AFP - Egypt said Thursday it has postponed a visit to Cairo by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki over comments criticising the role of some Arab leaders in facilitating Middle East peace talks.

The head of the Iranian interests section in Cairo was summoned to explain comments attributed to Mottaki in which he criticised "the participation of certain Arab leaders in the relaunch of direct peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis in Washington," the foreign ministry said.

NCRI - While the Iranian regime’s maximum prison capacity is 80,000, there are now more than 205,000 prisoners in Iran, according to the latest semi-official statistics. In addition, more than 8 million legal cases are registered every year in the regime’s judiciary.

According to Alef website, which is affiliated with Ahmad Tavakkoli, the chairman of the regime’s Majlis (Parliament) Research Center, Iranian prisons are operating at close to 2.5 times over capacity.

NCRI- A senior Iraqi politician and a human rights association of jurists in Iraq have in separate statements condemned the siege on Camp Ashraf, according to Azzaman daily.

This week, in the latest development in a series of cruel actions against Camp Ashraf, the Iraqi committee in charge of suppressing the camp, where about 3,400 members of the main Iranian opposition reside, prevented four trucks carrying basic necessities for the residents to enter the camp.

NCRI - The Palestinian Authority’s Minister for Women’s Affairs sent a message this week to the residents of Camp Ashraf to voice solidarity with them.

The camp, which is situated near Baghdad, Iraq, is home to about 3,400 members of the main Iranian opposition the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The outgoing Iraqi government has laid a suppressive siege on Camp Ashraf at the behest of the Iranian regime provoking denunciations from around the world.

NCRI - The Iranian regime’s suppressive forces have attacked a number of Sunni residences and followers of the Allameh Moftizadeh order in Seqez. So far 10 people have been arrested.

According to Harana news agency, on August 19 and 20, the regime’s Special Guards, intelligence operatives, State Security Forces (SSF) and plainclothes agents attacked people attending a special Sunni religious ceremony for Ramadan at homes belonging to followers of Ahmad Moftizadeh (a Quran school). People were beaten with batons and six were taken to undisclosed locations.

Fatal shooting by regime security forces in Seqez

NCRI - The Iranian regime’s State Security Forces (SSF) in the vicinity of the northwestern municipality of Seqez shot and killed a young man and severely injured another, according to Harana and Rawa news agencies on Wednesday.

NCRI - A newspaper in Iran affiliated with the mullahs’ President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has expressed worries about a scheduled protest against Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York City this month.

A large demonstration is scheduled to be held by Iranian exiles and opponents of the regime in front of the UN headquarters on September 23, where Ahmadinejad will be attending the UN General Assembly session.

NCRI - The life of Arjang Davoudi, a political prisoner, is in serious danger on his 50th day of hunger strike. He has been in Ward 3 of Gohardasht Prison since July 14 as a political prisoner. He went on hunger strike in protest to pressures by the regime including ban on family visits and confiscation of his private house leaving his family homeless. Since November 2003, he has been subjected to various forms of torture and pressures in several prisons including Evin, Bandar-Abbas and Gohardasht.

NCRI - A physicist from the country of Azerbaijan specializing in laser technology, who spent a year and a half in Iranian prisons and was recently released and extradited to his native country, has revealed his experience at the Iranian regime’s prisons as well as the regime’s tactics to hold him captive.

In an interview on Tuesday, Dr. Rashid Aliev said he was surprised by “arbitrary trials and violations of prisoners’ rights in Iran.” He added that he was most inspired by the high morale, persistence and world outlook of political prisoners at Ward 209 of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

NCRI - A Senior Iraqi politician denounced severe restrictions on Camp Ashraf on Tuesday. The camp is home to about 3,400 members of the main Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

Sheikh Khalaf al-Alian, General Secretary of the National Dialogue Council, told Malaf news agency in an interview, “The residents of Ashraf are the Iraqi people’s guests and must not be subjected to a siege. They should not be deprived of access to basic necessities and medicine.”

Political prisoner Arjang Davoudi in a coma

NCRI - The health of a political prisoner in Iran’s Gohardasht prison has deteriorated rapidly after a 48 day hunger strike, according to obtained reports on Monday. Arjang Davoudi is now in a coma but the clerical regime is preventing access to medical treatment for the political prisoner. Prison authorities have reportedly left him on a stretcher in Gohardasht prison’s Ward 3 hallway.

NCRI - The Iranian regime has not come out as the victor of the Iraq war despite its attempts to arm and fund terrorist militias to meddle in the country’s affairs, according to an article published on Sunday in the British daily Guardian.

In a piece entitled, “Did Iran rally do so well out of the Iraq war,” Hayder al-Khoei writes, “The Iranians have not shied away from interfering in domestic Iraqi affairs and the power vacuum created by the American administration in Iraq gave them ample room to flex their muscles.”