IRANIAN GOVERNMENT ADMITS TO KILLING JOURNALIST:

A top Iranian government official admitted that an Iranian-Canadian photo-journalist who died after her arrest here last month had suffered a “brain haemorrhage caused by a beating”.

Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a reformist, also made the dramatic claim that the death of 54-year-old Zahra Kazemi was linked to wave of arrests carried out by regime hardliners seeking to undermine the embattled pro-reform camp.

“She died of a brain haemorrhage caused by a beating,” Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi told reporters after Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, giving the preliminary result of a government probe.

“We have witnessed a kind of comprehensive attack,” added Abtahi, a close ally to embattled reformist President Mohammad Khatami, pointing to a wave of arrests of dissidents and journalists “and even the death of Zahra Kazemi”.

Kazemi was arrested on June 23 for taking photographs of protesters outside Evin prison in northern Tehran who were demanding the release of relatives locked up during last month’s wave of anti-regime protests.

The mullahs have the lid on for now. More pressure from human-rights groups would be nice.