Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today announced that his government would release the detained 15 British sailors and marines as a gift to the British people.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana today began talks with top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on a package of incentives designed to coax Iran to stop uranium enrichment.

A liberal intellectual has been arrested in Iran, the first detention of a prominent academic since the election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year, a Cabinet minister said tonight.

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.

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.

A passenger plane caught fire while taxiing at Tehran airport tonight, injuring scores of passengers.

Eight British troops who were detained after straying into Iranian territorial waters have arrived in Tehran, state-run television reported today, and Britain said the men were in the custody of British diplomats.

Siamese twins joined at the head left Iran for Singapore today for medical tests and possible surgery to separate them after 28 years of shared life.