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(01/24/08 5:00am)
Considering the straight-to-DVD-caliber comedies that are released each year, "The Ten" stands out like a fresh daisy in a pile of rhino crap. From the writer-director who brought you "Wet Hot American Summer," this movie borrows the same brand of perverse, non-sequitur hilarity. And as director David Wain's mother says in the audio commentary, "The Ten" is funny about 70 percent of the time.\nPaul Rudd stars as Jeff Reigert, your average all-American adulterer who is torn between his hot wife Gretchen (Famke Janssen) and girlfriend Liz, played by Jessica Alba, whose presence in this movie is completely inexplicable. For no apparent reason, Reigert's duty is to introduce the movie's audience to each of its 10 stories related to the Ten Commandments. In between widely varied vignettes, Rudd deals with his issues -- an effective way to tie the movie's pieces together.\nThe great thing about this movie is that for the stories that miss -- like Winona Ryder falling in love with a ventriloquist dummy -- there are at least two more that hit -- such as old heroin addicts explaining the lying rhino, which wears short shorts and whose No. 2s produce fresh flowers. \nWith all these different scenes and various types of humor, this movie will definitely need more than one viewing to get all the laughs. \nThe bonus offerings on the DVD are nothing unique, except that the cast and crew of this movie are hilarious. An otherwise ordinary commentary turns into a must-listen, as Wain, co-writer Ken Marino and Rudd are joined by a jazz bassist and Wain's parents via satellite from Cleveland, Ohio. The deleted/extended scenes, which showcase the ensemble's improvisational talents, are almost as funny as the film. The only complaint is that there is no play-all function for these extras. A clip of "Wainy Days," a making-of feature and an interview with Wain, Marino and Rudd round out the extras. \nAlthough the humor of Wain and his buddies may not be everyone's cup of tea, the bottom line is that this movie is funnier and more original than most of the so-called comedies that trickle through the theaters.
(04/16/07 4:00am)
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said Sunday it is seeking bids for the building of two more nuclear power plants, despite international pressures to curb its controversial program.\nAhmad Fayyazbakhsh, the deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization in charge of power plants, said the plants would be light-water reactors, each with the capacity to generate up to 1,600 megawatts of electricity.\nEach plant would cost up to $1.7 billion and take up to 11 years to construct, he told reporters during a news conference at his office.\nThe country has been locked in a bitter funding dispute with Russia, which is building Iran’s first nuclear power plant near the southern city of Bushehr.\nRussia delayed the launch of the plant, which had been set for September, and refused to ship uranium fuel for the reactor last month as earlier planned, citing Iran’s payment arrears. Iranian officials denied any payment delays under the $1 billion contract, and accused Russia of caving in to Western pressure.\nIran is already building a 40-megawatt heavy water reactor in Arak, central Iran, based on domestic technology. It is also preparing to build a 360-megawatt nuclear power plant in Darkhovin, in southwestern Iran.\nFayyazbakhsh said the two new plants would be built near Bushehr. He also said he planned to travel to Russia next week to try to ease tensions and get the first Bushehr plant back on track.\nThe bids for the two plants, which will expire in early August, have been published on the nuclear organization’s Web site. Iran has already negotiated with several foreign companies that have expressed interest in the new project, Fayyazbakhsh said. He declined to name the companies.\nUnder Iranian law, the nuclear organization has been tasked with providing 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear power plants during the next 20 years.\nThe U.S. and some of its allies accuse Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons – a charge Iran denies.\nIran has insisted it has a right to develop enrichment and has pushed ahead with the process at a separate facility outside the central town of Natanz.\nThe U.N. Security Council last month voted to impose new sanctions on Iran as part of a second set of penalties in three months against Tehran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
(04/05/07 4:00am)
TEHRAN, Iran – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a surprise move that defused escalating tension in the Middle East, announced the release of 15 captive British sailors and marines Wednesday in what he called an Easter gift to the British people.\nPrime Minister Tony Blair, who said the Britons had been released, added that he bore “no ill will” toward the Iranian people following the 13-day standoff.\nThe breakthrough eased tensions that have been increasing steadily, raising fears of military conflict in the volatile region and prompting a spike in oil prices. It suggested that Iran’s hard-line leadership had decided Tehran had demonstrated its strength in the standoff but did not want to push the crisis too far.\nDespite the announcement, however, the crew members had not arrived at the British Embassy as of 9 p.m local time in Tehran.\nAlex Pinfield, first secretary of embassy in Tehran, said it’s not clear when they would be handed over or where they are going to spend the night. He indicated the British “are still discussing the Iranian case with the Iranian Foreign Ministry.”\nAsked about apparent contradictions over Blair saying the crew had been freed and British Embassy statements that they had not yet been handed over to British authorities, a Downing Street spokesman would only say “the process is under way.”\nIranian state television showed the 14 men and one woman meeting with Ahmadinejad outside the presidential palace following his announcement at a news conference that they were being freed. The crew members were seized while on patrol in the northern Persian Gulf on March 23, would leave Iran on Thursday.
