At the Wednesday session of the senate, legislators from both the ruling party and the opposition voted in favor of the decree issued by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner last week, AFP reported.

The proposal, which enjoys nationwide popularity, will be sent to the lower house of the parliament for final approval.

Fernandez said on Monday that Argentina had to take back the oil firm, formerly a state-owned Argentine oil company for over 70 years, as it is the only nation in Latin America “that does not manage its natural resources.”

YPF was privatized in the early 1990s and the Spanish energy giant, Repsol, acquired a majority of the company’s stake in 1999.

With a market value of USD 10.6 billion, YPF accounts for about 25 percent of Repsol’s profits and 60 percent of its production.

Repsol President Antonio Brufau said on Tuesday that the company would take legal action against Argentina, seeking a compensation of about USD 10 billion.

Argentina’s move has infuriated Madrid and drew sharp criticism from the US and the EU, prompting Brussels to warn of retaliatory measures against Buenos Aires.

The South American state accuses Repsol of draining the oil company as well as underinvesting in its oil and gas fields since it took control. Repsol, on the other hand, blames Argentina’s ever-changing mix of subsidies and price caps for depressing production.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European and Latin American Affairs Ali Asqar Khaji underlined Tehran’s resolve to further boost ties and cooperation with Latin America, and said that the commonalities of Iran and Latin America have provided the two sides with an opportunity to contribute a major role to the regulation of a new world order.

Addressing a conference on Latin America here in Tehran on Monday, Khaji said the Islamic Republic of Iran has provided Latin America with honest developmental aids, technical and engineering services and outstanding technological achievements, such as nanotechnology, and added that these aids have been admired by the leaders of the regional countries and portrayed new horizons in drafting a different paradigm for the nations’ relations.

He further noted Iran and Latin America’s common stances on different issues, including multilateralism, peace-seeking efforts, quest for international justice, rejection of hegemony, native models of development and progress, emphasis on the right of development, revision of the unconstructive policies and status of the world financial and monetary bodies, and promotion of the level of relations within the framework of South-South cooperation as well as their complementary economic capacities have paved the ground for the two sides to play an effective and constructive role in the regulation of a new world order.

“We believe that based on these commonalities, an effective and constructive role can be played in compiling a new world order,” the official added.

Also, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had also in January underlined the common positions of Iran and Latin American states on different international issues.

Addressing a press conference upon his arrival from a tour of four Latin American countries, Ahmadinejad stated that the Islamic Republic is on the same front with most Latin American countries in the campaign against hegemony and injustice.

He lauded close ties between the two sides, and noted, “Iran’s relations with Latin America are very good, expansive, and strategic, and the country’s interactions and transactions with all the countries of this region are increasing and deepening.”

The tour of Latin America took the Iranian president to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador, where all the countries’ leaders reiterated their support for Iran’s right to access peaceful nuclear technology and defended Tehran against the threats and pressures exerted by US-led West on Iran.

Iran has done a raft of deals in Latin America nations ranging from housing construction agreements with Venezuela to financing for Cuba’s purchases of Iranian-made train cars.

Since taking office in 2005, President Ahmadinejad has expanded Iran’s cooperation with many Latin American states, including Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Brazil.

The strong and rapidly growing ties between Iran and Latin America have raised eyebrows in the US and its western allies since Tehran and Latin nations have forged an alliance against the imperialist and colonialist powers and are striving hard to reinvigorate their relations with the other independent countries which pursue a line of policy independent from the US.

At least 38 people have been killed during a prison riot in northern Mexico, according to state officials.

The Sunday riot started at a prison in the city of Apodaca outside of the northern industrial city of Monterrey after inmates in one cell block took a guard hostage as a fight broke out between the prisoners.

Security officials said the inmates had either forced or bribed a number of guards to open the doors between two separate wings of the prison.

Deadly fights in Mexican prisons are very common as gangs and drug cartels stage jail breaks and battle for control of penitentiaries. Last month, 31 inmates were killed in a similar incident s in Tamaulipas state.

Nuevo Leon state public security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano told Milenio television that inmates had also set fire to mattresses and other flammable objects.

“We have more than 3,000 inmates in this jail and we have to account for all of them first,” Zambrano said.

Dozens of families of the prisoners were gathered outside the prison to find out whether their family members had died.

A massive fire swept through an overcrowded prison in Honduras and killed more than 350 inmates, including many trapped inside their cells, officials said on Wednesday.

The attorney general’s office said 357 people died in the blaze that began late on Tuesday night at the prison in Comayagua, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

Lucy Marder, head of forensic services in Comayagua, said police reported that one of the dead was a woman who stayed overnight and the rest were prisoners, but she said some of those presumed dead could have escaped. Local media reported that the Comayagua fire department chief also died in the blaze.

