AFP: Dissident journalist Akbar Ganji, Iran’s most prominent political prisoner, has ended a lengthy hunger strike and is in “fair” health, his wife confirmed to AFP on Monday. “I saw him last night. He has ended his hunger strike. He is fairly well,” Massoumeh Shafii said in a brief statement.
Iranian dissident ends hunger strike: wife
Pakistan to meet with UN nuclear agency on Iranian uranium contamination
AFP: The UN nuclear watchdog is to meet here next week with Pakistani officials as part of its efforts to determine if Iran was using smuggled Pakistani equipment to make enriched uranium that could be used for atom bombs, diplomats said Saturday. Pakistan had in May sent centrifuge parts to the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency at its headquarters in Vienna to enable the IAEA to compare microscopic traces of uranium on them with that found on equipment in Iran believed to have been smuggled in from Pakistan.
Irans new sex-segregated park gets underway
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 21 A new sex-segregated park is under development in the city of Mashad, north-eastern Iran, according to the head of the National Womens Council. The new 110-hectare park will be used exclusively by women, Sedigheh Ghannadi told a state-run news agency, adding that men would not be able to see inside the park in any way, including from overflying aircraft.
Irans new sex-segregated park gets underway
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 21 A new sex-segregated park is under development in the city of Mashad, north-eastern Iran, according to the head of the National Womens Council. The new 110-hectare park will be used exclusively by women, Sedigheh Ghannadi told a state-run news agency, adding that men would not be able to see inside the park in any way, including from overflying aircraft.
Irans new president charts hard-line agenda
Iran Focus: Tehran, Aug. 21 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday presented his 21-man cabinet to parliament and offered a raw mix of ultra-Islamist domestic policy, state-dominated economic agenda, and uncompromising foreign policy. Ahmadinejad urged the hard-line-dominated parliament to confirm his nominations with big votes to give the ministers a good start as they begin their tasks.
Irans new president charts hard-line agenda
Iran Focus: Tehran, Aug. 21 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday presented his 21-man cabinet to parliament and offered a raw mix of ultra-Islamist domestic policy, state-dominated economic agenda, and uncompromising foreign policy. Ahmadinejad urged the hard-line-dominated parliament to confirm his nominations with big votes to give the ministers a good start as they begin their tasks.
Sunnis See Iran’s Hand in Call for Federalism
Los Angeles Times: As the deadline bore down on Iraqi leaders drafting a new constitution, some participants said a deal seemed within reach. Then out of nowhere, they said, came a demand from a key Shiite politician. Abdelaziz Hakim, the leader of the main party in the powerful Shiite parliamentary bloc, spoke before a crowd of supporters Aug. 11 in Najaf and called for a Shiite autonomous region consisting of Iraq’s nine oil-rich southern provinces. Hakim, who once headed a militia trained and nurtured by Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guard, called the mini-state a “sacred” goal.
Iran ‘supplies infra-red bombs’ that kill British troops in Iraq
Sunday Telegraph: British soldiers in Iraq are being killed by advanced “infra-red” bombs supplied by Iran that defeat jamming equipment, according to military intelligence officials. The “passive infra-red” devices, whose use in Iraq is revealed for the first time by The Sunday Telegraph, are detonated when the beam is broken, as when an intruder triggers a burglar alarm.
Iran leader makes key changes in Revolutionary Guards command
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 20 Irans Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered on Saturday a key change in the high command of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in a move that will have far-reaching consequences for the countrys military strategy. Khamenei, acting in his capacity as the Commander in Chief of the armed forces, put Brigadier General Mohammad-Ali (Aziz) Jaafari in charge of forming the IRGC centre for strategy.
Iran leader makes key changes in Revolutionary Guards command
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 20 Irans Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered on Saturday a key change in the high command of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in a move that will have far-reaching consequences for the countrys military strategy. Khamenei, acting in his capacity as the Commander in Chief of the armed forces, put Brigadier General Mohammad-Ali (Aziz) Jaafari in charge of forming the IRGC centre for strategy.
