Front-page Iran

Iranian Missle can Avoid Radar

Iran successfully test-fired a missile that can avoid radar and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads, the military said Friday.
Gen. Hossein Salami, the air force chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards, did not specify the missile's range, saying it depends on the weight of its warheads.
But state-run television described the weapon as ``ballistic'' - suggesting it's of comparable range to Iran's existing ballistic rocket, which can travel 1,250 miles and reach arch-foe Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East.
``Today, a remarkable goal of the Islamic Republic of Iran's defense forces was realized with the successful test-firing of a new missile with greater technical and tactical capabilities than those previously produced,'' Salami said on state-run television.
It showed a clip of the launch of what it called the Fajr-3, with ``fajr'' meaning ``victory'' in Farsi.
``It can avoid anti-missile missiles and strike the target,'' Salami said.
He said the missile would carry a multiple warhead, and each warhead would be capable of hitting its target precisely.
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Iranian Earthquake

A strong earthquake hit western Iran on Friday, killing at least 70 people and devastating villages, a provincial official said.
More than 1,200 people were injured in an area around the cities of Doroud and Boroujerd in the province of Lorestan, said Ali Barani, head of the provincial emergency team for disasters.
Some survivors were dug out of the rubble of buildings alive, rescue officials said. In the worst hit areas, brick buildings collapsed into piles of masonry and mud homes were reduced to mounds of dust.
Barani said 330 village in the area were severely damaged but the death toll was unlikely to rise much further.
"If there are any changes, it will be very few," he said by phone from Lorestan.
Strong tremors on Thursday night helped keep the toll down because they drove many to leave their homes and take to the streets well before the big quake hit on Friday morning. There were 3 quakes, at 11:15pm local time there was a quake of 4.7, at 4:50 am another quake struck with a magnitude of 6.0. A 5.1 was also recorded.
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Oil Price Drops

Oil prices stayed lower after posting sharp gains this week, as Iran said it will not use oil as a weapon in the row over its nuclear programme while Agip resumed normal output in Nigeria after repairing a sabotaged pipeline.
At 4.25 pm, May-dated Brent contracts were down 13 cents at 66.33 usd, after gaining 91 cents to close at 66.46 yesterday. Meanwhile May-dated US light crude futures were down 75 cents at 66.40 usd.
After breaking out of a month-long trading range of 60-64 usd, oil prices are now nearing their all time record of 70.85 usd as concerns about supply risks in Iran and Nigeria combine with worries over US gasoline stocks.
Prices rose sharply yesterday after Iran categorically ruled out complying with a UN Security Council statement calling on it to halt uranium enrichment, and after world powers said Tehran could be facing sanctions.
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Iran Faces Isloation

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran faces ``deeper isolation'' if it persists with its nuclear program and the U.S. doesn't rule out any option in its efforts to persuade Tehran to cease uranium enrichment.
``Thus far Iran has not been interested in any of the offers put to it,'' Rice said after a speech in Blackburn, England, the electoral constituency of U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The Bush administration never takes anything ``off the table'' in its policy toward the Middle Eastern country, though it is not contemplating military action now, she said.
Rice yesterday suggested the U.S. is prepared for lengthy diplomacy to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions after the United Nations refrained from attaching consequences to its demand that Iran curb its program and open it to scrutiny. The U.S. suspects Iran is engaged in a secret attempt to build a nuclear weapon.
Rice and Straw yesterday met in Berlin with their counterparts from France, Germany, Russia and China to discuss how to deter Iran from seeking nuclear weapons. The six used a joint statement to urge Iran to halt ``all enrichment-related activities.''
She was also met by anti-war protesters, when she visited a high school. She used her speeches to defend the Iraq war.
``If you're impervious to the lessons you've just come out of you're brain-dead,'' she told the gathering, organized by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a U.K. foreign policy research center. ``I believe strongly it was the right strategic decision'' to invade Iraq.
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