As Iranian authorities round up those they claim are threats to the regime, we're hearing some stories about what's happening to those pro-democracy activists.

On Morning Edition, Johns Hopkins University professor Youseph Yazdi told host Steve Inskeep about this week's arrest of his father, former Foreign Minister Ebrahim Yazdi.

"He was picked up along with hundreds of others," Youseph Yazdi said. "Last word we heard was from a neighbor — that they came by, picked him up about 3 a.m. He dropped off his keys with the neighbors, and said 'they're taking me' and that's all we heard."

As NPR's Mike Shuster reported yesterday on All Things Considered, Iran's year of discontent looks to be extending into 2010.

The Los Angeles Times reports this morning that the Iranian regime's latest crackdown on its opponents has "the Obama administration and allied governments ... rethinking their approach to planned sanctions in hopes of focusing the punishments more tightly on the Iranian leadership, U.S. officials say."

Also this morning, the editorial board at The New York Times writes that "we are inspired by the bravery of Iranians who continue to demand their rights, even in the face of their government's relentless and shameful brutality. ... The Iranian people are demanding what all people have a right to demand: basic freedoms, economic security, and the knowledge that their government is committed to protecting, not killing its citizens."

At least eight people are said to have died in protests Sunday. Authorities have held on to the bodies, including that of a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Some Iranian lawmakers want protesters to be hit with "maximum punishment," Al-Jazeera reports.