Iran: top

Kerman province, south-east Iran will soon be one of Iran's inland top-10 fishproducers.This said Deputy Agricultural Jihad Minister Sha’banali Nezami..
He also said that there are plans for the near future to launch two fish hatcheries.
Despite the desert climate of the region, Kerman Province has the most orchards in the country and ranks first in the production of pistachios and some other fruits and is the nation’s second walnut producer.
In Iran people consume few seafood.
An average 54% of the Iranians don't eat fish.



14 people have been killed in a pursuit of drug traffickers. 1.5 tons of narcotica have been seized.
Four smugglers got killed, the other deaths were security agents and civilians.
The shootout happened Tuesday near the city of Hana, 500km south of Tehran.
Iran is one of the major smuggle routes for the trafficking of drugs from Afghanistan to Europe.



The Pentagon had stopped selling surplus parts for the F-14 fighter jet, saying it was the "right thing to do" given U.S. congressional concerns that some parts could land in the hands of Iran.
Iran is the only country still flying F-14 Tomcat since the U.S. military retired the plane in July.
F-14 got famous by the movie Top Gun with Tom Cruise.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: repentance

In the city of Natanz, Isfahan province is a man, Baqer Sajjadii (36 year-old), hanged.
He was sentenced for murder. This was reported by daily Kashan.

Iranpressnews reports that according to human rights activists in Iran a prisoner Mohammad Daroozi was severely beaten in Gachsaronprison, the night before his execution because
“he refused to consent to an Islamic repentance and he refused to disbelieve in the Islamic as his faith”.
He and two other men were hanged in public.



Reporters without Borders condemned the arrest of the three journalists as another sign of the government being afraid of contacts between journalists and foreign organizations and media.
Also they are concerned about the arrest of Adnan Hassanpour, a journalist in Iranian Kurdistan. On January 25 he was arrested in Sanadaj.
Since then his family has no news of him.
He works for weekly Asou, which publication has been suspended since 2005 on the orders of the Culture and Islamic Orientation Ministry, because it carried articles about the tense situation in Iranian Kurdistan.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: enclose

A 21-year-old woman from Mirabad-Naghdeh, Kurdistan province, Ameneh Salam has been sentenced to death in Bookan, for having an extramarital affair and childmurder.
She spent the last 30 months in jail.
The man she had the affair with is sentenced to 95 lashes.



The three journalists,Tala't Taghinia, Mansoureh Shojaie, and Farnaz Seify, who were arrested at Khomeini Airport in Tehran have been released.They have to appear in Court in two months.
They were on their way to New Delhi to a journalism workshop organized and paid through Radio Nederland Trainings Centrum, a division of Wereldomroep in Hilversum.
Ms. Shirin Ebadi, Ms. Leila Alikarami and Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh have accepted to defend them in court.




Iran has closed several border crossings to Iraq.
This happened because of Sjiïte holy day Ashura, January 30.
The measure is taken to prevent Sjiïte pilgrims to cross the border of Iraq to the holy city of Karbala 'without legal papers'.
There is indication not all border crossings are closed and some pelgrims were allowed to cross elsewhere. .





In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: activists

Tala't Taghinia, Mansoureh Shojaie, en Farnaz Seify, three women's rights activists, journalists, and members of the Women's Cultural Center, are arrested on
Khomeini Airport in Teheran.
They were about to leave for New Delhi to attend a journalism training.
After their arrest securityforces confiscated computers, books and other personal belongings.
They are transferred to Evinprison ward 209.





Iran's top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri has urged authorities to release political prisoners and open the political arena to opponents of the regime.
During a meeting with an organization to defend the right's of political prisoners he asked if it not would be better to avoid extremism and open the political space, now the country faces international pressure.
According to AFP he also said that unfortunately there are still academics, students, intellectuals and ordinary people jailed for false or political reasons and that the wise thing to do is to release them in these sensitive times.
84-year-old Montazeri was tapped as the successor of Khomeini but fell from grace in late 1980s after he became too openly critical of political and cultural restrictions.
He was put under house arrest in 1997 and was freed in January 2003 on health grounds.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: less

Iran wants to ration gasoline for the next Iranian year beginning March 21 .
Interior Minister Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi says that the government insists on rationing the gasoline to keep prices stable and prevent economic problems

Gasoline is sold at $0.09 per liter in Iran.
People see cheap fuel as a right, but economists believe cheap gasoline encourages excessive consumption and a lucrative trade in contraband fuel to Iran's neighbors.
Iran, though an oil-rich country, imports about 40 per cent of the 70 million liters of gasoline it uses each day because of insufficient refining capacity.



Zoroastrians in Yazd cancelled their Sadeh Feast this year as a token of respect for Imam Hussein (AS).
Zoroastrians celebrate January 30 each year to mark creation of fire during the reign of Houshang, a king of the Kianian Dynasty.
The feast dates back to eight to ten thousand years ago.
It pertains to the time when the Aryans had not yet migrated to the Iranian Plateau.

