Iran wins Greco-Roman Wrestling World Cup - Iranian Greco-Roman wrestling national team managed to top 2012 Greco-Roman Wrestling World Cup for the third successive year. 5/21/12
Photos: Operation "Dog Walkers" and "Hijab Violating Women" - On Saturday night, the police in Tehran went after the dog walkers and the women drivers with improper hijab. Owning dogs in Iran is frowned upon, and walking the dogs in the streets is forbidden. Also, women are expected to adhere to hijab rules. 5/21/12
Photos: The Stepped Village of Ashtabin - The stepped village of Ashtabin is located near the town of Jolfa, by the Aras river, in Iran's East Azerbaijan province. This village, which goes back to Safavi era, was registered in Iran's national heritage list in May 2000. -Mahsa Jamali 5/21/12
Photos: Dyeing Workshop in Arak - The last traditional dying workshop in Arak, Iran will be closing soon after the retirement of its remaining workers. This is due to lack of support for handwoven Sarouk Persian rugs which is one of the highest quality handwoven carpets in the world. 5/21/12
Rostam 2 Series by Siamak Filizadeh at LCMA - In his ingenious mixed-media series Rostam 2-Return, Iranian artist Filizadeh Siamak draws upon the rich literary and visual traditions of the Shahnama or Book of Kings. As with other literary masterpieces, the Shahnama, the Iranian national epic, has an appeal and an elasticity that has allowed successive generations to discover or invent new meanings. 5/21/12
Talented Iranian Students To Receive Special Marriage Gift - Currently the newlywed talented students receive 5-million rial (407 dollars) gift and this figure will rise to 10 million rials next year which will start on March 21, Nasrin Soltankhah told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony arranged to award gifts to talented married students. 5/21/12
UN Nuclear Chief Seeks Weapons Probe Deal In Tehran - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiya Amano was reported to have met with the head of Iran's nuclear-energy organization, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, during talks on May 21. -RFE 5/21/12
Iranian Navy Rescues Philippine Freighter in Gulf of Oman - The Philippine ship, named Rosita, with 23 crews on board was attacked by pirates while heading from India to Qatar, but the Iranian forces managed to release the ship. 5/21/12
NATO: Missile Defense Shield for Europe is Up and Running - Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Sunday in Chicago that the system has entered "interim capability" - with missile interceptors on a U.S. warship in the Mediterranean and a radar system in Turkey. 5/21/12
Photos: Construction of Ahvaz Metro - Ahvaz is a city in and the capital of Khuzestan Province, Iran with a population of over 1.5 million. A metro urban railway system is being built by the Ahvaz urban railway. It will be a 23 km underground line with 24 stations. 5/20/12
Iranian student activist Mahdieh Golroo released from jail - Iranian student activist Mahdieh Golroo was released from Evin Prison today, Saturday, after 30 months in prison. Golroo was arrested during the widespread arrests and the heavy government crackdown on election protesters in Tehran and all of Iran's major cities. 5/20/12
Obama: G8 To Combine Sanctions, Diplomacy In Iran Talks - U.S. President Barack Obama says the leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) remain committed to using a combined approach of sanctions and diplomacy to push Iran to show its nuclear program is peaceful. 5/20/12
Iranian MP Decries IRGC Interference In Elections - Ali Motahari, a conservative Iranian MP, has accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of direct involvement in the ninth parliamentary elections, declaring that the "interference" was a "scourge" for both the Revolutionary Guards and the Islamic regime. 5/20/12
Ahwazi Arabs facing unfair trial, risk torture in Iran: Amnesty International - Six members of Iran's Ahwazi Arab minority are due to go on trial in Iran on 20 May. The men were detained without charge for almost a year and all were arrested in connection with their activities on behalf of Iran's Ahwazi Arab minority. 5/20/12
Iran opens RIRA Art Gallery in Dubai - The first Iranian art gallery dubbed "RIRA" Gallery was inaugurated in Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) showing works of Iranian artists in 3 generations. 5/20/12
