TEHERAN - IRAN'S opposition plans a day of street marches and mourning on Thursday for protesters killed in post-election violence, keeping up the pressure on the Islamic regime over the disputed vote.
Facing their biggest crisis since the 1979 revolution, the country's Islamic rulers have gone on the offensive, arresting protesters and prominent reformists, tightening their grip on the media and lashing out at 'meddling' by foreign foes, including the United States.
TEHERAN- IRAN'S opposition was set to hold marches and a day of mourning on Thursday for slain protesters as they keep up pressure on the authorities over the disputed presidential election in the country's biggest crisis since the 1979 revolution.
In defiance of an official ban, defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi called upon his supporters to take the streets dressed in black as a sign of mourning for protesters slain in the post-election clashes, in a statement published on his movement's website.
The Pirate Bay helps Iran critics dodge censorship
STOCKHOLM - POPULAR file-sharing site The Pirate Bay said on Wednesday it has helped launch an Internet network in support of Iranian election critics allowing users to dodge the regime's censorship rules by surfing anonymously.
The Pirate Bay, whose operators were convicted in April of helping others commit copyright violations, temporarily changed its logo to 'The Persian Bay' early on Wednesday with a link to a protest forum.
TEHERAN - IT'S not just young, liberal rich kids anymore: Whole families, taxi drivers, even conservative women in black chadors are joining Iran's opposition street protests.
They say they want something simple: their votes counted and their voices heard. What they will settle for - or push for - is a far bigger question.
IN THE latest sweep, Iran arrested on Wednesday Ebrahim Yazdi and Mohammad Tavasoli, veteran revolutionaries and leaders of Iran's Liberation Movement, the Etemad Melli newspaper reported.
Unofficial reports said the elderly Yazdi had been detained at a hospital emergency unit.
Despite the crackdown, defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has called on his supporters to take the streets again on Thursday dressed in black in a sign mourning for protesters slain in post-election clashes.
Tens of thousands of people joined what was billed as a 'silent' protest rally on Wednesday, wearing green wrist and head-bands in the colour of Mr Mousavi's campaign and carrying banners accusing re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of having 'stolen' their votes in Friday's poll, witnesses said.
State television broadcast brief footage of the rally, which was staged despite an official ban on such gatherings. The foreign media is barred from covering such events under restrictions imposed since the wave of public anger took hold in Iran, exposing deep divisions in the oil-rich nation.
At least seven people have been killed and many more wounded in the worst violence for at least a decade, with protests reported not only in Teheran but also spreading to other major cities across the country since polling day.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini said he would consider a partial recount of the election that brought Mr Ahmadinejad back to power in a landslide, after his defeated rivals lodged formal complaints of vote-rigging.
But Mr Mousavi on Wednesday repeated his demand for the results of the election, which he branded a 'shameful fraud', to be annulled and a new vote called.
World governments have raised concern about the situation in Iran, particularly the police violence and widespread arrests, with some also European leaders publicly speaking of fraud and vote irregularities.
The authorities, warning they would crush any 'velvet revolution', have rounded up scores of people in Tehran and other cities, including prominent reformists and even former government officials. -- AFP
