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News
May 1-5, 2000 / Ordibehesht 12-16, 1379

Sports | Arts | Business| Rights | Community

Latest

* Run-off elections go ahead
* Voting overshadowed by disputes
* Israel cautiously opposes Iran trial
* Improved US-Iran ties face hurdles

Recent

* Reformers stagger into vote battered by conservatives
* Hard-liners face crucial test
* Two student journalists kidnapped: paper
* More freed Iraqi POWs from Iran given heroes' welcome
* US underlines concerns over espionage trial of Iranian Jews
* Israel indignant at the spy trial of Iranian Jews
* Iran shooting suspect says duped by accomplice
* Arson trial defendant lit fire after insult
* Iran imports U.S. medicine to treat its hemophiliacs
* Khamenei among worst enemies of the press: group
* Culture minister grilled in Majlis
* Journalists mark press freedom day
* Iranian Jews admit to spying for Israel
* Lawyers for Iranian Jews Say No Secrets Passed
* Iran assassination trial reopens
* Swedish arson suspects go on trial

* First Saudi passenger flight to Iran in twenty-one years
* Six people wounded in Tehran mortar attack claimed by MKO
* Eight injured in rocket attack on Baghdad

* Khatami explains assassination bid
* US looks askance at Iranian Jew's espionage confession
* Eight intelligence officers arrested over murders inquiry: paper
* Tehran council plans unemployment fund for journalists
* Journalist says press court unfit to try him
* US culture could swallow up native cultures: Khatami
* Tehran police headquarters attacked
* U.S. Supreme Court rejects MKO appeal

* Some 20,000 workers stage protest march to mark May Day
* Jewish spy suspect interview on TV
* Rafsanjani slams Iran's liberal media
* Iran says it spares four students from hanging after July unrest
* Pro-Khatami student activist jailed
* Courts hear cases against reformists
* Khatami pushes reform agenda
* MPs warn culture minister but say no impeachment yet
* British Foreign Secretary postpones visit to Iran
* U.S.: Locus of terrorism shifts

Sports | Arts | Business| Rights | Community


Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday


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Friday
May 4, 2000

* Run-off elections go ahead

Tehran, (BBC) -- Iranians have cast their votes in a crucial run-off ballot for 66 seats which remained undecided after February's general election. Reporters said the turn-out appeared low, but this was less important than the fact that the second stage was being held at all >>> FULL TEXT

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* Voting overshadowed by disputes

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Voter turnout was active across Iran Friday for runoff parliamentary polls overshadowed by disputes about first round results and press freedom. Reformists backing President Mohammad Khatami won more than 100 seats in February but were caught up in a series of annulments and a wrangle with conservatives over the count in Tehran >>> FULL TEXT

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* Israel cautiously opposes Iran trial

JERUSALEM (AP) - The mother of a Jew accused of spying and on trial in Iran pressed her hand on one of the massive stone blocks of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, and prayed. The woman came Thursday to a prayer vigil here for her son, Dani Tefilin. She sobbed loudly as his name was read aloud >>> FULL TEXT

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* Improved US-Iran ties face hurdles

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's quest for improved relations with Iran is being complicated by congressional moves to make Iran pay for alleged involvement in terrorist activities against Americans. Legislation under consideration would make it easier for terrorist victims to collect multimillion-dollar judgments by seizing assets from the nations that sponsored the activity >>> FULL TEXT

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Thursday
May 3, 2000

* Reformers stagger into vote battered by conservatives

TEHRAN, May 4 (AFP) - Iran's reformers crushed conservatives at the polls in February but instead of heading into the second round of parliamentary voting Friday in command, they are staggering from a right-wing backlash. For supporters of President Mohammad Khatami, almost everything has gone wrong since they ousted the longtime conservative majority in parliament that had stymied much of the president's plan to instil social and political reform >>> FULL TEXT

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* Hard-liners face crucial test

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Run-off elections in Iran on Friday present another arena for a showdown between Islamic hard-liners and the reformists who swept the first round of parliamentary voting in February. Hard-liners who hoped to silence the opposition may instead have boosted the reformists' popularity by closing 16 pro-democracy newspapers in Tehran, jailing top liberal activists and annulling some of the reformists' victories in the February vote for the 290-seat parliament, or Majlis >>> FULL TEXT

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* Two student journalists kidnapped: paper

TEHRAN, May 4 (AFP) - Two Iranian student journalists from a Tehran technical college have been kidnapped and a third attacked in the street, a moderate newspaper said here Thursday >>> FULL TEXT

