Iranians jumped over bonfires and set off firecrackers on Tuesday in the annual Persian fire festival but were forced to keep celebrations at a low key as riot police and militiamen on motorbikes fanned out to quell possible opposition protests. Witnesses told AFP that families ventured outside in small groups to celebrate the ritual in their neighbourhoods, despite all-powerful supreme ...

Jordan wants political and diplomatic solutions to the nuclear standoff with Iran, a Jordanian minister said Tuesday, adding all countries had the right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. "The security and the stability of the Arab countries is directly linked to regional security," Jordan's Interior Minister Nayef Qadai said in Tunis at a meeting of the Council of ...

Iranians jumped over bonfires and set off firecrackers on Tuesday in the annual Persian fire festival as security forces fanned across Tehran to quell possible opposition protests, witnesses told AFP. Families ventured outside in small groups to celebrate the ritual, despite all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging them on Sunday to shun the festival, calling it an un-Islamic event ...

A day after his apartment block was besieged by hardliners calling for his prosecution, defiant Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi lashed out at the government, saying it was "plagued with despotism", his website reported on Tuesday. The cleric, who continues to question the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, said it was still difficult for him to understand how ...