What is motivating Iran's tough talk of enriching uranium and shutting down a major global oil chokepoint?

LONDON (Reuters) - From Los Angeles to Paris to Tehran, disparate opposition groups with little in common but an aversion to Iran's clerical leaders are struggling to extract political gains from an escalation in Western sanctions. Numerous dissidents have hailed Western agreement on tougher measures to compel the Islamic Republic to rein in its nuclear program, but translating the upbeat mood ...

Hossein Alaei, a former senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC), has come under attack by his fellow guards and hard-liners over an article in which he appeared to draw an analogy between the rule of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the last days of the shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was ousted from power in the 1979 revolution.

Payvand.com organizes hundreds of titles in more than 40 categories in its Iranbooks section. Here is a list of top 10 sellers in 2011, reflecting our state of mind.

PARIS (Reuters) - An Iranian opposition group said on Monday it aimed to create a national council incorporating a wide range of groups inside Iran by March to offer a "credible alternative" to the current government. Set up in April 2010, the Iranian Green Democratic Congress (IGDC) says it has been working over the last year to bring together groups as varied as republicans and monarchists and ...

(Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has thyroid cancer and will undergo surgery next month, a government spokesman said, adding that the cancerous cells had not spread. Here are details of some world leaders who have had cancer while in office. * ARGENTINA'S FERNANDEZ: -- Fernandez was diagnosed with a papillary carcinoma that has not metastasized. An operation is scheduled to ...

With millions of article impressions and thousands of articles on Payvand.com every year, here are the top 20 news stories most viewed, in case you missed any. These viral articles are a reflection of what captured our attention the most in 2011.

It all started in 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini returned from Paris to Tehran after the exile of US backed Reza Shah and declared Iran as Islamic Republic after the huge public referendum. The then . . .

The Iranian president says his administration will do everything it can to save the national currency from plunging further out of control.The semi-official Mehr news agency is quoting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ...

TEHRAN, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Iran's first nuclear plant will be at full production in time for the revolutionary anniversary on Feb. 1, the country's atomic chief announced in Tehran.