TEHRAN, IRAN -  Iran's supreme court has ordered the retrial of two men, including a Kurdish rapper, who were reportedly sentenced to death over protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, the judiciary said Saturday. Protests have gripped Iran since the September 16 death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin,...

TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran has arrested the lawyer of two female journalists jailed after covering the death in custody of a young woman that sparked three months of protests, a newspaper said Saturday. The Islamic republic has been rocked by protests since Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin,...

AMMAN, JORDAN - Jordan has arrested dozens of people accused of involvement in protests against rising fuel prices in which a senior police officer was gunned down, the country's security agency said Saturday. Colonel Abdul Razzaq Dalabeh, the deputy police chief of Maan province, died of a gunshot to the head...

PARIS, FRANCE - Dozens took to the streets Friday in Iran's restive southeast, footage shared by rights groups showed, as a wave of protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death entered a fourth month. Protesters in Zahedan, the Sistan-Baluchistan provincial capital, chanted "Death to the dictator", taking aim at supreme leader Ayatollah...

Colonel Abdul Razzaq Dalabeh, the deputy police chief of Maan province, was shot in the head on Thursday while police tried to "calm down riots" in the southern town of Al-Husseiniya, the Public Security Directorate said in a statement.

The Union of Islamic Iran People Party, formed by relatives of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, on Saturday demanded the authorities "prepare the legal elements paving the way for the cancellation of the mandatory hijab law".

Taking offense at France's unanimous vote by lawmakers earlier this week, condemning infringement of liberties and women's rights, Iran's foreign ministry summoned the French ambassador. Iran has been gripped by protests since September over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini after her arrest.

Hardening its stance on the dress code, Iran has fired a bank manager who served an unveiled woman, according to local media even as demonstrations triggered by the mandatory head covering rule shake the country. Women in Iran are required to cover their heads, necks, and hair.

In a rare display of anger against the Chinese government, scores of protestors took to the streets of Shanghai early Sunday calling for an end to lockdowns. China has been facing wide criticism over its zero-Covid policy. A fire spurred an outpouring of anger in Xinjiang region as many blamed...

With 25 votes in favour, six opposed and 16 countries abstaining, the UN's highest rights body agreed to create an international fact-finding mission to probe all violations connected with Iran's response to the ongoing protests.

Activists on Sunday expressed alarm that Iran was implementing a major crackdown in a Kurdish-populated town that has seen intense anti-regime protests in the last few days.

Hundreds of mourners poured onto the streets of a flashpoint Iranian city, defying a lethal crackdown on protests over Mahsa Amini's death that shows signs of turning even bloodier. This week's protests coincide with the third anniversary of "Bloody Aban"- or Bloody November - when hundreds were killed in a...

Iranian security forces have killed at least 326 people in a crackdown on nationwide protests since Mahsa Amini's death in custody, Iran Human Rights said. Iran has been gripped by protests over the death of Amini on September 16, three days after her arrest for an alleged breach of the...

Four Iranian police officers and one "terrorist" have been killed in separate incidents in the strife-torn country, state media and the Revolutionary Guards said.

Iranian students protested and shopkeepers went on strike despite a widening crackdown, according to reports on social media, as demonstrations that flared over Mahsa Amini's death entered an eighth week.

A group called Black Reward on Friday issued an ultimatum on Twitter, threatening to release documents on Tehran's nuclear programme unless all "political prisoners, prisoners of conscience and people arrested in the recent protests" were released within 24 hours.

With supermarket cashiers paid more than most teachers, thousands have joined the protests since the beginning of September, with human chains formed around schools across the country. Another mass protest is planned for Sunday.

The Islamic republic has imposed drastic restrictions on internet access as it grapples with demonstrations that flared over the death of the 22-year-old after her arrest for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women.

Iran vowed an "immediate" response to the European Union as it prepares new sanctions on the Islamic republic after over a month of protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death. EU foreign ministers met to adopt sanctions on Iran after Amini was detained for allegedly breaching Iran's strict dress code for...

At least 41 people have been killed since the protests began on September 16, mostly protesters but including security forces, according to an official toll. The protests have spread to several cities, where demonstrators have shouted slogans against the authorities, according to local media.

