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Ahead of a planned opposition rally on Monday, Iran tightened security and arrested over 20 mothers who were mourning children killed in the unrest that has broken out since the disputed June 12 elections.The mothers took part in an antigovernment protest in Leleh Park in central Tehran every Saturday since the death in June of Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, whose shooting became a symbol of the government’s violent repression. The rally had been attacked by the police before, but Saturday was the first time the mothers were arrested. An opposition Web site reported that the protest was broken up by the police and many demonstrators were taken away. The BBC Persian service quoted a witness who said 29 women were arrested, some of whom were later released. But at least 21 remained in jail, the BBC said.

TEHRAN -- Iranian security forces and paramilitary groups broke up anti-government demonstrations in central Tehran on Monday, using clubs, tear gas and electric batons to disperse crowds outside the University of Tehran, witnesses said. Authorities blocked main roads into the city center and arrested dozens of demonstrators who sought to turn Iran's annual "Student Day" rallies into the latest in a series of protests against the government that began about six months ago. Officials had declared such demonstrations illegal and threatened to meet them with force. Despite the warnings, thousands of demonstrators tried to join students at sealed-off campuses of Tehran's main universities. Deployed to head them off were hundreds of riot police, Revolutionary Guard Corps troops and members of the Basij, a pro-government militia.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian security forces fired warning shots in Tehran on Monday and beat opposition protesters among thousands seeking to renew their challenge to the government six months after a disputed election, witnesses said.The security forces fired shots into the air as they clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi at a state rally marking the killing of three students under the former Shah, the reformist website Mowjcamp said."Security forces are beating demonstrators, men and women. Some of them are injured and bleeding," said one witness in Tehran's central Haft-e Tir square.The June 12 presidential election, which secured President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, sparked Iran's worst unrest since the Islamic revolution three decades ago and exposed deep divisions in the establishment. Authorities deny allegations of vote-rigging.

Iranians are marking University Student Day, traditionally an anti-US event that commemorates the killing of three students in 1953. Opposition supporters are expected to try to hijack official protests by chanting their own anti-government slogans.Olivia Cornes navigates some of the opposition chants heard in Iran since June's disputed presidential elections, with the help of BBCPersian.com and protesters themselves.The waves of street chanting among anti-regime protesters are spontaneous but many are not new. Slogans that Iranians used 30 years ago to call for an end to the Shah's regime are now thrown back at the Islamic regime which replaced it.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters held a major rally on Friday evening in Tirana, seeking a partial recount of the ballots cast during the 28 June parliamentary elections.The rally, which was organised by the Socialists headed by Tirana's mayor Edi Rama was also supported by smaller opposition parties from the left and right, which accuse the government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha of electoral fraud.The rally. which was extended into a three day marathon by a few hundred opposition supporters and deputies who camped out in front of Berisha's office, closed on Sunday afternoon.Speaking at the closing rally opposition leader Edi Rama described the protest as the birth of a new political movement, while giving the government an ultimatum to accept his party's request for a partial recount.

NEW DELHI — Indian survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster on Thursday protested outside the offices of the US company blamed for the toxic leak ahead of the 25th anniversary of the notorious accident.Around 200 protesters gathered in front of the Dow Chemical building in a suburb of New Delhi, shouting slogans and waving placards demanding the firm pay for years of contamination and health problems.Thousands were killed instantly when gas leaked at a plant in Bhopal overnight on December 2-3, 1984 and tens of thousands have been killed since due to contamination, making it the world's worst industrial accident.

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Shouts of "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," a sign of continuing protest in Iran, could be heard Tuesday night in north and west Tehran, along with shouts of "death to dictator."In addition, pictures and videos were posted online of a reported protest at the University of Kashan, south of the capital city.The shouts were heard and reports came a day after the Islamic republic warned reformists against taking to the streets in protest, as the 30th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis approaches.

On the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, two hundred internationals traveled from the US, UK, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Belgium to join the weekly peaceful demonstration in Bil'in.Each Friday, Palestinians from the village of Bil'in are joined by hundreds of internationals and Israelis protesting the apartheid wall which annexes Palestinian land.Iyad Bornat, Head of the Popular Committee, said "the twelve metre polystyrene wall", which was made and carried by the residents of Bil'in, "was carried from the mosque in the centre of the village and placed on the other side of the fence, with the hope that the Israeli soldiers would remove it."

Sister to Attawapiskat- where are the promises? Attawapiskat are still continuing to struggle after they declare 2 state of emergencies this year in 2009. The first call came when the demolition of the school, old water plant, 3 valve tanks and the old fire hall. The most affected was around the school, where the old school acted as a cap exposed toxic contamination onto the air making the community sick. They were force to shut down the school and declared their first State of Emergency. INAC refused to recognized it, everyone was left in disabelief as they were handed down their death sentences that we consider genocide. The smell of poisonous diesel contamination was felt with an overwhelming smell in the community.

Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein has told Asian leaders the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi can contribute to national reconciliation.It was not clear if that meant Burma's military would allow her to take part in next year's elections. The Burmese PM was speaking at the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) regional summit in Thailand. The leaders were strongly criticised by activists for their failure to demand more of Burma on ending military rule. "He [the Burmese premier] briefed us on some of the dialogue that is taking place and he feels optimistic that she can contribute also to the process of national reconciliation," said Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Reporting from Cairo - He doesn't seem a radical or a troublemaker, but to the Egyptian government, Abdel Fattah Rizk, a surgeon with a graying mustache and hands pink from scrubbing, is a man to be watched.He belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, the most potent opposition group in the country. Hundreds of its members are in prison and many more are lying low. But even as security forces scour the nation for dissent, the Brotherhood is everywhere, from the shacks of handymen to the estates of millionaires and the halls of parliament.The government of President Hosni Mubarak paints the Brotherhood as an extremist organization with terrorist ties determined to impose strict Islamic law across Egypt. The group says it renounced violence decades ago, and its real threat to the ruling party is its appeal to the educated and middle class, who view the regime as corrupt and too beholden to the West. Although there are radicals among its members, the Brotherhood espouses a moderate Islam to reshape Middle East politics.

