MIT honors Iranian-born inventors

Two Iranian scientists are among the under 35 innovators of 2009 chosen by the MIT published Technology Review.

According to Technology Review Shahram Izadi (33) and Ali Javey (29) are selected for their innovations believed to be able to change the world.

Microsoft researcher, Shahram Izadi, has improved Microsoft's already impressive touch table, Surface, to present information in a completely new way.

The intuitive 3-D interface known as SecondLight is believed to help individuals manage layers of data through adding another physical layer in a second hidden image above the first one.

The assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Ali Javey, was elected for “painting” nanowires into high-quality electronic circuits.

Javey has so far used the technique to print transistors based on germanium, silicon, and indium arsenide nanowires as well as arrays of light-sensing cadmium selenide nanowires.

MIT magazine has also selected Kevin Fu (33), a software engineer and assistant professor of computer science, as innovator of the year because of his invaluable research in innovating hacker-protected radio frequency chips for objects ranging from credit cards to pacemakers.

José Gomez-Marquez (32) was also honored as the Humanitarian of the Year due to the invention of practical medical devices for impoverished countries.

Among the inventors on the list is Jeffrey Bigham (28) from the University of Rochester, who has created a free screen reader that can be used with practically any Web browser on any operating system to help the blind navigate the Web.

Since 1999, the editors of Technology Review have been honoring young innovators, all under the age of 35, whose inventions and research in different fields of medicine, computing, communications, electronics, and nanotechnology has changed the world.

Indonesian customs agents arrest 10 Iranians in major drug bust

Jakarta - Customs agents seized methamphetamine worth up to 10 million dollars and arrested 10 people, a senior official said Wednesday. Two men and eight women from Iran, aged between 24 and 59, were arrested on Monday and Tuesday at Jakarta's international airport.

They arrived on four different flights from Malaysia, Qatar, and Syria, Customs director-general Anwar Supriyadi said.

The state-run Antara news agency quoted Supriyadi as saying the arrests began when custom officers stopped a man and two women arriving on a Malaysian Air flight from Kuala Lumpur, and seized 9.8 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine.

Agents eventually seized a total of 26.8 kilograms and 22.8 litres of crystal and liquid methamphetamine, locally known as "shabu-shabu," worth estimated up to 102 billion rupiah (10.7 million dollars), he said.

"This is the biggest catch ever," Supriyadi said, adding that the drugs were hidden in food containers and in bottles of shampoo, soap and porcelain cleaners.

Nine of the suspects, believed to be members of a Middle Eastern drug ring, were being held by the national police. One other man was hospitalized after a suicide attempt.

If found guilty of smuggling second-class drugs into the country, the suspects could face a maximum 10 years in prison, Supriyadi said.

China sentences three to death in mafia-plagued city

Beijing - Two courts in the south-western city of Chongqing on Wednesday sentenced three men to death after convicting them of leading organized crime rings, state media said. They were among 31 alleged members of two criminal gangs tried this week as the first of hundreds of people in Chongqing, including several top officials, accused of involvement in some of China's largest organized crime rings.

Three other members of the two gangs were given suspended death sentences on Wednesday, while the other 25 defendants were given prison sentences ranging from one year to life, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Prosecutors accused the gang members of crimes including murder, illegal possession of firearms, running illegal coal mines, false imprisonment, robbery, extortion and forgery, the agency said.

Chongqing police questioned more than 2,000 suspects during a six-month crackdown on organized crime, including 67 alleged gang leaders and 50 government officials.

Police formally arrested more than 600 suspects, while Chongqing state prosecutors had charged 263 people by the end of August.

Wen Qiang, the former director of the city's justice bureau, and a former deputy police chief were among those detained by police for questioning, earlier reports said.

Chongqing was reportedly one of China's biggest centres for weapons trafficking, while the gangs also controlled prostitution, gambling, drugs, entertainment and many local businesses, including one city bus company.

City courts also tried a major organized criminal gang in April, sentencing 19 people after convicting them of murder, drug trafficking, robbery, illegal possession of firearms, and bribing police officers.

In an editorial on Monday, the official China Daily newspaper said the provision of "protective umbrellas" to the gangs by municipal government officials and police officers was a problem of China's "transition from a planned economy to a market one."

France flies three illegal Afghan immigrants back to Kabul

Paris - France has flown three Afghan citizens, who were illegally on French soil, to the Afghan capital Kabul, Immigration Minister Eric Besson said Wednesday. The flight, made jointly with British authorities, left Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport near midnight Tuesday and was the first such "charter" carrying forcibly expelled immigrants from France back to their home country in four years.

It was not clear how many Afghans expelled from Britain were on the plane.

Besson told Europe 1 radio that the three men would be returning to Kabul, "where there is no threat to their physical safety."

But a broad alliance of charities working with immigrants have mounted a vocal opposition to the flights, saying they contravened the European Declaration of Human Rights because they exposed the returning Afghans to war and terrorism.

On October 6, a planned flight of illegal immigrants to Afghanistan was annulled when the European Court of Human Rights suspended the forced expulsion of seven Afghans on a technicality.

