WORLD BRIEFS

IRAN: Clampdown on protesters

Riot police were deployed at Tehran intersections on Thursday, as tensions flared over the plunging currency in the most widespread display yet of anger linked to the country's sanctions-hit economy. The show of force reflects the authorities' concerns after sporadic protests Wednesday over the plummeting currency, which has sharply driven up prices. It has put Iranian leaders under the most pressure from dissent since crushing the opposition movement after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. In Washington, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America and other U.S.-sponsored broadcasts, accused Iran of jamming radio and television programming into the Middle East and eastern Europe.

RUSSIA: Anger over gunfire revelry

It was an unusual wedding escort: A red Ferrari led a motorcade in which guests fired celebratory shots from car windows as they sped down a main avenue near Red Square. Sunday's parade drew an angry reaction from the Kremlin-controlled parliament, where senior lawmakers voiced outrage after wedding guests from Dagestan in North Caucasus walked away with $3 fines. Just one man was ordered to pay a $60 fine by police who stopped the motorcade just outside the Kremlin. In an apparent response to the public outcry, a Moscow judge handed out a 15-day jail sentence to one of the shooters, Interfax news agency reported. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, said while it's "a sign of joy" for people from the Caucasus to shoot off guns in celebration, "here it's a sign of robbery, banditry."

EGYPT: More jail for Mubarak crony

A Hosni Mubarak-era steel magnate was convicted Thursday of money laundering, the court sentencing him to seven years in prison and fining him 19.5 billion Egyptian pounds (about $3 billion). Ahmed Ezz, who was a leader in Mubarak's now-dissolved ruling party, is serving a 10-year sentence, convicted last year of corruption.