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* More freed Iraqi POWs from Iran given heroes' welcome

AL-MUNZIRIYA, Iraq, May 4 (AFP) - Iraq on Saturday welcomed as heroes a further batch of 480 freed POWs held in Iran since the 1980-88 war between the two countries, as families were reunited in emotional scenes at the border. This brings the total number of prisoners liberated since April 8 by Iran under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to 2,479 >>> FULL TEXT

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* US underlines concerns over espionage trial of Iranian Jews

WASHINGTON, May 4 (AFP) - The United States said Wednesday that its concerns over the trial of 13 Iranian Jews charged with spying for Israel were merely reinforced by the mounting number of questionable confessions. "We and the rest of the world have no way to judge the legitimacy of these confessions," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporter >>> FULL TEXT

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* Israel indignant at the spy trial of Iranian Jews

JERUSALEM, May 4 (AFP) - Israel Wednesday expressed indignation at the legal procedures used in the espionage trial of 13 Iranian Jews and the confessions given by the accused. "We are revolted by the ways used to obtain confessions" of three of the accused, said a statement issued by the foreign minister >>> FULL TEXT

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* Iran shooting suspect says duped by accomplice

TEHRAN, May 3 (Reuters) - A main suspect in the attempted assassination of a leading Iranian reformer said in court on Wednesday he had been misled by an accomplice to take part in the shooting, Iran 's official IRNA news agency reported. "In the beginning we believed that (Mohammad Ali) Moqaddami was concerned about the system and Islam, but we found out later that we had been fooled by him," 29-year-old Mohsen Majidi said >>> FULL TEXT

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* Arson trial defendant lit fire after insult

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A teenage defendant said Thursday he had ignited some paper at the scene of a blaze that killed 63 people after a dispute with organizers of a Halloween disco in Sweden. The defendants, all immigrants from Iran, deny the charge of gross arson which on conviction is punishable with up to life imprisonment. Their names have not been published outside the court >>> FULL TEXT

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* Iran imports U.S. medicine to treat its hemophiliacs

May 4, 2000, WASHINGTON (USA Today) - As the Clinton administration moves to ease restrictions on importing certain Iranian products, Iran has purchased $ 2 million in U.S. medicine to treat hemophilia. Richard Bliss, a Washington attorney who was a consultant on the deal, says two officials from Iran's blood transfusion organization visited the USA in March and paid courtesy calls on the National Institutes of Health, the Red Cross and a blood-bank association >>> FULL TEXT

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Wednesday
May 3, 2000

* Khamenei among "worst enemies of the press"

New York, May 3, 2000 --The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its annual list of the Ten Worst Enemies of the Press today, calling to account those whose actions make them personally responsible for the abysmal press conditions of their countries. Sierra Leone's Foday Sankoh, Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic head this year's list FULL TEXT

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* Culture minister grilled in Majlis

TEHRAN, May 3 (AFP) - Iran's embattled Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani came under renewed attack Wednesday as a conservative MP charged he misused government money to subsidise the pro-reform press. Ahmad Nejabat told parliament that Mohajerani, blamed repeatedly for laxity over the pro-reform press, much of which was shut down last week, had unfairly distributed funds to reformist papers >>> FULL TEXT

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* Journalists mark press freedom day

TEHRAN, May 3 (AFP) - Iranian journalists have marked international press freedom day by setting up a fund to help colleagues thrown out of work by recent press closure. The day falls less than two weeks after the conservative- dominated courts closed much of the reformist press >>> FULL TEXT

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* Iranian Jews admit to spying for Israel

SHIRAZ, Iran (Reuters) - Three suspects in Iran's Jewish espionage case Wednesday admitted to spying for Israel, with two of the accused telling Western reporters they were motivated primarily by love of the promised land. The alleged ringleader, Hamid ``Danny'' Tefileen, told Reuters in a brief interview he had spied out of religious conviction as well as financial need >>> FULL TEXT

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* Lawyers for Iranian Jews Say No Secrets Passed

SHIRAZ, Iran (Reuters) - Lawyers for 13 Iranian Jews on trial for espionage confirmed on Wednesday that their clients had admitted passing material to Israel. But they challenged the state to prove that the information was classified, making the accused spies under Iranian law >>> FULL TEXT

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* Iran assassination trial reopens

