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Today in Rabbis Say the Darndest Things, Ari Schvat ruled that female Mossad agents may engage in “honey-pot sex”—I had never heard the phrase before either—as part of their missions. Which is to say, they can sleep with men as part of their espionage. Among other things, Schvat cited Biblical precedent: Esther slept with the Persian king to save the Jews (though weren’t they married anyway?), and apparently Yael slept with the enemy of her husband in order to tire him out so that his head could be more easily chopped off (Book of Judges, yo).

A clay cylinder dating from the time of one of Persia's greatest rulers, Cyrus the Great, has been returned on loan to Iran following a prolonged dispute with the British Museum in London. In February Iran threatened to cut ties with the British Museum in protest to what it called politically motivated delays in returning the cylinder. However the museum says the delay occurred so that the cylinder could be compared with two stone tablets that were recently discovered. British Museum director Neil MacGregor says the cylinder has plenty of historical significance. "It's about Cyrus's respect for different peoples and...

Maryam had invited her two daughters and their husbands and grandchildren for Norouz, the New Year's feast, to her home in western Tehran when I called her on Saturday. It was after 9:02 p.m. when "tahvil," the change from the old to the new year, 1389 after Iranian calendar, was celebrated at Maryam's apartment, as it was in hundreds of thousands of other households in Iran and other countries. She had prepared a beautiful Haft Seen, the Norouz table, and cooked delicious Iranian food. The television was on to follow the announcement of the "tahvil," after which everyone congratulated each...

Washington is in no place to deliver rhetoric intended to inflict harm on the Islamic Republic, the supreme leader of Iran said. U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a video message on the occasion of the Persian new year. In his message, Obama said that Washington was committed to "a more helpful future" for the Iranian people. The weekend statement comes as Washington lobbies for tighter economic sanctions for Iran as punishment for a controversial nuclear program. "Our offer of comprehensive diplomatic contacts and dialogue stands," Obama added. "Indeed, over the course of the last year, it is the Iranian government...

For days, state-run television in Iran declared that, for their own safety, citizens should stay home and keep children indoors on the evening of March 16. And indeed, the streets of Iran did erupt into flames. But the opposition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not organize it. Tuesday evening was the beginning of Nowrooz, the two-week-long traditional Iranian New Year celebration, which for more than three millenniums marked the beginning of spring in the Persian world. The popular holiday ... is so hoary it predates the three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — a fact that the mullahs...

Amateur footage shot in Tehran shows protesters cornering members of the Basij militia and taunting them. They can also be heard telling the militia to chant and denounce the Supreme Leader before they let them go. (snort) >B-)

Herodotus wrote of a 50,000-man strong army that set out on foot into the Egyptian desert in 525 B.C. and was never heard from again ... until today.A pair of Italian archaeologists have uncovered bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert. Twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni are hopeful that they've finally found the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Cambyses II and his armied were buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C. He wrote, "a wind...

VIDEO: Iran Protest Tribute (Michael Jackson)"They don't really care about us"

WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. military commanders in the Middle East have been sent a highly classified message reminding American forces to maintain discipline and prudence if they encounter any Iranian military or security forces during potential unrest surrounding Iran’s presidential election, CNN has learned. This so far is the only acknowledged U.S. military reaction to the unfolding situation in Iran. Two U.S. defense officials with direct knowledge of the message confirmed the details to CNN but said the issue is so sensitive that they could not divulge whose signature was on the message. It was distributed via secure communications in...

Many Americans seem to entertain the illusion that Iranians are Arabs. This may be due to the fact that many people in both communities practise Islam, which I'll mention below. Another coincidence that may have contributed to this confusion is the apparent similarity of the names Iran and Iraq. It is true that the Persian language and the Arabic share the same alphabet, namely the Arabic alphabet, which was imposed upon the Iranians centuries ago. But originally Persian had its own alphabet. Anyway, in Arabic script the names of the countries are entirely different, 'Iraq' beginning with the letter 'ain'...

Never mind the mythical angels of religion and poetry. Meet a living angel in flesh, Nazanin Afshin-Jam. Many of you may not know that we have a hero in our midst. Many of you may not know that this individual, singlehandedly, has done more for her compatriots, as well as for other people of our planet, than most of us together. This dazzling beauty, both inside and outside, has dedicated her life to the good of humanity. We are honoring Nazanin Afshin-Jam for her tireless efforts to shed light into the shadowy corners of conflict, to expose and end the...

