The Latest from Iran (29 November): Politics and Assassination

2045 GMT: Picture of Day. Cleric Ahmad-Reza Ahmedpour, released (see 1905 GMT) after eight months in prison.

1940 GMT: Today's Assassination. In his press conference,President Ahmadinejad said, "Undoubtedly the hand of the Zionist regime and Western governments is involved" in this morning's assassination (see 0730 and 1010 GMT) of one Iranian nuclear scientist and wounding of another.

Dr Majid Shahriari was killed and Professor Fereydoun Abbasi and his wife were wounded in separate car bombings in Tehran.

Mohammad Reza Rahimi, the 1st Vice-President, also blamed Israel, saying it had "picked up the weapon of terror". Speaking at a joint conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Rahimi added, "We will remove this mask and devilish cover from their face and reveal their identity."

1905 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Emad Bahavar, a key member of the youth branch of the Freedom Movement of Iran, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for "conspiring against national security for the rally," "propaganda", and "insulting the leader".

Ahmad-Reza Ahmedpour, a student of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri and a member of the reformist Islamic Iran Participaton Front, has been released after eight months.

Ahmedpour was sentenced to one year in prison by a clerical court for conspiracy against the regime.

1840 GMT: The Human Rights Battle. Parliament has approved a law mandating the Foreign Ministry to adopt "an active diplomacy" to prevent the adoption of human rights resolutions against Iran in international organizations.

The Foreign Ministry is also commanded to deepen Iran’s friendly relationship with neighbors, promote unity among regional countries, implement confidence-building measures, and to pursue détente with other countries.

1830 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The two German journalists detained in Iran have been named as Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch. An open letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel asking for her intervention has been posted by Dr Kazem Mousavi, the Speaker of the Green Party of Iran in Germany.

Hellwig and Koch were working for Bild am Sonntag

, interviewing the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, condemned to death for adultery, when they were detained in September.

1825 GMT: Mahmoud's Admission on Computer Virus? Back from an academic break to find non-Iranian media coverage of today's Ahmadinejad press conference. While the President covered a wide range of topics, such as subsidy cuts and unemployment, the headlines are on his reaction to WikiLeaks (1255 GMT), his confirmation of talks on 5 December with the US and other powers over Iran's nuclear programme, and his apparent admission that foreign powers had sabotaged that nuclear programme.

"They succeeded in creating problems for a limited number of our centrifuges with the software they had installed in electronic parts," Ahmadinejad said. "They did a bad thing. Fortunately our experts discovered that and today they are not able (to do that) anymore."

There has been extensive speculation that the Stuxnet worm, which caused international problems this autumn, was primarily aimed at software in Iran's nuclear programme.

1350 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Humorist and poet Nima Dehghani has reportedly been arrested. He worked for the now banned Chehelcheral.

1255 GMT: WikiLeaks Breaks Into Mahmoud's Press Conference. Even subsidy cuts, the budget, and Iran's nuclear programme fall before the WikiLeaks controversy, it seems. Press TV's coverage of President Ahmadinejad's press conference highlights a question --- by its own reporter --- over the leaked documents.

Ahmadinejad's response? Blame the US:"Let me first correct you. The material was not leaked, but rather released in an organized way. The US administration released them and based on them they pass judgment …. [The documents] have no legal value and will not have the political effect they seek."

The President asserted that, despite references in the documents to leaders of Arab States urging military action against Tehran, the leaks would not affect Iran's relations in the region.

Having commented at length on the matter, Ahmadinejad said the Wikileaks "game" was "not worth commenting upon and that no one would waste their time reviewing them".

1120 GMT: Faint Praise Alert. Is Supreme Leader showing his great pleasure with Lebanon or his greater dismay with every other Arab country --- post-Wikileaks stories --- with his welcome of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri today?

Ayatollah Khamenei said, according to state media, that "Lebanon is the only country which has been able to defeat Israel".

The Supreme Leader added the sweeter words, "The Lebanese people's prosperity makes Iran joyful, as Lebanon's pain and sufferings will sadden Iran."

1010 GMT: The Assassination. The head of Tehran Police, Hossein Sajedinia, has said today's killing of Dr Majid Shahriari (see 0730 GMT) was very detailed. A motorcycle approaced the car in which Shahriari was travelling and attached a bomb which exploded seconds later.

An EA correspondent notes, "This raises some questions regarding the overall intelligence capability of the Iranian state today, if such operations can be executed to perfection in the heart of Tehran by some foreign or opposition organisation."

EA sources confirm that Dr Shahriari and Professor Fereydoun Abbasi, injured in another car bomb this morning, were both nuclear physicists.

0855 GMT: International Front. In case anyone is listening, more template rhetoric during the visit of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri....

"Defending security and national unity in Lebanon is not a motto that someone can oppose. This is the main foundation of Lebanon," said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in his meeting with Hariri on Sunday.

0815 GMT: Wikileaks Extras. We'll be analysing the Wikileaks documents all week --- see today's feature by Mr Tehrani on the significance for relations between Iran and Arab states and the April 2009 document on Ahmadinejad's political and economic troubles --- but here's a little teaser from Der Spiegel....

"From the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, a special meeting of "Iran watchers" reported an uproar that has taken place at a meeting of the National Security Council in Tehran. The Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jaafari, went off on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and slapped him in the face, because the normally conservative President had surprisingly called for more press freedom."

0805 GMT: Poster of the Day. For 16 Azar (National Students Day in early December), a poster featuring Kianoush Asa, killed in post-election violence: "We Want to Be His Voice".

0755 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Dr.Kianoosh Rad of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, has been arrested with wife in a raid on their house. According to Advar News, Rad's wife suffered a heart attack during the incident.

Rooz Online updates on the case of detained student activist Abdollah Momeni, featuring Momeni's latest letter --- repeating claims of abuse --- to Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei and publishing comments from Momeni's wife Fatemeh Adinevand.

0730 GMT: We will be catching up with developments from Iran later this morning, but this has just come in from Iranian state media....

One professor at Shahid Beheshti University was killed and another, along with his wife, were injured this morning in separate bombings.

"Unknown terrorists" blew up the cars of Dr Majid Shahriari and Professor Fereydoun Abbasi, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. Shahriari was killed immediately; Professor Abbasi and his wife are in hospital.

The assassination echoes the unresolved killing of physicist Masoud Ali Mohammadi in January 2010 when a booby-trapped motorcycle exploded near his automobile.

According to Mashregh, Abbasi had a doctorate in nuclear physics and did nuclear research at the Ministry of Defence.