It was one of the worst prison fires ever in Latin America, and local radio reports said many of the inmates were burned to death inside their cells.

Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world, according to the United Nations, and there are frequent riots and clashes between members of rival street gangs in its overcrowded prisons.

The gangs, known as ‘maras’, started in the United States and then spread down into Central America, with members covered in distinctive tattoos and involved in drug trafficking, armed robbery and protection rackets.

Soldiers, police and anxious relatives surrounded the Comayagua prison on Wednesday morning and television images showed weeping relatives pressed against a chain link fence as they waited for news. The prison housed more than 800 inmates — well above its capacity.

“This is desperate, they won’t tell us anything and I think my husband is dead,” a crying Gregoria Zelaya told Canal 5 TV as she stood outside the prison.

Local firemen said they were prevented from entering the prison due to gunshots. But Daniel Orellana, head of the prison system, said there was no riot.

“We have two hypotheses, one is that a prisoner set fire to a mattress and the other one is that there was a short circuit in the electrical system,” he said.

Across Honduras, prisons are filled to double their capacity. More than 100 prisoners were killed in a fire in the textile manufacturing town of San Pedro Sula several years ago.

Honduras clocked more than 80 homicides per 100,000 people in 2009, a rate 16 times that of the United States, according to a United Nations report last year.

The country is also a major drug trafficking transit point for South American cocaine moving north to consumers in the United States and authorities say there is increasing presence of violent Mexican drug cartels in the country.

A political crisis ripped through Honduras in mid-2009 when a widely-condemned coup toppled the democratically elected president but the country has been trying to heal divisions since the election of President Porfirio Lobo later that year.

Four major Iranian students unions in a letter praised the American nation for their February 4 rallies against the US officials’ warmongering policies against Iran.

The American people staged massive rallies in front of the White House and throughout the US on February 4 to voice their strong opposition to the West’s oil ban and the US warmongering policies against Iran.

Hundreds of people in New York shouted their opposition to any kind of threat for military operation and urged their statesmen to end their illegal sanctions against Iran.

Demonstrators shouted slogans such as, “No war with Iran,” “We condemn assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists,” “War and Lie, never,” “Wall Street created unemployment, not Iran.

The following is the full text of the Iranian students’ letter:

The people participating in the February 4th rally in support of Iran:

It is a letter from the Iranian youths to you insightful nation who stood against your government’s militant behavior. Such a rally in support of the rights of the people of the Islamic Iran and condemning the imperialistic policy of a government which is under the shadow of the Zionist lobby suppressing the voice of oppositions, needs to be appreciated.

As you know, and it was mirrored in your slogans properly, the enemies of the Iranians supported by the US administration have assassinated some of the Iranian nuclear scientists in recent years, accompanied by unprecedented and comprehensive sanctions, in all fields: from economy to science, pursued by regime change plots against Iran led by the US.

Contrary to the US authorities’ claims regarding the target of the sanctions and pressures, the nation of Iran is going to be targeted by the way. It have been proved through the history that Iranians are pacifist and seeking liberty; supporting the suppressed against the suppressors, and Iranians’ support for the poor Palestinians has been one of the reasons behind these pressures. If Iran gives up this policy, every thing would be Ok! Let alone sanction and assassination! All in all, Iranians would never stop their policy of helping the suppressed people all over the world. Everything has its own price!

The critical end of Iranians is to have sovereignty to decide by themselves. It was expensive! Like Saddam’s eight-year-long war against Iran and you know well what its consequences are especially for society. Did you know it was supported and guided by US government too? It never apologize Iranians so far.

Free Americans!

As you know US authorities always plan to fight against a point (one nation) of the world; yesterday Vietnam, today Afghanistan and Iraq, tomorrow maybe Syria and Iran. The expenditure of the wars burdens on American society. We supposed it is because of the domination of military-industrial complexities and Zionist lobby on US government. Nowadays 99% movement has risen against the 1% domination. We considered that President Obama neglected this movement after five months and he didn’t mention it in his last inaugural address.

Our Brothers and Sisters!
Glorious Brothers and Sisters

Your resistance is like a candle among darkness which is made by militant American authorities. Keep it lightening as it is. With new powerful honorable rallies in more than 100 cities, present the power of %99 movement and demand a stop of war, terror, oppression and sanctions against Iranians.

We believe you can do it as done on February 4th. It will be possible if it includes all people from all walks of life gather under the umbrella of the Occupied Movement. We hope the freedom and justice-seeking movement becomes continuous and dynamic. God willing, we will witness a day without cruelty all throughout the world.

Thank you
Justice-Seekers without Border
Justice seeking movement
Union of Students Islamic Society
Union of Independent students’ Islamic Society
Unity Consolidation Office

Sayed Ali Fadlallah in meeting with other Arab delegations, assured the need to be aware of all the strife that are meant to manifest through the sectarianism address, calling for work to protect the internal unity in their countries, and integration into the Muslims communities, and cut the road to anyone who work on the distinction between Muslims.

