Free Republic

The phenomenon of Christians worshipping at home concerns the regime and the number of arrests for converting from Islam to Christianity has increased. The government of Tehran is launching a new offensive against the so-called home churches, small groups of Christians who meet in private houses to celebrate their faith because they cannon join the Churches officially recognised (and controlled) by the State, Iranian Christian news agency Mohabat reports. Khorasan, a government journal has published a long statement by Bahman Amiri Moghaddam, chief of police for the Khorasa-Ravi province, in which he says security forces “had taken care of a...

SNIPPET: "The US Treasury department has added four Iranian Qods Force commanders to its list of specially designated global terrorists, two of whom are charged with directly providing support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan." SNIPPET: "General Hossein Musavi is the commander Qods Force's Ansar Corps, "whose responsibilities include IRGC-QF activities in Afghanistan," the Treasury stated. "As Ansar Corps Commander, Musavi has provided financial and material support to the Taliban." Colonel Hasan Mortezavi is described as a senior Qods Force officer who "provides financial and material support to the Taliban." Qods Forces' Ansar Corps is the command that is assigned...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A man set off an explosive device near a provincial governor's office in northeastern Iran on Saturday night, fatally wounding himself but causing no other damage, an Iranian news agency reported. World The incident, four days after a remote-controlled bomb killed a university scientist in Tehran, occurred in Mashhad, one of the Islamic Republic's largest cities, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported. The explosive device went off when security personnel near the office of the governor of Khorasan Razavi province approached the man after he had raised their suspicions.

An estimated 10, 000 people  have taken part in demonstration in Mashad, Iran, 2nd largest city and one of the holiest cities in Shia Islam. Last week a story broke about Abbas Palizdar, a member of the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission, who had been speaking about how the mullahs were stealing the people's money and lining their own pockets.   http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2029279/posts   He was subsequently arrested. Demonstrations have broken out since his revelations, and arrest.   Video here of demonstration in Mashad, north eastern Iran,  yesterday.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xLW9ZUrxW0&feature=related There were also demonstrations in Tehran yesterday. An Iranian friend reports that...

From today's Telegraph the strange tale of how a stray dog (pictured) has gained a place in the country's [Iran's] affections. The creature, of a local breed employed to herd livestock and guard homes, appeared one day outside the tomb of Imam Reza, the eighth imam, in the town of Mashad, near the Afghan border. Its arrival on November 15 was feted in the national press this weekend, and now visitors to the shrine can buy their own pictures of the hound. What made the dog so special was its apparent respect for Shia custom. It had managed to find...

WASHINGTON -- Just when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) thought it had its hands around the Iranian nuclear program, NewsMax has learned from intelligence sources that Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps is completing a secret, underground uranium enrichment plant that should begin operating in October 2006. Work on the new plant, located 50 miles outside the northeastern Iranian city of Mashad, was begun with help from Russian engineers in 2003, Iranian intelligence sources said. The facility has been built 150 meters below ground in a rugged highlands valley some 38 kilometers southeast of the city of Nishabour. The nearest inhabited...