(03/29/07 4:00am)
TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian state TV on Wednesday showed video of 15 British sailors and marines who were seized last week, including a female captive in a white tunic and a black head scarf who said the British boats had “trespassed” in Iranian waters.\nBritain called the broadcast “completely unacceptable” and said it was concerned that the statements from sailor Faye Turney were coerced. The British government earlier released what it called proof the boat crews were seized in Iraqi waters, and said it was freezing all contacts with Iran except negotiations to release them.\nIran’s foreign minister said Turney – the only female captive – would be freed on Wednesday or Thursday, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office said it had received no confirmation of that.\nThe British military said its vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were taken Friday, and it released what it said were the GPS coordinates that proved that.\nSeveral hours later, Tehran broadcast the video on an Arabic-language satellite channel, along with a letter from Turney saying the sailors and marines were inside Iranian waters when they were captured.\n“Obviously we trespassed into their waters,” Turney said, sitting by herself against a floral curtain and smoking a cigarette.\n“They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we’ve been arrested, there was no harm, no aggression,” she said.\nTurney, 26, was also shown eating with several fellow sailors and marines.\nWhat appeared to be a handwritten note from Turney to her family said, in part, “I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize for us entering their waters.”\nThe video also showed a brief scene of what appeared to be the British crew sitting in an Iranian boat in open water immediately after their capture.\nBefore the video was broadcast, a Blair spokesman said any showing of British personnel on TV would be a breach of the Geneva Conventions.\n“It’s completely unacceptable for these pictures to be shown on television,” the Foreign Office said after the broadcast. “There is no doubt our personnel were seized in Iraqi territorial waters.”\nThe statement also demanded that British diplomats be given immediate access to them as a “prelude” to their release.\nThe Foreign Office said it had “grave concerns” about Turney’s state of mind when she spoke on video.\n“I am very concerned about these pictures and any indication of pressure on or coercion of our personnel,” said Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. She added that Britain had “comprehensively demonstrated today that our personnel were operating inside Iraqi territorial waters.”\nBritish officials declined to comment after the broadcast on whether it violated the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war. The chief spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross also declined to comment, saying the ICRC was not involved.\nPresident Bush spoke to Blair over a secured video conference call about the standoff Wednesday, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. “The president fully backs Tony Blair and our allies in Britain.”\nVice Adm. Charles Style told reporters that the Iranians had provided a position on Sunday – a location that he said was in Iraqi waters. By Tuesday, Iranian officials had given a revised position two miles east, placing the British inside Iranian waters – a claim he said was not verified by global positioning system coordinates.\n“It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates,” Style said.\nStyle gave the satellite coordinates of the British crew as 29 degrees 50.36 minutes north latitude and 048 degrees 43.08 minutes east longitude, and said it had been confirmed by an Indian-flagged merchant ship boarded by the sailors and marines.\nIranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki denied this, saying, “That’s not true. It happened in Iranian territorial waters.”\nIraq and Iran have never agreed on the ownership of waters near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where Britain said the sailors and marines were seized. Fixing the dividing line is difficult because of conflicting claims to rock formations, sandbars and barrier islands in the shallow waters of the northern Gulf.\nMottaki told The Associated Press in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that Turney would be released Wednesday or Thursday, and he suggested that the British vessels’ alleged entry into Iranian waters may have been a mistake.
