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Stop the torture in Iran
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The Amnesty International
In recent years a number of students, writers, publishers and others have been victims of grave human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Despite significant political changes in the past three years, Iran remains a serious violator of human rights across the range of AI's mandate, including prisoners of conscience, torture/ill-treatment, cruel punishments and a high level of executions.
The case of Ahmad Batebi
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There's no such thing as voluntary hijab!
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Independent Media Center
For all women, hijab (the veil) universally and unquestionably signifies subjugation and servitude. It is so everywhere and in every case. It is argued that there are some adult women in Europe who 'choose' to wear the hijab. This is a seemingly sound 'legal' argument. In real life, however, few veiled adult women ever get to taste any degree of freedom of choice in any respect of family, married and social life, be it in clothing, social life, behaviour, or even a simple thing like food. Few adult hijab-wearing women have not experienced the fear and terror of Islamic environments hanging over their lives. They are not
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Veteran Iranian reformist Yadollah Sahabi dies
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The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran - Yadollah Sahabi, an influential reformist who questioned the unlimited powers of Iran's ruling clerics, died Friday. He was 96.
Sahabi had been treated at Tehran's Jam Hospital for several days, said his daughter Zohreh. No cause of death was immediately announced.
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Azerbaijan, Iran agree on promotion of bilateral ties
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Xinhua News Agency
TEHRAN -- Azerbaijan and Iran, who disputed over the legal regime of the Caspian Sea, on Thursday expressed their willingness to promote bilateral ties, the official IRNA newsagency reported.
Azeri President Geidar Aliyev and visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi made the remarks during a meeting in the Azeri capital of Baku.
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Export-import bank to offer loans to Iran
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The Korea Herald
The Export-Import Bank of Korea said yesterday it has signed minutes of agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company to offer a total of \$2 billion in structured finance to the latter.
With the signing, more Korean firms will have an opportunity to tap oil and natural gas developments, the bank said.
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India, Iran consider joint venture construction projects
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Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi -- India and Iran are considering taking up joint venture construction projects in war-ravaged Afghanistan and other countries to extend their bilateral cooperation in the field of urban development.
This and various other avenues of cooperation were discussed during a four-day visit of India's Urban Development Minister Ananth Kumar to Iran that concluded Thursday.
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Iran's oil minister "Zanganeh" plays down charges
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Reuters
Iran's oil minister said yesterday top state oil company executives faced no "serious" charges, rejecting reports they were officially accused of misconduct in the award of lucrative South Pars gas deals.
Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh also insisted that the award of a major deal to an international company for South Pars phases 9-10 would not fall victim to legal wrangling.
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Venezuelan President resigns
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The Associated Press
President Hugo Chavez resigned Friday under pressure from Venezuela's military, an army colonel said.
The resignation followed street violence in which National Guard troops and pro-Chavez gunmen clashed with 150,000 opposition protesters. At least 13 people were killed and as many as 110 wounded in the violence.
Chavez handed his resignation to three generals at the presidential palace, said army Col. Julio Cesar Anzola.
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Mideast crisis exposes rifts in Iran
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Iran Reporter
The Middle East crisis has exposed deep policy differences in Iran with Mohammad Khatami, the moderate president, apparently unable to restrain hardliners calling for greater support for radical Palestinian groups and Lebanon’s Hizbullah, according to diplomats and politicians in Tehran.
Riven by factional infighting that has spread from domestic to foreign issues, the Iranian establishment has been unable to adopt a coherent response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Kharazi came back from Bakoo empty-handed
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Iran Press Service
BAKOO -- Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi paid a one day visit to neighbouring Azerbaijan Thursday, hours after Bakoo and Moscow had inked a new agreement aimed at defining their borders in the disputed Caspian Sea.
Mr. Kharrazi, under fire from the Iranian Majles (parliament) for the "weak performances" of the Iranian diplomacy concerning the safeguarding of Iranian interests
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Kharazi meets Hezbollah chief amid calls for restraint
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IranMania.com
The leader of Lebanon's militant guerrilla group Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
BEIRUT - Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi has met with Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah amid widespread calls for restraint on the Lebanese-Israeli border, a member of the Iranian delegation said Friday.
The two men met late Thursday at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, the delegation member told AFP on condition of anonymity.
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World's first permanent war crimes tribunal to come into force
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Hindustan Times
United Nations
The world's first permanent court to try war crimes will come into force on July 1 with 10 nations simultaneously ratifying the court's founding treaty, taking the number needed for its establishment past the minimum 60.
