RFL/RE – Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi has ordered the country’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) to help put down anti-government protests that have rocked the country over the past weeks, Western news agencies are reporting.Mahdi on October 26 ordered CTS forces onto the streets of the capital, Baghdad, and the southern city of Nasiriyah and were told to “use all …

VOA – Thousands of students have joined Iraq’s anti-government protests, defying a government order and tear gas from security forces.  The students skipped classes at several universities and secondary schools in Baghdad and across the Shi’ite south on Monday to take part in the protests. The demonstrations are fueled by anger at corruption, economic stagnation and poor public services. In Baghdad’s …

gatestoneinstitute.org – European leaders, of course, who seem never to tire of sanctimoniously posturing on behalf of human rights, are meanwhile pursuing appeasement policies with a government that is called the world’s leading executioner and torturer of children — and others. Two 17-year-old boys, who apparently did not even did not even know about their death sentences, were flogged before …

PayvandNews – In the middle of Riad Solh square downtown Beirut, a young woman stands watching thousands of her fellow Lebanese calling for the resignation of the government and raises a small placard that reads “I’m financed by the embassy of Hela Hela Hela Ho-stan, who’s financing you?” “Hela hela hela ho!” is a chant used by the protesters.     The …

PayvandNews – Iran has released four journalists and two activists on bail, including labor rights activist Sepideh Gholian nine months after she was arrested and a day following a call by Amnesty International for her release. The 24-year-old Gholian, who had recently ended a five-day hunger strike, was released after paying a reported bail equivalent to about $120,000. Sepideh Gholian …

PayvandNews – The BP Courage Award was presented to Iranian cross-country skier Elaheh Gholi Fallah on Friday. She became the first Iranian female to qualify for a Paralympic Winter Games, Paralympic.org reported. Elaheh Gholi Fallah Courage is one of the Paralympic Movement’s four values, and is displayed in different shapes and forms each day by Para-athletes, teams and IPC member organizations.Fallah, who …

Radiofarda – A powerful hardliner ayatollah in an obvious attack on Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that what elicits respect for Iran is shooting down U.S. drones and seizing British ships, not signing agreements. Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, a close ally of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in his Friday Prayer sermon on October 25 in Mashhad, unleashed an attack …

Radiofarda – The United States on Friday asked foreign governments to submit detailed reports on humanitarian exports to Iran, a step observers said could have a chilling effect and cast a pall over European efforts to allow trade. President Donald Trump’s administration, which has cast Tehran’s clerical regime as enemy number one, announced a new “humanitarian mechanism” which it said …

Radiofarda – A young labor rights activist, Sepideh Qolyan has ended her hunger strike behind bars, her father told Radio Farda on Friday, October 25. Qolyan (Gholian), 24, had started her dry-hunger strike on October 20 to protest “unbearable” conditions at the notorious Qarchak prison, south of the capital city, Tehran. “Upon promises by prison authorities, my daughter has ended …

Al-Arabia – Iraqi security forces fired tear gas to force protesters away from Baghdad’s Green Zone Saturday ahead of a planned parliament session, AFP correspondents said, a day after 42 demonstrators were killed. In the capital and across the south, protesters died Friday from live rounds, wounds sustained from tear gas canisters and in fires set to government and paramilitary …