According to reports from Iran, last week some 2,500 students staged a sit-in at the Azad University of Kazeroun, in the southern Fars Province. The students protested the regime's suppressive policies and restrictions imposed on students, as well as disregard for their demands. The students called for the replacement of the university's president.

Moreover, residents of Ilam (western Iran), staged demonstrations on Wednesday, November 12, to protest the regime's repression and lack of the most basic necessities of life, including running water.

In the past weeks, Iranian universities and cities have been the scene of angry protests by the public who have challenged the regime's revolutionary Guards and State Security forces in extensive confrontations.

This clearly confirms that the absolute majority of the Iranian people have no illusions whatsoever as to the nature of the regime's factions.

Again, Khatami makes Empty promises, Reuter, November 17 

TEHRAN - Iran's President Mohammad Khatami vowed on Monday to carry out his commitments to voters by guaranteeing their freedoms and security.

Khatami's remarks, in an interview marking his first 100 days in office, came days after assailants attacked the offices of a critical student group in Tehran and Moslem militants disrupted a speech by a reformist Islamic thinker.

Unidentified assailants on Saturday rampaged through the offices of a vocal Islamist student group close to Khatami which has criticized top Iranian leaders, injuring its leader and several members. There were no reports of any arrests.

Jail and Flogging for Two Iranian Tycoons, Reuter, November 17

TEHRAN - An Iranian court has sentenced two businessmen known for their extensive construction and trade dealings to long prison terms and up to 339 lashes for "economic sabotage," a newspaper said Monday.

The daily Kayhan said the court passed jail terms of 25 and 23 years and sentences of 339 and 229 lashes respectively against Hassan Afrashtehpour and his brother Davoud for embezzling $60 million from a state bank, bribery and falsifying documents…

Because of the two developers' dealings with city officials to obtain permits for high-rise buildings, the case is linked to trials of several municipality officials on graft charges. Several senior city officials have been jailed and received flogging sentences and trials of several others are continuing.

Missile Design Buyer Linked to Iran Embassy, Reuter, November 17 

MOSCOW - Russia said on Monday that it had ordered the expulsion of an Iranian man caught "red-handed" last week trying to buy missile technology designs, insisting he was connected to the Iranian embassy in Moscow.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement a protest had been lodged with the Iranian ambassador on Saturday regarding the actions of the man, detained on Friday by the Federal Security Service (FSB) counter-espionage bureau.

The Iranian ambassador to Russia was quoted by Iranian radio on Sunday as saying that the man came to Russia as a student on an ordinary visa. But the foreign ministry statement confirmed some Russian media reports that he had diplomatic connections.

"At the time of his arrest documents were taken from him showing that he was an employee of the Iranian embassy in Moscow," the statement said.

Iran Might Target U.S., Associated Press, November 17

LONDON -- Iran is secretly building up a stock of nuclear and ballistic missiles that someday may be targeted at the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

"Iran is unseen, unperturbed and undisturbed ... building a formidable arsenal of ballistic missiles, actually inter-continental ballistic missiles" that initially will reach the rest of the Middle East, Netanyahu said in a BBC interview Sunday.

"Stage two it would reach Britain and stage three, believe it or not, they actually plan to reach the eastern seaboard of the United States, Manhattan," Netanyahu told interviewer David Frost.

"Now this sounds fantastic, but Iran is, wants to be a world power with the world ideology of fundamentalist domination, seeing the West as its great enemy and it seeks to have the weapons to back up that ideology."

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