EGYPT: Police officer imprisoned for torturing suspect
  In a nationally followed case that highlighted Egypt's long-standing problem of human rights abuses, a police officer has been sentenced to five years in prison for torturing a mentally disabled suspect in July. Col. Akram Soliman first appeared in front of a criminal court in the city of Alexandria in September after he was accused of detaining and beating Ragaie Soltan for eight days without any formal charges. Soltan had been taken

IRAN: Defying supreme leader, reformist Khatami continues to question election
Iran's moderate former President Mohammad Khatami continued to question the results of the June 12 presidential election, defying the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said flatly last week that publicly voicing such doubts was illegal.  "We should not decide for people," Khatami said in an 

TUNISIA: Online activists rally to free fellow blogger Fatma Riahi
Lina Ben Mhenni was one of the last people to see Fatma Riahi the day she was arrested. The two women bloggers had been in touch online and by phone, but it wasn't until Ben Mhenni saw that Riahi's Facebook profile and blog had been shut down that they made urgent plans to meet for coffee on last Sunday. Riahi, a high school drama teacher in the small seaside city of Monastir, had been ordered to report to the Criminal Brigade in the capital, Tunis, where Ben Mhenni lives.

IRAN: Prayer leader condemns protesters, shuns 'satanic' nuclear negotiations
Friday prayer leader Ahmad Khatami, a hard-line acolyte of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, condemned the protesters who took part in Wednesday's anti-government march, and attempted to create divisions within the ranks of the protest movement.Khatami, not to be confused with the reformist former president of the same last name, simultaneously and contradictorily downplayed the protest, admonished opposition supporter

IRAN: In wake of protests, accusations and counter-accusations of media lies
  It was supposed to be a public show of Iranian unity during day marking the 30-year anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by Islamic revolutionaries. But not only did anti-government demonstrators, many of them dressed in green scarves and headbands,  hijack the state-sponsored event. They also managed to steal the