Thirty-seven people have been killed after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck near Bushehr in Iran. Around 850 people have been injured, according to Iranian media. The area is home to the Bushehr nuclear power plant. At least 37 people had died so far and 850 were injured, including 100 who were hospitalized, Bushehr provincial governor Fereidoun Hasanvand told state TV. “Based on the most recent... 

The U.S. Senate passed unanimously an amendment to its budget resolution on Saturday, March 24, which supported attempts to block Iran’s access to its foreign exchange reserves and limit Iran’s ability to transact in Euros. The amendment, proposed by Republican Mark Kirk of Illinois and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia, follows a letter sent last month to European Council leaders by U.S.... 

US President Barack Obama must treat Iran interests seriously by accepting it as an unavoidably important regional player if he wants a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear issue, American analysts say. In an article published on Aljazeera website on Friday, Hillary Mann Leverett and Flynt Leverett, co-authors of the book Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic... 

The outcome of the biggest banking fraud case in Iran’s history was made official on February 18. According to Associated Press, four bankers have been sentenced to death in Iran for their role in a $2.6B scandal, while two more bankers were given life sentences, and 33 more accomplices will spend up to 25 years in jail, the chief prosecutor was quoted as saying. This is the biggest banking fraud... 

Argentinean lawmakers have approved an agreement with Iran to probe the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. According to the agreement, approved by Argentina’s Congress on Thursday, an independent “truth commission” would be established to investigate the attack. “I am no one’s puppet. The country is no one’s puppet. We assume our political commitment... 

President Barack Obama says the United States could launch an attack on Iran as early as this June, Israeli media reports. According to a report on Israel’s Channel 10 News that has since been picked up by the Times of Israel, Pres. Obama will use an upcoming meeting overseas to discuss a military strike on Iran. Pres. Obama is scheduled to visit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next month,... 

The European Central Bank is under pressure from US lawmakers over financial relations with the Iran. The legislators are masterminding a bill aimed at preventing the ECB doing any business with Tehran and keeping it from using the euro. The measure is more pressure by the US over Iran’s nuclear program. The draft is believed to be targeting the ECB’s cross-border payment system Target2,... 

On February 12, North Korea announced that it had successfully carried out its third underground nuclear test Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has rejected media claims about the presence of an Iranian expert at the site of North Korea’s recent nuclear test. “The source of the report is not valid,” Mehmanparast said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. On February... 

International sanctions imposed against Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program have actually helped the Islamic Republic to become self-sufficient in producing required materials, a recent article says. In a report published on Bloomberg on Friday, Jonathan Tirone said although sanctions have restricted Iran’s access to raw materials such as aluminum and maraging steel, they have encouraged... 

Iranian researchers have produced an indigenous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which can be used for reconnaissance mission together with a domestically-designed and -developed solar car. The aircraft, named ‘Afar’ and developed by Iranian technicians at the Qazvin Branch of the Islamic Azad University, has a wingspan of three meters (about 10 feet) and a hull length of 1.5 meters (about 5 feet). The... 

Iran’s supreme leader has refused a US offer for one-to-one talks over Tehran’s supposed nuclear weapons program. He dismissed talks as meaningless and accused Washington of coercing Iran at gunpoint. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei disregarded the US proposal of direct negotiations, claiming that “talks will not solve any problems.” “Some naive people like the idea of negotiating... 

Iran has unveiled today the optimized versions of two indigenously-designed and -manufactured tanks, named Zolfaqar and Samsam. The tanks, which have been upgraded by military experts in the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces, were unveiled on Monday as part of the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations commemorating the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground... 

Iran has presented its first domestically designed defense fighter-bomber jet with limited stealth capabilities. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed that the plane was designed for defense purposes, and will not be used for aggression. Codenamed Qaher-313 (‘Conqueror’), the jet is an advanced single-seat single-engine military plane. It is reportedly capable of engaging targets... 

Syria has filed an official complaint to the United Nations over an Israeli airstrike on a military research center near Damascus. The move followed a threat from Iran that Israel would face “serious consequences” for the attack. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said Tel Aviv would face repercussions for the Israeli airstrike against a military research center in Jamraya,... 

The Islamic Republic of Iran has sent a monkey into space on a suborbital flight and returned it to Earth safely. On Monday, Iran launched the Kavoshgar Pishgam (Pioneer Discoverer) rocket, which took the primate to an altitude of 120 kilometers. “In this project, we are sending a live animal, a monkey, into space. This kind of monkey’s physiology is very similar to humans. We are [using]...