Kazakh politicians and rights activists have announced the creation of an international committee to defend the victims of the shootings in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen and activists arrested in connection with the violence.

At least 16 protesting oil workers were shot dead by police in Zhanaozen in December. Dozens were arrested afterward.

Leaders of the Kazakh Communist Party, the head of the Journalists In Trouble nongovernmental organization, and other activists on February 14 announced the creation of the Zhanaozen-2011 committee.

They told journalists in Almaty that human rights organizations in Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine have expressed interest in joining.

Meanwhile, activists in Zhanaozen have asked local authorities to permit the holding of two separate public gatherings in the town later this month.

Authorities have not ruled on the requests.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- The wife of the jailed chairman of Kazakhstan's unregistered opposition Algha (Forward) party says her husband's rights as a prisoner are being violated.

Aliya Turysbekova, wife of Vladimir Kozlov, told journalists in Almaty on February 13 that National Security Committee officers had not allowed her to meet with her husband and refused to accept food and clothes she has been trying to pass to him since his arrest.

Turysbekova also said Kozlov's lawyer has not been allowed to talk to his client face-to-face since he was incarcerated.

No comment on the allegations was available from Kazakh authorities.

The National Security Committee arrested Kozlov on January 26 and charged him with "inciting social hatred" in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen, where at least 16 striking oil workers were shot dead by police in mid-December.

OSKEMEN, Kazakhstan -- A Kazakh opposition activist has been amnestied after spending more than 1 1/2 years in jail on charges of resisting authority.

Yermek Narymbaev, leader of the Arman (Dream) movement, was sentenced in June 2010 to four years in prison after he was arrested at a protest calling on President Nursultan Nazarbaev to resign.

The Kazakh Bureau for Human Rights told RFE/RL that Narymbaev would be released in 15 days.

Last week, prominent Kazakh human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis was granted amnesty.

The amnesties have taken place as Nazarbaev this week made an official visit to Germany, during which deals worth more than $4 billion were signed.

It was Nazarbaev's first visit to the West since clashes between security forces and oil workers in the Kazakh town of Zhanaozen left at least 16 people dead in December.

A new International Labor Organization (ILO) assessment says that half of the workforce in Afghan brick kilns are children under the age of 14.

The ILO report details brick-making as one of the worst forms of child labor, where children work in a slavish cycle of debt that is almost impossible to escape.

Though both child labor and so-called bonded work are illegal in Afghanistan, children as young as 5 produce hundreds of bricks a week for a few dollars to pay off family debts, which only swell the longer they work there.

Poor health from harsh working conditions, reliance on shelter and electricity provided by brick employers and denied education mean brick makers are tied to their work.

The United Nations estimates that almost 2 million children in Afghanistan are in full or part-time work.

With agency reports

Iranian blogger Mehdi Khazali has been sentenced to 13 years and 10 months in prison and 10 years in exile. 

In his blog, Khazali has criticized Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Iran's state policies.

Khazali’s lawyer told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that he will appeal against the sentence.

Khazali was arrested about a month ago and is currently on a hunger strike. The outspoken blogger and ophthalmologist has been detained a number of times in the past two years.  

Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have arrested several people over alleged links to the BBC's Persian service, Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency reported on February 6.

Quoting an unnamed “informed source,” Mehr said the detainees produced content and reported to the BBC. It is not clear how many people have been arrested. 

In London, the BBC said in a statement it has "no BBC Persian staff members or stringers working inside Iran." 

The BBC said the report "should be of deep concern to all those who believe in a free and independent media.” 

In October, Iran released two filmmakers who were jailed on similar charges. Last week, the BBC accused Iran of pressuring the staff members of its Persian service by targeting their relatives in Iran.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Iranian authorities have detained more than 65 Arab residents of Iran as part of alleged "security sweeps" in Iran's Arab-majority Khuzestan Province since late 2011.

In a statement, HRW calls on Iranian authorities to investigate the reported deaths of two of the detainees in Intelligence Ministry facilities.

Joe Stork, Middle East deputy director at Human Rights Watch, called on Iranian authorities to immediately explain the reasons for the arrests, give detainees access to family members and lawyers, and bring all detainees promptly before a judge.

Human Rights Watch says members of the large Arab population of oil-rich Khuzestan have long complained about the lack of socioeconomic development in the region.

They allege that Tehran has systematically discriminated against them.

Kazakh police interrogated the deputy editor of an opposition newspaper and raided its offices in Almaty over her support for an arrested journalist.

The weekly paper "Golos Respubliki" (Voice of Republic) issued a press release saying security forces confiscated computers and equipment from its offices on February 2 and summoned its deputy editor, Oksana Makushina, to the National Security Committee twice -- on February 1-2.

It said Makushina was questioned regarding a press conference she held on January 30 calling for the immediate release of Igor Vinyavsky, the editor of the Almaty-based "Vzglyad" newspaper.

Vinyavsky has been detained for two months while investigations are being launched into allegations that he was involved in deadly clashes between police and striking oil workers in the country's southwest in December.