Israelis have reacted furiously to an allegation in a Swedish newspaper that its soldiers have killed Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest-circulation daily newspaper, carried the headline: "Our sons are...
CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa
Journalists banned from Gaza hospitals and Rafah
The Hamas interior ministry has denied Palestinian and foreign journalists access to the southern city of Rafah and to all hospitals in the Gaza Strip until further notice. The ban was issued after fighting broke out in Rafah between the Hamas...
Iran: reformist newspaper shut down
The authorities have shut down the newspaper of the reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi, left, who angered Iran’s senior leaders by publicising claims that protesters arrested after the disputed June elections were raped in prison. The newspaper,...
Iran bails French teaching assistant
Iran has freed on bail a 24-year-old French university lecturer who was charged with spying after last month's presidential election. A statement from the French presidency said Clotilde Reiss was in good health and would stay at the French embassy...
US tests technology to foil foreign web censorship
The U.S. government is covertly testing technology in China and Iran that lets residents break through screens set up by their governments to limit access to news on the Internet. The "feed over email" (FOE) system delivers news, podcasts and data...
Iraqi protests against censorship
Journalists, writers and booksellers united in Baghdad today to stage a protest against censorship. The protesters are concerned about encroachments by the government on the freedom of writers, both in print and online. The demonstration took place...
Iran inmates “tortured to death”
Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi said on his website that some of those detained after the country's disputed June presidential vote were tortured to death in prison. The claim by Mehdi Karroubi comes days after he said a number...
Saudi Arabia shuts TV station over sex row
Saudi authorities have closed an office of an Arab TV station after it broadcast an interview with a man speaking frankly about sex and showing off erotic toys, a government official said today. Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, spokesman for the ministry of...
Tunisian government smears Al Jazeera
A government campaign is taking place in Tunisia to discredit Al Jazeera as "the mouthpiece of opposition" to President Ben Ali’s government according to Reporters Without Borders. State owned media and television are being seen to criticise the...
Iran admits protesters were tortured
Iran's police chief, Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, has acknowledged that protesters detained in post-election unrest were tortured in custody, but says the deaths of detainees were caused by illness, not torture. The police commander has fired the head...