Tens Of Thousands Protest Bahrain-Saudi Arabia Union Plan - Tens of thousands of mainly Shi'a have joined a march in Bahrain to denounce proposals for closer unity between the Sunni-ruled kingdom and neighboring Saudi Arabia. Protesters chanted "Bahrain is not for sale," as they marched outside the capital, Manama. 5/20/12
Iran: Accused in fraud case attends government meetings - Iranian news websites report that the former deputy head of the Central Bank, who is accused of playing a part in Iran's $3-billion bank fraud and is currently out on bail, is attending important meetings of the Ahmadinejad administration. 5/20/12
Iran to be among five top countries with drilling tech by 2016 - Deputy Iranian Oil Minister for Research and Technology said Iran would be placed among the five top countries with drilling industry by the end of the 5th development program (2016). 5/20/12
IAEA chief to visit Iran - Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will fly to Tehran on Sunday May 20 to discuss Iran's nuclear program with that country's top nuclear negotiators, including Saeed Jalili, the head of Iran's Supreme Council of National Security. 5/19/12
A Rare Show Of Public Support For Gay Rights In Iran - On May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, a small group of Iranians publicly displayed support for gay rights despite the Islamic republic's tough laws against homosexuality and the associated social stigma. -Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL 5/19/12
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Update on Persepolis tablets, diplomacy and "redlines" - First, our recent efforts to protect the Persepolis Tablets from a Senate sanctions bill were successful! Thanks to thousands of letters you sent to your Senators, and to our direct consultations with the Senate and affected parties, the sanctions bill has been amended to no longer put the Persepolis Tablets in jeopardy. -Jamal Abdi, NIAC 5/19/12
Iran's future: out of the trap - The combination of sanctions and the threat of war undermines the space for Iranian civil society to press its claim for rights and freedoms. The resumption of negotiations over the nuclear issues is an opportunity for western states to choose a better course, say Ramin Jahanbegloo & RN Khatami. -Ramin Jahanbegloo and RN Khatami 5/19/12
Foreign Minister hopes Iran-IAEA agree on new modality - Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi expressed hope that Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could reach an agreement on designing a new modality, as confirming reports on the agency's Director General visit to Tehran. 5/19/12
Iranian-Russian Relations during Putin's Third Presidency - As for the future of Moscow-Tehran ties, one may argue that Russia will probably adopt a distinct approach independent from the West, which will in turn contribute to the relative improvement of Iranian-Russian relations. -Hassan Beheshtipour 5/19/12
Photos: Morality Police Hunting "Improperly Clothed" Women In Tehran - The "morality police" in Tehran has stepped up enforcement in the capital city. Mostly women are the targets as they are stopped, questioned, or detained by the police for "improper" clothing or makeup. -Armin Karami 5/18/12
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House Vote on Iran Is No Endorsement of "Zero Enrichment" Redline - The pro-peace community won an important battle this week as opposition to H.Res.568 and its Senate companion forced the bills' sponsors to address dangerous ambiguities in the legislation. The resolution rules out containing a "nuclear weapons capable" Iran, a term the resolution does not define but that many interpreted as ruling out uranium enrichment -- the "red line" for war that opponents of diplomacy have pressured the United States government to adopt. -NIAC 5/18/12
Iran: Article supporting rapper draws officials' wrath - Tehran University has announced that the Sobh-e Farda student newspaper has been shut down after publishing an article in support of Shahin Najafi, the controversial Iranian rapper. 5/18/12
Iranian physicist sentenced to prison - Omid Kokabee, an Iranian graduate student (University of Texas in Austin) who has been imprisoned in Tehran for the past 15 months, was sentenced to 10 years on Sunday for allegedly conspiring with foreign countries against Iran. -Nature 5/18/12
U.S. Senate Republicans Block New Iran Sanctions Bill - U.S. Senate Republicans said they needed more time to examine a revised packaged of new economic sanctions on Iran's oil sector and make sure that it was tough enough. 5/18/12
