Iran

Whispering like conspirators, the two cousins hook their thumbs in their belt loops, skim cocky eyes over the women and swivel, stiff-legged from their hips, like the men they have become. Across the room, and a few steps away on the gender spectrum, a man with shaggy hair wrinkles a pug nose in the mirror and struggles to drape a silky scarf over his head in the style of Islamic womanhood.

Large-scale protests spread in central Iranian cities Wednesday, offering the starkest evidence yet that the opposition movement that emerged from the disputed June presidential election has expanded beyond its base of mostly young, educated Tehran residents to at least some segments of the country's pious heartland. Demonstrations took place in Esfahan, a provincial capital and Iran's cultural center, and nearby Najafabad, the birthplace and hometown of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, whose death Saturday triggered the latest round of confrontations between the opposition movement and the government.

Iran is blocking access to Web sites containing pornographic material and dissent against the country's Islamic establishment, an official said Tuesday. More than 140 Web sites promoting dissent, dancing and sex have been blocked since the crackdown began last month, said Farhad Sepahram, a Telecommunications Ministry official.

A high-ranking Iranian cleric close to both supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sharpened the rhetoric against opposition supporters by giving religious justification for their killings in a fiery Friday sermon. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the hard-line Guardian Council of jurists and clerics that ratified Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in June, likened the opposition to Jewish tribes which he said long ago defied the founder of Islam.

Iran announced that it fired a powerful rocket loaded with a rat and several other live animals into space Wednesday, a week before a national holiday and amid heightened international concerns about Tehran's nuclear research and missile programs. The launch of the Kavoshgar-3 satellite carrier and the unveiling of other new technology coincided with Iran's annual Space Day, as well as the buildup to the Feb. 11 anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. State television aired video of the flying Kavoshgar-3, and photos posted on news websites showed a rat strapped into a space pod. Reports said two turtles and worms were also aboard.

Three men, including an Iranian-born chemical engineer living in Glendale, have been charged in an alleged scheme to smuggle sophisticated industrial components into Iran that could be used in the development of a nuclear weapon, authorities said Wednesday. The case, which comes as the U.S. is rallying allies to block Iran's nuclear ambitions, has drawn interest at the highest levels of government, an official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Times. Authorities allege the men were attempting to smuggle high-grade vacuum pumps and other items into Iran in violation of federal trade laws regulating the export of some technology to unfriendly nations and U.S. sanctions against Iran.

The Obama administration has increased the U.S. military presence near Iran and is accelerating installation of antimissile systems in nearby countries, officials said Saturday, as the White House builds pressure for stern new sanctions against Tehran. New air defense systems are being delivered to Persian Gulf countries, and specially-equipped cruisers -- a linchpin of the U.S. missile defense system -- are being deployed in the waters of the Persian Gulf, the officials said. The moves are intended to reassure Gulf countries that they would be protected against possible offensive action from Tehran, which is under intensified international pressure to refrain from developing nuclear weapons.

Perhaps no country in the world has garnered more attention this year than Iran, from the street protests over the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to revelations about its nuclear program. Yet somehow in the midst of turmoil and upheaval, the country's cinema is thriving. Several of its leading filmmakers, screenwriters and actors are in Los Angeles for the kickoff of a 10-day film program at UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Iran executed two alleged government opponents Thursday, sentenced nine others to death as "enemies of God" and warned of more public trials of opposition supporters in an apparent attempt to intimidate a widespread protest movement challenging the nation's hard-line establishment. Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani, 37, and Arash Rahmanipour, 20, were hanged before dawn as members of an outlawed monarchist group, the Kingdom Assembly, Iranian news reports said. The government has stepped up legal pressure on the opposition movement with another round of confrontations possible Feb. 11, the 31st anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Republic.

Last spring, as U.S. intelligence agencies worked to complete an assessment of Iran's nuclear weapons program, they were firmly on track to reach the same conclusion as previous reports: Tehran was bent on building the bomb. But within weeks, there was an abrupt change of course. The earlier drafts were scrapped. Analysts began to assemble a new report built around the single, startling conclusion that Iran's nuclear weapons program had actually been shut down for four years. What happened?

