Four more Shi'ite pilgrims headed for Karbala for Arbaeen celebrations were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad Feb. 25—one day after a suicide bomber killed 48 pilgrims, detonating a vest filled with explosives at a rest stop in Iskandiriyah. US officials blamed the attack on al-Qaeda. Arbaeen marks the close of Ashura, the 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. (AFP, ISNA, Feb. 25)

Hundreds of angry youth clashed with anti-riot forces in Tehran Feb. 23 after trying to liberate a young girl who had been arrested by the Islamic Guidance police. The confrontation began in a main square of Tehran after the morality police stopped a young girl walking with her boyfriend and attempted to abscond her into their van. When the girl resisted, she was beaten, and people watching the scene intervened. Riot police arrived, firing in the air and hurling tear gas to break up the protesters. At least 15 were arrested. The Islamic Guidance units are part of a new "Social Protection" project launched last year by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (IPS, Feb. 24)

More than 120 international academics and human rights activists have signed a statement protesting the banning of Zanan Magazine—meaning "women's magazine"—by the Iranian government this month, after 16 years in print. Iranian authorities have canceled the licenses of many publications in recent years, but Zanan's closure has sparked strong protests. Among those signing the statement are Noam Chomsky, Jürgen Habermas and Shirin Ebadi. More than 1,000 journalists, intellectuals and cultural personalities within Iran and abroad wrote a similar letter. (Global Voices Onine, Feb. 14)

From Newsday, Feb. 23:

New MTBE spills found to threaten drinking water
A study of Long Island groundwater pollution caused by the fuel additive MTBE uncovered 32 petroleum spills that had not been previously detected, including one in Ronkonkoma that state environmental officials said had threatened public drinking water.

Oops, he did it again. While it has gone largely unnoticed in US media coverage, press outlets on the subcontinent are noting (with trepidation or glee) alarmingly bellicose comments by Barack Obama at the Austin Democratic presidential debate Feb. 21 broaching military intervention in Pakistan—an idea being viewed with growing seriousness in elite circles. Here's a selection of quotes from the supposedly dovish candidate assembled (with trepidation) by Pakistan's Daily Times Feb. 23, and (with barely disguised glee) by the India's The Hindu Feb. 22:

Divided over whether to boycott the polls, Islamist parties were among the biggest losers in Pakistan's general elections. Islamists participated in the 2002 elections under the banner of the six-party Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), and secured 66 seats in the National Assembly. The MMA also formed its own government in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and was a major coalition partner in the Baluchistan government. But this time, the alliance fractured. Jammat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist party, and two other MMA member parties boycotted. Only the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) of former parliamentary opposition leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, a friend of President Pervez Musharraf, and two other minor partners participated. The JUI won only five National Assembly seats—down from 48—and also faced harsh reversals in the NWFP and Baluchistan.

Turkish troops destroyed five bridges on the Avashin or Blue River in an incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan to hunt PKK rebel fighters, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Feb. 22. "We don't expect that a large incursion is taking place, as it's a remote and inhospitable region," Zebari said, estimating that "hundreds, rather than thousands" of Turkish troops were involved in the operation. Earlier, Ankara announced a "limited operation" into Iraqi territory. (AFP, Feb. 23) The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, issued a statement warning that if Turkish forces target civilians or damage any civilian infrastructure they will face large-scale resistance. (VOA, Feb. 23)

Shops and stores in downtown Gaza City closed their doors Feb. 23 as part of a general strike to protest Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip. Shop owners carried banners reading "closed because of the siege" in Arabic and English. Jamal al-Khoudari, director of the newly-formed independent anti-siege committee, said Gaza dealers and merchants have lost about $150 million since their imported goods have been held up by Israel's blockade. Placing a monument for the victims of the siege in a public square in Gaza, al-Khoudari said "the siege [has] killed 99 people so far" with many more at risk. "Thousands of patients wait to have a number in the list of dead because they can't go outside for further treatment and can't have the needed medicine here." (Xinhua, Feb. 23)