Iran’s election authority: Partial recount shows election valid

Saying it had completed an investigation into alleged voter irregularities, Iran’s election authority on Monday stood by its findings that gave hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an overwhelming victory and sparked more than two weeks of chaos in the streets. There was “no tangible irregularity,” Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei told government-run Press TV after reporting that a recount of some 10 percent of the votes found no significant differences.

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Iran deadline nears without complaint filed

No Iranian presidential candidates had filed complaints as a Monday deadline approached in the country’s disputed presidential election, state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported. The powerful conservative Guardian Council last week extended the deadline for filing complaints after two candidates — Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi — questioned the legitimacy of the June 12 vote count

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Iran’s security council tells Moussavi to back off

Members of Iran’s influential National Security Council have told opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi that his repeated demands for the annulment of the June 12 election results are "illogical and unethical," state media reported. Esmaeel Kowsari told the government-run Iranian Labor News Agency in an interview Friday that the council met with Moussavi, former presidential candidates Mehdi Karrubi and Mohsen Rezaie, and former Iran President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who now chairs the Assembly of Experts

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New ‘Great Satan’? Iran, U.K. Relations Worsen

If the number of protesters on the streets of Tehran has thinned in recent days — a result of the bloody crackdown by police and militia that continued in parts of the capital on June 24 — there’s little sign of a letup in Iran’s overseas offensive. British passport holders “had a role” in the violent clashes sparked by Iran’s disputed election on June 12, Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei told the Fars news agency on June 24. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced that Tehran might downgrade its diplomatic ties with the U.K.

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Amanpour: Dented Khamenei faces battle of wills

Despite his threats of "consequences" and the subsequent beatings and shooting deaths by government agents, the open protests on Iran’s streets by hundreds of thousands of people have dented the shield of invincibility of Iran’s Supreme religious Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, say sources in Iran. Chants of “Death to Khamenei” broke a state-imposed, and a self-imposed absolute prohibition on criticizing a leader believed to be wielding the wisdom and authority of God himself. But right now, the massive network of Iran’s intelligence agents, Revolutionary Guard, paramilitary Basij, and police of all sorts, are cracking down.

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Opposition leader postpones rally in Iran

A Thursday ceremony to mourn the victims of Iran’s post-election protests has been postponed for a week, an opposition party Web site said. The statement was posted Wednesday evening on the Web site of presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi’s party — some hours after security forces wielding clubs and firing weapons crushed a planned demonstration at a square in the capital, Tehran

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Storm kills 8 in Philippines

Eight people were killed and 11 were left missing after tropical depression Nangka triggered flooding, a tornado and a landslide in the Philippines, according to disaster officials. “The minority can’t impose their opinion on the majority,” Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri told CNN en Español. “They can’t impose a dictatorship saying that the majority is not going to govern.” There are acceptable ways of addressing electoral fraud, if any occurred, he said.

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