The Latest from Iran (7 November): Tearing Down (the Poster of) Ahmadinejad's Men

2100 GMT: Shutting Down Khatami. The head of the Baran Foundation, linked to former President Mohammad Khatami, has declared that its activities are legal and demanded an end to filtering of the website.

He may have a difficult task with that demand: the chair of Parliament's Article 10 Commission says the Baran Foundation has no file in the Ministry of Interior and thus no right to be active.

2000 GMT: The Supreme Leader and the Clerics. Rah-e-Sabz, citing Fars, offers an explanation for Ayatollah Khamenei's follow-up trip to Qom. According to a member of the Seminaries Council, the subjects were President Ahmadinejad's obedience to the Supreme Leader, the behaviour of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, hijab and chastity, and the "Iranian School of thought".

Khamenei defended Ahmadinjead against allegations that he was divisive. The Supreme Leader said that although he did not accept some of the government's behaviours, Ahmadinejad "obeys immediately when he is told so".

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The Latest from Iran (6 November): A Flaw in the Script

2025 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kurdish activist Ahmad Baab has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

1700 GMT: A "Tribute" to Ahmadinejad. A crowd in Shiraz, led by a chanter in call-and-response, offer a rhythmic satire on the achievements and poses of the President: "Mahmoud has made himself look ridiculous". The video, according to Le Monde, was shot around 1 November.

1655 GMT: Execution Watch. The conservative newspaper Alef, linked to high-profile MP Ahmad Tavakoli, has criticised the stoning sentence against condemned adultresss Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

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The Latest from Iran (4 November): What Will Happen on an Anniversary?

2110 GMT: Proper Teachers. The Ministry of Education Ministry has issued new directives barring the employment as school teachers of persons affiliated with "illegal" parties, organizations, and groups.

Such persons may not be employed as teachers "unless they repent" of the affiliation or withdraw the support.

The directive also gives priority of employment to those who "volunteer for activities in revolutionary institutions" and "participate in political, social, and religious activities".

2055 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Hunger Strike Edition). Back from an extended break to find that detained attorney Nasrine Sotoudeh has resumed her hunger strike, refusing food and water since Sunday.

Sotoudeh, who was imprisoned at the start of September, went on a hunger strike for four weeks but ended it on 23 October.

There are reports that the prominent Italian lawyer Bruno Malattia has taken on the defence of condemned adultress Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and her attorney Houtan Kian, who was detained last month.

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The Latest from Iran (3 November): The Execution Rumour

2050 GMT: Labour Front. Green Voice of Freedom reports that about 500 workers in the South Pars gas field have gone on strike over unpaid wages.

2015 GMT: Battling Statements. The Society of Teachers and Researchers of Qom has called for an enthusiastic presence at 13 Aban (4 November) rallies>

In contrast, the youth and students of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front declared that rulers should take a lesson from 13 Aban and return from the wrong track of tyranny.

1905 GMT: Execution Watch. Attorney Mohammed Mostafaei, who now lives in exile in Norway, has told Voice of America that he has been informed that a report of the imminent hanging of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was not correct.

Mostafaei asserts, "This news was wrong. I called my friends in Iran....I have some friends in the Iranian judiciary in Tabriz and I talked about this news and they said the news is not true and they informed me that there is not any hanging execution in Sakineh's case. There is only a stoning punishment."

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The Latest from Iran (2 November): Honouring an Un-Free Press

2135 GMT: Speak Up. Darioush Ghanbari, the spokesman of the minority in Parliament, has called on reformists to break their silence and express their viewpoints about the issues facing the country: “In the current situation, it is necessary that reformists, especially the reformist parliamentarians, express their criticisms… because in this way people become informed about the issues and our identity as a political group is recognized in the Majlis.”

2130 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Iran's Deputy Minister of Trade has given shopkeepers a 48-hour ultimatum to "adjust" prices so they will be acceptable.

1740 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Fararu claims that the cleric who requested the release of prominent reformist politician Ali Shakouri Rad was Ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani (see the claim by Iran's Prosecutor General in yesterday's updates).

Another son-in-law Of Molavi Abdul Hamid, Zahedan's Friday Prayer leader, has been arrested.

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The Latest from Iran (1 November): Closing A Medical University?

2205 GMT: Labour Front. Around 1,300 workers at the Alborz Tire Factory outside Tehran have now been on strike for a week demanding payment of six months of back wages and a New Year's bonus.

2200 GMT: Mousavi, Karroubi, and Subsidy Cuts. In Sunday's meeting with Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi said that the Ahmadinejad Government will not be able to implement subsidy cuts successfully: "Generally speaking, no one is against the subsidy cut plan, but our view is that there is no figure to manage this plan. Most prominent and competent experts have been sidelined."

Mousavi also criticized the government for stationing police and security forces around Tehran before the implementation of the cuts.

Karroubi expressed dismay over “institutionalisation” of lies and slander in the country and spoke about the “engineering” of votes during the 2009 elections and the post-election crackdowns that followed: “They treated the people in the worst way, using a great deal of violence. They cannot tolerate the slightest bit of response from opponents and critics, neither in the national media nor in the press...They cannot stand any form of freedom of speech and have effectively killed the freedom to speak the truth and to be truthful...even though they could have saved the country from all dangers by holding true elections.”

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The Latest from Iran (31 October): Please Do Not Be Scared

1940 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Rah-e-Sabz reports that legislators have been not convinced by the government's remarks on subsidy cuts and have asked for a new meeting.

The website adds that the government will take money from banks for refunds.

1755 GMT: Holding Off on More Repression? Gholamhossein Esmaili, the head of Iran's prisons organisation, says the definition of "political crime" has been postponed because of more important issues.

1735 GMT: Warning of the Day. Approaching 4 November, the anniversary of the takeover of the US Embassy, Revolutionary Guard Commander Masoud Jazayeri has warned that today some embassies play the same role as the US embassy did in 1979. Jazayeri said Iran must turn the day into an international day of "Death to America" against spies and foreign intervention.

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