News
Jan 11-15, 1999 / Dey 21-25, 1377
Sports
| Arts
| Business| Rights
| Community
Today
FULL COVERAGE OF NEWS ON INVESTIGATIONS INTO RECENT MURDERS IN IRAN...
click here
* Rafsanjani appeals
for factional truce
* Isfahan's Friday Prayers: no sermon
* Iran oil opening slowed by wider reforms
* Rafsanjani calls for up to 50 pct oil output cut
* U.S., Russia trade gibes over Iran
Previous
* Iran to jail, flog militants for beating officials
* Jannati strongly denies he tried to undermine Khatami
* Russia to triple number of nuke workers in Iran
* British diplomat in Iran for talks on ties, Iraq
* MAPNA set for fierce Iran energy race
* MPs demand apology from state television
* Iran, Britain to exchange ambassadors soon: paper
* Iran denies secret ties with Russian institutes
* Russia rejects U.S. claim of Iran nuke links
* Iran's Khatami to discuss oil on Saudi visit
* Khatami to visit to France after Noruz
* 10 arrested for murders of dissidents in Iran
* Intelligence chief faulted
* TV chief heavily criticized
* U.S. punishes 3 Russia institutions
* Councils: 326888 men & 7251 women sign up
* Iran draft budget based on $10/barrel oil-deputy
* Iraq says it wants improved ties with Iran
* Montazeri wants secret police purged
* Factions debate minister's fate after murders
* Majlis rejects amendment to elections law
* Iran's MAPNA considers Caspian pipeline partners
* Russia to push forward with Iran nuclear reactor
* Iran gives ministries less than half their budgets
Sports
| Arts
| Business| Rights
| Community
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday
| Thursday | Friday
Get Persian fonts from Hamshahri or Payvand
email us
Friday
January 15, 1999
* Rafsanjani appeals for factional truce
TEHRAN, Jan 15 (AFP) - Former Iranian president
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani pleaded with rival political factions on Friday
to call a truce in their bitter quarrel over a recent spate of dissident
murders. "None of you will benefit from this dispute. Our being at
each other's throats has pleased the enemy and prompted them to raise questions
about our regime and the (1979 Islamic) revolution," Rafsanjani said
in a sermon at weekly Moslem prayers at Tehran University ... FULL TEXT
Go to top
* Isfahan's Friday Prayers leader fails to deliver sermon
Isfahan, jan. 15, IRNA 0 - friday prayers were not held in this historical
city on friday due to spate of commotions developing among a number of
worshipers against friday prayers of the city, ayatollah jalaleddin taheri
and governor general of the province ja'far mousavi ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Iran oil opening slowed by wider reforms
LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Iran's drive for foreign energy investment
has become mired in wider reforms that may delay big-ticket deals for months
or years, oil executives say. Iranian negotiators running the biggest oil
tender since the 1979 revolution have found themselves on a roller-coaster
ride of economic change driven by shifting political forces. One victim
could be a campaign to land one or two morale- boosting showpiece agreements
with Western majors by the end of the Iranian year on March 20 ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Rafsanjani calls for up to 50 pct oil output cut
TEHRAN, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
on Friday called on oil producers to cut output by up to 50 percent to
boost weak oil prices. ``We must cut production by a certain amount until
demand outweighs supply. This amount could be 20 percent, 30 percent or
50 percent,'' Rafsanjani, who now heads a top state body, said in a Friday
prayer sermon broadcast on Tehran radio... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* U.S., Russia trade gibes over Iran
January 15, 1999 (The Washington Post) - Relations between the United
States and Russia have gotten off to a rocky start this year, as for the
second straight day officials here harshly criticized Washington for taking
Moscow to task over arms proliferation issues. In the latest instance,
the Kremlin reacted testily ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
Thursday
January 14, 1999
* Iran to jail, flog militants for beating officials
TEHRAN, Jan 14 (Reuters) - An Iranian court has condemned three militants
to lashings and jail terms of up to 18 months for assaulting members of
moderate President Mohammad Khatami's cabinet, a newspaper reported on
Thursday. The daily Iran said the court sentenced Amir Farshad Ebrahimi
to an 18-month term and 40 lashes in connection with the attack by a group
of hardliners on liberal Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Ataollah
Mohajerani and then Vice- President Abdollah Nouri at a public event in
September. Kiyanoush Mozaffari and Babak Shahrestani were each given a
six-month jail sentence and 20 lashes for the attack in which Mohajerani
was reported to have been slightly injured, said the newspaper, which is
published by Iran's official news agency IRNA ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Jannati strongly denies he tried to undermine Khatami
Tehran, Jan 14, IRNA - Ayatollah ahmad jannati, secretary of the council
of guardians, thursday denied foreign media reports that he had travelled
to qom to obtain the consent of senior religious leaders of the holy city,
to declare president seyed mohammad khatami incompetent ... FULL TEXT
Go to top
* Russia to triple number of nuke workers in Iran
MOSCOW, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Fresh U.S. accusations that Moscow is helping
Tehran build nuclear weapons and missiles have flared at a time when Russia
plans to more than triple its staff of nuclear workers in Iran, an official
said on Thursday. A spokesman for the Atomic Energy Ministry told Reuters
on Thursday Russia will increase its staff at the site of the Bushehr civilian
nuclear reactor in Iran over the next few months to 1,000 people from about
300 now ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* British diplomat in Iran for talks on ties, Iraq
TEHRAN, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A senior British Foreign Office official
held talks with Iranian officials on relations between Tehran and London
and on the Iraqi crisis, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported on Thursday.
