In 2003, administrators at Stanford University's Electrical Engineering Department were startled when a group of foreign students aced the notoriously difficult Ph.D. entrance exam, getting some of the highest scores ever. That the whiz kids weren't American wasn't odd; students from Asia and elsewhere excel in U.S. programs. The surprising thing, say Stanford administrators, is that the majority came from one country and one school: Sharif University of Science and Technology in Iran. » Read more on newsweek.com (pi) mehr...

Yasaman Farzan of Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM) has received the prestigious IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Particle Physics. The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) has chosen Dr Yasaman Farzan of IPM as the winner of the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Particle Physics in 2008. This prize which is a recently established one, will be awarded every two years in the field of particle physics, preferentially one to a theoretical and one to an experimental young particle physicist of outstanding scientific achievements. The 2008 prize is the first IUPAP prize in the field of particle physics. Yasaman Farzan is the winner of the theoretical IUPAP prize. mehr...

Tehran - The Iran Khodro Powertrain Company (IPCO) will unveil its most advanced dual-mode hybrid engine, the National Engine, on the first day of Engine Expo 2008, which is being held in Stuttgart, Germany from May 6 to 8. IPCO Managing Director Mohammad Zali announced that the National Engine, which runs on both natural gas and gasoline, was designed and produced three years ago in Iran and now has the ability to compete with other modern engines since it observes the Euro 4 standard for air pollution. » Read more on tehrantimes.com (pi) mehr...

ONE of the founding fathers of neoconservatism has privately urged President George W Bush to bomb Iran rather than allow it to acquire nuclear weapons. Norman Podhoretz, an intellectual guru of the neoconservative movement who has joined Rudolph Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign as a senior foreign policy adviser, held an unpublicised meeting with Bush late last spring at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. The encounter reveals the enduring influence of the neoconservatives at the highest reaches of the White House, despite some high-profile casualties in the past year. mehr...

A RESPECTED American paper posted a scoop this week: Vice-President Dick Cheney, the King of Hawks, has thought up a Machiavellian scheme for an attack on Iran. Its main point: Israel will start by bombing an Iranian nuclear installation, Iran will respond by launching missiles at Israel, and this will serve as a pretext for an American attack on Iran. mehr...

The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert. Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said. mehr...

“While in Berlin, Levey met with Thomas Mirow, a senior official at the Finance Ministry, and Chancellor Angela Merkel's foreign policy advisor Christoph Heusgen. During those talks, he demanded Germany cut its so-called Hermes export credit insurance coverage when it came to deals with Iran. (...) Moreover, Levey told the officials that Washington wanted Germany to scale back all of its other economic ties with Iran as quickly as possible. But Levey ran into resistance from the Germans, who said his demands were understandable coming from a country that has no trade with Iran. Germany, however, exports more than €4 billion ($5.45 billion) in goods to the country each year, creating thousands of jobs.” (Spiegel online, “US Pressures Germany to Cut Iran Business Ties”, No. 31/ July 30, 2007) mehr...

TEHRAN (Thomson Financial) - Iran will launch the first phase of a long-awaited plan to ration petrol on Thursday - a move that is expected to have a major impact on its economy, officials said. The plan, which aims to reduce colossal state petrol subsidies, is being implemented gradually and Thursday's change will only affect vehicles used by government officials, with private cars being targeted later. 'The start of (the) first phase of petrol rationing is only for the government vehicles and will begin from midnight on Wednesday,' the head of government special plans, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. mehr...

Bush administration officials reacted cautiously Tuesday to indications that Iran has improved its ability to enrich uranium as fuel for nuclear reactors, a crucial step toward nuclear weapons. White House and State Department officials say they still believe diplomacy can persuade Iran to freeze its program before it has mastered the complex technology involved. The International Atomic Energy Agency will report to the United Nations Security Council next week on Iran's apparent progress. The Tehran regime has defied U.N. resolutions demanding an immediate suspension of its nuclear enrichment program, and another negative report by the nuclear watchdog agency is almost certain to spur a new round of U.N. sanctions. mehr...

Tehran - Sheikh Saadi, full name in English, Muslih-ud-Din Mushrif-ibn-Abdullah (1184 – around 1291) is one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is recognized not only for the quality of his writing, but also for the depth of his social thought. A native of Shiraz, Persia, Shiekh Saadi left his native town at a young age for Baghdad to study Arabic literature and Islamic sciences at Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad (1195-1226). mehr...

by Ali Fathollah-Nejad Can Neoconservative Belligerent Dogmatism be Halted by the Empire’s Realists? In mid-September 2006, CNN invited retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner, previously a strategic scholar at various U.S. Army War Colleges, to discuss the probability of a U.S. military strike against Iran. Responding on how close, in his opinion, the Bush Administration was away from giving the go-ahead order regarding Iran, Gardiner unmistakably said: "It’s been given. In fact, we’ve probably been executing military operations inside Iran for at least 18 months. The evidence is overwhelming." (emphasis added) mehr...

Tehran - Parse Pasargadae Research Center in Iranian Fars province has produced a short documentary film in an attempt to bring the dignity of Persian ancient history into light and show its objection to the movie of 300 in which the reality about the history of Iran is distorted. mehr...

Grossing over 70 million dollars in its first week of release, the movie “300” is set to crash into the list of highest grossing Hollywood blockbusters. Its strong opening is a clear indicator of its success with the North American and by implication, European audiences. Although this picture is based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller and directed by Zack Snyder (“Dawn of the Dead”), it is already being portrayed as a “historical” movie, and will be perceived as such by many (less discerning) viewers. More significant however, are the conclusions that are being derived from this picture. mehr...

Kuwait City - Washington will launch a military strike on Iran before April 2007, say sources. The attack will be launched from the sea and Patriot missiles will guard all oil-producing countries in the region, they add. Recent statements emanating from the United States indicate the Bush administration’s new strategy for Iraq doesn’t include any proposal to make a compromise or negotiate with Syria or Iran. A reliable source said President Bush recently held a meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice and other assistants in the White House where they discussed the plan to attack Iran in minute detail. mehr...

Iran is threatening to retaliate in Europe for what it claims is a daring undercover operation by western intelligence services to kidnap senior officers in its Revolutionary Guard. According to Iranian sources, several officers have been abducted in the past three months and the United States has drawn up a list of other targets to be seized with the aim of destabilising Tehran’s military command. In an article in Subhi Sadek, the Revolutionary Guard’s weekly paper, Reza Faker, a writer believed to have close links to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, warned that Iran would strike back. mehr...