The Washington Post has published an article headlined "Iran's nuclear program reportedly struggling". The author reports that Iran's nuclear program has experienced serious problems, including unexplained fluctuations in the performance of the thousands of centrifuges enriching uranium, leading to a rare but temporary shut-down. The speculation immediately centred on the Stuxnet worm, a computer virus that some researchers say appears to have been designed specifically
to target Iran's centrifuge machines so that they spin out of control. No country has claimed responsibility for developing the virus, although suspicion has focused primarily on Israel and the United States.
"IRAN: Solidarity never, as hard-line government intensifies crackdown on labor", an article with such a headline has been published recently by The Los Angeles Times. The article touches upon the problem of the impact of the international sanctions on the lower and middle class in Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Iranians this month that "frugal" families have nothing to fear from impending economic pressures. However his government has increased pressure on independent labor union and their main activists, the author reports.
Today a prominent British newspaper The Guardian has published an article devoted to the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Mohammad Javad Larijani, a top advisor to the Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and the current secretary general of Iran's High Council for Human Rights has said that Mrs. Ashtiani's life could be saved, the author reports. "Iran's Council of Human Rights has helped a lot to reduce her sentence and we think there is a good chance that her life could be saved," Larijani said.
Turkish news agency Hurriyet has published an article entitled "Devilish details complicate Turkey's role in NATO missile defense". Major practical problems are emerging in the aftermath of a Lisbon
summit over the weekend at which NATO leaders agreed to create a collective missile defense system, a proposal Turkey only signed on to reluctantly, says the author. One key problem relates to Turkey's own national air defense program, in which Ankara seeks to buy long-range, medium-altitude air defense and missile defense systems. Another potential problem between Ankara and NATO over the missile shield plan was averted Monday when Ankara appeared to step back from an earlier demand to be in command of the alliance's missile defense system.
Another article published by Hurriyet is devoted to Turkish students who protest the country's prime minister. Eighteen students who protested Turkey's prime minister two years ago during the opening
ceremony of a new university term have been sentenced to one year and three months prison, the author reports. The court, which spent two years hearing the case, sentenced the students to prison on charges that they had made a demonstration without permission from authorities.
Today Iranian news agency Press TV has published an article headlined 'Regional ties Iran's top priority;. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says relations with Persian Gulf littoral states top the Islamic Republic's foreign policy agenda, the author reports. "We seek to expand ties with countries in the region to the highest level," said Mehmanparast. According to him, the key issue is media cooperation. "The enemies seek to create rifts between the regional countries by means of Islamophobia and Iranophobia projects and the media can well identify such plots and help diffuse them by making people aware," he further explained.
