DUBAI (Reuters) - Confrontation with America, economic hardship and an airline tragedy have battered Iranians' confidence in their leaders, posing a potential problem for the authorities in a parliamentary election this week. As the Feb. 21 vote nears, Iranians are in a gloomy mood, exhausted by a succession of crises that have helped to shred the hopes for a better life they harbored only four years ago. That does not bode well for leaders seeking a big turnout at the ballot box: In their view, crowded polling stations would signal to arch-foe Washington that Iran is unbowed by sanctions and the killing of a prominent general in a U.S. strike. Allies of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran's parliamentary elections are set to take place this Friday, but much of the attention has been on candidates who have been disqualified from standing. More than 7,000 applicants were told they cannot run, including dozens of current members of parliament. Al Jazeera's Assed Baig reports from Tehran.

Four men found guilty of gang raping a woman in India in a 2012 case which captured the nation will be executed on March 3, according to a local source via Twitter. A young student holds a placard during 'Nirbhaya Day' to mark the anniversary of the brutal rape case of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012, on December 16, 2019. Last Update: Monday, 17 February 2020 KSA 15:28 - GMT 12:28

Egyptian security services arrested members of a criminal ring involved in human trafficking and facilitating the illegal harvesting, sale, and transplantation of human organs. A statement from Egypt's Interior Ministry on Tuesday said that three people had formed an organized criminal group involved in crimes related to human trafficking, according to investigations conducted by the Department for Combating Illegal Migration and Human Trafficking. One of the gang members created an account on  Facebook to attract individuals wishing to transfer kidneys illegally to the group. The group was in communication with others wishing to sell one of their kidneys, taking advantage of their desperation

NMC Health Plc, an operator of hospitals in the United Arab Emirates targeted by short seller Muddy Waters, said founder and co-Chairman Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty resigned after he was excluded from board discussions for possibly misrepresenting his holdings in the company. Shetty stepped down with immediate effect, along with Chief Investment Officer Hani Buttikhi and board member Abdulrahman Basaddiq, the company said Monday.

Fearing a low turnout in the parliamentary elections scheduled for Friday, President Hassan Rouhani urged Iranians once more on Sunday to vote. “Anyone who goes to the polls will be complicit in the regime's killing of the revolutionary youth and would be endorsing the regime and its crimes,” said 12 female activists, imprisoned in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, in a joint statement published on Monday.