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Monday, 31 January 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan. 31 – A worker from Iran's "Foumanat Textiles" factory attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself inside the factory but was prevented when a fellow worker cut the rope around
his neck.
Ahmad Agahi, the spokesperson for workers in the factory based in
the town of Fouman (northern Gilan province), told a state-run news agency yesterday that poverty and social pressures were what
brought the man to commit suicide. |
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Monday, 31 January 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan. 30 - In a letter to Tehran’s prosecutor, his counterpart in the earthquake-stricken city of Bam
(southern Iran) filed a complaint against Sharq daily for publishing an article about the spread of corruption in the ancient city following the December 26, 2003 earthquake ... |
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Sunday, 30 January 2005 |
 Reuters: The United States has rebuffed pleas to join a European diplomatic drive to persuade Iran to give up any ambitions to add nuclear bombs to its arsenal, U.S. officials and foreign diplomats say. For months, Britain, France and Germany have hoped to improve their bargaining power with the Islamic republic by involving Washington in a proposed accord over an end to its uranium enrichment activities. |
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Saturday, 29 January 2005 |
 AP: Sen. Joseph Biden and Iran's foreign minister clashed Friday over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, with Biden hinting at the possibility of armed conflict unless fears of an Iranian weapons program were put to rest. The rare and frank public exchange between a senior American politician and a ranking member of the Iranian government came at a dinner during the World Economic Forum held in this Alpine resort town. |
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Saturday, 29 January 2005 |
 New York Times: The chief executive of Halliburton said on Friday that the company would withdraw all employees from Iran and end its business activities there after its Iranian
energy exploration contracts came under criticism this month. Halliburton, the nation's largest energy- and military-services company, plans to cease dealings in Iran when it completes
its present commitments, David J. Lesar, Halliburton's chief executive, told investors on a conference call. |
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Friday, 28 January 2005 |
 AP: The oil services conglomerate Halliburton Co. will wind down its operations in Iran and seek to separate its engineering and construction subsidiary KBR from the parent, chairman and CEO Dave Lesar said Friday. Lesar made the disclosures Friday to analysts in a conference call after the ... |
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Friday, 28 January 2005 |
 Reuters: The United States, determined to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, is piling pressure on European firms to stop them doing business with Tehran, diplomats say.
In turn this is making it harder for Europe to offer Iran economic incentives to persuade it to abandon nuclear processes that could be used to build weapons. |
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Friday, 28 January 2005 |
 The Guardian: When the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, met Condoleezza Rice in Washington this week, he did not ask whether the US had plans to use military force against Iran.
And the new secretary of state did not offer to tell him. "The issue was not raised once by either side," Mr Straw said afterwards. "It was not on the table." |
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Thursday, 27 January 2005 |
 Reuters: The United States believes its row over Iran's nuclear programme can be resolved by diplomacy, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said in an interview. Iran says its nuclear work is peaceful, but Washington says Tehran has a covert atomic weapons programme and said last week it would not rule out military force to stop Tehran from getting the bomb. |
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Wednesday, 26 January 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan 26 – A midnight raid by members of a special police force on protesters at the main theater in Tehran led to several arrests, according to eye-witnesses. Several hundred people had waited for hours on Tuesday evening to watch Souvenir Picture, a new play by Iranian director Qotbaddin Sadeghi, at the capital’s City Theater. |
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Tuesday, 25 January 2005 |
 San Fransisco Chronicle: Four Iranian brothers have spent the past 40 months locked up in federal detention despite a court ruling last summer clearing them of terrorism-related charges leveled by the Department of Homeland Security. The men, real estate agents in the Los Angeles area, are accused of being members of an Iranian group that is on the U.S. government's terrorist list, although the group is regarded by some American lawmakers as a legitimate resistance organization. |
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Tuesday, 25 January 2005 |
 Daily Telegraph: Iran warned yesterday that it 'will not forget' a decision by oil giant BP not to invest in the Middle Eastern republic because of US sanctions against companies investing in its energy industry. The state's anger was roused by fresh comments at the weekend from Lord Browne of Madingley, BP's chief executive, who said that "politically, Iran is not a flyer" because of the sanctions. |
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Tuesday, 25 January 2005 |
 United Press International: Iran is planning to manufacture 80 airplanes to be used for both civilian and military purposes, officials said Monday. Jaafar Zadwar, deputy chief salesman
for the Iranian Institution for Aviation Industry, said a five-year plan calls for 12 "Iran-120" planes to be produced annually. |
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Monday, 24 January 2005 |
 Financial Times: Britain will on Monday seek to narrow differences between Europe and the US over Iran's nuclear programme, with Jack Straw, foreign secretary, expected to urge Washington to take a positive approach to talks with the Islamic republic. Mr Straw is expected to meet Condoleezza Rice, incoming US secretary of state, for the first time since her appointment to replace Colin Powell. The British foreign secretary enjoyed a close relationship with Mr Powell and will be seeking to establish a similar rapport with his successor. |
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Monday, 24 January 2005 |
 Los Angeles Times: The criminal seems younger than his 25 years. He is the quiet type, shy and lanky, peering solemnly through octagonal glasses. He has no weapons, not in the traditional sense. His name is Hanif Mazroui, and the tools of his crime are a handful of ideas and skinny fingers flying over the keyboard. He is one of about 20 Iranian Web loggers and journalists who have been arrested and jailed in recent months. |
