Iran Focus: Tehran, Feb. 07 One out of every ten people living in the streets in Iran are university-educated, according to the head of Social Affairs in the Tehran Governor’s Office. Zahra Nejadbahram said, “9.4 percent of street-sleepers attending Tehran’s four day-care centres are university graduates”.
Iran’s educated sleeping on the streets
U.S. Officials Discount Risk of Iran-Style Rule
Washington Post: Top U.S. officials expressed confidence yesterday that no Iran-style Islamic government would take hold in Iraq despite the expected rise to power there of religious Shiite parties following last week’s elections. With the Shiites widely predicted to dominate a new constitutional assembly, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld played down reports that leading Shiite clerics …
Rice warns Iran against provoking Israel
The Guardian: Condoleezza Rice turned Washington’s rhetoric on Iran up another notch yesterday, telling Iranians they would have to “live up to their international obligations” to avoid a conflict with Israel. But back in Washington, the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, struck a more dovish note, saying the estimates he had seen said Iran was “years away” from building a nuclear bomb, and that the White House had meanwhile opted for diplomacy.
Iran challenges US over nuclear programme
Daily Telegraph: Iran dared America to attack it yesterday as
the senior hawks in President George W Bush’s administration all but admitted that Washington faced a dilemma in trying to prevent Teheran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Cosmetics exhibition closed by Iranian judiciary
AFP: Iran’s judiciary has shut down a cosmetics and personal hygiene exhibition in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad after a judge apparently decided that only women should operate the stalls. “This judge came to the exhibition and grabbed some posters from the stalls and said that only women could run the booths,” an informed official was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency on Sunday.
Diplomacy, unity key to solving Iran problem: Rice
AFP: Diplomacy and unity among the world’s “great democracies” are key to ensuring Iran meets its international obligations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. The Islamic Republic had become a major obstacle to peace and stability in the Middle East and must be prevented from developing nuclear weapons, she told BBC television.
US backs European effort on Iran but keeping options open: Cheney
AFP: The United States backs a diplomatic effort by European nations to try to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear program but has not “eliminated any alternative,” US Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday. “I think there’s a good-faith effort under way by our European allies to try to resolve this issue diplomatically.
UN women’s rights official raps Iran over abuses
AFP: The UN’s top official on women’s rights chastised Iran on Sunday over what she said were abuses and discrimination built in to the Islamic Republic’s laws.
“In the family, women face psychological, physical and sexual violence, and gender discrimination,” said Yakin Erturk, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women.
Iran would accelerate nuke programme if attacked
Reuters: Iran would both retaliate and accelerate its drive to master nuclear technology if the United States or Israel attacked its atomic facilities, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator warned on Sunday. Hassan Rohani, secretary-general of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, also told Reuters there was nothing the West could offer Tehran that would persuade it to scrap a nuclear programme which Washington fears may …
Iran rejects EU demands it scrap nuclear enrichment
Reuters: Iran, accused by Washington of developing nuclear arms, has rejected European demands to abandon key atomic processes that could be used to make weapons, Iranian and Western diplomats say. On the eve of a third round of talks with Iran in Geneva on Tuesday, France, Britain and Germany are faced with the task of persuading Iran to transform a temporary suspension of its nuclear fuel production programme into a permanent cessation.
