Gay Iranian man loses asylum plea

"An Iranian homosexual man who has said he will be executed if he is deported from the Netherlands has had his claim for asylum overturned.

Mehdi Kazemi has said his life is in danger if he is returned to Iran, where he says his boyfriend named him as a partner before being executed. Homosexual acts are illegal in the Islamic republic

Mr Kazemi, 19, said he had travelled to Britain in 2005 to study English, and learned that his lover in Iran had been executed for sodomy, his lawyer Borg Palm said.

After his asylum application was turned down, he fled to the Netherlands in 2006, having narrowly avoided being sent back to Iran.

Mr Kazemi says his life will be in danger not only because he has been named as a homosexual, but also because of the extensive media coverage of his case,."

This controversial case brings homosexuality and Iran into the forefront. Iran's refusal to tolerate homosexuality and the Netherland's refusal to accept Mr. Kazemi's plea will most likely stir up some action from gay activists.

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Israeli PM warns of nuclear threats from Iran, NKorea

"TOKYO (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday warned Japan that Iran and North Korea posed a joint threat to the world, accusing Pyongyang of proliferating weapons to the Middle East.

His contention was strongly rejected by Iran, whose ambassador accused him of lumping the two countries together to stir up public opinion in Japan.

Echoing US President George W. Bush, Olmert warned of an "axis of evil," saying it linked North Korea, Iran and Syria, as well as the militant anti-Israeli Islamic movements, Hamas and Hezbollah.

Araghchi, a former senior troubleshooter at Iran's foreign ministry who was appointed to Tokyo this month, said Japan's position was just to "share concerns" about Iran's insistence on enriching uranium.

Olmert on his visit agreed to step up business with Japan, which has invested little in Israel in recent years."

This move by Israel is a cliche of what other western countries have been trying to do to Iran. Although, linking Iran with North Korea in a "axis of evil" is a rather new development. The statement does not seem to carry much alarm since Japan remains neutral on the issue.

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Iran 'targeting' women activists

"Amnesty International has called on Iran to stop persecuting people who campaign for women's rights.

In a new report, Amnesty says women activists have suffered an "acute" backlash since the campaign was launched in August 2006.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has insisted women in his country are treated better than anywhere else.

The so-called Campaign for Equality aims to collect a million signatures for a petition to push for an end to discrimination against women.

But Amnesty says those involved in it have suffered harassment, intimidation and imprisonment. Dozens of women have been arrested."

This move by Amnesty International has brought persecution of women in Iran to an international level. The petition will become one of many events that will eventually create equality for all women in Iran.

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Iranians spar with Israel at UN

"Iran is urging the UN Security Council to stop Israel threatening military action against its nuclear programme.

The highly unusual request was sent by Iran's UN envoy Mohammad Khazaee, to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Mr Khazaee said Israeli threats were unacceptable and unjustifiable, and flagrantly violated international law.

There have been press reports that Israel, which bombed an Iraqi reactor in 1981, has begun planning for a possible raid against Iran.

The Israeli government says it has not ruled out the possibility of using military force if Iran does not scrap its controversial uranium-enrichment programme."

Israel's "threats" towards Iran's nuclear program capture the concerns of the other western countries such as the United States. Iran is very offended by Israel's action and does have a point when it affirms that Israel has no clear evidence that the program is being used for military purposes.

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Israel, a savage animal?

"TEHRAN (AFP) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday called Israel a "dirty microbe" and "savage animal", as Iran stepped up its rhetoric against the Jewish state after the murder of a top Hezbollah commander.


Ahmadinenjad's latest tirade came a week after the murder in a car bombing in Damascus of Imad Mughnieh, a top Hezbollah commander hailed by Iran as a great martyr who was killed by Israel.


Israel has denied any involvement in his murder although it welcomed the death of Mughnieh, who was on America's most wanted list for a string of anti-Israeli and anti-Western attacks.


He also accused world powers of establishing Israel to create a "scarecrow" to frighten and dominate other nations in the region.


The Iranian president has provoked international outrage by repeatedly predicting that Israel is doomed to disappear. He also courted more controversy by playing down the scale of the Holocaust."


This article continues to show Iran' resentment towards Israel. Though Israel denies any involvement in the death of the Hezbollah commander, Iran still believes that Israel is the culprit or the "savage animal."


