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TEHRAN - Iran's Guardian Council overturned more election results on Tuesday.
State radio reported the 12-member Council had nullified results in the southeastern town of Jiroft, in Kerman province. It was the eleventh constituency to have the result of February's vote overturned.
The Council's decisions have led to violence in several towns, including the southern city of Sarvestan.
Authorities there put the city under
emergency rule, banning any gatherings of three or more people after residents
burned down a local asphalt plant and set a police car on fire, injuring
one officer.
Arrest Warrant Issued For Pro-Khatami Cleric, Reuters, April 25
TEHRAN - Iran's clerical court has issued an arrest warrant for a cleric who took part in a seminar in Berlin, the official IRNA news agency said on Tuesday.
It quoted prosecutor Mohammad Ebrahim Nekounam of the Special Court for Clergy as saying Hasan Yousefi-Ashkevari would be arrested on his return to Iran.
Charges included acting against state
interests, propaganda against the Islamic system, insulting the faith and
acting contrary to the status of the clergy, Nekounam said.
Rafsanjani Warns of "Enemies' Conspiracies", The Tehran Times (State-controlled daily), April 25
TEHRAN - Chairman of the Expediency Council, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, here on Sunday night warned of ruses which global arrogance is hatching against the Islamic Republic of Iran, saying they are internal conspiracies intended to abolish the Islamic Revolution.
"After failing in its plans including
military invasion and economic sanctions, the enemy is trying its best
to separate the younger generation from the Islamic system," he told Friday
prayers leaders of Isfahan.
News Bites
Agence France Presse, April 25: Khatami suffered the biggest setback Monday as the press court shut down 14 newspapers and journals, making good on days of warnings. Khatami, who saw his presidency plunged into crisis last July after the closure of one newspaper set off six days of riots, appealed for calm on Monday.
Agence France Presse, April 25: The alleged main suspect in the shooting of Saeed Hajarian last month confessed when he went on trial here Tuesday, journalists present told AFP. Despite a statement by the judiciary last week that the hearings would be in open court the foreign press was banned from the tribunal. The journalists said only eight accused were present, contradicting earlier reports that 10, aged between 20 and 30, were in the dock.
Agence France Presse, April 25: - The Council of Guardians said there were serious discrepancies in Tehran, where a third recount is underway, between "the results that were announced and those being found in the recount" and suggested there could be new voting in the capital.
Jomhouri-e Eslami (State-controlled daily), April 22: "The bitter reality we are now facing is that the country is in crisis in every aspect. The economic situation is totally disappointing. Divisiveness and strife are rampant. Social corruption is on the rise with an alarming speed, and most dangerous of all, the faltering situation kills every hope in the people and if it continues, everything will be lost."
Fat’h (banned daily), April 20: "The current situation does not even leave any room for the rule of reformists."
Asr-e Azadegan (banned daily), April 19: "If the two factions fail to arrive at a compromise, a dangerous showdown will be inevitable."
The Financial Times, April 24: The closure of eight dailies and four magazines… represented a serious blow to Mr. Khatami… and raised concerns in Tehran that the president's own position was in danger… Journalists at two of the banned dailies, Asr-e-Azadegan and Fath, said they believed the unprecedented crackdown on the media was a prelude to a bid by the… parliament to impeach Mr. Khatami.
Reuters, April 25: The two waves of newspaper closures, first announced late on Sunday, sparked the first public protest in the early hours of Tuesday when several thousand students rallied peacefully outside Tehran University's hostels.
"We will not give up on our demand for freedom," one student said. "The reforms we demand do not stop where Khatami stops. We will continue to tread the path of reforms."
Agence France Presse, April 24: Tehran's former police chief on Monday rejected all charges against him and his officers over their role in last year's attack on student demonstrators. He insisted that "We were given an order to disperse the crowd, and if that was a mistake, then it's not up to me to reply," the former police chief said, once again defending the police intervention against a student demonstration last July.