MOSCOW, Sept. 23—Vice President Gore said today that a Russian-American investigation has shown that Iran is making a "vigorous effort" to obtain technology for building nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to carry them….

Gore again refused to elaborate about the findings when asked at a news conference with Chernomyrdin today, saying the study "involves intelligence information in both countries and for obvious reasons it cannot be made public."

"But I would say in a general way," Gore added, "that one of the new lessons of this report is that it is obvious that there is a vigorous effort by Iran to obtain the technologies that it needs to build a ballistic missile and to build nuclear weapons."…

Editor Jailed for Spying for The US, The Associated Press, September 23 

A leading Iranian journalist has been jailed since June on charges of spying for the United States, an editor at his newspaper said Tuesday.

Morteza Firoozi, editor in chief of the English-language Iran News, has not yet been put on trial, the editor said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Only senior managers had been told of Firoozi's arrest, said the editor, who confirmed the charges but refused to discuss other details of the case.

There was no immediate comment from the government.

Last week, the Farsi-language Kayhan Havai reported that Firoozi had been arrested, but editors at Iran News denied the report, saying he had gone abroad to study.

Kayhan Havai and other hard-line papers often criticized Iran News for being too moderate in its stance toward the West.

"Under Firoozi, Iran News has failed to observe obvious national interests," Kayhan Havai said.

Paper Published by Tehran Mayor Banned for Contradicting Khamenei, Reuter, Sept. 24

An Iranian court has upheld a verdict banning a magazine over a satirical article contradicting views of Iran's supreme spiritual leader, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

The daily Jomhuri Eslami said the appeals court in Tehran confirmed a lower court's order banning the children's magazine Aftabgardan (Sunflower) for publishing the article which accused state-run radio and television of lack of impartiality in the country's May presidential elections.

The article coincided with remarks by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voicing satisfaction with the performance of the radio and television….

[Aftabgardan's publisher and Tehran's mayor Gholamhossein] Karbaschi was among state officials who actively supported Mohammad Khatami who won the presidential elections by a landslide.

Karbaschi has charged political opponents of launching a campaign against him after several officials of Tehran's municipality were arrested on corruption charges….

Mullahs Involvement in Pakistan Killings following Death of Guards Commanders, Reuter, September 24 

Gunmen killed a Sunni Moslem preacher and wounded two other people in a small town in the central Pakistani province of Punjab, police said on Wednesday….

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which police said seemed to be the latest in a series of tit-for-tat killings between rival groups from the majority Sunni and minority Shi'ite sects of Islam….

[Last week, five commanders of Mullahs' Revolutionary Guards were killed in Rawalpindi city. According to a statement issued by the Revolutionary Guards Corps, the five dead commanders included one Guards Corps Colonel, two Guards Corps Lt. Colonels and two Guards Corps Captains.]

Sunni groups accuse predominantly Shi'ite neighboring Iran of financing Pakistani Shi'ite militants….

Iran Says EU Must Meet Demands on Envoys' Return, Reuter, September 24 

Iran is continuing to set conditions for the return of European Union diplomats to Tehran, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.

The agency did not elaborate, but Iran has so far insisted that Germany's ambassador should be the last EU envoy to return.

Iran-EU relations were strained by a German court ruling in April that Iranian leaders ordered the 1992 killing of four dissidents in Berlin's Mykonos restaurant….

Germany has rejected Iran's demand as an unacceptable divide-and-rule tactic. The EU said this month that it had agreed in principle to return its ambassadors but has backed the German stance….

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