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Ahmadinejad plans visit to Iraq

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due in Baghdad next month for the first visit by an Iranian president to Iraq, government officials in Iraq have said. Mr Ahmadinejad is expected to meet Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and PM Nouri Maliki during his two-day visit, which is scheduled to begin on 2 March.

Iraq and Iran were arch-enemies during the rule of Saddam Hussein, but ties have improved since he was overthrown and a Shia-led government came to power. President Talabani and Prime Minister Maliki both visited Tehran last year. The BBC's John Leyne in Tehran says Mr Ahmadinejad's visit, if it goes ahead, will set the seal on reconciliation between Iran the two countries.

These two countrys that have been feuding for many years are now trying to make friendship. Iran and Iraq both have a common tie of the dislike of americans so this could contribute to the bonding of theses nations.

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Burning issue: Should US air strikes be used to stop Iran's nuclear programme?

NO

There are compelling reasons against a preventive air attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.First, in the absence of an imminent threat (and the Iranians are at least several years away from having a nuclear arsenal), the attack would be a unilateral act of war. If undertaken without a formal congressional declaration of war, an attack would be unconstitutional and merit the impeachment of the president. Similarly, if undertaken without the sanction of the United Nations Security Council, either alone by the United States or in complicity with Israel, it would stamp the perpetrator(s) as (an) international outlaw(s).

YES
Louis Rene Beres, professor of political science in the USFurther diplomacy has no chance of stopping Iran's nuclear programme. Neither will UN sanctions have any effect. Unless there is a timely defensive first strike at pertinent elements of Iran's expanding nuclear infrastructures, it will acquire nuclear weapons. The consequences would be intolerable and unprecedented.A nuclear Iran would not resemble any other nuclear power. There could be no stable "balance of terror" involving that Islamic republic. Unlike nuclear threats of the Cold War, which were governed by mutual assumptions of rationality and mutual assured destruction, a world with a nuclear-armed Iran could explode at any moment. Although it might still seem
reasonable to suggest a postponement of pre-emption until Iran were more openly nuclear, the collateral costs of any such delay could be unendurable. Ideally, a diplomatic settlement with Iran could be taken seriously. But in the real world, we must compare the price of prompt pre-emptive action against Iran with the costs of both inaction and delayed military action. To be sure, all available options are apt to be injurious.


This article is just a question that was asked by a blogger wanting to know if the US dosomething about Irans nuclear program. It has both sides of the arguement discussing the pros and cons of attacking Iran.
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Five Web Sites Shut Down During Iranian Elections

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian authorities banned five Web sites that comment on current events for "poisoning" public opinion ahead of the crucial mid-March parliamentary elections, the state radio reported on Thursday.

The move is the latest in an election period which has seen the Interior Ministry, run by hard-liners close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, disqualify more than 2,000 prospective candidates — most of them reformers.

About 280 of those candidates were reinstated Tuesday by the Guardian Council, Iran's hard-line constitutional watchdog. But reformists have complained the reversal was insufficient to ensure a fair election.

In the past, the authorities have occasionally closed down some of the hundreds of private Web sites that comment on Iranian news and politics. But this was the first time they closed down five at once — a reflection of growing tension ahead of the vote.

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Iranian leaders are trying to minimize propaganda during the elections. Traditional Iranian leaders do not want reformists to expose their plans for Iran, and the reformists feel that the shutting down of the web sites fails "to ensure a fair election."

Iran postpones Iraq talks with US

"Iran has postponed talks with the US on how to end the violence in Iraq, officials announced, a day before the meeting was to be held.

The US accuses Iran of aiding radical Shia groups in Iraq, while Iran blames the violence on US presence in Iraq.

There was no immediate explanation from Tehran for the postponement.

Senior officials from the US and Iran held talks in May, July and August last year in the highest level public contacts between the two countries for 27 years.

But all three meetings ended without progress, and violence in Iraq - while at a lower level than it was in 2006 - continues."

This article shows that Iran is very stubborn when it comes to peace talks with the U.S. and that Iran shows much contempt towrds the U.S. concerning their presence in Iraq. Because Iran is coming to a consensus with the U.S. now, it is very unlikely that it will come to a consensus with the U.S in the future.

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A History of Bad Blood

WASHINGTON - By his own admission, US ambassador John W Limbert's ordeal as a captive during the Iranian hostage crisis began with a monumental failure of negotiation. "




In 1979, somebody thought it would be a good idea to the let the Shah [of Iran] into the US for medical treatment, despite - I must say - the very eloquent and well-stated advice of our charge d'affairs at the time, Bruce Langein, who told Washington in no uncertain terms what he thought about the idea," said Limbert, during a talk at the government-funded think-tank the United States Institute of Peace. He is now charge d'affairs of the American Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan.




