The Latest from Iran (9 March): More than Political Games

2210 GMT: Clerical Challenge. A different line of criticism from Grand Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani, who has been distancing himself from the regime, today....

Vahid Khorasani said that the Government was "losing Islam" by failing to prevent Iran's youth from being seduced by Christianity.

2150 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Ardavan Tarakmeh, student director, writer and film critic, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Tarakmeh is the son of reputed writer and literary critic Younes Tarakmeh. He was arrested during the Ashura demonstrations of 27 December 2009.

Farnaz Kamali, a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign for women's rights, has been released on $300,000 bail.

Kamali was arrested in Tehran during the protests on 20 February and charged with actions against national security, membership in the Campaign to Free [student activist] Atefeh Nabavi, and participation in protests.

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Egypt Video: The Military Push Protesters Out of Tahrir Square

Footage of the military operation this afternoon on Tahrir Square in Cairo, clearing out protesters from the symbolic centre of the uprising that toppled President Mubarak:

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Dragging Out the Day

2045 GMT: Doctors have suggested that regime forces in Yemen used a form of nerve gas on pro-democracy protesters in Sanaa in a violent clash on Tuesday night.

The soldiers fired warning shots into the air before shooting gas and, it is claimed, live bullets into the crowd, killing one and injuring at least 75.

“The material in this gas makes people convulse for hours. It paralyzes them. They couldn’t move at all. We tried to give them oxygen but it didn’t work,” said Amaar Nujaim, a field doctor who works for Islamic Relief.

“We are seeing symptoms in the patient’s nerves, not in their respiratory systems. I’m 90 percent sure its nerve gas and not tear gas that was used,” said Sami Zaid, a doctor at the Science and Technology Hospital in Sanaa.

Mohammad Al-Sheikh, a pathologist at the same hospital, said that some of the victims had lost their muscular control and were forced to wear diapers.

“We have never seen tear gas cause these symptoms. We fear it may be a dangerous gas that is internationally forbidden,” Al-Sheikh said.

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WikiLeaks and The New Axis of Evil: Iran's Ahmadinejad = Owner of Baseball's New York Yankees

How to explain Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's personal involvement in Iranian football to the State Department in a meaningful way? How to get across how sports and politics can link controversial men from Tehran to New York?

A man named George Steinbrenner.

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Belarus: Regime Bars Lawyers for Political Prisoners (Morrison/Taylor)

Lawyers who have dared to defend imprisoned pro-democracy activists in Belarus have been disbarred, in what human rights campaigners say is a deliberate move by the government to hamper fair trials. 

At least five lawyers who have stepped up to represent jailed opposition leaders have been struck off by Belarus's Ministry of Justice, which controls who can enter the legal profession through a strict licensing system.

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"It's Official: Tunisia Now Freer than the US" (Cole)

Tunisian Prime Minister Béji Caïd Essebsi announced on Monday the dissolution of the country’s secret police arm. This step toward democracy is the most important taken by any Arab country for decades.

Arguably, Tunisians are now freer than Americans. The US government thinks our private emails are actually public. The FBI and NSA routinely read our email and they and other branches of the US government issue security letters in the place of warrants allowing them to tap phones and monitor whom we call, and even to call up our library records and conduct searches of our homes without telling us about it. Millions of telephone records were turned over to George W. Bush by our weaselly telecom companies. Courts allow government agents to sneak onto our property and put GPS tracking devices under our automobiles without so much as a warrant or even probable cause. Mr. Obama thinks this way of proceeding is a dandy idea.

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Iran Special: Profiles of 107 Imprisoned Women

A special post on Arshama3's Blog, which also has an introduction and list of sources. Poster by "lissnup":

Political Prisoners

1. Zahra Rahnavard, artist and writer, political activist, professor, wife of Iranian opposition political leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, put under house arrest on February 14, 2011, abducted with her husband on or around February 24, 2011

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Libya Video: The Battle for Zawiyah

Alex Crawford of Britain's Sky News reports from inside Zawiyah, 55 km (35 miles) west of Tripoli --- regime forces have been trying for five days to re-take the city from the opposition:

Obama and Guantanamo Bay: Scott Lucas on BBC Radio Wales

I spoke with BBC Radio Wales this morning about the Obama Administration's decision, more than two years after it promised to close Guantanamo Bay, to hold military tribunals for the detainees at the facility.

The item starts just after the 1:54:00 mark on the BBC iPlayer.

The Latest from Iran (8 March): From International Women's Day to the Assembly

2125 GMT: Claimed video of the security presence in Tehran today:

2115 GMT: The Assembly of Experts. Reuters offers an overview of the significance of today's vote removing Hashemi Rafsanjani as head of the Assembly, with EA making this cameo apperance:

In the short-term Ahmadinejad has scored a victory in terms of his immediate authority within the establishment, but it raises questions for those beyond Rafsanjani who may have questions about that authority.

It is a question of who's next?

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