Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is calling for the prosecution of Iran’s opposition leaders over the post-election turmoil.

AN IRANIAN prosecutor has called for “maximum punishment” of a senior reformer for acting against national security, a crime punishable by death.

IRAN’s police chief acknowledged yesterday that detained protesters were abused in prison and the country’s top prosecutor said those responsible for the mistreatment should be punished, in unusually pointed criticism of security officials.

Hundreds of protesters were beaten back by police today as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term as Iran’s president.

TWO prominent defeated Iranian presidential candidates said they would maintain their campaign against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, which has sparked Iran’s worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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.

Iran’s supreme leader today formally endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s second term as president in a step leading up to his inauguration in parliament.

IRAN’S opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi accused the authorities yesterday of using “medieval torture” to extract confessions from protesters on trial over the wave of post-election unrest.

An influential pro-reform ex-president of Iran has denounced the country's first trial of activists and protesters following the disputed presidential election as a sham.

IRAN’S hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned his political rivals that their efforts to drive a wedge between him and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would come to nothing.

IRANIAN authorities have freed 140 people detained in street protests over last month’s disputed election and the supreme leader ordered a jail closed amid opposition claims of prisoner abuse.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to disperse the doubt surrounding his re-election in his first major television address since the result, but even as he spoke, opponents went to their rooftops shouting "death to the dictator".

A top aide to Iran’s supreme leader called the country’s main opposition figure a US agent and said in an editorial today that he should be tried for committing crimes against the nation.

Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi are protesting in the capital Tehran for the fourth straight day over the disputed Iran presidential election.

SUPPORTERS of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi posted defiant messages on Twitter yesterday, calling for a second banned pro-Mousavi rally to go ahead and offering security updates.

PROTESTERS set fires and smashed store windows yesterday in a second day ofviolence as groups challenging President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election tried to keep pressure onauthorities.

Iran’s hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came under pressure today from a rival who promised to reverse his extremist policies.

Iran’s former reformist president said today that he will challenge hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the country’s upcoming presidential elections.

Iran’s Culture Ministry today announced the closure of nine cinema and lifestyle magazines for publishing pictures and stories about the life of “corrupt” foreign film stars and promoting “superstitions”.

IRAN’S Culture Ministry yesterday announced the closure of nine cinema and lifestyle magazines for publishing pictures and stories about “corrupt” foreign film stars and promoting “superstitions”.

An Iranian court acquitted a former nuclear negotiator of spying charges today but convicted him of acting against the Islamic government.

Politics – and not religion – is at the heart of the growing rift between the West and the Muslim world, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday after scholars, politicians and religious leaders convened in Turkey to discuss ways to improve the increasingly violent relations between the societies.

THE former president of Iran flew into a political storm yesterday, as he arrived at a British university to be awarded an honorary degree.

Iranians today stuck by their refusal to suspend uranium enrichment as a precondition for talks on its nuclear programme despite Western insistence that Tehran commit to the step as demanded by the UN Security Council.

An Iranian newspaper has published a caricature of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hitting a punching bag with a nuclear emblem on it, marking the first time the country’s leader has been drawn in a cartoon in more than 25 years.

Western-style free speech that allowed the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in Europe will lead to more violence between Muslims and Westerners, former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami warned today.

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.

Iran’s ultra-conservative new president yesterday broke his silence on Israel and declared the Jewish state was a “disgraceful blot” that should be ”wiped off the map”.

Iran’s new president today nominated a Cabinet that featured hard-liners in key ministries and is likely to lead to more confrontation in the country’s dispute with the West over its nuclear program.

Iran is to restart some nuclear activities, outgoing President Mohammad Khatami said today.

Ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has won Iran's presidency by an overwhelming vote, decisively shutting reformists out of government and threatening to lead the country back toward the restrictions of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iranians packed polling stations today in a tight presidential race between a well-known moderate cleric, who became the default choice for reformists, and a hard-liner seeking to reclaim the values of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iranians packed polling stations today in a presidential race too close to call between a well-known political moderate and his hardline rival seeking to reclaim the values of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

ON the eve of Iran’s presidential election, US President George W Bush has said the voting has been designed to keep power in the hands of a few rulers “through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy”.

On the eve of Iran’s presidential election, US President George Bush said the voting has been designed to keep power in the hands of a few rulers “through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy".

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.

Iranian MPs sent a letter to President Mohammad Khatami today asking him to implement a law allowing Iran to resume nuclear activities “as soon as possible,” state-run radio reported.

Fearing a boycott after all reformist candidates were disqualified from Iran’s upcoming elections, the country’s supreme leader ordered the applications of some candidates be reviewed today, state-run television reported.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today Iran is co-operating with European countries in discussing its nuclear energy programme and that he did not foresee a military strike by the US, which accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons.

COMPLETING the peace process in Ireland would be a way of fulfilling Pope John Paul’s wish to visit the whole of the island, President Mary McAleese said.

PEACE and a whiff of controversy broke out yesterday as a remarkable collection of world leaders and royalty rubbed shoulders at John Paul’s funeral, with only an alphabetical seating plan to divide heads of state whose relations could be frosty or even non-existent.

A remarkable collection of world leaders and royalty rubbed shoulders today at John Paul’s funeral, with only an alphabetical seating plan to divide heads of state whose relations could be frosty or even non-existent.

Iran’s president escorted reporters on an unprecedented visit to the once-secret Natanz nuclear complex today, giving a glimpse into the underground uranium enrichment plant the US and Europe demand be shut down.

Iran’s hard-line constitutional watchdog has decided that women can run for president in June elections, state-run television reported today.