Twitter Used in Iran for Election protests.

Iranian supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi (portrait) chant slogans against the Islamic republic's re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a protest outside the Iranian consulate in Dubai on June 15, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO: Protestors in Iran on Monday used Twitter for battle cries and to spread word about clashes with police and ‘hard line supporters’ of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Twitter messages, some with links to pictures, streamed from Iran despite reported efforts by authorities there to block news of protests over Ahmadinejad’s claim of having been fairly re-elected.

Pictures of wounded or dead people that senders claim were Iranian protestors ricocheted about Twitter and wound up posted at online photo-sharing websites such as Flickr.

A protestor was reportedly shot dead during clashes in Tehran on Monday as massive crowds of people defied a ban to stage a rally against the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad.

A local photographer said the protestor had been shot with a bullet to the head and that more were wounded when violence erupted outside a local base of the Islamic Basji militia, which had been set ablaze.

People were seen fleeing the area as police fired tear gas on protestors who set motorbikes, tires and dustbins ablaze, an AFP correspondent said, as huge clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky.

The violence flared after Ahmadinejad’s defeated rival Mir Hossein Mousavi appeared in public for the first time since an election that has sharply divided the nation and triggered protests and rioting.

‘Iranelection’ was the top Twitter trend of the day, and a message thread led by ‘Persiankiwi’ appeared to be orchestrating hacker attacks on official Iran websites while firing off updates on developments in the streets.

‘We are going offline to get a phone free for calling out,’ Persiankiwi tweeted at mid-day. ‘We are also moving location—too long here—is dangerous.’ A subsequent Persiankiwi tweet reads ‘Attacked in streets by mob on motorbikes with batons—firing guns into air—street fires all over town—roads closed.’ Twitter users were also slamming mainstream media outlets for not covering the Iranian election aftermath more intensely.

A ‘CNNfail’ threat at the US-based micro-blogging service critiqued the cable news network's coverage throughout the weekend.

‘This is all seriously power to the people, in more ways than one,’ a Twitter member using the screen name ‘kianarama’ tweeted in exchanges at CNNfail and Iranelection on Monday.


Source: dawn.com

Pakistan, Iran sign gas pipeline accord

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ISLAMABAD: After fourteen years of delayed negotiations over the Iran–Pakistan–India (IPI) gas pipeline project, Pakistan and Iran have finally signed the initial agreement in Tehran on Sunday.

The project, termed as the peace pipeline by officials from both countries, has been signed by President Zardari and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on the sidelines of the tripartite summit on Afghanistan security in Tehran.

However, talking to the Iranian official news agency IRNA the Iran’s Oil Ministry had said that negotiations on the ‘Peace Pipeline’ project were still underway between Iranian and the Pakistani delegations, which would allow Iran’s gas to be exported to Pakistan.

The Pakistani delegation negotiating the project was led by the advisor to the prime Minister on Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain, who is accompanied by petroleum ministry officials and a technical team headed the managing director Inter State gas Systems (ISGC), Syed Hasan Nawab.

The ISGS is a semiautonomous body looking after Pakistani interests in the international gas pipeline projects to import gas from Iran and Turkmenistan. 
 
The federal cabinet had earlier agreed to allow the import of one billion cubic feet of gas at the rate of 80 per cent of the price of crude oil.

‘The next phase was to sign the gas sales purchase agreement with Iran,’ member of the delegation told Dawn.

Official sources said that soon after signing of the gas sales purchase agreement work would start at the designing of the project.

‘Pakistan has already appointed a German designer is ‘ILF’ for the pipeline,’ petroleum ministry sources said, adding that the pipeline would enter Pakistan from its border near Gwader area to Nawabshah, which is the hub of gas pipelines in the country.

The IPI project was conceived in 1995 and after almost 13 years India finally decided to quit the project in 2008 despite a severe energy crises in that country. Pakistan is also facing severe criticism from the US over any kind of economic deal with Iran.

Official sources say that the sudden change of stance from the Pakistani government and the pace of developments at the project suggest that the strong US opposition has softened.

According to the initial design of the project, the 2,700 kilometre-long pipeline would cover around 1,100 kilometres in Iran, 1000 kilometres in Pakistan and around 600 kilometres in India, and the size of the pipeline was estimated to be 56 inches in diameter.

‘We are still hoping that India would join the project but in other case the size of the pipeline would be reduced to 42 inches as initially estimated,’ an official of ISGS said.

However sources in the ISGS said designing and finalising the reports of financial consultants would take up to one year and the work over the project can be started by mid of 2010.The estimated project completion time is between five years.

Sources in the petroleum ministry said that despite cabinet approval Pakistan would negotiate to get the gas prices lowered.

The official report prepared by the petroleum ministry and the ISGS said that the gas would be purchased for power generation and it would enable Pakistan to generate 5,000 megawatts (MW) power.

The petroleum ministry also said that power generation and usage of imported Iranian gas by heavy industries would result in annual saving of up to $1 billion in furnace oil imports, if the crude oil prices are at $50 per barrel.

The reports and calculations forwarded by the ISGS further said that there would be an annual saving of $735 million, compared to if the equivalent quantity of LNG was imported for power generation, and the saving will increase in line with the hike in global crude oil price.