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

Iranwire – Iranian security forces have set up fortified security posts and dug trenches across the south-eastern Iranian city of Zahedan in an apparent attempt to prevent residents from holding protests after Friday Prayers on January 27, the opposition activist collective 1500tasvir reports. Each week on Fridays, hundreds of people are taking to the streets of Zahedan and other cities …

Iranwire – Tehran was again the scene of anti-government rallies on Thursday night as Iran’s ruling clerics intensify their crackdown against opposition voices and ongoing nationwide protests. Following a widespread power outage in Parand, southwest of Tehran, residents came to the streets and chanted slogans against the government. People in several nerigborhoods in Tehran itself, including Ponak, Bagh-e-Faiz, Tehran Pars …

VOA – A gunman has killed the head of security at Azerbaijan’s embassy in Iran. The shooter, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, also wounded two other people. Police in Tehran say a suspect has been arrested. The suspect, according to Agence France-Presse, is an Iranian man who says his wife has been held at the embassy for nine months. …

VOA – Facing crippling economic sanctions, inflation and widespread social unrest, the Iranian government has boosted oil sales to China at a highly discounted price. Iran does not publish statistics about its oil sales, but analysts say Tehran has increased oil exports to more than 1.2 million barrels per day over the past three months. Iranian oil reaches the Chinese …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Wednesday that France was meddling in his country’s affairs and taking a confrontational approach toward the Islamic Republic as tensions between the two sides worsen. In a phone call with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna, the Iranian minister warned that Tehran’s response will be “immediate and effective,” according to a report by the government-run IRNA …