Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it has captured a foreign unmanned aircraft during a military exercise in southern Iran.

A rescue team is trying to reach 13 divers trapped underwater after their support ship sank two days ago in the Persian Gulf, an Iranian official said.

AN Iranian spokesman says the country has received a new shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia for its nuclear power plant.

Nigeria says it will take action against Iran if an investigation shows it broke international law and United Nations sanctions in an arms smuggling case.

Iranian and Russian engineers began loading fuel into Iran’s first nuclear power plant today.

Iran has successfully test fired a missile with enhanced guidance systems to hit ground targets, its defence minister said today.

Iran will launch its first nuclear power plant next week, Russia’s nuclear agency announced today.

A LEAKED memo appearing to show Tehran’s efforts to design an atomic bomb trigger was forged by the United States, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a US news programme yesterday.

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.

A strong earthquake rocked southern Iran today, sending tremors across the Persian Gulf and shaking the skyscrapers of Dubai. Iranian state television reported that at least 3 people were killed and 22 injured.

A bomb explosion in a mosque in southern Iran has killed scores of people, state television reported tonight.

Thousands of people have fled low-lying areas in Oman as the strongest cyclone to hit the region in 60 years heads towards the oil-rich Persian Gulf, with southern Iran next in its path.

The US government has asked Iran for information about a former FBI agent reported to be missing while on a business trip to the Islamic republic, officials said today.

An earthquake with a magnitude of at least 5.6 has hit a sparsely populated area of southern Iran.

Russia today said the Iranian nuclear crisis must be solved under the direction of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, and it called on Iran to co-operate more fully with the organisation.

Iran came under increasing international condemnation yesterday – including from allies Russia and China – after announcing it enriched uranium for the first time, but it insisted it will push ahead to dramatically expand the program that the United Nations had demanded it scrap.

IRAN intends to enrich uranium on a scale hundreds of times larger than its current level, the country's deputy nuclear chief said yesterday.

After months of fruitless negotiations, European nations have set the stage for reporting Iran to the powerful UN Security Council by the end of the week because of concerns the Islamic country’s nuclear program is not “exclusively for peaceful purposes”.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today vowed his country would resist Western pressures and complete its nuclear programme, just before a key vote by the UN nuclear watchdog likely to put Iran before the Security Council.

Indonesia’s foreign minister said today that he expects Iran to accept a proposal to use Russian facilities to enrich uranium, citing recent discussions with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator.

Downing Street today dismissed claims by Iran’s president that the UK was implicated in two bombings in the south of his country.

IRAN will only consider a compromise offer from Russia on its nuclear programme if the deal acknowledges its right to enrich uranium on Iranian soil, a government has said.

Iran today mourned the 115 people killed when a military plane crashed into an apartment building in Tehran, with the media running tributes to the many journalists on board and relatives criticising the government.

AT LEAST 128 people were killed when a military transport plane clipped the top of a 10-storey apartment building in Tehran and crashed, gouging out a huge crater and igniting a major fire.

A military transport plane loaded with Iranian journalists and trying to make an emergency landing slammed into a 10-storey apartment building, ripping open the top of the structure and igniting a huge fire.

An Iranian military transport plane crashed into a 10-storey apartment building in the suburbs of the capital Tehran today, killing at least 119 people.

AN EARTHQUAKE measuring at least magnitude 5.9 shook a sparsely populated area of southern Iran yesterday, flattening seven villages and killing 10 people, officials said.

A 5.9-magnitude earthquake shook southern Iran today, Tehran’s seismologic centre said.

Iran said today that investigations have proved Britain’s ties to suspects in bombings in southern Iran over the past few months, indicating for the first time that it has evidence linking London to the unrest.

Iran’s presidential elections seemed almost certain to require a second round as the favourite contender, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, appeared unlikely today to garner the 50% of votes required to avoid a run-off round.

RUSSIA and Iran signed a nuclear fuel supply deal long opposed by Washington yesterday, paving the way for Tehran to start up its first atomic power plant next year.

A pickup truck plunged into a river amid heavy rains in southern Iran today, killing 13 people, state-run radio reported.

Home-made vodka has killed 13 people in southern Iran and badly sickened 25 others, state-run television reported today.

ISLAMIC hardliners moved closer to sealing control of parliament yesterday and appeared poised to push aside top opponents in the pro-reform stronghold of Tehran after disputed elections boycotted by liberals.

IRELAND will use its Presidency of the European Union to garner continuing support for relief efforts in southern Iran, development minister Tom Kitt promised yesterday.

AN Irishman and at least two Germans are being held hostage by a gang of drug smugglers in southern Iran which is reportedly demanding between €3 million and €5 million for their release.

President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin today urged Iran and North Korea to abandon suspected nuclear weapons programmes, glossing over divisions about how to deal with both countries.

A 5.5 magnitude earthquake jolted the city of Bam in south-east Iran early today, state media reported.

Iranian sisters Iranian Laleh and Laden Bijani died today, more than 48 hours into marathon surgery to separate the 29-year-olds who had been born joined at the head.

Ladan Bijani, one of two Iranian twins joined at the head, died today shortly after being separated from her sister, doctors in Singapore said.

One of the Iranian conjoined twins separated during a major operation today has died, a hospital spokesman has confirmed.

EVEN after spending their lives on a quest to be separated, 29-year-old Iranian twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani have told friends that they dream of travelling the world together if a high-risk operation succeeds.

Surgeons performing a groundbreaking marathon operation to separate Iranian twin sisters joined at the head today completed one of the most dangerous steps.