(03/28/07 4:00am)
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said Tuesday the 15 British sailors and marines it detained last week were healthy, have been treated humanely and that the only female sailor among them has been given privacy.\nThe detentions have increased tensions between Iran and the West, and on Tuesday British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hoped diplomacy would win their release but was prepared to move to a “different phase” if not.\nIn Tehran, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, insisted the detained Britons had been treated well: “They are in completely good health. Rest assured that they have been treated with humanitarian and moral behavior.”\nHosseini said the 26-year-old female sailor, Faye Turney, had complete privacy. “Definitely, all ethics have been observed,” he said. He would not say where the Britons were being kept.\nThere were fears in Britain that the fate of the 15 could get caught up in the political tensions between Iran and the West, including the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program and accusations of Iranian help to Shiite militants in Iraq.\nOn Tuesday, the U.S. Navy began its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with two aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran.\nU.S. Navy Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl said the U.S. maneuvers were not organized in response to the capture of the British sailors – nor were they meant to threaten the Islamic Republic, whose navy operates in the same waters.
(03/20/07 4:00am)
TEHRAN, Iran – The hit American movie “300” has angered Iranians who say the Greeks-vs.-Persians action flick insults their ancient culture and provokes animosity against Iran.\n“Hollywood declares war on Iranians,” blared a headline in Tuesday’s edition of the independent Ayende-No newspaper.\nThe movie, which raked in $70 million in its opening weekend, is based on a comic-book fantasy version of the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., in which a force of 300 Spartans held off a massive Persian army at a mountain pass in Greece for three days.\nEven some American reviewers noted the political overtones of the West-against-Iran story line – and the way Persians are depicted as decadent, sexually flamboyant and evil in contrast to the noble Greeks.\nIn Iran, the movie hasn’t opened and probably never will, given the government’s restrictions on Western films, though one paper said bootleg DVDs were already available.\nStill, it touched a sensitive nerve. Javad Shamghadri, cultural adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said the United States tries to “humiliate” Iran in order to reverse historical reality and “compensate for its wrongdoings in order to provoke American soldiers and warmongers” against Iran.\nThe movie comes at a time of increased tensions between the United States and Iran over the Persian nation’s nuclear program and the Iraq war.\nBut aside from politics, the film was seen as an attack on Persian history, a source of pride for Iranians across the political spectrum, including critics of the current Islamic regime.\nState-run television has run several commentaries the past two days calling the film insulting and has brought on Iranian film directors to point out its historical inaccuracies.\n“The film depicts Iranians as demons, without culture, feeling or humanity, who think of nothing except attacking other nations and killing people,” Ayende-No said in its article Tuesday.\n“It is a new effort to slander the Iranian people and civilization before world public opinion at a time of increasing American threats against Iran,” it said.\nIran’s biggest circulation newspaper, Hamshahri, said “300” is “serving the policy of the U.S. leadership” and predicted it will “prompt a wave of protest in the world. ... Iranians living in the U.S. and Europe will not be indifferent about this obvious insult.”
(01/23/07 3:50am)
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Monday it has barred 38 members of a U.N. nuclear inspection team from entering the country, in what appeared to be retaliation for sanctions imposed last month over its contentious atomic program.\nForeign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said some inspectors were admitted but maintained that Iran could decide who should be turned away.\n"The International Atomic Energy Agency submits a long list of inspectors to member countries and the countries have the right to oppose the visit by some inspectors," Mottaki told the official Islamic Republic News Agency.\nThe head of the parliamentary committee of national security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Borojerdi, had been quoted by a students' news agency as saying Iran had barred \n38 inspectors.\nLast month, the U.N. Security Council imposed limited trade sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to cease uranium enrichment, a process that produces the material for nuclear reactors or bombs. Days later, the country's parliament passed a motion that obliged the government to revise its cooperation with the IAEA but gave it a free hand to determine the steps to be taken.\nThe United States and some of its allies accuse Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies this, saying its program is only to produce electricity from nuclear sources.\nPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has come under increasing criticism for drawing the enmity of the international community with his aggressive handling of the nuclear issue, including among some conservative allies who feel he has concentrated too much on fiery, anti-U.S. speeches and not enough on the economy.\nIn comments published Monday, Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, joined the criticism. He said Iranians have the right to nuclear power but questioned Ahmadinejad's dealings with the international community in obtaining it.\n"One has to deal with the enemy with wisdom, not provoke it," he said, according to a copy of his comments made available to The Associated Press. "This (provocation) only creates problems for the country," he told a group of reformists and opponents of Ahmadinejad on Friday in the holy city of Qom, 80 miles south of the capital Tehran.\nMontazeri, 85, is one of a few grand ayatollahs, the most senior theologians of the Shiite Muslim faith. He had been the designated successor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution, until he fell out with Khomeini shortly before his 1989 death after complaining about powers wielded by unelected clerics.\nPrices of fruit, vegetables and food staples have skyrocketed since the U.N. Security Council imposed the limited sanctions.\n"Some countries don't have oil and gas. Yet, they run their country and stand on their own. We have so much oil and gas but make useless expenditures work for others and don't think of our own people's problems and the price of basic commodities go higher and higher every day," Montazeri said,\nMontazeri appeared to be referring to Ahmadinejad's foreign trips, the latest of which was to Latin America, and to Iranian financial aid to \nthe Palestinians.\nThe Palestinian foreign minister for the Hamas-led government said in November while visiting Iran that Tehran had given his government more than $120 million in the previous year.