This year it coincides with Ashura (tenth day of the lunar month Muharram when the third Shiite Imam, Imam Hussein (AS) and his 72 loyal companions were killed in the plains of Karbala.
This is for the first time that the religious festival is being cancelled.
Some 35,000 Zoroastrians live in Iran, 6,000 of whom are in Yazd province.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: return

An Iranian woman and her 2 children of 17 and 12 years old are stranded for 8 months now, at Moscow Airport.
Zahra Kamalfar and her children wanted to flee to Canada through Russia and Germany, but because of the fact they were travelling on forged Bulgarian passports, German authorities sent them back to the last place they came from: Moscow Airport.

Also because the woman and the daughter attempted to commit suicide, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees granted them in November 2006 refugee status.
She asked Canada for asylum,because her brother lives there for years.
Up till now Canadian Immigration authorities did not react.

On YouTube you find a film of CNN-news.




Conservative "Osulgarayan"(loyal to principles) members of parliament in Iran drafted to limit access to female students.
Today, 65 percent of university students in Iran are women.
Rad Ali Tahmasebi, one of the lawmakers who drafted the bill, says that once they have studied, many young women refuse to stay home and take care of their husband and children, and therefore many marriages end.
Also he said that the increase in the average marrying age of women on university attendance, too was a "threat for an Islamic society such as Iran's".
During legislature prior to the election in June 2005 of Ahmadinejad, a similar proposal got blocked.






In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: insulted

In Ahwaz, the Iranian authorities have hanged four men in public.
Their names have not been officially released.
They were part of a group Ahwazi who were sentenced to death because of alleged accomplishness to the bombings in Ahwaz, January 2006.

Amnesty International published a statement in which she deplores the executions and calls on the Iranian authorities to halt executions.
According to Amnesty the names of the men are: Khalaf Derhab Khudayrawi, Alireza Asakreh, Mohammad Jaab Pour and Abdulamir Farjallah Jaab.


The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has a serious flu. This says newsagency Fars.He has therefore cut back on his official programme on doctors' advice.
During last few months rumors in press and on the internet about his bad health kept circulating.



Iran authorities banned the studentmagazine Farhang mobarezeh (the culture of fight).
Editor in chief, Ali Gholizadeh of the university of Shahroud, will also have to stand trial on charges of having offended the state's top authorities.

Last week authorities banned Tame Azadi (the taste of freedom) edited by the students of Tehran's Amir Kabir university.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: value and values

Shell and Repsol are about to sign a deal
for $4,3 bln in developing the fields and building a LNG plant and a terminal for a part of the
South Pars Field, situated in Persian Gulf near Iran.
The signing of the accord is planned for January 27.
Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Pakistani companies have expressed interest in buying LNG from the plant.
Iranian law forbids foreign ownership of the state's natural resources. Instead, companies must agree to fund oil projects, then hand them over to Iranian control and recover their investment at a prearranged rate of return from subsequent production, under so-called "buyback'' terms.



People who smoke in state organizations will be fined.
Health Minister Kamran Baqeri Lankarani also said that the Board to deal with Administrative Offenses will confront employees who smoke in their workplaces in state organizations.
In October, the Anti-Tobacco Law, which bans smoking in public places and outlaws tobacco advertising was enforced nationwide.
Ireland, Italy and Scotland had earlier outlawed smoking in public places.





IRIB announced to open a English satellite-tvchannel within 3 months, to respond to the propaganda against the country.
Mohammad Sarafraz (IRIB) said the around-the-clock “Press TV” channel is also intended to express stances and views of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and make the audience familiar with the Islamic Revolution principles.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: weather bound

Daily Jomhouri Islami reported Monday that in the city of Iranshar, Sistan-e-Baluchestan province, a man is publicly hanged.
The man, Touraj Siahkamari was accused of drugstrafficking.



Due to extreme cold weather and snow many areas in Iran have problems.
Many roads in Lorestan province are blocked.
Also the snow caused power cuts in parts of this province.




The inundation of Sivand Dam near the excavations in Bolaghi Gorge, Fars province, is scheduled for Februar 2007.
Almost the whole area will be flooded.
This means the excavations about the Achaemenid dynasty (550 BC–330 BC) will come to an end.






In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: slogans

The moderate earthquake which struck east-Turkey on Sunday, was felt in Mashad, Khorassan province,At the same time, an explosion happened at the high-voltage sub-station of Mashad.
An earthquake from 3.5 on Richter scale, occurred Monday in the city of Qaen, Khorassan province.
No damagereports are known.



The second national fashion show of Islamic and Iranian women's clothes was held in Tehran.
The show was held simultaneous with the inauguration of the permanent secretariat for the `Festival of My Homeland's Women' .

At the opening of the show was among other things said that women are entitled to diversity of clothes and that using lively colors in designing clothes is not contradictory to legitimate Islamic codes.




