The Latest from Iran (5 November): A Disappointment?

1740 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Ali Gholizadeh has been arrested in Mashhad.

1640 GMT: The Medical University. Claimed video of a Thursday protest at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, closed last week by Government order. The students chant, "We will not go to class until we've reclaimed Iran."

1635 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Ayatollahs Bayat Zanjani, Dastgheib & Sadeghi Tehrani have condemned attacks on Gonabadi dervishes.

1630 GMT: Economy Watch. Iran's Central Bank reports that prices for essential foods have risen since last year by 13 to 39%.

1625 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Hundreds of bloggers and human rights activists have protested the detention of Navid Mohebbi, blogger and member of the One Million Signatures Campaign.

Mohebbi was detained on 18 September.

1620 GMT: The Kahrizak Abuses. A bit of good news for the Government, as Abdolhossein Rouholamini, key conservative advisor and the father of slain protestor Mohsen Ruholamini, has allegedly said, "There is no need to tell all that has been left unsaid and offer documents. Surely foreign hands were involved in last year's uprisings."

Earlier this year, as key conservatives considered moving against President Ahmadinejad, Ruholamini had said he had documentary proof of high-level involvement in the post-election abuses at the Kahrizak detention centre, including the death of his son.

Meanwhile, Presidential aide Saeed Mortazavi, who ostensibly had been suspended from his post because of posssible involvement --- as Tehran Prosecutor General --- in Kahrizak, has surfaced as the head of an anti-smuggling committee.

1615 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. MP Asadollah Badamchian has declared that the government must inform people about subsidy cuts and listen to experts. He added that "people should not buy too much during this period".

1600 GMT: Claim of the Day. Writing in Green Voice of Freedom, Arash Ghafouri tells a story of the failure of the Ahmadinejad camp to form a new alliance with hardliners.

A meeting was held a week ago Thursday with 23 participants, including Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, and Ali Akbar Velayati. However, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, and Secretary of Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei did not accept the invitation and MPs Ali Motahari and Ahmad Tavakoli were not even asked. Controversial Ahmadinejad chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai was also absent.

A day after the meeting, Gholam-Hossein Elham, a member of the Guardian Council, warned of impeaching Ahmadinejad, but he added this would be only possible with a green light from the Supreme Leader.

1550 GMT: CyberWatch. Iranian authorities have blocked the website of former President Mohammad Khatami.

It is also being reported that Iranian providers are officially banned from hosting Khatami's website.

1540 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Hossein Parhizgar has been detained in Babol in northern Iran.

1535 GMT: Labour Front. In Mazandaran in northern Iran, 750 textile workers have held a sit-in over unpaid wages.

1525 GMT: Tehran Friday Prayer Prediction Gone Wrong? Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami talking tough from the pulpit today, “The U.S. should know that it will take the dream of holding negotiations with Iran to the grave if the U.S. retains its hegemonistic nature and continues to hatch plots against Iran.”

Bold words indeed, given that Iranian officials have indicated they may be sitting at the negotiating table with the US, and the other 5+1 Powers, from mid-November in an European location. Geneva and Vienna have been suggested sites.

Perhaps Khatami has not kept up with the news. Or perhaps he just really hates Switzerland and Austrian cities. Take your pick.

(Press TV is a bit nervous about the declaration. The website prefers to highlight Khatami's words about renewed violence in Iraq: "No man of conscience can see these events in Iraq and indifferently pass them by." Then again, even this gets muddled with Khatami's insistence, "Iraq's problems are being resolved" and his apparent accusation that Washington is thus behind all the bombs: "They need an insecure Iraq to achieve their goals."

The Islamic Republic News Agency just wants to emphasise Khatami's claim that the Supreme Leader's recent trip to Qom was very, very good.)

1520 GMT: Revolutionary Guards v. Ahmadinejad. Alireza Nader, writing for Tehran Bureau, considers the article in the Revolutionary Guard magazine criticising the President and concludes, "The regime's greatest source of weakness is not Ahmadinejad. Its main vulnerability is its inability to achieve consensus and act decisively. As a result, the Guards' role as interpreter and enforcer of the regime's interests may be secure for now, but it is hardly guaranteed."

1515 GMT: Sotoudeh 1, Regime 0. Back from Warwick to find that the regime's attempt to play up its legitimacy via the 13 Aban rallies is so yesterday. The Internet chatter all day has been about the resumption, announced by her husband, of detained attorney Nasrine Sotoudeh's hunger strike.

Sotoudeh, imprisoned since early September, has been on hunger strike for four weeks before breaking her fast on 23 October.

0740 GMT: Academic Break. I am leading a seminar this morning at the University of Warwick, and I am not sure that I can make "US State-Private Networks and the Cold War" fit this LiveBlog.

So it's over to you, readers. I will be back mid-afternoon to catch up with all the news and analysis.

0735 GMT: The 13 Aban Diversion. And what about the regime's special gift for 13 Aban, the announcement of the arrest of four "terrorists" supported by Britain? Edward Yeranian of Voice of America considers the move.

0730 GMT: A Warning. Reformist MP Mohammad Reza Khatami has declared, "The power thirsty are on the slope of downfall." He criticised false news and said the government has proven its inability to deal with political, economic and social problems and seeks refuge in these lies.

0708 GMT: The Battle Within (Corruption Edition). Letharat, the outlet of the "militant" Ansar-e Hezbollah, has noted that seven months ago the "brave MP" Elyas Naderan accused 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi of fraud. It notes that a "second-row defendant" has been sentenced in the case, but Rahimi is still free.

Letharat continue,  "Hopefully his case will be handled seriously, and we expect his powerful supporter to abide by the law instead of pursuing political fights and bargaining with the judiciary, which would cause further loss of reputation."

0705 GMT: Another Headline for National Pupils Day. The Parliament has rejected a proposal by President Ahmadinejad, Speaker Ali Larijani, and an arbitration commission for nationalisation of private schools.

0650 GMT: I have to admit that regime did not give me as dramatic a 13 Aban, the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy and the 1964 exile of Ayatollah Khomeini, the day also marked as National Pupil Day, as I expected.

There were some general stories of rallies and a protest in front of the embassy of Britain, designated Foreign Enemy Number One for the day. A few more photographs of the regime supporters were displayed by state media, but the Islamic Republic News Agency could not even be bothered to replace its lead story --- from Wednesday, not Thursday --- of President Ahmadinejad's speech in northeast Iran. (This morning, IRNA headlines a declaration that the Government will allocate its revenues from subsidy cuts to "other sectors" rather than, I guess, spending it on candy or a vacation.)

Indeed, by the end of the day, the opposition was trying to fill the space of 13 Aban, with statements that the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy had harmed national interests and teachers declaring to students that the day was in remembrance of persistence against tyranny.