Iranian master sculptor and painter Hannibal Alkhas died on September 14 in the United States at the age of 80. He was suffering from a form of cancer Alkhas traveled to Iran in June to attend his 80th birthday celebration that his students had arranged for him at the Iranian Artists Forum where a series [...]

Software created to help Iranians escape government control of the web has been withdrawn over security fears. Haystack was designed to help people in the country communicate via the web without revealing their identity. However, independent tests showed that Haystack’s creators had little control over who was using the program. The tests also revealed that [...]

Ayatollah Dastgheib, Iranian dissident cleric and Fars Province representative at the Assembly of Experts, boycotted the annual session today in protest to the assembly’s indifference to the demands of the people. Ayatollah Dastgheib published an open letter on his website addressing the members of the assembly urging them to abandon “deviatory discussions” in order to [...]

The number of Iranian diplomats seeking asylum abroad is increasing by day as today another Islamic Republic diplomat from Brussels announced his intention to defect in Oslo. Farzad Farhangian, head of Iranian Embassy Press in Brussels appeared in Oslo in a press conference with former Iranian ambassador to Norway and according to the French News [...]

Islamic Republic continues pressure on the opposition with further arrest of political activists and reformist figures. Opposition websites report that office administrator of opposition leader MirHosein Mousavi was arrested today. Kaleme Website reports that the unexplained arrest announces the “new wave of security pressures on Mousavi.” The office of MirHosein Mousavi has been under surveillance [...]

South Korea’s Kia Motors, whose Pride model is ubiquitous on Iranian roads, said Tuesday it had suspended exports to the Islamic state partly in response to Seoul’s nuclear-related sanctions. “South Korean government sanctions… were part of the decision,” Kia spokesman Michael Choo told AFP, declining to comment further. Kia’s Pride, a small hatchback, accounts for [...]

THE RELEASE of American Sarah Shourd, who left Iran Tuesday after more than a year of cruel and unjust imprisonment, was clearly in the interest of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr. Ahmadinejad is due to visit New York next week for a disarmament meeting at the U.N. General Assembly, where his crude propaganda initiatives and half-baked [...]

A third Iranian diplomat upset with Tehran’s post-election crackdown on dissidents has defected in Europe — this time in Belgium, an opposition group said Monday. The announcement came just hours after the No. 2 man at Iran’s mission in Helsinki said he will seek asylum in Finland. The defections are an embarrassment for Iran, which [...]

Haystack, a company that has created software designed to circumvent Iranian government censors, has stopped testing its program amid criticism of faulty security. Haystack founder Austin Heap said in an interview Monday that concerns about how his much-touted software program works and whether it’s secure were “valid.” “For the time being, we are going to [...]

Hassan Asadi Zeidabadi, member of executive committee of Iranian student organization Danesh Amoukhtegan, was sentenced to five years in prison and a monetary fine by Iranian judiciary. Advar news reports that the student activist was served his sentence by Judge Maghiseh this morning. Asadi, who was the head of the organization’s human rights committee, was [...]