Today's Woman: The show will begin with coverage of current events, focusing on issues related to women. As it is the first day of the new year, the first segment will focus on No-Rouz (Persian New Year), including a package covering the recent Iranian-American No-Rouz event held at George Mason University. The remainder of the show will highlight the accomplishments of Iranian women from the past year. No guest.
News & Views: Our exclusive interview with President Bush is the lead, and will run it in its entirety. The president states that Iran’s “regime…. made decisions that have made it very difficult for the people of Iran,” and that “We have differences with the government, but we honor the people, and we want the people to live in a free society… the US respects the people of Iran; that we respect the traditions of Iran, the great history of Iran.” We also follow report that the US has criticized Switzerland for signing an energy deal with Iran and the US launched a legal review of the deal. Switzerland's foreign minister, already under fire for the natural gas deal with Iran, also is provoking an outcry at home because she wore a headscarf at the meeting with Iran's president when the accord was signed. The Iranian military Wednesday shelled seven Iraqi border villages, causing no injuries or damage but terrifying residents, an Iraqi official said. The shells were apparently aimed at bases of Kurdish rebel group Pejak , said the mayor of Zarawah, a frontier town in northeastern Iraq. Two pro-reform leaders on Wednesday called for a recount of the Tehran votes in Iran's parliamentary polls whose results sparked protests from beaten reformists.Ex-president Mohammad Khatami and the head of the reformist National Confidence Party, Mehdi Karroubi, called for a recount of votes in the capital, ISNA quoted the reformists as saying. Our live guest Dennis Ross, former Middle East envoy under Presisent Clinton and now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, discusses his recent piece calling for direct U.S.-Iranian talks.
Roundtable celebrates Norouz with Iranian folk singer Sima Bina.
Late Edition leads with our exclusive interview with President Bush.
NewsTalk hosts its weekly journalist roundtable with PNN editors and contributors.