VILIFIED as a Holocaust denier, a supporter of terrorism and a backer of Iraqi insurgents, the president of Iran was actually able to make New Yorkers burst into laughter - but not at a joke.
"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at Columbia University in response to a question about the recent execution of two gay men there.
"In Iran we do not have this phenomenon," he continued.
"I do not know who has told you we have it."
Loud laughs and boos broke from the audience of about 700 people, mostly students at the Ivy League school whose garb included "Stop Ahmadinejad's Evil" T-shirts.
Ahmadinejad's gay comments a 'sick joke' | Herald Sun