Back to Brief on Iran
OSLO - The Iranian writer Muhammad Ali Kushan has sought political asylum in Norway, the Norwegian news agency NTB reported Thursday.
The Iranian writer had been invited to the Scandinavian country before Christmas by the Norwegian Forum for the Freedom of Speech.
He had said he does not dare to return
to Iran at the moment because of the recent months' murders of cultural
personalities and regime critics, NTB reported.
International Probe Into Murder of Parents Demanded, Agence France Presse, January 7
TEHRAN -The son and daughter of Daryush Foruhar, an Iranian political figure recently murdered along with his wife, insisted on Thursday that an international investigation be conducted into the murder of their parents.
"It took the intelligence ministry weeks to admit the truth that was clear to all from the first day," said Arash and Parastu Foruhar in a statement faxed to AFP.
"We neither know about the identity
of those arrested, nor their rank, or whether they are the real organizers
of these evil acts or just agents who have to be sacrificed so that their
commanders can escape punishment," they said.
Factional infighting on rise, Agence France Presse, January 7
TEHRAN - The revelations Tuesday that agents at the intelligence ministry were behind the recent murders of several writers and political figures have led to a public outcry.
Newspapers too have demanded institutional changes and the public trial of the killers in a bid to prevent a repetition of similar crimes.
Newspapers continue to call for or predict the ouster of Intelligence Minister Ghorban-Ali Dorrie-Najafabadi.
But conservative newspapers backed the minister.
"There are people in the opposition who dream of the day to get even with the intelligence ministry and to misrepresent the admirable record of this hardworking body," said Qods daily.
"We have to be alert and protect this sensitive arm of the regime from poisonous criticism coming from dissidents and their plots," it warned.
The revelations that the murders were committed by agents within the ministry have sent shockwaves through the regime.
Until last week, many conservatives blamed the two enemies of the Islamic Republic for the murders. Such views are now fast losing their appeal.
"Attributing such incidents to Arrogant
Powers (the United States) has made us the laughing stock of the public,"
said presidential economic adviser Morteza Alviri.
Thousands of Refugees Are Forced Out, Associated Press, January 7
KABUL - Iran has forced thousands of Afghan refugees to return to their embattled homeland, where food is scarce and fighting continues, U.N. and Taliban officials said Thursday.
World Food Program officials say 400 refugees are crossing each day from Iran into Afghanistan's western Herat province, where there are no facilities to assist them.
Many of the Afghans are sick and weak and are waiting at the border for buses to take them home, said Abdul Qayuum Karim, an official with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in neighboring Pakistan.
Last month the United Nations stopped a program to help refugees return from Iran after learning that they were being forced to leave, Karim said. Forcing refugees to return home is a violation of international law.
Those returning to Afghanistan face
a shortage of food and while most of the country is peaceful, fierce battles
continue between the Taliban and their enemies who control about 10 percent
of Afghanistan.
Lack of Safety Conditions in Factories, State-run IRNA, December 28
Chairman of the House of Workers said that there has been 120 accidents in factories involving the workers since the beginning of the year.
Hassan Sadeqi said on Monday that lack of safety and sanitary equipment at industrial centers, had prepared the grounds for accidents leading to dismemberment, deaths and other physical harms.