Rooyesh

Republican 2008 presidential hopeful John McCain crooned the words “Bomb Iran ” to a Beach Boys’ tune in joking response to a question about any possible U.S. attack over Tehran ’s suspected nuclear weapons program. “That old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran … bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb,” the Vietnam War veteran warbled softly to the band’s “Barbara Ann” when he was asked when the United States would send an “airmail message” to Iran. The singing performance during a campaign stop on Wednesday in South Carolina drew chuckles from the audience and has already been viewed almost 11,000 times on the Internet video sharing site YouTube after being posted on Thursday.

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The Bush administration faces a growing dilemma over the pressure it is placing on European companies to suspend investment in Iran, with some US lawmakers dissatisfied with the effort and European allies worried about its tactics. The US Treasury and State Department have sent officials across Europe, stepping up pressure on international oil and gas companies in particular not to go ahead with investment plans in Iran. They are seeking to turn the economic screws on Tehran over its nuclear programme, which has already attracted limited United Nations sanctions.

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A new dam is due to open in southern Iran amid criticism it will flood an ancient site holding archaeological relics dating back 7,000 years. The government says the Sivand dam in the Bolaghi gorge is needed by farmers in an area that has become desert. Heritage activists have appealed to the president to postpone the flooding by some years so excavation can continue. Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine making vessels, clay kilns and prehistoric caves in the area.

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US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Thursday that Washington favours diplomacy to deal with the nuclear programme of Iran, the Jewish state’s arch-foe. Gates also said the US would keep up its two-month-old security plan in Iraq despite a barrage of car bombs that killed 190 people in Baghdad on Wednesday.

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The Iranian government has told the United States that it has no information about a former FBI agent who has been missing in Iran for more than a month, the State Department said Thursday. In a message passed through Swiss intermediaries, Tehran said it had no “record” of Robert Levinson, who was last seen on the Iranian island of Kish in early March, spokesman Sean McCormack said.

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Iran has begun making nuclear fuel in its underground uranium enrichment plant, the international atomic watchdog said on Wednesday, in a move by Tehran that raises the stakes in its showdown with world powers. A confidential note by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said Iran had started up more than 1,300 centrifuge machines in an accelerating campaign to lay a basis for “industrial scale” enrichment in the Natanz complex.

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