email us

US Transcom
US Transcom

Shahin & Sepehr

 

Sehaty Foreign Exchange

Advertise with The Iranian

News
September 27-October 1, 1999 / Mehr 5-9, 1378

Sports | Arts | Business| Rights | Community

Today

* Khamenei backs Khatami in insult row
* Khamenei calls for rapprochement of factions
* Bail for suspect in Iranian exile's murder
* Iran promises careful investigation in spy case

Previous

* Khatami expected in France next month
* German accused of spying in Iran
* Silence shrouds talks on Portuguese hostages
* One-act play sparks cultural drama
* 275 Iraqi POWs arrive home from Iran
* German "very happy" after final hearing
* Khatami says rivals working against freedom
* Clinton reaches out to Iran in 1996 bomb attack
* Iran aims to produce four new missiles

* Tehran press criticize over Portuguese kidnapping
* Iran releases 276 Iraqi prisoners of war
* Massive $100 bln oil find
* Portuguese Men Kidnapped in Iran
* Rally demands death for Iran's student playwrights
* U.S. seeks Iran's cooperation in inquiry
* Iran celebrates birth anniversary of Imam Khomeini
* Fuss fest
* Khatami sees 'calculated' plot in new crisis
* Ayatollah Sanei: Women are equal
* Liberal Iran publisher says court verdict biased
* Iran backs Russia against guerrillas, Moscow says
* Iran begins manoeuvres in key shipping lane

Sports | Arts | Business| Rights | Community


Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday


Get Persian fonts from Hamshahri or Payvand


email us


Friday
October 1, 1999

* Khamenei backs Khatami in insult row

TEHRAN, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Iran's supreme clerical leader on Friday threw his political and religious weight behind embattled reformist President Mohammad Khatami and warned hardliners not to take matters into their own hands. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the president and judicial authorities for their handling of a scandal over a satirical student play deemed to have insulted a holy Shi'ite figure which has outraged Iran's religious leadership ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Khamenei calls for rapprochement of factions

TEHRAN, Oct 1 (AFP) - Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Friday for a reconciliation of Iran's conservative and reformist factions, two months after violent clashes pitted pro-reform students against police and hardline Islamists. "The country and the revolution are in need of unity," said Khamenei, who led special weekly prayers attended by leading conservatives and reformers to mark the centenary of the birth of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, founder of the Islamic Republic ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Bail for suspect in Iranian exile's murder

PARIS, Oct 1 (Reuters) - France has released a Frenchman of Iranian origin, who had been imprisoned for the past seven years and was awaiting trial in connection with the murder of an Iranian dissident in Paris, judicial sources said on Friday. The sources insisted the release had nothing to do with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's expected visit to France at the end of the month. Khatami cancelled his trip six months ago because wine was due to be served at a state banquet ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran promises careful investigation in spy case

WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Iranian officials have promised Austrian President Thomas Klestil a ``careful investigation'' of espionage charges against 13 Iranian Jews, Klestil said in a letter released on Thursday. Klestil, who visited Iran on September 20 and 21, intends to follow the case personally on the basis of the assurances he received there, he told the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles in a letter dated Sept. 28 ... FULL TEXT

Go to top


Thursday
September 30, 1999

* Khatami expected in France next month

PARIS, Sept 30 (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is expected in Paris late October for both a visit to France and to deliver a speech before UNESCO's General Conference, officials at the UN agency said. Officials close to UNESCO chief Federico Mayor said Khatami was expected in Paris from October 26 to 28. "He was invited by Mr Mayor to speak before the General Conference on october 28 during an official visit to France," the source said ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* German accused of spying in Iran

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran's judiciary today accused a German businessman of spying, only a day after he was cleared of illegal sex charges. Helmut Hofer is now accused of having ``contact with suspicious elements,'' the judiciary said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press in Dubai. Iranian authorities usually use that phrase to refer to spying. The statement did not say for whom Hofer had allegedly spied ... FULL TEXTTEXT

