The Latest from Iran (8 January): Confronting the Enemy, Talking to the Enemy

1814 GMT: Sedition Watch. Gholam-Hossein Elham of the Guardian Council gets to the point: opponents and protesters are "mohareb" (enemies of God) and must be eradicated.

1810 GMT: Financial Mismanagement Watch. Another criticism of the Government's handling of energy revenues: the Baran Foundation reports that, although Iran had an $8 billion oil profit, not one toman was transfered to the treasury this year.

1805 GMT: Diplomatic Truths. Mehr reports on the increasing power of the President's "special envoys" and the chaos for Iranian diplomacy after the dismissal of Foreign Minister Mottaki.

1749 GMT: The Espionage Non-Story. Western media continue to take the tale of the "American-spying-through-her-teeth" seriously (see 1215 GMT), amidst these developments from Iranian officials:

She is no longer 55. She is 34.

Sometimes she is American. Sometimes she is Swiss.

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The Latest from Iran (28 December): One Execution Delayed but Two Carried Out

2230 GMT: A Cleric and the Law. Ayatollah Vahid Khorassani has said that the confessions of those in prison are worth nothing.

2220 GMT: Subsidy Cuts, Fuel, and Ahmadinejad. A correspondent from Tehran summarises official statistics that show consumption of diesel fuel, gasoline, fuel oil, and kerosene has dropped 38% since the start of subsidy cuts on 19 December.

Consumption of diesel fuel initially fell 73% but has risen again, thank in parts to the government's partial restitution of subsidies for fuel for transportation.

President Ahmadinejad, speaking in Karaj on Tuesday, declared, "I announce with pride that in the past ten days, since the implementation of this law, we have been witness to a 38 percent drop in consumption just in the diesel fuel and heating oil sector."

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