The court, of which human rights activists have dreamed of since the United Nations was established five decades
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War on drugs now in Afghanistan
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United Press International
WASHINGTON -- The Afghan government and its American allies have opened a new front in Afghanistan as the war on terror intensifies. Their new target: Afghanistan's poppy fields that have enriched Afghan warlords for decades. And it promises to be as difficult and bloody as the war on terror.
In a message issued on Drug Abuse Resistance Education day Wednesday
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Surge of violence threatens plans for Afghanistan
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Washington Post Foreign Service
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A wave of violence and political conflict in recent days has set Afghanistan on edge and threatens key steps on the fractured country's road to reconstruction, including the scheduled return next week of the exiled king and the promised delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid.
In a week that began with an assassination attempt against the defense minister, new reports of instability have emerged every day since. Just today, the United Nations reported the murder of an aid ... more
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U.N. nuclear test ban group expresses concern about lack of data from Iran
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The Associated Press
VIENNA, Austria - U.N. Officials said Thursday that Iran has stopped submitting data needed to verify if it is complying with a proposed worldwide ban on nuclear testing.
The agreement overseen by the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization has been signed by 165 countries and ratified by 90. Although generally observed, the treaty is still not in effect because 13 of the 44 countries thought capable of building nuclear weapons —
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Terrorists make patience a weapon
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The New York Times
WASHINGTON -- Each new suicide bombing in the Middle East and every report of an al-Qaida operative slipping through the U.S. dragnet teaches America a fresh lesson in the resilience of terrorists.
From Israel, from Pakistan, even from Peru come ready reminders that terrorists can bide their time, waiting for the right moment to strike, and that dormant anti-Americanism quickly can be stoked anew.
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Best of the web today
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Wall Street Journal
'Remarkable Achievements'
This commentary by the political editor of WAFA, the official Palestinian Authority news agency, is written in broken English, but it certainly sounds as if he's praising the Sept. 11 attack:
We recognize the capability of the modern technology and its precision of enabling unlimited control, but simultaneously we notice that the individuals and the small
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Bush in the bazaar
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Wall Street Journal
We thought the Mideast was a quagmire. Were we too optimistic?
When President Bush took his plunge into the Arab-Israeli conflict last week, we worried that he was heading into a quagmire. Judging from a week's worth of evidence, maybe we were optimists.
Mr. Bush has tossed his prestige into the Mideast bazaar, and the region's traders are already selling it at a discount. Neither side is
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Terror war reorients Bush position
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The Christian Science Monitor
To further war goals, he takes a pragmatic approach to issues such as the Middle East.
WASHINGTON – For a president who was supposed to be resolute and unmovable when it came to his pursuit of foreign policy, George W. Bush has proved to be surprisingly flexible – not only in the immediate aftermath of Sept 11, but also as new situations continue to crop up.
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'Because it's necessary,' Powell jumps into the Mideast fire
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The New York Times
JERUSALEM -— In his years as a general, the national security adviser and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell honed management precepts he called Powell's Rules, among them this upbeat assertion: "Optimism is a force multiplier."
"I don't like wallowing with pessimists," Secretary Powell declared this morning as he left Madrid for a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan before arriving in Jerusalem tonight. "I'm going there because
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"Senior White House aides:" Speak Up!
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The Weekly Standard
The leak-proof White House is telling reporters--on background--that the administration is souring on Ariel Sharon. Who are these rogues?
Yesterday, in Madrid, the American Secretary of State virtually obliterated the distinction between terrorists and those fighting terrorists: "I think we are all in agreement and the world is in agreement that the solution will not be produced by terror or a response to terror.
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Pashtuns face post-Taliban anger
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The Christian Science Monitor
KHOST, AFGHANISTAN, AND CAIRO – When Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim was nearly killed by an explosion in the Pashtun tribal area near Jalalabad earlier this week, tribesmen a hundred miles south could be found celebrating, with cups of tea and smiles all around.
"We don't know who did it, but it was the right idea," said a Pashtun tribal leader from the Khost region, who asked not to be named.
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Saudi Arabia sets aside $50M for 'martyrs'
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United Press International
WASHINGTON -- The Saudi Arabian government has paid out at least $33 million to families of Palestinians killed or injured in the 17-month-old intifada and in December 2001 earmarked another $50 million for the payments, according to Arabic news agencies and the Saudi Embassy's Web site.
Similar payments promised by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have drawn sharp condemnation from U.S. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
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