Iran really wants a deck for their backyard. This would get the neighbors to respect them, yeah. Unfortunately for Iran, these real jerks, like the neighborhood watch or something, really doesn’t believe they’re building a deck. They think Iran is building a catapult. The nerve of those Persians. Now it turns out these Chinese members of the neighborhood watch were smuggling dirty nasty money into Iran to help them build said catapult. Ugh, you guys. Everyone goes to jail now. --- Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced a 118-count indictment Tuesday against a Chinese company and its manager for...

Muslim women of the Middle East and beyond are shielded, clothed, and occulted away through a series of archaic dress rituals, collectively known as the Hijab, that subjugates and entraps them to an ossified code of conduct, which long ago, should have been abandoned. The Abbaya, Burqa, and Niqab, function as baggy drapes of cloth, which render Muslim women formless, invisible to her surroundings, a non-entity outside the domestic sphere, and should be viewed as a transgression against God's wishes...I present to you, the Beautiful and Vivacious Ladies of Iran, unhijabbed and free...

Health Problems In Persian Gulf War Veterans Higher Due To Chemical Exposure, Study Shows ScienceDaily (Mar. 13, 2008) — A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine shows there is increasing evidence that high rates of illness in Persian Gulf War Veterans can be explained, in part, by exposure to certain chemicals, including pesticides and nerve agents. Veterans from the 1990-91 conflict have a higher rate of chronic, multi-symptom health problems than either non-deployed personnel or those deployed elsewhere. Symptoms routinely reported by these veterans include fatigue, muscle or joint pain, memory problems, trouble...

Navy to patrol Gulf in the spring By David Blair in Manama Last Updated: 2:49am GMT 02/11/2007 A Royal Navy aircraft carrier will be deployed in the Gulf next spring, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. HMS Illustrious will sail for the highly sensitive waters near Iran Illustrious will sail for the highly sensitive waters near Iran accompanied by Edinburgh, a Type 42 destroyer whose main role is providing air defence, and Westminster, a Type 23 frigate. Two minesweepers and three support vessels from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary will complete the deployment for Operation Orion 08. The ships will spend...

TEHRAN (AFP) - A video installation by world-famous US artist Bill Viola. Contemporary Japanese art tackling AIDS. A print by an Iranian filmmaker whose most recent work was not shown in the Islamic republic. Perhaps not what you would expect to find in central Tehran, currently in the midst of its strictest moral crackdown in years and capital of a country increasingly at odds with the West over its controversial nuclear programme. But all these works are part of a show at Tehran's museum of contemporary arts -- which shows there remains life in the Iranian arts scene under conservative...

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- A growing American interest in Iranian language and culture is sparking an expansion on U.S. campuses of full-fledged Persian Studies programs, led by the University of Maryland and the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute. The new emphasis reaches beyond geopolitical concerns to focus on language acquisition, literature and other aspects of Persian culture. In response to this growing fascination among a diverse pool of students, Maryland's four year-old Center for Persian Studies - the first autonomous, interdisciplinary center in the field in the United States - will significantly expand its faculty, programs, research...

NAJAF, IRAQ — Persian script laces and flows across the walls of Najaf's seminaries. Shiite Muslim religious scholars in the ancient city's turquoise-tiled edifices bury their noses in Koranic texts illustrated with Persian calligraphy, in scenes that evoke Mesopotamia's rich history. For centuries, Najaf has been a key shrine city ... But for centuries, Iraq's Ottoman and Arab rulers rarely considered Najaf part of their own history. It was always considered a troublesome outpost of the enemy: Iran. ... The reading of the Koran in this country differs from the rest of the Muslim world: The rhythm and cadence of...

Tehran's standoff with west sees tourists snub Persian treasuresIndustry faces collapse as tension grows over nuclear issue and sailors' detention Robert Tait in Tehran, The Guardian Thursday April 12 2007 Siosepol Bridge in the ancient city of Isfahan. Iran's tourist trade has been badly damaged by recent events. Photograph: Alamy With its enduring relics of a glorious imperial past, spectacular glittering mosques and breathtaking landscapes, Iran lays claim to some of the finest cultural jewels in the Middle East. But a potentially catastrophic collapse in the country's tourist trade is threatening to leave this dazzling array of attractions largely unseen...

IMAGINE the reaction if Western agents slaughtered a hundred Sunni pilgrims on their way to Mecca. The outrage would spark incendiary rhetoric, riots and revenge killings from Peshawar to Paris. But when Sunni suicide bombers murdered 118 Shia pilgrims (and wounded almost 200 more) on Tuesday, Sunnis around the globe looked away: Shias only count as Muslims when America can be blamed for their suffering. Many of those Shia victims of religious totalitarianism were traveling on foot to Karbala to honor Mohammed's grandson Hussein - who was butchered by the founders of Sunni Islam, to whom power was worth more...