Iran Focus: Tehran, Feb. 22 – More than 50 percent of Iran’s street-children return to living on the streets after attending rehabilitation centres, according to the head of the Office for Victim Support in the Ministry of Social Affairs. Dr. Seyyed Hadi Motamadi said, “A considerable number of such children, are secretly rented from their parents, at hardly any cost, to work illegally in the black-market despite it being illegal, and they earn inadequate salaries.

Reuters: A strong earthquake has hit southeast Iran, killing almost 400 people, injuring hundreds and destroying villages, a local official has told Reuters. Tuesday’s quake, which measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, was centred on the town
of Zarand in Kerman province, about 700 km (440 miles) southeast of Tehran.

AFP: At least 126 people were killed and hundreds more injured when a powerful earthquake hit southeastern Iran early Tuesday, officials said, amid fears that the toll could rise sharply. The quake, which struck 14 months after the Bam disaster, was reported to have devastated several villages, and at least one other settlement could not be reached because of blocked roads.

Bloomberg: DaimlerChrysler AG, the world’s largest truckmaker, is being investigated by German authorities after a Saudi affiliate delivered 270 Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles worth $22 million to Iran without government approval.

Reuters: President Bush insisted on Monday that Iran cut off support for terrorism and disavow nuclear weapons — and stressed that no response could ever be ruled out. “In safeguarding the security of free nations no option can be taken permanently off the table,” Bush said in a speech on his first trip to Europe since his re-inauguration last month.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Feb. 21 – Heavy clashes between Iranian Kurds and security agents erupted on Friday in three towns in western Iran, leaving dozens injured and hundreds arrested. Clashes broke out after State Security Forces agents used force to disperse demonstrations taking place simultaneously in the towns of Sardasht, Saqqez, and Baneh in protest against severe fuel shortages in the area, eye-witnesses reported.