Iran: shortage

Sunday is in the city of Bablosar, Mazandaran province a man hanged in public.
According to the daily Etemad Melli the man Taghi was convicted for killing his mother-in-law.



A group of British and American Shiite Muslims on pilgrimage to Mecca confirmed the criticism of Iranian pilgrims over the humiliating and disrespectful behavior of Saudi police officers.
Alalam.ir reported that they were illegally detained and brutally beaten by Saudi religious police.
Iranians often complain that Saudi Arabian airport police officers checked them in a disrespectful manner at Medina Airport and confiscated their Islamic books, including the Quran and books on supplications.
Some of the British and American Shiite pilgrims also denounced the behavior of Saudi guards at Jannat Al-Baqi Cemetery where several pilgrims were reportedly arrested.
Many clerics in Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the leader of Sunni Islam, view Shiism as heresy.
The British pilgrims told at a pressconference that they were arrested because they were Shiite and Westerners.




Tehran Water and Sewerage Company has warned residents in this town against the ever-increasing water consumption, stressing that a water crisis is looming.
The per capita water consumption stands at 390 cubic meters annually,
In coming years due to ever-increasing consumption, low precipitation and dwindling underground reserves, Tehran will face serious water shortages.

About 90 out of 1,600 cities nationwide will also face water shortage and Bandar Abbas, Mashhad and Chabahar will be the hardest hit.


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: fishy

Iran called for reduction of fishing of caviar fishes in the Caspian Sea to protect them.
The quotum for the five Caspian Sea states to catch these fish had been determined as 1,071 tons for the year of 2007.
From this quota Iran has 450 tons, Russia 286, Kazakhstan 182, Azerbaijan Republic 90 tones and the rest belongs to Turkmenistan



Judicial authorities in the Iranian city of Qom have placed the country's former president Mohammad Khatami under investigation for allegedly shaking hands with women - a taboo gesture for Islamists - during a visit to Italy in May.
The Tribunal of the Clergy in Qom, took the decision after several talabeh, or religious students pressed charges related to the incident against Khatami.

Videofootage shows Khatami, a cleric himself, shaking hands with various women.
If the Qom tribunal decides to order Khatami to stand trial, and if he is found guilty, he could be stripped of his status as a cleric.

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: reasons unknown

Students and activists who were arrested July 9, are released Thursday.
Three students are still in jail.
Eight members of the group Daftar Tahkim Vahdat, Office to Consolidate Unity are released on bail.
Amir Yaghoub-ali, an activist, arrested July 11 while collecting signatures for the Onemillionsignature Campaign, is released on bail, also.



Iran's Minister of Industries and Mines, Ali-Reza Tahmasbi, has submitted his resignation.
Fars reported that there has been no report yet if the resignation met an affirmative respond by President Ahmadinejad.
The reason for his resignation is still unclear.


Iranian state-owned airline company, Iran Air, has denied that an explosion ocurred in one of its planes bound for Dubai.
There was a technical problem and there was a loud sound before it took off, but there was no explosion or fire, was told by the airlines spokesman in Shiraz.
The stranded passengers took another flight to Dubai on Wednesday evening


A major gas field is discovered near Qir-Karzin in the Fars province with an estimated reserve of 11.4 trillion cubic feet.
According to the Minister of Oil, Seyyed Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh, will the field, once drilled, be able to produce 30 million cubic feet of gas per day.







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: moral corrupt

Last week were 17 teenagers aged between 13 and 17 years of age arrested at a birthday party in Tehran.
UNICEF immediately expressed concern about the arrests of nine males and eight females - all minors - who have been accused of "promiscuity", "alcohol use", and "dressing indecently".
The youths could be sentenced to three years' jail.
In Kerman local police announced the imminent execution of 12 "hoodlums" arrested with another 186 people during the last four months.
None of the 12 sentenced have been accused of serious crimes.
A police spokesman said that the "hoodlums" have committed crimes from alcohol consumption to the molestation of women.


