An appellate court in Tehran confirmed a five-year sentence against imprisoned union leader Mansur Osanlu Oct. 30. The court also upheld a two-year prison sentence against another senior member of Osanlu's union, Ebrahim Madadi, for acting against Iran's national security. Osanlu, head of the Syndicate Workers of the Tehran Bus Company, has been incarcerated at Tehran's Evin prison since July, when he pulled from a bus, beaten, and abducted. Madadi was detained along with four other union members in August after they visited Osanlu's home.

Despite the ignorant blather of his brainless liberal apologists that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is "not a 'Holocaust denier'" but merely calls for more research into whether it happened (gee, thanks for raising this subtle distinction), BBC Monitoring notes an Oct. 5 radio address by His Excellency, delivered in Tehran during Friday prayers—part of a series of state-sponsored rallies for "Al-Quds Day"—in which he shows his hand pretty blatantly:

A very important story by Kimia Sanati from InterPress Service, Oct. 3:

Islamist, Socialist Revolutions Don't Mix
An attempt to rope in the son and daughter of the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara to forge a parallel between Iran's Islamist revolution and the socialist revolution in Latin America through a four-day conference has ended in fiasco.

A Sept. 29 AP story given prominent placement in the New York Times, "Nervous Gulf Hears Calmer Tones on Iran," notes that CentCom chief Adm. William Fallon, on a tour of the Persian Gulf states, is reassuring regional leaders that a war with Iran is not in the offing. "This constant drum beat of conflict is what strikes me which is not helpful and not useful," Fallon said in Sept. 23 interview with Al-Jazeera TV. "I expect that there will be no war and that is what we ought to be working for. We ought to try and to do our utmost to create different conditions." The Times quoted some talking heads from the "pragmatist" wing of the power elite who were encouraged by Fallon's statement. "It's all about trying to contain Iran without turning this into a war," said Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington.

A commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards died after an ambush on Sept. 20 by Ahwazi militants. Mehdi Bayat was killed near the Revolutionary Guards base in Hamidiyah, near Ahwaz City in western Khuzestan province, where Iran's Ahwazi Arab minority have launched a struggle for autonomy or independence. Bayat was a commanding officer responsible for training members of the Bassij militia in Khaffajiyah. The town of Khaffajiyah has witnessed a number of disturbances by Ahwazi Arab groups which have been brutally put down by the Revolutionary Guards' elite Ashura Brigades.

Not for the first time. From AFP, Sept. 24:

UNITED NATIONS — Iranian pro-democracy activists strongly oppose any military attack on their country but want the world to condemn Tehran's human rights violations, Iranian dissident journalist Akbar Ganji said in a petition seen Monday.

From Amnesty International, Aug. 23:

Iran: Authorities thwart campaign for gender equality
Women's rights activists in Iran face imprisonment. Activists campaigning for gender equality in Iran are unable to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association, as shown by a number of recent arrests. Many of those arrested are supporters of the Campaign for Equality, a network which works to end legal discrimination against women.

Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Gulerhas announced his government will invest $3.5 billion in Iran's South Pars gas field starting from 2008, a week after signing a deal to use Iran as a transit route for gas from Turkmenistan to European markets. Ankara also made clear that it sees Iran as a potential partner for the Nabucco gas pipeline project, conceived as a means of diversifying gas supplies to Europe. Washington has voiced its opposition to the memorandum of understanding between Turkey and Iran. In an interview with NTV news this week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the deal, adding that "Turkey thinks of its own interests and the US will eventually understand this." (Press TV, July 19)