The Latest from Iran (10 January): "A Big Atomic Bomb Will Come Out"

1945 GMT: Elections Watch. Radio Zamaneh offers an overview of the MPs who have been blocked from running in Parliamentary elections in March. It notes that nine of them --- Ali Motahari, Hamidreza Katouzian, Alireza Mahjoub, Ali Abbaspour Tehrani, Fatemeh Ajorloo, Abbasali Noura, Peymon Forouzesh, Ghodratollah Alikhani and Dariush Ghanbari --- "have all been involved in strong criticism of the administration over the past year".

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mohammadreza Bahonar, said disqualifying government critics among the Principlists from running for office is “narrow-minded". However, Tehran Governor Morteza Tamaddon insisted that the disqualifications were carried out according to the law and in the “interests of the sacred Islamic Republic system".

The nominees have four days to appeal the decision, with the final decision to be made by the Guardian Council.

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The Latest from Iran (7 March): Avoiding Elephants in the Room

2115 GMT: The Assembly of Experts Meeting. The gathering of the 84 members of the Assembly of Experts begins tomorrow, but already there is a ripple: the office of Ayatollah Dastgheib, whos is the member for Shiraz, says the cleric has not received his invitation to attend and has demanded the release of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

2110 GMT: An Unscripted Moment for the Speech. Footage from Voice of America of a member of the audience interrupting today's speech in Shiraz by President Ahmadinejad:

1935 GMT: Economy Watch. An official at the Central Bank has said that Iran's annual rate of inflation, in the second month after subsidy cuts, has risen from 10.8% to 11.6%.

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