New York Times: TEHRAN – Iran’s defense minister, Vice Adm. Ali Shamkhani, has warned that Iran may resort to pre-emptive strikes to prevent an attack on its nuclear facilities.
Iran Focus
On Sunday, August 15, a 16-year-old girl in the town of Neka, northern Iran, was executed. Atefeh Sahaleh was hanged in public on Simetry Street off Rah Ahan Street at the city center.
AFP: Iranian Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani warned today that Iran might launch a pre-emptive strike against US forces in the region to prevent an attack on its nuclear facilities. 
AFP: Iran’s conservative parliament is preparing designs for national Islamic costumes to combat the corrupting influence of Western fashion, a prominent MP said Wednesday. 
AFP: Iran’s conservative-controlled parliament on Wednesday blocked a plan to define political crimes which would have clarified the status of political prisoners, said the student news agency ISNA. 
Xinhuanet: The United States said on Wednesday that Iran had a clandestine nuclear weapons program and the US commitment was to address the problem through peaceful diplomatic engagement. 
Daily Telegraph: Iran warned America and Israel last night that it was ready to launch pre-emptive strikes to stop them attacking its nuclear facilities.
Iran Focus: A new budget amendment adopted by the dominant ultra-conservative faction in the Iranian parliament is set to concentrate enormous powers over the mass media in the hand of a former general of the Revolutionary Guards who now heads the Voice and Vision of the Islamic Republic, the state-owned broadcasting monopoly in Iran. 
AFP: Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament voted down a bid by its reformist predecessor to support women’s rights and enforce gender equality, press reports said Wednesday. 
Iran Focus: Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Propaganda Agency have been waging an extensive campaign in recent days to undermine the position of senior Iraqi Shiite clerics who have been reluctant to tow Tehrans line in Iraq, targeting in particular Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. 
