AP: Three top U.N. human rights experts appealed Friday to Iran to halt 11 executions they say are scheduled to take place Saturday and to declare a moratorium on the death penalty.

AP: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s pointed warning that the U.S. will strike back against a cyberattack underscores the Obama administration’s growing concern that Iran could be the first country to unleash cyberterrorism on America.

AFP: Falling oil exports, sliding currency, soaring inflation, slipping industrial output and rising unemployment — just some of the economic woes Tehran blames on ever-tougher international sanctions it is enduring over its nuclear drive.

AFP: Actor-director Ben Affleck’s latest movie tells the incredible story of Hollywood’s role in an attempt to get a group of US diplomats out of Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis.

Bloomberg: Iran’s budget deficit may widen the most since at least 2007, according to the International Monetary Fund, as sanctions by the U.S. and its allies curb the nation’s oil exports.

AP: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the cyberthreat from Iran has grown, and he declared that the Pentagon is prepared to take action if American is threatened by a computer-based assault.

Reuters: Iran’s vital seaborne trade is buckling under the weight of Western sanctions, deepening hardship for a population deprived of basic imports and heaping intense pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

Reuters: Two European insurers have withdrawn cover for tankers involved in the Iranian oil trade, the first such move since tough new sanctions were imposed in July, documents obtained by Reuters show.