Iranian protesters briefly took six British embassy staff hostage on Tuesday when they stormed two diplomatic compounds in Tehran, smashing windows, hurling petrol bombs and burning the British flag in a protest against sanctions imposed by Britain.

A senior Iranian cleric has decreed dogs are “unclean” and should not be kept as pets — a move aimed at discouraging Western-style dog ownership in the Islamic state, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Russia’s support for new UN sanctions against Iran was unacceptable and called on President Dmitry Medvedev to rethink his support for the US-led m