Stop Fundamentalism – Foreign Ministers of the European Union Member States voted Monday to ban import of oil from Iran as a reaction to Iran’s defiance of international concern regarding its clandestine nuclear activities.
The European Ministers who met in Brussels today also agreed to freeze all accounts held by Iranian Central Bank throughout Europe.
SF News – The Head of IraninanFarabi Foundation predicted in an interview today that on Tuesday January 24 when the final names of Oscars nominees will be announced, ‘Nader and Simin, A Separation’ will definitely be among non-English productions named.
Stop Fundamentalism – Iranian news media reported today that this country’s money is now worth even less than last week comparing to Dollar. Mehr news agency reported that while the Central Bank of Iran is silent, Dollar is sold in Iran’s open market for 20,500 Rial each. That is over 10% loss in value since last Friday for the currency.
Stop Fundamentalism – Gelareh Bagherzadeh, 30, an Iranian born medical student in Texas and a student activist, was shot to death in her car on the way home. She was shot dead through her car window around Midnight Monday, reported ABC News.
Huston police told reporters that when the police arrived at the scene her car was still running.
Stop Fundamentalism – Following the success of an Iranian movie, A Separation, winning the Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Movie, now Iranian producers want a bigger chunk of not just Hollywood but the Wall Street as well.
An Iranian film producer has announced plans to create a documentary movie about Wall Street protests.
“My aim is to shed light on the movement,” said Iranian producer Ali Farsi. “Three different movies will be produces, one by an American film maker and the other two by two Iranians documentary film makers.”
Stop Fundamentalism – Iran is planning to develop its own search engine, to replace globally used search engines such as Google or Yahoo.
Iranian minister of communications, Reza Taghipour told Mehr state-run news agency that the plan to develop a national search engine is aiming to protect Iranian users’ privacy.
“There is no doubt that foreign search engines are in reality tools for espionage by outsiders” said Taghipour to Mehr, “We can see that in charts and figures they publish.”
Stop Fundamentalism – Heavy presence of Iranian police and security agencies in the streets of Tehran to confront illegal and uncontrolled sales of foreign currency, did not help stabilize the value of Rial today. Dollar was sold in streets of Tehran for 17000 to 17300 Rials today which is relatively higher that its price last week.
The Iranian Central Bank has stopped providing foreign currency to foreign exchanges altogether.
Stop Fundamentalism – Iran executed 12 prisoners in the central city of Shiraz Sunday 15 January, report Iranian news agencies.
Five of the prisoners were hanged in public in various locations in the city and the reset were hanged in Adelabab prison in a group execution.
SF News – Iranian movie maker Ashrar Farhadi was in Hollywood last night to receive the Golden Globe prize for his movie ‘Nader and Simin, A Separation’ as the best foreign language film.
‘A Separation’ had received the Golden Bear Film Awards earlier in Berlin, Germany. Two of the casts also received the Silver Bear at this festival.
Stop Fundamentalism – An Iranian website affiliated with ruling sectors of the Iranian regime threatened western countries of retaliations for the loss of its nuclear scientists.
A deputy director of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant was killed Wednesday when a magnetic bomb exploded in his car. The bombing took place at the anniversary of another nuclear scientist who was killed last year on the same day. Iran blames U.S. and Israel for the killing.
“Iran enters a new phase for special intelligence operations against its enemies, a task that it uniquely specializes in,” wrote the website ‘Tabnak’ yesterday adding, “The response region would be beyond our borders and regional.”
