AFP: Two quakes measuring 5.2 and 4.2 on the Richter scale hit Iran’s southeastern province of Kerman early Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or serious material damage.
The official news agency IRNA said the first quake, measuring 4.2, hit the town of Zarand at 4:51 am (01:21 GMT).
Two quakes jolt southeastern Iran
Iraq accuses Iran of sabotaging its intelligence
Xinhuanet: A senior Iraqi intelligence official has accused Iran and some political parties of cooperating in an attempt to work against Iraqi new intelligence forces, local newspaper Azzaman reported Wednesday. Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Abdullah al Shahwani, head of the Iraqi intelligence, said in an interview with the newspaper published on Wednesday …
G8 nations to consider sanctions against Iran
AP: The U.S. administration will take up strategy for United Nations sanctions against Iran at a meeting tomorrow of
senior officials from eight nations. All the G8 countries – the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and Russia – will have senior officials at the …
Crackdown on Internet Journalists
Reuters: Iranian authorities have arrested at least six Internet journalists and webloggers in recent days, colleagues and relatives said on Wednesday, in a further blow to limited press freedoms in the Islamic state. News-based Internet sites and online journals known as Weblogs have flourished in Iran where the disproportionately youthful population often turns to the Internet for information and entertainment.
Iran Facing Pressure to Cooperate with IAEA
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 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.
