The real-life "Spider Killer" murdered 16 women in Iran between 2000 and 2001. The case inspired Holy Spider, which has resonated abroad during a time of amplified state violence in Iran.
The executions are Tehran's main response to protests that have swept the country since September, and are seen as a sign that Iran's clerical leadership intends to continue a violent crackdown.
Taraneh Alidoosti, star of the Oscar-winning movie The Salesman, was detained after she made an Instagram post about the first man recently executed for crimes committed during nationwide protests.
The U.S. had to beat Iran to advance in the World Cup. Iran had to just tie in order to move on. The U.S. will go up against the Netherlands in the Round of 16.
The estimate from a military official of people dead from protests is considerably lower than the toll reported by a U.S.-based group that has been closely tracking the protests.
The organization had displayed Iran's national flag on social media without the emblem of the Islamic Republic to show "support for the women in Iran" ahead of the two nations' soccer match.
Voria Ghafouri, a prominent player who wasn't chosen to go to the World Cup, is an outspoken critic of Iran's authorities. Reports of his arrest came ahead of Friday's Iran-Wales World Cup match.
The load — enough for a dozen medium-range ballistic missiles — was hidden among bags of fertilizer on a wooden ship called a dhow. It likely was bound for Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The country's theocracy, which came to power 43 years ago, faces one of its stiffest challenges amid weeks of widespread protests after the death of a woman arrested by the country's morality police.
India's Hindu conservatives are championing Iran's female Muslim protesters. But they oppose Muslim students in southern India who are fighting for the right to wear the hijab in schools.
"Jin, jiyan, azadi!" — "Woman, life, freedom!" — has become the rallying cry for people in Iran and beyond who are protesting the death of Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody.
Chanting crowds marched in the streets of Berlin, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles on Saturday in a show of international support for demonstrators facing a violent government crackdown in Iran.
