The Latest from Iran (9 December): A Return to "Normal"

1710 GMT: We are going to take an early break this evening to join Ms EA at the theatre. As usual, I'm leaving the updates in the capable hands of our readers for late-breaking news and analysis.

1620 GMT: No Contradiction Here. The headline in Etelaat newspaper, 7 December: "Low Fuel Quality Main Reason for Smog". Headline in Etelaat, 8 December: "High Quality Fuel a Huge Domestic Success".

1605 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch (Censorship Edition). An EA source alerts us....

On Sunday night, pages and copies of the newspaper Iran were confiscated because of an article by executive director Kaveh Eshtehardi criticising Mehdi Hashemi, the son of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani. The seizures were ordered by Tehran Public Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi. Doulatabadi also warned other newspapers not to print any material identifying Hashemi by name.

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Groups within the regime are seeking the trial of Hashemi on charges of fraud and electoral manipulation, and an arrest warrant has been issued for him. He has been in London since summer 2009.

1545 GMT: Un-Free Press. Iran has tied China for the Gold Medal in Imprisoning Journalists.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Iran and China are each holding 34 journalists, almost half of the 145 reporters behind bars.

1530 GMT: Political Prisoner Alert. Ali Shakouri Rad, a leading member of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, has been arrested again after a public debate in Khorramabad with a former managing director of the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Reports claim Shakouri-Rad was detained after he claimed that Sadegh Larijani, the head of Iran's judiciary, had congratulated Mir Hossein Mousavi on victory on Election Day in June 2009. (The claim complements statements by others that Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani had congratulated Mousavi as well.)

Shakouri Rad has been charged with "spreading lies and propaganda". He was arrested earlier this autumn but was released, reportedly after the intervention of Ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani with the Supreme Leader.

1400 GMT: More This Could Get Quite Nasty (see 1155 GMT). President Ahmadinejad has reportedly postponed a meeting which was seeking unity amongst principlists. Attendees would have included Secretary of the Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei and Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf.

Aftab reports that the Ahmadinejad camp is disputing the number of nominees it gets to put forward in the next Parliamentary elections: it wants 50% of the principlist slate, as opposed to the 30% being offered.

1220 GMT: Contest in the Mosques. A nice juxtaposition of news today....

MP Emad Afrough has said mosques should not be in hands of a special faction, as they are losing their influence with people.

Meanwhile, the head of Tehran police, Ahmad Reza Radan, has declared in a mosque that "absolute obedience to the Supreme Leader is necessary to get closer to Imam Hossein", the Shi'a Imam remembered by Ashura at the end of December.

1155 GMT: This Could Get Quite Nasty. We have already noted Ali Larijani's statement yesterday, "Lawbreaking by Government is the main concern of the Majlis."

Looks like Larijani has stepped up the rhetoric again. He has taken aim at the Government with the declaration, "Corruption will not be stopped by some lawsuits. I have lost hope in winning the battle." He insisted, however, that high-ranking officials must be hold liable.

1150 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kalemeh reports that 15 students of Amir Kabir University were arrested on Tuesday. Ten were subsequently released, but five are still in Evin Prison.

1130 GMT: WikiLeaks, Spies, and MediaFail. Indeed, it is a banner day in the Iranian media for the distortion of stories from the "West".

Khabar Online notices coverage, based on the released US cables, of "Iran Watchers" placed in embassies and consulates in Iran's neighbouring countries. It puts out the alert: "Beware of US spies in Dubai, Bagdad, Baku, Istanbul, London, Paris, Tel Aviv."

And the last paragraph of the report has an ominous message. It notes that John Limbert, who was a hostage in the US Embassy seizure in 1979-80, returned to Government in 2009. This, the website says, is a reminder that the US had spies in its Embassy 30 years ago and has them placed nearby today.

So not only can anyone be held on charges of espionage but it is really unwise to release them....

1125 GMT: 16 Azar MediaFail. This is strange enough to almost merit its own entry....

Iranian media have decided to notice the student protests on Tuesday, but to do so with a lot of twists and distortions.

Resalat declares that "Twitter and Facebook failed to conduct a fitna (sedition) movement on 16 Azar".

The newspaper's source? A few sentences from an interview on Monday with Ezra Klein of The Washington Post about "civic responsibility and [the] ability to make change". Klein does not say about 16 Azar, but he has this general comment about social media and protest:

Obviously Twitter wasn't enough for the Green Revolution in Iran, but I'm always very careful not to underestimate the power of technological change. If twittering was able to give the Green Movement an added 10-15% level of strength -- that isn't nothing. I also imagine we'll see a lot of subtler pushes towards freedom.

Government supporters may want to go back and read that paragraph more carefully.

1115 GMT: 16 Azar Update. Yet another example of innovative protest on Tuesday....

Students at Tehran University presented Dean Farhad Rahbar with presents. The mementoes were of the June 2009 attacks on university dormitories with the message, "What have you done?" http://bit.ly/fTKDwC

1110 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. An "informed source" has told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that influential blogger and Iranian-Canadian national Hossein Derakhshan has been temporarily released from prison on a bail of $1.5 million.

Derakhshah, who was arrested on his return to Iran from Canada in 2008, was given a 19 1/2-year prison sentence this summer.

0755 GMT: Shutting Down the Journalists. Like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Washington Post --- which had no coverage on Tuesday of the demonstrations --- has noticed the raids on the reformist newspaper Shargh, with the arrest of four of its staff, over a special edition "The Student Movement is Alive". Thus the Post can report:

Hundreds of students at several universities marked "Student Day" with demonstrations. Videos on YouTube showed sit-down protests, but there were no signs of widespread clashes with security forces, as happened during similar demonstrations last year.

0745 GMT: Parliament v. President. Both Rooz Online and Mardomak report further on Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani's claims --- amidst the battle over the budget and the struggle for control of policy --- that the Government has been acting illegally.

0740 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Daneshjoo News reports that at least four students at Amir Kabir University, detained during Tuesday's protests, have been transferred to Evin Prison. 

RAHANA reports that two Razi University students, seized in Monday's protests against former Minister of Culture Mohammad-Hossein Saffar Harandi, are being held incommunicado.

0735 GMT: Cartoon of the Day. Nikahang Kowsar shows the President's mastery over the pollution problem:

0725 GMT: Almost 48 hours since the student protests of 16 Azar, and all is "normal" again. The Government proclaims that "sanctions imposed on Iran are futile" and announces a deal on natural gas with South Korea. The international media can race after every rhetorical posture on the nuclear talks like a dog chasing a Frisbee.

But, of course, the "normal" by Wednesday night (see updates) also includes the tension between the Parliament and Government over the budget, the uncertainty over still-to-be-implemented subsidy cuts, the disconnects in speech and reality as the President declared his support of "free thinking" in universities, and the smog which --- a Basij group assured --- can be dispelled by praying for rain.

So on to today's normality....