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

Iranwire – An Iranian court sentenced two bloggers to 10 ½ years in prison each on January 29 for publishing a video of themselves dancing in Tehran’s central Azadi Square, amid a fierce crackdown on anti-government demonstrations. Amir Ahmadi and his partner Astiaj Haghighi were also banned from carrying out online activities and from leaving Iran for two years after …

VOA – Iran summoned Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Tehran on Monday over his country’s comments on a drone strike on a military factory in the central Iranian province of Isfahan, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. In Ukraine, which accuses Iran of supplying hundreds of drones to Russia to attack civilian targets in Ukrainian cities far from the front, …

RFL/RE – Azerbaijan will evacuate embassy staff and family members from Iran on January 29, the Foreign Ministry said, two days after a gunman shot dead a security guard and wounded two other people in an attack Baku branded an “act of terrorism.” Police in Tehran have said they have arrested a suspect. Iranian authorities condemned the January 27 incident …

Iranwire – US prosecutors have charged three alleged members of a criminal organization with ties to Iran’s government with conspiring to murder a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin in New York. Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov and Khalid Mehdiyev were charged with murder-for-hire and money laundering for their role in the thwarted Tehran-backed plot, the Department of Justice said in a statement on …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Since 1979, when the mullahs seized power, Iran has topped the list of countries hit by “brain drain”. However, what was a sectoral hemorrhage may now become a general bleeding affecting other sectors of the population. The study shows that the desire to flee Iran isn’t caused by economic hardship, unemployment or inflation. It is not the poor …