(01/22/07 1:50am)
TEHRAN, Iran -- Determined not to budge under pressure, Iran announced new tests of short-range missiles Sunday, and hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed criticism that the country's economy has been hurt by U.N. sanctions imposed for its suspect nuclear program.\nThe missile tests come as the U.S. Navy is sending a second aircraft carrier to the volatile Persian Gulf. U.S. officials said the USS John C. Stennis, which arrives in Mideast waters in a matter of weeks, is meant as a warning to Iran.\nThe deployment appeared to alarm some in Iran's hard-line leadership, including a member of a powerful cleric-run body who warned last week that Washington plans to attack, possibly by striking Iranian nuclear facilities. U.S. officials have long refused to rule out any options in the face-off with Tehran, but say military action would be a last resort.\nStressing Iran's preparedness, state television said the Revolutionary Guards planned to begin three days of testing the short-range Zalzal and Fajr-5 missiles Sunday. It could not be confirmed if the exercise had begun near Garmsar, a city about 60 miles southeast of Tehran.\n"The maneuver is aimed at evaluating defensive and fighting capabilities of the missiles," the report quoted an unidentified Guards commander as saying.\nLast year, Iran held three large-scale military exercises to test what it called an "ultra-horizon" missile and the Fajr-3, a rocket that it claims can evade radar and use multiple warheads to hit several targets simultaneously.\nThough U.S. officials suggest Iran exaggerates its military capabilities, Washington is very concerned about Iranian progress in developing missiles. Some of its missiles are capable of hitting U.S.-allied Arab nations and Israel, which Ahmadinejad has called to be wiped off the map.\nThe United States, which led military maneuvers of its own in the Persian Gulf in October, also accuses Iran of supporting militants in Iraq's sectarian bloodshed and is trying to rally Arab allies to isolate the Tehran regime.\nIran's new maneuvers are the first since the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions last month over Ahmadinejad's defiance of its demand that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment. The sanctions ban selling materials and technology that could be used in Iran's nuclear and missile programs.\nThe United States and its allies accuse Iran of secretly developing atomic weapons in violation of its treaty commitments. Tehran has repeatedly denied that, saying its program is solely for the peaceful purpose of developing nuclear technology to generate electricity.\nAhmadinejad has remained defiant, saying Iran has the right to conduct uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors but also provide material fuel for atomic bombs.\nBut the president's tough talk has come under criticism from both ends of Iran's political spectrum. Some reformists and conservatives have accused Ahmadinejad of focusing too much on fiery anti-Western rhetoric and not enough on domestic issues, including the economy.\nAhmadinejad strongly defended his economic policies Sunday, and said again that sanctions would not deter Iran from pursuing its nuclear program.
