Iran’s supreme leader publicly rebuked the president over his removal of a top official, a rare show of discontent with the hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by the country’s most powerful figure.

Iran’s foreign minister assured his visiting Japanese counterpart that the case of an American journalist imprisoned in Tehran for allegedly spying for the United States will get a fair review on appeal.

Iran has hanged a young woman who was convicted of murder when she was a minor, her lawyer said Saturday, drawing condemnation from international human rights groups who have sought to end capital punishment for juvenile offenders.

Opponents of Iran’s hard-line president accused him Saturday of faking his support by bussing in students and soldiers to attend his public appearances, a strategy brought to light by the death of a student in a bus crash.

Iran has hanged a young woman who was convicted of murder when she was a minor, her lawyer said Saturday, drawing condemnation from international human rights groups who have sought to end capital punishment for juvenile offenders.

Congress is taking up a bipartisan proposal which would give the Obama administration more leverage over Iran by toughening economic sanctions on foreign oil and shipping firms that aid Tehran.

The judiciary spokesman has denied that the American journalist jailed in Iran for allegedly spying for the U.S. is on a hunger strike and says she is in “good condition.”

More than a dozen people in Paris have launched a hunger strike in support of an American journalist who is in jail in Tehran.

A reformist challenger to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Tuesday that he would reverse the president’s hard-line policies, including the denial of the Holocaust, if he wins the June presidential vote.

A reformist candidate in Iran’s upcoming presidential race has vowed to reverse current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s policies if he is elected.