Iran to hold runoff parliamentary vote

Iran will hold run-off elections for 65 parliamentary seats, state media said on Monday, after loyalists to the country's paramount clerical leader won a dominating majority at the expense of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The widespread defeat of Ahmadinejad's allies in the 290-seat assembly is expected to reduce the president to a lame duck for the rest of his second and final term, and increase Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's influence in the country's 2013 presidential election.