Thousands of Iranians marched in Tehran to mark the al-Quds or Jerusalem day. It's an annual event originated by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 and held on the last Friday of Ramadan. The purpose of the event is to show solidarity with Palestinians and contempt towards the "Zionist state" of Israel. The parades are organized by the Iranian government and follow a predetermined formula. Government officials give the fiery speeches while marchers chant "Death to Israel" and "Death to America". This year president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed worshippers at Tehran University in a live broadcast using the speech to criticize the of direct peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders held in Washington. "Palestine's issue can no be resolved through talks with enemies of the Palestinian nation. Resistance is the only way" he told the fired up crowd.

Iranian and Russian engineers began loading fuel into Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant on Saturday. State television showed the fuel rods being loaded into the core of the reactor, which is on the shores of the Persian Gulf near the city of Bushehr. Russia, which helped finish building the plant, has pledged to safeguard the site and prevent spent nuclear fuel from being used to make nuclear weapons. During the opening ceremony Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi sent a message to the Western world. "As of now the Bushehr reactor is a power plant since fuel has been loaded into it and therefore attacking it would be considered a crime," he said.

Mohammad Mostafaei, an Iranian lawyer who was defending a woman facing a death penalty by stoning, revealed that he has fled to Norway and asked for political asylum. Mr. Mostafaei disappeared from Tehran after being questioned by Iranian authorities, who then issued a warrant for his arrest. His wife was arrested and released couple of days later. He expressed a hope that his wife and daughter will eventually join him in Norway.

The authorities in Iran have refused to allow the families of five Kurdish activists hanged few days earlier to bury them. They also arrested the sister and mother of the only woman among the executed. Two other Kurdish activists were executed last year and 16 more are currently on the death row. These executions were carried out rather quickly without even having been endorsed by Iran's Supreme Court. The authorities also refused to release the bodies of the executed activists to their families. One of the family  lawyers expressed his frustration by saying that "Not allowing families to bury the bodies of their loved ones is against the law, Islam and Shariah".

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Monday that Iran will face tough sanctions if it does not meet nuclear demands, accusing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of trying to divert attention after he used a U.N. speech to berate nuclear-armed nations and accuse the United States of committing acts of terror. She spoke a few hours after Ahmadinejad in New York at a U.N. nonproliferation conference for a worldwide spread of nuclear weapons, said Iran was using "the same tired, false and sometimes wild accusations" against the United States and other U.N. members. "Iran will do whatever it can to divert attention away from its own record," she said, adding that the country "will not succeed in its effort to divert and divide".

Mohamed Khatami, the former Iranian president, was banned from traveling abroad to attend a nuclear disarmament conference in Japan. "He failed to make a trip because he was informed by the security forces that a travel ban was imposed" the aide said. But a lawyer representing the former president said that there was no travel ban in place that Mr. Khatami was only "advised" not to travel by movement officials.

Two major opposition publications were shut down by the Iranian authorities. Both publications, the daily Etemand and weekly Iran Dokht were linked to Mehdi Karroubi, one of the opposition's outspoken leaders who called for a referendum of government popularity a week earlier. 

Hundreds of thousands of pro-government Iranians rallied to mark the 31st anniversary of Iranian revolution. The opposition tried to stage a counter-demonstration but faced a huge security crackdown as several of its leaders have reportedly been attacked. The opposition websites estimated the number of activists detained by security forces were in thousands. Tear gas was used to disperse the protesters and paint balls were shot to mark them for later arrests. Witnesses reported many arrested opposition supporters were loaded into the waiting buses as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed his own supporters boasting that Iran was now a nuclear state.

Protests erupted all around Iran on the day of Ashura, a holiday that commemorates the martyrdom of of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad. Protests began with thousands of opposition supporters chanting "Death to the dictator," a reference to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as they marched in defiance of official warnings of a harsh crackdown.  10 people were reported killed during the clashes with police and hundreds were wounded. Amongst the dead was Ali Moussavi, a nephew of the opposition leader Mir Hussein MoussavI. Massive arrests followed the day of unrest with many leading opposition figures detained by authorities.

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the fierce critic of the current hard-line Iranian government, died from the apparent heart failure. Ayatollah Montazeri was widely regarded as the most knowledgeable religious scholar in Iran. His religious credentials also prevented the authorities from silencing or jailing him. Last month, he stunned many in Iran and abroad by apologizing for his role in the 1979 takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran, which he called a mistake. Just recently he provided the following summary of the current Iranian regime: "“A political system based on force, oppression, changing people’s votes, killing, closure, arresting and using Stalinist and medieval torture, creating repression, censorship of newspapers, interruption of the means of mass communications, jailing the enlightened and the elite of society for false reasons, and forcing them to make false confessions in jail, is condemned and illegitimate".

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday that three American hikers who illegally crossed the border with Iran would face trial. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, described accusations against the three as "totally unfounded" and called for their immediate release. The three had been on a hiking trip in the mountains on the border between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan in July when they were arrested by the Iran.

Thousands of Iranian students demonstrated against the government on a National Student's Day despite the major effort by the authorities to suppress the protests. In some cases the protest turned violent as police and Basij militia used tear gas, clubs and stun guns to disperse the protesters. Many arrests and injuries were reported. The demonstrators chanted "death to the oppressor, whether shah or supreme leader.” and burned the posters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iran's supreme leader. The opposition leaders Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi were  blocked from attending the protests.

Iran defiantly refused to comply with demand by UN atomic agency to cease work on a once secret nuclear enrichment plant located near holy city of Qom. The Iranians announced that they would build 10 new uranium enrichment plants as the United States warned the Islamic republic that time for it to meet international demands is running out. Ahmadinejad told the official Islamic Republic News Agency that construction of at least five nuclear facilities is to begin within two months.

The Iranian government has announced a creation of new programs aimed at re-Islamizing the educational system, purging the secular influences and purifying the media of subversive ideas. Iranian government is also planning to implant 6,000 Basij militia centers in elementary schools across Iran to promote the ideals of the Islamic Revolution. A new police unit was created to sweep the Internet for dissident voices. A company affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards acquired a majority share in the Iran's  telecommunications monopoly assuring them of fullaa control of Iran’s land lines, Internet providers and two cell phone companies.

General Yahya Salih, Yemen's counter-terrorism chief, accused the Iranians of funding the Houthi rebel fighters in their war against government forces in the north of the country. The Yemeni government claims that the Houthis are plotting to restore the Shia Zaidi Imamate with the help of Iran and Shia sympathizers in the Gulf.

Iranian authorities are pursuing the espionage charges against three American hikers who strayed from Kurdish region of Iraq across the Iranian border in July of 2009. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Turkey for a summit, was asked about their fate during a news conference in Istanbul. He said the three had violated the law and would have to face the consequences.

On the 20th anniversary of the storming of the US embassy in Tehran, the Iranian opposition staged some of the biggest street protests since June's disputed elections. Many demonstrators were wearing green scares and ribbons. They were met by Basij militia who were seen beating the demonstrators with clubs. At the same time the government supporters were burning the US flags to commemorate the 1979 embassy takeover, a turning point in Iranian history. Iranian police reported the arrests of 109 people, including several foreign journalists.

A suicide bomber on Sunday killed six Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and 36 others at a gathering of tribal leaders in a southeastern province near the Pakistani border. The Sunni Muslim militant group Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, claimed responsibility for the attack. As usual in Iran, the US and Britain have been accused of being behind the attack. In Parliament, members chanted "Death to America" but at the same time Iranians pointed fingers to Pakistan linking a Sunni group to Pakistani intelligence organizations.

A suicide bomber on Sunday killed six Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and 36 others at a gathering of tribal leaders in a southeastern province near the Pakistani border. The Sunni Muslim militant group Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, claimed responsibility for the attack. As usual in Iran, the US and Britain have been accused of being behind the attack. In Parliament, members chanted "Death to America" but at the same time Iranians pointed fingers to Pakistan linking a Sunni group to Pakistani intelligence organizations.

Iranian justice ministry announced that three people were accused in post election incidents have been sentenced to death. Prosecutors said the accused admitted to spying but human rights groups say that torture was used to extract the confessions.

The Association for the Supervision of Publications in Iran revoked the licenses of the Tehran-based dailies Farhang-e Aashti and Arman on Sunday. On Monday, the same state agency’s offices in Fars province also revoked the license of the Shiraz-based daily Tahleel-e Rooz newspaper. All three newspapers were critical of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain declared Friday that the revelation of a previously secret Iranian nuclear facility puts heavy new pressure on Tehran to quickly disclose all of its nuclear efforts including any moves toward developing nuclear weapons. The senior US official said that the size of the plant inside a mountain at the holy city of Qom was inconsistent with it being used for the peaceful purposes of producing energy.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday urged stiff punishment for those who "orchestrated and provoked" the "painful" unrest after the June 12 presidential election. "I call upon security and judicial officials to decisively and mercilessly act with those who committed inhumane acts and inflicted damage on people and tarnished the image of the establishment, security and police forces," he added.