Groups representing impoverished Cape Town communities have lashed out at President Jacob Zuma's warning that the government will not tolerate violent service delivery protests, and the accompanying destruction of property.Representatives of the Joe Slovo task team, the Landless People's Movement and Abahlali baseMjondolo defended these protests, saying they were the only way to get the government to pay attention."So-called democratic grievance routes," failed to get answers, they said.Zuma's comments came yesterday during his address to most of South Africa's 283 mayors and all its premiers. He told them there was "no cause in a democratic and free society, however legitimate, that justifies the wanton destruction of property and violence" that had been witnessed in the country.

People living in a slum district of the Algerian capital have taken to the streets for a second day to protest against job and housing shortages.Residents of the Diar Echams area, frustrated over high unemployment and inadequate housing, clashed with police on Wednesday having started their protest on Monday night.The police said at least 11 officers were hurt, although no figure of civilian casualties was given.Protesters had used high ground above the suburb to throw bricks, stones and petrol bombs at police in riot gear as they attempted to enter the area late on Tuesday, sources aid.

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face @font-face /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal .MsoChpDefault @page Section1 div.Section1 --> TEHRAN, Iran — A hard-line cleric sought Friday to head off an attempt to reinvigorate Iran's anti-government movement, warning against a planned opposition rally next month that would coincide with annual state-sponsored demonstrations against the United States.Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, delivering the weekly Muslim prayer sermon in Tehran, also had an unusual warning for the security forces, telling them any soft treatment of those activists already in detention would be considered treason. "Nobody gives a flower to his murderer," he said.Iranian authorities executed a fierce crackdown on the hundreds of thousands of protesters who poured into the streets in response to allegations that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election in June through vote fraud.

On the third week of the new academic year in Iran, thousands of students from the main campus of Azad University in Tehran held several peaceful demonstrations protesting the coup government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the demonstrations that were attacked by Basiji and plain-clothes agents, students changed anti-government slogans protesting the conditions prevalent in the country and in the universities, while also insisting on their support of Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi. Since the demonstrations, the streets leading up to the main campus were taken over by security agents and many students were denied entry into the main campus and its buildings.

Students in Iran have demonstrated against the government at Tehran University on the first day of the new academic year.Footage posted on websites showed several hundred people chanting slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Eyewitnesses said students were not allowed into an official ceremony attended by a government minister to mark the start of term.

Earlier this year, I was shown around Jayyous by Mohammad Othman, Youth Coordinator of the Stop the Wall campaign, a nonviolent grassroots movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. His community, like many others, has been hit hard by Israel’s Separation Wall, their very livelihoods threatened by Israel’s drive to carry out a land grab under the claim of security.Yesterday, Othman was detained and arrested by Israeli soldiers as he attempted to cross back into the West Bank from Jordan, returning from a trip to Norway. He will apparently meet with his lawyer tomorrow, and there is a court appearance scheduled for Tuesday next week.

Dharamsala, September 23 – The Dag Hammerskjold Plaza opposite the United Nations building in New York was filled with angry protesters yesterday as Chinese president Hu Jintao arrived to deliver his first address at the United Nations on climate change. Tibetans, Chinese, Taiwanese, Burmese, and Falun Dafa followers voiced their angst in unison against the Chinese president who they accused of oppressing thousands of innocent peoples. Meanwhile, the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest pro-independence group of the Tibetan diaspora, condemned the United Nations for kowtowing to China by inviting Hu, who it accused of carrying out “gross violation of human rights in Tibet, East Turkestan and China”. Hu Jintao’s previous commitments of promoting and safeguarding world peace and seeking a harmonious society are no more than blatant lies, it said. While reiterating its demand for complete independence for Tibet the Tibetan Youth Congress appealed to the UN and the world leaders to raise the issue of Tibet through these UN Summits with the leaders of People’s Republic of China.

Iranian universities have reopened against a backdrop of simmering postelection dispute that has authorities fearing new protests and many students expecting the worst. Officials are concerned that the new academic year will allow disgruntled youths to stoke public anger over the fiercely contested reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Student leaders are meanwhile nervous as a result of arrests, bans, and efforts that appeared aimed at intimidating potential malcontents whose sympathies are thought to lie with the political opposition that's been shut out since the June 12 election. One of the traditional hotbeds of student unrest, Tehran University, did not reopen, reportedly due to testing procedures that preempted the start of new classes.

Reporting from Mexico City and Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- For a few hours Wednesday, Honduras' political drama gave way to more important matters -- like buying groceries and filling gas tanks.Streets in the capital, Tegucigalpa, were clogged with frantic shoppers after the country's interim rulers briefly lifted a nationwide curfew to let residents restock shelves. Meanwhile, the deposed president, Manuel Zelaya, remained hunkered in a foreign embassy.It was the first chance for residents to get out since Monday, when Zelaya sneaked back into Honduras and the de facto government abruptly imposed the shutdown. The curfew was to resume later Wednesday."I haven't had food at home for three days because the curfew caught us by surprise. I have to get milk for my three children," said Mariega Garcia, a 40-year-old administrator.