News
Dec 14-18, 1998 / Azar 24-28, 1377
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Today
* Iranian embassy officials injured in Vienna protest
* Iran meets EU talk politics and economics
* Abadan airport closed due to military raids
* Funeral for slain writer, Pouyandeh
* Iran court arrests pro-Khatami cleric for fraud
* Ardabili criticises Islamic regime
* Farm-St. lawmakers pressure Clinton
* Iran protests after hit by errant missile
* Iran releases 196 Iraqi POWs
* U.S. warns Russia on Iranian
nuclear program
* Iran arms dealer sentenced 5 years
Previous
* Thousands attend writer's funeral
* Iran closes activist newspaper
* U.S. senators want sanctions lifted for wheat sales
* Iran frees prisoners
* Tehran restricts traffic because of smog
* Secularist writers said to be in hiding
* Writers' letters to people and Khatami
* Iran signs Caspian oil deal
* Egyptian parliamentarians leave for Iran
* Iran to attend UAE arms show, official says
* Alarming pattern of killings and "disappearances"
* Weightlifter prays to prophets, wins gold
* Iran condemns attack on Americans
* Shell drops plans for pipeline across Iran
* Iran not seeking biological weapons, says official
* Iran says U.S. can't curb its missile capacity
* Rafsanjani slams Palestinian charter change
* Annan denies mediation offer on disputed Islands
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Friday
December 18, 1998
* Iranian embassy officials injured in Vienna protest
VIENNA, Dec 18 (AFP) - Two Iranian embassy staff were injured in Vienna
Friday in an attack by Tehran opposition activists protesting during talks
between an Iranian minister and the EU, the Austrian foreign ministry
said. The officials sustained injuries during an attack on cars belonging
to the delegation of Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi, meeting
here with a troika of European Union officials, said a ministry statement
... FULL TEXT
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* Iran meets EU talk politics and economics
Dec 18, (BBC) - Senior officials from Iran and the European Union have
begun talks in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on economic, political and
human rights issues. The officials also discussed the recent killings
of a number of Iranian writers and opposition figures, suspected to have
been carried out by conservative Iranian elements opposed to President
Mohammmed Khatami's reforms ... FULL
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* Abadan airport closed due to military raids
TEHRAN, Dec 18 (AFP) - Abadan airport in southwestern Iran near the
Iraqi border has been closed because of the US-British military strikes
against Iraq, Iranian state television said Friday. Domestic flights to
and from Abadan were suspended for at least five days, the television said
... FULL TEXTTEXT
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Thursday
December 17, 1998
* Funeral for slain writer, Pouyandeh
Tehran, dec. 17, irna - A funeral procession was held for the slain
writer and translator mohammad ja'far pouyandeh from al-nabi mosque in
tehran thursday morning. later, pouyandeh's body was calmly transferred
to emamzadeh taher cemetery in karaj, a suburb west of tehran ... FULL TEXT
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* Iran court arrests pro-Khatami cleric for fraud
TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) - A court in Iran has arrested a prominent cleric,
who backs moderate President Mohammad Khatami, to serve a jail sentence
for fraud, the official news agency IRNA reported on Thursday. "Assadolah
Bayat, who had been sentenced to a one-year jail term and 100 million rials
($33,000) on fraud and forgery charges was arrested and sent to prison,"
the agency quoted a statement by the Special Court of the Clergy as saying.
Bayat, a former deputy speaker of parliament, is a senior member of the
pro-Khatami League of Militant Clerics ... FULL
TEXT
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* Ardabili criticises Islamic regime
Dec 17, 1998, (BBC) - A prominent Iranian Ayatollah has criticised the
country's Islamic system for failing to protect its citizens following
the killings of a number of writers and opposition figures over recent
weeks. According to the Khordad newspaper, Ayatollah Abdolkarim Mousavi
Ardabili, a former head of the judiciary and a prominent Islamic scholar
at Qom's theological centre, strongly condemned the killings. He has also
expressed regret that non-clerical scholars were being undermined, which
he said did not bode well for the country.
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* Farm-St. lawmakers pressure Clinton
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Wednesday
December 16, 1998
* Iran releases 196 Iraqi POWs
December 16, 1998 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iran on Wednesday released 196
Iraqi and 16 non-Iraqi soldiers captured during the 1980-88 war, the international
Red Cross said. The ICRC said in a statement that the remains of one Iraqi
POW also was handed over to Iraq during the prisoners' release at the Khosrawi-Mundharieh
checkpoint on the Iran-Iraq border ... FULL
TEXT
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* U.S. warns Russia on Iranian nuclear program
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States Wednesday
warned it would impose fresh sanctions and curb expansion of the lucrative
space launch market if Russia fails immediately to halt cooperation with
Iran's nuclear and missile programs. ``Because of our concerns, we have
already substantially curtailed USG (government) programs with key Russian
nuclear entities,'' State Department spokesman James Rubin said ...
