate over whether they have the substance to be Premier League champions continues to rage.

Despite owning the last two Champions League spots in the table, both Arsenal and Manchester City have armed critics with plenty of skepticism over whether either or both can possibly overtake Chelsea by season’s end heading into Sunday’s crunch clash of these top-four teams at the Etihad.

Much of it has to do with the flowing style of play both employ, a direct contrast to the blood-and-thunder mantra of the Premier League. English fans have long favoured the crunching physical tackle and the challenge of 50/50 balls in the air over the one-touch passes designed to open up defences to exploit via through balls.

While Arsene Wenger has built up some capital in his two decades on the Arsenal touchline to deflect barbs and criticisms, it is the arrival of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City (10-3-3) that has added fire to this debate throughout the club backrooms and pubs of England.

Wenger took to Guardiola’s defense ahead of the midweek matches this week, after Guardiola claimed he wasn’t “a coach for the tackles, so I don’t train the tackles” after Manchester City’s 3-1 loss at Leicester City. It’s not surprising given the two share a kindred spirit in how they construct offences

“Pep Guardiola, like myself, we are for offensive football. And when you don’t win, people question that. And that’s as simple as that,” the Gunners boss said. “Overall, I think what he wanted to say is that he promoted a game that is positive and I agree with him on that. You respect him for that.”

At first, it looked like Guardiola was every bit the genius tipped by supporters upon his takeover of City from Bayern Munich - the team stormed out of the gate to win their first 10 matches in all competitions, including their Champions League playoff to enter the group stages.

But that swagger has given way to a City side struggling to find its defensive identity as Guardiola tinkers with his backline on a match-to-match basis. As well as a shift in opponents’ philosophy to simply let the Citizens pass the ball around the middle of the pitch and then dare them to pile drive through two banks of defenders in the final third.

Their 2-0 home win over Watford on Wednesday was more persistence than panache - defender Pablo Zabaleta finished off a nice cross from Kevin De Bruyne in the first half, and David Silva sealed the three points with a goal on 86 minutes as City

struck on the counter as Watford threw numbers forward in search of an equaliser.

The victory, though, came at a high price as Guardiola lost Ilkay Gundogan to a torn ACL, a season-ending injury that puts a gaping hole in the midfield for both City’s Premier League title hopes as well as their Champions League aspirations come the knockout stages in February.

“It is so, so difficult for him, it’s sad for him, we’re going to miss him a lot, it’s unlucky, but that’s football,” Guardiola told the team’s official website.

“Now we need him to feel we are there and wait and come back safe. He’s going to be operated (upon) and be back as soon as possible.”

Gundogan will be the fourth key regular out for this match for Guardiola. Defender and talisman Vincent Kompany remains sidelined due to injury while forward and top scorer Sergio Aguero and midfielder Fernandinho continue to serve their four and three-match bans, respectively, for their roles in a brawl at the end of their 3-1 loss to Chelsea on Dec. 3.

On the plus side, Yaya Toure has excelled in the midfield since returning to Guardiola’s good graces last month. There is still plenty of quality in the attack with De Bruyne, Silva, and Raheem Sterling in the midfield. It will be interesting to see if Guardiola opts for a solo striker approach again after using Nolito atop a 4-1-4-1 formation versus Watford and leaving Kelechi Iheanacho on the bench.

“You know the reason why he was out

in the first part of the season,” Guardiola said about Toure. “Now he is playing like he can be, like I met him at Barcelona. There’s no doubt about his quality.”

Wenger is no stranger to the criticisms that come with his style of play, and some seasons they are louder than others given Arsenal’s fixture in the top four of the table while not winning any Premier League titles since last lifting the trophy in 2004.

But the all-too familiar questions were being asked again after a 2-1 defeat at Everton on Wednesday dropped the Gunners (10-4-2) into third -- behind Liverpool on goal difference, one point better than Manchester City and six adrift of rampaging Chelsea.

The Toffees took the match to Arsenal in the second half, utilising that physical style of play Arsenal rarely answer. Wenger felt rightly aggrieved by an error by referee Mark Clattenburg that resulted in an Everton corner that led to Ashley Williams’ eventual match-winner on 86 minutes, but he also noted his team seemed to back down as Everton grew in the ascendancy

“We lost the game because I feel we started well and after that maybe we lost a bit of urgency because we were a bit too comfortable and then Everton made it very physical. Overall, I believe that from then on it disturbed our game and we created less flow going forward.

