Iran, under U.N. sanctions for its nuclear program, received only 32 votes from U.N. members, compared with 158 for Japan. Mexico and Uganda ran unopposed and received seats.

Almost three decades after the Islamic Republic’s founding, former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders are infiltrating the political, economic, and cultural life of Iran. Half the members of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cabinet are former IRGC officers,[1] and he has appointed several IRGC officers to provincial governorships.

Responding to the report, the Treasury said it has repeatedly expressed its “deep concerns about Iran’s financial and material support to deadly terrorist groups.”

At least two shipments over the past year are believed to have been destined for Iran’s Shahab rocket program, according to Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office. The rockets have an estimated range of 1,300 to 1,600 kilometres and could reach Israel. There are fears they also could someday be fitted with nuclear warheads.

“I had a lot of problems because of this movie [Iranian officials] took my passport. The intelligence service interrogated me several times. In the end, the judge said, ‘We have to see the movie and then decide what we’re going to do with you,’” The New York Daily News quoted the actress, as saying.

That country was hit with a U.N. arms embargo to keep weapons out of its western Darfur region, where Khartoum has been accused of genocide by the United States and the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plays for all the nukes on “Deal or No Deal”…

Elisabeth Guigou, a French socialist lawmaker, said Sunday that the delegation failed to gain new insights into Iran’s nuclear policies during the two-day visit.
“As far as the nuclear issue is concerned, we leave Iran with less than we knew before,” he told reporters at the French ambassador’s residence in Tehran.

The United Nations General Assembly will be voting on October 17, 2008 to fill vacancies for the rotating seats on the UN Security Council. Iran is a candidate, running against Japan for the seat reserved for the Asian bloc. Uganda is set to take the open African seat, since it is facing no opposition from any other member state in that region. Mexico is also running uncontested for the Latin American seat.

The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been unnerved by something it is not used to confronting – a strike.