IRAQ: UNICEF announces plans to reopen Baghdad office

The United Nations Children’s Fund released a statement Tuesday announcing that the organization will reinstate operations in Baghdad after six years of working from neighboring Jordan. The humanitarian group left in 2003 because of the fighting and is returning as U.S. combat troops pull back.  CNN is reporting on the announcement and according to the news agency, UNICEF says, "This marks the beginning of the UNICEF Iraq country office's full transition back to Iraq over the next year.”

SAUDI ARABIA: Cross-dressing men arrested at a drag party

Saudi Arabian authorities have charged 67 men detained at a party for reportedly wearing women’s clothing.

Most of the men were Filipino and were arrested while standing outside a private party held in a villa near  the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on the occasion of Philippine Independence Day.

According to the Saudi daily Al Riyadh, the police questioned the men after spotting “suspicious behavior” and then proceeded to raid the party. More women's clothing, cosmetics, and alcohol were reportedly found in further investigations.

The Philippines' vice consul in Riyadh, Roussell Reyes, confirmed the arrests. “Some of those arrested were reportedly wearing gowns and wigs and drinking liquor. It seems that there was a party,” Reyes reportedly told a radio station.

IRAQ: Baghdad celebrations over U.S. withdrawal from cities

Photos by Times photographer Saad Khalaf show scenes of revelry around Baghdad for June 30, the date  for U.S. forces to leave Iraqi population centers. Policemen decorated their cars with ribbons Tuesday, and had a public party Monday, where the police danced and musicians played.

 

EGYPT: Blogger detained for 10 hours at Cairo airport

Well-known Egyptian blogger and activist Wael Abbas was detained for 10 hours by Cairo airport security officers upon his arrival in Egypt early Tuesday. Abbas, renown for exposing police brutality and other human rights violations, was returning home from the Talberg Forum, a yearly conference held in Sweden to discuss global interdependence.

"Officers took my passport at 3 a.m. and left me waiting for hours without any clear explanation," Abbas told the Los Angeles Times. "Despite the officers'  threats, I decided to stage a sit-in as a sign of protest. They told me I won't get the passport back until I end the sit-in, which I did after four hours."

IRAQ: Iraqis celebrate U.S. military's departure

Iraqis are jubilantly celebrating the departure of U.S. troops from their country, The Times is reporting. After counting down the days, they rejoicing by dancing and singing. According to The Times, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has declared June 30 “a day of national sovereignty,” designating it a public holiday.

In central Baghdad’s Zawra Park, a mild dust storm did little to deter thousands of people from gathering to celebrate as fireworks lighted  up the sky. The BBC reports that musicians and poets entertained and that flowers adorned police patrol vehicles. On the social-networking site Twitter, people are posting congratulatory messages with the hashtag #Iraq such as “Happy National Sovereignty Day!” The Times also has a photo gallery accompanying the story on the celebrations. 

-- Amber Smith in Los Angeles

Photo: Iraqi security forces react in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, on Monday. U.S. troops will be out of Iraqi cities by Tuesday in the first step toward winding down the American war effort by the end of 2011. Credit: Nabil al-Jurani / Associated Press

EGYPT: Police shut down Iran solidarity march

An attempt by Egyptians to march in solidarity with Iranian protesters and to honor Neda-Agha Soltan -- whose death earlier this month made her the icon of Iran's opposition movement -- was halted by security forces in Cairo over the weekend.

The Cairo rally was called by democracy activist and opposition leader Ayman Nour and was scheduled to be held in Talaat Harb square in the Egyptian capital's downtown. But dozens of security vehicles surrounded Nour and his fellow protesters upon their arrival at the square. Police arrested four protesters belonging to Nour's party and prevented reporters from covering the event.

"It is very ironic how Egyptian authorities, who earlier expressed their dismay against the Iranian regime's oppressive means of handling protesters, are now banning us from a march that shares the same perspective," Nour said at a news conference at his party's headquarters. "Such acts only prove one thing and it is that the Egyptian and Iranian regimes are quite the same when it comes to their autocratic path and rejection of democracy."

IRAN: Demonstrators rally against Ahmadinejad at Tehran mosque

Amateur videotape has just surfaced purporting to show a raucous demonstration outside a mosque in northeastern Tehran today. The rally was in support of defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who lost a June 12 vote to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an election marred by allegations of vote fraud.

