The Latest from Iran (11 August): We Are Special

1450 GMT: Claim of Day. According to Rah-e Sabz, the Supreme Leader may have offered words of wisdom to many university students yesterday (see 0555 GMT), but they were not from Tehran University's Islamic Students Organisation --- Ayatollah Khamenei would not let them participate.

1445 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Asr-e Iran has a pop at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: during the past six years, 30 million people have sent letters of request to the Presidential office -- "these data are a shame, not an honour".

1145 GMT: Cartoon of Day. Eghbal Mahvari offers the Supreme Leader's latest comment on the unrest in Britain.

QUESTION: Seyed Ali, what about violence in London?
KHAMENEI: "Well, I can't see it exactly from this height, but it seems as if the brutal London regime is beating its citizens":

1020 GMT: OK, Let's Talk Human Rights. Britain has responded to the campaign of Iranian officials and media denouncing it for "savage" and "racist" handling of unrest with a letter saying it was happy to discuss the matter because such openness might encourage Iran to allow the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Human Rights into the country.

British Charge d'Affaires Jane Marriott wrote, "I would remind you that the UK has a standing invitation to all U.N. special rapporteurs and has facilitated the visits of a number of these rapporteurs to the UK in recent years. I urge the Iranian government to extend a similar courtesy to the dedicated U.N. special rapporteur for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, to enable him to address the international community's grave concerns about ongoing human rights violations within Iran."

The UN Human Rights Council approved a Special Rapporteur for Iran in March to look into the post-election crackdown on the opposition and frequent use of the death penalty, but Tehran has refused permission for Shaheed's visit.

0725 GMT: Energy Watch. ISNA report that residents in southern Kerman Province in southeast Iran --- where the average monthly wage is $100 --- are receiving bills of $300 covering two months of power.

0720 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The 3-year prison sentence of journalist Mehdi Jalil-Khani has been confirmed.

0555 GMT: Politics appears to be in an August lull in Iran, so the space is filled this morning with the Iranian media's coverage of the Supreme Leader's address to an audience of university students: "“The great revolution of the Iranian nation was created with definite objectives and, as an exception in history, keeps pursuing its goals and values without any deviation."

Most of the themes were familiar --- the "stability and steadfastness" of the Islamic Revolution, the deviation of their French, Russian, and American counterparts to exploit their populations, a call for vigilance against "enemies". Ayatollah Khamenei did not mention a number of the specific issues around universities, such as the dismissal of professors, the proposal to remove "Western" humanities from the curriculum, and a controversial plan to segregate men and women on campus.