FULL
TEXT
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* Iran arms dealer sentenced 5 years
Tuesday, December 15, 1998 NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - A New York-based international
arms broker who masterminded a scheme to sell F-14 engine parts to Iran
was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and fined $125,000. ``I am
ashamed for what I have done,'' Parviz Lavi told U.S. District Judge Rebecca
Beach Smith. ``Mr. Lavi, you should be ashamed of what you did. They are
shameful actions,'' as well as a threat to national security, the judge
said before imposing the maximum sentence. The judge also ordered three
years supervised probation after Lavi finishes his prison term ... FULL
TEXT
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Tuesday
December 15, 1998
* Thousands attend writer's funeral
Dec 15, (BBC) - Some 3,000 people have taken part in a funeral procession
in theIranian capital Tehran for the writer and poet Mohammed Mokhtari,who
was killed last week. He was one of several dissident writers who have
died recentlyunder mysterious circumstances. His coffin, covered in red
flowers, was carried through crowds ofrelatives, friends, artists and writers,
who joined the procession... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran closes activist newspaper
December 14, 1998, TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A court on Monday fined and temporarily
shut down a newspaper headed by Iran's leading woman activist, Iranian
television reported. The report did not say why the penalties were imposed
on the newspaper Zan, owned by Parliament member and women's rights advocate
Faezeh Hashemi. Only last Tuesday, a court cleared Hashemi of publishing
untruths. The report said Hashemi, the daughter of former President Hashemi
Rafsanjani, was fined about $830 and prohibited from publishing for two
weeks ... FULL
TEXT
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* U.S. senators want sanctions lifted for wheat sales to Iran
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran wants to buy $500 million worth of U.S.
farmgoods, a sale prohibited by current U.S. economic sanctions, North
Dakota Sen.Byron Dorgan said Tuesday. Dorgan, a Democrat from a major wheat-growing
state, urged the ClintonAdministration to change sanctions policy to automatically
exempt food to helpboost American farm exports ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran frees prisoners
Dec 15, (BBC) - Iranian radio has reported that an unspecified number
of Iraqi prisoners will be released on the Iran-Iraq border on Wednesday.
The operation will be supervised by the International Committee of the
Red Cross and representatives of the two countries. The release follows
negotiations between Iranian and Iraqi delegations.
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* Tehran restricts traffic because of smog
Dec 15, (BBC) - The Iranian authorities are introducing traffic restrictions
in the capital, Teheran, from today Wednesday because of severe air pollution.
Drivers will only be allowed on the city's roads on alternate days -depending
on whether their license plate begins with an odd oreven number ... FULL
TEXT
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Monday
December 14, 1998
* Secularist writers said to be in hiding
TEHRAN, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Several Iranian secularist writers have gone
into hiding after a string of mystery deaths and disappearances among their
colleagues that threatens President Mohammad Khatami's reform efforts.
Firouz Gouran, editor of the banned monthly Jame'eh Salem, or Healthy Society,
said on Monday many of his colleagues had either left their homes or adopted
special security measures. ``This has spread panic everywhere,'' Gouran
told Reuters by telephone ... FULL
TEXT
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* In letters to people & Khatami, writers want "deliberate
violence" stopped
"As we speak out about this organized violence and express our
[concern about] the lack of protection for the lives of writers and intellectuals,
we ask for an unequivocal explanation by the state authorities; and, we
announce that, in the re-occurrence of such events, legal agencies can
not disavow their common responsibility for protecting the lives of citizens.
We ask all those who can not stand this situation, which is counter to
freedom and public security, to [help] end this production of terror."
... FULL TEXT
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* Iran signs Caspian oil deal
Dec 14, (BBC) - Two western oil companies, Shell and the British-based
Lasmo,have signed an agreement with Iran to explore for oil in the Caspian
Sea. The agrement with the National Iranian Oil Company will run for eighteen
months and could lead to drilling operations... FULL
TEXT
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* Egyptian parliamentarians leave for Iran
CAIRO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - A delegation from Egypt's parliament left
for Iran on Sunday to attend an Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC)
meeting, airport sources said. The meeting will discuss the formation of
an Islamic parliamentary federation, they added. No members of the Egyptian
National Assembly (parliament) are known to have visited Iran since the
Islamic revolution 19 years ago ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran to attend UAE arms show, official says
ABU DHABI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Iran will take part for the first time
in the Middle East's biggest arms show in the United Arab Emirates next
March despite a territorial dispute between the two Gulf states, a senior
UAE official said on Monday. Brigadier Sultan al-Suweiditold reporters
Iran would be among several states to participate for the first time in
the annual event ... FULL
TEXT
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