Voice of America: The Group of Eight industrialized nations is set to discuss Iran’s nuclear program Friday In Washington. A top U.S. official says Iran can avoid possible sanctions if it cooperates with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Officials from the Group of Eight, including Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Undersecretary of State John Bolton, say they will explore a common strategy on Iran just days after Tehran rejected European efforts to halt the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment program.
Iran Facing Pressure to Cooperate with IAEA
Iran to make further progress in nuclear program
Xinhuanet: Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, speaker of Iran’s Majlis (parliament) said Wednesday that Iran is determined to make further progress in the field of nuclear technology, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“The Iranian youth are determined to create further progress in the field of nuclear technology in the coming years,” Adel was quoted as saying at a ceremony of the new academic year of the University of Imam Hossein, which is affiliated to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.
Relatives’ fury halts Iran trial
BBC: A murder trial in Iran has been adjourned after relatives
of the dead screamed and shouted at one of the accused and tried to attack him. The attack occurred as the defendant coolly confessed to his crime. No new date has been set for the trial, which is taking place behind closed doors, to resume.
Iran accuses EU states of violating human rights
AFP: Iran has accused the European Union countries of committing “blatant human rights violations” in a response to fresh EU criticism of the Islamic republic’s own record, press reports said Wednesday.
“The issue of violating the rights of Muslims, as well as other discriminatory laws regarding minorities, worries the Islamic republic of Iran,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza
Asefi was quoted as saying.
Armitage: U.S. Not Yet Seeking Sanctions on Iran
Reuters: Iran should be “brought to account” on its nuclear program, but Washington is open to ideas other than taking it
to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions, U.S. Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Wednesday.
Lorestan University students go on hunger strike
Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 12 – Students from Lorestan University resumed a hunger strike in protest to lack of rights of expression. The students had originally started their hunger strike last Saturday but then suspended it when local government officials promised to resolve outstanding issues.
Lorestan University students go on hunger strike
Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 12 – Students from Lorestan University resumed a hunger strike in protest to lack of rights of expression. The students had originally started their hunger strike last Saturday but then suspended it when local government officials promised to resolve outstanding issues.
Iran’s 2003 Nobel Laureate Says Prize Helped Her Everywhere But Home
AP: A year after her Nobel Peace Prize was announced in Oslo, human rights activist Shirin Ebadi said today that the honor
had helped her cause everywhere except at home in Iran.
“The Nobel Peace Prize has given me more international possibilities. It has opened a lot of doors,” said the Iranian lawyer, writer and activist. “But the prize has not made my work any easier in Iran.”
Iran digs heels in on uranium enrichment
Reuters: The EU cannot force Iran to give up its right to enrich uranium, Iran’s foreign minister says, apparently slamming the door on European Union efforts to halt the process and ease fears Tehran is seeking a nuclear bomb. “It is wrong for them (the EU) to think they can, through negotiations, force Iran to stop enrichment,” Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told a conference in Tehran on Tuesday. “Iran will never give up its right to enrichment.”
Iran ‘child murder’ trial starts
BBC: The trial has started in Iran of two men accused of murdering 17 children, two men and a woman in the desert outside the country’s capital, Tehran. Iranian state media said seven others would go on trial later, accused of sexually abusing the children. At least 16 police are being reprimanded or referred to the judiciary for incompetent handling of the investigation into the killings.