“We didn’t create too many but we had clear-cut chances in the game we didn’t take. After that you can be caught away from home on a corner like that.”

Like Guardiola, Wenger is dealing with some key absences due to injury, most notably central defender Shkodran Mustfai and holding midfielder Santi Carzola. Denny Welbeck, Aaron Ramsey and Per Mertesacker continue to be long-term injury absences. Wenger also again addressed the issue of contract extensions for Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, both of whom have 18 months remaining on their respective deals.

“You waste your time because these players have 18 months on their contracts and I don’t see why there is any urgency in every press conference to have that question,” Wenger mused. “Maybe you lack a bit of creativity in the newspapers and you always come up with the same subject. I don’t see why that should turn up in every press conference.”

Arsenal took four points in the two games between the teams last season, posting a 2-1 victory at the Emirates and scrambling from a pair of one-goal deficits to forge a 2-2 tie at the Etihad. Olivier Giroud scored in both matches, and Sanchez scored the equaliser in the corresponding fixture. De Bruyne and Aguero netted the two goals for City.

The Gunners are unbeaten in their last five (2-3-0) against City but also have just two wins in their last nine trips (2-2-5) to the blue side of Manchester. Arsenal have won 23 of the 38 all-time Premier League matches between the teams, while all six of City’s wins have come since 2006.

(Source: AP)

Rattled Arsenal Rattled Arsenal face Man City mettle test face Man City mettle test

S P O R TDECEMBER 18, 2016DECEMBER 18, 2016 15I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Smolov and Azmoun – Analysing Borussia Dortmund’s attacking options

The transfer window will open on January 1, 2017, but there have already been several rumours involving Borussia Dortmund. Recently die Schwarz-Gelben

were heavily linked with the Russian forward, Fedor Smolov, and also FC Rostov’s attacking player, Sardar Azmoun.

In my capacity as the Editor-in-Chief of Futbolgrad.com, I have close connections to Russia and have followed both stories quite closely. Despite reports that delegations from Borussia Dortmund have spoken with Smolov’s club, Krasnodar, and Azmoun’s club, FC Rostov, I would judge that both these moves are still in the early stages.

Borussia Dortmund – Do they need another forward?While following this story I have been asked whether

Dortmund need another attacking player. The club had invested heavily in bringing in attacking options during the summer by signing Mario Götze, André Schürrle, Ousmane Dembélé, and Emre Mor.

Furthermore, Dortmund also seem to have problems and, therefore, should rather focus on bringing in another defender. In the summer, Dortmund will likely sign Ömer Toprak from Bayer Leverkusen, which will greatly help them in defence.

Up front, however, none of the above-mentioned play-ers, however, is a natural forward, a striker, who can score 15 to 20 goals when given a first team role. We all have seen the experiment with Mario Götze as a number nine for the German national team during the European Championships and also in several friendly games of die Nationalmannschaft, which has shown that Götze is not consistent enough as a striker and, in fact, is better suited to play as a playmaker.

Emre Mor could also play that role up front, but the 18-year-old Turkish attacking midfielder seems to be better suited on either wing, or as a false nine in a two-forward setup. This means that, in fact, Dortmund are just left with two natural forwards—Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Adrián Ramos.

Adrián Ramos could leave DortmundThere have been repeated rumours, however, that Ramos

could be on the move to the Chinese Super League this winter. Given the fact that the CSL operates on a spring to fall schedule, the winter transfer window is when Chinese clubs tend to make their biggest investments. This means that a big money offer for Ramos could be made at any point between January 1 and early March—when the window in China closes.

With Ramos gone, Aubameyang would be the only true forward left in Dortmund’s squad. But the Gabonese forward will represent his country, when Gabon hosts the Africa Cup of Nations in 2017 between January 14, and February 5. Yes, Aubameyang would only miss between 2 and 3 games—depending on how far Gabon goes in the tournament—but it also means that Dortmund’s head coach, Thomas Tuchel, will have to make do without Aubameyang in the winter preparations.

What happens if Aubameyang gets hurt?The extra games will also put a significant strain on

Aubameyang’s playing calendar this year, which will be packed full with Bundesliga, DFB Cup, and Champions League matches. Finally, what happens if Aubameyang goes down with an injury?

In that case, the club would be left with just Ramos—if he does not leave the club—Götze, who does not like to play the position, and Marco Reus, who in the past has played the position, but is also injury prone. Hence, it makes sense that Borussia Dortmund are looking at further attacking options, and that they have already reached out to Rostov, and Krasnodar to enquire about the possibility of bringing in either Azmoun or Smolov.

