TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian navy commandos thwarted an attempt by pirates to hijack a cargo ship in international waters and arrested 13 pirates after 48 hours of armed clashes, a senior navy commander said.


Speaking at a press conference, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced that the Iranian Navy has detained 13 pirates 3,000 kilometers off Iran's territorial waters.

The pirates were captured in the Indian Ocean after they tried to seize a cargo ship loaded with commodities heading for Iran, the Iranian Navy commander said, adding that the detained pirates were being transferred to Iran.

The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.

According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates.

The Gulf of Aden - which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea - is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West through the Suez Canal.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian Sunni Muslim cleric strongly condemned the US troops' desecration of the Holy Quran, and stressed that Muslims will harshly punish those who have insulted their holy book.
"Those who have insulted the holy Quran should wait for the worst punishment since Muslims will never forget such a crime," Mamousta Seyed Saeed Hosseini said in Iran's Western city of Sanandaj on Wednesday.

"Muslims will never forgive those who have insulted their religious sanctities and consider desecration of the Holy Quran as an insult to their own character and personality," he added.

Hosseini further said that the only way to confront conspiracies and offenses by enemies of Islam is to maintain unity and solidarity of the Muslim community.

Mamousta Hosseini's comments came after the US soldier set fire to several copies of the Holy Quran at a NATO base in Afghanistan.

Angry Muslims, in Afghanistan and throughout the Muslim world, have staged increasing protests against the US insult to their religion in massive rallies.

At least 25 people have been killed and hundreds have been wounded in protests against the desecration of the Holy Quran in Afghanistan since it first emerged that copies of Quran and religious materials had been thrown into a fire pit used to burn garbage at Bagram Air Field.
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9010176622

TEHRAN (FNA)- US President Obama is hoping that the Iranian government is in a Christmas mood because he has asked Tehran to send him his Christmas present back.

We are still wondering how he shamelessly asked Tehran to give the US back the stealth drone which had violated the Iranian airspace for espionage.

"We have asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama said following a meeting at the White House with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Obama's comments were the first official confirmation that the United States had asked for the return of the RQ-70 drone that was downed by Iran over a week ago.

During the last ten days, Pentagon and State Department officials have repeatedly said they were unaware of any efforts by the American government to contact Iran to have the drone returned to the US.

Speaking later in the afternoon US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was doubtful the US would get its "equipment" back.

"Given Iran's behavior to date, we do not expect them to comply," she said during a press conference with her British counterpart.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he doesn't know the condition of the drone and what Iran or other countries might be able to glean about its capabilities.

Panetta said, "It's a little difficult to know just frankly how much they are going to be able to get from having obtained those parts. I don't know the condition of those parts, I don't know exactly what state they're in, so it's a little difficult to tell what they are going to be able to derive from what they have been able to get."

A senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday that Iran would not send the drone back.
http://english.farsnews.com/farsnews.php

In the 19th century, the British carved out an empire for themselves over which the sun never set. In North America, they ruled the northern half of the continent; in Africa, their empire extended from Alexandria in the north to Cape Town in the south; and in South Asia, they conquered from Kabul to Rangoon. They colonized Australia and New Zealand. They established Pax Britannia over all this immense area, one-fourth of the earth.

In the 18th century when the British were building their empire, they had only 35,000 men in arms, and 7,500 out of them were busy in pacifying Ireland.

While the Royal Navy held the British Empire together, their merchant marine built another - an invisible empire. It was their commercial empire which comprehended many of those countries which were out of the orbit of their political power.

At one time, when the power of the British was at its zenith, no nation on earth could challenge them on land or on sea.

Concurrently, with the extension of their political power and commercial influence, the British also established their cultural hegemony. They spread the English language over most of the world so that it is spoken or it is understood in most of the countries of the world.

The British accomplished all this and much more but not because of their piety and religious zeal. They were only tepidly interested in religion. They did not conquer an inch of foreign territory for the sake of Christ or the Bible; they conquered only for Britain, and to build the British Empire.

The old imperial system of Britain, France and the Netherlands held the world in an iron grip for nearly two centuries. Muslim states everywhere were at the feet of these powers. But in the aftermath of the two World Wars, their empires broke down. From the debris of their empires rose a multitude of new nations. One of these new nations was the Zionist State of Israel.

On May 14, 1948, the British relinquished their mandate over Palestine, and the Jewish settlers of the country proclaimed the birth of the State of Israel. On the following day (May 15) five Arab states invaded Israel with the avowed intention of "pushing Israel into the sea." But they could not push Israel into the sea. Israel defeated them all, and they had to retreat into their own shells.

Since then, there have been other wars between the Arabs and Israel. There was one in 1956 and another in 1967. In both wars, Israel defeated the Arabs, and captured much territory from them including Old Jerusalem.

In August 1969, a part of the Masjid-ul-Aqsa in Jerusalem caught fire. It was an act of arson. All Muslims – Arab as well as non-Arab – were inflamed at this outrage. The shock waves of the incident reached the remotest corners of the Muslim world, the two ends of which are 10,000 miles apart – from Indonesia in the east to Mauritania in the west. The Muslim nations held a conference in Rabat(Morocco) to consider some action to recover Jerusalem from Israel. But all they did, was pass resolutions and denounce Israel. An insolent Israel dared and defied the vast, sprawling Muslim world, but the latter lacked the grit and the gumption to take up the challenge.

In October 1973, Egypt attacked Israel on Yom Kippur when the Jews were occupied with their devotions. The Jews were caught off-guard but they recovered from the surprise, and immediately struck back. They raced through the Sinai desert, crossed the Suez, established a beachhead on the west bank of the canal – 60 miles from Cairo, and surrounded the whole Egyptian Third Army!

It was American pressure on Israel that saved the Egyptian Third Army. But curiously, Egypt claimed the military action against Israel a "victory" for herself. War and "victory," the Egyptian government said, had restored the morale and self-respect of Egypt even though it was the United Nations and the United States which on this, as on earlier occasions, had rescued them from disaster.

Iranians, however, are prohibited from wearing ties in Iran because they contribute to the spreading of western culture, according to the website of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khameini.
The practice stems from the 1979 Islamic revolution when the monarchy was overthrown and a unique Islamic republic was declared, in which religious clerics - headed by Ayatollah Khomeini - wielded ultimate political control.

Neckties - and bowties - were said to be decadent, un-Islamic and viewed as "symbols of the Cross" and the oppressive West.

Iranians were told to wear "standard Islamic garments" designed to remove ethnic and class distinctions reflected in clothing.

Nowadays ties are still frowned on as "the influence of westernisation" on the way Iranians, especially young people, dress.

While dress codes are strict in Iran, the suit and open-necked shirt worn by President Ahmadinejad is to stress openness and approachability, says Dr Newman.
"He is a lay person and not a cleric, so wears a suit to show informality," he says.

The president's attire has become something of a talking point. At the height of his popularity, his trademark fawn-coloured windcheater - known to some as the Ahmadinejacket - spawned many a mini-trend, with entrepreneurs ordering copies of the garment from China to meet the demand from his supporters.
Taken from B.B.C. 'news' of England.