Bahram Qassemi, director-general for Western European affairs at the Iranian
Foreign Ministry, told Derek Plumbly: ``Iran is seriously determined to
remove obstacles and to boost bilateral relations based on the talks and
agreements between the two countries' foreign ministers in New York,''
IRNA said ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* MAPNA set for fierce Iran energy race
DUBAI, Jan 14 (Reuters) - MAPNA, a little-known Iranian firm specialising
in thermal power plants, looks poised to be a tough competitor in the fierce
international race for Iran's lucrative oil and gas ventures. MAPNA --
the Iran Power Plant Projects Management Co. -- made its debut in Iranian
oil by clinching a $347 million deal to build a Caspian Sea pipeline, beating
Italian, British, German, Russian, South Korean and Saudi competitors.
Armed with connections in Iran's oil industry and business and government
circles, the company set up in 1993 has ambitions to penetrate Iran's energy
scene ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
Wednesday
January 13, 1999
* MPs demand apology from state television
Jan 13 (BBC) - Nearly one third of the deputies in the Iranian parliament
have called on the management of the state-run Iranian television to apologise
to the people and the President for airing a programme connected to the
recent killings ... FULL
TEXT ... ALSO
SEE IRNA REPORT
Go to top
* Iran, Britain to exchange ambassadors soon: paper
TEHRAN, Jan 13 (AFP) - Iran and Britain are to upgrade their diplomatic
relations to ambassadorial level following their agreement over the British
writer Salman Rushdie, a newspaper here reported Wednesday. The English-language
Iran News, which is considered close to Iran's foreign ministry, said the
two countries would promote their respective charges d'affaires Nicholas
Browne and Gholamreza Ansari to ambassadors ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Iran denies secret ties with Russian institutes
TEHRAN, Jan 13 (AFP) - Iran on Wednesday denied US charges that it worked
with three Russian research institutes to develop nuclear and missile technology.
"These accusations are not new and Iranian and Russian authorities
have already denied them," the Iranian embassy in Moscow said in a
statement, quoted by the official Iranian news agency IRNA ... FULL TEXT
Go to top
* Russia rejects U.S. claim of Iran nuke links
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia Wednesday angrily rejected U.S. claims that
three of its scientific institutes were helping Iran build missiles and
nuclear weapons and said sanctions imposed by Washington could hurt bilateral
ties. In a tough statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry branded the U.S.
move ``groundless'' and said it violated accords on cooperation in nuclear
non-proliferation ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Iran's Khatami to discuss oil on Saudi visit
DUBAI, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami will discuss
poor oil market conditions with Saudi leaders as part of his landmark visit
to the kingdom expected in the second half of March, Iranian sources said
on Wednesday. ``The president will discuss the situation in the oil market
on his trip to Saudi Arabia,'' one of the sources said on Wednesday. ``It
is natural that two big producers discuss the market and issues that are
of mutual concern regarding this,'' he added. Iranian embassy sources in
Riyadh said the Khatami trip was expected to take place in the second half
of March ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Khatami to visit to France sometime after Iranian new year
TEHRAN, Jan 13 (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami will pay a
ground-breaking visit to France sometime after the Iranian new year in
March, although the date has not yet been set, the foreign ministry said
Wednesday. The ministry, quoted by the official Iranian news agency, said
the visit is "on the agenda" but will not take place before the
Iranian new year which will start March 21 ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
Tuesday
January 5, 1999
* 10 arrested for murders of dissidents in Iran
TEHRAN, Jan 12 (AFP) - Ten people have been arrested in connection with
the murders of intellectuals and dissidents in Iran in which the intelligence
ministry has been implicated, a committee probing the killings said Tuesday.
"Ten people have been arrested and questioned over the affair,"
said the committee set up by President Mohammad Khatami in a statement
read on state radio and television. "The case, very complicated, has
taken on a national dimension and conducting a correct and healthy investigation
is a heavy duty," it said ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Intelligence chief faulted
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - More than 500 students demonstrated Tuesday to demand
the dismissal of Iran's intelligence chief following the disclosure that
10 agents were arrested in the killings of five dissidents. The slain dissidents
were critical of Iran's ruling clergy and sympathetic to the political
and social reforms of President Mohammad Khatami, who faces opposition
from hard-liners. The students chanted slogans and carried banners seeking
the resignation of Intelligence Minister Ghorbanali Dorri Najafabadi ...
FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* TV chief heavily criticized
Tehran (Hamshahri) - Hamshahri (and other moderate papers) have blasted
Radio TV chief Ali Larijani for recent commentaries in which President
Khatami and his followers are apparently attacked for wanting a thorough
investigation into the recent political murders. Here's a political note
from Hamshahri ... FULL
TEXT IN PERSIAN
Go to top
* U.S. punishes 3 Russia institutions
Jan 12, WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States imposed penalties on a Moscow
university and two other Russian institutions Tuesday, accusing Russia
of failing to stop its scientists from helping Iran and other states develop
nuclear weapons. National Security adviser Sandy Berger, in announcing
the economic sanctions, said Russia needs an export control system that
is ``designed to work and does.'' ``Only Russia can police its own borders,
factories and technology industries,'' he said while asserting the Clinton
adminstration's authority to act against foreign companies or agencies
that ``violate international nonproliferation standards.'' ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Councils elections: 326888 men & 7251 women sign up
Tehran, jan. 11, IRNA - Islamic councils elections will not be held
in six percent of the country's villages because of insufficient number
of candidates, it was announced here sunday. javad qadimi zakeri, interior
ministry director general in charge of elections affairs said that 268,123
applicants have enrolled for islamic councils elections at villages ...
FULL TEXT
Go to top
* Iran draft budget based on $10/barrel oil-deputy
TEHRAN, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Iran's 1999/2000 draft budget bill is based
on an ``optimistic'' crude oil price forecast of $10 per barrel, the head
of a parliament commission was on Tuesday quoted as saying. ``The commission
has ratified the optimistic assumption of $10 per barrel of oil,'' the
Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Morteza Nabavi, head of one of the commissions
which handled the budget bill, as saying ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Iraq says it wants improved ties with Iran
BAGHDAD, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan
told a senior Iranian official that Baghdad wanted to improve its ties
with Iran, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported on Tuesday. During a meeting
with the visiting underscretary of Iran's Foreign Ministry, Mohammad Reza
Sadr, INA said Ramadan invited Iranian Vice-President Hassan Habibi to
visit Iraq to further improve relations ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
Monday
January 11, 1999
* Montazeri wants secret police purged
TEHRAN, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Iran's most prominent dissident cleric called
in a statement published on Monday for a thorough purge of the country's
secret police after revelations of death-squads in the organisation. Ayatollah
Hossein Ali Montazeri, whose statement appeared in the moderate daily Khordad,
called for a ``deep and complete purge of the (Intelligence Ministry) personnel.''
``This purge is an immediate necessity and should not be delayed. This
action will regain the people's confidence,'' said Montazeri, who has often
complained about police pressures ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Factions debate minister's fate after murders
TEHRAN, Jan 10 (Reuters) - A factional debate raged in Iran on Sunday
after revelations of death-squads in the secret police as a newspaper said
the conservative intelligence minister was unlikely to resign despite pressure
by moderates. Backers of moderate President Mohammad Khatami have called
for a thorough purge of the Intelligence Ministry after it revealed last
week that some of its agents were linked to a recent spate of killings
of dissidents ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Majlis rejects amendment to elections law
Tehran (Hamshahri) - Interior minister convinces the Majlis not to make
changes to the local council elections law - changes that had been demanded
by the conservatives aimed ... FULL
TEXT IN PERSIAN
Go to top
* Iran's MAPNA considers Caspian pipeline partners
DUBAI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Iranian project management company MAPNA said
on Monday that it had won a $347 million deal to build a Caspian Sea oil
pipeline to the country's northern refineries and was considering consortium
partners. MAPNA regional manager Reza Ebadzadeh told Reuters that his firm
had been informed by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) that it won
the contract, beating Italian, British, German, Russian, South Korean and
Saudi competitors ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Russia to push forward with Iran nuclear reactor
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said Saturday it would push forward with the
construction of an atomic reactor in Iran, a project which has been criticized
by the United States and Israel for threatening security in the Middle
East. The United States and Israel fear the planned 1,000 megawatt light-water
reactor at Bushehr on the Gulf coast will help Iran develop nuclear weapons.
But Russia and Iran have repeatedly denied the charges ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Cash-strapped Iran gives ministries less than half their budgets
TEHRAN, Jan 10 (AFP) - Iranian ministries have received less than half
their nominal budgets this year as government revenues continue to plummet
because of low oil prices, the official news agency IRNA reported Sunday.
"The government has been able to allocate between 40 and 45 percent
of the budget earmarked for ministries and state organisations," said
parliamentary speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri, quoted by the official IRNA
news agency ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
Live morning program broadcast
at:
