Iran again vowed to continue enriching uranium, in a potential setback to a European plan to ease the nuclear standoff with Tehran by offering sales of nuclear fuel and a trade deal as incentives.

Iran’s parliament impeached Transportation Minister Ahmad Khorram today after legislators accused him of corruption and financial mismanagement.

Defying a key demand set by 35 nations, Iran announced today that it has started converting raw uranium into the gas needed for enrichment, a process that can be used to make nuclear weapons.

A senior aide to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has been arrested following a complaint filed by a woman trying to force him to acknowledge their alleged marriage.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami acknowledged the failure of the pillars of his presidency today, conceding his two key reform proposals that sought to check the powers of hard-liners could not be salvaged.

IRAN'S Islamic conservatives were poised to tighten their grip on power by winning controversial parliamentary polls and sweeping out a frustrated and largely disqualified reformist majority.

MOST of Iran's Cabinet ministers and vice-presidents have submitted their resignations, accusing hardliners of trying to engineer a sympathetic parliament by disqualifying thousands of prospective election candidates.

Most of Iran’s Cabinet ministers and vice presidents have submitted their resignations, accusing hard-liners of trying to engineer a sympathetic parliament by disqualifying thousands of prospective election candidates.

IRAN’S reformist government threatened to resign yesterday as other reformers accused hardliners of treason for disqualifying candidates in next month’s parliamentary elections.

There were brief moments of joy amid the horror of the earthquake shattered Iranian town of Bam today when a young girl and a baby were rescued alive from under the rubble just as search teams were giving up hope.

Officials in Iran fear that up to 40,000 people may have died when a powerful earthquake reduced much of a city to rubble.

THE world was responding to Iran’s plea for help last night after an earthquake devastated an historic city, killing up to 20,000 people as they slept.

Iran has made enough headway in 18 years of concealed activity to be able to produce nuclear weapons before the end of the decade, even if its facilities are opened to international inspection, a senior US official has said.

Grieving relatives and family friends were preparing today to bury the conjoined Iranian sisters who died during surgery to separate them.

The head of the UN atomic agency arrived in Iran today and is expected to urge the government to allow unfettered inspections of its nuclear sites.

Hundreds of pro-cleric militants and security forces clashed with Iranians throughout the capital for a fourth night, firing machine guns in the air and using tear gas and batons to put down any public opposition to the country’s hard-line regime.

IRAN’S supreme leader accused the US of stirring up trouble in the country after anti-regime protestors defied threats of a crackdown and took to the streets for a second night running.

A liberal critic of the hard-line clerics who rule Iran was detained on Sunday after several hours of interrogation, his wife said.

A summit of Muslim leaders from around the world degenerated into chaos today as an Iraqi official hurled insults at his Kuwaiti counterpart.

IRANIAN security forces have detained one of Osama bin Laden’s sons among several hundred people suspected of links to the al-Qaida terror network, the Financial Times reported on its website on Saturday.

A strong earthquake rocked north-western Iran today, killing at least 500 people and injuring about 1,600, Iran’s state-run media reported.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has hit back at US President George W Bush, who recently said Iran forms an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea.

President Mohammad Khatami of Iran has crushed opponents in an election landslide that showed huge support for his drive to bring more freedom to the Islamic regime, early results indicated today.

Iranian hard-liners hold out little prospect of unseating reformist President Mohammad Khatami in next week’s election, and instead seem to have opted instead for a strategy of at best slowing him down.

Cuban President Fidel Castro ended a three-day visit to Iran today, saying he had found new friends and was optimistic about future relations between the two nations.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and Tony Blair would like to meet, Mo Mowlam has revealed in Tehran.