A young Iranian who was searching for his lost dog in a Tehran neighborhood has been arrested and ordered to stand trial for 'moral corruption'.
According to the daily Etemad Melli, the young man was caught while putting up a notice in which he was promising a reward to anyone who found his dog.
A Tehran police spokesman, Mehdi Ahmadi said that looking for a lost dog indicates the spread of a corrupt culture, which indirectly popularises keeping a dog at home, something that is completely foreign to the culture and Isamic tradition.
In arresting this young man, we wanted to send a very clear message to our young people, you need to steer away from the corrupt culture imported from the west.


Five members of the Tehran bus drivers' union were detained today outside the home of the union's jailed leader, Mansour Osanloo.Osanloo's wife said that security forces are surrounding their home in Tehran.
Members of the union were planning to hold a protest outside the house to call for the release of Osanloo and another jailed union activist, Mahmud Salehi.
The planned gathering was part of a worldwide day of action to free the two men, called by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.


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: plan

In the town of Gonbad-e Kavous,Golestan province, a man was hanged in public.
According to the website of state broadcasting IRIB the man, Nasser-Morad Qolipour , convicted of killing an agent of Iran’s State Security Force (SSF).

Trade-Unions are planning an actionday to support two arrested labouractivists.
The director of the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, told that the group is calling on its affiliates worldwide to protest on August 9 against the detention of Mahmud Salehi and Mansour Osanloo.
The group is "extremely worried" about the health of both detainees.
Amnesty International issued a statement today in which she asks for the immediate release of Salehi and Osanloo.
Here is a list with times and places of the demonstrations.
For The Netherlands its August 9, at 2:00 PM in front of the Iranian Embassy, Duinweg 20 Den Haag.


According to the state broadcasting website, Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said that Iranian intelligence agents have prevented a terrorist act of a group in Khuzestan (Ahwaz).
He added that the men were arrested before carrying out any action.
Further details on the individuals involved in the planned attack were not given.



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: promote

For the second time is reformist newspaper Shargh shutdown.
Shargh was ordered to shut after running an interview with an anti-regime poet last Saturday. The poet, Saghi Qahraman, has been accused by the country's Islamic rulers of promoting homosexuality.
The newspaper unsuccessfully attempted to placate official anger by publishing a front-page apology today after withdrawing the article from its website.


The L.G.B.T. (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community has started an online petition asking for legitimate equal rights.
After two months the petition will be given to the United Nations.

You can sign HERE .


Chief Commander of Basij Brigadier Mohammad Hejazi said Basij forces will control the hooligans released from jail.
the police asked Basij to help them supervise hooligans who were released after their arrest.
According to Fars he said that accuracy, rapidity and diligence were the three successful keys in the social security plan. Basij forces also helped police identify hooligans and their hideouts.
They also have made proposals to the police forces to better control the hooligans.
More than 600 offenders have been confronted by the judicial police since the start of the plan. Also, 2,000 stores were closed down for violating regulations.


In one week 3 journalists have been arrested in Iran.
The journalist Soheil Asefi was arrested when he presented himself to a Tehran court on 4 August in response to a summons.
Neither his family nor his lawyers know where he is being held or what he is charged with.
Masoud Bastani en Farshad Gorbanpour, two journalists working the news website Roozonline and pro-reform newspapers,were arrested July 31.
Bastani was released after a few hours whil Gorbanpour is transferred to security section 209 in Tehran’s Evin prison.
Neither was officially charged.


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: effects

In Zahedan prison, province Sistan-e-Baluchestan, three men were hanged.
According to the website of state broadcasting Abdolaziz Esmail Zehi, Abdoljamal Shahbakhsh and Ali Akbar Shahbakhsh were hanged for drug trafficking and armed assault.




The hard-line daily Jomhouri Islami wrote Saturday that the Iranian authorities have launched a new crackdown on motorcyclists.
The plan is to act against various motorcyclists in Tehran’s main routes.

Two weeks after causing a stir by berating the head of Tehran police on live television over the latest dress crackdown,Farzad Hassani, the host of state television's nightly "Koole Poshti" has stepped down for "ill-health".
In the show he criticised the police attitude during the crackdown on dresses.He said that the tone and attitude of police sound as though they are looking for revenge.
The Fars news agency, quoting an informed source, said that the decision to replace Hassani had been taken by channel three network's directors. It added that he had been reprimanded by the broadcasting watchdog for his outburst.