On June 20, a young Iranian woman was shot dead at one of the mass protests that followed the contested re- election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Millions of people around the world watched video of Neda Agha-Soltan hemorrhaging on Tehran's Karegar Street, and hers became the tragic, beautiful and galvanizing face of the reform movement in Iran. Witnesses implicated a member of the Basij, the governmental militia, in Agha-Soltan's death. But an Iranian ambassador and ayatollah quickly pinned her shooting on the CIA and her fellow protesters, while a broadcasting official -- and a government-sponsored documentary that aired last month -- said the death had been simulated by the Western news media and by Agha-Soltan herself.

For the past two decades, the UCLA Film & Television Archive has been presenting the preeminent in Iranian art-house cinema -- highly personal, moving, contentious and even controversial films dealing with day-to-day life, social mores, religion and war. Searing, haunting and often disturbing, these films offer insight into a troubled country that is largely known internationally only from reports in newspapers and on news channels. The "20th Annual Celebration of Iranian Cinema," which opens Friday at the Billy Wilder, includes dramatic features, shorts and documentaries.

Iran announced that it fired a powerful rocket loaded with a rat and several other live animals into space Wednesday, a week before a national holiday and amid heightened international concerns about Tehran's nuclear research and missile programs. The launch of the Kavoshgar-3 satellite carrier and the unveiling of other new technology coincided with Iran's annual Space Day, as well as the buildup to the Feb. 11 anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. State television aired video of the flying Kavoshgar-3, and photos posted on news websites showed a rat strapped into a space pod. Reports said two turtles and worms were also aboard.

In comments that could signal either a change of course or more diplomatic maneuvering, Iran's president said Tuesday that Tehran would be willing to ship enriched uranium abroad "for four or five months" in exchange for fuel for a Tehran medical reactor. In a televised interview, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said "there is no problem" with sending an unspecified amount of Iran's nuclear fuel abroad as part of a United Nations-backed plan to ease concern about the Islamic Republic's nuclear research program.

Leaders of Iran's opposition movement and the country's hard-line establishment sharpened their months-long confrontation Saturday, with opponents calling on demonstrators to take to the streets on a highly charged anniversary next week and the judiciary putting 16 alleged protesters on trial. Opposition leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi voiced deep sorrow over the "hasty" executions of two Iranians hanged last week in a move widely interpreted as an attempt at intimidation ahead of anticipated confrontations Feb. 11, the 31st anniversary of the 1979 founding of the Islamic Republic.

The Obama administration has increased the U.S. military presence near Iran and is accelerating installation of antimissile systems in nearby countries, officials said Saturday, as the White House builds pressure for stern new sanctions against Tehran. New air defense systems are being delivered to Persian Gulf countries, and specially-equipped cruisers -- a linchpin of the U.S. missile defense system -- are being deployed in the waters of the Persian Gulf, the officials said. The moves are intended to reassure Gulf countries that they would be protected against possible offensive action from Tehran, which is under intensified international pressure to refrain from developing nuclear weapons.

A high-ranking Iranian cleric close to both supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sharpened the rhetoric against opposition supporters by giving religious justification for their killings in a fiery Friday sermon. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the hard-line Guardian Council of jurists and clerics that ratified Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in June, likened the opposition to Jewish tribes which he said long ago defied the founder of Islam.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned China on Friday that it faced international pressure and increasing isolation unless it joined other world powers in sanctioning Iran to try to halt Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The admonishment from Clinton came on the same day the Pentagon announced more than $6 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, a move certain to infuriate Beijing and add a new complication to the U.S.-Chinese relationship. Clinton, speaking at a leading French military academy in Paris, said that China and five other leading nations had been united in trying to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment that they fear is aimed at developing nuclear weaponry.

Iran executed two alleged government opponents Thursday, sentenced nine others to death as "enemies of God" and warned of more public trials of opposition supporters in an apparent attempt to intimidate a widespread protest movement challenging the nation's hard-line establishment. FOR THE RECORD: Iran executions: The deck headline on an earlier version of this article said the two opposition figures were alleged members of Mujahedin Khalq. They were alleged members of the Kingdom Assembly.

Iran executed two alleged government opponents Thursday, sentenced nine others to death as "enemies of God" and warned of more public trials of opposition supporters in an apparent attempt to intimidate a widespread protest movement challenging the nation's hard-line establishment. Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani, 37, and Arash Rahmanipour, 20, were hanged before dawn as members of an outlawed monarchist group, the Kingdom Assembly, Iranian news reports said. The government has stepped up legal pressure on the opposition movement with another round of confrontations possible Feb. 11, the 31st anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Republic.