Iran’s president has said that Saudi Arabia cannot “cover up” its crime of executing a leading Shi’ite cleric by severing diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic.

Six Iranians arrested for appearing in a video singing along to Pharrell Williams’ hit song Happy were given suspended sentences of 91 lashes and six months in prison for obscene behaviour, a news website quoted their lawyer as saying.

Iran says if it is attacked by Israel, it will annihilate Tel Aviv and Haifa.

An Iranian judge has ordered the amputation of the hand of a man who confessed to robbing a sweet shop, local media reported today.

Iran’s supreme leader sharply denounced the US, accusing it of plotting to overthrow its clerical leadership, in a frosty response to an overture by President Barack Obama for better cultural ties with Iran.

PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced new advances in Iran’s uranium enrichment drive yesterday, as government supporters rallied en masse and the opposition reported clashes on the 31st anniversary of the revolution that brought the clerical establishment to power.

A Russian-made passenger plane carrying 157 passengers and 13 crew crash-landed in north-eastern Iran today, injuring at least 46 people, state television said.

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.

AN IRANIAN passenger plane burst into flames on landing at an airport in northern Iran, killing at least 17 passengers, in the country’s second plane tragedy this month, state media reported.

An Iranian official said tonight 17 people have died after a passenger plane caught fire as it was landing and skidded off the runway in the north-east of the country.

EUROPEAN ministers say sanctions should not be imposed on Iran just yet despite their missing Thursday’s deadline to stop work on their nuclear programme.

An Iranian passenger plane skidded off the runway, sparking a fire as it landed in the north-eastern city of Mashhad today, killing 29 people, Iran’s aviation chief said.

Iranian state TV says 80 people have been killed after a plane caught fire as it was landing today in Mashhad, north-eastern Iran.

Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark in its quest to develop nuclear fuel, hard-liner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today, insisting his country does not aim to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave his backing to proposed talks between US and Iranian officials on Iraq, but warned that the US must not try to “bully” Iran.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said tonight he approved of proposed talks between US and Iranian officials on Iraq.

The torture and execution of two teenagers by authorities in Iran was today condemned by Irish TDs.

Iran’s executions of teenage offenders last week violated international law, a New York-based human rights group has said.

Two teenagers have been executed after a religious court found them them guilty of homosexuality, pro-democracy groups in Iran have claimed.

Iran today accused the US and Europe of trying to stop it from gaining nuclear technology expertise and vowed to frustrate all such efforts.

A bus driver is being blamed for falling asleep at the wheel, causing a crash that killed 24 Muslim pilgrims and injured 18 more in Iran today.

Rescuers choking on fumes finally extinguished fires on the freight train that crashed and exploded in a fireball in northeastern Iran yesterday killing more than 300 people and devastating five villages.

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.

Prison authorities in Iran today hanged a man convicted of a series of prostitute killings that exposed the growing networks of drugs and illicit sex in the country.

Taliban leader Mohammed Omar is reported to be in northern Afghanistan, urging his troops to fight the Northern Alliance.

Iran has sentenced to death a man convicted of killing 16 prostitutes in the holy city of Mashhad.

Anti-aircraft fire crackled in the night sky over Kabul, signalling the start of a second night of attacks by the US and British coalition.

A plane carrying the first humanitarian aid shipment to leave Britain for crisis-torn Afghanistan was due to take off tonight.

The first British humanitarian aid flight to Afghanistan was tonight delayed as Government officials awaited clearance for the plane to land.

A man has confessed to killing 16 prostitutes in Iran’s holy city of Mashhad, but three other murders blamed on him were carried out by copycats, a provincial police chief said today.