Iranians reacted with pride on Monday after an Iranian film, "A Separation", won a major US prize -- a triumph on the international stage that, for a moment, eclipsed geopolitical tensions.

Iran said on Sunday it had received a letter from the U.S. government about the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial oil shipping lane that Tehran has threatened to close if sanctions prevent it exporting oil.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran today strongly condemned the assassination of an Iranian scientist in Tehran. The Campaign expressed its serious concern at an increasing climate of violence relating to Iran’s nuclear crisis, compounded by recent statements by Israeli officials and a former Obama advisor regarding a pre-emptive strike on Iran.

Tehran factory worker Mohammad Varamini lost his job of 14 years when rising energy costs and shrinking sales drove the tile maker that employed him out of business. His tale is a familiar one, repeated across Iran where hundreds of firms have been shuttered over the past year, a consequence of international sanctions and economic mismanagement.

An Iranian nuclear scientist was killed in a Tehran car bombing on Wednesday that the Islamic republic immediately blamed on Israel and the United States, worsening a tense international standoff over its atomic programme.