Press Roundup provides a selected summary of news from the Iranian press, and excerpts where the source is in English. Click on the link to the story to read it in full. Tehran Bureau has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. Please refer to the Media Guide to help put the stories in perspective. You can follow other news stories through our Twitter feed.

Angry mob turns on Iran opposition leader: report

AFP | Aug 5, 2010

Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi was harassed by "angry" people on Thursday as he attended a mourning ceremony at a mosque in Tehran, Fars news agency reported.

Karroubi, a former parliament speaker who has twice run unsuccessfully against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the post, was confronted by "angry" people outside the mosque as he was leaving the compound, Fars said.

It said his bodyguards again used tear gas and also "fired shots into the air" to disperse the crowd so they could remove him from the area, the report said.

UC Berkeley graduate imprisoned in Iran finds breast lump

SJ Mercury | Aug 5, 2010

Sarah Shourd, one of the three UC Berkeley graduates imprisoned in Iran, has discovered a lump in her breast, her mother said.

Shourd's mother, Nora Shourd, received a phone call from her daughter and is now appealing to the United Nations' human rights panel to intervene.

Nora Shourd is asking that her daughter be moved out of solitary confinement, where she reportedly is being held 23 hours a day in Tehran's Evin Prison.

Enemy hyped assassination: Iran pres.

Press TV | Aug 5, 2010

"Yesterday, during the cabinet's trip to Hamadan Province, someone threw a firecracker in front of the government motorcade out of joy and excitement," Ahmadinejad said.

He continued, "this was not [a] newsworthy [incident], but the enemies spread reports that Ahmadinejad has been transferred to an undisclosed location after surviving an assassination attempt."

Iran non-oil exports climb by 31%

Press TV | Aug 5, 2010

Iran's non-oil exports have witnessed a 31 percent growth from March to July 2010, the head of Iran's Trade Promotion Organization, Babak Afqahi, says.

Iran exported over 3,300 types of goods worth $7.7 billion to more than 160 countries in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year, which runs from March 21 to July 21, 2010, IRIB quoted Afqahi as saying.

Inflation Rate Drops in Iran

Press TV | Aug 5, 2010

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) announced in its latest monthly report that inflation rate decreased in the country in the last Iranian month (June 22 to July 22).

The annual inflation rate for the year ending in Tir, which ran from June 22 to July 22, fell by 0.3 percentage point to 9.1 percent, Mehr News Agency quoted Bahmani as saying on Wednesday.

Arab confidence in Obama collapsing

Foreign Policy | Aug 5, 2010

Most Arabs continue to think that Iran seeks nuclear weapons (55 percent ) rather than for peaceful purposes (37 percent ). But 77 percent now say that Iran has the right to its nuclear program -- up from 53 percent in 2009. 57 percent now say that the effects on the region of Iran getting nuclear weapons would be positive -- up from 29 percent last year --- and only 21 percent say the effects would be negative. But overall, there is very little support here for the notion that Arabs are secretly yearning for the United States to attack Iran.

Afghan President Arrives in Tehran

Fars News | Aug 5, 2010

Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Tehran Thursday morning to attend a trilateral summit of the Iranian, Tajik and Afghan heads of state.

Ahmadinejad: Iran Hopeful about Sending Man into Space by 2017

Fars News | Aug 5, 2010

Iran will send its first astronaut to space in 1396 (2017), President said in the western city of Hamedan.

Iran also unveiled a new generation of home-made satellites and a new satellite carrier called Simorgh (Phoenix).

The milk-bottle shaped rocket, emblazoned in blue with the words "Satellite Carrier Simorgh," is equipped to carry a 60-kilogram (132-pound) satellite 500 kilometers (310 miles) into orbit.

features

Hair, beards and power

The Economist | Aug 5, 2010

SHAHRYAR, a fashion-conscious young socialite from Tehran, was immensely proud of his Jackson-5-style Afro. The baseej, Iran's thuggish militia, were less impressed. They arrested him and dragged him away to a local clerical court, on the grounds that his sprouting hairdo was a dangerous Western import. Shahryar argued that since his style was really African, it posed no threat to revolutionary principles. The baseej disagreed: it was African-American so it could pollute Iranian society with the mores of the country's greatest enemy.

The mullah in charge decided that although the fashion did indeed have American associations, it should be remembered that many black citizens of the United States had converted to Islam. In fact they represented the vanguard for jihad on the Western front--so in deference to them, Shahryar could hold onto his coif.