Now when it comes to choosing between the two forwards I personally believe that Fedor Smolov would be the better candidate for Borussia Dortmund.

Smolov or Azmoun – Who would suit Borussia Dortmund better?

Smolov is now 26-years-old, and has shown, in the last two seasons in particular, that he has developed a maturity that could be a valuable asset for a major club. The Russian forward also has a proven goal scoring track record for last season, both in the Russian Football Premier League, where he won the scoring race with 20 goals this season, and once again leads the race with 10 goals scored in just 12 games, as well as in the Europa League where he scored twice in two games this season.

Furthermore, as Andrew Flint pointed out in the recent World Football Index Futbolgrad Podcast, Smolov is a very intelligent player—a key requirement for everyone who wants to succeed in Thomas Tuchel’s world. As I pointed out in On the Yellow Wall, another factor is his tactical versatility, as Smolov can play not only on the wing as a single forward, but also in a two forward system.

Tactical intelligence, and an ability to play several positions are also qualities that would make Azmoun a perfect fit for Borussia Dortmund. The Iranian forward was heavily linked with a move to Liverpool FC just a few weeks ago and, as a result, we spoke about a potential move of Azmoun to England at great length on Episode 1 of the Fubolgrad Podcast.

Azmoun has been outstanding this season, especially in the UEFA Champions League where he scored against both Atlético Madrid, and Bayern München. The game against Bayern, in particular, stood out, as Azmoun was one of the key players in Rostov’s surprise victory against the Bavarians.

But, both Andrew and I expressed in the Podcast, our belief that Azmoun is not yet ready to make the move away from the Russian Football Premier League. Furthermore, his goal scoring rate in the RFPL—9 goals in 24 games last season, and just two goals in 14 games this season—makes me think that he does not have the calibre to replace the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, or even Adrián Ramos up front.

Smolov, on the other hand, has a built-in goal scoring guarantee, and, therefore, would be not only a useful signing for Dortmund in the near future, but also a sensible one for some time to come.

By Manuel Veth

Soraya Hajiagha Aghaei from Iran won a bronze medal at the Nepal International Series Badminton tournament.

The competition was held in Katmandu, Nepal from December 13 to 17.

Aghaei was defeated against Vietnamese Nguyen Thuy Linh 21-17, 21-6 in the women’s singles category semi-final.

She beat Amita Gire from Nepal 21-6, 21-13 to qualify for the quarter-final.

Aghaei also defeated Pakistani Palwasha Bashir 21-12, 21-13 in quarters.

Amir Jabbari was another Iran’s representative who lost to Cao Cuong Pham from Vietnam 21-13, 21-12 and was knocked out of the event.

(Source: Tasnim)

Iran’s Aghaei claims bronze at Nepal International Series Badminton

French politician Nicolas Sarkozy could become the president of Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain, according to GQ.

The 61-year-old, who served as the President of France from 2007-2012, is said to have been offered the role by the Parisian club’s owners, potentially replacing current PSG chief Nasser Al-Khelaifi.

Sarkozy, a life-long Paris Saint-Germain supporter who is said to

have attended 90 percent of their games last season, previously jested that he would join the club should he fail in his bid for the 2017 presidential election.

He eventually came third in November’s Republicans primary run-off, and his friendship with the club’s owners has led to speculation surrounding his involvement with the club.

(Source: Goal)

Sarkozy could become PSG president

Sergio Ramos is set to return for Real Madrid in the Club World Cup final against Kashima Antlers on Sunday.

Ramos, 30, wasn’t fully fit for Thursday’s 2-0 semifinal win over Club America of Mexico, but has declared himself ready to face the Japanese champions in Yokohama.

“Today my condition is very good,” Ramos said. “I had a full session with the other players today so if the coach needs me I would like to play tomorrow.”

Real coach Zinedine Zidane made clear the Spain international is likely to start the game at the Yokohama International Stadium.

“Yes, he is our captain and his condition is getting better,” he said. “He was able to participate in the training today, therefore yes, he should be in the team tomorrow, no problem. I hope that he will be able to play the full game.”

(Source: ESPN)

Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos set to return for Club World Cup final

Iranian weightlifting clubs have produced fine displays of valor and strength at the 2016 Asian Weightlifting Clubs Championships in Qatar, and managed to claim all three podium spots.

On Friday and the final day of the competitions in the Qatari capital city of Doha, Melli Haffari Company Ahvaz Sports Club, which is affiliated to National Iran Drilling Company, tallied 592 points to earn great acclaim from the spectators.

