Iran: special

Iran has opened its first space centre.The space centre includes an underground control station and launch pad which will be used to fire an Iranian satellite named "Omid" (Hope) into space.
To inaugurate the spacecentre, a sounding rocket was launched into space.
The rocket, Kavoshgar1 was launched as a preliminary step towards sending the Omid satellite into orbit.
Omid is the first advanced scientific research satellite designed and made by Iranian scientists.


A prominent Iranian reformist cleric has been sentenced to more than three years in jail.
According to ISNA Hadi Ghabel is sentenced to a year in jail for acting against national security, 10 months for propaganda against the system and 15 months for spreading lies.
An appeals clerical court had upheld the verdict which also sentenced Ghabel to "being defrocked for disgracing the clergy".
He has to pay a $540 fine for insulting the supreme leader and has to serve a 100-day jail term for insulting the judiciary.
He was arrested last September on the orders of a special court in charge of the clergy in the town of Qom.
He is a member of the executive council of the Iranian Islamic Participation Front (IIPF).



For the third time in one week an underseas internetcable in the Persian Gulf was cut.The cause may have been "snapped" by a ship´s anchor.
The countries most affected by the damaged cables are Egypt, India and the Middle East (in particular Iran).
Israel and Iraq, were not affected by this problem as they use an alternative route for this service.
This morning rumour spread that Iran was disconnected from the internet. (Internet Traffic Report ).
But this information is not true, says uruknet;the site pings to a single router in Iran, while there are more routers available for connectivity.


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