Phil Sands, Foreign Correspondent.Sulemaniya, Iraq // An intense, bitter and at times violent struggle for power among Iraqi Kurds, between the incumbent old guard and a new reform movement, will come to a head on Sunday when voters here go to the polls.

NEW YORK–(ENEWSPF)–4 March 2010 – The top United Nations human rights official today voiced deep concern about the violent crackdown on dissent in Iran and the marred prospects for peace in Sri Lanka, where journalists, human rights defenders and other critics of the Government are being mistr [ ... ]

The US and its western allies have stepped up a behind-the-scenes campaign to persuade Russia to back tough United Nations sanctions against Iran.

Mark Hosenball
After Abdolmalek Rigi—the suspected leader of the anti-Iranian jihadist group Jundullah—was arrested by Iranian authorities last week, he made a startling public claim: the Obama administration offered to give his group money and munitions to help in their efforts to undermine the [ ... ]

  Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) denied that any of its members have been arrested as claimed by the Iranian regime’s intelligence chief in the province of West Azerbijan.The Party stated in a statement that those if arrested have no affiliation with the PDKI.

They came in the small hours, just as the dormitories were settling down for the night. Outside, Tehran was still in ferment, a city gripped by fury two days after a "stolen election". Inside the dorms on Amirabad Street, students were trying to sleep, though nerves were jangling; just hours earlier [ ... ]

TEHRAN, Iran—One of Iran's top opposition leaders called Monday for a referendum on whether to strip the ruling system of the right to ban political candidates -- a powerful tool used to blacklist liberal voices from key campaigns.

 GENEVA (Reuters) – Iran rejected calls to release all political prisoners and accept an international inquiry into violence after last June’s contested presidential elections, an official U.N. report said.