More than 3,400 recorded AIDS deaths in Iran. report

WashingtonTV:  According to official figures from Iran’s Health Ministry, at least 3,409 people have died in the country from AIDS, the Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported on Thursday.

The report said that an additional 2,097 people have been diagnosed as having AIDS, and a total of 20,130 people had tested positive for HIV. It did not specify whether that figure included those who had gone on to develop AIDS.

Men accounted for 93 percent of recorded HIV/AIDS infections, ILNA said.

Health experts believe that the actual of AIDS patients in Iran is much higher.

The report said that intravenous drug use is the most common way HIV is transmitted in Iran [69.8 percent], while sexual relations counted for 8.5 percent of transmissions.

World-renowned Iranian physicians, Kamiar and Arash Alaei, leaders in the field of HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment, have been detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison since June 2008.

The two brothers are being held on charges related to endangering national security.

The doctors founded Iran’s non-governmental Pars Institute and formed the “triangular” clinical plan, in which treatment is offered for sexually-transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, and drug addiction.

The AIDS virus infects 33 million people around the world, and around a million in the United States, according to Reuters.

Algerian footballers attacked before Egypt game

Sudan to host possible Egypt-Algeria playoff: FIFA

DUBAI:  Algeria's team bus was attacked by stone-throwing fans in Cairo on Thursday ahead of Saturday's highly-charged World Cup qualifier against Egypt, police officials said.

The incident, which happened as the Algerian squad was being taken from the airport to their hotel, immediately sparked a diplomatic war of words.

Egyptian police insisted that there were no injuries, but Algeria's foreign minister said several players had been hurt and demanded security be tightened for Saturday's game where a place at the 2010 World Cup finals is at stake.

In Algiers, foreign minister Mourad Medelci "strongly condemned" the attack which he described as serious and demanded that his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul Gheit take all measures to guarantee the security of the delegation.

Medelci said that "several" players had been hurt.

An Egyptian police official denied that Algerian team members were hurt.

The official said security troops overpowered local fans who tried to throw stones at the arriving members of the Algerian squad. Emotional Egyptian fans waited for the Algerians outside the airport but police managed to prevent them from hurling stones, the official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Saudi King, Obama top Forbes most powerful list

World leaders dominate the top 10 of the list

SINGAPORE:  U.S. President Barack Obama can add another accolade to his already long list of awards after being named the world's most powerful person in an inaugural ranking by Forbes magazine, while Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz came in 9th.

In compiling the inaugural ranking, Forbes said it had narrowed the list to 67 people, "a number based on the conceit that one can reduce the world's 6.7 billion people to the one in every 100 million that matter."

"The goal in compiling this list is to expose power and not glorify it, and over time reveal how influence is as easily lost as it is hard to gain," the magazine said.

World and industry leaders dominated the top 10 of the list, which Forbes said was assessed on the number of people the person influences, their ability to project power beyond their immediate sphere of influence, their control of financial resources and how actively that person wields power.

The top 10 list is as follows:

1. U.S. President Barack Obama

2. Chinese President Hu Jintao

3. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

4. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

5. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page

6. Carlos Slim, Chief Executive of Mexico's Telmex

7. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of media group News Corp.

8. Michael T. Duke, Chief executive, Wal-Mart Stores

9. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz

10. Bill Gates, co-chairman, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

UNICEF: Poor nutrition is killing children, stunting growth

CNN -- Hunger is stunting hundreds of millions of children in the developing world, and more than 90 percent of them live in Africa and Asia, UNICEF says.

Poor nutrition is one of the main killers of young children, the U.N. Children's Fund says in the new report "Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition."

"The report we have launched draws attention to the fact that 200 million children under the age of 5 in the developing world suffer from chronic undernutrition," said Werner Schultink, UNICEF's associate director of nutrition.

A lack of food can impair physical, mental and social abilities, the report says, adding that proper nutrition is important for mother and child. The 1,000 days from conception until a child's second birthday are the most critical for development, according to UNICEF.

