Reuters: President Barack Obama declared an end to the seven-year U.S. combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday and promised recession-weary Americans “my central responsibility” now is to repair the U.S. economy.
Obama: Time to turn the page in Iraq
Japan set to toughen sanctions on Iran – Nikkei
Reuters: Japan is set to toughen sanctions against Iran as early as this week over its disputed nuclear programme, the Nikkei business daily said, following the United States and European Union’s leads in pressuring Tehran.
The Great Dictator
Iran Focus – Editorial: Last week, Iran’s madcap president made a series of pompous claims about his regime’s potentials and objectives while warning the international community to “sit like polite children and talk”.
Interview with a veteran official of the Iranian Mojahedin
Iran Focus: London, Aug. 31 – Mr. Mehdi Baraie is a senior official of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) in Camp Ashraf in Iraq. He signed a ceasefire and mutual understanding agreement with US forces in April 2003. Mr. Baraie was a political prisoner under the Shah’s regime for six years. Iran Focus conducted an interview with him by email on the latest developments related to Camp Ashraf.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani subjected to mock execution
The Guardian: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, was told on Saturday that she was to be hanged at dawn on Sunday, but the sentence was not carried out, it emerged tonight.
IRAN: Courts confirm two more stoning sentences on adultery charges
Los Angeles Times: Amid the controversy and international outcry sparked by the stoning sentence handed down to a 43-year-old Iranian mother of two, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Iran’s supreme court reportedly has sentenced two more people to stoning on charges of adultery.
Iran slams remaining US deployment in Iraq
AFP: Iran has dismissed as “unacceptable” the continued deployment of American troops in Iraq as US President Barack Obama was to announce on Tuesday the end of combat operations in the country.
Interview: Iraq warns others away as U.S. ends combat
Reuters: The Iraqi government has warned neighboring countries thinking they can fill the vacuum once U.S. troops withdraw not to interfere in its affairs, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Tuesday.
Iranian insults against Carla Bruni ‘unacceptable’: France
AFP: France said Tuesday that insults in the Iranian media against first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who has been branded an “Italian prostitute” who “deserves death”, are unacceptable.
Iran opposition figure’s house under siege: website
Reuters: Iranian paramilitaries surrounded the house of leading opposition figure Mehdi Karoubi Tuesday to prevent the cleric from participating in a religious ceremony, his website said.
