Iran: extremely moderate

An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted the district of Behabad in the province of Yazd.
According to IRNA no reports of casualties or major damage to property are known.
Several teams have been dispatched to the district to evaluate possible damage.



The moderate daily newspaper Ham Mihan is banned less than two months after allowing it to return.
Gholam Hossein Karbaschi,the editor, told that the prosecutor's office has sent an official notice telling not to publish.
The ban is due to legal problems related to its chief manager, Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi.He was sentenced in 1998 to two years imprisonment on charges of corruption.
Ham-Mihan was banned back in 2000 but allowed to be reopened last May.


In Iran are several journalists arrested in recent weeks.

Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand, the editor of Payam-e mardom-e Kurdestan (a weekly that was closed down in 2004) was arrested on 1 July by intelligence ministry agents.
Said Matinpour,of Yarpagh (an Azeri-language weekly based in Tehran) has been detained since 28 May, when he and his wife were arrested at their home. He has been transferred to Evin Prison, ward 209.
Mohammad Hassan Fallahieh, Mohammad Hassan Fallahieh, a journalist with the Arabic-language service of the public radio and TV broadcaster Al-Alam, was tried by a revolutionary tribunal on 29 April on a charge of spying and was sentenced to three years in prison. He is also now being held in Evin prison’s security section 209.



Iranian and international rights groups have expressed concern over reports suggesting that a possible death sentence was handed down against Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi and some of his followers.
Boroujerdi is a vocal advocate of the secularistic Islam.
Unconfirmed reports on Iranian websites suggested that Iran's Special Court for the Clergy (SCC) in mid-June ordered the executions.
Semi-official media rejected the reports, saying no sentence has been issued and officials are still reviewing the case.
Mr. Lahidji of International Federation of Human Rights says a lack of transparency by Iran's judiciary and the clerics' court makes it impossible to confirm reports of the charges or possible sentencing.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl