Watchdog

Human Rights Watch says the Uzbek government continues to "vigorously" persecute anyone it deems to have a connection to or information about the deadly crackdown against protesters in Andijon three years ago.

In a new report, the New York-based watchdog says the government's persecution continues to generate new refugees from Andijon.

The report contains the testimonies of 27 people who fled in 2007 and 2008.

HRW is urging the United States and the European Union to apply pressure to end the harassment.

The government in Iran is advising the country's writers and publishers to practice the art of self-censorship.

"You are aware of the vetting code, so censor pages which are likely to create a dispute," Mohammad Hossein Safar Harandi of the Ministry of Culture is quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP.

Harandi said publications should be in line with "religious, moral, and national" sensitivities and warned writers against graphic descriptions of relationships or sex.

In a letter to the ministry, the Tehran Publishers' Association complains that the guidelines are inconsistent, however, and says manuscripts voluntarily submitted for screening have been lost.

"It has been frequently seen that an issue which has resulted in a book being banned," the letter said, "is abundant in another one that is published."