Rooyesh

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman condemned the recent gun rampage in Virginia Tech University and expressed sentiments of condolence to the people and families of the victims. On Monday, a gunman killed 32 people at University of Virginia, shooting down students who were attending classes and then finally committed suicide by shooting himself. Most of the victims were students. Reportedly, fifteen were wounded and some of the students were hurt jumping from windows in an attempt to escape the shooting.

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Pakistani security sources tell ABC News that the Iranian and Pakistani governments have launched a crackdown on the Baluchi militant group Jundullah, which ABC News reported has been secretly encouraged and advised by U.S. officials to stage guerrilla attacks inside Iran. On Wednesday, a contingent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, acting with what the Pakistani source called “specific intelligence,” moved against several Jundullah hideouts in and around the towns of Pishin and Zahedan in Iranian Baluchistan.

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The wife of a former FBI agent who went missing in Iran a month ago has asked that country’s government for help in locating her husband as new information about his whereabouts and trip has become known. “I’m seeking guidance and direction from the Iranian authorities in finding my husband,” Christine Levinson said in a statement released Monday. Her husband, Robert, a 22-year veteran of the FBI, disappeared in March after visiting the Iranian island of Kish, where he was reportedly traveling on behalf of an American documentary producer.

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Iran, officials said Tuesday, accusing the Islamic republic of stepping up its attempts to recruit visiting Israelis. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under agency rules, did not say when the man, who is Jewish, was detained or if he was still in custody. Israel and Iran are bitter enemies. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and Israel says he is seeking a nuclear arsenal. But the countries are not officially in a state of war and Israelis with family ties in Iran are still allowed to visit there.

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Iran’s Supreme Court has acquitted a group of men charged over a series of gruesome killings in 2002, according to lawyers for the victims’ families. The vigilantes were not guilty because their victims were involved in un-Islamic activities, the court found. The killers said they believed Islam let them spill the blood of anyone engaged in illicit activities if they issued two warnings to the victims. The serial killings took place in 2002 in the south-eastern city of Kerman.

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Iran will next week launch an annual summer crackdown on women, as well as men, whose dress is deemed to be out of line with its Islamic laws, the media reported on Tuesday. The deputy head of Tehran’s police Hossein Sadjedi-Nia warned that women “dressed up like models” with overly short mantos (coats), tight outergarments and inadequate headscarves would face being apprehended in the crackdown.

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