Sunday, February 7, 2010

23rd Int’l Kharazmi Festival starts


Tehran, Feb 7, IRNA – The 23rd International Kharazmi (Khwarizmi) Festival kicked off in Tehran Sunday morning.
First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi and Minister of Science, Research and Technology Kamran Daneshjou are participating in the one-day event.

Researchers and scholars from various world countries as well as Iranian scientists are also taking part in the international festival.

The festival is held every year to introduce and honor achievements of Iranian and foreign researchers and academicians.

The international bodies including D8, ECO, ECI, COMSTECH, COMSATS, FAO, IFIA, IOR-ARC RCSTT, UNIDO, UNESCO, WIPO, WAIRTO, TWAS and ISESCO are to award winners of Kharazmi festival.

Source : IRNA

Abbas awaits US clarification on talks proposal

CAIRO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday he had asked the United States to clarify its offer to mediate indirect peace talks with Israel before he would announce any decision to resume the negotiations.

“Yesterday I met with an American delegation and we held an Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian trilateral meeting,” Abbas said after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

“We asked the Americans some questions and they will come back to us ... then we will announce our position,” he said.

An Israeli Cabinet minister, echoing comments made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said this week that Israel and the Palestinians would begin “proximity talks,” with a US mediator shuttling between negotiating teams, to restart negotiations that broke down at the start of a war in Gaza in December 2008.

Netanyahu told a conference Wednesday that he had reason to believe the talks could resume in a matter of weeks, though he gave no details.

Palestinian officials did not confirm those remarks, but pointed out that US Middle East envoy George Mitchell had made more than a dozen visits to the region to try to revive the long-stalled peace talks.

Abbas has said he will only return to negotiations if Israel completely stops settlement-building in the occupied West Bank. He has rejected a limited, 10-month construction freeze ordered by Israel in November as insufficient. Israel has said it will continue to build homes for Jews in and around East Jerusalem, territory it captured in a 1967 war and annexed as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.

Palestinians want the city as the capital of a future state.

Also hindering progress in peace talks is a divide in the Palestinian territories, with Abbas’ mandate limited to the West Bank since his Fatah faction was ousted from the Gaza Strip by Hamas in a 2007 civil war.

Abbas said in Cairo there was no connection between resuming talks with Israel and reconciling the internal Palestinian divide. “Everything is moving on and we do not prefer one issue over another,” he said.

Egypt, a US ally which in 1979 became the first Arab state to sign a peace deal with Israel, has acted as a mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict and has been trying to broker a unity deal between the rival Palestinian factions.

The groups last met in July in Cairo, and Egypt has since increased pressure on Hamas by building an underground barrier along its border with Gaza to block tunnels that bring Palestinians weapons and commercial goods denied them by an Israeli-led blockade.

Source : Agencies

BP Migas: Country`s oil production recorded at 946,048 bpd

Jakarta - The country`s oil and condensate production since early this year is recorded at 946,048 barrels per day (bpd), which is lower than the state budget target at 965,000 bpd, an oil official said.

"But this month (Feb) the average oil and condensate production is a bit higher at 952,096 bpd," Head of the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulating Agency (BP Migas) R Priyono said here on Friday.

He said that especially on Friday the oil production reached 950,266 bpd, including 142,458 bpd of condensate.

The BP Migas chief said that there were a number of technical reasons which caused production not to reach the target.

"If there is no technical problem the production would reach 977,000 bpd," Priyono said.
The technical reasons included the stoppage of the Kangean production of 2,500 bpd and maintenance work in the Area Central, CNOOC, which delayed production.

The production of the Banyuurip, Cepu, in the meantime, was only 6,800 bpd because the PT Tri Wahan Universal (TWU) refinery plant and PT Pertamina had asked reduction in supply.

Besides, ConocoPhillips also experienced a production reduction by 2,000 bpd due to pipeline network replacement work in the Suban filed.

For gas production, Priyono said that on February 4, 2010, it reached 8,603 million metric standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD). So, the average production in February is 8,589 MMSCFD and for 2010 it is expected to reach 8,666 MMSCFD.
Source : ANTARA News