PayvandNews – Speculation has been rife in Iranian media outlets about what Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s next cabinet line-up will look like. President Rouhani has himself been particularly reticent about individual choices, sending the speculation mill at newspapers, periodicals, news websites, and the social media into overdrive less than two weeks before his new administration officially takes office. Source: Seda magazine Commentary, political …

PayvandNews – Iranian speed climber Reza Alipour won the country’s first gold medal in The World Games history on Sunday.  Alipour registered multiple times below 5.70 seconds on route to winning the first gold medal.

PayvandNews – Two teams of Iranian students won several medals in the 49th International Chemistry Olympiad and the 58th International Mathematical Olympiad, which were held in Thailand in Brazil respectively in recent days. Iran ranked third in the chemistry Olympiad, which was held from July 6 to 15 in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, ISNA reported. The event hosted 297 students from 76 …

PayvandNews – Iran and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Sunday for implementing a project linking rail networks of the two neighboring countries. The MOU, between Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (IRIR), also known as RAI, and Afghanistan Railway Authority (ARA), was signed by IRIR’s Managing Director Saeed Mohammadzadeh and Afghanistan Railway Authority’s Director General Mohammad Yamma Shams during …

RFL/RE – Iranian lawmakers have proposed changes to the country’s tough antidrugs laws, a move that could abolish the death penalty for some drug-related crimes. If approved by parliament, a proposed amendment could curb the number of executions in the Islamic republic, which has one of the highest rates of capital punishment in the world. Iran has been under mounting …

RFL/RE – The White House says it is open to new legislation that would slap new sanctions on Russia and limit U.S. President Donald Trump’s ability to ease or lift them by himself. The comments by White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a July 23 television interview came a day after Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington said they had …

Al-Arabia – Iranian Member of Parliament Hassan Noroozi, the spokesperson of the parliament’s judicial committee, said there was a draft law to provide drug addicts with coupons to get drugs from the government. The Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) quoted Noroozi as saying that distributing these coupons will be carried out like the days of the Shah, adding that religious references …

Al-Arabia – Last week, security forces arrested members of a Bahraini institution called the Manama Human Rights Observatory that works under the pretext of defending human rights. This incident raised a series of questions: Does the Iranian-Qatari rapprochement have any negative repercussions on Bahrain’s security and stability? Is this a new rapprochement and happened as a reaction to the decision to …

Radiozmaneh – This short report is based on field observations and research inside Iran and paints the picture of the situation of Afghan migrant workers in Iran and the continuation of their exploitation. A Field Report By: S. Eqbal S. Eghbal – If they find work, they will be paid much lower wages compared to their Iranian counterparts. In order to …

VOA — Iranian state TV is reporting a strong 5.4 magnitude earthquake has led to a power outage in a remote area in the country’s south. The quake that struck at around 10 p.m. local time on Sunday jolted the Sirch village in the southern province of Kerman, some 1100 kilometers (683 miles) south of the capital Tehran. The report said …