GLOBAL: Academic self-determination reports international

Hundreds of ethnic Uzbek Kyrgyz students, studying in Rhea in Russia, have been harassed by the authorities. Colleagues of Iranian student Omit Kokabee, who is studying for a doctorate in physics at the University of Texas, are worried that it could have been jailed for his visit to Iran during the Christmas holidays. In Syria, a student and other detainees have been tortured and beaten by security forces in the coastal city of Baines. UK Freedom of Information laws have been allegedly misused to harass and intimidate climatologists. And student leader Maxwell Lamina Swaziland has been held by authorities since 11 April and the campaign has been launched to support their case.

Students faced problems in December Uzbeks Kyrgyzstan: RUSSIA

Hundreds of students of ethnic Uzbeks from southern Kyrgyzstan, studying in Rhea in Russia face problems with the authorities, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty reported on 12 May.

Ethnic Uzbek students - 250 boys and 17 girls - in the southern regions of Kyrgyzstan's Osh and Urgent came last September in Rhea to study at a school of agriculture. They have been experiencing problems with the authorities since the beginning of the academic year.

First, have been accused by the Office of the Mayor of Rhea illegally on Russian soil. They have also been particularly attacked by fire inspectors and tax police.

According Saliva Shapiro, a Russian cosmonaut Kyrgyz origin who helped them during the application process, students Uzbeks are also being bribed by local authorities.

Earlier this month, he asked the students to flee their homes, the official explanation is given as the threat of fire. But only asked the students to leave the building Uzbeks. After a week of sleeping in the university buildings, including classrooms and the gymnasium, students were allowed to return to their rooms.

Despite the problems faced by students Uzbeks, Shapiro said he had benefited from the generosity of local people and academics who offered them food and clothes. Many students, who fled violent clashes between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the southern regions of Kyrgyzstan last June, are orphans and suffer from ill health.

Iran: Missing physics student could be imprisoned

Concern about Omit Kokabee, an Iranian student at the University of Texas at Austin is growing among his colleagues, who fear it may have been imprisoned in Iran, Nature reported on 16 May. The physics student, who had just started his PhD at the University of Texas, traveled to Iran to visit his family during the Christmas holidays, but has not returned.

According to Kale me, an online magazine close to the Iranian opposition leader Mir-Hussein Mosaic, Kokabee was arrested on his return to the United States and accused of conspiracy. During his detention in Even Prison in Tehran, which seems to have been isolated and interrogated about "illegal gains" and "communicating with a hostile government."

Officials in the department of physics at the University of Texas believe has been arrested in connection with the nature of his studies, molecular atomic physics. But John Kato, advising graduates in physics, said Kokabee had no link with nuclear physics and specializes in nonlinear optics.

Kokabee graduated from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran in 2005. Before moving to the University of Texas to begin his doctorate, he worked for various companies in Iran, including the National Iranian Oil Company. In 2007, he worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, ​​Spain.

Magazine Kale me reported that his arrest could be related to his Turkmen and Sunni identity, ethnic and religious minorities in Iran.

Human Chain Group, a human rights organization aimed at preventing executions in Iran has launched a campaign and an online petition to present its case.