TEHRAN, May 3 (Reuters) - Suspects in the assassination attempt against pro-reform strategist and presidential aide Saeed Hajjarian returned to court on Wednesday, one day after their alleged victim was released from hospital. The official IRNA news agency said the case resumed in a Tehran Revolutionary Court in the trial of eight young men, including the accused triggerman in the gangland-style shooting on March 12 that left Hajjarian with a bullet lodged near his spinal chord >>> FULL TEXT

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* Swedish arson suspects go on trial

GOTEBORG, Sweden (AP) - Survivors and relatives of the 63 victims of Sweden's deadliest fire listened intently Wednesday as prosecutors described how four young men, upset about the entrance fee to a dance, set the building on fire. Charged with aggravated arson were Shoresh Kaveh, 19; Housein Arsani, 19; Mohammad Mohammadamini, 21; and Meysam Mohammadyeh, 19 - all Iranian-born Swedish residents >>> FULL TEXT

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* First Saudi passenger flight to Iran in twenty-one years

TEHRAN, May 3 (AFP) - The first Saudi passenger plane to travel to Iran in 21 years landed in Tehran Tuesday, the official news agency IRNA reported Wednesday >>> FULL TEXT

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Tuesday
May 2, 2000

* Six people wounded in Tehran mortar attack claimed by MKO

TEHRAN, May 2 (AFP) - Six people were wounded, one seriously, in a mortar attack in northern Tehran on Monday evening claimed by the outlawed armed opposition, state television reported >>> FULL TEXT

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* Eight injured in rocket attack on Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Six rockets slammed into a residential quarter of Baghdad and wounded eight civilians, the official Iraqi News Agency said Tuesday, blaming the attack on Iranian agents >>> FULL TEXT

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* Khatami explains assassination bid

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met Tuesday with a close reformist ally who survived an assassination attempt, telling him such shootings are the price of change. The president received Saeed Hajjarian in Sadabad Palace. Hajjarian, who suffered a stroke after the March 12 attack and cannot walk, sat in a wheelchair and spoke very slowly with frequent pauses. Khatami and Hajjarian smiled at each other and exchanged jokes >>> FULL TEXT

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* US looks askance at Iranian Jew's espionage confession

WASHINGTON, May 2 (AFP) - The United States reacted warily Tuesday to reports of a confession by an Iranian Jew that he had spied for Israel, saying previous admissions of guilt had not been supported by credible evidence. The man, Hamid Tefilin, one of 13 Jews accused of espionage by the Islamic republic, confessed in a statement televised Monday to having betrayed his homeland by spying for Israel, a capital offense in Iran >>> FULL TEXT

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* Eight intelligence officers arrested over murders inquiry: paper

TEHRAN, May 2 (AFP) - Iran has arrested eight intelligence officers for mistreating suspects in the 1998 killings of several dissidents and intellectuals, a newspaper said here Tuesday. The conservative Tehran Times, considered close to the judiciary, said the eight interrogators were arrested last week following complaints from suspects who were subsequently cleared of involvement in the murders >>> FULL TEXT

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* Tehran council plans unemployment fund for journalists after press bans

TEHRAN, May 2 (AFP) - The Tehran city council is putting forward plans for an emergency fund to help the estimated 1,500 journalists left jobless by the closure of Iranian newspapers, press reports said here Tuesday. The council, in tandem with the culture ministry and the journalists' union, is to vote on the plan, which would also offer loans to reporters left in dire straits by the wholesale press closures last week >>> FULL TEXT

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* Journalist says press court unfit to try him

TEHRAN, May 2 (AFP) - Journalist Emadeddin Baghi said Iran's conservative press court, which hauled him in for a second day of hearings Tuesday, was unfit to judge him. "This court is not competent and I have sent a letter to the justice department," Baghi told reporters following the closed-door session at the Tehran press court >>> FULL TEXT

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* US culture could swallow up native cultures: Khatami

TEHRAN, May 2 (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami warned Tuesday that US culture could take over the world, swamping indigenous cultures. "Native cultures feel threatened by the Americanisation of their cultures, while wise men in America speak of cultural decline and impoverishment," Khatami said in a speech at the opening of Tehran's 13th book fair >>> FULL TEXT

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Monday
May 1, 2000

* Tehran police headquarters attacked

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Mortar shells exploded near Iran's national police headquarters in central Tehran on Monday night, wounding six people, witnesses and state-run Tehran radio said. Iran's state television said three mortars exploded near a sports complex in Tehran's Vanak Square >>> FULL TEXT

