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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Paris, Oct 20. - According to the latest report released by Transparency International shows that corruption among Iranian government officials has increased.
Iran now ranks 88 in the Corruption Perceptions Index compared to 78 last year. The figures reflect the increasing economical haul that is plaguing Iran. |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 20 - The secretary of the student
union of Azad University in Iran’s Central province was sentenced to 40 lashes, one year in prison and fined one million rials in the town of Arak.
Soroush Farhadian was charged with ‘spreading false propaganda’ against the regime. |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 20 – Four men were hanged in the town of Sari in the northern province of Mazandaran on
charges of armed violence. The men, identified only by their first names, Mohammad-Reza, Hamid-Reza, Hassan and Reza, were executed after the Supreme Islamic Court upheld the original judge’s verdict.
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Reuters: Iran is ready to prove to the world it is not producing atomic weapons provided the West recognizes the Islamic Republic's right to peaceful nuclear technology, President Mohammad Khatami said Wednesday. Iranian officials are
due to meet senior diplomats from Britain, Germany and France in Vienna Thursday to receive a proposal giving ... |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Associated Press: The head of Iran's security council said Tuesday that the re-election of President Bush was in
Tehran's best interests, despite the administration's "axis of evil" label, accusations that Iran harbors al-Qaida terrorists
and threats of sanctions for the country's nuclear ambitions.
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 AFP: Iran warned Wednesday it would reject a European proposal aimed at defusing a nuclear standoff if it does not respect Tehran's rights to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. "Any proposal must recognise our legitimate rights," Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh said. |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 AFP: Europe's three main nations are ready to promise Iran nuclear technology, including supplying a light-water nuclear reactor, if Tehran takes steps to show it is not secretly trying to make atomic weapons, according to a confidential document obtained by AFP Tuesday. "We would support the acquisition
by Iran of a light water research reactor," said the seven-page document presented by Britain, France and Germany ... |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 The Times: BRITAIN and Germany gave Iran a final chance yesterday to co-operate over its nuclear programme — or face the prospect of sanctions. |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Reuters: Iran said it test fired on Wednesday a more accurate version of its Shahab-3 missile, already believed capable of hitting Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf.
Iran has previously announced that it has increased the missile's range to 1,250 miles, an upgrade from a range pencilled in at 800 miles by military experts.
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 19 - Clashes erupted between motorcyclists and Iranian security forces in Yazd (central Iran) following reports of harassment of cyclists by local police.
Police set up patrols in Karkard Square in Yazd yesterday morning and arrested a number of motorcyclists. Ensuing clashes between some 300 cyclists and security forces left a number of people wounded. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 19 - Students of Iran’s Azad University in the town of Meybod demonstrated against new measures to force female students to wear the ‘Chador’ (an Islamic veil that covers women from head to toe). The students also released a statement condemning the new ‘suppressive regulations’. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 19 - The student newspaper ‘Az Shanbeh ta Shanbeh’ (From Saturday to Saturday) published
in the town of Shahre-Kord (central Iran) has been suspended for a period of 6 months.
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 AFP: A top Iranian nuclear official reiterated Tuesday his government's assertion that it wants to enrich uranium to provide fuel for its future nuclear power plants.
"We are not saying we are refusing Westerners offers to provide us with nuclear fuel, but we want also to produce our own nuclear fuel... as well as buying what we lack from the West," Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) chief ... |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 AFP: It makes no real difference to Iran whether US President George W. Bush or Democrat contender John Kerry wins the presidential elections, a senior Iranian official said Tuesday.
"It makes no difference for us which of the two parties wins the elections," Iran's top national security official Hassan Rowhani said in an interview on state television. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 PA News: Britain and Germany today warned Iran to comply with international demands over its suspected nuclear weapons programme. Tehran has yet to honour a deal it agreed a year ago with the UK, France and Germany – acting on behalf of the EU – to suspend its uranium enrichment programme and comply with International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 AFP: Iran must "act decisively" to cease its nuclear programme or else face referral to the United Nations Security Council, Britain warned on Tuesday. Tehran had to act swiftly to allay concerns raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about its alleged to acquire nuclear weapons, International Security Minister Denis MacShane said. "Confidence cannot be restored unless Iran agrees to suspend its fuel cycle activity, including all centrifuge work and uranium conversion," MacShane told a meeting in London. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 AFP: The editor of a reformist Iranian newspaper has been arrested as part of the authorities' crackdown on "illegal" Internet sites, the local media reported on Tuesday.
