Global Voices Online

Kourosh Ziabari writes that in a two day conference Durham University in UK has studied the Persian Gulf and the ancient trading habits of the seafaring Persians.

According to several news sites Iran's parliament is set to debate a draft bill which could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the Internet. According to this draft bill bloggers can face the death penalty too.

Israel is the world's largest consumer of pistachio nuts, but recent reports reveal that illegal imports from Iran may be its primary source. Jewschool's Shalom Rav jokes: “Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Israeli snacking habits will attest that Israel will be hard pressed to give up their pistachio addiction, no matter where the nuts actually come from. For its part, Israel claims it gets most of its pistachios from Turkey (yeah, right!).”