The Latest from Iran (25 March): Expanding the Sanctions
Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 16:36Tehran University academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi presents the regime line against expanded sanctions over Iran's alleged human rights violations
See also Iran Special: The 17 Leading Officials in New EU Sanctions for Human Rights Abuses
The Latest from Iran (24 March): Putting Out the Propaganda
1925 GMT: After a report this week that it had signed a $130 million contract with Tehran for a surveillance system (see separate feature), ZTE Corp, China's second-largest telecommunications equipment maker, said it will "curtail" its business in Iran.
A spokesman said ZTE had decided "some time ago" to "shrink" its business in Iran, although he said the company had not yet decided on the details: "It's still being discussed."
1815 GMT: CyberWatch. The Next Web offers insight into the state of the Internet in Iran, by summarising how many of the top websites are blocked.
About 27% of the Top 100 sites in various categories, as measured by the Internet directory Alexa, are filtered. More than half of the Arts sites cannot be accessed, and 32% of news sites --- including BBC News, The Guardian, Fox News, The Huffington Post, and The New York Post are blocked, although CNN, Reuters, The New York Times, and Bloomberg can still be reached.
Among "Society" sites, 31% are blocked, as are 27% of those concerned with Shopping.