AFP: France is to pull out part of its diplomatic staff from Tehran following the ransacking of Britain’s embassy this week by a pro-regime mob, adding to the backlash on Saturday against an increasingly defensive Iran.

Iran Focus: London, Dec. 03 – Click here for the full list of 180 persons and entities blacklisted on Thursday by the European Union for alleged involvement in Iran’s nuclear or ballistic missiles activities.

New York Times: Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. completed his 16th trip to Iraq this week to inaugurate a new, postwar relationship. But as he left behind the farewell rituals with troops for meetings in neighboring Turkey, crises afflicting relations with two nearby countries, Iran and Syria, were already replacing Iraq as Mr. Biden’s major preoccupations.

AP: Iranian diplomats expelled from London in retaliation for attacks on British compounds in Tehran arrived home Saturday, the official IRNA news agency reported, sealing Iran’s most serious diplomatic rift with the West in decades.

Reuters: Britain’s media watchdog said it has fined Iranian news channel Press TV 100,000 pounds ($156,800) for broadcasting an unauthorised interview with an imprisoned Newsweek journalist.

Reuters: Crowds chanted “Death to Britain” at Tehran University on Friday prayers as a hardline Iranian cleric warned the U.N. and European Union against siding with London after students and militia stormed the British embassy in Tehran.

Reuters: Britain’s ambassador to Iran described Friday how he took refuge while a mob rampaged through his embassy in Tehran, smashing windows, tearing up portraits and starting fires, while seven staff were seized by protesters at a second compound.

Wall Street Journal: A Syrian government run by the country’s main opposition group would cut Damascus’s military relationship to Iran and end arms supplies to Middle East militant groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, the group’s leader said, raising the prospect of a dramatic realignment of powers at region’s core.

AFP: Iranians in Tehran staged a fresh anti-British demonstration on Friday in support of the storming of Britain’s diplomatic compounds earlier this week, the official IRNA news agency reported.

AP: Vice President Joe Biden called on Turkey to impose new sanctions against Iran, while praising Ankara for its role in pressuring Syria to stop its bloody crackdown on protesters.