News reports say Al-Qaeda has appointed a new interim leader to take the place of Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. raid on his hideout in Pakistan on May 2. Al-Jazeera television and CNN identified him as Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian former special-forces officer who is a veteran militant. He is in [...]

The United States froze the assets Tuesday of an Iranian state-owned bank for its alleged help with Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons program. The Iranian government used Bank of Industry and Mine “to evade US and international sanctions against Iranian financial institutions involved in facilitating transactions in support of Iran’s proliferation activities,” the US Treasury Department [...]

A court in December sentenced Rasoulof, along with prominent director Jafar Panahi, to six years in jail and barred him from making films for 20 years. The two were released on bail pending an appeal but banned from travel abroad. But his lawyer Iman Mirza-Zadeh told ISNA news agency that he received official confirmation on [...]

The head of Iran’s Human Rights Council says Iran has no objection to the United Nation’s special rapporteur visiting Iran. Mohammad Javad Lairijani said in a meeting with the Japanese Ambassador: “Iran is maintaining its position of welcoming all reporters and has no problem with their visiting Iran.” He claimed seven rapporteurs have so far [...]

Missing journalist Dorothy Parvaz has been released by Iranian authorities and was back at her residence in Doha, Qatar, her fiance said Wednesday. Parvaz’s fiance, Todd Barker, said she called him early Wednesday from Qatar as she was clearing customs. “I looked at my phone, saw it was her number and God, it was as [...]

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iranendorsed the call, by prominent prisoners of conscience, for an investigation into torture and mass due process violations and infringements on protections in Iran’s Citizen’s Bill of Rights following the 2009 presidential election. The Campaign called on the Central Committee charged with implementing the Citizen’s Bill of Rights to [...]

In interviews with Rooz, civil society activists and people familiar with the plight of political prisoners, stated that the execution of Kurdish political prisoner Habibollah Latifi has been upheld by the country’s highest judicial body and is awaiting implementation. Habibollah Latifi’s family members, who were arrested as a precautionary measure as his execution became more imminent, [...]

Moments ago, Bijan Fathi told the International Campaign for Abolishing the Death Penalty in Iran that his two sons Abdollah and Mohammad Fathi were executed after meeting for the last time with their mother. The efforts of, the victims’ family members, the activists, and the human rights organizations to halt or postpone the execution continued [...]

The Iranian foreign ministry says it is “pursuing” the whereabouts of a Canadian journalist working for Al-Jazeera television after Syrian officials said she had been deported to Iran. “We are pursuing the issue. Acquiring information about her situation is important for us,” ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday when asked if Dorothy Parvez was in [...]

Both the House and Senate are preparing new legislation to increase pressure on Iran, but the House fired the opening salvo on Monday with a new bill authored by both heads of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “U.S. policy towards Iran has offered a lot of bark, but not enough bite.  This new bipartisan legislation would [...]