defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi says he will present documents that prove electoral fraud.

a number of Iranian scholars are set to form a committee to preserve the vote of the people. The committee aims to "make public documents proving fraud and irregularities in the election," Mousavi said in his latest statement issued on Wednesday.

The opposition leader added that the committee would pursue its objections to the vote result through the judiciary. "I will join this committee as well," Mousavi confirmed.

"From here on in, we will have a government that operates in the most unhealthy of conditions in terms of its connection with the people. There are many in the society, including myself, who do not accept its political legitimacy," said Mousavi. "It will be a weak government. And the concern is that as a result of this weakness, it will sink into the abyss of making concessions to foreigners."  "Public support has taken a serious hit," wrote Mousavi. "A regime that has relied for 30 years on public support cannot switch this support with security forces."

The Iran Participation Front Party. the largest reform movement party in Iran, published an announcement in which it labeled the presidential elections "a revolution" and called the official results "unacceptable." The announcement also claimed, "The elections were a result of a revolution that has been in progress for a year and has damaged the legitimacy of the regime both inside and outside of Iran."

Iran has accused the European Union of interfering in its internal affairs, and has demanded a formal apology before the two meet for talks on Iran's nuclear program.

According to this blogger, and as can be seen in the photo above, the number of people attending a pro-Ahmadinejad rally has been artificially enhanced by cloning parts of the crowd and inserting those same people elsewhere in the photo. The rally, consequently, looks much more impressive. At least in the eyes of Ahmadinejad.

Normalization with Arab countries cannot take place without a complete settlement freeze in the West Bank, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process told Haaretz on Tuesday in an exclusive interview.

Robert Serry said that in response to a complete settlement freeze important Arab countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel could be expected to allow Israel to open interest sections and let El Al aircraft use their air space.

"The U.S. and the international community want Israel to commit to its Road Map obligations and patience is not endless. There must be a credible freeze - this is what the Quartet is asking for. This could lead to an early resumption of negotiations," Serry said.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that one of three local British embassy staff still in detention had had a "remarkable role" in last month's post-election unrest in the Islamic Republic, according to a semi-official news agency.

"Among the three detained British embassy staff there was one who ... had a remarkable role during the recent unrest in managing it behind the scenes," Fars said, without giving a source. It said another embassy employee had been a "main element behind the riots" but that she had been freed because she enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

Also on Wednesday, President Ahmadinejad's office announced his trip to an African Union summit in Libya has been cancelled without giving any reason.

The top U.S. military commander in Iraq says that Iran still supports and trains militants who carry out attacks — mostly with mortars and sophisticated roadside bombs — inside Iraq.Gen. Ray Odierno says the attacks have been reduced but are still a problem.

Odiero says Tehran is "still supporting, funding and training surrogates inside Iraq" and that he believes "many of the attacks in Baghdad are in fact done by individuals supported by Iran."

Former parliament speaker Medhi Karroubi said on Tuesday that the government emerging from the disputed June 12 election was not "legitimate" after Ahmadinejad's victory was certified by the nation's top electoral body.

"Last night, after Karroubi's statement was released, representatives of the Tehran prosecutor and the culture ministry prevented the publication of Etemad Melli newspaper," his Etemad Melli party said on its website."They wanted the statement censored and not published -- so the newspaper will not be published today," it said.

Israel does not deny accusations that dozens of men arrested recently in Lebanon were spying on its behalf, according to a report published by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Lebanese authorities in recent months claimed to have detained dozens of suspects in an espionage investigation, including several senior military officials. According to the UN report, the first arrest took place in June 2006 and the most recent took place in May 2009. Advertisement

Iranian delegates stormed out of the opening session of an interfaith conference in Kazakhstan on Wednesday as President Shimon Peres began to deliver an address to the forum. The delegates returned to the conference hall after Peres finished speaking.

The move recalled a similar scene at a United Nations-sponsored conference in Geneva in April, when dozens of Western representatives walked out in protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's address to the forum.

Latin American dignitaries, possibly including Argentina's president Cristina Kirchner, are due to accompany Manuel Zelaya in a dramatic return to Honduras on Thursday to try to reverse a military coup which ousted him from power.

An uncertain greeting awaits. Clashes between security forces and pro-Zelaya protesters in the capital Tegucigalpa have left dozens injured and the new government has threatened to arrest Zelaya on sight.

Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the pan-regional Organisation of American States (OAS), agreed to accompany Zelaya. News agency reports from Buenos Aires said Kirchner, one of South America's highest profile presidents, would also join.

A North Korean ship being tracked by the United States Navy on suspicion of transporting weapons to Burma has turned around, US officials have said.

South Korean media said it was going home.

The Kang Nam 1 ship set sail from North Korea on 17 June and appeared to be bound for Burma, as US ships followed it down the coast of China.

The police chief for Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold, and eight other officers were killed in a clash with U.S.-trained Afghan special forces on Monday, senior provincial officials said. The clash erupted after the soldiers entered the prosector’s office in Kandahar city and forcibly removed an unidentified prisoner, said Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council and a brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Senior U.S. military commanders have said violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest level since the Taliban were ousted after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

EU threatens mass pullout of ambassadors from Tehran Buzz up! Digg it Ian Black, Middle East editor guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 June 2009 20.06 BST Article history European Union members are threatening the collective withdrawal of their ambassadors from Iran to secure the release of the British embassy employees being held by the authorities.

