Russia Ready to Launch Bushehr N. Power Plant
During the meeting, Borodavkin said Kirienko is ready to travel to Iran at the end of the current month to attend the opening ceremony of Bushehr power plant. Russia has been building the nuclear facility in Iran since 1994. The start-up of the station, originally scheduled to be completed in 1999, has been delayed on several occasions. Western corporations began the construction of the Bushehr facility in the 1970s. However, following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Western companies reneged on their commitments and pulled out of the project due to political pressure from Washington.
Iran then turned to Russia to complete the project. In 1992, Tehran and Moscow signed a deal to complete the construction of the nuclear power plant
Bomb attacks rattle through Mosul
(PressTv)Terror-fueled violence continues to plague Iraq as the dispute over key government posts prevents major political parties from reaching a power-sharing deal. Six civilians were wounded in an attack aimed at an army patrol in east of Mosul, in the northern Nineveh province, a police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
In a separate incident, a roadside bomb blast targeted a police vehicle passing through the al-Boursa region in western Mosul, injuring two cops.
Elsewhere, a strong explosion hit Fallujah’s northern neighborhood of al-Saqlawiya on Monday evening, said a police source who did not give more details on the number of casualties.
An Iraqi judge survived an assassination attempt also on Monday, when a bomb stuck to Judge Ali Hanoun’s car exploded after the judge left his car in front of his house in the provincial capital al-Amarah, in the southeast province of Maysan.
Violence has picked again after a period of relative quiet in Iraq while politicians have not yet managed to agree on the formation of a new government months into the inconclusive March 7 elections.
Former Premier Iyad Allawi’s al-Iraqiya bloc ended up in the first place with 91 seats out of the parliament’s 325 seats, followed by Maliki’s State of Law with 89. The Iraqi National Alliance secured 70 seats, and the Iraqi Kurdish Alliance garnered 43 seats.
The results from the fraud-tainted general elections, however, did not give any slates the parliamentary majority they needed to secure an outright win.
The rival blocs have not yet managed to agree on a power-sharing deal and the major posts of president, prime minister and parliament speaker are still to be decided on
.
Russia firefight for nuclear site ongoing
(PressTv ) Russia is trying to secure its sensitive nuclear research center in Sarov from raging wildfires, which have reportedly caused USD 15 billion in damages so far.
Two soldiers lost their lives on Monday as they were fighting to prevent fires from reaching the atomic research center in Sarov, a secret town near Moscow which is surrounded by forests, reports said on Tuesday.
The country’s nuclear-waste processing facility in the southern city of Ozyorsk is also reported to be threatened by relentless fires.
Two weeks into the disaster that has killed more than 50 people and consumed at least 174,035 hectares of land, Russian authorities insist the conditions are improving.
"A positive dynamic in liquidating the wildfires continues to be observed," the head of the emergencies ministry’s crisis unit, Vladimir Stepanov, was quoted by AFP as saying.
"The numbers (of emergency workers) have been increased in those regions where there is a difficult situation with the fires," he added.
Russian business daily Kommersant reported that the damages from the fires amount to USD 15 billion, which almost equals to one percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
The unprecedented heatwave accompanied by the toxic smog from the fires are taking big tolls on the Russians.
Health officials in Moscow have announced that around 700 people die daily in the city as a result.
The conditions in Moscow are not expected to back to normal in Moscow until next week, officials say.
Iran launched second cascade of centrifuges under IAEA watch
TEHRAN (TehranTimes) – Foreign Ministry spokesman has stated that the second cascade of centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment facility has been launched under the eyes
of IAEA inspectors. The effort has been in line with the announcement by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on February 11 that Iran was on schedule to enrich uranium to 20 percent in order to power the Tehran nuclear research reactor, Mehmanparast said at his weekly press briefing on Tuesday.
International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Gill Tudor has said, “The IAEA can confirm that on 17 July, when agency inspectors were at (Natanz), Iran was feeding nuclear material to the two interconnected 164-machine centrifuge cascades.” Mehmanparast said, “20 percent uranium enrichment is regarded as a peaceful nuclear activity and is considered a legitimate right of all countries committed to the AIEA.”
MKO members will be extradited Commenting on the issue of over 100 members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) who have taken refuge in Iraq, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said their documents have been handed to the Interpol. “We are seeking to get members of this terrorist group through Interpol,” he added.
Mottaki arrives in Damascus
Damascus, Aug 11, (IRNA) – Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived in Damascus on Wednesday morning. At the airport, Mottaki was welcomed by Syrian Deput
Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnous and Iran’s Ambassador to Syria Seyed Ahmad Mousavi. He is scheduled to meet and discuss issues of mutual interest with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem.
Iran Plans to Mass-Produce World’s Fastest Speedboat Next Year
TEHRAN (FarsNewsAgency)- Iran plans to start mass production of the world’s fastest speedboat in the next Iranian year (beginning March 21), a senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced on Tuesday
"We will supply Iran’s marine units with a large number of such speedboats which will have torpedo and missile launching capabilities," Commander of the IRGC Navy Admiral Ali Fadavi said in a press conference today. Fadavi reiterated that the home-made speedboat can sail at the maximum speed of 72 knots per hour (140km/h), reminding that the fastest speedboats produced by those countries with astonishing progresses in the field have a maximum speed of only 35 knots per hour.
He appreciated IRGC experts for producing such highly advanced speedboats, and stressed that the vessel plays a major role in promoting the IRGC Navy’s deterrence power. The Islamic Republic has mass-produced a large number of speedboats with rocket- launchers and other sophisticated military equipment which are able to strike a heavy blow on any foreign warship if the country comes under attack.
The IRGC Navy has also voiced preparedness to deploy its submarines and battle boats to intercept vessels at the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier on Tuesday, the IRGC Navy launched tens of its missile-launching speedboats in the Persian Gulf.
The speedboats in Zolfaqar, Tareq, Ashoura and Zoljanah classes were launched in a ceremony attended by IRGC Navy Commander Admiral Ali Fadavi and a number of other high-ranking officials.