The Latest from Iran (7 October): "The Devil Has Disrupted Our Economy"

See also Iran Analysis: Has the Regime Solved the Currency Crisis?
The Latest from Iran (6 October): "There is No Crisis"

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2033 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Malaysia's Air Asia has cancelled flights to Iran from 14 October, citing difficulties in transferring money amid sanctions.

2028 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist Sam Mahmoudi Sarabi has received an eight-year prison sentence and 10-year occupational ban.

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Iran Snapshot: A Currency's Fall, Bazaar Closed, Protests....

Claimed footage of Wednesday's protests near the Tehran Bazaar: "Bazaaris, support, support, support us!"

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Some Iranian media posted brief reports of events --- Mehr, for example,wrote about closure of the Bazaar and clashes with police, with arrests around the Bazaar and nearby streets and squares.  Further confirmation came, even as outlets offered contradictory signals about how to cope with the events. "Hard-line" sites such as Raja News played up the threat of "hooligans". Initially, the head of the Bazaar's guilds tried to play down the incident of "closed shops because of unknown elements" and said that most merchants had operated as normal; a later declaration, however, a later declaration gave up trying to minimise the situation: "Despite criticism of the government and President Ahmadinejad, we will defend the nezam (system) and the country with our lives."

As for the Government, already besieged by the economic situation and the collapsing currency, it issued the statement that a Cabinet meeting had agreed steps to control the currency market. No details were offered, however.

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The Latest from Iran (3 October): Blaming the "Enemy" for the Economy

The Tehran Bazaar today, with most shops closed and shuttered

See also Iran Feature: A Beginner's Guide to the Currency Crisis
Iran Snap Analysis: Ahmadinejad and The Economy's "Worthless Pieces of Paper"
The Latest from Iran (2 October): A Currency in Free Fall?

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1902 GMT: More photos show that some of the crowds clearly turned to riots:

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Iran Snap Analysis: Ahmadinejad and The Economy's "Worthless Pieces of Paper"

Five years ago, as he called on OPEC members to convert their cash reserves into a currency other than the US dollar, President Ahmadinejad said of Americans, "They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper."

Today, Ahmadinejad awakes to an Iranian Rial which has lost almost half its value in the last nine days despite --- or possibly because of --- a Central Bank intervention which was meant to prop it up. Having traded at just over 10000:1 vs. the "worthless" US dollar a year ago, the Rial is posted on currency websites at 35500:1 to 35800:1. At one point on Tuesday, it reportedly touched 40000:1 in some exchanges before settling --- according to some accounts, assisted by arrests of currency traders.

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The Latest from Iran (2 October): A Currency in Free Fall?

The scene in the Tehran currency market today

See also Iran Audio Feature: Can Iraq Stop Tehran Flying Weapons to Syria? --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
Monday's The Latest from Iran (1 October): Can the "Resistance Economy" Continue to Resist?

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1929 GMT: Ahmadinejad Statement of the Day. An EA correspondent draws up an important segment from the President's press conference, in which Ahmadinejad effectively said "Back Me or Sack Me": "I was somewhere and said, 'If you want me to, I'm ready to write a sentence, and we go away.'"

Our correspondent explains, "'Somewhere' is the Supreme Leader's house or office." amd looks at the 2:24 mark in this video to assess, "Ahmadinejad has definitely threatened to step back if necessary."

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The Latest from Iran (1 October): Can the "Resistance Economy" Continue to Resist?

See also Iran Snap Analysis: Watching The Currency Crisis
The Latest from Iran (30 September): "The West Is In Economic Crisis"

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2045 GMT: Currency Watch. ILNA reports that students have protested in front of Parliament because the banks are not giving them subsidised currency for study abroad.

2035 GMT: Press Watch. The daily newspaper Maghreb has been raided and its managing editor Mehdi Emami Naseri summoned by the judiciary.

Some reports say the editor was arrested. There is confusion over the cause. Some reports say it was the publication of a photo of former President Mohammad Khatami; others say it was a picture of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.

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The Latest from Iran (30 September): "The West Is In Economic Crisis"

See also Iran Follow-Up: Fars News Apologises for Running Story from The Onion
The Latest from Iran (29 September): The Economy and the Divisions Within the Regime

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1422 GMT: Press Watch. One of the cameramen with President Ahmadinejad's entourage in New York has defected and has been granted asylum, according to Baztab.

1347 GMT: Press Watch. ISNA reports that a court has convicted Reuters and its Tehran Bureau Chief, Parisa Hafezi, of "publishing lies against the regime" and "disturbing public opinion".

Reuters was charged after a story in March briefly carried a headline characterising women training in ninjutsu as "assassins". The bureau was closed, as the press cards of staff were confiscated. Some observers saw a pretext for the authorities to shut down one of the few international agencies reporting from inside Iran.

Sentencing is expected within a week.

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Iran Follow-Up: Fars News Apologises for Running Story from The Onion

The original Fars English story, copied directly from The Onion

See also Iran Feature: Fars News and The Onion Agree --- "Rural American Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama"

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On Friday, we featured the story of how Iranian media, including Fars News' English-language site, were headlining, "Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama". The small problem with the breaking news? It was taken from the satirical on-line "newspaper", The Onion.

Today, Fars English's Editor-in-Chief has apologised:

Unfortunately an incorrect item was released on our website on Friday which included a fake opinion poll on popularity rate of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and US President Barack Obama. The news item was extracted from the Satirical Magazine, The Onion, by mistake and it was taken down from our outlook in less two hours.

It is not quite a full retraction, however. The Editor continues, "Although it does not justify our mistake, we do believe that if a free opinion poll is conducted in the US, a majority of Americans would prefer anyone outside the US political system to President Barack Obama and American statesmen."

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The Latest from Iran (29 September): The Economy and the Divisions Within the Regime

See also EA Video Analysis: Iran --- Ahmadinejad in New York "He Came, He Spoke, He Slipped Away"
Iran Feature: Fars News and The Onion Agree --- "Rural American Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama"
The Latest from Iran (28 September): The Next Fall in the Currency

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1544 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah has been summoned to Evin Prison to begin his nine-year sentence.

Dadkhah, one of the founders of the Center for Defenders of Human Rights, was arrested less than a month after the disputed 2009 Presidential election. He was sentenced in July 2011 on charges including membership of the CDHR and "spreading propaganda against the system through interviews with foreign media".

1531 GMT: Press Watch. Families of 25 martyrs and veterans of the 1980s Iran-Iraq War have expressed support for Hadi Heydari, cartoonist for the reform newspaper Shargh, in an open letter.

Shargh was banned and its managing editor imprisoned this week over a Heydari cartoon which showed men blindfolding each other in bright light. Authorities argued that the image was an insult to veterans on the 32nd anniversary of the start of the war.

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EA Video Analysis: Iran --- Ahmadinejad in New York "He Came, He Spoke, He Slipped Away"

"On Wednesday, before Ahmadinejad took the podium at the United Nations General Assembly, we said, 'Sound. Fury. Insignificance'.

"We got it partly right. There was no sound. There was certainly no fury. But there was lots of insignificance.

"Bye bye, Mahmoud. Nice knowing you. Don't let the door hit you on the backside on the way out."