New York Times: TEHRAN - Iran's defense minister, Vice Adm. Ali Shamkhani, has warned that Iran may resort to pre-emptive strikes to prevent an attack on its nuclear facilities.
Admiral Shamkhani made his comments in an interview on Al Jazeera television on Wednesday in response to a question about the possibility of an American or Israeli attack against Iran's nuclear projects.
AFP: Iranian Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani warned today that Iran might launch a pre-emptive strike against US forces in the region to prevent an attack on its nuclear facilities.
"We will not sit (with arms folded) to wait for what others will do to us. Some military commanders in Iran are convinced that preventive operations which the Americans talk about are not their monopoly," Shamkhani told Al-Jazeera TV ...
AFP: Iran's conservative parliament is preparing designs for national Islamic costumes to combat the corrupting influence of Western fashion, a prominent MP said Wednesday.
"We have to design new trends within the framework of an Islamic dress code. Both men and women need a national costume," Emad Afroogh, head of the parliamentary cultural commission, told student news agency ISNA.
AFP: Iran's conservative-controlled parliament on Wednesday blocked a plan to define political crimes which would have clarified the status of political prisoners, said the student news agency ISNA.
The parliament, or Majlis, blocked a proposal that asked the government to give a legal definition of political crimes.
Xinhuanet: The United States said on Wednesday that Iran had a clandestine nuclear weapons program and the US commitment was to address the problem through peaceful diplomatic engagement.
Daily Telegraph: Iran warned America and Israel last night that it was ready to launch pre-emptive strikes to stop them attacking its nuclear facilities.
Ali Shamkhani, the Iranian defence minister, said the presence of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan was not a threat to Teheran. On the contrary, American soldiers were now "hostages" to Iran.
AFP: Iran's conservative-dominated parliament voted down a bid by its reformist predecessor to support women's rights and enforce gender equality, press reports said Wednesday.
The Guardian: Security officials in Baghdad were last night urgently investigating the background of 30 Iranians who were caught fighting for a rebel Shia cleric in Iraq, amid mounting concern over the involvement of the Tehran regime in the uprising.
Los Angeles Times: A California aircraft parts supplier, Interaero Inc., pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to illegally shipping $40,000 of missile and jet fighter equipment to a supplier in China who planned to forward the shipment to Iran.
Washington Post: Iran told British, French and German officials last month that it could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb within a year, Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton said yesterday in arguing the case for international pressure on the Islamic Republic.
AFP: Iran is determined to proceed with its nuclear programme despite international concern, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has insisted, the state news agency IRNA reported Monday.
UPI: A senior Iraqi government official played videotapes for reporters showing seized boxes of weapons intended for Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army. Wael Abdel Latif, minister for the provinces in Iraq's interim administration, said the weapons came from Iran.
AP & JERUSALEM POST: Iran plans to arm its missiles with nuclear warheads, according to Israel Airforce chief Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedi. Shkedi told Army Radio that not just Israel is threatened but the entire world.
USA TODAY: Iran's increasing support for insurgent Shiites in Iraq is giving the fighting in Najaf the appearance of a proxy war between Iran and the United States, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
VOA: Like despotic rulers everywhere, the extremist Muslim clerics who run Iran consider the people their greatest enemy. That is why, says U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Irans rulers are worried about the movement toward democracy in Iraq:
Iran Focus: A new wave of crackdown against young people, particularly girls, has been launched by the Iranian security forces in conjunction with other security services under the pretext of campaign against symbols of public corruption and improper veiling.
#Iran - April 10 - Bojnurd, North Khorasan Province, Northeast