Iran rejected the protests by the European Union over the increased number of executions in the country and the death sentence against two Iranian-Kurdish journalists Adnan Hassanpur and Hiwa Butimar.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said such protests amount to interference in Iran's "internal affairs."
The EU has called on Iran to revise the death sentence against the two journalists and provide them with a fair trial.



The first Ultra Natural Marmalade factory of Iran was utilized with the capacity of 10 Tons per day.
Said Anbari, executive of the Marmalade factory said that this factory that has been constructed by the private sector has the ability of production of Apple, Peach, Orange, Strawberry, Sour Cherry and Apricot Marmalade in packages of 15 to 25 Kilograms.
Using the natural marmalade as a replacement for Cacao in conversional industries like confectionary and chocolate reduces harmful effects of unnatural Cacao as well as decreasing the costs.
High price of Natural Cacao Butter in Iran has caused unstructured official and non-official imports of this product from countries like Indonesia.

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: August 5 - 14mordad

Global Voices Online reports that today, August 5, is the day Iranian bloggers express their support for the jailed students.
More then 350 bloggers rename their blogtitle today in August 5 - 14mordad.
Kamangir writes that Akbar Ganji, the journalist and activist published an open letter(farsi) to Iranians asking for their help to release the imprisoned Iranian students.
He reminds everyone of the years he spent in jail and the crimes the Islamic Republic has committed under the name of holiness.
He writes that “women rights’ groups and labor syndicates receive support from abroad because there are related organizations everywhere. Students, on the other hand, do not have a counterpart in the West and are more vulnerable.
Hamidcity(farsi) published photo's of imprisoned students and aktivists.


The Iranian police arrested more than 200 people in Karaj last Wednesday in a raid on a underground rock concert.
The daily Tehran-e Emrouz says that according to prosecutor Ali Farhadi, invitations had been sent out via the Internet and that people from Britain and Sweden were among those held.
150 bottles of alcoholic drinks, 800 "obscene" CDs and different kinds of drugs had been confiscated by police, as well as "inappropriate" dresses that those behind the event were giving to female guests as gifts.
He also said that 20 video cameras had been seized and that the organizers had planned to blackmail girls after filming "inappropriate and obscene" videos of them.

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: growth

Iran has arrested one of the most international wanted international drug traffickers Jomeh Khan.
The trafficker smuggled 50 tons of narcotics from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Iran each year and transited a part of these cargoes to Europe.
last (Iranian) year he kidnapped and killed several Iranian policeofficers then he escaped from his headquarters in Iran's southeastern region of Saravan and went to Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally to Dubai where he formed a new center for his activities.
He returned to Tehran under an alias name and by using forged IDs and finally was arrested.




The EU has published a pressrelease (.pdf) in which she sses her concerns about the death sentences on the two Kurdish
journalists, Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolwahed Boutimar.
The EU is also concerned about the series of collective public executions that have been
taking place in several regions of Iran during the last month, as well as with the growing
number of death sentences both at first level courts and at the Supreme Court.
The EU urges the Islamic Republic of Iran to fully respect its Criminal Procedure Code
and to grant the right to a fair trial to all individuals, namely by allowing them to have
access to a lawyer from the beginning of the judicial process.



European governments are warning Congress of the impact proposed US sanctions on Iran could have on other interests.
The Financial Times has an article that among the companies already targeted by a US campaign to disinvest in energy companies that trade with Iran are Royal Dutch Shell, Total of France and Repsol of Spain.
According to the report, the companies are looking for oil in US territorial waters in the Gulf of Mexico, but are also involved in a project worth up to $10 bln to produce Iran's first liquefied natural gas.
The companies are expected to make a final decision about their investment in 2008.



Iran's Minister of Agriculture Mohammad-Reza Eskandari says investment in agriculture has seen a 10.1 % growth in 2006.
Iran will be self-sufficient in providing the country's agricultural needs in the near future.
According to Eskandari, 94 percent of the fruits and vegetables, which are consumed in Iran, are currently produced domestically.


