Reuters: Five people were killed and 21 others injured when
a cluster-bomb left over from the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war exploded in the western city of Ilam, the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday. The bomb exploded on Tuesday night when a group of young boys playing soccer
were using it as a goal post, IRNA said.
Old war bomb explodes killing five in Iran
Reporters Without Borders protests at closure of al-Jazeera’s Tehran bureau
Reporters Without Borders: Reporters Without Borders has protested against the unfair closure of satellite TV al-Jazeera’s Tehran bureau for “incitement to disorder” after it reported on clashes in Khuzistan in south west Iran. It urged the authorities to review its 18 April decision. “We condemn the decision of the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry to suspend al-Jazeera’s operations in Iran,” it said.
Iran demands progress in nuclear talks with EU-3
Reuters : Iran will end nuclear talks with three European powers unless its ideas for a compromise are accepted as the basis for future negotiations, a senior Iranian official said in remarks published on Wednesday. Hassan Rowhani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Iran would walk away from the negotiations with Britain, France and Germany if no “tangible progress” was made soon.
White House rips Iran on Arab treatment
AP: The Bush administration accused Iran on Tuesday of violating the rights of Arabs and other minority groups and urged restraint in dealing with them. “It is not the first time that Iran has practiced this kind of human rights violations,” spokesman Adam Ereli said of a recent crackdown against Arab protesters.
Iran awaiting European response to uranium proposal: top Iranian official
AFP: Iran expects Europe to respond at a meeting Tuesday to its proposal to allow uranium enrichment, despite Western demands that it abandon such nuclear fuel work to guarantee
it will not make atomic weapons, a senior Iranian diplomat said. “We are waiting to hear what the Europeans have to say about our ideas on our fuel production program,” senior
Iranian negotiator Cyrus Nasseri told AFP ahead of the
EU-Iran talks in Geneva.
8 students handed jail terms for insulting Iranian president: union
AFP: Eight students have been handed suspended prison terms for insulting President Mohammad Khatami and acting against Iran’s national security, a leading reformist student union member said Tuesday. “Four students from Sistan-Baluchistan (in southeast Iran) received suspended prison terms of a year each,” said Abdollah Momeni, head of the
Office of Consolidating Unity (OCU), told AFP.
Tehran police launch campaign to keep women covered up
AFP: Tehran police chief Brigadier General Morteza Talaie has announced a new campaign to ensure women keep covered up in public in keeping with the rules of the Islamic republic, newspapers reported Tuesday. “The press will take firm action against those who disturb security and moral order with their behaviour and their clothing,” he was quoted as warning.
Rice to push Russia on Iran: report
AFP: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will caution Russia during a visit here this week that its close work on Iran’s nuclear program could come at a heavy price, the liberal business daily Kommersant reported Tuesday. Rice, who was due to arrive here later Tuesday for a two-day visit to include talks with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, “will try to persuade Russia not to hinder US moves” should tensions with Iran increase, the daily commented, …
Facing Global Sanctions, Iran Uses Oil Fields to Seek Alliances
New York Times: As it faces the threat of global sanctions from the United States and Europe because of suspicions that it is turning its nuclear program to weapons production, Iran is fighting back with a powerful weapon of its own: its vast oil and gas resources.
Iran’s ruling clerics are meticulously arranging energy sales and building partnerships with influential countries, including China and India, as a way to win stronger friendships around the world.
Iran stalls in probe of nuke smuggling – diplomats
Reuters: Tehran is not cooperating fully with a probe by the U.N. nuclear watchdog into Iranian officials’ meetings with smugglers who had links to Pakistani atom bomb-maker Abdul Qadeer Khan, diplomats said on Monday.
The diplomats said the meetings in 1987 and 1994 were key to help determine whether Iran’s programme was originally intended to produce electricity, as Tehran insists, or to make bombs, as Washington maintains.
