Iranian Cleric Stands His Ground Against Authorities
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Under threat of arrest, Mehdi Karroubi continues to lead the charge against the state's crackdown on dissent after the disputed presidential election. 'I won't go underground,' he says.

Reporting from Tehran and Beirut - The white-turbaned cleric is an unlikely enemy of the Iranian state. He was a confidant of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and served seven years as speaker of parliament.

But at 72, in the wake of Iran's disputed presidential election, Mehdi Karroubi has become the fiery heart of a protest movement that has shaken the republic's foundations.

"I feel I am obliged to defend the rights of people," Karroubi said Monday during a rare interview with a Western news organization at his sparse north Tehran office. "I want it to be remembered in the future by coming generations that somebody someday from the clerical establishment stood up for his stances and principles to defend the people."

On Tuesday, authorities stormed his party's headquarters in west Tehran. They seized documents, computers and photographs and arrested Mohammad Davari, editor of his website, a party spokesman said. They also arrested Ali-Reza Beheshti, the top aide to Karroubi's ally Mir-Hossein Mousavi, reformist websites reported.

Karroubi's popular daily newspaper was shut down weeks ago. Hard-line commanders of the Revolutionary Guard and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have repeatedly called for his arrest.

But Karroubi has continued to defy authorities, calling for opposition supporters to join in street rallies Sept. 18 during Quds Day celebrations, an annual march in support of Palestinians and against Israel. >>> Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi | Wednesday, September 09, 2009

In Egypt, a Blogger Tries to Spread 'Culture of Disobedience' among Youths
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Mohamed Abdel Aziz's Facebook group that opposes Mubarak's rule has drawn 76,000 followers. Though its calls for nationwide strikes have flopped, he remains determined.

Reporting from Cairo -- An activist in a police state should know when to sprint.

Mohamed Abdel Aziz has bolted from trouble a number of times, including dashing from security forces closing in on a demonstration in the port city of Alexandria. His less mercurial moments have three times landed him in police stations, but upon each release he has returned to his computer, opened his blog and conspired in cyberspace to end President Hosni Mubarak's 27-year rule of Egypt.

That's an unlikely prospect. But Aziz, a thin man in black clothes with a wristwatch shimmying up and down his arm, is a founder of the 6th of April, a protest movement that draws from a Facebook group of nearly 76,000 people, mostly high school and university students. The movement opines, plots and Twitters, though it has yet to generate feet in the street: Three of its calls for nationwide strikes drew more police than protesters.

"No one knows when the trigger of revolution will be pulled. The state is oppressive, but ordinary Egyptians from all over sympathize with us," said Aziz, who likes to recall the passions that roused his countrymen's 1919 revolution against the British.

"When we started using Facebook it was a novelty," he said. "Calling for a national strike was a novelty. It was like lighting a candle in a dark room. But this is still an oppressive state, and people are scared." >>> By Jeffrey Fleishman | Wednesday, April 29, 2009