As Barack Obama spoke out more harshly against the Iranian government today, officials in Iran booted two British diplomats for what was reported on state TV as “unconventional behavior.”

A spokesperson for British PM Gordon Brown indicated the diplomats had been told to GTFO for “activities incompatible with their diplomatic status.” Not to be outdone, Britain immediately announced that it would be expelling two Iranian diplomats in retaliation.

The banninations didn’t stop there, however, with state-controlled newspapers reporting that four players (Ali Karimi, 31, Mehdi Mahdavikia, 32, Hosein Ka’abi, 24 and Vahid Hashemian, 32) have been “retired” from the sport after wearing green wristbands during a match in Seoul, South Korea, as a show of solidarity for fellow citizens in the post-election turmoil. (Iran drew 1-1 in the match.)

Six players in total sported the defiant wristbands and the professional fate of the other two remained unclear. Upon returning to Tehran, no players were able to retrieve their passports from officials and the wristbands are said to have greatly embarrassed Iranian authorities. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is known to be a fervent footie fan, and in 2006, Iran was banned by FIFA from international competition after being accused of governmental interference in the sport. The ban was later rescinded.

[Image: Reuters]

Iran unleashes banhammer on Brits, football players is a post from: The Inquisitr

Several people on the streets of cities of Iran are still able to get access to outside communications and are tweeting and blogging in real time from inside Iran

Here’s the twitter stream from someone inside Iran. I won’t link directly to the profile here because the person is actually risking arrest by sending information out to the rest of the world. (psst: look at the photo)

Iran News On Twitter from Inside Iran

What is a President without a Country? – #Iranelection RT

Tomorrow march is in memory of those killed by Government – Mousavi will lead Sea of Green – #Iranelection RT

news – Mousavi & Khatami have delivered joint letter to Ministry of Justice demanding release of protestors – #Iranelection

ordinary ppl in Iran have no reliable info – gov is trying to break all communication routes – #Iranelection

Sea of Green will continue tomorrow and every day until election is declared void – #Iranelection

chanting ‘my brother – my martyr – I will claim your vote for you!’ – #Iranelection

Today again we were hundreds of thousands of Sea of Green – #Iranelection

Today and every day all protestors were peaceful – #Iranelection

Gov spreading false rumours on twitter that protestors are causing violence – this is NOT true – #Iranelection

Confirmed Mousavi – Friday Sea of Green will march to Friday Prayers in Tehran – #Iranelection

Poignant.

Iran News on Twitter: Blogged Live from Inside Iran #Iranelection is a post from: The Inquisitr

A senior official at the U.S. State Department has said:

“There are lots of people here watching. There are some interesting messages going up.”

U.S. officials are not saying whether they are communicating with Iranians directly, but one senior official says that the United States is gathering information through Twitter about people of interest being picked up for questioning by authorities.

After the backlash on Twitter about CNN not covering the Iran situation, the news network is now saying they are also extensively monitoring social networks as an integral part of their reporting.

The U.S. State Department is also working with the big social networking and messaging sites – requesting that they keep their sites healthy and fully functional now more than ever. For example, senior officials said the State Department asked Twitter to reschedule it’s periodic maintenance at this critical time to make sure the site is available to users.

“It is a very good example of where technology is helping.” The official said.

Twitter, Facebook Critical in tracking Iran info during Foriegn Media Blackout is a post from: The Inquisitr

Leaked election results from Iran’s election show that reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousav won with 19.1 million votes, well over three times the vote received by incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The naturally unconfirmed figures claim that after Mousav’s 19.1 million votes, fellow reformist Mehdi Karoubi received 13.4 million votes to take second place, with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad taking only 5.7 million votes. Hardliner Mohsen Rezai came in fourth with 3.7 million votes.

The extent of the fraud in the Iranian election was demonstrated on the evening of the election when the Iranian electoral commission declared the exact result approximately 5 minutes after polling booths had closed. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps has many as a million Iranians have protested the fraud since that time, in what some are suggesting is the biggest uprising in Iran since the 1979 revolution.

Leaked Iranian election results show a massive win by Mousavi, Ahmadinejad third is a post from: The Inquisitr