AFP: Iranian police clashed Thursday with mourners of dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, making arrests and injuring some, an opposition website said after Tehran warned of a crackdown.

BBC: A former Iranian government spokesman has been jailed for six years.

Los Angeles Times: Demonstrations in Esfahan and Najafabad are evidence that the opposition movement has spread beyond Tehran to include a broad cross-section of people in central Iran.

AFP: French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke by phone on Thursday with a French academic on trial in Iran for allegedly taking part in anti-government protests, his office said.

Washington Post: Iran's national police commander said demonstrators will face a fierce crackdown if their "illegal" activities continue, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Wednesday, following several days of anti-government protests and officials calling for the arrest of the political leaders of the opposition.

AFP: The United States said Wednesday it is ready to arrange for a representative of the Iranian government to visit an Iranian man who was jailed for trafficking weapons to Tehran.

AP: Security forces and hard-line militiamen assaulted opposition protesters, beating men and woman and firing tear gas, as thousands gathered in a central Iranian city for a memorial commemorating the country's most senior dissident cleric, who died this week.

Reuters: The trial of a French teaching assistant accused of espionage in Iran resumed on Wednesday but there was no verdict and the court indicated she would be summoned again, France's Foreign Affairs Ministry said.