Free Republic

WASHINGTON—U.S. authorities said Tuesday they had charged two men in an Iranian-directed plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. The alleged assassination plot would represent an escalation in the confrontation between mostly Shiite Iran and mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia, two longtime Middle East rivals. The charges are also a rare instance of Washington accusing Iranian groups of fomenting terrorism on U.S. soil. Elements of the Iranian government were ready to spend $1.5 million to hire what they believed was a drug-cartel hit squad from Mexico, said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Prosecutors filed several criminal charges against...

Text of report by Iranian conservative, privately-owned Fars News Agency website Fars news desk: Gholam Hoseyn Elham, the minister of justice, has written a letter to his Dutch opposite number, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, expressing concerns over the making of an offensive film against the Koran in Holland and urged him to prevent the screening of this film. Quoting the government news dissemination centre, Fars reports that Gholam-Hoseyn Elham has sent a letter to Ernst Hirsch Ballin the minister of justice of the Kingdom of Holland to express his concerns over the making of an offensive film against the Holy Koran...