AFP: Spaniard Javier Clemente has accepted the post of national football coach of Iran, officials here said Monday, ending months of uncertainty over who would take charge of one of Asia’s heavyweight teams.

Reuters: Polish gas monopoly PGNiG signed a preliminary deal with an Iranian state-owned oil company to cooperate on managing already-discovered gas reserves, it said on Monday.

AFP: Iran is to launch two more rockets into space in the next few months, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Monday, after a firing of a rocket earlier this month sparked international concern.

Washington Post: After Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s followers toppled a U.S.-backed autocracy in Iran, he brought to power a coterie of politically engaged clerics who sought to create the world’s first Islamic republic. Nearly 30 years later, a new generation of politicians is sweeping aside those clerics, many of whom had become proponents of better relations with the West and gradual steps toward greater democracy.

AFP: President George W. Bush said in an interview aired Sunday the United States had made headway convincing Middle East states that Tehran is a threat, and that sanctions are having an impact on Iran’s economy.

AP: Iran replaced Tehran University’s chancellor, who was the first Islamic cleric appointed by the hard-line government to the post, with a non-cleric economics instructor after allegations of mismanagement, state media reported Sunday.