AFP report.

Opposition sympathiser and powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has ratcheted up the pressure on the Iranian regime ahead of the first anniversary of the disputed presidential election.

The former president's website has again posted scathing pro-opposition remarks he made last year that criticised both the regime and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself.

IMEMC report.

Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, stated Friday afternoon that the solidarity ships, filled with medical and humanitarian supplies, and heading to Gaza, is a "violent propaganda against Israel", and vowed not to allow the ship to reach Gaza.

BBC report.

Israel says it will not take part in a conference aimed at achieving a nuclear-arms free Middle East, proposed at a UN meeting in New York.

Telegraph report.

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

PressTV report.

Iranian naval forces have detected a US nuclear submarine in the Persian Gulf waters, amid growing concerns over the safety of one of the most important energy routes in the world.

An Iranian patrol spotted the nuclear-armed and -powered submarine in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which allows the passage of 90 percent of the oil produced by Persian Gulf states to Asia, the US and Western Europe.

Independent report.

A study by a senior Army officer into the lessons of the invasion of Iraq has been suppressed because its comments were too critical even for a restricted Ministry of Defence readership, it was reported last night.

The paper by Lieutenant General Chris Brown looked at the circumstances surrounding the invasion of Iraq and the criticisms were said to be so embarrassing that defence chiefs want it kept secret. They are concerned that the members of the Chilcot Inquiry into the 2003 invasion, who are aware of the report's existence, will demand to see the report and that full secrecy will be lost.

Telegraph report.

A Pakistani Army major, who was until recently a serving officer, has been arrested in connection with the failed Times Square bomb plot.

Pakistani and US sources say there is evidence that mobile phone calls were exchanged between Major Adnan Ejaz and the suspected would-be bomber, Faisal Shahzad, who was arrested on May 3 as he attempted to fly out of New York.

Jerusalem Post report.

Although it is obvious that the Pentagon has contingency plans for all possible scenarios, one Israeli official said this was "the first time that the public is getting word of practical preparations of military activity."

Kuwait Times report.

Construction began yesterday on doubling the size of the US Navy base in Bahrain, with digging beginning on a 70-acre site leased from the Bahraini government. The four-phase, $580 million project will massively increase the military capabilities of the US 5th Fleet based there, according to US officials. "The 60-year long relationship the US Navy has had with Bahrain has benefited the US, Bahrain, and the entire region. Today's ceremony is a demonstration of America's commitment to a common shared future," US Ambassador to Bahrain, Adam Ereli, said during the ground breaking ceremony at Mina Salman port.

Robert Dreyfuss in the Nation.

If President Obama knew about this, authorized it and still supports it, then Obama has crossed a red line, and the president will stand revealed as an aggressive, militaristic liberal interventionist who bears a closer resemblance to the president he succeeded than to the ephemeral reformer that he pretended to be in 2008, when he ran for office. If he didn't know, if he didn't understand the order, and if he's unwilling to cancel it now that it's been publicized, then Obama is a feckless incompetent. Take your pick.

Spencer Dalziel on the Inquirer.

Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg has performed an about face on the Government's power to stop the US from extraditing accused UK hacker Gary McKinnon.

The Deputy Prime Minister has thrown the prospect of a Home Office tribunal for McKinnon into doubt after suggesting that neither he nor anyone else in the coalition can save the UFO hunter from a US show trial.

Independent report.

Iran today warned the US to back its nuclear fuel swap offer or lose an "historic" chance of improving relations between the countries.

Washington has denounced the Iranian offer - brokered last week by Brazil and Turkey - as a ploy to avoid a new round of UN sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme, which the West fears is geared toward nuclear weapons.

Guardian report.

In their time, America's secret agencies have tried some outlandish schemes to attack their country's enemies, including, most famously, an attempt to do away with Cuba's Fidel Castro by using an exploding cigar.

But in a scenario more the preserve of careless Hollywood starlets such as Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, the CIA appears to have plotted to undermine Saddam Hussein with a gay sex tape.

The Leveretts comment.

When, in an Op Ed published in The New York Times in May 2009, we first criticized President Obama's early decision to continue covert anti-Iranian programs he inherited from George W. Bush, some expressed disbelief that Obama would undermine his own rhetoric about engaging Tehran in a climate of mutual respect by conducting a dirty war against the Islamic Republic. But, in an important piece of reporting published today in The New York Times, Mark Mazzetti documents that Obama has not just failed to roll back covert anti-Iranian programs he inherited from his predecessor--he is instead presiding over a dramatic intensification of America's covert war against the Islamic Republic. And, in a manner powerfully reminiscent of Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the intensification of America's covert war against Iran is taking place through the efforts of General David Petraeus and CENTCOM--because military intelligence operations are not subject to the same congressional oversight and reporting requirements as the Central Intelligence Agency.

New York Times report.

The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents.

Associated Press report.

A semiofficial news agency says Iran has released an internationally renowned filmmaker after more than two months in custody.