Iran arrested several foreign nationals during the anti-Government demonstrations last week, the BBC reports.
Iran’s Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi said that those detained had been “pursuing propaganda and psychological warfare”. He did not give their nationalities.
Some 300 of the 500 people arrested remain in detention after mass protests in Tehran on 27th December during the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura. At least eight people were killed in a crackdown on anti-Government protests.
The late December demonstrations were …

Iran’s Government vented their anger at Britain last night, declaring that London deserved a “punch in the mouth” for its role as the “chief culprit” behind the mass protests sweeping the Islamic Republic, the Independent reports.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei further upped the ante at home, branding senior opposition members “enemies of God” who deserved to be executed. And in what human rights groups and diplomats described as another “ominous development”, Iranian police told …

At least 15 people were killed during massive anti-government protests in Tehran when opposition supporters clashed with security forces in the streets, Iran’s Government blame West for the violence.
10 people were killed during Sunday’s fierce clashes in the Iranian capital were members of “anti-revolutionary terrorist” groups, according to state television, apparently referring to opposition supporters, Fox News reports. The other five who died were killed by “terrorist groups” in a “suspicious act,” TV said, without …

Iran today confirmed that its navy has detained five British yachtsmen in the Persian Gulf, the Guardian reports.
The men were seized six days ago when their racing yacht was intercepted by Iran’s navy while on its way from Bahrain to an event in Dubai, but the incident was kept secret as the Foreign Office sought to establish what had happened and tried to avoid raising the political temperature.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed their naval forces had …

In the largest single strike at Mexican drug operations in the US, federal officials yesterday announced the arrests of more than 300 people in raids across the country aimed at the newest and most violent cartel, La Familia, FoxNews reports.
La Familia have earned a reputation for dominating the methamphetamine trade and displaying graphic violence, including beheadings. The cartel, based in the state of Michoacan, in southwestern Mexico, have a vast network pumping drugs throughout the United …

French police have arrested two suspected terror group ETA members, including a senior political leader of the Basque separatist group, Aitor Elizaran Aguilar, the BBC reports.
Elizaran is a joint political chief of the group. He was arrested with another senior member, Oihana San Vicente, in the north-western seaside town of Carnac.
ETA are responsible for more than 820 deaths during their 41-year terror campaign for an independent Basque homeland. Spain and France have been working closely to crack down …

The Egyptian Interior Ministry has reportedly initiated an unprecedented campaign against people suspected of breaking the traditional Ramadan fast in public, the Jerusalem Post reports.
If confirmed, the arrests mark a higher level of intolerance from the authorities towards manifestations of secularism.
The alleged arrests were reported in several Egyptian newspapers and in the pan-Arab al-Arabiyya, but a human-rights activist advised caution with regards to the reports and said that currently they have not been substantiated.
“We’ve been …

Three city mayors, two state politicians and five rabbis were among 44 people arrested across New Jersey yesterday when federal agents cracked an alleged Sopranos-style crime ring accused of bribery, money laundering and trafficking body parts and counterfeit handbags, The Times reports.
Officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) raided synagogues, government offices and a Jewish school early yesterday before busing suspects to the FBI headquarters in Newark.
Among the arrested …

About 30 people, including some New Jersey mayors and several rabbis, were arrested Thursday in a federal investigation of public corruption, the CNN reports.
The probe also involves a “high-volume, international money-laundering conspiracy”.
Among those arrested in the public corruption portion of the investigation are Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, New Jersey Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt and Leona Beldini, a Jersey City deputy mayor.
Several rabbis in New York and New Jersey also were …

Iran released five diplomatic staff employed by the British Embassy in Tehran after widespread criticism over their detention from Western governments, the Times reports.
Eight Iranian staff members, who are thought to work in the embassy’s political section, were arrested on the weekend after being accused of playing a “significant role” in opposition protests.
“Eight people were arrested. Five were freed and three are still being interrogated,” Iranian ministry spokesman, Hassan Ghashghavi, said, according to the Times.

According to local reports, Iran has detained eight UK embassy staff in Tehran on accusations of having a role in post-election riots, BBC said.
There is no independent confirmation of the latest arrests.
“Eight local employees at the British embassy who had a considerable role in recent unrest were taken into custody,” Iran’s news agency Fars said, without giving a source.
According to the BBC, the UK Foreign Office said in London: “We have in the last few …

Iranian authorities arrested 70 academics who met with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi on Wednesday, other prominent dissidents, as well as at least 10 foreign and 26 Iranian journalists have “disappeared” in recent days, Arutz 7 reports.
It is not known where the professors were taken.
Despite the risk, protesters clashed again Wednesday with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s special Basij militia force, which has brutalized many of the demonstrators since the June 12 elections.
(Hat tip to Betty Weintraub.)

A prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who called for political reform, has been arrested for allegedly trying to overthrow the country’s socialist system, the AP reports.
Liu had already been held at a secret location for more than six months without being charged or formally arrested. He was taken into police custody on 8th December, a day before a manifesto he co-authored was released urging sweeping changes to China’s rigid political system, the agency says.
Police delivered …

Iran’s regime have started arresting journalists.
New Statesman reports that Maziar Bahari, who also writes for Newsweek, has been arrested without charge and detained in Tehran.
The 41-year-old journalist and filmmaker was arrested on Sunday morning by security officers at his apartment in the Iranian capital, the newspaper said. The officers also seized his laptop and several of his films. Bahari, who has reported from Iran since 1998, has not been heard from since.
According to Reuters, a …

The director of International Campaign for Human Rights, Hadi Ghaemi said on Wednesday that Iranian authorities have arrested many prominent activists and politicians.
Ghaemi told the AP that among the people arrested were:
—Prominent reformer Saeed Hajjarian, an advisor to former president Mohammad Khatami, paralyzed in an assassination attempt in 2000.
—Mohammad Tavasoli, the director of the political office of the Freedom Movement of Iran, arrested June 16.
—Human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, arrested in his office by security …