Undernourished children "will perform less well in school, they will be able to do less well as an adult and, even worse, their health situation in adult life may be negatively affected," Schultink said. "They are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases, such as heart disease or diabetes."

UNICEF says nutrition supplement programs have helped deliver vitamin A and iodized salt to vulnerable children in developing countries, boosting childhood mortality.

Mothers also are being urged to breast-feed their children for at least the first six months to provide key antibodies and nutrients.

Reducing and eliminating malnutrition is feasible, according to the report, which calls on the international community to provide urgent help or face the consequences.

"Global commitments on food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture are part of a wider agenda that will help address the critical issues raised in this report," said Ann Veneman, UNICEF's executive director. "Unless attention is paid to addressing the causes of child and maternal undernutrition today, the costs will be considerably higher tomorrow."

Bing vs. Google: Feature Wars

If you haven't noticed, Bing and Google are engaged in a tit-for-tat over which search engine has the best features.

On Wednesday, Bing unveiled new and improved tools like Wolfram Alpha integration, Facebook Previews and full-page weather reports. Then Google hit back on Thursday with enhanced movie listings and even safer SafeSearch. Before that Bing unveiled an overhauled maps interface, the next day Google announced Street View was now available in all fifty states. Last month during the Web 2.0 Summit, the two search engines sent out competing press releases bragging about Twitter integration, and on and on it goes.

Google may be the dominant search engine, but Bing is doing its best to push its way up the popularity charts.

With so much attention focused on adding new stuff, you've got to wonder what the future has in store for search and whether this feature war is getting out of hand....more

Pakistani Iranian consulate worker shot

PESHAWAR,PAKISTAN:  A gunman shot dead a Pakistani working at Iran's consulate in the city of Peshawar on Thursday, police said, in an attack likely to compound strains in relations between the Muslim neighbours.

Police declined to speculate on a motive for the killing of consulate public relations officer Abul Hassan Jaffry, which came almost exactly a year after an Iranian diplomat was abducted in the same city. The diplomat is still missing.

"As he came out of the narrow street where his house is, an attacker on foot was waiting and opened fire and then ran away," Peshawar's police chief Liaqat Ali Khan told Reuters.

Hassan died on his way to the hospital.

"No one saw the attacker. We've just got shell casings from a pistol from the spot," he said.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi condemned the "heinous crime" and said the culprits would be brought to justice.

Ties between mostly Sunni Muslim Pakistan and majority Shi'ite Muslim Iran were strained last month by a suicide bomb attack in southeastern Iran which killed 42 people.

A Sunni Muslim rebel group, Jundollah (God's Soldiers), claimed responsibility for the attack in which 15 Iranian Revolutionary Guards, including six senior commanders, were killed along with 27 other people.

Iran says the militants operate from the Pakistani side of the border and has demanded Pakistan hand over their leader, Abdolmalik Rigi.

Pakistan has condemned the bombing and vowed to help Iran track down those responsible, but says Rigi is in Afghanistan.

Iran's consul general in Peshawar, Abbas Ali Abdolahi, said Jaffry's killing was a plot by the common enemies of Iran and Pakistan.

"It aims to strain the relationship of the two countries," Abdolahi was quoted as saying by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB on its website.

Abdolahi said Jaffry was shot by two motorcycle riders.

On November 13 last year, gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat in Peshawar after killing one of his Pakistani guards.

Peshawar is the capital of North West Frontier Province, which borders Taliban strongholds in lawless lands along the Afghan border.

Iran's Ahmadinejad calls for nuclear cooperation

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conciliatory tone in a TV speech suggests that Iran could still accept a U.N.-backed uranium deal.

Reporting from Beirut - Iran's president on Wednesday called for international cooperation on nuclear technology in a prime-time television appearance filled with conciliatory language toward the world community, in stark contrast with the dismissive tone of other senior Iranian officials toward a United Nations-backed proposal.

Although President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not directly mention a U.S.-endorsed International Atomic Energy Agency plan in which Iran would trade the bulk of its enriched uranium for fuel to operate a Tehran medical reactor, he said Iran was confident and powerful enough to begin working with other countries and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency to expand the country's nuclear program.

