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In a statement, press secretary Jay Carney says the U.S. respects the Iranian election and congratulates the Iranian people. "We have seen the announcement by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran that Hojjatoleslam Doctor Hassan Rouhani has been declared the winner of Iran’s presidential election. We respect the vote of the Iranian people and congratulate them for their participation in the political process, and their courage in making their voices heard. Yesterday’s election took place against the backdrop of a lack of transparency, censorship of the media, Internet, and text messages, and an intimidating security environment that limited...

SNIPPET - quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1955.aspx Treasury Announces New Sanctions Against Iran Actions Target Iran’s Nuclear and Missile Proliferation Activities 5/23/2013     WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury is taking action today against 20 individuals and entities for their involvement in Iran’s nuclear and missile proliferation networks and Iran’s continued attempts to circumvent sanctions. These networks are responsible for moving supplies and providing essential services to Iran’s clandestine nuclear and weapons programs. These actions are designed to increase pressure on the Iranian regime by tightening sanctions against Iran’s energy sector and exposing key proliferation related networks that span the...

Canada to announce arrests after thwarting "major terrorist attack":CBCR Reuters – 19 mins ago TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police and intelligence agencies are to announce multiple arrests on Monday after an operation to thwart a "major terrorist attack," the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said on Monday, citing unnamed "highly placed" sources.

KATHMANDU SNIPPET: The Annapurna Post vernacular daily reported on Sunday that the arrest was made on April 13. Identified as Mohsin Khosravian, the suspect is currently in police custody.

 The security officials at the Embassy speculated that the suspect was scouting the facility with a harmful intention "for he carried a tourist map of the Lazimpat area" where the Israeli mission is located. 

He had stayed in a Thamel-based hotel. After his arrest, the suspect told police that he had ventured out to find out a shop to repair his laptop.

 According to the report, the Nepal Police's Central Bureau...

An Iranian citizen has been arrested for spying on Israeli sites in an apparent search for a target, Channel 2 news reports. The man was found to be in possession of a false Israeli passport. He had received the false passport in Malaysia and had successfully used it to enter Nepal and Sri Lanka. He was seen by an Israeli as he spied on the Israeli embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal. He reportedly confessed to the suspicions against him.

Hassan Shateri, the Iranian general whose killing was reported last week, was actually slain last month in an alleged IAF airstrike that was said to have targeted a weapons convoy heading from Syria to the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Britain’s Sunday Times reported. Iran was quick last week to blame “mercenaries and supporters” of Israel for Shateri’s death, although it made no indication that he had been killed in the January airstrike. Tehran “will take revenge on Israel for the killing of a Quds Force general in Syria,” said Ali Shirazi, liaison for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the Revolutionary...

The head of Germany's Green party, Claudia Roth, is under fire for 'high fiving' the Iranian ambassador to Germany, Ali Reza Sheikh Attar. Akhtar is accused of massacring Kurds when he was governor of their region between 1980 and 1985. Let's go to the videotape. More after the video.

Panetta: Iranian Threat Spreads By JULIAN E. BARNES and ADAM ENTOUS In an exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal Thursday, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta sited illicit arms trafficking by Iran for what he called a "dangerous escalation" of tensions. WSJ's Julian Barnes shares his take-aways from the exit interview. WASHINGTON—Defense Secretary Leon Panetta accused Iran's paramilitary force of an intensified campaign to destabilize the Middle East by smuggling antiaircraft weapons to its militant allies. Iran's export of so-called manpads—antiaircraft missiles that can be carried by a single person—represent what Mr. Panetta called a dangerous escalation. "There is no...

"IRAN SPY NETWORK 30,000 STRONG Pentagon report: Iranian intelligence linked to spying, terror attacks" SNIPPET: "Iran’s intelligence service includes 30,000 people who are engaged in covert and clandestine activities that range from spying to stealing technology to terrorist bombings and assassination, according to a Pentagon report." SNIPPET: "“MOIS provides financial, material, technological, or other support services to Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), all designated terrorist organizations under U.S. Executive Order 13224,” the report said. The spy service operates in all areas where Iran has interests, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Central Asia, Africa, Austria, Azerbaijan, Croatia, France,...

The Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo is reporting that a new computer virus is wiping out computer hard drives in Iran (Hat Tip: Sunlight). A mysterious new computer virus has infected Iranian computers and is completely wiping users’ hard drives, according to Iranian officials. The “efficient” virus is said to “wipe files on different drives in various predefined times” and cannot be detected by anti-virus software, Iran’s official Information Technology Organization revealed in a statement over the weekend. The malware does not appear to be as sophisticated as previous viruses that have targeted computers governing Iran’s nuclear program, according to...

