rferl.org – The mother of a U.S. Navy veteran held in Iran believes he has a recurrence of life-threatening cancer and she is calling for his immediate release to seek treatment, a spokesman says.

rferl.org – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned a five-year prison sentence recently imposed on Iranian journalist Yashar Soltani and called on Iran to stop persecuting journalists for doing their job. “Jailing a journalist for reporting about corruption in his country is unacceptable and will only ensure that corruption continues unchecked,” CPJ Middle East and North Africa program …

Radiofarda – President Hassan Rouhani is under fire from two Grand Ayatollahs angered by his recent comments on Iran’s policies of compulsory hijab and Internet filtering.

Radiofarda  – France is ready to impose further sanctions against Iran if no progress is made in talks over its ballistic missile program, the French foreign minister said on Friday.

Radiofarda – In an open letter addressed to the head of Islamic Republic’s judiciary, dozens of prominent Iranian attorneys have called for the immediate release of their colleagues, jailed on trumped up charges related to their defense of civil rights.

Radiofarda – Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi has disclosed that in spite of pouring concrete in pipes within the core of the heavy water reactor in Arak and making it obsolete as a precondition for the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran procured additional pipes for replacement in case the West reneged on the deal.

Radiofarda – Women’s rights defenders in Iran will continue their fight against the forced wearing of the hijab this year despite a “sinister crackdown” by authorities in 2018 in which dozens were arrested, activists said on Thursday.

Al-Arabia – Iran’s state TV says the army has launched an annual infantry drill involving some 12,000 troops.

Iran-HRM – Imprisoned human rights lawyer Mohammad Najafi has been slapped with additional time after being tried last week, according to his lawyer Payam Derafshan.

Iran-HRM – The Khuzestan governorate’s Director General of Social Affairs said “According to estimates, 850,000 Khuzestan residents are deprived and live in slums,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported.