The Latest from Iran (10 November): Covering Nukes, Remembering Rights

2120 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. A source close to Nasrin Sotoudeh says that the detained attorney has ended her dry hunger strike after almost two weeks.

Sotoudeh, imprisoned since 4 September, was also on hunger strike for four weeks up mid-October. Iranian authorities say she will be tried in court on Monday.

1955 GMT: Women's Rights. Iran has failed to secure election to the executive board of the new UN super-agency on women's rights.

Initially, Iran was guaranteed a seat becasue the Asian region put forth 10 candidates for 10 seats, but East Timor was a late applicant.

Saudi Arabia, whose candidacy was also criticised by rights groups, secured one of the seats.

1945 GMT: Sanctions Watch. British energy firm BP says that it is preparing to shut down a gas field off Scotland that it operates with Iran, because of European Union sanctions>

The Rhum field, lying 250 miles (400 kilometres) off northeast Scotland in the North Sea, is a 50-50 venture between BP and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) under a deal made before the 1979 Islamic revolution. It accounts for only a small part of BP's production.

1540 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. An Iranian court has handed down a sentence of two years for Vahid Lalipour.

Lalipour was freed on $100,000 bail while awaiting trial but his wife, Mahdieh Golroo, remains in prison.

1535 GMT: Tough Talk Today. Oh, good, a bit of posing amidst the discussion of resumed talks on Iran's nuclear programme....

Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Hassan Mansourian has said that Tehran has successfully developed a copy of the Russian S-300 missile,two months after Moscow suspended delivery to comply with United Nations sanctions.

"The Iranian (version) of the S-300 system is undergoing field modification and will be test-fired soon as other long range systems are being designed and produced," Mansourian said.

1500 GMT: Karroubi Watch. Radio Farda, with an interview with Mehdi Karroubi's son Hossein, follows up on this weekend's intervention by security forces to prevent a meeting between Grand Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani and Karroubi.

Hossein Karroubi said Bayat Zanjani had called Mehdi Karroubi on Sunday morning to arrange a discussion that evening: "Three or four hours before [Bayat Zanjani's] arrival, security agents appeared in front of my father's house. When the Ayatollah arrived, they asked him to leave the area and not enter the house."

All of Karroubi's phone calls are monitored by Iranian authorities, and security forces have maintained a blockade on the homes of Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi.

1415 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Three more members of the reformist Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution have been arrested in Khuzestan in southwestern Iran.

1409 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. A "holding" statement from Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi today, as he promised that "final rulings" for prominent detainees Ahmad Zeidabadi, Badrolsadat Mofidi, Emaduddin Baghi, and Abbas Aboutalebi have been issued.

Doulatabadi confirmed the unsurprising decision by the regime to delay the trial of detained US hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, maintaining that a new date would be set. He refused to comment, however, on the case of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani's son Mehdi Hashemi --- some Iranian media are claiming that Hashemi, who has been accused of fraud and election manipulation, is returning to Iran from London despite the threat of arrest.

1400 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Another warning, this time from one of the Government's own officials ---Deputy Minister of Economy Mohammad Reza Farzin has said the bazaar "cannot be controlled with arrests".

1355 GMT: Shutting Down Khatami. Reformist MP Ghodratollah Alikhani has declared that the filtering of former President Mohammad Khatami's website by Iranian authorities is illegal.

Alikhani said Deputy Minister of Culture Mohammad Ali Ramin had wielded a sword to stab the press and freedom of speech.

1345 GMT: MediaWatch. Iranian authorities are permitting the BBC to resume broadcasts from Tehran, 17 months after correspondent Jon Leyne was expelled in the first days of the post-election crisis.

The first sign of a thaw in relations came with a report today from an Iranian employee of the BBC's bureau. The agreement between the British broadcaster and the regime was reached in talks in late September with the BBC's world news editor, Jon Williams.

Leyne will be replaced by James Reynolds, the BBC's former correspondent in Beijing. Reynolds will not be based in Tehran at first, however; instead, he will make "regular trips". An Iranian BBC employee will file radio and online reports from the bureau.

Iran's Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mohammad Hosseini, said on Monday that he would consider positively an application for a correspondent from BBC Persian.

1315 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Back from an academic break to find that the Wall Street Journal has picked up on the story --- covered in EA yesterday --- of this weekend's arrests of four leading members of the student organisation Advar-e Tahkim Vahdat.

The detention of Ali Qolizadeh, Alireza Kiani, Mohsen Barzegar and Mohamad Heydarzadeh --- all recently elected to the organisation's central committee --- are seen as an attempt by the regime to break the student group.

The article, by Farnaz Fassihi, also notes the concern over the fate of detained attorney Nasrine Sotoudeh.

0900 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Homayoun Jaberi, a member of the Tehran Bus Workers Syndicate, was arrested Tuesday as he was enquiring at the Ministry of Intelligence about an imprisoned colleague.

0820 GMT: Brain Drain? An Iranian article notes that seven of Iran's top 12 students in 2001 are now studying abroad and poses the key question, "How many will come back to the country?"

0815 GMT: Economy Watch. An EA source brings us this conversation from Iran with a trader:

"Are you selling many anar [pomegranates]?"

"No, the market is not good"

"Oh have they flooded the market with cheap imports again?"

""No. No one will sell anything to Iran at the minute."

0800 GMT: A common juxtaposition recurs this morning. It is likely that most coverage of Iran in international media today will be on the looming resumption of talks on Tehran's uranium enrichment --- we have the latest in a separate entry --- but here at EA we will be keeping a focus on that pesky concept called "rights". We post separately on Saturday's event in European cities, "A Face for Human Rights in Iran".