AP: Iran's most senior dissident cleric has charged that recent parliamentary elections were not free or fair because thousands of reformists were barred from running.

AFP: Iran would "eliminate Israel from the global arena" if it was attacked by the Jewish state, the deputy commander of the army Mohammad Reza Ashtiani warned on Tuesday, the Mehr news agency reported.

AFP: A top provincial cleric has urged Iran's energy minister to publicly pray for rain as the country suffers from a serious drought, the student ISNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

AFP: The United States on Monday denied a British press report of back-channel talks between Washington and Iran on Tehran's controversial nuclear program.

UPI: Iran and Gazprom are expected to resume energy talks next month. An energy delegation from Russia's Gazprom will meet with its Iranian counterparts next month in Tehran, said Deputy Iranian Oil Minister Hossein Noqrehkar Shirazi.

Reuters: An Iranian military training plane caught fire and made an emergency landing at Tehran's domestic airport on Monday but both pilots escaped the incident unharmed, the official IRNA news agency reported.

AFP: An Iranian military jet on Monday crashed and burst into flames at Mehrabad airport in central Tehran, the city's main domestic air hub, but the crew ejected unscathed, emergency services said.

AFP: Iran was on Monday investigating an explosion in a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz that killed 12 people and wounded more than 200, amid continued questions about what caused the blast.