Iranian Lawmakers: Execute Opposition Leaders

Tehran formally detains opposition leaders, wives

(NEWSER) - Iran is cracking down on its opposition today, jailing prominent leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, reports the AP. The pair and their wives were arrested and taken to Tehran's Heshmatiyeh jail, according to reformist website Kaleme.com. The two have been under house arrest for two weeks for encouraging public protests in the wake of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings. A semi-official news agency denied that the leaders had been jailed. More»

Even Iran, Iraq seeing continued unrest

(NEWSER) - Unrest continues to spread through northern Africa and the Middle East, with protests rocking Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Iran, and even Iraq. The latest from yesterday and today, from the New York Times , BusinessWeek , and AFP :

• In Bahrain, the death toll after a surprise police attack on protesters rose to five.
• In Yemen, protests—and fights between those for and against the government —reached their seventh consecutive day, with police firing automatic rifles into the air in an effort to keep the opposing sides apart. Yesterday, government supporters used electroshock batons against those protesting the president and one person was killed.
• In Libya, protesters organized a "Day of Rage" today to challenge the 41-year rule of Moammar Gadhafi. At least four people were killed in clashes with security forces yesterday; one human rights group claims as many as 13 were killed by snipers and dozens wounded.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urges high turnout

(AP) - Iran's supreme leader urged Iranians to vote in large numbers as the country holds parliamentary elections today, saying a high turnout would send a strong message to the enemies of the nation amid the nuclear standoff with the West. The balloting for the 290-member parliament is the first major voting since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009 and the mass protests and crackdowns that followed. More»

Bedouin tribesmen free hostages after negotiations

(AP) - Two female American tourists and their Egyptian guide were freed today, hours after they were abducted at gunpoint near St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula. Local police chief Maj. Gen. Mohammed Naguib says the three were released after negotiations with Bedouin tribesmen. The three were seized from a minivan that was returning them from the monastery to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. More»

Plus: Hosni Mubarak's trial resumes

(NEWSER) - The final round of voting began in Egypt today, and it looks like the Muslim Brotherhood could walk off with a controlling majority of seats in Parliament's lower house. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, the country's mainstream Islamist party, had already won a high percentage of the seats awarded in the first and second rounds of voting. Two of the nine provinces voting today are Brotherhood strongholds, where some of the party's most well-known candidates are running, the New York Times reports. More»