Tehran

When Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari remarked that the choice would improve Iran's image across the globe. The Islamic Republic, she said, "has been seen as this rogue state, a hostage taker. Now people will see the other side." Ms. Esfandiari was right on both counts, only now she is the hostage, held in a notorious Tehran prison on trumped-up charges, and Ms. Ebadi is preparing to fight for her release.

WASHINGTON -- As six leading world powers prepared for a crucial meeting today to respond to Iran's defiant nuclear-enrichment activities, the Iranian president remained undeterred and unapologetic yesterday, saying the nuclear program had no "reverse gear." That comment, by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, drew a simple retort from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said: "They don't need a reverse gear. They need a stop button." Rice emphasized that she remained ready for high-level talks - anytime, anywhere, on any topic - if Tehran would simply halt its nuclear work.

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's ruling Muslim clerics began the apostasy trial yesterday of one of the country's most popular politicians, Abdullah Nouri, a cleric who has gone from being one of the most trusted aides to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to taking a key leadership role in a campaign to end the clerical dictatorship Khomeini imposed after the Islamic revolution in 1979.As turbaned clerics gathered in a courtroom ringed by armed commandos, few Iranians doubted that the outcome of the trial, before the much-feared Special Court for the Clergy, will go a long way toward determining whether the country moves toward greater democracy or into a new era of clerical repression.

TEHRAN, Iran -- In scenes eerily reminiscent of Iran's revolution two decades ago, the police fired tear gas yesterday at thousands of demonstrators and passers-by and fired pistols and submachine guns into the air as street battles raged through the capital.The chaos and violence closed hundreds of stores, banks, gas stations, shopping centers and office buildings and finally, even the vast bazaar in the south of Tehran.The clogged streets were filled with fear and confusion as the worst unrest in the Islamic republic's history was countered by tens of thousands of uniformed and plainclothes security police, soldiers, anti-riot forces in shields and face-covering helmets, Revolutionary Guards, intelligence operatives, vigilantes wielding long green batons and ordinary street thugs.

TEHRAN, Iran -- The most widespread and sustained protests since Iran's revolution two decades ago spread throughout the country yesterday, while security police and their vigilante supporters moved to crush pro-democracy student demonstrators outside Tehran University.Students demonstrated in 18 cities and towns, including major cosmopolitan cities like Tabriz, Shiraz and Isfahan and more traditional cities like Mashad and Yazd, Iran's official news agency reported.Wielding batons and lobbing tear gas canisters, the security forces emptied Tehran University yesterday evening in a campaign to crush the demonstrations.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- The Argentine government, saying it is nearing a breakthrough in the investigation of two bombings of Jewish centers in recent years, has arrested eight Iranian residents and ordered the expulsion of seven of Iran's eight embassy employees stationed here.Senior officials say Argentina is close to breaking relations with Iran, acknowledging that U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials have been correct for years in asserting that Tehran played a direct role in the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy here and the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association, the city's main Jewish community center.

TEHRAN, Iran -- A year after an election that changed the face of Iranian politics, students and other Iranians gathered by the thousands yesterday to celebrate the openness instilled by President Mohammad Khatami.But the anniversary rally came against a backdrop of sharpening tensions between moderate Iranians who reveled in the memory of Khatami's overwhelming victory and conservatives who view his popularity as a threat to their longtime grip on power.Along with Iran's supreme leader, the more conservative Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Khatami has tried to calm that strained situation in recent weeks.

LIKE SO MANY great ideas, this one was presented with so much modesty that it probably wasn't noticed at all, a sure loser in the competition for attention with news of crime, disaster and congressional confrontation. As The Sun recently reported:TEHRAN -- A hard-line Iranian newspaper suggested yesterday that President-elect Mohammad Khatami's first Cabinet should be made up of martyrs who died for the Islamic cause.On first thought, snickers and maybe outright laughter. A cabinet made up of dead people!

THE SUMMIT conference of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Tehran was a triumph for its revolutionary regime, mocking Washington's fantasy of isolating Iran.Egypt's presence gave that U.S. client its closest relations with revolutionary Iran since it granted asylum to the fleeing shah in 1979. The visit of Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia heals relations despite private Saudi accusations of Iranian-sponsored terrorism. Saddam Hussein of Iraq brought an architectural model of what he claims will be the world's largest mosque, to be named for himself, revisiting the country he invaded in 1980.

