AP: Iraqi police detained 45 men who illegally entered the country from neighboring Iran, and American troops said Sunday they captured eight Iraqis fleeing the scene of a roadside bombing. Also, insurgents claiming to represent
Iran Focus: Tehran, Dec. 18 – There are at least 600,000 children officially in employment in Iran at present, according to newly released figures. An Iranian official said that the figure comprises of children under the age of 15, according to the Iranian regimes news agency. Unfortunately we are witnessing an increase in the number of children forced to work, said Arash Faraz. 
Reuters: An Iranian official says he is waiting for orders on whether to stone or hang a woman convicted of adultery, the latest in a chain of death sentences passed against young women for “fornication”. The official from Iran’s conservative judiciary said on Saturday that Hajieh Esmailvand’s prison sentence, that began in January 2000, would end in less … 
REUTERS: A leading hardline cleric in Shi’ite Muslim Iran warned on Friday of possible vote-rigging in next month’s Iraqi elections in the latest of a series of barbed exchanges
Financial Times: In public, Arab governments have little to say about international concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme. Even Arab members of the International Atomic Energy Agency board try to keep out of discussions on Iran, rarely expressing an opinion. When pressed to react, Arab officials bring up Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal and ask why no one is interested in disarming the Jewish state. 
Gulf Daily News: Russian and Iranian officials yesterday discussed trade and economic co-operation, including a possible purchase of Russian passenger jets by Iran. The contract for the delivery of five Russian Tu-204-100 aircraft to Iran could be signed next year, Russia’s Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said after talks with Iranian Economy Minister Safdar Hosseini. 
AFP: Russia said Friday that it would complete Iran’s first nuclear power plant in early 2006 at the latest following talks here with the Islamic state’s economics and finance minister. 
Washington Post: If you had asked an intelligence analyst two years ago to describe the worst possible political outcome following an American invasion of Iraq, he might well have answered that it would be a regime dominated by conservative Shiite Muslim clerics with links to neighboring Iran. But just such a regime now seems likely to emerge after Iraq’s Jan. 30 elections. 
Atlanta Journal Constitution: On Nov. 15, Iran signed an agreement with France, Britain and Germany to suspend its uranium enrichment program. In return, Europe would provide Iran with a deuterium reactor, help Iran join the World Trade Organization, close Iran’s nuclear investigation by the International Atomic Energy Association and, above all, treat Iran’s main opposition as a terrorist organization and … 
Amnesty International: An Iranian woman charged with adultery faces death by stoning in the next five days after her death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court last month. Her unnamed co-defendant is at risk of imminent execution by hanging. Amnesty International members are now writing urgent appeals to the Iranian authorities, calling for the execution to be stopped. 
