Tens of firefighters were inside as the 17-storey structure fell to the ground in a matter seconds.

The US Navy fired three warning shots at four Iranian boats after they closed in at speed on Sunday, say defence officials. It happened in the Strait of Hormuz after the Iranians failed to respond to requests by the USS Mahan to slow down, but made radio contact to question the ship's crew about course and speed. A helicopter dropped a smoke float and the destroyer launched flares but the boats continued at speed, according to the officials speaking anonymously to Reuters.

Iran's ex-President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a dominant figure in the country's politics since the 1980s, has died at the age of 82, media say. Mr Rafsanjani had suffered a heart attack, the reports said. He served as president from 1989 to 1997 but lost to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he ran again in 2005.

Tehran announces its intentions to build bases in Syria and Yemen. Iran's dangerous ambitions have been aided by the flow funds from the United States in accordance with the Iran Deal.

Well-known tycoon Babak Zanjani linked to shady oil sales during the controversial rule of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

A former prosecutor general of Tehran described by activists as a serial human rights abuser has been sentenced to 135 lashes for financial corruption. Saeed Mortazavi, 49, was found guilty of “seizing and wasting public funds” while he ran Iran’s social welfare organisation under the then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his close ally. On Wednesday, the state-run news website Irib quoted a lawyer as saying Mortazavi had been given 70 lashes for seizing public funds and another 65 lashes for showing negligence in his job and wasting public money. The sentencing has not yet been confirmed by judicial authorities.

An Indian sportswoman has backed out of a shooting competition in Iran over the host's requirement all female competitors must wear hijabs. Heena Sidhu, a commonwealth games gold medallist, tweeted an explanation why she would not take part in the Asian Airgun Shooting Championship in Tehran in September. The defending champion of the competition, Ms Sidhu said the requirement for the shooters to dress in accordance to Islamic principles was not in the spirit of the sport.

Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee ordered to serve six years in Evin jail for unpublished fiction said to have been found in her home

Iran urged the United States on Sunday to remove remaining obstacles to it buying passenger planes following the lifting of international sanctions and spread out the welcome mat to foreign investors as it seeks to boost its aviation sector. Iran provisionally agreed earlier this year to buy over 200 jets worth $50 billion at list prices from Airbus and Boeing under an agreement between Tehran and world powers to ease sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear activities.

Iran's leader message to Hajj rituals was usually issued to ceremony of ‘Renouncing Unbelievers’ initiated and mainly held by Iranian pilgrims, but this year, Saudi regime did not allow Iranian Muslims participate in the Islamic rituals. During last year ceremonies in September 2015, about 5000 pilgrims were killed in a stampede tragedy in Mina which was caused by misconduct of the rituals by Saudi forces. With about 500 Iranians among martyrs, Iranian nation has so far been angry at Saudis.

Russian Tu-22M3 Backfire bombers – as well as Sukhoi-34 fighter bombers – leave from the Iranian Hamadan airfield to bomb jihadis and assorted «moderate rebels» in Syria, and immediately we’ve got ourselves a major, unforeseen geopolitical game-changer. The record shows that Russia has not been present militarily in Iran since 1946; and this is the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that Iran allowed another nation to use Iranian territory for a military operation.

Iran is preparing to indict a detained U.S. man, accusing him of acting against the country’s national security interests, a source familiar with the case has told The Foreign Desk. Gholamreza Shahini, 46, known to his friends as Robin, has come under the government's radar for allegedly participating in the Green Revolution of 2009 against the government and collaborating on a TV interview with the US’ State Department-backed Voice of America, according to the indictment set to be unveiled at a Revolutionary Court.

The United States is looking at whether Russia has violated a U.N. Security Council resolution on military dealings with Tehran by using an Iranian air base to carry out strikes inside Syria, the State Department said on Wednesday.

Two hundred years ago, there arrived in London the first group of Muslims ever to study in Europe. Dispatched by the Crown Prince of Iran, their mission was to survey the new sciences emerging from the industrial revolution. As the six young Musl...

All of a sudden The Purge: Election Year became a stand-in for America’s violent, cynical, stupid cinema—the exact opposite of everything Kiarostami stood for and everything he achieved over four and a half decades of filmmaking in Iran and elsewhere. By A. S. Hamrah.

An Iranian scientist who provided the US with information about the country's nuclear programme has been hanged for treason, the government has confirmed. Shahram Amiri was executed for giving "vital information to the enemy", a judiciary spokesman said. Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia in 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the US, where he claimed to have been abducted and interrogated by the CIA. He subsequently returned to Iran and was given a long prison sentence.

Good luck trying to catch 'em all in Iran. The country's High Council of Virtual Spaces has officially banned the Pokemon Go app, making Iran the first country to do so. As for why, High Council of Virtual Spaces wasn't very specific. The BBC reported that the High Council claimed the game caused "security concerns," but it neglected to elaborate on what those were. We have our guesses, though. Pokemon Go can encourage players to get creative with their sleuthing at all hours of the night, which can prove troublesome.

As Many As 20 Others May Have Been Executed Too Kurdish prisoner Shahram Ahmadi was hanged in the courtyard of Iran’s Rajaee Shahr Prison today, August

Dozens of Sunni prisoners were executed in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj. The families confirmed that they had seen the corpses of these prisoners in Kahrizak forensics.

Men in Iran are wearing hijabs in a display of solidarity with women across the country who are forced to cover their heads in public.  Wearing a headscarf is strictly enforced by so-called 'morality police' in Iran and has been since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Women who do not wear a hijab or are deemed to be wearing 'bad hijab' by having some of their hair showing face punishments ranging from fines to imprisonment.