AFP: Officials from Britain, France and Germany were in talks with their Iranian counterparts Thursday in Vienna at a meeting to give Tehran a final chance to reassure the world that it is not secretly developing atomic weapons. The European nations are reported to be offering Iran valuable technology for peaceful nuclear energy if Iran complies, but possible UN sanctions if it does not.
Preparatory text for European proposals on Iranian nuclear program
Earthquake jolts city in Lorestan province
Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 22 This morning an earthquake measuring 3.7 degrees on the Richer scale shook the area surrounding the city of Nourabad in the Iranian province of Lorestan (Western Iran).
The lethal lot of the poor
The Economist: A saga of murder that highlights the vulnerability of Iran’s urban poorest. A young man develops a taste for raping and killing people, mostly small boys, and hiding their corpses in the wasteland of the open-air brick factories that he inhabits. The police are indifferent to the pleas of distraught parents, who are mostly rural migrants and Afghan refugees; by the time the murderer is brought to book, the death toll stands at 20.
IRAN: European online media uphold jailed online journalists
IRIN: Twenty European news websites have expressed their concern at the recent imprisonment of five Iranian online journalists. They made their stand in a Reporters Without Borders (RSF) appeal over the crackdown against online media in Iran. “We are always concerned when there are negative effects on journalists when they do their jobs,” …
Iran to respond to European nuclear proposal after US elections: analysts
AFP: Iran still has room for diplomatic maneuvering and will certainly wait until after the November 2 US elections to respond to a European offer to avoid possible UN sanctions and receive nuclear technology by indefinitely suspending uranium enrichment, analysts said Friday.
Iran nuke concessions ‘unlikely’
AP: Iran is unlikely to accept European incentives aimed at getting it to suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats said today, raising the likelihood of a showdown with the UN nuclear watchdog agency next month. Envoys from Britain, France and Germany offered civilian nuclear technology and a trade deal to the Iranians in a private meeting at the French mission to international organisations in Vienna. But Western diplomats said they doubt the Tehran regime will back down easily.
Indian scientists sanctioned for assisting Iran on nukes
Washington Times: The Bush administration has imposed sanctions on two Indian scientists for selling nuclear technology to Iran and is planning additional arms-related sanctions, U.S. officials said.
The two scientists were identified by the Bush administration as Shri Ch. Surendar and Y. Sivaraman Prasad, both former directors of the Nuclear Power Corp. of India, the state-run utility.
Nuclear options
The Guardian – Leader Article: No one knows exactly how Iran will react to the latest European proposals for reining in its nuclear ambitions and no one should underestimate the importance of its response.
Iran’s Nuclear Threat
New York Times – EDITORIAL: One of the most serious questions raised by the debacle in Iraq is whether it has crippled the ability of the world’s leading powers to contain dangerous states. Iran’s nuclear program is a prime case in point: so far, neither threats nor inducements have persuaded its leaders to suspend their uranium enrichment program.
14 die in Iran road accident
Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 21 – At least 14 people have been killed and 24 others left injured in a road accident in Iran, state-run television reported. The incident occurred when two buses had a head on collision on the road between Ahwaz and Khoramabad, about 520 km south-west of the Iranian capital, Tehran.
