Back to Brief on Iran
BAGHDAD - Iranian forces fired anti-tank rockets at a camp of Iran's main armed opposition group inside Iraqi territory, but without leaving casualties, the group said Tuesday.
The People's Mujahedeen said the attack took place on Monday near the Iraqi town of Kut, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the Iranian border. The assailants fled, abandoning two rocket launchers….
Leaders Meet Over Tehran Mayor, Associated
Press, April 7
TEHRAN - Iran's president has met with the country's supreme leader in an apparent attempt to persuade him to intervene in a corruption case involving Tehran's jailed mayor.
Khatami and Iran's hard-line supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met Monday evening, the Farsi-language newspaper Jameah reported Tuesday.
Details of the talks were not disclosed. Iran's judiciary, which reports only to Khamenei, has defended Karbaschi's arrest. The case has posed the biggest challenge to Khatami and his supporters since he defeated a hard-line opponent in the 1997 presidential election.
Tehran Mayor Interrogated in Evin Prison,
Agence France Presse, April 7
TEHRAN - Tehran mayor Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi has been barred from receiving visits at the notorious Evin prison where he is being held on corruption charges and subjected to grueling interrogation….
The government newspaper Iran, quoting informed sources, said the mayor had been subjected to six hours of interrogation Monday by a judge in charge of the case and several intelligence ministry agents.
"The judge went to Evin prison at 9:00 a.m. and interrogated Karbaschi for six hours. Several intelligence ministry officers were also present," the paper said, adding that further interrogations will take place at the prison.
Interior Minister Abdollah Nuri, currently on a visit to Saudi Arabia, voiced "deep regret" over the arrest and warned of "consequences."
"Assassinating Karbaschi's personality has consequences that culprits will have to take responsibility for, like it or not," he said, quoted by the official Iranian news agency IRNA.
Iranian Sentenced to Flogging, Agence
France Presse, April 6
TEHRAN - An Iranian who persisted in courting a girl despite her family's opposition has been sentenced to 50 strokes of the lash in the northeastern city of Mashhad, an Iranian paper reported Monday.
The daily Ghods said the young man had demanded repeatedly to marry the girl but was constantly rejected both by her and her increasingly angry parents.
After appeals from the family for help, the court decided to discourage the suitor by sentencing him to flogging.
Iran Faces Price Jumps Due to More Expensive Fuel,
Reuter, April 7
TEHRAN - The cost of living for ordinary Iranians has risen sharply as annual government fuel price increases take effect, newspapers said on Tuesday. The daily Farda reported increases of up to 40 percent in the prices of basic foodstuffs and said Tehran taxi fares were up 50 percent since the end of the Iranian year on March 20. It blamed the increases on rises in prices of state- subsidized goods and services, particularly fuel prices, which rose by up to 50 percent.
The hardline daily Kayhan criticized the government for allowing price rises of 40 percent on many goods and services, while most workers and state employees received pay increases of only 18 percent….
Russian Official Says New Reactor will be Built in
Iran, The Washington Post, April 7
MOSCOW — The new leader of Russia's nuclear ministry said today that Russia has proposed building a research reactor in Iran, in addition to the atomic energy plant under construction there that has drawn protests from Israel and the United States.
Yevgeny Adamov, who recently replaced Viktor Mikhailov at the helm of the large and influential ministry, told reporters that a contract for the research reactor was drafted in 1996 but still awaits approval from the two governments… Russia has steadfastly rebuffed appeals from the United States and Israel to halt nuclear cooperation with Iran, including construction now underway of the atomic energy plant at Bushehr…