Iran Today: Presidential Election --- Last Day Of Candidate Declarations

President Ahmadinejad and his right-hand man, Presidential candidate Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, at the election centre today

See also Iran Special: EA's Guide to the Presidential Election
Iran Video of Day: People Chant "Rafsanjani Has Arrived"< /br>
Friday's Iran Today: Presidential Election --- Still No "Unity" Candidate

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Election Watch: Rafsanjani Edition

Former president Hashemi Rafsanjani has told the ISNA news agency that he "has come to serve and the people have the right to elect me or not."

Meanwhile, MP Alireza Zakani, Presidential hopeful and head of one of the factions seeking to fight the election, has said he will support Saeed Jalili --- Secretary of the National Security Council --- to stop the "sedition" of Rafsanjani.

The news agency was suspended, and its head threatened with prosecution, over an April 2012 video report on martial arts training by Iranian women.

The report initially appeared with a headline that the women were training to become assassins.

Rallying Behind Rafsanjani

In another major development pointing to a serious challenge by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, the "Advisory Council of the Reformists" has put out a statement that --- after a meeting with former President Mohammad Khatami --- all reformists will be formally backing Rafsanjani.

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Middle East Today: Bahrain --- Opposition Blogger Emerges After 2 Years

Bahraini opposition blogger Ali Abdulemam has re-emerged in public after two years.

On 17 March 2011, two days after the Government declared a state of emergency and suppressed mass protests, the activist posted via Twitter, “I get tired from my phone so I switched it of no need for rumors plz."

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Middle East Today: Israel Detains Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

Israel: Top Muslim Cleric Detained

Israeli police have detained the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, for questioning after Tuesday's scuffle between Palestinians and Israelis outside the city's al-Aqsa Mosque.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Hussein was detained to answer questions about his connection to the "public disturbance" on Tuesday at a compound that houses the mosque and overlooks Judaism's Western Wall.

The incident began, Rosenfeld said, when Israeli police detained an Arab who wanted to enter the plaza but refused to present his identification card.

It developed into a scuffle in which Muslim worshippers threw chairs at Jewish visitors, he added.

The violence coincided with Israel's celebration of "Jerusalem Day", when it marks the anniversary of its capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

Iran Breaking: Khatami "Happy" for Rafsanjani to Join Presidential Race

Hashemi RafsanjaniFormer President Mohammad Khatami told journalists on Tuesday that former President Hashemi Rafsanjani is "probably" running in the June presidential election. Khatami said he would be happy for Rafsanjani to run, if the Supreme Leader agreed, and that if he did so it would be a "victory for everyone".

According to comments posted on Khatami's website, the former President said: "I was pleased yesterday when Mr. Hashemi said he was prepared to run, if the Supreme Leader does not oppose it. It's correct that if the Supreme Leader does not want someone to run, that would cause a problem, and I say why would the Supreme Leader oppose it?"

Calling on all people to participate in the elections, Khatami praised Rafsanjani and added that he would be pleased if he ran in the elections: "I am sure he is an excellent manager for the country."

Syria Special: Translation of Abu Mohammed Al-Golani's Response to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

The following is a translation of a transcription of an audio statement in Arabic given by the leader of Syrian insurgent faction Jabhat al-Nusra to the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

See also: Syria Special: Did Jabhat al-Nusra Pledge Allegiance to Al Qa'eda?

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Technical Note: Issues With Comments

UPDATE: Disqus have responded to me and told me that they have now fixed the comments issue, so there should be no problem with commenting now.

Please note that our new comments policy is here.

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Some readers are experiencing issues with leaving comments on the site. it seems that the problem is with the Disqus system. 

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Iran Live: Meet the Presidential Hopefuls

Tehran Mayor Qalibaf1455 GMT:Election Watch

Hojatoleslam Hossein Jalali has said the "hard-line" Constancy Front, formed before the 2012 Parliamentary elections, will present a Presidential candidate next week in a speech by Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi.

1325 GMT:The House Arrests

Detained opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard have been allowed to meet Rahnavard's mother last week.

Mousavi, the primary challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed 2009 Presidential election, and his wife Rahnavard have been under strict house arrest since February 2011. They have been to allowed to speak to, let alone sse, their three daughters since Iranian New Year on 21 March.

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Iran- Syria-North Korea Shocker: Congress Reveals US Threatened by "Evil Love Triangle"

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen speaks at the "Breaking the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nexus" hearing on Thursday

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An evil love triangle is threatening the world and the US must intervene to stop it, was the no-nonsense message from House Foreign Affairs Committee leaders this week.

The dastardly trio of Syria, North Korea and Iran are embroiled in a torrid "triangular relationship", lawmakers warned. While Pyongyang and Tehran were working together to build a nuclear bomb, the Iranian mullahs were supplying weapons to Damascus.

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Syria Special: The Media Creates the "Al Qa'eda Myth"

One of the pictures accompanying the scare stories of Al Qa'eda taking control of part of the Syrian insurgency (Photo: AP)

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This is the story of a story.

Or, rather, this is the story of the creation of a myth --- the myth that Al Qa'eda has taken over parts of the Syrian insurgency.

This is the story of how that myth --- based on failure to consider sources, let alone evaluate them; built by exaggeration and distortion --- points to the media's failure to responsibly cover important developments. More importantly, it indicates how that failure can have political consequences which are counter-productive and dangerous, contributing to poor decisions by policymakers.

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Iran Live: Ahmadinejad "Presidential Election Will Be Political Epic"

1900 GMT: Technology Update. Tabnak, close to presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei, slammed Western news reports on Ali Razeghi, the Iranian scientist who claims to have invented a 'Time Machine'.

The Western media did not believe in the invention and "in most cases ridiculed it," Tabnak said.

Tabnak -- which publishes daily reviews of the Western press's reporting on Iran -- took particular issue with the UK's Daily Telegraph, criticizing the paper for publishing just selected quotes from an interview with Razeghi.

The UK's Independent also came under fire, with Tabnak accusing it of questioning Iranian technological advances, including its new Ghaher-313 stealth fighter jet and its sending a monkey into space.

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