In brief: Iran’s Rafsanjani loses post in vote

Tehran, Iran – The Iranian opposition’s most powerful sympathizer lost his post Tuesday as head of an important clerical body that oversees the country’s supreme leader.

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president, lost his seat as head of the Assembly of Experts in what is widely considered a victory for his conservative rivals, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, a more traditional conservative cleric, became leader of the clerical body with 63 of 86 votes.

Government raid injures protesters

Sanaa, Yemen – The Yemeni government escalated its efforts to stop mass protests calling for the president’s ouster on Tuesday, with soldiers firing rubber bullets and tear gas at students camped at a university in the capital in a raid that left at least 98 people wounded, officials said.

The army stormed the Sanaa University campus hours after thousands of inmates rioted at the central prison in the capital, taking a dozen guards hostage and calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. At least one prisoner was killed and 80 people were wounded as the guards fought to control the situation, police said.

Yemen has been rocked by weeks of protests against Saleh, inspired by recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia that drove out those nations’ leaders. Saleh, a key U.S. ally in the campaign against al-Qaida, has been in power 32 years. In a sign that the protests are gaining traction, graffiti calling for Saleh to step down surfaced Tuesday in his birthplace, village of Sanhan, for the first time since the protests began.

Students at Sanaa University have been sleeping on campus since mid-February, shortly after the start of the protests calling for the country’s president to step down.

Medical officials said many of the 98 people wounded were in serious condition.