AP: Gunmen killed two candidates from the Sunni-backed coalition that won the most seats in Iraq’s March parliamentary election, slayings that the alliance said Saturday were part of a politically motivated campaign of assassinations.
2 candidates from Iraq’s Sunni-backed party killed
Iran to approve Pakistan gas pipeline deal this week
Reuters: Iran hopes to finalise a deal this week for a much-delayed pipeline to export natural gas to Pakistan by 2015, an energy official said on Sunday.
In Brief: In the Iranian capital and elsewhere
Iran Focus: Tehran, Jun. 06 – From the Grapevine… Iran’s Telecommunications Ministry is unable to pay for cheques it has issued to its creditors that are more than $30,000.
Interior Minister hospitalised after fistfight with Khomeini grandson
Iran Focus: Tehran, Jun. 06 – Iran’s Interior Minister was hospitalised following a fistfight with a grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and another top official, a website close to the Revolutionary Guards reported on Saturday.
Activist arrested in Tehran
Iran Focus: Tehran, Jun. 05 – Iran Focus has learnt that Alireza Akhavan, an activist worker and member of the Centre for Defending the Rights of Workers, was arrested at 4:00 am this morning at his home by security forces and taken to Ward 209 of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
Translation of Khamenei’s remarks
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jun. 05 – The following is an excerpted translation of remarks on Friday by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in southern Tehran marking the death of the theocratic regime’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Medvedev hopes ‘irresponsible’ Iran listening
AFP: Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday that with the UN Security Council close to approving fresh sanctions, he hoped an “irresponsible” Iran would heed the world community.
Gunmen kill politician of winning Iraqi bloc
Reuters: A member of the cross-sectarian Iraqiya bloc that won Iraq’s March parliamentary election was shot dead on Saturday, the second Iraqiya politician to be killed since the vote, the bloc said.
Iran troops twice cross border to fight rebels: Iraq Kurds
AFP: Iranian troops have crossed into Iraq twice in three days amid clashes with Kurdish rebels in the Qandil mountains near the border, a security spokesman said Saturday.
Former McKinsey consultant Banki convicted in Iran trade case
Bloomberg: Former McKinsey & Co. consultant Mahmoud Reza Banki was convicted by a federal jury in New York of violating the Iran trade embargo and running an unlicensed money-transfer business.