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Sunday, 23 January 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan. 23 – The 120,000 residents of the town of Aq-Qala in Golestan province (northern Iran) only have a single children's doctor, and are forced to travel to neighbouring cities to have their children seen to. "Patients who are not able to get treatment in this town must travel to neighbouring cities", an Aq-Qala resident said, in an interview with the state-run news agency. |
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Saturday, 22 January 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan. 22 – Iran has nearly 16,000 unemployed doctors and general practitioners, according to the head of Iran's General Practitioners Association. "Nearly 16,000 graduated general practitioners are either unemployed or working in other professions throughout the country", Hossein Hoveida said in an interview with a hardline state-run news agency. |
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Friday, 21 January 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan. 21 - A member of Iran's Majlis (parliament) said today that at least 90 percent of the country's population is under the poverty line. "90 percent of the population are living under the poverty line and only ten percent of the people have access to social services provided by the government", Mohammad Abbaspour said in an interview ... |
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Friday, 21 January 2005 |
 AFP: Twenty-five people were killed in northern Iran on Friday when the bus they were riding in skidded off a mountain road into a ravine, student news agency ISNA reported. Another seven people were injured in the accident on the road between Tehran and Babolsar, which occurred when the driver swerved to avoid rocks falling from the mountainside. |
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Friday, 21 January 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan. 21 – At least 1,000 people were arrested in the Caspian province of Gilan (northern Iran) on drug related charges, according to the Public Relations department of State Security Forces in Gilan.
Thirteen kilograms of drugs including opium and cannabis were confiscated, over the past week. |
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Friday, 21 January 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan. 21 – An explosion in the central
prison in the town of Zahedan (southeast Iran) left at least
eight wounded.
Officials announced that the explosion was due to a malfunctioning air capsule.
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Friday, 21 January 2005 |
 BBC: The United Nations refugee chief says thousands of Afghans may have been forced to return to Afghanistan because of Iran's policies. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has been increasingly concerned that Iranian officials are pressurizing Afghan refugees to go home. There have been radio campaigns informing them that they have to leave. |
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Friday, 21 January 2005 |
 The Times: DICK CHENEY placed Iran at the top of Washington’s list of world troublespots and said that he feared that Israel may strike Tehran in order to eliminate its nuclear threat. “We don’t want a war in the Middle East if we can avoid it,” said Mr Cheney, who was yesterday sworn in for a second term as President Bush’s Vice-President. |
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Friday, 21 January 2005 |
 Daily Telegraph: Now comes the hard part. President George W Bush's elegy to freedom yesterday and his vision of it flowering around the world fitted into the long tradition of inaugural speeches that blend America's optimism with smugness about the reach and benefits of its power. But unlike most of his predecessors Mr Bush has repeatedly made clear that he sees "spreading freedom" as more than a slogan. For him it is a mission. The challenge for his aides now is how - and where - to act on his words. |
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Friday, 21 January 2005 |
 Financial Times: The Bush administration's changing of the guard at the State Department was almost complete yesterday as Colin Powell bid an emotional farewell to his staff just as senators were wrapping up their grilling of Condoleezza Rice, the next secretary of state. Speaking of the foreign policy challenges ahead, Mr Powell said the focus was on ... |
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Thursday, 20 January 2005 |
 Reuters: Vice President Dick Cheney said on Thursday that Iran was at the top of the administration's list of world trouble spots and expressed concern that Israel "might well decide to act first" to eliminate any nuclear threat from Tehran. "You look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list," Cheney said in an interview aired on MSNBC ... |
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Thursday, 20 January 2005 |
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Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan. 20 – There are currently "200,000 sufferers of the Hepatitis C virus in Iran", according to the head of the Iranian Medical Association. Speaking to a state-run news agency, Dr. Iraj Khosronia warned, "One of the most dangerous viruses affecting human society is Hepatitis C … but people's awareness about this disease is very limited". |
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Thursday, 20 January 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Jan. 20 – Homes in the city of Mashad (northeast Iran) were raided over the past few days by State Security Forces for "illegal satellite dishes". The SSF Public Relations Office announced that two individuals were arrested, on charges of installing satellite dishes, during the raids. Some 45 satellite dishes and receivers were confiscated thus far. |
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Wednesday, 19 January 2005 |
 Reuters: Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice articulated a firm U.S. line against Iran's ruling mullahs, whose nuclear ambitions the Bush administration considers a major threat, in testimony at her Senate confirmation hearings. In two days of Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings that ended on Wednesday, Rice repeatedly emphasized differences with Tehran's clerical leaders, saying: "It's really hard to find common ground with a government that thinks Israel should be extinguished." |
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Wednesday, 19 January 2005 |
 Reuters: Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says there is no alternative to Europe's approach of using diplomacy to try to persuade Iran to give up any technology that could be used make nuclear weapons. In an interview with the Financial Times, Straw defended the policy of Britain, France and Germany to talk to Iran rather adopt Washington's more hardline stance. |
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