An Iranian actress and political reformer has been jailed for 18 months on security charges in another sign of the tension between Iran’s hard-line judiciary and calls for greater openness by new president Hassan Rouhani.

The United States and Iran took a historic step towards ending more than three decades of estrangement when President Barack Obama and Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani spoke by phone and agreed to work on resolving global suspicions that Tehran is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Iranian and UN officials have held a “constructive” meeting on resuming a probe of allegations that Tehran has worked on atomic arms in talks seen as a test of pledges by Iran’s new president to reduce nuclear tensions.

Iran’s interior minister says moderate candidate Hasan Rowhani has won the presidential vote.

Iran’s reformist-backed presidential candidate surged to a wide lead in early vote counting today, a top official said, suggesting that a flurry of late support could have swayed a race which once appeared solidly in the hands of Tehran’s ruling clerics.

Iran’s interior ministry says voting in the country’s presidential election has ended.

The polls have opened in the election that will decide a successor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The social networking websites which helped mobilise anti-regime protests in 2009 are buzzing again — this time urging Iranians to be sure to vote today when Iran elects a new president.

Israel’s Prime Minister warned today that the Jewish state will do everything to defend itself against any threat.

Dan Buckley traces the career thus far of Dublin-born Samantha Power who has just been appointed US ambassador to the UN by President Obama

Iranian women seeking to run in the presidential election next month have been told they are not allowed to take part.

Iranian state TV is reporting that the country has launched its domestically-built destroyer in the Caspian Sea.

Nicolas Maduro has been sworn in as Venezuela’s acting president, despite the objections of the opposition who said the move violated the country’s constitution.

From Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Cuba’s Raul Castro, about 30 heads of state joined the funeral of Hugo Chávez in a last goodbye to the charismatic but divisive Venezuelan leader who changed the face of politics in South America.

World leaders, athletes and left-wing celebrities gathered at a music-filled state funeral honouring Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez today, with multitudes waiting outside the venue.

Venezuela’s opposition says it will not attend the swearing-in of Hugo Chavez’s anointed successor as interim president.

Some marked Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s death with tears; others with cheers.

A leading Republican senator’s tweet comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a monkey is drawing criticism from a fellow Republican politician as racist.

Just a week after Iran claimed it had sent a monkey into space, their president has said he is willing to emulate it.

Earlier this week, as the US returned President Barack Obama to the White House for another four-year term, China’s Communist Party gathered in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to orchestrate a once-in-a-decade leadership transition.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the age of nuclear deterrence was long gone and any country still stockpiling nuclear weapons was “mentally retarded”.

Iran’s parliament is planning to summon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be questioned over the country’s plummeting currency, state radio reported today.

UN human rights officials are condemning Iran’s use of stoning as a form of capital punishment among a number of “deeply troubling” rights violations, many of which are “systemic in nature,” according to a report.

Iran's president says a new world order needs to emerge, away from American "bullying" and domination.

Democratic uprisings across the Arab world and the Palestinians’ bid for UN membership sparked hope and excitement at last year’s meeting of world leaders.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told donors that Palestinians “have no interest” in peace with Israel and suggested that efforts at Mideast peace under his administration would languish, according to comments captured on newly released video of his private remarks to wealthy donors.

Iran and North Korea have signed a scientific and technological co-operation agreement.

North Korea says its nominal head of state will visit Iran to attend an international summit next week.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend the summit of the Nonaligned Movement of mainly developing countries in Tehran next week despite strong opposition from Israel and Jewish groups outraged at Iran’s calls for the destruction of Israel, the UN announced today.

Iran has unveiled an upgraded version of a short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile just weeks after it was test-fired, the country's state media reported.

Refugees are fleeing Syria in ever greater numbers, UN agencies said yesterday, as the conflict between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebels intensifies.

Israel’s existence is an “insult to all humanity”, Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today.

Iran’s government faced criticism yesterday over its response to two earthquakes that killed 306 people with complaints of a lack of tents.

Anti-Angela Merkel sentiment in the European press is turning increasingly nasty, but despite the pressure she is under, those close to her say she is not for turning as she sets her sights on re-election, writes Madeline Chambers

China has urged Iran to take "a flexible and pragmatic approach" in international talks over its nuclear ambitions.

Syrian troops today shelled the central region of Houla where more than 100 people were massacred last week, activists said.

Thirteen bound corpses, many apparently shot execution-style, have been discovered in eastern Syria, days after the massacre of more than 100 people provoked international outrage.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is eager to attend the Olympic Games in London to support Iranian athletes but says that Britain has a “problem” with hosting him.

Supporters of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been reduced to a small fraction in Iran’s legislature, according to final results from a runoff parliamentary election announced today.

Final results for many constituencies in Iran's parliamentary runoff elections show conservative rivals of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winning a solid majority of seats and cementing their hold on the legislature.

As world leaders close ranks against Syrian leader Bashar Assad, the US president summed up the popular wisdom during a recent White House press conference: “Ultimately, this dictator will fall.”

Iran's parliament began questioning President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today over a long list of accusations, including mismanaging the nation's economy and challenging the country's supreme leader.

Conservative rivals of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were leading in the race for parliament according to early election results today, an indication the president may face a more hostile house in the remaining 18 months of his second term in office.