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: uncertainty

The wife of Robert Levinson, the American who vanished on Kish Island last March, is planning to visit Iran herself to search for him.
The Iranian government has denied any knowledge of the missing man. The details of Robert Levinson's trip to Kish remain vague. Levinson met with Dawud Salahuddin, an American fugitive living in Iran who is wanted for the assassination of a former Iranian diplomat in Maryland in 1980.
Salahuddin says he was arrested by the police after visiting Levinson and that Levinson had disappeared when he(Salahuddin) was released.



Human rights activist Shiva Nazar Ahari.told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a telephone conversation that as for executing people, the situation could become even worse.
Several thousand people have been arrested over the past three months, all charged with the vaguely defined crime of 'hooliganism', or described as 'socially dangerous elements'.
All these people risk the gallows after a summary trial in which they won't be allowed to use a lawyer to defend them.
The term 'hooliganism' has been used to describe offences ranging from drinking alcohol, to extortion, sexual harassment and abuse. People accused of engaging in homosexual acts have also been charged with 'hooliganism'.
The relatives of these young people, sentenced to death for such unclearly specified crimes, are only informed once their son, daughter or relative has been hanged.
She also told that many of the young people arrested in over the last three months are being held in the Kharizak detention centre situated on the outskirts of the capital.


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

2nd try photo

nothing to see.
The photo is by ISNA, so I cut off the name.




Again nothing to see.
Why?
Of course one can see this photo here

Iran:pressure

Thursday two men were publicly hanged in front of the main offices of the judiciary in central Tehran.
Majid Kavoosifar, 28, and his cousin Hossein Kavoosifar, 24, were convicted of killing a prominent judge, a police officer and a bystander in a string of robberies and attacks.
Two men were hanged Wednesday in a prison in Zahedan, convicted of armed smuggling of narcotics.




State television aired footage of the hanging of the seven men yesterday.. The men, all handcuffed, were hanged under a banner which read, "Implementation of justice equals improvement of security”.


According to PressTV a group of top editors from the National Geographic who were on their way to Tehran have been forced to return home by the US officials.
The group was coming to Iran in order to visit the ancient sites of the country, meet Iranian professors and cultural officials, and plan to send a group of professional photographers and writers to Iran at a later date.
A member of Manhattan's Anthropology Museum in America has expressed sorrow that National Geographic officials could finally get Iran's permission for a trip to the country and the trip stopped.



Davoud Danesh-Ja'fari the Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance , says negotiation with Deutche Bank is underway to persuade them not to limit interaction with Iranian customers.
He thinks the Germans are not happy with the course of events and that they have been pressured by the US into doing so.
He also said that this bank is not the only institute for financial activities.



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





As a strange effect I note that I included a photo of the gallow+banner, but the photo doesn't show.

Iran: woven

In the city of Mashad, Khorassan province , are seven men publicly hanged on Wednesday.
They were convicted of rape, kidnapping and robbery and hanged in two groups in the provincial capital Mashad.


The Iranian judiciary has confirmed that two Iranian Kurdish journalists have been sentenced to death for being "enemies of God."
Adnan Hassanpur and Hiwa Butimar are July 16 sentenced to death. The whereabouts of the men are still unknown.
Reporters without Borders has called for international pressure against Iran to reverse the ruling.
Hassanpur has writen articles on local politics, while Butimar was a member of an environmental group.
Reports say the two men had contacts with Iranian armed opposition groups.



Emad Baghi the head of the Society to Defend the Rights of Prisoners, has been sentenced to a three-year suspended jail term on security charges, including acting against Iran's national security.
Baghi's wife and daughter have also been sentenced to prison in connection with their participation in a conference abroad.




The largest hand-woven carpet of the world was displayed at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla prayer grounds in Tehran on Tuesday.
The carpet measures 5,627 square meters, has been woven by 1200 Iranians in one year and is worth $8.5 millions and used some 30 tons of wool and 15 tons of cotton.
The carpet was ordered for the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan mosque in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.




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