Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jan. 10 – Iran’s hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will travel to the South American continent later this week, meeting several foes of the United States, state media reported on Wednesday.

Iran Focus: Amman, Jordan, Jan. 10 – Some one million Iranians living in Khuzestan, south-west Iran, wrote letters of complaint to hard-line Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit to the poverty-stricken province, a Kuwaiti daily reported on Tuesday.

Iran Focus: London, Jan. 10 – The following is the full text of remarks on Tuesday by Stuart Levey, the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the United States’ Department of the Treasury, on the blacklisting of Iran’s Bank Sepah for “facilitating” the Islamic republic’s weapons program:

AFP: Air pollution has killed 3,600 people in just a month in the Iranian capital Tehran, an official said Tuesday, describing the city’s environmental situation as a “collective suicide”.

Wall Street Journal: The U.S. government’s attempt to isolate Iran’s economy will get a significant boost this month when the last European bank known to be clearing large volumes of that country’s dollar transactions in the U.S. halts the practice.

The Independent: Liam Fox, the shadow Defence Secretary, has backed hawks in the White House by calling for “nothing to be ruled out” to stop Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.