World - Iran

TEHRAN, Iran - Hundreds of young men and women chanted "death to the dictator," confronting police wielding batons and firing tear gas in the capital Thursday as opposition activists sought to revive street protests despite authorities' vows to "smash" any new marches.

WASHINGTON - The State Department is worried that release of five Iranian officials suspected of aiding Shiite insurgents in Iraq could present a security threat to American troops there.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Five Iranian officials detained by the U.S. military in Iraq for up to two years were released on Thursday and handed over to Iranian embassy staff by Iraqi authorities, Iranian state television said.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Riot police fired in the air to disperse pro-reform demonstrators in central Tehran on Thursday, nearly four weeks after a disputed election triggered mass protests across Iran, a witness said.

L'AQUILA, Italy (AFP) - Iran may have been hauled over the coals by the G8 but world leaders have effectively delayed a full confrontation with Tehran over its disputed election and nuclear programme until September.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian police fired tear-gas on Thursday as thousands of demonstrators defied government warnings and staged a march to commemorate the anniversary of bloody student unrest in 1999, witnesses said.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military in Iraq on Thursday freed five Iranian diplomats held since January 2007 in a major source of friction between arch-foes Tehran and Washington, Iraqi and Iranian officials said.

While France and Britain want sanction threats, the G-8 gives Iran a few months to respond to an offer of talks

L'AQUILA, Italy (AFP) - The White House denied Thursday the US army freed five Iranian diplomats in Iraq as a diplomatic gesture, saying the move was made under the terms of a security pact with the Baghdad government.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian police used tear gas on Thursday to disperse pro-reform demonstrators gathered near Tehran University, a witness said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel must have "tremendously powerful" weapons to deter a nuclear attack or destroy an enemy that dares to launch an atomic strike, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted on Thursday as saying.

TEHRAN (AFP) - A top aide to Iran?s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that Britain and France were "worse" than the United States when it comes to interfering in Iran?s internal issues.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces on Thursday released five Iranian officials detained in January 2007 in northern Iraq on suspicion of aiding local Shiite militants, Iranian and Iraqi officials said.

PARIS - France's foreign minister says a French academic held in an Iranian prison is in good health but worried.

TEHRAN (AFP) - France's ambassador to Tehran on Thursday met a French woman lecturer who has been detained in Iran's notorious Evin prison on charges of espionage, a diplomatic source told AFP.

L'AQUILA, Italy - The White House says it is counting on Brazil to help convince Iran that it must keep its nuclear activities peaceful.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Five Iranian diplomats held by the US military in Iraq since January 2007 were freed on Thursday, the official IRNA news agency said, quoting Tehran's ambassador to Baghdad.

LUXEMBOURG (AFP) - A top European court rejected on Thursday a bid by an Iranian-owned bank to stop the EU freezing its assets under sanctions imposed against the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.