Iran’s football federation says it is sending a delegation to Fifa – the international football association – to urge the Geneva-based association to overturn its ban on the hijab, or Islamic headscarf. The ban effectively prohibits the Iranian women’s team from playing in the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore this August. Fifa says the dress contradicts the game’s charter. Alireza Ronaghi reports…

Joe Biden, the US vice-president, is the highest-ranking US official to visit Israel since Barack Obama, the US president, came into office a year ago. The visit is part of a five-day tour of the Middle East, during which Biden will hold discussions on Iran and ways to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman reports on the visit. [March 9, 2010]…

Two activists have been executed in Iran in a trial linked to post-election violence in June. Arash Rahmanipour and Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani, were convicted of being “Mohareb” or enemies of God. The executions are believed to be the first related to protests that erupted after June’s disputed presidential election – the largest demonstrations in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Opposition g…