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December 2000, Week 4 |
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Weather
forcast of 50 cities in Iran
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Anand Wins Fide World Chess Championship
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand navigated through a tempest of complications Sunday to beat Alexei Shirov of Spain and become the International Chess Federation world champion.
"I don't think it will hit me for a day or two. I'm at a loss for words -- but it feels fantastic," Anand told reporters after winning the final 3 hour, 15 minute game to take the match 3.5 to 0.5. "The fact that the margin was large doesn't mean it was easy," he added. "Three of the games could have gone either way." Chess has had two world champions since 1993, when former world champion Garry Kasparov broke away from the federation, known as FIDE, to form the Professional Chess Association. The PCA disbanded in 1998 after Kasparov defended his title twice. Anand, who replaces Alexander Khalifman as the FIDE champion, declined to say if he would play against Vladimir Kramnik, the Brain Games Network world champion. Kramnik beat Kasparov, a fellow Russian, in November. In Sunday's game, Shirov resigned after the 41st move, otherwise facing a hopeless deficit in pieces. Shirov, who has a reputation as the most imaginative attacking player in chess today and is often compared to former world chess champion Mikhail Tal, said he "got a sharp fight and had some practical chances." Shirov played the French Defense, the same defense that Anand played as black in game one of the four-game championship. Shirov played the Advance Variation in that game, which ended in a draw. Shirov has played the French Defense against Anand four other times this year: Anand won twice, Shirov won once and one game ended in a draw. Anand played the main line with 4.Bg5 and drew at an exhibition game during the Sydney Olympics. Anand, who used the Steinitz Variation the three other times, played the main line of the Steinitz Defense with 5.f4 and lost during a rapid game in Monaco in March. On Sunday, Anand avoided the main line of the Steinitz Variation with 5.Nce2. He played that move against Shirov in an "advanced chess" match in June and lost. Both sides are aided by a computer in "advanced chess" matches. In the June game, Shirov played 7....b5, instead of Sunday's 7....Qb6, and lost. At a rapid game in Frankfurt three weeks later, Shirov played 11.Na5, instead of Sunday's 11.a5, and lost. Shirov on Sunday sacrificed a knight for two center pawns on move 15. His compensation was attacking chances, though such sacrifices rarely succeed at the highest level. Anand called Shirov's 18th move, Qe2, "a serious mistake." He said if black's queen had retreated to c7, that would have led to "a pretty fluid game." Shirov's 20th move picked up a fourth pawn but obliged him to sacrifice a second piece.
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Iran Right Blasts MP for Son with U.S. Ambitions
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TEHRAN, (Reuters) - Iranian conservatives called for a reformist MP to be expelled from parliament on Wednesday for saying his son wanted to move to the United States.
"I have a 12-year-old son who for the last two years has been insisting that we go and live in America," former film director, turned politician Behrooz Afkhami told parliament on Tuesday.
The son had bemoaned his father becoming an MP in February polls since that meant the family would have to stay in Iran for another four years, Afkhami told shocked colleagues. "I tried to ignore it and see it as a joke, but gradually I found out that all my children agree." The conservative press, for whom Washington is the "Great Satan," saw red. "MPs know what they have to do," roared the hardline Jumhuri- ye Eslami in an editorial. "Expel this misfit agent from the nation's parliament." The United States cut ties with Iran in 1980 after Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Washington says Tehran sponsors terrorism while Iran accuses the United States of "global arrogance." Afkhami said he used the example of his son to argue not enough was being done in the Islamic Republic to encourage films and entertainment for the young and stem the demand to emigrate to the West. Conservatives said it showed he was not fit to bring up a 12-year-old. "What his son says is due to the information he has received at home from his parents," Jomhuri-ye Eslami said. "If Afkhami does not know that America is the enemy of the Iranian nation and that praising the enemy in the nation's parliament is against the people's ideals and the country's interests, he lacks the main prerequisite to be an MP."
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Iran Says Would Buy Boeing if U.S. Sanctions Lifted
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TEHRAN, (Reuters) - Iran's civil aviation organisation said carriers were willing to procure Boeing (BA.N) aircraft to upgrade their fleets if U.S.-imposed sanctions were lifted, the semi-official Iran newspaper said on Wednesday. "Iran Air and other, private carriers are willing to buy from Boeing but this is currently impossible due to the state of relations between the two countries," Alireza Manzari, deputy director of the organisation was quoted as saying. "The average age of operational aircraft in Iran is now around 22 years," he said. Mahan Air, a private carrier, has recently bought three Airbus A-300's and is in the process of buying two more, Manzari said. Iran Air, the national carrier, has ordered four Airbuses A-330's to be delivered in 2001-02. Iran Air carries more than 7.5 million passengers a year on its 30 aircraft, mostly Boeings acquired before the 1979 revolution. Apart from new Airbus deal, the airline has bought only six Fokker F100s and two Airbus A300-600s since 1979. U.S. sanctions bar sales of Boeing airliners to the Islamic Republic and hinder the acquisition of other aircraft, many of which rely on U.S.-built engines or other components. Industry analysts expect that Iran Air is likely to rely exclusively on Airbus to replace its ageing fleet of Boeings, which consist of some 17 old 727, 737 and 747's if relations with the United States do not thaw.
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Third US Company Interested in Iranian Oil Project
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LONDON, (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- Parsons oil services has become the third United States-based oil company to formally express interest in one of Iran's development projects.
According to Petroleum Argus, Parsons is one of nine international companies and three local firms that have bought bidding documents for the US$800 million upgrade of the 200,000 barrels per day Aqajari onshore oil field in southern Iran. The interest by the California-based engineering firm follows Atlantic Richfield (Arco) becoming the first American company to bid for an Iranian project since President Clinton signed an executive order in 1995 banning all commercial trade between Iran and the US. Arco, which has since been taken over by BP, was reported to have made a formal bid for Darkhovin and Ahvaz Bangestan oil field contracts last January. More recently Chevron was openly identified as one of seven US firms openly buying data for phases 9 to 12 of the giant South Pars offshore gas field. The other six American companies have yet to be revealed. US firms have been reportedly "jockeying for position" in preparation for the easing of American sanctions. New President George W. Bush is widely expected not to renew Clinton's executive order during his first year of office.
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Iran Leader Accepts Culture Minister's Resignation
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TEHRAN,(Reuters) - President Mohammad Khatami has accepted the resignation of liberal Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani, the man behind the explosion of free press and arts in Iran, state television said on Thursday. Mohajerani, who was under fierce attack from Islamic harliners for his tolerant cultural policies, handed in his resignation some months ago, but the president had refused to accept it.
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