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. 
Iran Focus: The editor of the influential state-owned daily, Kayhan, made a clear link between the current turmoil in Iraq and the developments on the internal political scene in Iran, noting that mounting problems facing the U.S. in Iraq have silenced those who were hoping for regime change in Iran. 
Reuters: A bus and a truck collided in southeast Iran killing 15 people and injuring 20 others, the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday. 
