Student rebels in Iran expelled and earmarked for army

Iranian students involved in an angry protest against the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been expelled and earmarked for compulsory military service in an apparent act of official retribution. Authorities at Tehran’s Amir Kabir University, a traditional hotbed of student protest, have ended the studies of 54 students, ostensibly for repeatedly failing their exams. However, most of the students singled out are political activists who took part in December’s demonstration at the university at which President Ahmadinejad was greeted with chants of “death to the dictator”. Many students with equally poor academic records have been allowed to continue, activists said.