Niroye Zamini Club, which is affiliated to the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces, secured the second spot in the championships with 568 points.

Zob Ahan Isfahan Club, sponsored by Isfahan Steel Company, came in third, having racked up 567 points.

Gold medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Sohrab Moradi and Kianoush Rostami accompanied Zob Ahan Isfahan Club in the Asian tournament.

The 2016 Asian Weightlifting Clubs Championships kicked off on December 14 in Doha, Qatar, and ran through December 16.

The competitions were staged in 56-kilogram, 62-kilogram, 69-kilogram, 77-kilogram, 85-kilogram, 94-kilogram, 105-kilogram and over 105-kilogram weight categories.

(Source: PressTV)

Iranian clubs steal show in 2016 Asian Weightlifting Clubs Championships

The Islamic Republic of Iran will host the 2017 freestyle and Greco-Roman world cups early next year, which serve as international wrestling tournaments among member nations of the United World Wrestling (UWW).

The 45th edition of the Freestyle World Cup will kick off on February 16, and finish the next day in the 12,000-seater hall of Azadi Sports Complex in western Tehran, and will bring together athletes from Iran as well as a number of Asian and European countries.

The Greco-Roman World Cup 2017 will also be staged between March 16 and 17 in the same venue.

Wrestling world cups have been held every year since the 1973 tournament. They began as dual-meet

competitions for the top teams on each continent, but now feature the top teams in the rankings of the previous year’s world championships.

Iran’s national wrestling team claimed the Freestyle World Cup for the fifth successive year on June 13 this year.

The Iranian wrestlers bettered their Russian counterparts by five matches to three at the multi-purpose The Forum indoor arena in Inglewood, California, and clinched the gold medal.

The Iranian squad had earlier overcome Azerbaijan (5-3), India (8-0) and the United States (4-4) to reach the title showdown of the event.

Georgia defeated the host side 5-3 in the bronze medal match.

(Source: PressTV)

Iran to host Freestyle, Greco-Roman World Cup next year

Iran suggests UWW to hold World Iran suggests UWW to hold World Solidarity tournaments for wrestlingSolidarity tournaments for wrestling

Iran Wrestling Federation suggested United World Wrestling (UWW) to

organize yearly three team tournaments with title of “world solidarity for wrestling”.

The Iranian federation has suggested to UWW to organize symbolic three team tournaments between big names in world of wrestling in Freestyle, Greco-Roman and Women Wrestling to develop this sport all around the world, helping to save wrestling in Olympics.

Iran’s suggestion includes the competition between Iran, USA and Russia teams in free style as well as Iran, Russia and Turkey in Greco-Roman. In Women wrestling suggested teams are USA, Russia and Japan.

According to suggestion, each country will host the competition in public in main and important place of its town, such as Milad Tower in Tehran, Times Square in New York, Red Square in Moscow, a public center in Tokyo and public center in Istanbul.

These competitions show efforts of wrestling family to popularize the historical sport of wrestling and save it in Olympics.

Hosting for competition can start from USA for free style and women competition, then Turkey in Greco-Roman and Japan in women wrestling and continue with Russia, and Iran with free style and Greco-Roman.

Iran Wrestling Federation also announced that is ready to coordinate with countries for organization of the events.

S P O R T Sd e s k

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No. 18, Bimeh Alley, 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

Death’s terrors spring from baseless fantasy, Death yields the tree of immortality; Since ‘Isa breathed new life into my soul, Eternal death has washed its hands of me!

Khayyam

Poem of the day

SINCE 1979Prayer Times

TEHRAN — “Shahrzad”, a popular romance series, has brought Hassan

Fat’hi the Golden Jasmine for best director in the national competition of the 4th Jasmine International Film Festival, an Iranian event dedicated to screening video productions.

It also brought the Golden Jasmine for best screenplay for both Fat’hi and Naghmeh Samini.

The closing ceremony of the festival was held in the Ramsar Hotel on Friday evening, Persian media reported on Saturday.

In his short acceptance speech, Fat’hi said that he has spent four years on the series, adding, “Almost everybody knows that ‘Shahrzad’ helped bring the audience’s trust back to the home video market once again, and now many series are being produced.”

The first episode of the weekly series was released on October 12, 2015, and was warmly received. The second part of the series is currently under production by the same cast and crew.

Taraneh Alidusti, Shahab Hosseini, Ali Nasirian, Parinaz Izadyar and Mostafa Zamani are the main members of the cast.

