Newsweek: The Bush administration has repeatedly fingered Abu Mussab al-Zarqawiself-confessed beheader of U.S. hostage Nicholas Berg and other Western captivesas a critical link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. In thevice presidential debate, Dick Cheney said that after U.S.
forces attacked Afghanistan seeking to roust Osama bin Laden, al-Zarqawi “migrated to Baghdad.” But other U.S.
officials say the Jordanian terrorist’s contacts in neighboring
Iran are probably more extensive than any dealings he had with Saddam.


Washington Times – Commentry: Well, the talks and meetings will go on and on to the next Ramadan and the Ramadan after that and Iran will go on working on its nuclear arms program until it has the Bomb. There will be no deal with Iran no matter how costly nuclear bomb manufacture might be. With oil prices going through the roof, money is not a problem now nor in the foreseeable future.
Xinhuanet: ABU DHABI – Iran needs to show the world itspeaceful intentions over its nuclear issue, a visiting US official said here on Monday, the official WAM news agency reported.
AFP: The United States on Monday warned Iran against providing any type of support to Al-Qaeda-linked foreign
Xinhuanet: Iran said on Monday that it was well-prepared for “any scenario” over nuclear issue, the official IRNA news agency reported. “I believes that Iran’s case will not be referred to the UN Security Council. But, Iran is also well-prepared beforehand for any scenario in this respect,” government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh was quoted as saying.
AFP: Spain’s leading energy group Repsol YPF has signed a 27-million-dollar (21.6-million-euro) deal with Iran to obtain prospection rights in two fields over the next 30 months, the financial newspaper Expansion reported on Monday. A Repsol YPF statement confirmed the firm would prospect at Mehr and Foruz, near Kish Island off the port of Bushir in the southern Persian Gulf, with the total project covering 14,600 square kilometres (5,000 square miles).
AFP: Iran’s hardline Basij militia has written to UN secretary general Kofi Annan to ask if the Islamic republic can send observers to the US presidential election in November, a government newspaper said on Monday.
Asia News: Hamid Pourmand is a Protestant minister of the Assemblies of God Church. He converted from Islam several years ago. Since September he has been held in prison at an undisclosed location and under Iranian law he can be put to death for “apostasy against Islam”. He was arrested on September 9 in Karaj, a town 30 km west of the capital Tehran during a police raid against the annual General Council of the Assemblies of God Church.
Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 18 – The Supreme Court has