Reuters: The United States is investigating a combination of pilot error and mechanical failure as possible causes for the crash of a classified U.S. drone in Iran and does not believe Iran brought down the plane, according to two U.S. government officials.
Pilot error may have caused Iran drone crash
Russian customs seize Iran-bound radioactive metal
AP: Russia’s customs agency announced Friday it has seized pieces of radioactive metal from the luggage of an Iranian passenger bound for Tehran from one of Moscow’s main airports.
German trade with Iran shows sanctions hit—and miss
Wall Street Journal: When the United Nations Security Council blacklisted Iran’s Sepanir Oil & Gas Engineering Co. last year, the company’s main German intermediary terminated their trading relationship, the German firm says—an apparent victory for international sanctions.
Indian refiners explore replacing Iranian oil – sources
Reuters: Indian companies have begun talks with alternative suppliers to slowly replace Iranian oil, fearing their current mechanism for payments to Tehran for some 350,000 barrels a day (bpd) via Turkey could soon succumb to sanctions, industry sources said.
Iran warns of downing other US drones in its skies
AP: Iran will hunt down more American spy drones if the U.S. continues to violate its air space, a senior Iranian military official warned Friday, the latest in triumphant rhetoric from Tehran over the capture of the unmanned aircraft two weeks ago.
Executions for drug crimes surge in Iran: Amnesty
Reuters: Iran has executed more people for drug-related crimes in 2011 than in the previous two years combined, in “a killing spree of staggering proportions,” Amnesty International said Thursday.
Iran to start using own nuclear fuel plates
AFP: Iran is to insert its first domestically produced uranium fuel into its Tehran reactor by mid-February, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in comments published by the IRNA state news agency on Thursday.
South Korea announces new sanctions on Iran
AFP: South Korea Friday joined a fresh multinational effort to press Iran to scrap its suspected nuclear weapons programme, adding more than 100 names to a financial blacklist of Iranian firms and individuals.
US “in contact with all sides” on Iran sanctions
Reuters: The United States is in close contact with all parties including China on new sanctions against Iran, suspected by the West of developing nuclear weapons, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman said on Thursday.
Camp Ashraf exiles file US complaint against Iran, Iraq
AFP: Four Iranian exiles have filed a complaint in US court against senior Iranian and Iraqi officials for their alleged role in an April attack on Camp Ashraf, a site for Iranian dissidents in Iraq.