The footage shows that people are gathering at the Ghoba mosque to protest the elections despite dire threats by some Iranian officials. Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, as well as the Revolutionary Guard have ordered Iranians off the street.

Supporters of Mousavi gathered at the mosque for a commemoration of the deaths of 72 Iranian politicians in a bombing 28 years ago.  

According to one demonstrator, numerous opposition figures attended the rally, including presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard, and both the daughter and wife of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Security forces reportedly fired tear gas and beat demonstrators in an effort to disperse the crowd.

-- Times staff

Video: Demonstrations in front of the Ghoba mosque in northeastern Tehran.

IRAN: Appeal for Greek journalist's release

The parents of detained Greek journalists Iason Athanasiadis today issued an appeal for his release in which they emphasized his love and respect for Iran, according to the Athens News Agency. 

 “His work serves no purpose other than the fair and humane coverage of life in the many countries where he has worked," Polymnia and Georgios Athanasiadis said in the statement .  “He has a particular love of Iran, and a deep respect for its cultural and religious traditions.”

Although the circumstances remain murky, Greek officials have confirmed that Athanasiadis was detained in Tehran last week while covering the outcome of the disputed Iranian election for the Washington Times.

Earlier this year, Athanasiadis was in Los Angeles to launch an exhibit of more than 50 of his documentary photographs at the Craft and Folk Art Museum called, “Exploring the Other: Contemporary Iran through the lens of Iason Athanasiadis.”

 He told the Times, "I wanted to use this opportunity to show how varied Iran is — what it's really like. A lot of people don't know that Iran is the birthplace of Sufism, the most lenient form of Islam."

The museum has joined in the appeals for Athanasiadis’ release.

“Iason sought to humanize a nation and its people largely demonized in the corporate press by living amongst Iranians, learning fluent Farsi, and respecting the culture and history of the nation,” the museum’s executive director, Maryna Hrushetska, said in a statement. “ His poignant photographs and reporting demonstrated the highest standards of journalism in a great time of media bias.”

— Amber Smith in Los Angeles

This post has been edited from an earlier version.

Image: This photograph was among those in the exhibit “Exploring the Other: Contemporary Iran through the lens of Iason Athanasiadis," which ran from January 25 - March 29, 2009 in Los Angeles. Two young snowboarders with matching scarlet highlights throw caution to the winds as they sail up the Shemshak ski-piste on a Shah-era lift in the mountains behind Tehran. Islamic regulations are more laxly enforced at holiday resorts such as Shemshak and Kish Island. Credit: 'Craft and Folk Art Museum'

MIDDLE EAST: An Arab tribute to the King of Pop

Middle East analyst and blogger Juan Cole of Informed Comment writes today about Michael Jackson’s popularity in the  Arab world. Jackson lived in Bahrain for a time after he was acquitted on child molestation charges in 2005. But he had a falling out with his benefactor, a son of the Persian Gulf island's emir.

Cole includes a link to a Middle Eastern video tribute to the King of Pop posted on YouTube. Although the comments suggest that a Jackson soundtrack may have been superimposed over a clip of men in traditional Arab robes dancing to music from the Gulf, Cole says “it is the height of hybridity either way.”

"Given the stereotyping of Gulf Arabs as medieval and fanatical, and given the hurtful prejudice against their very form of clothing in the West, it is only right that they should have the last word here on Michael Jackson's universal appeal."

Read Cole's post: Michael Jackson, Islam and the Middle East.

— Amber Smith in Los Angeles

Photo: Two Bahraini girls pass a poster of Michael Jackson at a store in Manama, Bahrain, on Friday, June 26, 2009. A store employee said Jackson's CDs sold briskly on word of the singer's death. Credit: Hasan Jamali / AP
 

IRAN: A bird's-eye view of Wednesday's clash in downtown Tehran

An extraordinary video has surfaced purporting to show the encounter between stone-wielding demonstrators and Iranian police and pro-government vigilantes Wednesday in downtown Tehran's Baharestan Square.

The grainy 10-minute video, which could not be independently verified, shows a bird's-eye view of the violent encounter, in which angry demonstrators sometimes chase the club-wielding police away as they chanted indecipherable slogans. 

The street clashes unfolded within a stone's throw of parliament, where supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was delivering a speech to lawmakers. The action begins a couple of minutes into the tape, as uniformed men swarm protesters, who fight back. 

At one point, a man comments in Persian, "The tear gas is coming all the way up here."

-- Borzou Daragahi in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Video: Clash in Baharestan Square.