Five senior citizens are behind bars in Germany after they allegedly kidnapped and beat a man because he owed them money, police in southern Germany said Wednesday. Liu, a former university lecturer and literary critic, was arrested for alleged agitation activities aimed at subversion of the government, the Xinhua agency reported Wednesday citing Beijing's Municipal Public Security Bureau. Lui was arrested Tuesday, a police statement printed by Xinhua said. "Liu has been engaged in agitation activities, such as spreading of ...

Thirty years after his father was overthrown by a popular uprising, the former crown prince of Iran has a unique perspective on the demonstrations gripping Iran these days. On Monday, at a Washington press conference, Reza Pahlavi, the onetime heir to the peacock throne, condemned Iran's controversial presidential election of June 12 as "an ugly moment of disrespect for both God and man" and called on the Tehran regime to allow for "freedom, democracy, human rights [and] the ...

People in the crowd sang songs of tribute as they waited. TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- People in the crowd sang songs of tribute as they waited. When he arrived, they stood and welcomed him in unison: "Praise be to God and to his prophet, Mohammed." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader for two decades, took the stage with a few notes on small pieces of paper in his left hand. He leaned on the lectern with his right arm, crippled ...

Iran's supreme leader delivered an impassioned defense of the Islamic Republic on Friday, insisting a majority of Iranians had faith in the existing establishment and issuing a "religious ultimatum" to protesters to end days of street demonstrations triggered by last week's presidential election. Addressing a large crowd at Tehran University, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the historic voter turnout of 85 percent legitimized the Islamic system and had been a clear demonstration of the Iranian people's trust in the regime. He ...

The Iranian-American community is half a world away from the turmoil in Iran, but they are tuning in, logging on and even stepping out in demonstrations to show solidarity with relatives and friends. Americans with Iranian roots showed their interest in the election Friday by voting at more than three dozen polling places from Washington to Los Angeles. And now the post-election turmoil has ratcheted up that interest higher than ever. "The Iranian-American community is hungry for all news and ...

Seven people were killed after they reportedly attacked a military post in central Tehran, state television said Tuesday. Government-funded Press TV said the people were killed Monday night at the site of Azadi, or Freedom, Square where opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi held a massive rally earlier in the day and urged followers to continue their demonstrations peacefully. Moussavi told followers Monday he will "pay any cost" to contest the country's presidential election results, but said he had little hope ...

A 3 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew seemed to be holding, and both sides in the bloody episode said they wanted dialogue, not bullets. "The situation is much more tranquil," foreign minister Jose Andres Garcia Belaunde told CNN. "There's the possibility of entering into a dialogue." The violence started Friday when national police attacked a roadblock near the city of Bagua, in the Amazonian part of northwestern Peru. About 2,500 indigenous people had blocked the main road to protest ...

A nervous calm settled over Peru on Monday night, three days after clashes between indigenous citizens and national police left more than 30 dead and 50 wounded. A 3 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew seemed to be holding, and both sides in the bloody episode said they wanted dialogue, not bullets. "The situation is much more tranquil," foreign minister Jose Andres Garcia Belaunde told CNN. "There's the possibility of entering into a dialogue." The violence started Friday when national police ...

Twenty years after China's bloody crackdown on demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the United States is urging the government to come to terms with its violent actions. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement saying the 20th anniversary of the "violent suppression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square by Chinese authorities" should be a time for reflection on the loss of hundreds of innocent lives and the meaning of events that preceded that fateful day. "A China that has ...

The Afghan government will change a law that critics say legalizes rape within marriage for Shia Muslims, President Hamid Karzai told CNN Thursday. Karzai told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that he and others were unaware of the provision in the legislation, which he said "has so many articles." Karzai signed the measure into law last month. "Now I have instructed, in consultation with clergy of the country, that the law be revised and any article that is not in keeping with ...