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

Iran-HRM – Iranian police have detained 52 men and women at a mixed-gender party in the northeastern city of Mashhad, the state-run ROKNA news agency has said. The party, illegal under Iranian law, was held on Thursday October 24, ROKNA reported. Chief Justice of Khorasan Razavi Gholam Ali Sadeghi was quoted as saying 29 men and 23 women were arrested. He said, “The women were …

Iran-HRM – Kurdish political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian who has been imprisoned for nearly 12 years, continues to be denied specialist medical treatment despite suffering from serious health issues, according to her father Ali Jalalian. Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has not allowed a short furlough on medical grounds to Zeinab Jalalian, despite her family’s depositing of a bail …

RFL/RE – An Iranian lawyer representing two French researchers in custody in Tehran says that prosecutors have given no evidence to support the spying and security charges against them.The semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted lawyer Saeid Dehghan on October 28 as saying that Roland Marchal, a researcher at Sciences Po in Paris, was detained on security charges in June while …

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 …