The Latest from Iran (4 May): Election Day Again

The Supreme Leader casting his vote today

See also The Latest from Iran (3 May): The Oil Squeeze

---

1930 GMT: Elections Watch. There are no clear numbers from today's second Parliamentary elections, but Iranian media are already putting out the message of "impressive turnout".

Mehr emphasises the diversity of those voting, including "Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the late Imam Khomeini; pro-reform figure Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha, who is the secretary general of the Association of Combatant Clerics; and National Confidence Party deputy chief Rasul Montajabnia, who is also a key member of the Association of Combatant Clerics".

And Tehran University academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi offers the inevitable proclamation that the show of domestic support for the regime will bolster it in forthcoming talks over Iran's nuclear programme.

Click to read more ...

Afghanistan News: At Least 8 Killed in Protests over Qur'an Burning

Photo: Ahmad Masood (Reuters)At least eight people were reportedly killed and almost two dozen injured today in protests in Afghanistan over the alleged burning of the Qur'an at the American airbase, Camp Bagram.

Protests were held in the cities of Jalalabad and the capital Kabul, as well as Parwan Province, where Bagram is located. Police clashed with protesters who threw rocks and burnt tires, blocking the highways in several parts of the country.

Afghan news agency Pajhwok reported that police opened fire in Parwan's Shinwari district whne protesters tried to storm government buildings, resulting in at least six deaths. One protester each was killed in Logar Province and in Jalalabad, in Nengrahar Province.

Click to read more ...

Afghanistan: 12 Killed at UN Headquarters By Protesters of "Qur'an Burning" (Najafizada/Nordland)

UPDATE 0800 GMT: Protests in Kandahar over Qur'an-burning have turned violent this morning, with shooting and vehicles set on fire. There are reports of seven people killed and 45 injured.
---

Stirred up by three angry mullahs who urged them to avenge the burning of a Koran at a Florida church, thousands of protesters on Friday overran the compound of the United Nations in this northern Afghan city, killing at least 12 people, Afghan and United Nations officials said.

The dead included at least seven United Nations workers — four Nepalese guards and three Europeans from Romania, Sweden and Norway — according to United Nations officials in New York. One was a woman. Early reports, later denied by Afghan officials, said that at least two of the dead had been beheaded. Five Afghans were also killed.

Click to read more ...

Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Defections v. A Military Push

2030 GMT: Al Jazeera English's Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from her position with opposition forces at the western gate of Ajdabiya --- she was stopped by the insurgents from going further towards the front-line near Brega. She notes that Libya's opposition has appointed Abdel Fatah Yunis, the former Minister of Interior who defected in the early days of protests, as the head of military forces.

Click to read more ...

Friday Hero Video: Skateboarder Prevents Koran Burning in Texas

As a graphic illustration of Islamophobia defeated, nothing beats what happened in Amarillo, Texas, [on 11 September]. David Grisham, the wacko director of one Repent Amarillo organization, who had planned his own Koran-burning session in support of Gainesville, Florida, pastor and instant global celebrity Terry Jones, was about to commit the act in front of around 200 people when, out of nowhere comes...

...the unlikeliest of heroes; Jacob Isom, a 23-year-old, bespectacled local skateboarder. Isom himself described what happened to the Amarillo-Globe News: "I snuck up behind him and took his Koran, he said something about burning the Koran, I said 'Dude you have no Koran,' and ran off." The righteous skateboarder even had time to add to a startled Grisham, "You’re just trying to start holy wars," then handed the unburned Koran to a local Muslim leader.

Watch the video....

Click to read more ...