Reuters: Iran said on Monday it would resume uranium enrichment-related activities within days, a move the United States and the European Union have warned would see its nuclear case escalated to the U.N. Security Council. “We will
lift the first stage of our suspension, which is that of our UCF (Uranium Conversion Facility) project in Isfahan, in the next few days,” Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, told a university conference, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Iran to resume enrichment-related work in days
Iranian hardliners reject bill to ease abortion ban
AFP: Iran’s Guardians Council, a hardline body that screens all legislation, has rejected a highly contentious law that allowed abortions in limited cases, the student news agency ISNA reported on Monday. “It is against sharia (Islamic law) to abort children who would inflict a financial burden on the parents after birth due to mental or physical handicap,” ISNA said, quoting parliamentary sources.
Hyundai, Daewoo to Share $1 Billion Iran Tanker Order
Bloomberg: Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, the world’s largest shipbuilders, won Iranian contracts worth almost $1 billion to build 10 oil tankers, an Iranian official said. National Iranian Oil Tanker Co. will award the contracts to South Korea-based shipbuilders Daewoo and Hyundai, and Hyundai unit Samho Heavy Industries Co., “within the next three weeks,” NITC …
Iran Converted Raw Uranium into Gas
Press Association: Iran confirmed today it had converted 37 tons of raw uranium into gas needed to enrich uranium just before suspending all uranium enrichment related activities last year, a top nuclear official said. Mohammad Saeedi,
deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said
the work had been conducted at one of its nuclear facilities in central Iran, which the United States alleges is part of a programme to produce atomic weapons.
Iraq’s Future: The Iranian Impact
U.S. Newswire: The Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus in the House of Representatives, co-chaired by Reps. Thomas Tancredo (R-Colo.) and Bob Filner (D-Calif.), will hold a briefing on “Iraq’s Future: The Iranian Impact” on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 in room 2255 in Rayburn House Office Building.
Iran watchdog rejects bill easing abortion ban
Reuters: Iran’s legislative watchdog rejected a bill that would have permitted the abortion of a handicapped foetus as un-Islamic on Monday, parliament’s Web site reported. Lawmakers had last month approved a bill to allow abortions when a mother’s life was in danger or the baby would be handicapped.
Bad Driving, Drugs, Heart Disease Main Killers In Iran
RFE/RL: More than 40,000 Iranians have died from narcotics abuse between the start of the year and 20 March, with just
over 26,000 dying in car crashes. Radio Farda cited a report issued by the Iranian state coroner that said car crashes were the premier cause of “unnatural” deaths, and a source of serious injury to some 250,000 Iranians.
Deportation risks life of Iranian: claim
AP: An Iranian asylum seeker faces death after being forcibly removed from a detention centre in preparation for deportation, refugee advocates said. The 27-year-old Ahwaz Iranian man had been in the Baxter detention centre in South Australia’s north for the past five years. He was forcibly removed from the centre in readiness to be deported to Iran, advocates said.
Iranian hard-liners say nuclear talks with Europeans futile, dismiss any compromises
AP: Iranian hard-liners on Sunday called for an end to nuclear negotiations with European powers and said they opposed
any deal imposing limitations on Iran’s nuclear program. But Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran will remain committed to talks with Europeans despite a lack of progress.
Iran dismisses airport safety concerns as ‘propaganda’
AFP: Iran on Sunday dismissed foreign warnings over the safety of Tehran’s controversial new airport as “obsessive propaganda”.
“Above all we see these issues as an obsession or unfriendly propaganda,” said foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
