TEHRAN — A high-ranking former Iranian commander has sparked protests and angry denunciations by hard-liners and Revolutionary Guard leaders for publishing a commentary that critics said compares recent government crackdowns on the opposition to repression during the rule of the shah. Read full article > >

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Former commander’s letter sparks uproar in Iran

Iran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced to death an American of Iranian descent, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, saying he spied for the C.I.A., the Fars news agency reported.

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Iran Imposes Death Sentence on U.S. Man Accused of Spying

TEHRAN, Iran — Talk of blocking the strategic oil route through the Strait of Hormuz is a discussion of the past, a commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Saturday in comments that seemed to back away from an earlier threat. But he said Iran had other, unspecified strategies for reacting to any Western aggression. Read full article > >

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Iranian commander backs away from threat to close Strait of Hormuz, strategic oil route

TEHRAN — A massive blast at a missile base operated by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps nearly two weeks ago was the latest in a series of mysterious incidents involving explosions at natural gas transport facilities, oil refineries and military bases — blasts that have caused dozens of deaths and damage to key infrastructure in the past two years. Read full article > >

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Mysterious explosions pose dilemma for Iranian leaders

At Revolutionary Guards weapons depot.

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Explosion in Iran Kills 17

WASHINGTON — An explosion at a Revolutionary Guard ammunition depot west of Tehran Saturday killed at least 17 soldiers, including a senior commander of the powerful military force, Iranian officials said. Guard spokesman Gen. Ramazan Sharif said the blast occurred as the result of an accident during the transport of munitions at the base. The site is located outside Bidganeh village, 25 miles southwest of the capital. Read full article > >

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Iran exile group claims blast near Tehran hit closely guarded missile base

As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, the backroom wrangling of Democratic votes to support President Obama’s jobs bill passed for Washington intrigue. Then the Capitol got a reminder of what real scheming looks like when Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced a foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador . After that, the talk in Washington turned to FBI informants, conspiracy, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps and Mexican drug cartels. Read full article > >

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Iran terror plot reminds Washington of the old days of cloak and dagger

SIRTE, Libya — Revolutionary fighters struggled to make gains in an assault on Moammar Gaddafi’s home town Saturday, with street-by-street battles against loyalist forces defending the most symbolic of the shattered regime’s remaining strongholds. The new attack on the Mediterranean coastal city of Sirte contrasted with a stalemate in the mountain enclave of Bani Walid, where anti-Gaddafi forces tried to regroup after being beaten back by loyalist snipers and gunners holding strategic high ground. Read full article > >

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Libyan fighters battle loyalists in Gaddafi’s base

The big demonstrations in Tahrir today seem to have been large enough to show the revolutionary fervor of the young people is not dead, and to show that others beside the Muslim Brotherhood can mobilize action, though others are suggesting the turnout was not as big as hoped. Most of the Twitter traffic is positive, though. I’ll comment more later….

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May 27 in Tahrir

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was asked to train Venezuelan pro-government cells and serve as a shadow militia for the intelligence apparatus.

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Venezuela Asked Colombian Rebels to Kill Opposition Figures, Analysis Shows

When the 2011 Maryland General Assembly session ended Monday, left unfinished was the effort of some residents to honor a famed abolitionist in a space held by a long-forgotten Revolutionary War figure. The failure of the campaign to replace a sculpture of John Hanson in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall with one of Harriet Tubman especially irked some women’s advocates. “I am pretty disgusted,” says Linda Mahoney, president of the Maryland Chapter of the National Organization for Women. “Women continue to be put in the margins or in the footnotes. Yet there is just so much documentation about what Harriet Tubman did. This is separate and unequal treatment.”

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Why the dearth of statues honoring women in Statuary Hall and elsewhere?

TEHRAN – Violent protests erupted in Iran, Yemen and Bahrain on Monday as the revolutionary fervor unleashed by the toppling of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak rippled across the Middle East, propelling people onto the streets to demand change from a spectrum of autocratic regimes.

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As Egypt uprising inspires Middle East, Iran sees biggest protests in a year

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have shot down two “Western spy drones” in the Gulf, a senior Iranian commander is quoted as saying.

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Iranians ‘shoot down spy drones’

Citing “mounting evidence” of repression of the Iranian opposition, the Obama administration added more sanctions against Iranian government officials, members of the Revolutionary Guards Corps and others accused by the United States of being responsible for human rights abuses.

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U.S. adds more sanctions for Iran

Mr. Penn, 88, transformed the movie industry with his revolutionary treatment of sex and violence in the 1967 film.

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Arthur Penn, Director of ‘Bonnie and Clyde,’ Dies