Egypt‘s uprising has sent powerful shockwaves across the Middle East , with two deaths reported in street clashes in Iran and Bahrain and violent demonstrations in Yemen, as further protests and strikes erupted across Egypt. Thousands of Iranians defied a government ban and volleys of teargas to join a rally in Azadi Square in the centre of Tehran. The protests were the biggest since those that erupted after the disputed [Read the rest...]

Iranian security forces clashed with protesters as hundreds of thousands marched in Tehran on Monday in the biggest rally by the opposition Green Movement for more than a year. Police used teargas in an attempt to disperse the vast numbers as opposition supporters took to the streets to express solidarity with the recent uprisings in north Africa. The crowd – whose size far exceeded the predictions of most analysts – [Read the rest...]

As the world watches the demonstrations in various cities around the Middle East, I was interested to read this dispatch from an observer in Tehran: Early in the morning today the mood was set for the expected anti-government demonstrations in Iran as a brave protester climbed atop a crane in the center of Tehran and hoisted a green flag symbolic of the opposition green movement. Just hours before, throughout the [Read the rest...]

Iranian security forces have fired teargas on Monday to disperse thousands of Iranians rallying in support of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Witnesses say riot police, many of them on motorbikes, fanned out across central Tehran, as opposition groups vowed to rally despite the government’s rejection of their request for a permit. Security forces have deployed on the streets of Tehran and blocked off the home of an opposition [Read the rest...]

Thousands of Iranians gathered in several locations across Tehran Monday, heeding calls in recent days by opposition leaders to demonstrate in solidarity with Egyptian and Tunisian protesters, who recently toppled their own regimes. Cellphone and text-messaging service was down along the protest routes, Iranians reported. Security forces clashed with protesters in several areas in Tehran, Isfahan and other cities, dispersing crowds with tear gas and beating them, according to eyewitnesses. [Read the rest...]

TEHRAN — Thousands of defiant Iranian opposition supporters, moving in scattered groups in Tehran on Monday, staged what they said was a rally supporting Arab revolts as riot police armed with batons moved in to disperse them, witnesses and opposition websites said. Iranian authorities blocked access to the house of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to prevent him from attending the rally which he and fellow opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi [Read the rest...]

As Iranian opposition groups threaten to rally in Tehran in support of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the BBC’s Mohsen Asgari asks whether the Middle East political contagion could spread to Iran – the first non-Arab country. Iranian opposition leaders have issued a call for a peaceful rally in support of the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings to be held later today in Azadi Square – Tehran’s counterpart of Cairo’s [Read the rest...]

The Iranian state commemorated the 32nd anniversary of its Islamic Revolution on Friday with victory parades, as it tried to squelch counter demonstrations planned across the country for Monday. Iran’s pro-democracy Green Movement has called people to the streets in solidarity with protestors in Egypt and Tunisia, as the call gained momentum on blogs and social networking sites, with over 30,000 people pledging to participate on one protest group’s Facebook [Read the rest...]

(CNN) — Iranian authorities have blocked the word “Bahman” — the 11th month of the Persian calendar — from Internet searches within the country, according to an opposition website. The measure appears to be an effort by Iranian authorities to obstruct access to several websites that are promoting a rally on Monday — the 25th day of Bahman — proposed by Iranian opposition leaders in support of the uprising in [Read the rest...]

By Jeremy Laurence SEOUL | Tue Feb 8, 2011 10:34pm EST (Reuters) – South Korea said on Wednesday it had accepted a proposal by the rival North to hold talks on reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, in another sign of easing tensions on the divided peninsula. The announcement came on the second day of military talks about two deadly attacks last year that killed 50 South [Read the rest...]