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* U.S. Supreme Court rejects MKO appeal

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court today refused to disturb the State Department's designation of an Iranian dissident group as a terrorist organization. The justices, without comment, turned away arguments that the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran has enough U.S. ties to qualify for constitutional protection of its due-process rights >>> FULL TEXT

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* Some 20,000 workers stage protest march to mark May Day

TEHRAN, April 30 (AFP) - Thousands of Iranian workers held a May Day march Sunday in central Tehran, chanting slogans against a recently passed law enabling employers with fewer than five staff to strip them of social security. "Down with the unjust employer and those against the workers," and "the labour law in Iran is the product of martyrs' blood," chanted the protestors -- the majority being workers from factories in Tehran's suburbs >>> FULL TEXT

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* Jewish spy suspect interview on TV

SHIRAZ (Reuters) - The prime suspect in Iran's Jewish espionage trial has confessed to being a trained Israeli agent who spied both for money and for love of the Jewish state, the judiciary said Monday. In the first glimpse at the state's case in the closed-door trial, Shiraz judiciary chief Hossein Ali Amiri said Hamid ''Danny'' Tefileen had confessed to passing classified information to Israeli intelligence, the Mossad, and asked for a pardon >>> FULL TEXT

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* Rafsanjani slams Iran's liberal media

April 28, (BBC) -- Iran's former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has defended a crackdown on pro-reform newspapers, saying they undermined Islam and served Iran's enemies. The comments come after an escalated conservative campaign against the liberal press which has seen the closure of virtually all its newspapers and magazines >>> FULL TEXT

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* Iran says it spares four students from hanging after July unrest

TEHRAN, April 30 (AFP) - The Iranian judiciary said Sunday it had commuted death sentences on four students condemned for their role in the unrest of July last year into 15 years in jail for each, the official news agency IRNA reported. The statement came after conflicting reports on the fate of Mehrdad Sohrabi, Ahmad Batebi, Abbas Deldar and Akbar Mohammadi >>> FULL TEXT

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* Courts hear cases against reformists

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Three prominent Iranian reformers including two journalists went on trial Monday before hard-line courts on charges of acting against state security and violating religious values. Emadeddin Baqi was the latest in a string of journalists to appear before the special press court. He has angered the conservative establishment with allegations that officials of the security services were behind serial murders of dissidents.>>> FULL TEXT

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* Pro-Khatami student activist jailed

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The head of Iran's largest reformist student group was jailed Sunday in a widening crackdown by hard-liners, who reportedly are also seeking to remove two top pro-reform Cabinet ministers. Ali Afshari, head of the Office for Fostering Unity, was sent into detention after several hours of questioning by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, said officials of the student group, speaking on condition of anonymity >>> FULL TEXT

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* Khatami pushes reform agenda

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Defiant against a fierce hard-line crackdown on Iran's pro-democracy movement, President Mohammad Khatami insisted Saturday that the reforms he started three years ago could not be stopped. Khatami's statement was his strongest yet against hard-liners who are trying to preserve their power and, it is feared, will seek to prevent the gathering of Iran's newly elected pro-reform parliament >>> FULL TEXT

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* MPs warn culture minister but say no impeachment yet

TEHRAN, May 1 (AFP) - Iran's embattled culture minister, the target of conservative wrath over the brazen pro-reform press, is unlikely to be impeached despite reports to the contrary, MPs said in Monday's papers. The conservative Tehran Times, considered close to the judiciary, quoted four members of the outgoing conservative parliament saying a motion to remove Ataollah Mohajerani was unlikely to be put forward >>> FULL TEXT

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* British Foreign Secretary postpones visit to Iran

LONDON, April 30 (AfP) - British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has postponed a planned visit to Tehran from May to July due to legislative elections in Iran, the Foreign Office announced Sunday. The trip, initially set for May 8-9, immediately after the May 5 elections, was rescheduled to July 4-5 >>> FULL TEXT

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* U.S.: Locus of terrorism shifts

WASHINGTON (AP) - Three countries courted by the United States for a better relationship - Iran, Syria and North Korea - were again branded as sponsors of terrorism by the State Department Monday along with Cuba, Iraq, Libya and Sudan. A yearly report showed a shift in concern from the Middle East to South Asia, where Afghanistan is a favorite haven for terrorists and Pakistan has backed groups that engage in violence in Kashmir, a territory contested with India >>> FULL TEXT

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