Iranian artists have created the world’s largest sand carpet from the colorful sand found on the country’s southern island of Hormuz.
Some 25 visual artists used 70 types of colorful sand to create the ‘Persian Gulf’ sand carpet, which will be displayed on the island from Dec. 9 to 17, 2008.
The 12000-square-meter carpet is unique in magnitude, pattern and color and its title which shares the name of the forever Persian Gulf.
The previous sand carpet record belonged to 900-square-meter one created on the Canary Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Known for its beautiful red soil, Hormuz Island has witnessed numerous artistic events, including Iran’s 15th Environmental Art Festival.

More photos and details here

Kourosh Ziabari and Ahmadreza Tavassoli: The second anniversary of Anousheh Ansari’s adventurous travel to the spatial station as the first Iranian space explorer passed over with the reticence of global media who have been busy analyzing the very earliest “side effects” of President-elect Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 US Presidential Elections.

In the heat of Ansari’s space voyage, American media broached bunches of controversial issues such as the reluctance of half-blooded astronaut to introduce herself as Iranian or Muslim, but she never found the opportunity to clarify this.Furthermore, most of the newspapers or websites dedicated their conversations to professional and technical matters when interviewing Anousheh Ansari which caused many stories to remain untold.

Following is the text of exclusive interview with the first female private space explorer Anousheh Ansari, the Iranian businesswomen who has perpetuated the name of Iran in the 2007 edition of Guinness World Records Book with her everlasting record.

Continues here

You can also read the whole interview here

Persian Carpet, the most attractive rug in the world

Populist America - Kourosh Ziabari: Nowadays, Iran is promoting itself as an emerging power of politics, economy and culture which modifies the global equations directly a great deal.

Intrinsically, a new surging power would not be favorable for the western states who are seeking international dominance and hegemony perpetually, so there must be ways to get rid of this new-born power or hamper it down anyway.

With the extending amount of Iran’s exports in mind as the world’s 3rd largest oil supplier, and regarding the excessive augment of national GDP in the country which surpasses the GDP value of countries such as Portugal, Czech Republic, Israel, Ireland, Finland, Ukraine, Croatia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Luxemburg - the American statesmen and their close allies might tell themselves that China and Japan are sufficient for Asia to be the continental giants; so a new pole i.e. Iran is totally additional and unwelcome…choking it is more rational rather than allowing it traverse all of the stages of progress and development.

In such intricate circumstances, the nuclear dossier would be the best pretext of pressuring and lobbying to isolate Iran by disguising that the country is pursuing the mass destruction weapons and atomic bombs; a deceptive and compelling story which intimidates the public opinions and confutes them to shun Iran, otherwise there would not be any subterfuge for picking a quarrel with Tehran.

Obviously economical and financial competitions are the main reasons of US and western powers crippling the nuclear case of Iran, otherwise they know better than all of us that Iran has not the goal of developing nuclear weapons and never had been before.

The ex-presidents Reagan and Carter both confessed publicly that the main depositors of atomic arsenals are the neighbor countries of Iran who produce mass destruction materials under absolute corroboration without being any restricted or demanded to dismantle.

US and European cronies though, test-fired all of their “soft missiles” toward Iran and its people during the past few years by imposing bunches of sanctions, cautioning against nuclear strike and funding the terrorist groups inside the soil of country to spread violence and instability in the oil-rich Iran and fulfill their desired conclusion which is the relinquishment of Tehran from achieving nuclear technology.

Continues Here

MediaLeft - Kourosh Ziabari: “It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

Among the noisy hollers of jubilant, excited swarms who had been gathered in Chicago to celebrate the official announcement of President-elect Barack Obama’s victory in competition with the old-hand Sen. John McCain during a 21 month campaign for the 2008 US Presidential elections, yells of “Yes, we can” by the excited, hopeful Americans raised the expectations for a defining – at least – four years epoch of repose and tranquility under a moderate, pacifist 47-year old who is said to be going to alleviate the flames of hostility and animosity blazed by the warmonger ex-President Bush worldwide.

Almost everyday during the past 8 years while the republican George Walker Bush was holding office in the White House, you could probably hear up-to-date, breaking news regarding a raid by the US Air Forces or military troops on diverse parts of the world, one after another; so far the sacrificed victims are Rwanda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq who experienced the catastrophic situation of their territorial integrity being violated, while the others such as Belarus, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Venezuela, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran underwent the worst types of soft-strikes: financial embargo and psychological war.

Perhaps, that was an inseparable division of Bush’s foreign policy to cut the mutual ties off with the entire world – except the Western Europe – to meet the ambitions of Israel and accomplish an ideological mission to expand the global Judaism; however the mission – which is not clearly determined that whether is accomplished yet or not - cost a lot for the people of the White House and the nation of America, as well.

In other words, the US government dwindled or incised its relations with bunches of countries rashly, under the incumbency of President Bush; countries which he assumed as tiny, terrorist, unimportant or hostile. Meanwhile, he boosted the connections with a confined number of countries including UK, France, Germany and Israel as major allies to continue preserving the tyrannical stance of USA toward the rest of world.

Continus here

Quoting from MediaLeft: Born in 1991, Kourosh Ziabari is a freelance journalist and writer, the author of book “7+1″, a collection of his interviews with 7 contemporary Iranian authors and a contributing writer for magazines of Netherlands, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, South Korea, Belgium, Germany, UK and the US. He is Persian and lives in Rasht, in Northern Iran.

Dariush Grand Hotel, Kish Island, Persian Gulf

Counter Currents - Kourosh Ziabari: Nowadays, Iran is promoting itself as an emerging power of politics, economy and culture which modifies the global equations directly a great deal and lots of world countries count on as a reliable and influential companion.

Intrinsically, a new surging power would not be favorable for the western states who are seeking for international dominance and hegemony perpetually, so there must be ways to get rid of this new-born power or hamper it down anyway.

With the extending amount of Iran’s exports in mind as the world’s 3rd largest oil supplier and regarding the excessive augment of national GDP in the country which surpasses the GPD value of countries such as Portugal, Czech Republic, Israel, Ireland, Finland, Ukraine, Croatia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Luxemburg – who are either a member of EU or a cordial attached of the US - the American statesmen and their close allies might tell to themselves that China and Japan are sufficient for the Asia to be the continental giants, so a new pole i.e. Iran is totally additional and unwelcome, choking it is more rational rather than allowing it traverse all of the stages of progress and development.

In such intricate circumstance, the nuclear dossier would be the best pretext of pressuring and lobbying to isolate Iran by disguising that the country is pursuing the mass destruction weapons and atomic bombs; a deceptive and compelling story which intimidates the public opinions and confutes them to shun Iran, otherwise there would not be any subterfuge for picking a quarrel with Tehran.

Obviously economical and financial competitions are the main reasons of US and western powers crippling the nuclear case of Iran, otherwise they know better than all of us that Iran has not the goal of developing nuclear weapons and never had been before.

Continues here

Kourosh Ziabari, Iranian journalist and freelance writer, the member of Stony Brook University Publications’ editorial team, interviewed by Canadian, American, Egyptian, Italian and Beligan magazines, a guest columnist of Press TV website, the author of book “7+|” and a guest blogger of Newsweek Post Global.