Iran Focus: Mashad, Iran, Jul. 29 – A riot broke out in a village on the outskirts of the city of Mashad, northeast Iran, on Thursday leading to clashes between residents and security forces. Dozens of villagers were reportedly detained. Residents had requested that the village of Kharou Olya be upgraded to a town due to the increasing population level.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 29 – A police station in the Iranian city of Shiraz in southern Iran was ransacked on Thursday by youths who carried out the attack in retaliation for the murder of a young man at the hands of the local State Security Forces. The station, situated in the Saadi district of Shiraz, was left virtually destroyed along with several police vehicles that had been parked outside.

AP: The State Department on Friday called on Iran to respond clearly to allegations that its incoming president was a leader of the student movement that orchestrated the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
“It is the responsibility of the Iranian government to respond to these charges frankly and clearly,” said spokesman Sean McCormack.

Iran Focus: London, Jul. 29 – Iran’s ultra-conservative President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be heading to New York in mid-September to take part in the opening ceremonies of the General Assembly of the United Nations, a semi-official Iranian news agency reported on Friday. Fars News Agency said that Iran’s hard-line Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel would be going to New York about a week in advance of Ahmadinejad’s planned trip.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 29 – The newly appointed head of Iran’s police, or State Security Forces, announced Friday that members of
the Bassij, paramilitary vigilantes loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, were authorised to assist the police in cracking down on dissent.
Brigadier General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam told a police garrison
in Mashad, northeast Iran, “The Bassij forces can assist agents of
the State Security Forces in their activities”.