AP: Statoil ASA on Thursday said it would accept a fine imposed by police for alleged corruption in Iran, but without admitting or denying any guilt in the case. In June, Norway’s economic crime police, Oekokrim, said a US$15.2 million consulting deal that Statoil ASA made with Iran’s Horton Investment Ltd. in June 2002 was an attempt to improperly influence Iranian oil officials.
Norway’s Statoil Accepts Fine in Iran Case
Deportation raises fears for Iranian man
The Age: The Federal Government has forcibly deported an Iranian Christian to Iran, sparking criticism from church groups that he has been placed at risk. The deportation is only the second involuntary deportation of a Christian to Iran where converting to Christianity is an offence. A Catholic nun working at the Baxter immigration detention centre in South Australia said she was with the man at a church service just before he was summoned to an Immigration Department office. He had then “disappeared”.
Iran is France’s primary trade partner in Mideast, French minister
IRNA: French Foreign Trade Minister Francois Loos said in Paris on Thursday that Iran ranks first among France Trade partners in the Middle East. Speaking at a seminar on “Foreign Investment Prospect in Iran”, he said that the reforms made on foreign investment policy in Iran and the country’s suitable investment atmosphere have paved the ground for expansion of bilateral trade relations.
Iran Wants Guarantee of No ‘Regime Change’ – Diplomats
Reuters: Iran might be willing to give up its uranium
enrichment capabilities but it wants many things in return — above all a guarantee that no one will try to topple the Islamic regime, diplomats and analysts say. North Korea has demanded similar security assurances from Washington, which listed both Tehran and Pyongyang as members of an “axis of evil,” in exchange for relinquishing its atom bomb program. Iran’s nuclear ambitions will be discussed at a meeting of senior officials from the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations in Washington on Friday.
Iran’s ‘vampire of the desert’ faces death penalty after murdering 17 children in brickwork slums
Independent: An Iranian man known as the “vampire of the desert” was facing the death sentence yesterday following the gruesome murders of 17 children and three adults in the slums of Pakdasht, near the capital, Tehran.
Iran: Journalist Detained in Internet Crackdown
Human Rights Watch: The arrest of journalist and internet writer Omid Memarian continues a disturbing crackdown on journalists and internet writers in Iran, Human Rights Watch said today. Memarian, a well-known figure in Irans nongovernmental organization community, has been detained without charge since his arrest on Sunday, Oct. 10. The Iranian Students News Agency, citing family members, reported that agents of Irans Judiciary …
Iran ‘in control of terrorism in Israel’
Daily Telegraph: Iran has taken control of many Palestinian terrorist cells from Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, giving them funds and orders to attack Israeli targets, and even rewarding successful missions with “bonuses”, according to a senior Israeli security source.
For many years, Iran has given money and ideological support to radical Palestinian groups, especially Hamas and …
Tokyo Executives Exported Missile Components to Iran
Press Association: A Japanese court today convicted two executives of a Tokyo machinery-maker of illegally exporting equipment to Iran that could be used to make missile fuel.
The Tokyo District Court gave Haruhiko Ueda, 70, president
of Tokyo-based Seishin Enterprise, a two-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence. Akira Kamiya, 42, Seishins former South Korea branch manager, was given a suspended 18-month prison term.
G-8 Nations to Meet on Iran
Washington Post: After weeks of behind-the-scenes
diplomacy, the United States will meet here today with the world’s wealthiest countries to determine a strategy for giving Iran one last chance to abandon its alleged nuclear arms program or face new international pressures. Both Democrats and Republicans increasingly believe that Iran will be the next big foreign policy flash point …
Would-be Iranian organ donor goes to hospital to commit suicide
AFP: An Iranian man has attempted to commit suicide at a hospital in the southern city of Shiraz in a bid to give up his organs to needy patients, a hospital official said Thursday.
Abdolreza B., 30, turned up at the hospital and then “shot himself with a Kalashnikov outside the operating theatre,” said the official.
