Iranian F-5 Fighter Jet Crashes in West Iran, 2 Pilots Killed

Source : RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti) – An Iranian US-made fighter jet F-5 has crashed in western Iran, killing two pilots, Mehr news agency reported on Sunday.

The fighter jet crashed into Mount Filman near the town of Abdanan, some 450 km (280 miles) southwest of the capital Tehran. The bodies of both pilots were found at the crash site, Mehr said, citing regional governor Morad Nasseri.

Investigators are currently working at the crash site, the governor said.

The jet fighter belonged to the Dezful airbase in the Khuzestan province.

Iran’s Air Force employs US-made combat aircraft purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and also Russia-made Sukhoi and MIG aircraft.

US says new Iran centrifuges would be provocative

Source :  thenews.com.pk

WASHINGTON: The United States warned Iran Thursday that the installation of next-generation centrifuges at one of its main nuclear plants, as reported by the UN atomic agency, would be a "provocative step."

The installation "would be a further escalation and a continuing violation of Iran's obligations under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and IAEA board resolutions," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "So it would mark yet another provocative step," she said. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, on Thursday said Tehran had begun installing the new IR-2m centrifuges earlier this month at the Natanz plant. "This is the first time that centrifuges more advanced than the IR-1 have been installed" at the plant in central Iran, an IAEA report said. The report comes five days before Iran is set to sit down with world powers in Kazakhstan for the latest round of talks on the Islamic republic's nuclear program, which the West and Israel say is a front for weapons development. Tehran insists its program is strictly for peaceful purposes. The talks between the so-called P5+1 -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- and Iran will be the first since June, when three rounds of meetings ended in stalemate in Moscow. Nuland, who said the report of new centrifuges were no surprise, urged Iran to consider "another path... the diplomatic path." "They have an opportunity to come to those talks ready to be serious, ready to allay the international community's concerns, and we hope they take that opportunity," she said.

Iranian photographer wins awards at World Photo Press

Source : Tehran Times

TEHRAN -- Iranian photographer Ebrahim Noruzi has won two awards at the World Photo Press 2013.

The winners of the world’s largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest were announced on Friday

Noruzi won the first prize of the Observed Portraits Section for his photo collection “Victims of Forced Love”.

The collection depicts the aftermath of an attack in Iran, during which a man poured acid over the faces of his wife, Somayyeh Mehri, and his two daughters, Rana and Nazanin, while they were sleeping at home in a village in the southeastern city of Bam in 2012, after Somayyeh filed for divorce.

Somayyeh lost her sight in one eye. The skin across her face and arms is covered with rough, discolored scars. Her younger daughter, Rana, now at 3, has been disfigured and also lost one of her eyes. The older daughter, Nazanin, was injured less severely.

Noruzi also won the second prize at the Staged Portraits Stories Section for his photo collection “Mournful”.

The collection features the rituals of mourning season of Muharram in Lorestan Province, especially in Khoramabad in Iran.

Born in 1980 in Tehran, Noruzi began working as a professional photographer in 2004 with the Fars News Agency.

His photographs have appeared nationally and internationally, in such publications as The New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, and have been distributed by Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, Reuters, United Press International and the European Press Photo Agency.

World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The awards ceremony is held in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.

After the contest, the prizewinning photographs are assembled into a traveling exhibition that is visited by over a million people in 40 countries.

SB/YAW END

Algeria Eager to Further Reinvigorate Ties with Iran

Source : Fars News Agency

TEHRAN (FNA)- Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in a message to his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed his country's enthusiasm for the further enhancement of the relations with Tehran.

Bouteflika in his message congratulated President Ahmadinejad on the 34th anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and called for expansion of Iran-Algeria ties.

He also expressed his determination to broaden bilateral ties.

President Ahmadinejad's administration has striven hard to maximize relations with the African continent.

Iran is also an observing member of the AU and has shown an active presence in previous AU summit meetings.

The country is considered as one of the AU's strategic partners along with India, Japan, China, several South American states and Turkey, while Tehran is also believed to be prioritizing promotion of its economic and political ties with the African states.

Iran, IAEA to hold next nuclear talks today

Source : APA

Baku. Konul Jafarli – APA. A delegation from the International A (IAEA) has arrived in Iran for a new round of talks with Iranian quoting Press TV.

The IAEA team, headed by the international body’s deputy director inspector, Herman Nackaerts, arrived in the Iranian capital, Tehran, Wednesday.

The IAEA experts are expected to discuss issues pertaining to Tehra program with Iranian officials.

Iran’s Ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh will head the Ira

Nackaerts said on Tuesday before leaving Vienna for Tehran that th to “finalize the structured approach document” in view of resolving regarding Iran’s nuclear activities. “We will have good negotiations,”

Iran and the IAEA last met in Tehran on January 17-18.

US surprised by ‘Iranian evasion technique’

Source : Islamic Invitation Turkey

US surprised by ‘Iranian evasion technique’

As sanctions mount against Iran, reports have gave an account of how surprised some US authorities are by Iran’s methods of bypassing the sanctions. “Despite onerous sanctions that have basically shut Iran out of the global financial system, the country is still finding some ways to bypass them, the Treasury Department said Thursday, describing what it called a small but “emerging threat” to the effectiveness of the sanctions effort,” NY Times said in an article January 10.

“Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which supervises American enforcement of the sanctions, said the Iranians were using private exchange houses and trading companies in other countries, masking transactions with fake identities and relying on the paperless practice known as hawala, common in parts of the Middle East and Asia, in which money is transferred informally and often illegally through trustworthy couriers,” NY Times continued.

The report says that with only 300,000 barrels deficit in oil export (as opposed to the alleged one million barrel deficit), Iran is bypassing sanctions.

The report goes on to say that in 2011 the growth rate was 1.7 per cent, to slip down to -1 percent in 2012.

World Bank expects Iranian economy to come clean of the slump with a 0.6 per cent growth rate in 2013. A previous report had predicted the growth rate at -0.7

Based on the report it is expected that Iran’s current account balance will remain positive and the country’s GDP growth would be 7.6 per cent.

UK Businessman Convicted for Attempted Arms-to-Iran Deal

Source : World | RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, January 10 (RIA Novosti) - A court in Texas sentenced to almost three years in prison a retired UK businessman who admitted trying to sell weapon parts to Iran, BBC said on Thursday.

UK extradited Christopher Tappin, 66, to the US last February to face charges of trying to sell missile parts to Iran.

He entered a plea deal with US prosecutors and pleaded guilty in November, admitting that he knowingly aided an illegal attempt to sell zinc/silver oxide reserve batteries to Iran between December 2005 and January 2007. The batteries are a special component of the Hawk Air Defence Missile.

"As part of the agreement, both the US government and the British government have promised to actively support my repatriation to Britain at the earliest opportunity,” BBC quoted Tappin as saying.

Charges against him entailed a maximum punishment of 35 years in prison. The judge sentenced Tappin for 33 months in prison and imposed a fine of $11,357 on him.