Limbert and 51 other US diplomats were held captive for 444 days until their release on January 20, 1981. Since the embassy siege, Iran and the US have remained in a state of "no war, no peace". Enmity and mistrust run deep, with each side accusing the other of past misdeeds. An oft-told Washington joke goes something like this:



Iranian: "Will you guys get over 1979?"


American: "Sure, only if you get over 1953."


Iranian: "Never."



In 1953, the Central Intelligence Agency backed a coup d'etat to oust democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mossadeq and return the Shah to the Peacock Throne.

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This article discusses the ancient conflict between the United States and Iran. Though the conflict is over 50 years old, little has improved between the two countries.

Iran: Mughniyeh a golden page in mankind's fight against Zionism'

"Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini expressed Iran's "strong condemnation" of the killing of Hizbullah's second in command, Imad Mugniyeh, in Damascus Tuesday.

"This action is a clear result and example of organized state terrorism by the Zionist regime," he said, according to the state news agency IRNA. He called on the world to "prevent the Zionist regime from taking these actions that are a clear violation of international law."

Hosseini praised Moghniyeh, who was believed to have masterminded a string of attacks in the 1980s and 1990s that killed hundreds of Americans and targeted US, Israeli and Jewish interests in Lebanon and elsewhere.

He called Mughniyeh "a golden page in the history of mankind's fight against the aggressive and occupying Zionists." '

This attack against Israel shows Iran shows sympathy towards the Hezbollah militant group. This attack is also a clear example of pro-Islam against pro-Judaism.

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Iran and Zimbabwe Agreements

IRAN is ready for the implementation of all agreements it signed with Zimbabwe, Iranian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Rasoul Momeni has said.


Speaking at the commemoration of Iran's 29th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Harare yesterday, Mr Momeni said some of the agreements included the establishment of the tractor manufacturing plant, the refurbishment of Feruka Oil Refinery and the expansion of Kariba hydro-electric power plant.


In the area of economics, Mr Momeni said so far five Joint Economic Commission sessions had been held, leading to the signing of more than 45 agreements and memoranda of understanding. Mr Momeni said although the two countries enjoyed excellent and satisfactory relations, there existed enormous potential for improvement in the two countries' bilateral relations.

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Iran has signed agreements with Zimbabwe even after weeks of conflict with the United States and other countries. The article states that Iran and Zimbabwe should continue their civil relations and work to cooperate with each other. Will the friendly relationship prevail?

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Iran's Grand Ayatollah

A look at Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani:
___
EARLY YEARS: Born in the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad to a family with a lineage of Shiite religious scholarship, al-Sistani began his religious studies in the Iranian seminary city of Qom and, in the early 1950s, moved to the Iraqi Shiite center, Najaf. He was promoted to the rank of grand ayatollah in 1992. There are differing dates given for al-Sistani's birth, making him now either in his late 70s or 80.

HEALTH: In August 2004, al-Sistani traveled to London for treatment of a chronic heart condition, which has never been specified. His aides say al-Sistani has sharply cut back on his schedule in recent months, suggesting his health could be in decline. He was last seen in public shortly after returning from London.

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This brief article provides a glimpse into the early life of Iran's Grand Ayatollah, and it discusses his assumed declining health.

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Iranian Judge Bans Detentions Without Charges

The chief of Iran’s judiciary has issued a decree ordering judges not to detain suspects unless charges are pressed against them, Iranian newspapers reported Wednesday.Iran’s system of criminal punishment — which includes public executions and stonings for adultery — has been sharply criticized in recent months by human rights organizations as being overly harsh.
It is unclear if the decree by the judicial chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, will have much impact because the country’s intelligence apparatus generally holds people without charges, and it does not consult judges. Iran’s Constitution states that suspects should not be held for more than 24 hours without being charged.

Ayatollah Shahroudi is a senior cleric who was appointed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme religious leader. He has criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadd in the past.
Although he is a conservative, Ayatollah Shahroudi has issued several decrees in recent years calling for judicial reforms.

