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Top News Story Reuters TEHRAN, July 12 (Reuters) - Iranian police beat dozens of protesters with batons on Tuesday at a demonstration to call for the release of Iran's most prominent jailed journalist. About 150 people, mostly students, had gathered in front of Tehran University chanting "political prisoners must be freed" when dozens of police moved in to break up the protest. The rally was in support of Akbar Ganji, an outspoken critic of the Islamic state's clerical leadership who was sentenced to six years in jail in 2001 for articles he wrote alleging links between senior officials and...

Top News Story Do the London Bombing's Lead Back to Iran? Today, the Sunday Times reported that the top suspect in the London Bombing is Mustafa Setmariam Nasar. If this proves true it spells more trouble for Iran. Nick Fielding and Gareth Walsh, The Sunday Times UK reported: THE terrorist believed to have organised last year’s Madrid train attacks is emerging as a figure in the hunt for the London bombers. Spanish security sources are said to have warned four months ago that Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, a 47-year-old Syrian, had identified Britain as a likely target. Coded commands from...

Top News Story IranVaJahan Commemoration of the July 99 student uprising in Iran has become an annual event for the opposition to the mullahs inside and outside Iran. Today, the commemoration in London had a broader message however in the aftermath of the London bombings. The first demonstration was held outside the Embassy of the Islamic Republic in Kensington. A one minute silence was held in memory of Thursday’s victims of the indiscriminate bombing attacks in London. Speaker after speaker emphasised the global threat of the Islamic fundamentalism and the need to establish a global front to combat it....

Top News Story Islamic Republic News Agency: EU Calls on Iran to Release Ganji The European Union has made "urgent representations about Akbar Ganji, a political prisoner detained in Iran", according to a statement issued Friday night by the EU's British Presidency. He is believed to be seriously ill and reportedly in need of urgent medical attention, it said. READ MORE DoctorZin:We have been getting phone calls saying that Ganji is now in a coma. A new website in support of Ganji is now in operation. It has some interesting ideas. Check it out. Update: International demonstrations around the...

Top News Story Iran's President-Elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Complete Bio - In His Own Writing 1 July 2005: Is the president-elect of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of the hostage-takers at the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979? The Northeast Intelligence Network called upon its Farsi-language resources to help determine the answer to this question. Sure enough, the answer is readily found on the official website of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, written entirely in Farsi, and complete with images. The website includes various documents from Ahmadinegad’s campaign where he claims "I Can Control the Americans - I Have Experience Doing It".In one particularly...

Top News Story Adnoki The well-known Iranian writer and journalist Akbar Ganji, who has been in prison for more than four years, is in a critical condition after being on a hunger strike for the past 23 days. His wife, who met him in an Iranian jail, confirmed that the renowned dissident's life was in danger. "My husband, before beginning the hunger strike weighed 77 kilograms, but today his weight has fallen to 58 kilograms and he can no longer stand on his feet," Massoumeh Shafii, said in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI). Shafii told AKI that her...

Top News Story Benador & Associates Amir Taheri, Benador & Associates: THE winner in Iran's recent presidential election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, makes no secret that he is a professional revolutionary, having spent all his adult years in the service of the Khomeinist movement. But was he the chief interrogator of American diplomats held hostage during the occupation of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979-80? And was he involved in the assassination of three dissident Kurdish leaders in Vienna in 1989? ... Ahmadinejad's presence at the killing of the Kurdish leaders in Vienna on July 13, 1989, however, is an...

Top News Story Iranian.ws Montazeri open letter criticising the recent presidential elections Jul 4, 2005 One of Iran's highest-ranking theologians and dissident Shiite clerics, Grand Ayatollah Hassan Ali Montazeri has written a open letter criticising the recent presidential elections, and calling for the urgent amendment of Iran's constitution, which he argues is the principal obstacle to the country's democratisation. "As an Iranian citizen, I feel the duty - and it is also my right - to pass judgement on the current situation and indicate the way out of this crisis," Montazeri said. The letter describes last month's presidential elections,...

Top News Story Persian Journal Repressive measures are increasing with the approach of the anniversary of Students' Uprising on July 9th. The Islamic Republic regime which is intending to counter balance the unprecedented conjunction of International pressure and internal rejection, is playing its strong hand especially with the official appointment of Ahmadi-Nejad and the Pasdaran Corp. (Militia) Intelligence circles to the Executive branch. Actions such as, search of homes of identified opponents, arbitrary arrests, deployment of security plainclothes agents and militiamen in the streets, schools and universities, search of cars, confiscation of motorbikes and dismantlement of underground groups specialized...

