In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Mehdi Karroubi’s son Hossein Karroubi talked about the recent attacks on his father’s residence that was attacked by Basij forces on the eve of Qods Day. According to Hossein Karroubi, bullets were fired at the water pipes and the entire house was filled with water. The telephone lines in the entire building were also disconnected.

The Arabic satellite media scene is chaotic and over-crowded. The latest statistics indicate that there are 620 channels. It is a known fact that a large number of such stations are owned and run by people who don't have a clue how to run a TV station.

Jordan amended its penal code in July and in August passed a Law of Information System Crimes, ostensibly to regulate the internet. But the revised laws continue to criminalize peaceful expression and in fact extend those provisions to internet expression.

The annual event, Quds Day, is a show of support for Palestinians in their conflict with Israel and is held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was initiated in 1979 by the leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who declared the liberation of Jerusalem a religious duty for all Muslims.

Japan imposed new sanctions Friday against Iran, including an assets freeze on people and entities linked to its contentious nuclear programme and tighter restrictions on financial transactions.

“This trial seems to be more about the Iranian security forces seeking to justify the continuation of the clampdown on dissent and human rights defenders than about a genuine process towards obtaining justice.”

The third guide “Prohibition of Publication” is available in hard copies , to journalists, writers and bloggers at the headquarter of ANHRI ,downtown.

Iran’s Basij forces and members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards surrounded the home of opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi on Friday to prevent him from joining an annual government-sponsored Palestinian solidarity rally, his website said.

Earlier this year, “Behzadian Nezhad” had been suspended from his academic position without pay based on an order by Iranian authorities.

The apparent brutality by Saudi employers against a Sri Lankan domestic worker highlights the severe shortcomings in labor laws and practices that foster abuse and exploitation, Human Rights Watch said today. The exclusion of the estimated 1.5 million migrant domestic workers from labor protections and their subjection to a sponsorship system that governs immigration status and employment relations facilitates systemic abuses of these workers, Human Rights Watch said.

Libya's new nationality law granting women married to foreign spouses the right to pass their own nationality to their children is a significant move forward for women's rights, Human Rights Watch said today.

Arrests without warrants, followed by alleged torture at national police headquarters, raise questions about how Moroccan authorities are handling a case involving seven prominent members of the country's leading Islamist association, Human Rights Watch said today. The men have been in pretrial detention since June 28.

Now the prominent Iranian lawyer finds herself in a similar situation. Following raids on her home and office over the weekend of August 28-29, she has been charged by the judiciary with undermining national security and disseminating propaganda against the Islamic establishment.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Thursday she had pressed China to ensure that Chinese companies did not fill the void left by other firms leaving Iran due to U.N. sanctions. U.S. officials said in July that Chinese companies had been pursuing trade with Iran despite the threat of U.S. sanctions and a June United Nations Security Council resolution imposing more punitive measures on Tehran over its nuclear programme.

Former prime minister says it is wholly unacceptable for Tehran to seek nuclear weapons capability The west should use force against Iran if it "continues to develop nuclear weapons", Tony Blair said today, aligning himself with US hawks who have called for strikes against Iranian nuclear sites

Hardline "thugs" surrounded the home of opposition Iranian leader Mehdi Karroubi, pelting the building with rocks to prevent the cleric from attending a rally, his website said.

Hardline "thugs" surrounded the home of opposition Iranian leader Mehdi Karroubi, pelting the building with rocks to prevent the cleric from attending a rally, his website said.

“With a majority of Iranian human rights activists and lawyers already imprisoned or forced into exile, their remaining colleagues are systematically being taken down by the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” Aaron Rhodes, a Campaign spokesperson said.

A Sri Lankan woman working as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia says she has been severely abused for complaining about being overworked.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, was told on Saturday that she was to be hanged at dawn on Sunday, but the sentence was not carried out, it emerged tonight.

Amid the controversy and international outcry sparked by the stoning sentence handed down to a 43-year-old Iranian mother of two, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Iran's supreme court reportedly has sentenced two more people to stoning on charges of

Some 200 unemployed Saudi university graduates staged a rare protest in the capital Riyadh demanding the Gulf Arab state give them jobs, Saudi media said on Sunday. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, is an absolute monarchy that has no elected parliament and usually does not tolerate public displays of dissent.

In his blog titled *Neither My Type or that of Yours, writer Shahabaddin Sheikhi reviews the history of executions and massacres of the Kurdish population in Iran post 1979 Islamic Revolution. [*the title of the blog is a direct translation. The name of the blog in Persian is "Na Az Jense Khodam Na Az Jense Shoma"]

Radio Zamaneh reports that Islamic Republic security forces prevented families of political prisoners at Khavaran cemetery from observing the 22nd anniversary of the [1980's] mass executions of political prisoners. The families faced resistance from security forces and a number of people were arrested.

Carla Bruni was one of several French celebrities who published open letters to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose case has caused international outrage and highlighted Iran's use of stoning as capital punishment.

In a letter addressed to editors and news agencies throughout the country, Iran’s Ministry of Culture stated “The role of the media is to nurture calm in society and public opinion” and that reporting on the activities of defeated presidential candidates Moussavi and Karrubi as well as former president Khatami and printing photographs of them isand was officially banned. Any necessary reference to them must be made as “leaders of sedition”, the label “bestowed” on them by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

Amnesty international has condemned the trial before an Egyptian military court of eight factory workers, all civilians, detained after taking part in a protest against poor safety conditions at the factory, following an explosion which killed one of their fellow workers.

Friday, 27 August 2010 GENEVA (AFP) The UN anti-racism panel Friday called on Iran to counter racism and ethnic discrimination, including incitement to hatred by officials and "double discrimination suffered by women from minorities. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern at the exclusion of Arab, Azeri, Balochi, Kurdish and Bahai communities in areas such as housing, education, health, jobs and "from public life".

While Iranian authorities deny that the regime discriminates against citizens for religious beliefs, the Bahai faith is not recognized under the Iranian constitution. The known persecution of many Bahais includes being fired from jobs and denied access to higher education, as well as cemetery desecration. (The Bahais created their own unofficial university, which Mahvash used to direct; Fariba earned a degree in psychology there.) In addition to the seven leaders, 44 other Bahais are in prisons in Iran, the Baha'i International Community reports.

The Iranian woman awaiting possible execution by stoning was denied visits from her family and attorney this week, just days after her lawyer's home was ransacked and searched.