The country's clerical regime could slide towards a military dictatorship with IRGC holding the absolute sway, says Ali Alfoneh of Arab Gulf Institute in Washington.

Hours after Baghdad’s Green Zone plunged into chaos, UN chief Antonio Guterres has called for "restraint" in Iraq, asking all parties to "take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation." Violence flared up after Moqtada Sadr said he was quitting politics, fueling chaos in which 12 of his supporters were killed.

The 2020 disaster, one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions, killed more than 200 people and decimated vast areas of the capital.

Supporters of Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr penetrated Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday, occupying parliament with no plan to leave. It is the second time in days that Sadr supporters have forced their way in to the legislative chamber, months after elections that failed to lead to formation of...

Libyans angered by rising prices, chronic power cuts and political deadlock planned further demonstrations Monday after a night of angry protests across the capital. Masked youths set alight car tires and blocked roads including a major coastal highway between central Tripoli and its western suburbs, but security forces did not...

An Egyptian emergency court on Sunday sentenced former presidential candidate Abdelmoneim Aboul Fotouh to 15 years in prison for "spreading false news" and "incitement against state institutions", judiciary sources said.

Iranian police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse protesters in the southwestern city of Abadan where a tower block collapse killed 28 people. It was the third night of protests in Abadan and other cities of the province which borders Iraq, local media reported.

Protests erupted Wednesday in Iraq's impoverished south over a rise in food prices that officials attributed to the conflict in Ukraine. For about a week, the price of cooking oils and flour have skyrocketed in local markets as government officials have sought to address growing anger with various statements and...

Saied said he "affirms that freedoms are guaranteed in Tunisia,” recalling his commitment to equality before the law and his rejection of violence."

Tunisia's  Ennahdha party has reiterated calls for demonstrations on Friday marking the anniversary of the country's revolution, defying tightened coronavirus restrictions it says are politically motivated. Ennahdha is the biggest party in a parliament that was suspended by President Kais Saied in July 2021, and has staged a string of...

Louai al-Yasseri resigned from his leadership in Najaf, in central Iraq, a day after the governor of Nasiriyah province in the south quit following the violent suppression of protesters

Youth in Iraq get job through “wasta,” the system of “who you know” that has become Iraq’s pervasive scourge.

As tear gas and protest cries filled the air in the Tunisian city of Agareb, Mabrouka Ben Ibrahim vowed to demonstrate for her daughter, whose death she blames on a nearby rubbish dump.

The various opposition groups have yet to decide how they will take part in the upcoming polls.

In what was the fifth election since the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein with the promise of bringing freedom and democracy, preliminary turnout was just 41 percent, based on results from 94 percent of voting stations.

A new single-member constituency system for electing Iraq's 329 lawmakers is supposed to boost independents versus the traditional political blocs that are largely centered on religious, ethnic and clan affiliations. The election is being held a year early in a rare concession to the youth-led protest movement that broke out...

A total of 329 seats are up for grabs in the election, which was moved forward from 2022 as a concession to youth-led pro-democracy protests that erupted in late 2019. But many voters are expected to stay away amid widespread anger over corruption and ineffectual governance. More than 25 million...

Protesters marched waving Palestinian and Bahraini flags, chanting "Death to Israel" and "No to Israeli embassy in Islamic Bahrain".

On October 1, 2019, widespread rallies erupted across Baghdad and the south of the country against a government seen as corrupt, inept and beholden to Iran. Nearly 600 people were killed during the protests.

The heaviest clashes were in Beita village near Nablus in the northern West Bank where residents have held regular demonstrations since May when Jewish settlers started to pave roads on a disputed hilltop.

The president on Sunday evening announced that he had fired Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and that he was suspending parliament for 30 days

Lebanese protesters try to storm central bank offices in two major cities Money changers tell AFP that the pound was trading at 17,300-17,500 to the greenback on the black market Dozens of angry Lebanese took to the streets of the northern city of Tripoli to denounce the depreciation and "difficult...

Some 200,000 expats leave Oman as country wrestles with rising unemployment The Coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices last year drove the exodus Some 200,000 foreign workers left Oman in a year as the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices dealt a blow to Omani economy, and the country now...