The Latest from Iran (22 February): Look Over There! Ships!

2030 GMT: Remember the 1 Esfand Casualty. Students at Shiraz University of Fine Arts continue to remember Hamed Nourmohammadi, the protester killed during Sunday's classes, by refusing to attend classes.

1435 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. An aide to the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Hossein Safar-Herendi, has signalled that the campaign to remove former President Hashemi Rafsanjani as head of the Assembly of Experts continues. Safar-Herendi told a group of academics in Shiraz:

Hashemi’s actions have been completely corrupt and he has still not repented. According to our knowledge of his character, we do not feel that he will repent and his fate could becme like those of Montazeri and Shiriatmadari [Grand Ayatollahs who fell out with the regime].

Elections for the board of the Assembly of Experts will be held in two weeks.

1430 GMT: Budget Watch. Hamid Reza Katouzian, the chairman of Parliament's Energy Commission, has repeated the claim that President Ahmadinejad declared $11.2 billion as Government income but did not transfer this to foreign exchange reserves.

1310 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Students Sara Bagheri and Ali Yazdanpanah have been detained.

Jafar Ganji and Arash Najbaei, two Freedom Movement of Iran supporters, have been arrested.

1300 GMT: Sedition Watch. Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei has made one of his regular denunciations of the opposition, calling prominent figures "leaders of sedition" and warning:

If someone listens to the call of the seditionists today, that person is anti-revolutionary and should be treated as an anti-revolutionary. "Whoever wants to support the sedition leaders will be looked upon as anti-revolutionary and will not be tolerated."

1250 GMT: Karroubi Watch. More on the raid on the residences of Mehdi Karroubi and his son Ali, with the arrest of Ali Karroubi (see 1005 GMT)....

Karroubi's website Saham News reports that, as security forces raided the home and took books and documents, Mehdi Karroubi and his wife Fatemeh were kept in separate rooms. There is no confirmation on their status.

Ali Karroubi is still in detention; his wife was released after a few hours.

Meanwhile, Mardomak is reporting on calls for a Special Clerical Court to remove Karroubi's clerical status.

1235 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Three more students of Mashhad University have been detained.

1020 GMT: Book Corner. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has revoked the licences of 10 publishers.

1015 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Several student activists frm Yasuj University have been summoned to a Ministry of Intelligence office and arrested.

1010 GMT: Rallying for Rafsajani. Leading MP and Government critic Ali Motahari has lined up with former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, saying that attacks by Government supporters against Rafsanjani are unfounded; "It is an insult to expect from him to say death to Mousavi and Karroubi."

Motahari added that Sunday's opposition rallies were due to "provocations" by State broadcaster IRIB.

1005 GMT: Karroubi Alert. Saham News has confirmed the news, first put out by the conservative site Tabnak on Monday (see 0655 GMT), that Mehdi Karroubi's son Ali has been arrested. The detention took place during a raid on the Karroubi residence in which books and documents were taken.

Saham News also says that Ali Karroubi's wife, Nafiseh Panahi, was seized but was later released.

The website reported last week that about 20 security agents had broken into the home of another Karroubi son, Hassan, but had failed to arrest him.

Ali Karroubi was beaten by security forces last February during marches for the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

1000 GMT: 1 Esfand. Information continues to come out, despite the regime crackdown on communications, about Sunday's marches....

Sayeh Hassan summarises the demonstrations and strikes throughout Kurdistan, and Peyke Iran mentions the heavy security presence to prevent a rally in Kermanshah.

0800 GMT: Budget Watch. A few points on the proposed 2011 Budget, finally submitted to Parliament by President Ahmadinejad....

The $539 billion budget is 46% higher than last year's proposals, despite the claims of the Government that it was limiting spending through subsidy cuts. Tehran's hope is to finance the increase through an oil price of $80 per barrel. The rate of the Iranian toman is set at 1050 to the US dollar, a slightly higher rate for the Iranian currency than the current market figure.

0720 GMT: Countering Denial. With the regime claiming that no opposition protests took protest on Sunday, supporters have popped up to repeat other "certainties" such as that only a few dozen people have died in the post-election crisis.So it might be useful to note again Iran Body Count, which lists 108 deaths and offers details on many of them. The archived list of The Guardian from 2009 and early 2010 of the dead and detained is also still useful as a reminder.

0700 GMT: Cartoon of the Day. From Heng for Lianhe Zaobao in Singapore:

0655 GMT: Monday's Hot Rumour. The conservative website Tabnak, linked to Secretary of Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei, announced yesterday that Mehdi Karroubi's son Ali had been arrested.

There was no indication of that claim on other news sites, notably Karroubi's Saham News.

0650 GMT: Clerical Criticism. Grand Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani, addressing "thousands" in Qom, has criticised the "intensity of imprisonment" under the current regime.

Last week, followers of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a supporter of President Ahmadinejad, prevented Vahid Khorasani from giving a lecture.

0630 GMT: With a relatively quiet period inside Iran during a Monday public holiday, we start with diversions. There was the regime setpiece yesterday, with top figures in the establishment putting aside their quarrels to show their unity and the Supreme Leader and President Ahmadinejad making speeches about "justices", the "Arab revolts", and the demise of the US in the Middle East.

But it is the ships that will keep most of Western media occupied today.

For the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian naval vessels transitted the Suez Canal to reach the Mediterranean. Two Iranian warships entered at 5:45 a.m. local time (0345 GMT) on their way to Syria for training.

The crossing is legal under international law --- the Canal can only be closed in times of war --- and the ships, the frigate Alvand and a supply vessel, were declared free of military equipment. But expect lots of bluster about what Israel has called a "provocation".