Death in the Dorms: Iranian Students Recall Horror of Police Invasion
THE GUARDIAN: Victims tell of arrests, threats and beatings / Two women among five killed by officers

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 several had been beaten in front of the main gate to the university.

What happened next developed into one of the seminal events of Iran's post-election unrest: police broke locks and then bones as they rampaged through the dormitories, attacked dozens of students, carted off more than 100 and killed five. The authorities still deny the incursion took place. But the account pieced together from interviews with five of those present tells a different story.

"We were getting ready to go to sleep when we suddenly heard them breaking the locks to enter our rooms," said one of the 133 students arrested that night. "I'd seen them earlier beating students but I didn't imagine that they would come inside. It's even against Iranian law."

Forty-six students from one dorm were arrested and taken to the basement of the interior ministry on nearby Fatemi Street. It was there, on the building's upper floors, that the vote-counting and – claim opposition supporters – the rigging, was going on. Another 87 were taken to a security police building on Hafez Street. Students spoke of torture and mistreatment.

Five died: they were Fatemeh Barati, Kasra Sharafi, Mobina Ehterami, Kambiz Shoaee and Mohsen Imani – buried the following day in Tehran's famous Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, reportedly without their families being informed. Their names were confirmed by Tahkim Vahdat, a student organisation.

Witnesses said the two women and three men were repeatedly beaten on the head with electric batons. Their families were warned not to talk about their children or hold funerals – like the parents of Neda Soltan, whose face became synonymous with the protest movement after she was filmed being shot dead in the street. >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Sunday, July 12, 2009

The Pope Is 'Stupid', Says Richard Dawkins after Pontiff's Claim that Condoms Increase AIDS
Professor Dawkins stands with the UK's first atheist campaign founder Ariane Sherine before one of the ads they placed on London buses and Underground. Dawkins has labelled the Pope 'stupid' for his stance on condoms. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: Biologist Richard Dawkins has attacked the Pope as 'stupid' over his claim condoms increase AIDS.

The prominent atheist said Benedict XVI would end up with the blood of millions of people on his hands if they took his words seriously.

Speaking at a university in Spain, he raged: 'I wonder on what basis anyone can say condoms make AIDS worse.

'The Pope is either stupid, ignorant or just dim.

'If people take his words seriously he will be responsible for the deaths of thousands, perhaps millions of people.'

Dawkins, 67, launched his attack in a press conference at the University of Valencia after being awarded an honorary degree at an official ceremony.

He also claimed the more people thought for themselves, the less they were likely to believe in God.

And he congratulated U.S. President Barack Obama for overturning predecessor George Bush's funding ban on stem cell research.

Professor Dawkins is known for his passionate views and has become known as much for his views on atheism as his Darwinist theories on evolution. >>> By Gerard Couzens | Wednesday, April 1, 2009