In 2002, he called on judges to stop sentencing people to death by stoning, although Islamic law specifies that punishment for adulterers.
Despite the order, at least one man was executed last year by stoning and at least two imprisoned women have received the sentence, according to women’s activist groups.In one recent case, a 22-year-old man was sentenced to death for drinking alcohol, the ISNA news agency reported. The man, identified only by his first name, Mohsen, received the sentence after he was caught for the third time violating the country’s Islamic ban on drinking alcohol.

This post shows how Iran is concentrating on their appearance when it comes to thier court systems. The Irannians now understand how important their appearance to the rest of the world is now sence the are still tryin to make their nuclear program.

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US sees attacks by Iranian-backed groups up in Iraq

Attacks by Iranian-backed groups in Iraq have increased in recent months, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, casting doubt on the view Iran might have reduced its support for violence in the war.David Satterfield, the State Department's Iraq coordinator, said he believed Iran's strategy remained to force the United States to withdraw from Iraq at as high a price as possible.

The United States has 158,000 troops in Iraq seeking to quell an insurgency and sectarian violence that erupted after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein.Satterfield said President George W. Bush hoped to leave his successor a more stable Iraq and the time to weigh options on how to deal with the country, which holds the world's third largest oil reserves.Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since June 2007, when Bush's "surge" of of 30,000 additional U.S. troops became fully deployed.

The U.S has felt that Iran is involved in the "War on Terror." Because Iran is helping to suply Iraq with weapons and training to the Iraq government. This only gives the U.S another to see Iran as a threat.

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Faster centrifuges

Iran's nuclear project has developed its own version of an advanced centrifuge to churn out enriched uranium much faster than its previous machines, diplomats and experts said Thursday.They said that few of the IR-2 centrifuges were operating and that testing appeared to be in an early phase, with the new machines rotating without processing any uranium gas.


More significant, the officials said, is the fact that Iran appears to have used know-how and equipment bought on the nuclear black market in combination with domestic ingenuity to overcome daunting technical difficulties and create highly advanced centrifuges.



Iran's uranium enrichment work has raised concerns in Washington and other Western capitals because it can produce the radioactive material needed for nuclear bombs. Tehran says it is only pursuing lower-level enrichment to make fuel for atomic reactors that will generate electricity.
Iran is under two sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, which it started developing during nearly two decades of covert nuclear activity built on illicit purchases and revealed only five years ago.



Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency's chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, was given new information on Iran's "new generation of centrifuges" during talks in Tehran — a priority as the agency tries to establish how far along Iran is in developing the technology.



This story shows how Iran is trying to speed up the atomic reactors that the are trying to build. They are also doing this at the same time as their test launch of a rocket. These new centrifuges have been created with the ability to spin and make a warhead in less than a year.



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Iran testing advanced centrifuges

"VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is testing an advanced centrifuge at its Natanz nuclear complex, diplomats said on Wednesday, a move that could lead to Tehran enriching uranium much faster and gaining the means to build atom bombs.

Iran says it wants nuclear energy only for electricity so it can export more oil. But it is under sanctions for hiding the program until 2003, preventing U.N. inspectors since then from verifying it is wholly peaceful and refusing to suspend it.

But diplomats tracking Iran's dossier said it had started mechanical tests, without nuclear material inside, of a more durable, efficient model in the pilot wing of the Natanz plant.

A senior diplomat familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency's file on Iran confirmed it recently began testing centrifuges based on a "P-2" design, used more recently in the West and able to enrich uranium 2-3 times as fast as the P-1.

He declined to elaborate, saying details would come in a report IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei will deliver to the Vienna-based agency's 35-nation Board of Governors and the U.N. Security Council later this month."

The creation of this centrifuge shows Iran's determination to continue its uranium enrichment program. Though western countries are trying to prevent such a program with sanctions, Iran simply ignores them continues its nuclear program without any hesitation.

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Still Trying to Squeeze Iran

"A new U.N. Security Council resolution punishing Iran for its failure to comply with demands to cease uranium enrichment remains weeks away, despite last week's agreement on the matter between the five permanent Council members plus Germany. And the most positive spin U.S. officials are able to put on the new sanctions package is that it will carry the support of Russia and China. That support, of course, comes at a price: The new resolution is unlikely to be more than a mildly incremental increase of the existing sanctions package, which Tehran has simply ignored.

Western members of the Council are pressing for a resolution that requires countries to deny entry to any person involved in Iran's nuclear programs and, for the first time, include a ban on all trade in civilian nuclear equipment or technology that could also be used to create nuclear weapons. The U.S. and its allies also want U.N. member states to be asked to inspect cargo heading to and from Iran if there is reason to believe that contraband is aboard — a measure that raises the danger of further incidents at sea between U.S. and Iranian warships in the already tense Persian Gulf.