Pakistan to help Iran root out Jundallah

Pakistan says it will help the Tehran government locate and arrest the masterminds behind a deadly terrorist attack that killed scores of people in southeastern Iran.

In remarks published on Wednesday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced that an Iranian delegation will soon arrive in Islamabad for talks on the matter.

"We will help them and support them in unearthing the people responsible …We will sort this thing out on a government-to-government basis," Reuters quoted Qureshi as saying.

He said terrorism was a regional problem and Iran and Pakistan should join forces in rooting out extremism and radicalism.

"What we are asking is that we as neighbors, as friends, as brotherly friendly countries, have to adopt a cooperative regional approach to deal with this menace," he continued. "Pakistan is suffering, Pakistan is a victim of terrorism."

At least 42 people, including senior commanders from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Nour-Ali Shoushtari and Rajab-Ali Mohammadzadeh, were killed in a Sunday morning bombing during a gathering of Shia and Sunni tribal leaders in the borderline region of Pishin.

The Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group, which is closely affiliated with the notorious al-Qaeda organization, has claimed responsibility for the bomb blast.

Led by Abdulmalek Rigi, Jundallah terrorists have staged a tidal wave of bombings and terrorist attacks in Iran, one of which left at least 25 Iranians dead in early June.

The Asia Times reported in May, that al-Qaeda militants had sought to establish an alliance with the exiled Jundallah to fulfill longstanding plans of creating a strategic corridor in the region and lay the foundation for joint regional operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

Abdulhamid Rigi, the apprehended brother of the Jundallah point-man, told Press TV in a recent interview that Abdulmalek had held several "confidential" meetings with FBI and CIA agents in Karachi and Islamabad.

He added that during one of the meetings, two female US agents had offered weapons, safe bases in Afghanistan and professional trainers and had attempted to recruit volunteers.

Abdulhamid's remarks comes two years after The Sunday Telegraph declared Jundallah to be a CIA brainchild engineered to achieve the Bush-era goal of "regime change in Iran."

Iran 'steadfast' on nuclear deal with West

Iran says it is determined to cooperate on a deal to provide a research reactor with nuclear fuel in line with its rights and national interest.

On the third and final day of a nuclear sit-down in Vienna, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh, said Iran laid down its terms and conditions during the meeting "through logic and reason."

"The onus is now on Western countries to review their options and respond as to whether they agree to our proposals," he added on Wednesday.

Speaking exclusively to Press TV, Soltaniyeh described the Vienna talks as “three days of intensive technical discussions on all aspects of an agreement for the supply of the nuclear fuel for Tehran research reactor.”

He also mentioned that the Vienna talks were stalled on Monday and consecutively on Tuesday due to lack of concurrence and harmony among Western diplomats.

"Contrary to the Western delegation's discordant and inharmonious stance, the Iranian diplomats began the negotiations with stamina and endurance," said Soltaniyeh, who led a high-level delegation of nuclear experts to the meeting.

His remarks come only hours after IAEA Director-General Mohammed ElBaradei, proposed and sent a draft nuclear agreement to the governments of Iran, Russia, the United States and France.

"I have circulated a draft agreement that in my judgment reflects a balanced approach to how to move forward," said ElBaradei after the meeting broke up around 1 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) in Vienna.

"I very much hope that people see the big picture - that this agreement could pave the way for a complete normalization of relations between Iran and the international community," he added.

Details of the deal have not been confirmed, but the plan is believed to involve Iran trading its low-level uranium with higher level. Iran has repeatedly maintained that it prefers to buy the fuel rather than exchanging it.

ElBaradei said the countries have until Friday, October 23, to inform the UN nuclear body whether they accept the compromise.

Diplomats from Iran, France, Russia and the United States gathered in Vienna on Monday for three days of talks on a deal to supply highly-enriched uranium for Tehran's research reactor.

Tehran's research reactor, which supplies medical isotopes for treating cancer to more than 200 hospitals in Iran, requires uranium enriched up to 20 percent.

US after new military ventures in Africa

The United States is taking its military venture in Africa to new levels amid suspicions that Washington could be advancing yet another hidden agenda.

American operatives are expected to fly pilot-less surveillance aircrafts over the Seychellois territory from US ships off its coast, in what Washington claims are meant to spy on the Somali pirates, according to a BBC report on Wednesday.

Washington has also started to equip Mali with USD 4.5 million worth of military vehicles and communications equipment, in what is reported to be an increasing US involvement in Africa.

The latter nation is reportedly cooperating with the US to fend off alleged al-Qaeda operatives in North Africa.

The developments come as the White House seeks grounds to establish a major military presence in Africa.

US officials have been strongly arguing that there is an alleged terror nexus in Somalia along with a militant-run recruitment network which, they claim, could ensnare the Somali-American community.

The US reportedly started operating spy planes over Somalia in 2006 when it generously aided an Ethiopian military intervention in the Horn of Africa nation.

Commenting on the developments, analyst caution that similar pretexts were used to justify the US invasion of Afghanistan, the missile attacks in Pakistan, and its waning military operations in Iraq, where the civilian population continue to bear the brunt of the US intervention.