Go to top

* Silence shrouds talks to release Portuguese hostages in Iran

TEHRAN, Sept 30 (AFP) - Talks to secure the release of three Portuguese men abducted three days ago in southeastern Iran were being conducted in strict secrecy Thursday, with police and Lisbon's embassy tight-lipped on the case. "There are no new elements in the case," an official at the Portuguese embassy here told AFP, but declined any further information on the sensitive issue ... FULL

Go to top

* One-act play sparks cultural drama

TEHRAN, Sept. 29, (Washington Post) -It was a one-act satirical play that never made it to the stage, but it was printed in an obscure university publication and distributed in photocopies. But because of it, the writer is in custody, the culture minister is under fire, conservative newspapers are incensed and President Mohammed Khatemi's policy of freedom of expression is taking a beating ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* 275 Iraqi POWs arrive home from Iran

BAGHDAD, Sept 30 (AFP) - A group of 275 Iraqi prisoners of war arrived home Thursday, released by Iran 11 years after the end of the bloody war between the neighbouring countries, the official INA news agency said. Iran said Wedndesday it had released 276 POWs from the 1980-88 conflict, but INA made no mention of the whereabouts of the 276th released prisoner ... FULL TEXT

Go to top


Wednesday
September 29, 1999

* German "very happy" after final hearing in Iran death sentence retrial

TEHRAN, Sept 29 (AFP) - Germany businessman Helmut Hofer said he was "very happy" Wednesday after an Iranian court ruled out any possiblity of upholding the death penalty handed down against him for alleged sexual relations with an Iranian Muslim woman. Judge Yusef Musavi added that Hofer may well be freed on time served ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Khatami says rivals working against freedom

TEHRAN, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami lashed out on Wednesday against Islamic extremists, accusing them of seeking to limit freedom and keep society in the dark. Khatami also condemned what he called efforts by ``foreign-inspired enemies'' to strip Iranian universities of their religious identity ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Clinton reaches out to Iran in 1996 bomb attack

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - President Bill Clinton last month sent a secret letter to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami seeking cooperation in investigating the 1996 bombing of a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia, sources familiar with the matter said. ``The president sent a letter, but I'm not going to get into the details of it,'' White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran aims to produce four new missiles

TEHRAN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Iran, seeking to develop its arms industry to self-sufficiency, on Tuesday inaugurated 25 defence projects, including four new missiles, state television said. It said the projects included two laser-guided heavy anti- armour missiles named ``Thunder'' and ``Tosan,'' a medium-weight anti-armour missile called ``Super-Dragon'' and an anti-aircraft missile ``Misaq.'' ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Tehran press criticizes government over Portuguese kidnapping

TEHRAN, Sept 29 (AFP) - Negotiations appeared to be under way Wednesday to secure the release of three Portuguese nationals held hostage by drug traffickers in southeastern Iran as Tehran newspapers expressed concern about the implications of their abduction. "The whereabouts of the hostages has been identified and they will presumably be released soon," an unnamed "informed source" told the Akhbare-Eqtesad paper ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran releases 276 Iraqi prisoners of war

TEHRAN, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Iran unilaterally released 276 Iraqi prisoners of war on Wednesday, nearly 11 years after the end of their 1980-88 war, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported. IRNA said the move was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ... FULL TEXT

Go to top


Tuesday
September 28, 1999

* Massive $100 bln oil find

TEHRAN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Iran on Tuesday announced its biggest oil find in 30 years, a giant 26-billion barrel field discovered as the country drives to revive exploration activities and foreign firms compete for big deals. Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said the oilfield in the prolific southwest Khuzestan province has the potential to produce up to 400,000 barrels a day ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Portuguese Men Kidnapped in Iran

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Three Portuguese men, including two journalists, have been kidnapped in eastern Iran. Gunmen stopped vehicles carrying seven Portuguese men and women Monday and took three of the men hostage, leaving one man and three women free to go, the released man told Portugal's TSF Radio on Tuesday. Nothing was known about the kidnappers' motive ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Rally demands death for Iran's student playwrights

