Is there a climate conference going on?
In Copenhagen, big companies from Siemens to Shell are making sure you know they care. Full Article | Full Coverage
Tehran permits French academic to leave Iran
PARIS (Reuters) - A French academic prevented from leaving Iran for more than two months after he photographed a religious festival will be allowed to return home, the French foreign minister said on Thursday.
Iranian police confiscated the passport of Stephane Dudoignon, a historian specializing in Islam, after he was stopped while photographing an annual Shi'ite Muslim Ashura rite during a festival in the southeast of the country in January.
"I am pleased to hear that the Iranian authorities have found a solution to Mr. Dudoignon's situation," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in a statement. "His passport and personal effects have been returned."
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Dudoignon had undertaken work "incompatible" with his visit plan but would leave Iran for France on Friday, the official IRNA news agency said.
"Dudoignon was not arrested. His passport was confiscated ... He has been allowed to leave Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told IRNA.
Another Frenchman, Stephane Lherbier, was released in February after being held for more than a year for illegally entering Iranian waters in the Gulf.
Last week Iran released 15 British military personnel it had held for nearly two weeks.
(Additional reporting from Parisa Hafezi in Tehran)
