Jack Colback struck in injury time to earn Sunderland a point and stun managerless Cardiff.

He may not like it but Cesc Fabregas has steered Arsenal to a crossroads.

Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters has no qualms about giving a Canadian band permission to tinker with his band’s classic 'Another Brick in the Wall' for use as an anthem for young Iranians.

THE Pink Floyd rock classic Another Brick In The Wall has been transformed by a Canadian band into an anthem of dissent for young Iranians.

The Pink Floyd rock classic 'Another Brick In The Wall' has been transformed by a Canadian band into an anthem of dissent for young Iranians.

LEBANON’S Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, one of Shi’ite Islam’s main religious figures who had a strong following world over, died yesterday after a long illness.

The hardline spiritual mentor of Iran’s president made a rare public call for producing “special weapons” that are currently the monopoly of a few nations - a veiled reference to nuclear arms – it emerged today.

TENS of thousands of mourners turned the funeral of Iran’s leading dissident cleric into an anti-government protest yesterday.

Tens of thousands of mourners turned the funeral of Iran’s leading dissident cleric into an anti-government protest today.

Tens of thousands of mourners joined the funeral procession for Iran’s most senior dissident cleric today.

The family of Iran’s most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, say he has died at the age of 87.

Iranian Police surrounded the campus of Tehran University today, trapping hundreds of students protesting what they said were fabricated government images showing the burning of a photo of the revered founder of the Islamic republic.

A GROUP of former reformist lawmakers appealed to a powerful clerical body in Iran to investigate Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s qualification to rule in an unprecedented challenge to the country’s most powerful man over the post-election crackdown.

State radio says Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has told politicians to be careful in their stances on the country’s post-election unrest, saying that disturbing security is “the biggest vice.”

A backstage struggle among Iran’s ruling clerics burst into the open when the government said it had arrested the daughter and other relatives of an ayatollah who is one of the country’s most powerful men.

Thousands of protesters have defied Iran’s highest authority and marched on waiting security forces that fought back with baton charges, tear gas and water cannons as the crisis over disputed elections lurched into volatile new ground.

IRAN’S supreme leader last night sternly warned of a crackdown if protesters continue days of massive street rallies, escalating the government’s showdown with demonstrators demanding a new presidential election.

Iran’s supreme leader today said Iran’s disputed presidential vote had not been rigged, sternly warning protesters to halt massive demonstrations demanding a new election or be held responsible for creating chaos.

Iran’s supreme leader says there was “definitive victory” and no rigging in disputed presidential elections that set off days of unprecedented protests.

TENS of thousands of supporters of Iran’s defeated presidential candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, demonstrated for a sixth straight day yesterday, keeping up the pressure on the Islamic regime over the disputed vote.

More than 100,000 opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defied an Iranian Interior Ministry ban today and streamed into central Tehran to cheer their pro-reform leader in his first public appearance since elections that he alleges were marred by fraud.

OUR football correspondent LIAM MACKEY is back in top form and full of energy.

Iran's top leader said his country will not give in to international pressure and surrender its nuclear programme, state television reported tonight.

Iran has hanged five men convicted of murder, official media reported today.

Top Muslim clerics in India said today that the British government had offended Muslims all over the world by conferring a knighthood on novelist Salman Rushdie.

A high-level Iranian hard-line cleric today said the religious edict calling for the killing of Salman Rushdie remained in place and can not be revoked.

Nearly 200 supporters of an Islamic separatist group in Indian-controlled Kashmir burned effigies of Salman Rushdie today, and marched to protest against Britain’s knighthood award to the Indian-born novelist.

If the United States were to attack Iran, the country would respond by striking US interests all over the world, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today.

Iranians today began voting in the country’s third-ever local council elections that could prove to be a public approval testing ground for hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today blamed the US for the chaos in Iraq, saying that the answer to the violence is the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Thirty-eight Muslim scholars and chief muftis from numerous countries have accepted Pope Benedict XVI’s apology for his remarks on Islam, the editor of a Muslim journal said today.

Bowing to intense pressure, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari agreed to allow Shiite politicians to find someone else to head the new government, abandoning his claim on another term in the face of Sunni and Kurdish opposition.

The West’s publication of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over Hamas’ win in the Palestinian elections, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today.

Newsweek magazine has apologised to readers for errors in a story alleging US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran. The accusations, which the magazine vowed to re-examine, spawned protests in Afghanistan that left 15 dead and scores injured.

IRAN’S Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday he was ready to don combat fatigues and give his life in battle if his country were attacked, accusing Washington of seeking any excuse to start a war.

Jason Keyser, Baghdad

An Iranian woman sentenced to death for killing a police chief who tried to rape her has been pardoned by the victim’s family.

Iran’s supreme leader accused Britain and the US today of planning to hold sham elections in Iraq next month in order to keep control of the country’s resources.

MASKED gunmen killed a Turkish hostage with three gunshots to the head, according to a video posted on the Internet, and the Turkish truckers' union said yesterday it would stop supplying US forces in Iraq, bowing to militant demands in hopes of saving two other captive Turks.

A Shiite Muslim nuclear scientist is among those being considered for Iraq’s prime minister, officials said today as UN and US envoys and Iraqi leaders poured over names to fill the 30 top spots in the next government.

IRAQI politicians and a top Shi'ite cleric are due to sign the new Iraqi interim constitution charter today.

Iraqi politicians and a top Shiite cleric have successfully resolved their differences over the country’s interim constitution and will sign the charter tomorrow.

Iraq’s constitution was in limbo today after Shi’ite leaders refused to sign it in a last-minute dispute that wrecked a planned ceremony and marred a landmark in US plans to hand over sovereignty.

THOUSANDS of Shi’ite Muslims marched through Baghdad yesterday clamouring for Saddam Hussein’s execution in the latest show of strength by people oppressed for decades by the former dictator.