The Latest from Iran (31 October): Arrested at Neda's Grave

Activists Peyman Aref, Asal Esmailzadeh, and Sharar Konoon Tabrizi --- arrested on Sunday at the grave of Neda Agha Soltan --- with Parvin Fahimi, the mother of Sohrab Arabi, who was killed during the first mass march on 15 June 2009

See also Iran Feature: The Chinese Telecom Giant Helping Tehran Track and Block Its Opponents
The Latest from Iran (30 October): When Talking Tough Is Not Enough....

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1630 GMT: Currency News. Mehr carries the news, put out by the reformist newspaper Shargh this weekend, that the Iranian rial has weakened beyond the 13000:1 level v. the US dollar. When the threshold was first crossed this summer, the Central Bank put dollars into the market to try and boost the flagging Iranian currency.

The website also says gold coins are becoming rare as people hoard them because of their rising value.

1620 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. The head of Iran's atomic energy programme, Fereydoun Abbasi, has said Tehran will announce "good nuclear developments in the near-future".

Abbasi asserted that neither the country's nuclear industry nor "activities in other domains" had been halted by US-led sanctions.

1200 GMT: Embezzlement Watch. MP Soleiman Jafarzadeh claims that there is a new financial scandal with a 1000 billion Toman ($800 million) embezzlement in Iran's Pensions Office and the Social Security Investment Company (Shasta), with a potential fraud of 3000 billion Toman ($2.4 billion).

1145 GMT: Surveillance Watch. Bloomberg, under the provocative headline, "Iranian Police Get Aid Of Western Companies", writes:

Stockholm-based Ericsson AB, Creativity Software Ltd. of the U.K. and Dublin-based AdaptiveMobile Security Ltd. marketed or provided gear over the past two years that Iran’s law enforcement or state security agencies would have access to, according to more than 100 documents and interviews with more than two dozen technicians and managers who worked on the systems.

Ericsson and Creativity Software offered technology expressly for law enforcement use -- including a location- monitoring product proposed by Ericsson in early 2009 and one sold this year by Creativity, according to the interviews.

Ericsson confirmed that in the fourth quarter of 2009 it sold a mobile- positioning center to MTN Irancell Telecommunications Services Co., Iran’s second-largest mobile provider. Ericsson said it will continue to maintain the system, but that it decided in October 2010 to stop sales of products into Iran because of tightening sanctions.

Early this year, Creativity Software sold a system that enables Iranian law enforcement and security forces to monitor cell phone locations, according to people familiar with the transaction. AdaptiveMobile, backed by the investment arm of Intel Corp. (INTC), proposed a system, in partnership with Ericsson, for Iran’s largest mobile provider in 2010 that would filter, block and store cellphone text messages, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Police have access to a similar system sold in 2008 to Irancell.

1103 GMT: CyberWatch. A senior Iranian official has declared --- yet again --- that Tehran has created a special unit to defend itself against cyber-attacks.

The head of Iran's Civil Defense agency, Gen. Gholamreza Jalali, said the command unit would be headed by the armed forces but also include officials from the defence and telecommunications ministries, cooperating closely with the nation's intelligence agencies.

1059 GMT: Treasury Watch. MP Seyed Najib Hosseini has claimed that the Government did not pay $4.2 billion in oil income, from a total of $6 billion, to foreign exchange reserves.

1050 GMT: Economy Watch. Dozens of dairy producers have gathered in front of the Ministry of Industry, demanding 180 billion Toman (about $145 million) in production subsidies.

1040 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. The Tehran Times confirms the news, carried on EA yesterday, that Parliament's Article 90 Committee has said several ministers and officials must be accountable for the $2.6 billion bank fraud.

The report, read to Parliament and approved for despatch to the judiciary, identified Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini, his deputy Asghar Abolhassani, and the managers of the ministry and the banks involved in the case. It recommended that Abolhassani, who is also a member of Bank Saderat’s management board, be removed from his post and that the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Hamid Pourmohammadi, should resign or be dismissed.

0750 GMT: Cartoon of the Day. Nikahang Kowsar portrays the renewed threat of Parliamentary interrogation looming over President Ahmadinejad:

0745 GMT: The US Dimension. Alan Eyre, the top American official in the region near Iran, tells Deutsche Welle Persian radio that the US supports Iranians but does not lead them.

0740 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. A second figure linked to the $2.6 billion bank fraud is now confirmed to be in Canada, joining the former head of Bank Melli, Mahmoud Khavari.

A relative has confirmed that Mehregan Amir Khosravi, one of several brothers whose businesses are at the heart of the scandal, moved to Montreal this summer, weeks before the allegations became public.

Amir Khosravi’s presence in Canada was first reported by HafteH, a weekly of the Montreal Iranian community, which published photos of the businessman and his wife as they left the offices of Immigration Quebec.

In July, Mr. Amirkhosravi’s daughter Hiva, a college student, purchased a $980,000 house in the Dollard-des-Ormeaux district of Montreal.

There is no extradition treaty between Iran and Canada. The former bank head Khavari has refused to return to Tehran despite threats by officials that they will take out a warrant through Interpol.

0550 GMT: The Plot. Iranian officials have sent a letter to the US State Department, demanding a public apology and monetary damages over the allegation that Tehran plotted to kill the Saudi Ambassador to Washington.

The letter demands that the US apologise publicity to both the Islamic Republic and officials of the Quds Force for “material and moral damages” caused by “this baseless accusation" which violated "international rules and regulations".

The demand was linked to a commentary on the US intervention in Iraq, “based on such false information": "After killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and U.S. soldiers and wasting billions of dollars from the U.S. citizens' pocket, the U.S. has no other way out except leaving Iraq."

A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. "is still in contact with Iran regarding this case and continue to receive non-constructive responses".

0530 GMT: The dominant story inside Iran on Sunday was the series of moves trying to cut off Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the last 20 months of his Presidency. The talk of a Prime Ministerial system was accompanied by the more serious and more immediate challenge of a renewed Parliamentary drive to interrogate the President.

However, we could not help noticing a story beyond the leading edge of politics within the establishment. Three civil rights activists --- Peyman Aref, Asal Esmailzadeh, and Sharar Konoon Tabrizi --- have been arrested as they visited the grave of Neda Agha Soltan, the woman whose killing by Iranian security forces in June 2009 became a symbol for protest and the violence that met it.

No charges were announced after the detention.

Aref, a journalist and former student activist, had only come out of prison two weeks ago after completing a one-year prison sentence and enduring 74 lashes for "insulting the President".