European Union members are threatening the collective withdrawal of their ambassadors from Iran to secure the release of the British embassy employees being held by the authorities.

EU diplomats said tonight all the envoys could be recalled "temporarily" in solidarity with staff from the British mission in Tehran who have been accused – entirely falsely, UK officials insist – of involvement in protests over the "stolen" presidential election.

Iraqi forces have assumed formal control of the capital, Baghdad, and other cities, six years after US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq.

US troops began withdrawing from the country's major cities and towns as the midnight deadline passed on Tuesday for troops to hand over security to Iraqi forces.

Al-Maliki described the US withdrawal as a "turning point" for the country and declared Tuesday the country's National Sovereignty Day and a public holiday.

Nepal's anti-corruption authority has come up with a novel solution to rampant bribe-taking at the country's only international airport -- pocketless pants. The authority said it was issuing the new, bribe-proof garment to all airport officials after uncovering widespread corruption at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's unusually blunt call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remove Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman from his post has sparked a political backlash among Lieberman's allies in Jerusalem. During the premier's visit to Paris last week, Sarkozy urged Netanyahu to "get rid" of hard-line Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Channel Two reported on Monday.

The Foreign Ministry responded to the report by lambasting the French leader for his "intolerable intervention in internal Israeli affairs."

The French president reportedly told Netanyahu that while he usually scheduled talks with Israel's top foreign envoys on visit to Paris he could not bring himself to meet with Lieberman. According to Channel Two, this statement was accompanied by disparaging hand gestures. Sarkozy then advised Netanyahu to fire Lieberman and bring former foreign minister Tzipi Livni back into the coalition, according to the report. Netanyahu reportedly told Sarkozy that Lieberman came across differently in private than his public appearances would suggest.

The powerful Guardian Council touched off scattered protests in Tehran Monday night when it formally certified the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a second four-year term, saying there was no validity to charges of voting fraud.

As the certification was announced, security and militia forces flooded the streets, and protesters who were already out marching down Tehran’s central avenue, Vali Asr, broke into furious chants. The marchers were quickly dispersed, but other Iranians, urged by opposition Web sites, went to their rooftops to yell “God is great!” in a show of defiance.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the Guardian Council’s secretary, sent a letter to the interior minister saying the panel had approved the election after a partial recount, according to state television. “The Guardian Council, by reviewing the issues in many meetings and not considering the complaints and protest as valid, verifies the 10th presidential election,”

Honduras was shaken by street clashes and left politically isolated last night as the international community lined up to denounce a coup which ousted its president, Manuel Zelaya.

Latin America, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union piled diplomatic pressure on the new government to quit just a day after the Honduran army seized the president in his pyjamas and bustled him into exile.

Police and soldiers in the capital, Tegucigalpa, fired tear gas and rubber bullets at several thousand demonstrators who gathered near the presidential palace to demand Zelaya's return. At least 15 people were reportedly injured and several dozen were detained.

Barak is expected to propose a temporary and partial freeze on the construction of homes for Jews in the West Bank. That falls far short of Barack Obama's demand made to the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, at a difficult meeting in Washington last month for a complete halt to building as evidence of a commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state

Tel Aviv newspapers reported Israeli officials as saying that Barak would meet Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, in New York tomorrow to propose a three-month freeze on construction in settlements outside Jerusalem.

Israel is using its rapid construction programme to surround Jerusalem with Jewish housing and separate Arab districts from the rest of the occupied territories.If construction work continues it is not only likely to surround Jerusalem with Israeli housing but result in a Jewish majority in the east of the city which Israel would use to buttress its claim over all of Jerusalem at peace talks.

A new study by Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal of Tel Aviv University and Dr. Eran Halperin of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya shows that fear is one of the obstacles preventing the spread of alternative beliefs on resolving conflicts by peaceful means. Such obstacles develop through a selective and distorted processing of information aimed at preserving conflict-beliefs. Take, for example, the belief that "time is on our side." By contrast, the two researchers found that only a small minority of Israelis evaluate the conflict through the ethical lenses of justice and morality.

The researchers therefore assumed that the only way to open Israelis to compromise was to present them with the heavy price they are now paying - and will pay in the future - as a result of their refusal to compromise. This conclusion parallels the findings of Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Daniel Kahneman and the late Prof. Amos Tversky, who assert that people are primarily influenced by fear of losing their assets, rather than the hope for a future profit.

In their research, Bar-Tal and Halperin found that people who were exposed to a scenario emphasizing the price Israel might have to pay for allowing the conflict to continue were more willing to accept new information and compromise, in comparison to those exposed to a scenario based on the fruits of peace. While positive prognoses on the future of Israel and the Middle East did not result in a change of attitude, information on the losses Israel can expect unless a peace agreement is signed soon intensified the wish of those surveyed to consider alternative solutions to the conflict.