The award-giving ceremony continued handing the Golden Jasmin for best actor in the TV series section to Mohsen Tanabandeh for his role in Davud Mirbaqeri’s “The King Eared” and the Golden Jasmine for best actress was given to Setareh Eskandari for her role in Davud Mirbaqeri’s “The Golden Tooth”.

Moreover, the winners in the international competition section were also announced at the ceremony.

The Golden Jasmine for best director went to

“Gamichi” by Majid Esmaeili Parsa from Iran and the Canadian TV series “Anne of Green Gables” won the Golden Jasmine for best film.

Lebanese director Nehme Badawi, Turkish actor

Firat Tanis, Bosnian director and writer Ratko Orozovic, and producer Ali Moalem and film expert Mohammad-Mehdi Yadegari, both from Iran, were the jury members for the international section of the festival.

TEHRAN — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has picked

“The Salesman” by Asghar Farhadi from Iran for the shortlist of pictures competing in the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 89th Oscars.

The shortlist was chosen by a group of Academy members, and will be whittled down to five nominees by an Academy committee in January.

A Memento production, “The Salesman” is about Emad and Rana who move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant dramatically changes the young couple’s life.

The film brought Farhadi the award for best screenplay and the Palme d’Or for best actor for Shahab Hosseini at the 69th Cannes Film Festival this year.

Farhdi’s “About Elly” represented Iranian cinema at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards in 2010, but it did not receive a nomination.

One year later, his “A Separation”, a drama about a breakup, won Iran its first and only ever Oscar.

Following is the other eight films on the Best Foreign Language Film shortlist.

“Tanna” by Bentley Dean and Martin Butler (Australia), “It’s Only the End of the World,” by Xavier Dolan (Canada), “Land of Mine” by Martin Zandvliet (Denmark), “Toni Erdmann” by Maren Ade (Germany), “The King’s Choice” by Erik Poppe (Norway), “Paradise” by Andrei Konchalovsky (Russia), “A Man Called Ove” by Hannes Holm (Sweden), and “My Life as a Zucchini” by Claude Barras (Switzerland).

LOS ANGELES/SHANGHAI (Reuters) — China’s box office is set to end the year with its smallest growth in a decade, clouding the outlook as Hollywood pushes to show more of its films in theaters in the world’s second-largest movie market.

Beijing caps the number of imported films each year under a revenue-sharing deal reached in 2012. That quota, which Hollywood wants to increase from the official level of 34, is scheduled to be reviewed in 2017.

China accounted for 18.8 percent of worldwide movie ticket sales last year, versus 7.5 percent in 2012, according to research firm

comScore.For films imported under the cap, 25

percent of China ticket revenue goes to the U.S. film studio, a smaller share than the roughly 40 percent average in other international markets.

While a drop in China’s ticket sales growth could muddy the outlook for foreign movies, Sanford Panitch, president of Sony Corp’s Columbia Pictures, shrugged it off, saying: “We’ll take this slowdown in any territory in the world. It’s still an incredible story of a big growth market.”

Between January and November, tickets worth 41.4 billion yuan ($5.97 billion) were

sold in China, industry tracker EntGroup said, up 4.4 percent over 2015. That is sharply slower than last year’s 50 percent jump and on track for the slowest annual growth in a decade.

But given the market’s size and potential, the Motion Picture Association of America remains eager for Beijing to open its doors wider. Box office experts say China’s ticket sales will overtake those in the United States and Canada within the next few years.

An MPAA official said it was “very encouraging” that U.S. and Chinese officials had agreed in recent talks to address issues

including increasing the annual film quota and the revenue share that foreign studios receive.

For now, co-productions are helping bring the two sides together.

On Friday, Chinese theaters debuted “The Great Wall”, starring Matt Damon and produced by Legendary Entertainment - the Hollywood studio purchased by China’s Dalian Wanda - along with China Film Group and others. The movie was partly filmed at Wanda’s new studio in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao. It has been designated an official China co-production and therefore avoided the cap on U.S.-made movies.

Noon:12:01 Evening: 17:14 Dawn: 5:39 tomorrow) Sunrise: 7:09 (tomorrow)

PICTURE OF THE DAY TEHRAN TIMES/ Mohammad Sobhan

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

Foreign musicians perform during the closing ceremony of the 2nd International Music Festival of Muhammad, the Prophet of Kindness (S) held at Tehran’s Bahman Cultural Center on December 16, 2016.

