The Latest from Iran (26 October): It's All About US Crimes....

2250 GMT: Reality or Illusion Watch. Prominent Iranian academic Sadegh Zibakalam, speaking at the Tehran Media Exhibit, said the "Islamic Awakening" --- declared by the Supreme Leader to be inspiring movements across North Africa and the Middle East --- is an illusion of the Islamic Republic. Zibakalam said the real significance of events is that Arab people are fed up with dictatorship.

1810 GMT: The Plot. In a speech in South Khorasan Province in eastern Iran, President Ahmadinejad has said the "Iranian nation is very kind and just and does not need to terrorist acts".

Responding to US accusations that Tehran planned the assassination of the Saudi Ambassador to Washington, Ahmadinejad asserted, "Every time the Iranian nation moves toward the peaks of progress, its enemies grab it with their teeth showing." He turned the charge of assassination against others, claiming they had killed Iranian scientists.

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The Latest from Iran (29 September): A Billion-Dollar Bank Fraud Takes Over

See also Iran Video Feature: Ahmadinejad, Arab Spring, and the Future of the Regime
Iran Propaganda Special: What's Wrong with this Photo of the Mighty Iranian Navy?
Iran Media Snapshot: Reuters Panics, "The Iranians Are Coming (to the Gulf of Mexico)!"
The Latest from Iran (28 September): And Now to the Real News....

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1655 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. In the latest incarnation of "Don't Blame Me", Iran's Inspector General Mostafa Pourmohammadi has declared that his office knew about the $2,6 billion bank fraud and told the Central Bank. He claimed that the fraudsters failed to launch an "Aria Bank" for their embezzled funds and, with their failure, their crimes became evident.

1635 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mohsen Armin, a former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, has been sentenced to six years in prison.

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The Latest from Iran (28 September): And Now to the Real News....

1910 GMT: Where's Esfandiar? The mystery over the whereabout of President Ahmadinejad's right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai continues....

Asr-e Iran asks why Rahim-Mashai has not been seen on Ahmadinejad's return on his overseas tour, either from the US or from Mauritania, where the President stopped on his way back from New York. In a new theory, Asr-e Iran doubts Rahim-Mashai even went to America, calling him a "ghost".

1710 GMT: Oil Watch. Allegations are now coming thick and fast about the Government's misuse of oil revenues (see 1415 GMT). Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the head of the Supreme Audit Court, has claimed that the Central Bank has not recovered billions of dollars in oil debts from India, that the Ministry of Energy owes $350 million to the private sector, that $2.9 billion in oil income has been spent on support payments for the subsidy cuts programme, and that oil revenues have been illegally transferred to foreign accounts of the National Iranian Oil Company.

Former Minister of Oil Masoud Mir Kazemi has reportedly submitted documents to the judiciary defending himself against accusations of involvement in the "disappearance" of $11.2 billion in oil revenue.

1705 GMT: Claimed footage of the strike, which began last month, by cloth vendors in the Tehran Bazaar:

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Iran Interview: Attorney Dadkhah on 9 Years in Prison "I am Glad They Did Not Render a Death Sentence"

I am glad that they did not render a death sentence, for it was not outside the realm of possibility. When the law is not read and disregarded anything is possible....You take what comes your way.

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The Latest from Iran (15 May): A Display of Protest Today?

2105 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Narges Mohammadi, the wife of Taghi Rahmani, said that the journalist and consultant to Mehdi Karroubi, has been freed on $150,000 bail.

1930 GMT: The Ahmadinejad Interview. We have now moved our LiveBlog of tonight's speech by the President, combining it with a snap analysis of the political significance, to a separate entry.

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The Latest from Iran (11 February): The Regime's Big Show?

2205 GMT: Claim of the Night. An opposition website asserts, "The word 'Bahman' has been filtered in Iran Farsi Google search."

2145 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mohammad Housein Mehyimni, the son of the former Governor of Golestan Province, has been arrested.

2130 GMT: A New Role. What better way to end 22 Bahman than with a feel-good story?

The Basij militia are providing the dowries of needy brides.

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