NEWS))))))

Iran diplomat quits over protests:
Washington Post, Reuters, Oslo, January 6, 2010 - A diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Oslo told Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Wednesday that he has resigned in protest over a crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in Iran. The Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran denied the report. ’It was the Iranian authorities’ treatment of demonstrators during the Christmas week that made me realize I couldn’t continue,’ NRK quoted Mohammed Reza Heydari as saying. NRK said Heydari has served as a consul at the embassy for the last three years.