<p>THE hottest book in Iran these days is Bill Clinton's "My Life." There are three unauthorized translations on the market and at least two more on the way, Iranian newspapers report. By all accounts, a George W. Bush memoir might do just as well. And that is only the most recent indication of the overwhelmingly favorable disposition of the Iranian population toward the United States.</p>

Top News Story Iran talks likely to fail, say EU diplomats By Daniel Dombey in Brussels Published: June 30 2005 03:00 | Last updated: June 30 2005 03:00European diplomats are preparing for a breakdown of their negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme in a sign of mounting pessimism following the election last week of conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad.Although Britain, France and Germany still intend to keep their promise to put forward new compromise proposals to Iran by the beginning of August, some of the countries' diplomats now have little expectation that any deal will be accepted by Tehran.The focus of...

Top News Story The Washington Times Iran Leader Linked To '79 Embassy Crisis Excerpt: Joyce Howard Priceand David R. Sands, The Washington Times:Americans held in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Iran said yesterday they clearly recall Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad playing a central role in the takeover, interrogating captives and demanding harsher treatment for the hostages. "As soon as I saw his picture in the paper, I knew that was the bastard," said retired Army Col. Charles Scott, 73, a former hostage who lives in Jonesboro, Ga. "He was one of the top two or three...

Top News Story 29 June 2005 U.S. Calls on Iran To Release Imprisoned Journalist Akbar Ganji Ganji has investigated abuses by Iranian security forcesThe United States has called on Iranian authorities to release Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji from prison, where he is being held, the State Department said, for his political views and peaceful activities in support of free speech and journalistic integrity.  Ganji is known for his efforts to uncover information on extra-judicial killings by Iranian security forces.In a June 29 statement, the State Department expressed particular concern about recent reports that Ganji is in failing health and...

Top News Story 'No More Mullahs' An Excerpt: Amir Taheri, The Wall Street Journal:In one of his rare outings during the Iranian presidential election campaign last week, Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the man then designated as the likely winner by almost everyone, ran into a spot of bother. An old woman broke through his security ring, shouting, "May I have a word with you?" Once allowed to approach Mr. Rafsanjani, the woman removed his turban with a blow and shouted, "No more mullahs!" A couple of nights before that, Mr. Rafsanjani had been booed by students at Tehran University with...

Top News Story 'I am proud of being Iran's little servant and street sweeper' By Colin Freeman in Teheran(Filed: 26/06/2005)By official edict there were no victory parades for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the streets of the Iranian capital yesterday.   Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad The mayor of Teheran, who shocked the world with his surprise victory in Iran's presidential run-off poll on Friday, is an ultra-conservative who craves a return to the ideol-ogies of the Islamic revolution of 1979.Yesterday, the people of Iran were given, perhaps, an early taste of things to come, as public celebrations and opposition demonstrations...

Top News Story National Nine News Iran will press ahead with its controversial nuclear program and the Islamic republic has no real need for ties with arch-foe the US, hardline president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. In a sign that Friday's surprise election result would prolong decades of enmity between Tehran and Washington, Ahmadinejad and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld traded negative remarks in their first comments since the vote. But the ultra-conservative former mayor of Tehran said Iran would not abandon nuclear talks with the European Union although negotiations would be based on the Islamic Republic's "national interest". Europe shares...

Top News Story Iran’s ruling clerics fear street protests Iran Focus:A day after the surprise election of the ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran as the new President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the country'’s security forces were placed on heightened state of alert throughout Saturday to prevent any street demonstrations. The move reflected fears in the ruling clerical circles that a dissatisfied young population could react with fury to what many see as a 'coup'” by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the hard-line institutions under his control to consolidate their power. The furious reaction of the loser, former...

Top News Story Hardliner Scores Landslide Iran Election Win Excerpt: By REUTERS Filed at 9:28 p.m. ETTEHRAN (Reuters) - Ultra-conservative Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad swept to a landslide win in presidential elections on Saturday, spelling a possible end to Iran's fragile social reforms and tentative rapprochement with the West.Ahmadinejad, 48, received the backing of the religious poor to defeat moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was supported by pro-reform parties and wealthy Iranians fearful of a hardline monopoly on power in the Islamic state.``The figures show that Ahmadinejad is the winner,'' Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani told reporters.He will...

Top News Story NY Sun WASHINGTON - The choice for Iranians tomorrow in the presidential runoff is between "bad and worse," according to a leader of the July 9, 1999, Tehran University uprisings, Ahmad Batebi. In a phone interview yesterday with The New York Sun, Mr. Batebi said, "The candidates were never elected by the people, the selection of the candidates are from the supreme leader. The people of Iran had no power in choosing any of them." Mr. Batebi is currently on the lam, avoiding authorities in Iran where he is still wanted for his crime of endangering...

Top News Story Don't pin hopes for reform on Rafsanjani, Britain warnsBy Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor(Filed: 22/06/2005)Britain adopted a more confrontational policy towards Iran yesterday when officials assailed the credibility of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the likely winner of Friday's presidential election run-off.Many Iranian reformists, alarmed that his opponent, the hardline former mayor of Teheran Mahmood Ahmadinejad, came second in the initial round of voting, have called on supporters to switch their votes to the 70-year-old Mr Rafsanjani despite the fact that he is a veteran of the regime.The wily cleric, who served as president from 1989 to...