Iran Focus

Fox News: Two multinational corporations that have earned millions of dollars in U.S. government contracts  are conducting business with Iran in violation of the recently signed sanctions law, according to an Iran watchdog group that has provided its research to FoxNews.com.

AFP: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the mothers of three young US nationals detained without charge in Iran for 12 months renewed appeals Friday for the trio's release.

UPI: A working group from Iran has left for neighboring Iraq to discuss a possible natural gas transit deal, Iran's deputy oil minister said.

AFP: The lack of a government in Iraq nearly five months after general elections is "embarrassing" and is impeding any long-term decision-making, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP on Thursday.

Washington Post: President Ahmadinejad has a penchant for the somewhat loony, as when last weekend he denounced Paul the Octopus, omniscient predictor of eight consecutive World Cup matches, as a symbol of decadence and purveyor of "Western propaganda and superstition."

AFP: Iran said on Friday it was ready for immediate talks with the United States, Russia and France over an exchange of nuclear fuel and added that it was also against stockpiling higher enriched uranium.

Wall Street Journal Europe: In 2007, U.S. intelligence said Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program. Analyst policy bias and disinformation from Iranian double agents may explain the mistake.

Bloomberg: Iran Air, the state-owned flag carrier, plans to sell its first shares to the public and buy as many as 100 new aircraft to expand in the face of tighter international sanctions, the company’s chairman said.

New York Times: The Educational Testing Service, the company that offers the Test of English as a Foreign Language, announced Thursday that it would resume registering students for its tests inside Iran after striking a deal with a bank willing to process payments.

AFP: A Canadian court on Thursday sentenced a Toronto man to four years and three months prison for attempting to export dual-use nuclear-related items to Iran, in violation of UN resolutions.

BBC: Taking the boat across Dubai's old creek is like a journey back in time.

AP: An Iranian official says cigarettes smuggled into Iran have been tainted with pig blood and nuclear material as part of a Western conspiracy.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Jul. 30 - Iran's Court of Appeal has upheld a death sentence for political prisoner Jaafar Kazemi, his lawyer said.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Jul. 30 – An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale jolted north-eastern Iran on Friday, injuring at least 110 people with one of the injured in serious condition.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Jul. 29 – From the Grapevine... Passengers and employees in Tehran's southern and western bus terminals reported new graffiti in at least 30 different locations.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Jul. 29 – From the Grapevine... Pro-democracy activists in Tehran have continued writing graffiti on metro and petrol stations, urging people to hold new anti-government protests and stage strikes.

AFP: Top US officials announced Thursday they were heading to China in late August to press Beijing to "step up" and fully implement sanctions against Iran over its suspect nuclear program.

The Economist: With its shutters down and shops closed, Tehran’s usually bustling Grand Bazaar has been quiet of late. In the first weeks of July Iran’s powerful merchants went on strike because the government tried to raise their annual income tax by 70%. Even when the government hastily agreed to lift taxes by only 15% after the protests spread to other cities, businesses stayed shut for several days.

Bloomberg: Three Russian state-controlled oil companies, including OAO Rosneft and OAO Gazprom Neft, may begin delivering gasoline to Iran in a month, said the head of the Iran Commission of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

AP: Australia will impose new sanctions against Iran, including restrictions for the first time on business dealings with that country's oil and gas sector, the country's foreign minister said Thursday.

AFP: A Japanese shipping company maintained Thursday that its oil tanker was likely attacked in the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier, dismissing reports it may have been hit by a freak wave.

Reuters: A Japanese supertanker, which triggered fears of an attack in the sensitive Strait of Hormuz oil shipping route, collided with something, possibly a submarine or mine, UAE port officials inspecting the ship said on Thursday.

AFP: Iran will suspend uranium enrichment to 20 percent if it acquires nuclear fuel for a research reactor, the country's atomic chief said on an Iranian television channel on Thursday.

New York Times: Trying to offset the effect of sanctions on the country’s nuclear program, Iran said Wednesday that it would increase domestic gasoline production by converting two petrochemical plants so they could produce gasoline by processing benzene.