Sanctions-hit Iran triumphs in football #39;s RoboCup
Iran may be lumbered with economic sanctions but that did not stop a local team of robotics experts from sweeping aside German and Dutch rivals in football #39;s...
By: AFP news agency
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Sanctions-hit Iran triumphs in football's RoboCup - Video
From New World Encyclopedia
Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran (, rn), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran ( , transliteration: Jomhr-ye Eslm-ye rn), and formerly known as "Persia" in the West, is one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, and is one of the few states that comprise the Cradle of Humanity.
The history of Iran covers over four thousand years. Throughout history, it has been of great strategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia. Iran is significant in international politics due to its large supply of petroleum as well as its influence in the Middle East region.
Cyrus the Great and Zoroastrianism, both of which originated in this land, along with the flowering of thought in ninth-century Persia, each had a decisive impact on the progress of human history.
The ancient nation of Iran was known to the West as Persia, due to the ancient Greek language name for Iran, Persis. The name Persia is used to describe the nation of Iran, its people, or its ancient empire. The Persians have called their country Iran/Iranshahr since the Sassanian period, which started in 224 C.E.
The name Persia comes from a region in the south of Iran, called Fars or Pars in the Persian language. This region was the core of the original Persian Empire.
Westerners referred to the state as Persia until March 21, 1935, when Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call the country by its native name, Iran, which means Land of the Aryans. Because of some Persian scholars' protests the government announced in 1959 that both Persia and Iran could be used.
In 2007, the official name of the nation was the Islamic Republic of Iran, but the noun Persia and the adjective Persian are still used.
Iran is the seventeenth-largest country in the world. Its area roughly equals the size of the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Germany combined. Iran's area is approximately 636,300 square miles (1,648,000 square kilometers), of which 631,663 square miles (1,636,000 square kilometers) is land, and approximately 4,633 square miles (12,000 square kilometers) is water.
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Iran - New World Encyclopedia
Islamic Republic of Iran
Jomhuri-ye Eslmi-ye Irn
Iran (Persian: ), once known as Persia, is a country in South-central Asia part of the Middle East region. It shares borders with Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan.
Tehran is the capital and its biggest city. Iran is the 18th largest country in the world and has more than 70 million people. Iran is a member of UN (since 1945) and OPEC.[8] It is one of four countries that are Islamic republics, because Islam is the state religion.
In the past, Iran was called "Persia" by people outside of the country. The people that lived there called the country "Iran". The official name was Persia. This meant that the name Persia was used when dealing with other countries and in government papers. In 1935, Reza Shh Pahlavi, then shh of Iran, officially renamed the country "Iran". This was done to show that Iran belongs to all the non-Persian Iranians as well as to Persian Iranians. The name Iran means the land of Aryans. It is also mentioned in the ancient book of the Zoroastrians, the Avesta. In the 19th and early 20th century, the name Aryan was used by Europeans to mean all Indo-Europeans. The "Aryan Race" was a term that Hitler used to describe his "Superior" or "perfect" race, but it first meant Iranians.[9]
Around 500 BC, present-day Iran was the center of the Persian Empire. The Greek city states fought against the Persian armies led by Darius the Great and Xerxes. Then, Alexander the Great took the country by fighting the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia and then later ruled. After them the Sassanian dynasty (224-651) took over. Other people took Persia by fighting, like the Arabs (7th century), Turks (10th century) and Mongols (13th century). However, Iran has always maintained a distinct culture and continued to survive.
The CIA worked in Iran to create riots which led to the removal of Prime Minister Mossadegh. The United States and Great Britain then made the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi King of Iran, again. He ruled in Iran for less than a year when he left Iran and the Iranian government was changed to an Islamic Republic by Islamic Revolution. Soon afterwards, Iranian Students Movement (Tahkim Vahdat), with the backing of the new government took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held most of the diplomats hostage for 444 days. Relations between the two countries have not been good since. For example. The US has imposed various types of economic sanctions against Iran. The US claims the Iran supports terrorist groups against Israel. Iran does not recognize Israel as a state. Iran, along with most Arab countries believe that Israel does not have the right to occupy the land of Palestinians.
Iran has long borders in common with Iraq. (The words "Iran" and "Iraq" are similar only in Latin alphabet. In Arabic and Persian, they are written differently.) This war changed politics in the Middle East and world wide. Iranians are ethnically not Arabs. Iran defended itself against Iraqi invasion in 1980, a war that lasted eight years. Many Arab and Western countries, including the United States, provided weapons (including biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction) and technical support for Iraq's Saddam Hussein.
Now, the West is trying to prevent Iran from mastering nuclear technology, even though Iran is a member of the NPT. They voice their concern claiming that Iran's intention is to develop nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported numerous times that there is no evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, however, it also says that it can not say for sure that Iran is not doing so in secret. A CIA report on nuclear activity in Iran, in December 2007 claimed that Iran's secret program to achieve nuclear weapons technology was stopped in 2003, and that since then, it was never restarted. It reports that Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon will probably not happen soon.
Iran has oil. It is a member of OPEC and oil is one of its main exports. Rice, handicrafts, carpets and crocus are important local products.
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Iran - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
World Middle East
Lawmakers in Iran are considering whether they should ban vasectomies and tighten abortion laws in an effort to boost the countrys birth rate.
The parliament in Tehran voted this week in favor of further discussions about making vasectomies illegal and punishing anyone involved in supplying contraceptive services, the Guardian reports. Iran implemented a birth control program 20 years ago that included the distribution of free condoms and subsidies for male sterilization. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last year criticized the countrys family planning laws as too similar to those of Western countries, making it likely the new measures under consideration will pass parliament. Khamenei had encouraged the government to take action to address an aging population and to almost double the population from 77 million to 150 million.
Some activists say the countrys declining birth rates on social, economic and cultural factors, the Guardian reports, and worry a change in policy will lead to greater maternal mortality rates. We have enough young people who will procreate when they marry in the coming years, said Kamiar Alaei, a doctor who has worked on HIV treatment programs in the country and was previous imprisoned there. Slashing contraceptive services altogether will only increase unintentional abortion and maternal mortality.
[Guardian]
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Iran Mulls Ban on Vasectomies
IRAN - player warm - up on the line save goal - funny video ever
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By: lpo poo
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IRAN - player warm - up on the line save goal - funny video ever - Video