Free Republic

TEHRAN, July 22 (MNA) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is due to visit Tehran and take part in President-Elect Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s inauguration ceremony, the FARS News Agency reported on Friday. Chavez, who visited Iran three times during President Khatami’s tenure, will travel to Tehran on 30 July, for the fourth time. The presence of Chavez in Tehran can strengthen friendly ties between Iran and Venezuela, which have developed closer relations over the past several years. Ahmadinejad will be sworn as Iran’s next president on August 4.

U.S. troops committed the cultural "crime of the century" when they failed to protect priceless Iraqi artefacts from looters and likely trampled archaeological sites during the invasion, top antiquities officials here charged yesterday. They also said a small number of "valuable" missing museum pieces were returned after appeals by religious leaders, but denied reports from a UN conference that Iraqi officials may have been involved in an organised theft. "With what I'm expecting has happened in the (archaeological) sites in the field and what happened to the Iraq museum, I would say it's the crime of the century because it...