Google adds Farsi to translator

Search website Google.com added Persian (Farsi) to its Google Translate service today.

It allows opposition groups within Iran to communicate more widely with the outside world through internet and social networking sites in Persian.

A Google spokesman said: "We feel that launching Persian is particularly important now, given ongoing events in Iran.

"Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world and vice-versa."

Today's move comes at the end of a week of protests in Iran following the disputed presidential election.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei confirmed the victory today of the incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and warned that if protests in favour of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi continued, Mr Moussavi risked imprisonment.

According to the website Technorati.com in 2005, Farsi tied with French as the second most blogged-in language after English.