Iran Focus: Washington, Feb. 28 The United States issued a damning report today on Iran’s human rights violations as part of its 2004 annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. 
Reuters: Outraged by scenes of young boys and girls using Shi’ite Islam’s most sacred mourning day as an opportunity to flirt in public, Iran’s religious hard-liners are calling on authorities to stamp out such “vulgar displays.” Failure to do so, some newspaper commentators said, would force pious citizens to take matters into their own hands. 
Iran Focus: Paris, Feb. 28 Emboldened by signs that the United States may be about to join the European Union’s nuclear negotiations with Iran by offering incentives to Tehran, Iran is hardening its position and making a serious bid to dictate its terms during the nuclear talks with the European “big three”, Britain, France, and Germany, an Iran expert said today. Iran Focus: Paris, Feb. 28 Emboldened by signs that the United States may be about to join the European Union’s nuclear negotiations with Iran by offering incentives to Tehran, Iran is hardening its position and making a serious bid to dictate its terms during the nuclear talks with the European “big three”, Britain, France, and Germany, an Iran expert said today. 
Reuters: The head of the U.N.’s atomic watchdog says Iran must be more open with inspectors probing its nuclear programme, which the United States says is aimed at making an atomic bomb. Mohamed ElBaradei was speaking on Monday as the board of governors of his International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) met one day after Iran’s nuclear planners scored a major victory with a key uranium fuel supply deal with Russia. 
AP: Many consider Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the prominent cleric who leads the United Iraqi Alliance, to have emerged as the country’s
Iran Focus: London, Feb. 28 The Iranian regime has at least 40,000 agents in Iraq on its payroll, according to a report broadcast by an Iranian opposition television. Simaye Azadi, a Persian-language satellite television network close to the opposition National Council of Resistance, said it had obtained documents from Fajr Garrison of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which showed that the Islamic republic was running a vast underground network in Iraq with 40,000 agents on its payroll. Iran Focus: London, Feb. 28 The Iranian regime has at least 40,000 agents in Iraq on its payroll, according to a report broadcast by an Iranian opposition television. Simaye Azadi, a Persian-language satellite television network close to the opposition National Council of Resistance, said it had obtained documents from Fajr Garrison of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which showed that the Islamic republic was running a vast underground network in Iraq with 40,000 agents on its payroll. 
Reuters: The United States should seek to bar Russia from this year’s major-nation summit to protest actions by Moscow including its deal on Sunday to provide Iran nuclear fuel, a leading Republican senator said. Lawmakers from both major parties joined in calling for Russia to be punished for the nuclear deal and what they said were anti-democratic actions by Russian President Vladimir Putin, although the French, German and British ambassadors to the United States opposed barring Russia from the summit. 
Iran Focus: Tehran, Feb. 27 A middle-aged man and his teenage son are facing imminent execution after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentences handed down to them. Moussa Ali, 45 years old, and his son Rasoul, 16 years old, were accused of robbery, rape, and kidnapping, according to the state-run daily Hamshahri. 
