Presidential candidate in Egypt in prison, deputy attacked

Hisham Geneina 

Egypt's former top auditor and a leading member of an opposition campaign against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was seriously injured during a suspected kidnapping attempt, lawyers said. 

Ali Taha and Tareq el-Awady, lawyers of Hisham Geneina, told the Associated Press that three men with knives jumped out of two cars that blocked the path of Genena's car outside his suburban Cairo home on Saturday. 

The men attempted to force Geneina into their car, but were stopped by passers-by and a fight ensued, in which Geneina suffered injuries to his face and leg. 

Photos circulating on social media showed an injured Geneina. A security official told al-Shorouk newspaper, however, that Geneina was injured after a fight followed a vehicle accident. 
Geneina had been tapped earlier this month to be a deputy to Sami Anan, the former head of Egypt's armed forces, who initially said he would run in March's presidential election.

Sentence Bahraini human rights activits Nabeel Rajab widely condemned

Nabeel Rajab

Human rights groups have roundly condemned a ruling by a Bahraini court to affirm a two-year jail sentence for activist Nabeel Rajab, saying the verdict "illustrates the corruption" of the kingdom's justice system.

Rajab had been found guilty in July of "spreading rumours and untruthful information" against the government in TV interviews. The verdict was upheld in November, following a legal challenge by Rajab. On Monday, an appeals court affirmed the lower court verdict, in a decision that was final. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) on Tuesday urged the Bahraini government to immediately release Rajab, saying he is a political prisoner who had "done nothing"."Nabeel is not only a human rights defender but also a man of intellectual value. He should not be in jail," Dimitris Christopoulos, president of the Paris-based group, told Al Jazeera.

Twenty one people killed after five days of unrest in Iran

 (Anadolu)

Nine more people have died in overnight clashes between protesters and security forces in Iran, state television has reported, as unrest in the country entered a sixth day.
State TV said six protesters were killed as they tried to storm a police station in the town of Qahderijan in the central Isfahan region. It also said an 11-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man were killed in the town of Khomeinishahr, while a member of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was killed in the town of Najafabad. All three were shot by hunting rifles, which are common in the Iranian countryside, the report said. None of the reports could be confirmed independently.
It is estimated that 21 people have now died nationwide in unrest linked to the demonstrations, the largest in Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election.
Protests over the weak economy and a jump in food prices that began on Thursday in Mashhad have spread to cities across the country and taken on a political dimension. Some protesters have chanted slogans against the government of Iran’s moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.