(11/03/06 4:28am)
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran test-fired dozens of missiles in military maneuvers Thursday that it said were aimed at putting a stop to the role of world powers in the Persian Gulf region.\nThe show of strength came as Iran remains locked in dispute with the West over its nuclear program, which Washington says is geared toward producing atomic weapons but Tehran says is only for generating electricity. The maneuvers came three days after U.S.-led warships finished naval exercises in the Gulf that Iran branded as "adventurist."\nState television reported that several kinds of missiles were tested and broadcast footage of them being fired from mobile launchers.\n"We want to show our deterrent and defensive power to trans-regional enemies, and we hope they will understand the message," the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, said in a clear reference to the United States, Britain and France, who were among the six nations that took part in the Gulf maneuvers earlier this week.\nIranian state radio said: "The maneuver is aimed at providing security in the region without the intervention of trans-regional powers, which are trying to justify their presence by portraying the region as convulsive."\nIn Israel, Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said he was not surprised by the missile tests and warned that to leave Iran unchecked would pose a risk to the world.\n"Iran is following a direct line after North Korea. Therefore this problem is not Israel's but that of the entire world," Ben-Eliezer said, referring to North Korea's recent nuclear test and its frequent launches of long-range missiles.\nIran's Shahab-3 missile is believed to be based on a North Korean missile design, although Iran denies this.\nThe Iranian missile tests "should bother not only Israel. It should bother the Arab countries, Islamic countries, the Gulf region, North Africa and Europe. We are always warning the world about this phenomenon called Iran," Ben-Eliezer said.\nIran already has held three large-scale military exercises this year. It often uses maneuvers to test weapons developed by its arms industry.\nSafavi said the maneuvers that began Thursday, named "Great Prophet," would take place in the Gulf, the Sea of Oman and several provinces of Iran. He did not specify how many troops were involved.\nState TV reported that among the rockets fired was the Shahab-2, which has a warhead that can distribute 1,400 bomblets at the same time.\nState radio quoted the air force chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Hossein Salami, as saying: "A large number of advanced missiles, different in range, warhead and kind, were successfully test fired at the same time."\nThe U.N. Security Council is considered imposing sanctions on Iran, which has ignored demands that it cease uranium enrichment, a process that can produce the fuel for nuclear reactors or material for bombs.\nIran insists it does not seek to produce nuclear weapons, but only to produce its own nuclear fuel.\nThe U.S.-led maneuvers that finished Monday focused on surveillance, with warships tracking a ship suspected of carrying components of illegal weapons. The nations that took part were Australia, Bahrain, Britain, France, Italy and the United States.
(02/23/06 4:55am)
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran on Wednesday offered to help finance a Palestinian Authority run by the Hamas militant group, state radio said in a report prompting Israel to warn it would do all it legally could to stop the Palestinians from receiving the money.\nThe secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, announced the offer after a meeting with Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of Hamas, the report said.\nLarijani said the decision was taken after the United States said it would not provide aid to an authority governed by Hamas until the group renounces violence, recognizes Israel and agrees to abide by existing agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.\n"The United States proved that it would not support democracy after it cut its aid to the Palestinian government after Hamas won the elections. We will certainly help the Palestinians," Larijani said, according to the radio.\nThe United States and European Union, which consider Hamas a terrorist group, have said they will halt their grants of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Palestinian Authority after a Hamas government takes office unless it changes its attitude toward Israel and violence.\nHamas has long called for the destruction of Israel and has refused to negotiate with the Jewish state. Its leaders have refused to change their policies since the group won last month's Palestinian elections by a landslide.\nIsrael regards Iran as a pariah for its support of militant groups such as Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah, and it accuses Tehran of seeking to produce nuclear weapons -- a charge Iran denies. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently said Israel should be "wiped out."\nAsked if Israel would try to block the Iranian money, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said that since the money would be going to a "terrorist" leadership, "we would be entitled to use all legal means to prevent that money from reaching its destination."\nIn Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said he had seen the reports concerning Iran's willingness to finance a Hamas government, but he did not verify them.\n"Iran's support of terror and Iran's support of violence as an acceptable way to achieve political aspirations is contrary to the policy and the statements of President Abbas; it's contrary to the policies and statements of the Quartet; it's, frankly, contrary to the actions of the civilized world," Ereli said.
