Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Nov. 23 – A senior commander of Iran's police force has announced the successful design and manufacture by Iran of a mortar launcher simulator.

Reuters: Brent crude prices rose by $1 to top $78 a barrel on Monday, supported by a weaker U.S. dollar and rising tensions between Iran and Western nations.

AFP: The United States on Sunday urged Iran to "engage" the West at a new security forum in Canada, where allied commanders also agreed setting an Afghanistan exit date would only serve to embolden the Taliban.

AFP: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Gambia on Sunday for a 24-hour working visit aimed at fostering relations between the Islamic republic and the West African nation.

AP: Iran's official news agency reports a former vice president has been released on bail in the mass trial of opposition figures accused of fomenting the country's postelection unrest.

Reuters: Iran's armed forces launched large-scale air defense war games on Sunday to show off the country's deterrence capabilities in the face of pressure from the West over its nuclear program.

AFP: Iran has jailed former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi for six years on charges linked to protests over June's presidential election, a moderate conservative website reported.

New York Times: For years, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri criticized Iran’s supreme leader and argued that the country was not the Islamic democracy it clamed to be, but his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Now many Iranians, including some former government leaders, are listening.