A 52-year-old Highland Park father is one of two U.S. citizens charged with agreeing to sell missiles and other weapons to the Taliban for their use against American troops in Afghanistan, according to a complaint unsealed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan last week. Oded Orbach, born in Israel, was among seven men arrested in an international sting operation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Paid informants posing as Taliban representatives conspired with the men to ship narcotics through West Africa — with a portion intended for the United States — and to use the proceeds to buy weapons for protecting Taliban-owned...

Iran’s government mouthpiece Press TV is panicking over the prospect of a defeat for President Barack Obama and warns that Mitt Romney will steal the election through “black-box” voting machines that "manufacture election outcomes.” It also charged that the polls – virtually all of which now show Romney in the lead or at least in a dead heat – are fraudulent. Press TV has picked up on some American website tweets that predict black Americans will riot if Obama loses. Obama is far from being a friend of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the prospect of a hawkish Republican candidate...

Hassan Gol Khanban is thought to have planned his defection in advance of his trip to the United States, taking steps to have his family flee Iran in the hope that they too can gain asylum, his lawyer, Paul O'Dwyer, said. Mr Khanban, who is believed to have worked for the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB for several years, had accompanied Mr Ahmadinejad to New York to attend last week's session of the UN General Assembly. Mr O'Dwyer said that his client's wife and two children had left Iran while he was in New York and that efforts were being made...

@mrubin1971Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.First, this story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet and sourced in part to Israeli radio. The Naharnet story was taken down shortly after it appeared: Hezbollah is using a training base established by Iran in northern Nicaragua near the border with Honduras, the Israeli radio reported on Thursday [September 6]. “The area is cordoned off and there are around 30 members...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- A man who admits that he intentionally plowed into nine people on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus last week told authorities he was disappointed that more people were not around when he carried out the alleged attack. In a search warrant released Tuesday, Mohammed Taheri-azar told authorities that for two years, he had been thinking about some type of attack because "the United States government had been killing his people across the sea." Taheri-azar told authorities he had been carefully planning the attack for two months and had rented the Jeep Cherokee in which he drove on...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The man who hit nine people with a sport utility vehicle on the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus wrote a letter to a television reporter saying he read the Quran's 114 chapters 15 times and found that the Muslim holy book justified the attack. ''I did not act out of hatred for Americans, but out of love for Allah instead,'' Mohammed Taheri-azar, 22, wrote in a letter to Amber Rupinta dated March 10 posted on WTVD's Web site. Police say that just before lunchtime March 3, Taheri-azar drove a rented 2006 Jeep Cherokee through the...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The man who told authorities he drove a SUV into a crowd of students at UNC three weeks ago appeared in court. After the hearing, family members said they are shocked by their loved one's actions and words. Mohammed Taheri-azar, 22, appeared to laugh during a hearing earlier in the day as witnesses described the attack on the university's flagship campus. Taheri-Azar told investigators that he drove through the crowd at the Pit, a popular gathering spot on campus, because he wanted to kill people as payback for the killing of Muslims around the world. Laila...

Mohammed Taheri-Azar Admits Trying To Injure Students HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. -- Mohammed Taheri-Azar, who admits trying to run over several students at the University of North Carolina campus, is scheduled to appear in an Orange County courtroom Wednesday for a bond hearing. Taheri-Azar is currently in Central Prison on attempted murder and assault charges. He said he spends his days praying and reading the Qu'ran. He also spends time writing 25-page letters to the media about why he carried out his attack. His most recent set of letters was addressed to the Daily Tar Heel. The 22-year-old said he feels "no...

Hillsborough — A man accused of driving a sport utility vehicle through a crowd of UNC students will be placed at Dorothea Dix Hospital after he made disparaging remarks in court Monday. During the hearing, Mohammed Taheri-azar yelled that he "hates all Americans" and "hates all Jews." Taheri-azar then looked at Superior Court Judge Ken Titus and asked him what his name was and then asked him to spell it. Taheri-azar then looked at his attorney and said, "I don't know him." Taheri-azar also called his attorney "a moron" and said "hasta luego," before he was removed from the courtroom....

A US federal grand jury has indicted two men, one from Iran and the other from China, on charges of conspiring to send materials from the United States to Iran for the purpose of enriching uranium, the US Justice Department said on Friday. Using a Chinese company as a go-between to avoid trade sanctions, the men tried for three years to obtain US materials, such as high-strength steel, that could be used in an Iranian nuclear program, the department said. Iranian citizen Parviz Khaki was arrested in May in the Philippines, while the other man, Zongcheng Yi of China, remains...