Javad Qolam Tamimi, editor of the pro-reform daily Mardomsalari, was arrested Monday evening for his involvement in the dissident sites, the daily Iran quoted a
local judiciary official as saying. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Reuters: Iran said it would reject any EU proposal if it limited
its right to carry out a complete nuclear fuel cycle, state television reported on Tuesday. Gholamreza Aghazadeh,
head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, said Iran was determined to press ahead with its atomic programme. "We will review the European's proposal only if it respects Iran's right (of mastering the fuel cycle)," Aghazadeh told state television. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Reuters: Officials from France, Britain and Germany will meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator in Vienna on Thursday to offer Tehran a final chance to halt uranium enrichment plans or face possible U.N. sanctions, diplomats say."The political directors from the EU three are meeting (Hassan) Rohani on Thursday here to formally hand over the offer," said a Western diplomat familiar with the talks between the Europeans and Iran. "I think Iran may be disappointed." |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Newsweek: The Bush administration has repeatedly fingered Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi—self-confessed beheader of U.S. hostage Nicholas Berg and other Western captives—as a critical link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. In the
vice presidential debate, Dick Cheney said that after U.S.
forces attacked Afghanistan seeking to roust Osama bin Laden, al-Zarqawi "migrated to Baghdad." But other U.S.
officials say the Jordanian terrorist's contacts in neighboring
Iran are probably more extensive than any dealings he had with Saddam. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Washington Times - Commentry: Well, the talks and meetings will go on and on to the next Ramadan and the Ramadan after that and Iran will go on working on its nuclear arms program until it has the Bomb. There will be no deal with Iran no matter how costly nuclear bomb manufacture might be. With oil prices going through the roof, money is not a problem now nor in the foreseeable future. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Xinhuanet: ABU DHABI - Iran needs to show the world itspeaceful intentions over its nuclear issue, a visiting US official said here on Monday, the official WAM news agency reported.
At a press conference, US Assistant Secretary of State for Political and Military Affairs Lincoln Bloomfield said "it isnecessary for Iran to demonstrate to the world its peaceful intentions. The only way to do that is to come clean." |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 AFP: The United States on Monday warned Iran against providing any type of support to Al-Qaeda-linked foreign
militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and his Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group, saying such backing would be a "very, very serious matter." The State Department declined to comment on allegations of an Iran-Zarqawi link ... |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Xinhuanet: Iran said on Monday that it was well-prepared for "any scenario" over nuclear issue, the official IRNA news agency reported. "I believes that Iran's case will not be referred to the UN Security Council. But, Iran is also well-prepared beforehand for any scenario in this respect," government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh was quoted as saying.
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 AFP: Spain's leading energy group Repsol YPF has signed a 27-million-dollar (21.6-million-euro) deal with Iran to obtain prospection rights in two fields over the next 30 months, the financial newspaper Expansion reported on Monday. A Repsol YPF statement confirmed the firm would prospect at Mehr and Foruz, near Kish Island off the port of Bushir in the southern Persian Gulf, with the total project covering 14,600 square kilometres (5,000 square miles). |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 AFP: Iran's hardline Basij militia has written to UN secretary general Kofi Annan to ask if the Islamic republic can send observers to the US presidential election in November, a government newspaper said on Monday.
"By this symbolic request, we want to ridicule the so-called democratic slogans of the American leaders," a Basij official ... |
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Monday, 18 October 2004 |
 Asia News: Hamid Pourmand is a Protestant minister of the Assemblies of God Church. He converted from Islam several years ago. Since September he has been held in prison at an undisclosed location and under Iranian law he can be put to death for "apostasy against Islam". He was arrested on September 9 in Karaj, a town 30 km west of the capital Tehran during a police raid against the annual General Council of the Assemblies of God Church. |
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Monday, 18 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 18 - The Supreme Court has
approved and upheld the execution sentence of 3 teenage boys. The boys who were aged between 15 and 16 years
when they were charged are currently in the Center for Reform and Education (Juvenile Prison) until they turn 18 when they shall be executed. |
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AFP: The United States said it would be "concerned" by Iran's acquisition of any new nuclear technology, signalling opposition to a reported European offer to give Tehran a light-water reactor it proves it is not secretly developing atomic weapons. The State Department said the transfer of such technology would be problematic given Iran's past ... 