An Iranian dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, has criticised president Ahmadinejad for his economic policies and nuclear diplomacy.
He said among other things that peoples economic problems cannot be resolved by chanting "slogans."
Ahmadinejad on January 21 said his government has successfully controlled inflation.




In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: precious

An Irish firm announced Wednesday that they discovered gold in the surroundings of Yazd City.
The company is gold mining in Iran since the year 2003.
The value of the gold that the company has discovered in Iran has exceeded US $500 per ounce (28 gr.).





Irankhodro is ready to start exporting Samand cars. to Poland.
The car has yet to meet Poland's emission standard norms before they can enter the Polish market.
The Samand is based on the Peugeot405.

Last year cars produced by Irankhodro got negative publicity because of the many spontaneous fires in cars produced by them.




Construction of an observatory for University of Kashanat at a distance of 50 meters from the Sassanid monument of Niasar has spoiled not only the aerial view of this historic domed building, but also destroyed parts of the cladding of this monument.

This writes the Cultural Heritage Newsagency in an article.
Niasar is one of Iran’s nominees for UNESCO registration.



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: contact

Newsagency Fars said that an UFO is observed, Wednesday in the vicinity of Bouyer Ahmadin, Kohgeluyeh-o-Boyerahmad Province, near Yasuj .
The object was visible for more than an hour. According to witnesses the UFO has been as big as a ball, with a yellow ray and a bright reddish color in the center.
The probability, that it was a drone, an unmanned spyplane is according to this blog more likely, as the place of observance has sights of more interest than a "first contact' between aliens and earthlings.


Reporters without Borders reports that journalist Taghi Rahmani was prevented from leaving Iran to attend a meeting of the International PEN writers' association and receive a prize awarded by the local section of the freedom of expression organization.
He told authorities prevented him from going without giving him a reason.
The journalist is a known activist for freedom of speech which has brought him into frequent conflict with the regime. Between 1981 and 2005, he was sentenced to a total of 5,000 days in prison for articles he had written.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: security

Two studentactivists have to go on trial on Saturday January 20 in Tehran.
Abulfazl Jahandar and Masoud Derakhshandi are charged of 'acting against national security'.
The attorney for the two, Mohammmad-Ali Dadkhah says his clients are temporarily detained.



In a letter to Head of judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, 180 members of parliament urged him to take measurements against the distribution of obscene CDs.
They emphasized the fact that through this cultural invasion "the enemy has targeted the religious culture and the Islamic values" and ask immediate action to prevent irreversible damages on the Islamic community.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: lenient

Tuesday is in central Iran, a man, named Arash hanged.He was convicted for stabbing another student while he was a teenager.
Saturday two men were hanged in Karoonprison in the city of Ahwaz,Khuzestan province, for murder and armed robbery.
Newsagency Fars reported that Wednesday, a man, Houshang 47-year old, was hanged after 27 years, for the murder on relatives of his stepbrother, committed when he was 20 years old.


Recent reports indicate that the Iranian government is intensifying restrictions on activist students and universities, although Iran's education minister has dismissed reports of such pressure and said the authorities have so far been "lenient" on universities and students.
The pressure has taken various forms: students have been summoned to university disciplinary boards for alleged misconduct, suspended from classes for various periods of time, student newspapers have been shut down, and university directors and professors have been dismissed, and students have been denied entry to graduate schools due to their political activism.
Last category is called "starred" students -- named because stars or asterisks have been placed next to their names on official lists.
The Iranian media have documented several instances of restrictive or punitive measures against students over the past weeks.


In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.

Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl

Iran: rights of the child?

Amnesty International has after the deathsentence for Nazanin Fatehi was lifted, highlighted the urgent need for legal reform in Iran to prevent those accused of crimes committed before they are 18 being sentenced to death.
Amnesty urges Iran to take immediate steps to prevent all executions of child offenders, and to take urgent measures to abolish the death penalty for all child offenders in accordance with Iran’s obligations as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.


At least 23 other child offenders reportedly remain on death row in Iran. Their names, and ages (where known) at the times of their alleged crimes are as follows:

1- Beniamin Rasouli, 17
2- Hossein Toranj, 17
3- Hossein Haghi, 17
4- Morteza Feizi, 16
5- Sa’eed Jazee, 17
6- Ali Mahin Torabi, 16
7- Milad Bakhtiari, 16
8- Farshad Sa’eedi, 17
9- Mostafa, 16
10- Mahmoud, 17
11- Saber
12- Hamid, 17
13- Sajjad, 17
14- Farzad, 15
15- Hossein Gharabaghloo, 16
16- Asghar, 16
17- Iman, 17
18- Ne’mat, 15
19- Mohammad Mousavi,
20- Delara Darabi, 17
21- Hamzeh S, 17
22- Shahram Pourmansouri, 17
23- Hedayat Niroumand, 15



In Iran there are childoffenders, still on death row.
Children are being hanged to death.
A child will be hanged to death.
Poster amnesty.nl