IRAN’S supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president for a new four-year term, describing him as a “courageous” man but telling him to listen to his critics.

IN apparent defiance of Iran’s supreme leader, a powerful cleric has declared the country in crisis after a disputed election, as tens of thousands of protesters used Friday prayers to stage the biggest show of dissent for weeks.

Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani today issued a direct challenge to the country’s supreme leader over the disputed election.

A HARDLINE Iranian cleric called yesterday for the execution of leading “rioters” to teach a lesson to the thousands who have protested against the June 12 presidential election result.

Iranians began voting today on whether to keep hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power for four more years or replace him with a reformist more open to loosening the country’s Islamic restrictions and improving ties with the US.

Iran’s powerful former president today said he will sue hard-line leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for slander over remarks he made during an election debate.

IRAN’S novice President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad named an obscure figure as oil minister yesterday, risking a domestic political storm after already stirring one abroad with his call for Israel’s destruction.

IRANIAN reformists urged their dejected supporters to rally behind pragmatic cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to prevent hard-line challenger Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from winning a presidential run-off.

IRANIANS reacted with anger and fear yesterday to a rare string of bomb attacks that killed nine people and wounded more than 70 ahead of presidential elections.

WASHINGTON will not stop Iran pursuing nuclear technology and should not attempt a military “adventure” in the country, an influential cleric said yesterday.

IRAN’S powerful former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has accused the US of being anti-Muslim by pressuring Tehran over its nuclear programme, the state news agency IRNA reported.

Relatives of former Argentinean president Carlos Menem today denied claims that Iran bribed him to cover up a 1994 anti-Jewish bombing that killed 84 people.