Iran

The third day of protests over Friday's presidential election dawned with heavy clouds rolling over Tehran and premonitions that protests over alleged vote-rigging in the Iranian elections were about to breathe their last.

Tehran is living strange days. After two nights of rioting, this city that manages to combine the frantic with the lackadaisical takes even longer than usual to get going in the morning.

Street-sweepers brush glass away from shattered bus-stops as slow traffic trundles past torched and blackened bank fronts. An overcast and cooler than usual summer with frequent rainstorms makes for a brooding atmospheric backdrop to the scenes of urban tension unfolding in the streets.

It was the largest non-regime organized demonstration in the 30-year history of Iran's Islamic Republic. And for once, the ruling order had not a jot of influence in organizing it.

All day Sunday, throughout Tehran's urban sprawl, jamblocked traffic and busy markets, young men and women darted in amongst the people to spread the news: Monday, 4 p.m. at Enghelab (Revolution Square).

I was talking to students outside a university dormitory ringed by riot police in a western neighborhood called Amirabad as darkness fell when I felt a light pinch on my waist.

An election that began with a record number of Iranians peacefully seeking to choose their president ended Saturday in protest demonstrations and a violent crackdown that undermined the legitimacy of the Islamic regime.

Iranian officials - including the Muslim cleric who wields the ultimate power in the country, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - insisted that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been re-elected by a margin of more than 10 million votes over his main challenger, Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Protesters chanting "God is great" grew angrier in Tehran and other cities Sunday as incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted that he had won re-election fairly and police arrested more than 100 opposition supporters.

The regime mobilized thousands of Ahmadinejad supporters for a counterdemonstration in central Tehran's Vali Asr Square -- the scene of anti-Ahmadinejad riots Saturday -- to cheer the president and lambaste his opponents, the West and its media.

The Iranian capital was still in the grip of rioting as darkness fell Saturday night. Vali Asr Avenue, the city's most historic thoroughfare which traverses the city, has not seen anything like it since the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Authorities discontinued cellphone communications, blocked several websites and moved swiftly to squash pockets of resistance.

Rioters continued battling riot police on motorcycles and bassiji militias, as residents watching the violence from balconies and rooftops shouted "death to the dictator."

It's 4.30 a.m. in North Tehran's Tajrish Square and the sky is turning gray as dawn approaches.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's supporters are out in force, celebrating. Fifty cars have gathered in the middle of the square honking horns and shouting slogans. As young men set off fireworks, the president's supporters dance alongside them. Immediately, police cars with sirens flashing, and plain-clothes policemen in unmarked Kia cars holding walkie-talkies, converge on the scene to ensure the jubilation does not get out of hand.

Iranian authorities announced Saturday that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election by a commanding majority of nearly two-thirds of votes cast, but young Iranians protested in the streets of the capital and the president's chief rival charged fraud.

An official tally presented on television by Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, an Ahmadinejad appointee, said the president got 24 million votes to about 13 million for Mr-Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister who advocated economic and social reforms and better relations with the West.

Two friends drive at top speed towards Tehran, the Iranian capital, on the night of the 2009 Presidential elections. Both in their early 20s, they represent the Islamic Republic's so-called children of the revolution: Iranians under 30, an age group that makes up 70 percent of the population.

Both are fervent supporters of reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who inherited the reformist mantle from former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and has squared up to incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Islamic Republic's most crucial election.

Iran's cliffhanger presidential election ended Friday with both major candidates claiming victory, raising the prospect of deepening divisions in an already polarized society.

Despite record turnout that many analysts said would favor the challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election.

American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi was held in detention in an Iranian prison for nearly three months under charges of spying for the United States. She was sentenced to eight years in prison by Iran's Revolutionary Court, but on May 10th an appeals court suspended the sentence and she has recently returned home to the U.S.

Her story provides a dramatic example of the potential consequences of reporting in a society weary of a U.S. perspective, and perhaps, of the consequences of our own misunderstanding of, and mis-reporting on, Iran.

Jessie Graham introduces a few of the people and scenes she encountered during her ten days in Tehran, Iran.