His Eminence revealed that some Western administrations are trying to guide the mobility of the Arab public away from the paths of peoples aspiring to real change, and enter it in the sectarian maze to produce a discord that would turn the political, economic and cultural wheel in the Arab world to the back.

First International Congress on Children and Young Adults Developmental Psychology from the Islamic and Western Viewpoints will be held in Shiraz from September 27-29.

According to the Public Relations Department of Islamic Azad University, academic secretary of the event, Hassan Ahadiyan said that the event will discuss children developmental psychology from the Islamic and western perspectives.

It will also deal with emotional problems of children in cultural, social and ethical terms, he noted.

Moral development in childhood, moral education from the Islamic and western points of view are among the main topics to be discussed during the congress, he said.

Ahadian also added that some 500 articles from Iran, Portugal, Germany, France, Russia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Tajikistan have been delivered to the secretariat of the congress.

Some 100 articles will be selected for presentation during the three-day event, he noted.

Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span.

Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire life span.

This field examines change across a broad range of topics including motor skills and other psycho-physiological processes; cognitive development involving areas such as problem solving, moral understanding, and conceptual understanding; language acquisition; social, personality, and emotional development; and self-concept and identity formation.

Since the 9/11 attacks there have been tens of thousands of documented acts of bias against Muslim Americans. Those acts run the scale from minor incidents of name calling to more violent acts
including murder. Critics of US domestic policy say that in the last ten years since the attacks, America has tried to have it both ways… promoting sensitivity programs like this one while actively engaging in other acts that continue to foster distrust”

Those critics point to the ongoing hearings in Washington, that are focusing on radical Islam in America. They say such hearings blur the public perception of Muslims here in the U.S. and around the world.

The campaign is expected to be broadcast and hit billboards nationwide in the coming week. But as Americans reflect on the events of 9/11 a decade later, many wonder if acting on old prejudices will either stop or actually create new tragedies in the future.

Latin America’s Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) has warned the NATO alliance against any military action in Syria and also criticized the Western alliance’s intervention in Libya.

Following a Friday meeting in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, ALBA foreign ministers issued a statement, describing the NATO move in Libya as a “dangerous precedent,” Reuters reported.

The Latin American bloc warned the Western military alliance against taking advantage of Syria’s political problems as a pretext to attack the country.

Venezuela, a prominent member of the bloc, also called for imposing sanctions against NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen for what it said were crimes committed by the military alliance’s officials.

“Sanction the secretary-general of NATO. Look for him Interpol. They continue bombing cities, killing children. Is there proof? Do you want proof? They themselves have said that there are about 20,000 dead in Libya,” Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez told ALBA representatives.

He also described the months-long NATO intervention in Libya that left many civilians dead as an example of “imperialist” aggression.

Chavez also urged ALBA members to “send a commission of foreign ministers to Damascus because now they aim at Syria and they aim at the world.”

ALBA, which was established in 2004, comprises of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and St. Vincente and the Grenadines.

Hundreds of people, including security forces, have been killed during clashes in Syria since the beginning of the crisis in mid-March.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country and the security forces have been given clear instructions not to harm civilians. The gangs are financed and supported by US, France, Israel and their regional allies. This terrorist group kills civilians then blame the Syrian Security Forces. The US-Backed armed groups also kill the security forces. On the contrary to the reality in Syria, the world media misinforms the people and lies about what is really hapening in Syria. Especially Al- Ja zeera Tv and some west media are producing false news about Syria. These coloured media say that they will go on producing false news if Syria continue to be a key between the Iran, Islamic Resistances like Hamas, Islami Jihad and Lebanese Hezbollah movements.

The operation to install the P-4 platform in Reshadat oil field as the largest oil rig in the Persian Gulf will be completed next week, the managing director of TASDID Offshore Development Company said.

Amin Panahi described the dimensions of P-4 platform as 42 meters long and 43 meters wide platform with the height of 70 meters.

The platform weights 3,100 tons which by adding the weight of its stabilizer legs will reach 4,050 tons. The installation of 9,000 tons of marine structures over the platform has been planned, the official stated.

“After the start up operation of the platform, 75,000 barrels of oil per day will be added to the country’s oil production,” the managing director of TASDID Offshore Development Company said.

The platform was designed, built, and installed by Iranian engineers. The construction of the platform by Iranian experts has saved the country a lot of foreign exchange, Panahi said.

The old Reshadat oil field came on stream in 1969 and was devastated by Iraqi warplanes and US naval forces during the Iraqi-imposed war in 1986. The oil production was halted for four years, and then Iranian oil industry personnel could repair the field. The field is located in the Persian Gulf, 110km south-west of Lavan Island.