(11/28/05 3:27pm)
TEHRAN, Iran -- An earthquake with a magnitude of at least 5.9 shook a sparsely populated area of southern Iran on Sunday, flattening seven villages, killing 10 people and injuring 70, officials and state-run television said. The temblor was felt as far away as Oman and the United Arab Emirates.\nHeidar Alishvandi, the governor of Qeshm, was quoted by state television as saying rescue teams were deployed to the affected area, and people in the wrecked villages moved quickly to safely.\nAnother provincial official, Ghasem Karami, told The Associated Press that high casualties were not expected because the area was not heavily developed.\nTehran's seismologic center said the quake was of magnitude 5.9, but the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., said it had a magnitude of 6.1. A magnitude-6.0 quake can cause severe damage.\nIran's seismologic center said the epicenter was in the waters of the Persian Gulf between the port city of Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island, about 940 miles south of Tehran. The USGS said the quake was 35 miles southwest of Bandar Abbas, which has about 500,000 residents.\nMasoud Dalman, head of Hormozgan province's emergency affairs, said several buildings on Qeshm Island were damaged. The island has about 200,000 residents.\nState-run TV reported that Qeshm Island's airport sustained minor damage and part of a major hospital collapsed from the force of the quake. No further details were provided.\nShahram Alamdari, head of Iranian Red Crescent's rescue unit, said two helicopters were evacuating the injured from Qeshm to Bandar Abbas.\nIranian television ran video from Qeshm showing minor damages to some buildings and a few injured people being taken to hospitals. The report said the villages of Karavan and Kousheh were worst hit, but no footage was shown from those sites.\nThe quake cut telephone links between Qeshm Island and the mainland, the report said.\nIn Oman and the United Arab Emirates, buildings were evacuated and people fled into the streets.\n"Power and water supplies were not affected," said Alireza Khorshidzadeh, a local journalist. "People poured into the streets, fearing aftershocks."\nIn Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the UAE, several buildings in the skyscraper-lined central business district were evacuated. They included the twin Emirates Towers, the highest buildings on the main street, where many international corporations and Dubai government institutions have offices.\n"It lasted around 30 seconds or so -- you could feel the building moving and the coffee cups shaking," said public relations executive Bina Mathews.\nIran is located on a number of seismic fault lines and, on average, experiences at least one slight quake every day.\nThe last major quake to hit southern Iran was in February, when a magnitude--6.4 temblor rocked Zarand, a town of about 15,000 people in Kerman province, 602 miles southeast of Tehran. It killed 612 people and injured more than 1,400, leveling several villages and leaving thousands of people homeless.
(02/24/05 5:51am)
ISLAMABAD, Iran -- Rescue teams using dogs and heavy machinery pulled more bodies from the ruins of flattened villages in central Iran on Wednesday, and officials raised the death toll from a powerful earthquake to at least 500. The count was expected to rise even higher.\nA 14-year-old girl was pulled out of the rubble alive and immediately asked if her family survived.\nTeams were hampered by bad weather and the mountainous terrain, working in a cold, heavy rain after a night during which temperatures dropped below freezing.\nMohammad Javad Fadaei, deputy governor of Kerman province, said more bodies had been discovered. \n"The death toll is now 500, and there's a possibility that the figure will increase," he told The Associated Press. \nAt least 900 people were injured.\nMany survivors huddled in tents, trying to escape the chill, after the magnitude 6.4 struck early Tuesday, damaging some 40 villages with a combined population of 30,000 people and leaving many homeless. Rescue workers were still digging out survivors and bodies in the three most isolated villages.\nIn Hotkan, shouts of "God is great" echoed in the ruined village after rescuers pulled a girl from under the rubble of a destroyed mud house on Wednesday.\nLooking dazed and confused, 14-year-old Zehra Hosseini cried as rescuers pulled her out.\n"Where are my father and mother, brother and sister? They must be alive," she shouted. \nThe rescuers told her they didn't find any other survivors in that same area, but she didn't appear to hear them.\nEarlier in the day, Zehra Mirzaei, 18, was pulled out of the ruins and looked around what was left of her village: piles of dirt and stone.\n"This is not my village, this is not Hotkan -- I wish I had died with the others," she said, beating her head and chest in grief.\nSearch efforts also continued in Sarbagh and Dahoueieh, which rescue workers had the most difficulty reaching in the hours after the quake hit. In Dahoueieh, every building except a mosque with a golden dome had collapsed. At least 80 percent of the buildings in Sarbagh were leveled.\nIran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed his "deep grief and sorrow" over the deaths and offered his condolences to the victims' families, urging rescue workers to speed up their efforts.\nPresident Bush also expressed his condolences. \n"The United States stands ready to assist the people of Iran in responding to this tragedy, and we will be in contact with the government of Iran to offer concrete help," a written statement from the White House said.\nThe Iranian government -- which shuns direct contacts with the United States -- has so far not asked directly for international help. Still, the Japanese government announced Wednesday that it would send blankets, tents and other aid worth $191,000 to aid quake victims.\n"It has been raining and gotten cold there and many houses collapsed," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, hinting Japan might provide additional support. "We would like to monitor the situation and talk further with the Iranian government"