TEHRAN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Angry demonstrators rallied in central Tehran on Tuesday to demand death for two student playwrights whose lampoon of campus conservatives has been condemned as an unforgivable insult to Islam and touched off a national crisis. Shopkeepers in the holy Shiite city of Qom, meanwhile, closed the central bazaar, a traditional form of protest with a long tradition in Iranian history, following a symbolic shutdown in Tehran on Monday ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* U.S. seeks Iran's cooperation in inquiry

September 28 (USA Today) -- President Clinton has asked Iran's President Mohammed Khatami to cooperate in the investigation of the bombing in 1996 of a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia, former and current U.S. officials say. Analysts suggested that Iranian cooperation could lead to an improvement in U.S.-Iranian relations that have been strained since the takeover of the U.S. Embassy by Iranian extremists in 1979 ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran celebrates birth anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini amid factional struggle

TEHRAN, Sept 27 (AFP) - Iran's Islamic regime on Monday marked the centenary of the birth of its founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini amid an increasingly bitter struggle between his successors over his legacy. "This year is the year of the Imam (Khomeini)," read slogans on countless giant portraits of Khomeini plastered along Tehran's roadsides, while some 500,000 pilgrims and 30,000 volunteer Islamic Basiji militia prepare to take part in official ceremonies at the Imam's mausoleum in south Tehran ... FULL TEXT

Go to top


Monday
September 27, 1999

* Fuss fest
Conservatives are up in arms over an "anti-Islamic" play

News report on alleged insults to Imam Mahdi in a play published in a student magazine. Plus responses in Persian from: * Khatami * Mohajerani * Nateq Nuri * Majlis members * Ayatollahs * Jannati * Safaie-far

Go to top

* Khatami sees 'calculated' plot in new crisis

TEHRAN, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami deplored a satirical student play for insulting Islamic sanctities, but warned the incident was being exploited as part of a ``calculated design'' to incite the nation. In remarks to his cabinet late on Sunday, the president condemned the play, which first appeared last month in a campus journal with a circulation of less than 200, as an insult to pious believers ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Ayatollah Sanei: Women are equal

Sept 26, (BBC) -- A senior Iranian cleric has declared that women are completely equal to men in all aspects of political and social life. Ayatollah Yosef Sanei said there should be nothing to stop a woman in the Islamic Republic becoming the supreme religious leader or president ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Liberal Iran publisher says court verdict biased

TEHRAN, Sept 26 (Reuters) - The publisher of a pro-reform Iranian newspaper, sentenced to jail on a blasphemy conviction, sharply attacked the verdict on Sunday as politically motivated and demanded a new, impartial hearing. (Related photo) ``The court was biased and influenced by a certain political faction. Their approach was more political than legal, and marked by double standards,'' Latif Safari, the director of the banned Neshat daily, told a news conference ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran backs Russia against guerrillas, Moscow says

MOSCOW, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Iran expressed support on Saturday for Russia's efforts to combat Islamic guerrillas operating from the breakaway republic of Chechnya, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Iran's ambassador to Moscow, Mehdi Safari, handed Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin a message from Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi ``on the situation in the North Caucasus and the fight against international terrorism,'' the ministry said in a statement ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran begins manoeuvres in key shipping lane

TEHRAN, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Iran has launched a week of air and sea manoeuvres in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's busiest waterways. Iranian military officials said the manoeuvres, which began on Saturday, commemorated the start of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq ... FULL TEXT

Go to top


Copyright © Abadan Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. May not be duplicated or distributed in any form

 MIS Internet Services

Web Site Design by
Multimedia Internet Services, Inc

 GPG Internet server

Internet server by
Global Publishing Group.

  BBC Persian


For the latest news visit
THE IRANIAN
Newsroom




IRNA Logo


email us