100 Iranians demonstrators arrested in the aftermath of the disputed June 12 presidential elections went on trial Saturday. Tehran has charged them with rioting, vandalism, compromising national security and conspiracy against the government, according to Iran's state media. The defendants include prominent opposition figures, including former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, as well as former ministers and a former government spokesman. Many of the accused have confessed to their crimes but the opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi and reformist former President Mohammad Khatami severely criticized the Iranian government claiming that those on trial had been tortured into confessions.

In the biggest unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution, thousands of Iranians have clashed with police over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory as the suspicions grew over the claims of voter irregularities. The figures from the interior ministry showed Ahmadinejad had taken 62.63% of the vote to Mousavi's 33.75%. The scale of Ahmadinejad's victory was met with a lot of skepticism as the polls were predicting a much closer race. The challenger, Hussein Mousavi had said there was a shortage of ballot papers and alleged that millions of people had been denied the right to vote.

During his visit to Syria, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki described Israel as a decaying entity which was moving fast downward and is presently passing through the worst phase of its life. He also said that Iran and Syria were two key players in the region, cooperation between whom would pave the way for solving many regional problems.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Wednesday the successful test-firing of an advanced Sajjil missile capable of hitting Israel and other targets in the Middle East. The announcement comes less than a month before Iran's presidential election and just two days after President Obama declared a readiness to seek deeper international sanctions against Tehran if it did not respond positively to U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashdavi condemned the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, calling it unjust and politically motivated by hegemonic powers. Referring to Darfur problem, he said the case is regarded as an internal affair of Sudan. 

Iran has condemned the Annapolis peace conference, saying it would fail to bring any peace for the Palestinians and warning that it will discredit Arab countries who participated. Iran was also surprised that Damascus participated in the gathering, though it has stopped short of directly criticizing its ally. President Ahmadinijad also lashed out against Israel with the following comments: "It is impossible that the Zionist regime will survive. Collapse is in the nature of this regime because it has been created on aggression, lying, oppression and crime".

Iran denounced Interpol's decision to issue wanted notices for five Iranians for involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Argentina in which 85 people were killed and over 200 wounded. Interpol's general assembly voted to issue the "Red Notices" seeking the extradition of the Iranians and one Lebanese national in connection with the bombing. Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the measure and accused the "Zionist regime and some dominant power's political will" with influencing the process.

Thousands of Iranians nationwide demonstrated Sunday to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy by militant students, state television reported. Demonstrators in the capital, Tehran, including elementary school students, gathered outside the former U.S. Embassy, chanting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans. They burned the two countries' flags and warned Washington to learn from the hostile incident.

An Iranian court has sentenced Mansoor Osanloo, a dissident labor leader, to five years in jail. Osanloo was arrested for "distributing statements against the system". Rights groups say Iran this year has launched a fresh crackdown on dissent in the Islamic Republic, with the authorities targeting women's rights activists, students, journalists and labor figures. The European Union last week said it was "deeply concerned at the growing repression against all groups which exercise their right to freely express their opinions".

Today, the Department of State designated two key Iranian entities of proliferation concern: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics. Part of the sanctions are designed to make it difficult for Iranian government agencies to support ballistic missile research that would accompany a nuclear device and a nuclear program itself. The other part of the sanctions are focused on the Quds Force, which is an arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's core command. Quds Force has been funneling arms to Hamas, Hezbollah and Shia militants in Iraq.

On Al-Quds (Arabic name for Jerusalem) Day hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets of Tehran they chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel". Some protesters also burned American and Israeli flags. State television reported similar large rallies in all other provincial capitals and smaller towns across Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed his nation with the following: "The creation, continued existence and unlimited (Western) support for this regime is an insult to human dignity. The occupation of Palestine is not limited to one land. The Zionist issue is now a global issue. The Iranian nation will not rest until Palestine is free and criminals punished".

Iran has reached its long-sought goal of running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Sunday in a report on state media. The U.N. Security Council had threatened a third round of sanctions against the country if it did not freeze the uranium enrichment program. A senior Iranian envoy has warned the US and its allies against pushing for new UN Security Council sanctions against his country, suggesting Tehran could retaliate by ending its co-operation with UN inspectors probing its nuclear program.