Iran

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Child Bride in Iran Faces Hanging for Killing Husband

Human Rights Watch trying to stop execution

(Newser) - Human Rights Watch is trying to raise pressure on judges in Iran to call off the execution of a 21-year-old woman who killed her husband four years ago. Razieh Ebrahimi’s father forced her to marry a neighbor at age 14, and she gave birth to a child at...

ISIS Kills Shiite Volunteers Outside Holy City

Meanwhile, the White House says it may cooperate military with Iran

(Newser) - Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria killed over two dozen volunteer Shiite fighters today outside the holy city of Samarra—the first such attack since Shiites began signing up against ISIS, the New York Times reports. The volunteers, aiming to reinforce Iraqi defenses in Samarra, were traveling...

Every Iraqi Urged to Pick Up a Weapon

Iraq's top cleric says 'everyone who can' must fight

(Newser) - Iraq's top Shiite cleric issued a statement during Friday prayers today, calling on everyone—Shiite and Sunni alike—to fight back against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the New York Times reports. It is "the legal and national responsibility of whoever can hold a weapon, to...

Iran Spies Built Fake News Site to Trick US Targets

Hackers also used bogus Facebook accounts, says security firm

(Newser) - Iranian hackers savvy with social media created a fake news site and false Facebook credentials to spy on top-ranking officials in the US and elsewhere, the Wall Street Journal reports. Cybersecurity firm iSight Partners uncovered what it says is the most elaborate such scheme it has ever seen, reports Reuters...

Iran Hangs Figure in Massive Bank Fraud

He was convicted in $2.6B embezzlement scheme

(Newser) - Iran has its own way of dealing with bank fraud: hanging. State media announced today that a businessman convicted in the nation's biggest embezzlement case was executed today in prison, reports the BBC . Mahafarid Amir-Khosravi was one of four sentenced to death in the case, in which he and...

Iran Arrests 6 for 'Vulgar' Video of Pharrell's 'Happy'

Clip 'hurt public chastity,' Tehran's top cop says

(Newser) - A joyful homemade video of Pharrell Williams' "Happy" resulted in arrest and public humiliation for six young Iranians. Tehran's chief of police says the six people seen singing and dancing on the city's rooftops—including three unveiled young women—created a "vulgar clip which hurt public...

Mystery Surrounds US Plane Spotted in Tehran

The Bank of Utah owns it, sort of, and things get murkier from there

(Newser) - The New York Times today digs into a mystery: What was a private plane with a very small American flag on its tail doing at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport on Tuesday morning? As for who owns the plane, that would be the Bank of Utah—by proxy. The 13-branch community...

Parents Stop Hanging of Son's Killer at Last Moment

Iranian couple have change of heart

(Newser) - The Guardian has an amazing story from Iran, where the parents of a murdered man spared their son's killer during what was supposed to have been his public execution on Tuesday. The mercy came at the last possible moment for the man, identified only as Balal: The noose was...

Iran May Outlaw ... Vasectomies

Ayatollah is looking to boost national birthrate

(Newser) - Two decades ago, Iran started distributing free condoms and subsidizing men's sterilization. Now, it's looking to do quite the opposite: The country's parliament is considering a ban on vasectomies, along with a crackdown on contraception and abortion services. The goal: increasing the country's population, the Guardian...

Jet Passengers Refuse to Buckle Up, Save Deportee

They wouldn't fasten seat belts, and pilots couldn't take off

(Newser) - Passengers aboard a Swedish plane united in a simple but effective protest that has stopped a deportation, at least for now: They refused to buckle their seat belts, and that was enough to keep the plane from taking off, reports the Independent . The unusual action took place when passengers got...

US Refuses Visa to Iran Envoy Linked to '79 Crisis

White House won't let diplomat who worked with hostage-takers into the country

(Newser) - In what may be a first-of-its-kind diplomatic snub, the White House has told Iran that it will have to try again with its pick to be UN ambassador, reports the AP . The US will not issue a visa to Hamid Aboutalebi because of his ties to the revolutionary group that...

Iran: Fake US Warship Is Just a Movie Prop

Iranian media slams US for jumping to conclusions

(Newser) - The replica of an American aircraft carrier under construction in Iran is a mere movie prop, according to Iranian media. Iranian newspapers say the Nimitz-class replica spotted by satellites will appear in an upcoming movie about the downing of an Iran Air civilian plane by the USS Vincennes in 1988,...

Iran's Supreme Leader Denies Holocaust

Ayatollah reiterates belief in speech for new year

(Newser) - So much for the moderate new Iran. The nation's supreme leader today marked the start of the Persian New Year by denying the Holocaust, reports Haaretz . "The Holocaust is an event whose reality is uncertain and, if it happened, it's uncertain how it happened," Ayatollah Ali...

Iran Building Fake US Carrier ... to Blow Up?

US officials say it could be for propaganda boost

(Newser) - A ship nearing completion in Iran looks rather familiar to American eyes: US officials say it's a sort of replica of the Navy's Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier—it even has the Nimitz's number 68 painted near the bow—except that it's not actually a working aircraft...

Ex-Spy: Iran, Not Libya, Ordered Lockerbie Bombing

Attack was 'revenge for downing of Iranian plane'

(Newser) - The Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 went to his grave protesting his innocence —and new evidence suggests he was telling the truth and it was actually Iran behind the Lockerbie attack, an al-Jazeera investigation finds. A former Iranian intelligence officer is among the...

Israel: We Seized Iranian Ship Sending Missiles to Gaza

Hamas says it's not foolish enough to try to sneak through Israel's naval blockade

(Newser) - Israel raided a cargo vessel today that it says was loaded with Iranian missiles bound for Gaza. A special forces unit took the Kloc C, which is registered in Panama, in an early-morning raid personally overseen by Israeli Defense Forces chief Chief Benny Gantz, Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post report....

Acid-Thrower in Iran to Have Eyes Gouged Out

Critics say human-rights abuses are escalating in Tehran justice system

(Newser) - A state-run newspaper in Iran reports that a sadistic criminal will get a sadistic punishment. An Iranian court has ruled that a man who poured acid on a girl's face will have his eyes gouged out, says the report in Shraq, as noted by the opposition group National Council...

Iraq Inks Deal to Buy Arms from Iran

Nouri al-Maliki got tired of US foot-dragging: Iraqi lawmakers

(Newser) - Iran has agreed to sell arms and ammunition worth $195 million to Iraq after Washington apparently hesitated to make an arms deal with Baghdad. According to Reuters , signed documents show that Iran will sell mortar launchers, tank ammunition, light and medium arms, and other weapons—as well as night vision...

Iran's US Navy Hack Lasted 4 Months

Head responder poised for scrutiny as NSA nominee

(Newser) - A cyberattack last year saw Iran infiltrate the US Navy's unclassified intranet—and it took US officials some four months to "eliminate the bad guys from our networks," a top US official tells the Wall Street Journal . The hack, initially reported last year, was far larger than...

Ayatollah: Nuclear Talks 'Will Lead Nowhere'

Pessimism high as talks resume today in Vienna

(Newser) - Negotiators from Iran and six other nations will convene today in Vienna to try to hammer out a permanent follow-up to Iran's temporary nuclear deal , but expectations aren't exactly soaring. "The nuclear negotiations will lead nowhere," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted yesterday, echoing the feelings of many...

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