The Latest from Iran (21 June): A Silence in Tehran

1355 GMT: Justice Watch. Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi, speaking to the “Human Rights and National Security” summit, has claimed that the "architect" of the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists has been identified and arrested.

Moslehi said earlier this week that 20 people were arrested in connection with the cases, and the Ministry had claimed that “the key perpetrators" of the assassinations of Majid Shahriari and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan had been detained.

Moslehi also claimed that Iran had blocked the US, Israel, and the British intelligence service MI6 from carrying out a "massive cyber attack against Iran's facilities" after the Moscow nuclear talks. He added, "They still seek to carry out the plan, but we have taken necessary measures."

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Decimating Homs

The shelling and smoke in Bab Amr in Homs this morning

See also Syria Video Feature: How Can You Get News Out of the Country?
Syria Video Special: The Shelling of Homs, Days 5 and 6
Wednesday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Shutting Out the Journalists

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2110 GMT: Mazhar Tayyara, a freelance journalist working for several major European news agencies has been killed during the military attack on Homs, Syria:

Tayyara was a freelance journalist who was hired as a stringer for the Agence France-Presse and also who provided video footage for The Guardian and the Die Wilt in Germany.

Apparently Tayyara was trying to help some wounded people get to cover when a second volley of shells fell and he was hit by shrapnel in several parts of his body. He died several hours later in hospital.

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Catchphrase of "Many Dead"

2329 GMT: Two important visual pieces of evidence from Bahrain. The first, too graphic to post here, is a picture of the body of young Ali Al Qassab, who was reportedly killed earlier when he was run over. Activists claim he was run over by a police jeep, the government tells a different story.

The second piece of evidence is a video, reportedly taken today, that claims to show a police jeep accelerating towards a group of protesters who are near the side of the road. We've seen many videos like these in the past, and have already posted another video that shows a near-miss between a police vehicle and a pedestrian (see video at 1918):

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Bahrain Video: Amid Protests and Tear Gas, "It is Essential That We Speak Out" (Kristof)

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Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times was allowed back into Bahrain last week to observe the situation on the ground, although he and his cameraman were briefly held by police amid secuity forces' attempts to disperse protests. His report on the clashes and political situation accompanies his column today, "If this repression were unfolding in Iran or Syria, the White House would thunder with indignation. When it is our pals who behave this way, it is even more essential that we speak out."

Among those interviewed by Kristof are regime supporter Saqer Al Khalifa, activist Zainab Alkhawaja, Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Center of Human Rights, and Sadiq Al Ekri, a plastic surgeon severely beaten this spring by security forces.

Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A New York Times Journalist is Detained, But What of the 40 People Killed?

A clip of Friday's protests in Sitra in Bahrain --- the march was later confronted by security forces with tear gas and rubber bullets

See also Bahrain Opinion: "Loonies" and The Sins of Bell Pottinger
Bahrain Special: 4 More Revelations about Qorvis, the Regime's PR Firm
Syria Video Feature: Friday's Protests
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: What Will This Friday Bring?

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2055 GMT: Gunmen, believed to be from renegade groups of former insurgents, have tried to kill the head of the Libyan army in Tripoli.

The assailants, whom military officials said were probably from the Zintan brigade, challenged the convoy of General Khalifa Hifter as it moved toward military headquarters. The attempt set off hours of intense gunbattles along the main highway to the airport (see 1755 GMT). One of Libya’s largest military bases was also attacked.

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US Feature: How #OccupyWallStreet Became #OccupyEverywhere (Schneider)

It all started with an e-mail. On July 13 Adbusters magazine sent out a call to its 90,000-strong list proclaiming a Twitter hashtag (#OccupyWallStreet) and a date, September 17. It quickly spread among the mostly young, tech-savvy radical set, along with an especially alluring poster the magazine put together of a ballerina atop the Charging Bull statue, the financial district’s totem to testosterone.

The idea became a meme, and the angel of history (or at least of the Internet) was somehow ready. Halfway into a revolutionary year—after the Arab Spring and Europe’s tumultuous summer—cyberactivists in the United States were primed for a piece of the action. The Adbusters editors weren’t the only ones organizing; similar occupations were already in the works, including a very well-laid plan to occupy Freedom Plaza in Washington, starting October 6.

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The Latest from Iran (20 November): A Curious "Stability"

2033 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. And so, at the end of the day, back to the start and our special analysis....

Mehdi Hashemi, the son of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, has edged closer to calling the Government's bluff on arresting him if he leaves London and steps foot on Iranian soil. Hashemi, in a letter to Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, has said, "If you stop bargaining, I'll return to Iran to expose the liars."

2030 GMT: More "Unity" from Parliament? Ali Asgari, known as a hard-line conservative MP, has said "getting to power by immoral acts is to be condemned" and reformists should not be excluded from the Iranian system.

2020 GMT: Execution Watch (Tour of Europe Edition). Khabar Online reports that 36 Iranian lawyers will soon be visiting the European Judicial Centre. Ostensbly, the tour is to discuss comparative law; however, the specific intention is tipped off in a passage about the death sentence imposed on Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

The Iranian attorneys will explain that execution is a legal sentence for the murder of Ashtiani's husband (actually, the sentence was initially imposed for adultery and Ashtiani was subsequently convicted of complicity in the murder, not of committing it), that execution by stoning has been suspended, and that very few people in Iran receive the stoning penalty.

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