This week Iran's electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, approved the candidacies of just eight of the nearly 700 people who applied to run in next month's presidential election. Those disqualified included two prominent nominees -- former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close ally of current President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. So what recourse, if any, do disqualified candidates have to overturn the decision?

In a new report, the global rights group Amnesty International documents abuses in 159 countries and territories that it says were "inflicted by those in power on those who stand in the way of their vested interests."

A new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran has improved its capacity to rapidly refine uranium by installing hundreds more centrifuges.

RFE/RL's Radio Farda received a flood of comments via e-mail, Facebook, telephone calls, and SMS messages from its audience in Iran that overwhelmingly express disappointment and anger at the Guardians Council's final list of candidates for Iran's June 14 presidential election.

The daughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic republic, has emerged among those stunned and angered by the exclusion of former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from next month's presidential race.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague says Iran and the militant Shi'ite group Hizballah are giving Syrian President Bashar al-Assad increasing support.

Iran's Interior Ministry has announced the official shortlist of candidates that will be vying to succeed President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in that country's June 14 election.

Outgoing Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has vowed to reverse a decision to disqualify his top aide from the June 14 presidential election.

The decision by Iran’s powerful Guardians Council to bar former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from running in next month's presidential election paves the way for the country’s establishment to bring a loyalist to power.