Progress in escalating sanctions has been undermined by Iran's posture, which while defying the demand to cease uranium enrichment has, nonetheless, demonstrated a greater willingness to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve the underlying transparency issues that prompted the U.N.'s demand for an enrichment freeze in the first place. A new IAEA report is expected by the Council in February, which could cite further evidence of Iranian cooperation."

This pressure from western countries shows how fearful they are of Iran becoming a "self-sufficient" nuclear power. The little to no effect of U.S. sanctions on Iran proves that Iran is becoming a developed nation and will not be "bullied" around by the western countries.

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US Worried About Iran's Latest Launch

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran on Tuesday brushed aside concerns from its arch-enemy the United States over its firing of a rocket into space, saying such "scientific achievements" should not worry anyone.


The Islamic republic said on Monday it fired the rocket to mark the opening of its first space centre, which is expected this year to put an Iranian-built satellite into space for the first time.


The White House, already at loggerheads with Iran over its nuclear drive, described the firing as an "unfortunate" move that risked isolating Tehran further from the world.


"Scientific achievements should not make anyone worried," retorted Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham.



US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack described the rocket launch as "another troubling development", saying Iran could use the same technology for launching satellites to fire ballistic missiles.

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The article discusses the latest of Iran's "scientific achievements." However, due to tension between the United States and Iran, the United States feels that the firing of the rocket poses a threat to US security. Iran, on the other hand, says that the United States should not be worried.

Iran vs. France

TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned French ambassador to Tehran, Bernard Poletti, to protest over France’s “double standard policy toward Israel’s crimes in Gaza and Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.”

The Foreign Ministry Director for West European Affairs Mostafa Dolatyar raised Iran’s strong objection to France’s “hasty and illogical” reaction to President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s recent remarks about the Zionist regime.

Paris on Friday summoned Iranian ambassador Ali Ahani following Ahmadinejad’s recent criticism of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.

“French officials have closed their eyes to the Zionist regime’s crimes in Gaza. They cannot tolerate our presidents’ idea about the racist Zionist regime’s criminal acts,” Dolatyar stated.

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Iran continues to play a large role in international conflict. Now, Iran is accusing French diplomats of "closing their eyes" on the racist crimes committed in Gaza. As conflicts continue to come to the surface, one question seems to linger in many people's minds: Will there be war with Iran?

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Iranian Sisters To Be Stoned

TWO Iranian sisters convicted of adultery face being stoned to death after the supreme court upheld the death sentences against them, the Etemad newspaper reported.


The two sisters were found guilty of adultery – a capital crime in Islamic Iran – after the husband of one of the pair presented video evidence showing them in the company of other men while he was away.



Mr Solati explained that the two sisters had initially been tried for "illegal relations" and received 99 lashes. However in a second trial they were convicted of "adultery".



Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, serious drug trafficking and adultery. Iran currently makes more use of the death penalty –almost always by hanging – than any other country apart from China.

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This article shows the emphasis placed on crimes against morality in Iran. Adultery to the Iranians is equivalent to murder in the United States in that both generally call for execution.

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Iran launches first space centre

"TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran on Monday opened a new space centre that will launch its first home-built research satellite, saying the inauguration marked another step forward in its battle against Western dominance.

A rocket was fired into space at the remote desert centre in northern Iran to mark the event, the second time the Islamic republic has attempted to fire a rocket into space.

The space centre includes an underground control station and launch pad which will be used to fire an Iranian satellite named Omid (Hope) into space in May or June, officials said.

The opening of the space centre comes as Iran has been trumpeting its progress in its nuclear programme, which the West fears could be used to make atomic weapons.

The emphasis on Iran's development of its own domestic space technology is highly reminiscent of its insistence on developing its nuclear capabilities, which has led it into a four-year standoff with the West.

Ahmadinejad has made Iran's scientific development one of the main themes of his presidency, asserting the country has reached a peak of progress and no longer needs to depend on foreign states for help."

The opening of this space center will allow Iran to compete at another level with the United States and other western countries. The creation of this space program is a major step in the modernization of Iran as a nuclear power. Though western countries are fearful that the creation of this program will fuel Iran's nuclear capabilities, President Ahmadinejad has asserted that Iran "has reached a peak of progress and no longer needs to depend on foreign states for help. "

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