Iran Focus: London, Jan. 04 – At least half of the 25 deputy governors appointed by the government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are officers of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), the country’s secret police, Iran Focus has learnt. Seven others are senior officers of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jan. 04 – In the latest “acid attack” by radical Islamists on young women accused of ignoring the country’s strict dress regulations, two female university students had acid splashed on their faces in the town of Shahroud, north-eastern Iran.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jan. 4 – Iran’s state-run media gave unusual prominence to a historically confused news report claiming that former Saudi King Abdul-Aziz, the father of the current Saudi monarch, objected to the existence of Israel and told United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt to relocate the Jewish state to Europe.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran. Jan. 04 – Iran’s Foreign Ministry
declared in a Majlis (Parliament) session attended jointly by cabinet ministers and Majlis deputies that the Islamic Republic’s new tough position on the nuclear issue has put the West on defensive, Iran’s state-run news agency reported on Wednesday.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jan. 04 – An Iranian judge has issued an order for a young student from the University of Tehran to appear before a court in the Iranian capital on political charges, according to his lawyer.