Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.

nationalgeographic.com – Just a few decades ago, Iran boasted the greenest government in the Middle East. An expansive national park network protected species found almost nowhere else in the world. The nation’s rivers delivered potable water; air pollution was minimal. But now, the parks are being subsumed by development. The country’s waterways are withering away, in no small part because neither …

Shabtabnews – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today condemned the recent attack on a mosque in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. “Last week’s attack on a mosque in Burkina Faso is absolutely reprehensible,” said USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin. “An attack on any house of worship is an attack on religious freedom writ large.” Last Friday, an unknown assailant threw a flammable bottle into a …

RFL/RE – As the coronavirus began its spread around the world early this year, Iran quickly found itself facing the worst outbreak in the Middle East. Iranian officials sluggishly imposed restrictions and different lockdowns to try to stave off the deadly pandemic as it claimed more and more victims. The government was blamed for its slow response, a lack of …

RFL/RE – Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has confirmed the arrest of a separatist group leader allegedly involved in a deadly attack during a military parade in 2018. In a statement cited by state-run IRNA news agency on November 12, the ministry said Farajollah Cha’ab had been identified and arrested. Cha’ab was described as “the main person in the terrorist attack” in …

iranwire.com – The Islamic Republic of Iran has carried out more assassinations in Iraqi Kurdistan than in any other country or region of the world, with 259 people killed and at least 121 seriously injured in state-sponsored attacks in this territory since 1979. Political assassinations by Iran inside Iraqi Kurdistan began in the early 1990s and peaked from 1993 to …