"Today, Iran's nuclear conditions are stabilized and we've entered the phase of nuclear interaction and cooperation, and today an important issue is international nuclear cooperation in construction of nuclear power plants, reactors and even Iran's contribution to a world fuel bank," he said. "We have the necessary technology and material . . . but there is always quid pro quo, cooperation and investment."

The Obama administration, its European allies and international arms control authorities await a definitive response from Iran on whether it would send about 70% of its enriched uranium supply to Russia and France to be further refined and turned into rods for the medical reactor. The deal would temporarily allay international concerns that Iran could make a sprint toward developing a nuclear weapon, and possibly would set the stage for a broader compromise.

Ahmadinejad, who seeks to bolster his international credibility and domestic popularity in the wake of his disputed reelection in June and the ensuing civic unrest, does not have the final say on the nuclear issue. But he, his allies and appointees have significant influence over the powerful Supreme National Security Council, which is headed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ahmadinejad's speech and tone Wednesday suggested that a deal is still possible. Powerful Iranian officials and even Ahmadinejad's reformist adversaries have derided the fuel swap idea as being against national interests in what appears to be an internal debate over whether to accept, reject or attempt to modify the proposal.

Senior officials and leaders of Russia, Qatar and Turkey, all countries that maintain strong relations with Iran as well as the West, have met with Iranian counterparts in possible attempts to coax Tehran into cooperating.

Ahmadinejad said it was time for Iran to lock in its nuclear gains.

"Freezing our nuclear program is no longer on the table," he said. "We have reached a point to cooperate with nuclear powers through the International Atomic Energy Agency," the U.N.'s watchdog.

daragahi@latimes.com

Australia to Invest $50 Million More in Joint Fund

NEW DELHI:  Australia will invest an additional $50 million in an Australia-India strategic research fund, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Thursday, underscoring the country's initiative to collaborate to combat climate change issues.

The fund will be spent over a five-year period from the fiscal year that began April 1, Mr. Rudd said while speaking at Tata Energy Research Institute.
The investment toward the joint research initiative seeks to support more applied research and greater participation of industry partners to help address some of the climate change challenges, according to an Australian government statement.
"Climate change is a fundamental change to us all," Mr. Rudd said. "There is a need for a collaboration, unprecedented in human history."
Australia has already invested $20 million in the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund -- its largest bilateral research fund -- since 2006 to enable Australian scientists engage in collaborative research with Indian counterparts.
Australia will also invest $1 million in a joint solar cooling research project and an additional $20 million in dryland farming research, according to the statement.
The solar cooling project aims to develop a zero emissions cooling system targeted at remote rural communities in non-electrified areas and the fund allotted toward dryland farming will be staggered over five years.
"Of course there is a group of people who deny the reality of climate change. They are the enemies of us all," Mr. Rudd said.
Write to Sunil Raghu at Sunil.Raghu@dowjones.com

German Courtroom Killer Gets Life Sentence

A Russian-born German has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a pregnant Egyptian woman stabbed to death earlier this year in a German courtroom.

Defendant Alex Wiens admitted to stabbing Marwa El-Sherbini to death during a July 1 court hearing in Dresden. El-Sherbini was in court at the time pressing a case against Wiens for insulting her with ethnic slurs.

El-Sherbini was stabbed at least 16 times and died at the scene as her 3-year-old son looked on. Her husband was also stabbed repeatedly as he tried to come to her aid.

Defense lawyers insisted during the trial that the killing was not premeditated and that a psychiatric condition mitigated the crime.

Prosecutors argued that Wiens was driven by what they called "an unbridled hatred of foreigners."

Obama Rejects all Four Afghanistan Plans

USA: President Barack Obama has rejected the Afghanistan war options presented to him by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

President Obama is still close to announcing his overhauled war strategy which most likely will be announced shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends on Nov. 19.

The questions and scenarios that the President raised at his war council meeting on Wednesday could very well change the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to Afghanistan and what the timeline would be for their presence in the war zone, according to an official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

President Obama is considering options that include adding 30,000 or more U.S. forces to take on the Taliban in key areas of Afghanistan, and to buy some time for the Afghan government's small and ill-equipped fighting forces to take over and take control. The other three options on the table are ranges of troop increases, from a relatively small addition of forces to the roughly 40,000 that the top U.S. General in Afghanistan prefers, according to military and other officials.

As always, the Examiner.Com is interested in what you think. Is President Obama on the right track by rejecting his national security team’s request for more troops without an exit strategy? Can the United States afford to fight a war with no end in sight for another 8 years? Inquiring minds want to know. Sound off.

No regrets from Aussie IPhone virus creator

SYDNEY: The Australian programmer who claims to have created the world's first Apple iPhone virus as a prank said does not regret writing it.

First IPhone Worm Spreads Rick Astley Wallpaper

The worm, 'Ikee' changes iPhone owners' wallpaper and replaces it with a photo of '80s pop star Rick Astley and the message "ikee is never going to give you up".

Twenty-one-year-old Wollongong resident Ashley Towns, said he created the virus out of curiosity and boredom.

"I had just formatted my iPhone and it told me to set the password in bold, big letters and I wondered how many people have actually done that," Towns said.

"So I ran a scan on my 3G network and there was 26 phones running the service that's vulnerable, and out of that 26, 25 hadn't changed their passwords."

Towns said he loves the iPhone so there was no vendetta against Apple, just disbelief that many users had failed to change their passwords when requested to do so.

"It's the simplest thing to change your password, it's not hard and if you're going to install something like SSH...I could have gone through and read people's messages and emails -- all their barter was up for grabs," Towns said.

Although Ikee does not appear malicious, it has the potential to be modified and perform tasks such as stealing sensitive information from iPhone users. The worm can affect jailbroken iPhones running a Unix utility called SSH (Secure Shell) with the iPhone's default password, "alpine," still in use.

Once in place, the worm appears to attempt to find other iPhones on the mobile phone network that are similarly vulnerable, and installs itself again.

Towns admitted he was targeting phones on both Telstra and Vodafone, as well as Optus, however he soon discovered that Telstra and Vodafone are behind NAC firewalls, making their SSH inaccessible.

However, he said the worm can spread between phones on the same Wi-Fi network.

Despite admitting the virus was a form of vandalism, Towns said he stands by his decision to release the worm.

"All the worm does is change your background to Rick Astley, so it's not malicious, it's not going to harm anyone's phone other than people having to look at Rick Astley until they remove it," Towns said.

Although so far confined to Australia, Towns said the virus has the potential to spread globally and claimed to have read reports the virus turned up in China

Australian iPhone users have reported their experience with the worm, flooding Internet forum Whirlpool with posts about their experience.

Zardari allegedly made big money in sub-marine sale

PARIS: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is suspected of having received millions of dollars in kickbacks from the 1994 sale of three French submarines to the Pakistani Navy, a French daily reported.

In addition, investigators believe that the non-payment of the full amount of the agreed kickbacks may have led to the deaths of 11 French nationals in a 2002 terror attack in the city of Karachi.

The report says the French daily acquired documents that allegedly show that Zardari received 4.3 million dollars in kickbacks from the sale of three Agosta 90 submarines for 825 million euros (currently 1.237 billion dollars).

The documents were sent to the Pakistani National Accountability Bureau (NAB) by British authorities in April 2001 and indicate that Zardari received several large payments into his Swiss bank accounts from a Lebanese businessman, Abdulrahman el-Assir, in 1994 and 1995.

According to a former executive of the French naval defence company DCN, French authorities chose el-Assir to act as intermediary in the deal. He allegedly deposited a total of 1.3 million dollars in Zardari’s bank accounts between August 15 and 30, 1994, one month before the submarine contract was signed, and then 1.2 million dollars and 1.8 million dollars one year later.

According to DCN employees who testified in the terror attack investigation, the kickbacks to Pakistan in the deal totalled 10 per cent of the purchase amount, with 6 per cent, or 49.5 million dollars, going to the military and 4 per cent, or 33 million euros, being funneled to political circles.