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Iranian authorities hanged a man in public in south-eastern Iran for adultery, a state-run news agency reported on Sunday.The man identified as Mohammad-Reza Rafie (alias Mohammad Khan) was hanged Sunday morning in Khajouyeh Square in the city of Kerman, the news agency Fars reported.He was charged with adultery, organising a “corruption ring”, and kidnapping.
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The international press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders expressed concern on Thursday on the Iranian government’s decision to order all websites dealing with the issue of Iran to be registered.“Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about a government decision, taken at a cabinet meeting on 27 November, that all websites dealing with Iran will have to register with the culture ministry in the next two months”, a statement by the group said. “The new rule will probably be difficult to implement and seems designed above all to give the authorities grounds to close down independent news sites”.“It will be impossible to force the tens of thousands for websites dealing with Iran, most of which are hosted on servers abroad, to register with the authorities. But this rule could serve as pretext for arbitrarily closing or filtering news websites. It will give a legal basis for the online censorship that already exists in Iran”, it said.In August, Iran Focus reported that Iran would soon issue licences for websites operating from within its borders in an effort to place further controls on the contents being published online.
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Tehran, Iran, Nov. 29 – A group of Iranian Majlis (Parliament) deputies are launching a probe into the conduct of the Canadian embassy in Tehran, accusing its staff of spying on the government.The lawmakers have charged that the embassy has been “acting against the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and has effectively “replaced the embassy of the United States in Iran”.They are seeking the closure of the mission.The state-run daily Etemaad quoted on Wednesday Majlis deputy Javad Arianmanesh as saying that lawmakers would move to close down the embassy if it was determined that the Canadian mission was spying.Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ezhei will soon be summoned to explain the “espionage activities of the Canadian embassy in Tehran”.Earlier this month, Canada sponsored a resolution, adopted by the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, accusing Tehran of torturing its political opponents which angered the mullahs.
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The Associated Press, BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Dec. 2, 06— A court on Friday declared former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and eight others fugitives from justice in Argentina, where they are wanted in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center.Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral said the nine must be considered fugitives for failing to respond to arrest warrants he issued earlier this month, when he said he had "serious" evidence of the suspects' involvement in the attack.Some 85 people were killed and more than 200 were injured 12 years ago when a bomb exploded in a van outside the seven-story AMIA center in the capital of Buenos Aires.Iran has denied any involvement and has said it does not recognize the validity of the arrest warrants. It said it would oppose any attempt to detain the former president or other Iranian citizens.Canicoba Corral also ordered the state public defender's office to represent Rafsanjani and the others because they have not named their own attorney.Chief prosecutor Alberto Nisman has alleged that the decision to attack the Jewish center was made in 1993 "by the highest authorities" in Tehran, and that the attack itself was entrusted to the militant group Hezbollah.The destruction of the AMIA center, symbol of a Jewish population numbering more than 200,000, was the second of two attacks targeting Jews in Argentina in the 1990s. In 1992, a bomb flattened the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people in a case that also has been blamed on Hezbollah.Rafsanjani was Iran's president between 1989 and 1997 is now the head of the Expediency Council, which mediates between the parliament and ruling clerics. The other eight named in the warrants include a former Iranian government and military officials and an ex-security chief for Hezbollah.
