Watchdog

Iranian police detained 10 student activists today after they gathered in front of parliament to protest at being banned from enrolling at universities, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Students and activists say some of those who have spoken out against hard-line President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his government have been detained or blacklisted from university courses.

Ahmadinejad and his government insist they support free speech and welcome constructive opposition.

"Police arrested 10 student activists for staging an illegal protest in front of parliament," Fars said. "The students -- two women and eight men who claimed to be banned from enrolling at universities -- were taken away by a police minibus."

Fars did not say where they were being held. The report could not be confirmed independently and was not carried by other news agencies.

Most of Iran's pro-democracy student leaders have in recent years fled the country or have been jailed.

Rights activists say other dissenting voices, including labor movement figures and intellectuals, have also been targets of the crackdown.

(by Reuters)

A rights activist has told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that he was detained and interrogated by the security service after he accompanied a U.S. diplomat to see cotton fields in the Sirdaryo region.

A day after Wal-Mart announced its decision to stop buying Uzbek cotton in order to end child labor there, Richard Fitzmaurice, a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent, met with activists and spoke with children in a cotton field in the Mirzoobod district.

Karim Bozorboev, an activist from Sirdaryo who accompanied Fitzmorris, told RFE/RL that the police were angered by Fitzmaurice took pictures of children in the cotton fields.

According to Bozorboev, their car was stopped for a half-hour before the police chief called somewhere and gave him permission to leave. Bozorboev was taken to the local department as soon as Fitzmaurice left. He was interrogated and threatened by Muso Rajabov, the head of the counterterrorism department