WASHINGTON -- The last trace of Ray Rising, a Minnesota native, was his motorcycle. On March 31, 1994, it was found abandoned on a lonely road near a Colombian village that the electronics technician was helping with food and financial aid.Mark Bossard disappeared at a roadblock not far from the rural Colombian mine he was visiting three months ago. The American businessman, originally from Anaconda, Mont., was last seen being escorted away by five men in military clothing.Donald Hutchings, a psychologist from Spokane, Wash.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - -Iran's political crisis is likely to prevent it from making any swift move to ratchet up its nuclear program, said analysts and officials, potentially giving President Barack Obama and Western allies more time to grapple with the issue. Yet the ongoing chaos over the disputed re-election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad further muddles the question of just who calls the shots in Tehran, and what a possible deal with the Islamic Republic would mean. The Obama administration, concerned that Tehran is seeking to amass the materials needed to manufacture nuclear weapons, set an informal deadline of September for Iran to respond positively to an offer to discuss the matter rather than risk new economic sanctions.

TEHRAN, Iran - -Huge swaths of the Iranian capital erupted in fiery riots that stretched into the early hours Sunday as hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory in his quest for a second term amid allegations of widespread fraud and reports that his main challenger had been placed under house arrest. At the same moment the president was promising a "bright and glorious future" for Iran in a late-night televised address, supporters of reformist rival Mir Hossein Mousavi were battling with police and militiamen in riot gear throughout Tehran in the most serious clashes in the capital since a student uprising 10 years ago. In the streets and squares where young Iranians had danced and waved green banners in support of Mousavi days ago, baton-wielding police chased and beat mobs of hundreds of demonstrators who chanted, "Down with dictatorship!"

City, families must face grim financial realities It's frightening when "the chickens come home to roost," and that's what seems to be happening now. But please don't blame the credit card companies because families spent more than they should have and "accumulated staggering amounts of credit card debt" ("Credit card trouble," editorial, Nov. 17). Congress should stay away from this issue - we don't need to legislate common sense. The city of Baltimore has been profligate with its budget as well - just take a look at the "Government Offices - City" in the phone book.

One week, the Iranians are congratulating the incoming U.S. president and the next, they're sounding off about leaders who are not what they seem. "A mask of friendship," "the objective of betrayal," "dangerous" - those are the descriptions of "the power holders in the new American government" as voiced by a high-ranking official of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and quoted by a semiofficial Iranian news agency last week. The statement doesn't name names, but there can be no other likely target than President-elect Barack Obama.

The bellicose charges, military exercises, diplomatic challenges and missile test firings playing out between Iran, the U.S. and Israel this week reflect the continuing unease over Tehran's nuclear ambition and a possible military response to it. The launching of nine missiles, including one that could reach Tel Aviv, was Iran's latest move in a political game of one-upmanship. It comes in the wake of U.S.-British military exercises in the Persian Gulf and last month's Israeli air maneuvers that some suspect were a practice run for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

UNITED NATIONS - Iran's senior diplomat said yesterday that Tehran is seriously considering a new offer from six world powers to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program. He called the offer "constructive." The unusually positive remarks by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to a small group of reporters raised hope that a negotiated solution can be found to defuse the crisis. The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend the enrichment of uranium that can be used for nuclear weapons, and the Bush administration has refused direct talks with Iran until it meets that condition.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia - President Bush's weeklong tour through Berlin, Rome, Paris and London appears every bit the glamorous old-style farewell tour with a leisurely schedule, jaunts to country castles and lavish dinners. But it's actually a high-stakes diplomatic mission, spurred by Bush's fear that Iran is an increasingly urgent threat and that Europe may not take it seriously enough. Bush has never been popular in Western Europe after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. "A lot of people like America.

TEHRAN, Iran - In a potential major political shift in Iran, a political rival to Iran's president was elected by an overwhelming majority as speaker of the Parliament yesterday. The new speaker, Ali Larijani, Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator, is viewed by the West as a moderating influence in Tehran. The role of parliamentary speaker is a powerful position in Iranian politics, and analysts said Larijani could use it to challenge the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, against whom Larijani ran for president in 2005.

BAGHDAD -- Iran's president began a historic visit here yesterday, decrying the presence of foreign troops and subtly criticizing American allies. In meetings with Iraq's leaders, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad outlined his nation's plans to consolidate economic ties with Iraq, speaking within earshot of roaring U.S. helicopters taking off from Landing Zone Washington in the nearby Green Zone. Nearly five years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Ahmadinejad's visit underscored the realignment of Iraq from a country that once fought Iran in a grinding war to one increasingly within Tehran's economic, political and cultural orbit of influence.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- President Bush called Iran "the world's leading state sponsor of terror" and sought yesterday to shore up opposition to the government in Tehran throughout the Middle East. But even as he criticized Iranian leaders, saying they were seeking to repress their own citizens and to cow neighboring countries, Bush appealed to U.S. allies in the region to open up their own political and economic systems to greater democracy. Iran, meanwhile, promised the head of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog agency yesterday that it will answer all remaining questions about its past nuclear activities within four weeks, including secret activities the United States suspects were linked to a weapons program.