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

Radiofarda – Protesters in Iraq have shut down a southern oil field and forced a cutoff of electricity at the facility amid ongoing unrest that has wracked the capital and much of southern Iraq since public anger first boiled over nearly three months ago. Reuters reported that the demonstrators chanted, “No homeland, no oil!” as they forced the closure at …

Al-Arabia – Iran on Sunday blasted France for its “interference” in the arrest of the jailed academic Fariba Adelkhah, two days after the French foreign ministry said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador to discuss the matter. France summonded on Friday the ambasador over the “intolerable” detention of two French academics, Adelkhah and Roland Marchal,  expressing “grave concern” that one was …

Al-Arabia – Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Beirut home of Lebanon’s new prime minister on Saturday, calling for Hassan Diab’s resignation less than 10 days after he was appointed. Lebanon is without a cabinet and in the grips of a deepening economic crisis after a two-month-old protest movement forced Saad Hariri to stand down as prime minister on October …

RFL/RE – Iran has summoned Kuwait’s envoy to Tehran to protest what it called “an anti-Iran meeting” held by the oil-rich Persian Gulf nation’s officials. The Iranian Foreign Ministry on December 28 did not say what “separatist group” that Kuwaiti officials allegedly met with, but the ministry’s head of Gulf affairs condemned the meeting in his discussion with Kuwait’s charge …

RFL/RE – Alireza Firouzja, a top-rated chess player from Iran and the world’s No. 2 ranked junior player, has won the silver medal at the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship in Moscow after competing under the flag of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). Firouzja, 16, had decided not to play for his country in an apparent reaction to the …