From the BBC…
More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report.
Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.
In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, [...]

By the fantastic Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff…

Very interesting article from NYT on the revival of the Iranian radical left….
In early December, a surprising scene unfolded at Tehran University: 500 Marxist students held aloft portraits of Che Guevara to protest President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s policies. Smaller groups of Marxist students held similar protests in several other cities.
Political protest has been harshly suppressed [...]

Click below to watch Mark Fiore’s latest animation…

The demonstrators had a message to Dick Cheney…

[San Francisco antiwar rally at Dolores Park. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]

From ITF…
Road transport workers around the world last week pledged solidarity with Iranian trade union leader Mansour Osanloo who remains in detention in Iran.
As part of the ITF’s international road transport action week held from 15-21 October, unions participated in the ITF’s “Free Osanloo” badge campaign. The campaign symbolises the repression against Mansour Osanloo [...]

Freedom for Mansour Osanloo…

In Tehran…
An estimated 100 students staged a rare demonstration Monday against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling him a “dictator,” which prompted scuffles with hardline students at Tehran University.
Ahmadinejad, who was giving a speech to a select group at the university to mark the beginning of the academic year, ignored the chants of “death to [...]

In The Know: White House Announces ‘Everything Is Great In Iraf’

Via BabyWhisperingLoudly…

A Canadian trade unionist alerted me to this…
The ITF has received word from our affiliate that Mansour Osanloo was kidnapped on 10th July in Tehran by unknown persons at approximately 7pm local time.
Mansour Osanloo, President of the ITF-affiliated bus workers’ union, Sandikaye Kargarane Sherkate Vahed (Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company), [...]

From Al-Jazeera…
Iranian youths have set fire to a Tehran petrol station in protest after the government introduced fuel rationing.
Iran, the second largest crude producer among the Opec members, announced it would introduce petrol rationing for motorists from Wednesday.
Despite its huge energy reserves, Iran lacks refining capacity and has to import about 40 per cent [...]

From the BBC…
A second editor of a student publication in Iran has been detained following days of unrest in one of Tehran’s most prestigious universities.
Scuffles broke out last week between reformist and right-wing students at Amirkabir University, after several works were accused of insulting Islam.
However, the editors say the offending articles were forged.
Right-wing students have [...]

From Al-Jazeera…
Britain’s ministry of defence has come under fire for allowing 15 sailors and marines held by Iran for 13 days to sell their stories to the media.
The ministry said on Sunday that it had waived rules barring serving military personnel from selling their stories because of huge public interest in the case.
A ministry spokeswoman [...]

Click on the pic I took below to download the 5th Cairo Anti-War Conference’s final statement in Arabic… [I'll post the official English translation, as soon as I receive it from the organizers]

And here’s a report about the Conference from the Guardian’s Comment is Free:
The rich and powerful have their conferences and we who oppose [...]

A video I stumbled on…

(They wrongly mention though the date of Sadat’s killing as 1982, instead of 1981)

Thousands of Iranian teachers demonstrated on 3 March in front of the parliament, demanding decent wages and raising their living standards…

More photos could be found here…

The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh, one of Amreeka’s top investigative journalists, has been in Cairo for a couple of days, where he lectured Egyptian and Arab journalists on the art of investigative journalism–part of a training program by the Heikal Foundation. Unfortunately, I attended only his last workshop today, and the public talk he gave [...]