Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 02 – Iran snubbed Tuesday evening European calls for it to abandon its threats to resume nuclear conversion work and continue negotiations with the European Three – Britain, France, and Germany. “The time for threats and intimidation is over”, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said in an announcement carried in Iran’s state-run news agency.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 02 – Radical Islamists allied to the incoming President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will stage a demonstration outside the British embassy in the Iranian capital on Wednesday, a spokesman for the group planning the protest announced hours after the explosion of a small bomb near the offices of two British companies in downtown Tehran.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 02 – At least three people have been killed and several others hospitalised following an outbreak of cholera in the city of Qom, a government-run website reported on Tuesday. The website Baztab, citing unofficial reports, said that on Monday, authorities quickly moved to close all the sources of water in various locations throughout Qom.

Iran Focus: London, Aug. 02 – Iraq’s Foreign Minister once again called on Iran and Syria to control their borders to prevent insurgents entering Iraq, in an interview on Tuesday with a London-based Arab daily. Hoshyar Zebari held the two governments responsible for the flow of foreign fighters and told the daily Asharq al-Awsat that the two neighbours had the power to stop infiltrations but had been unwilling to do so.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 02 – Iran’s State Security Forces crashed in on a mixed-sex party in the oil-rich city of Ahwaz, southern Iran, and arrested 15 young men and women, a semi-official daily reported. The detainees have all been handed to the judicial authorities and will face conviction and sentences that would include flogging, the hard-line paper Kayhan wrote on Monday.