DECEMBER 18, 2016

After 28 year-journey, Scorsese’s faith movie

“Silence” arrivesNEW YORK (Reuters) — After 28 years of false starts, director Martin Scorsese has finally brought a passion project about faith and religion to the big screen with “Silence.”

Based on the acclaimed 1966 novel of the same name by late Japanese writer Shusaku Endo, the drama tells the story of two Portuguese Jesuit missionaries, played by Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield, who travel to Japan in the 17th century to search for their missing mentor, portrayed by Liam Neeson.

There, in an era when Christians were persecuted and tortured, the missionaries face a choice: they can save themselves and Japanese converts from death by crucifixion, burning and drowning but only if they renounce their religion.

“I think it’s a beautiful film, it’s incredibly thought-provoking. It’s one of those films you don’t just forget about when you leave the cinema,” Neeson told Reuters.

“Whether you’re religious or not it’s very, very questioning,” the actor added.

Scorsese, a staunch Catholic, had been keen to make the film since first reading the book in 1988 after the release of his film “The Last Temptation of Christ.”

“Born in 1987” hits silver screens in Canada

Filmmaker Hossein Fahimi dies at 52

“Junk Girl” wins award at Italian festival

TEHRAN – Iranian director Majid Tavakoli’s drama “Born in 1987”

went on screen in the Canadian cities of Montreal and Toronto on Friday.

The film with English subtitles will go on screen in other Canadian cities as well.

Starring Pedram Sharifi and Hengameh Hamidzadeh, the film is about a young couple who pretend they are rich to spend their days with the real rich people. But their game faces an unpredictable ending.

TEHRAN — Iranian war veteran and filmmaker Hossein Fahimi,

who was injured during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), died at his home in Tehran on Friday morning after years of suffering and pain. He was 52.

Born in Shiraz, he was a film director, writer, documentarian and a professor at Sooreh Art University.

His credits include “The Beginning of an End” and “The Realm”.

Farabi Cinema Foundation Managing Director Alireza Tabesh expressed his condolences in a message published on Saturday.

TEHRAN — Iranian short animation “Junk Girl” co-directed by

Mohammad Zare’ and Shalaleh Kheiri won the third prize of the best social short film of the 1st edition of the Solidando Film Festival, an International festival for social short films, which was held in Cagliari, Italy from December 8 to 11.

“Junk Girl” is an adaptation of a poem from Tim Burton’s book “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories”.

The animation is about a lonely girl who is ignored by other people because of her strange appearance.

Muhammad Umar Saeed’s “The Learning Alliance” from Pakistan received the first prize while Thanos Psichogios’ “Carlos” from Greece won the second prize.

N E W S I N B R I E F

“Shahrzad” director Hassan Fat’hi wins best at Jasmine Film Festival

Hassan Fat’hi smiles as he holds the Golden Jasmine for best director at the closing ceremony of the 4th Jasmine International Film Festival in Ramsar on December 16, 2016. Tehran Times/ Amir-Ali Razzaqi

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Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman” makes the Foreign-Language Shortlist

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Shahab Hosseini (L) and Taraneh Alidusti in a scene from “The Salesman”.

Actor Jafar Vali dies at 83TEHRAN — Veteran Iranian actor Jafar Vali died of lung disease in a Tehran

hospital on Saturday. He was 83. He was a stage and film

director, writer and an actor in some memorable Iranian movies.

“The Cow” by Dariush Mehrjui, “Captain Khorshid” by Nasser Taqvai, “The Reward of Silence” by Maziar Miri, “Tight Spot” by Amir Naderi and “The Journey of the Stone” by Masud Kimiai are among the movies in which he appeared.

His funeral procession will begin at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Monday and he will

be buried in the Artists Section of Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery

China to review film limits as box office growth slowsElderly French couple convicted over Picasso works kept in garage for decadesAIX-EN-PROVENCE, FRANCE (Reuters) — An elderly French electrician and his wife were convicted on Friday of illicitly procuring hundreds of Picasso artworks that they kept for almost 40 years in the garage of their home.

An appeals court in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence gave a two-year suspended sentence to Pierre Le Guennec, who carried out electrical work at the home of Pablo Picasso’s last wife in the early 1970s, along with his wife, Danielle.

The two were also ordered to hand the works over to Picasso’s heirs and to pay legal and other related costs.

The court also upheld an earlier ruling ending six years of legal wrangling that began when the Le Guennecs took out the 180 paintings and other artworks as well as a book of 91 drawings in 2009-10 to get them authenticated, revealing their existence.

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