(2001 pop. 873,000). Approximately 130 kilometers south of Tehran, Qom is situated in a semiarid interior basin of central Iran along the Qom River, which flows down from the Zagros Mountains, through Qom, and into the large Darya-e Namak salt marsh to...

Coordinates: 34°39′N, 50°53′E Qom (Persian: قم, also known as Q'um or Kom) is a city in Iran. It lies 156 kilometres (97 mi) by road southwest of Tehran and is the capital of Qom Province. It has an estimated population of 1,042,309 in...

Sceptical, after their fashion Theory and practice THEY call Qom "the Shia Vatican". President Ahmadinejad is reported to have said that when Islam ruled the world Qom would be its capital. Rome need not worry: Qom will never compete for its...

Ethan Bronner is the Globe's Middle East correspondent. QOM, Iran -- The spiritual wail of a perfect alto cuts through the thick, expectant air that fills the shrine to Masumeh, sister to Reza, eighth imam of Muslim Shiism. The piercing voice, wired through loudspeakers...

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, looked thinner than usual and sounded as if he had a cold, but seemed otherwise in good health when he appeared on television Monday.Video broadcast last month of Khamenei, 67, who has the final word on all matters in...

Some blogs in the Middle East:___EGYPT:_ http://misrdigital.blogspirit.com Arabic-language blog by democracy activist Wael Abbas. Has been instrumental in bringing attention to police torture and sexual attacks on women, publishing videotaped accounts of both in recent months._ http://karam903.blogspot.com Arabic blog by Abdel Kareem Nabil, on trial...