Iran: Female political prisoner transferred to harsh condition prison

NCRI - The authorities in Tehran’s Evin prison have transferred a female political prisoner to a prison known for its life-threatening conditions after she protested the appalling conditions at Evin’s women’s section.

Mrs. Hakimeh Shekari has been among the Mothers of Laleh Park (Mourning Mothers), a group of Iranian women whose spouses or children were killed by government agents and held protests in Laleh Park in Tehran demanding accountability for the death, arrests and disappearances of their children.

On numerous occasions Mourning Mothers were arrested by security agents at Laleh Park. They were chased down by the police, piled into the back of police vans and carted off to prison.

Mrs. Shekari was first arrested on December 7, 2010 while attending a memorial ceremony for an anti-regime protester killed in 2009 and she was imprisoned in section 209 of Evin prison for two months after being released on bail.

She was sentenced to three years in prison by a Revolutionary Court on April 11, 2012 on the charges of “propaganda against the system” and “acting against national security”.

Located in the outskirts of Tehran, Qarchak prison has been described as hell on earth, where inmates have expressed they would rather be executed than live in those conditions.

Pakistan Police: Taliban attack school, all gunmen killed

 16 December 2014

A bloody Taliban raid on an army-run school in northwest Pakistan has ended, police said Tuesday, with all six attackers dead.

The assault on the school in the city of Peshawar killed at least 130 people, most of them students, according to officials.

Earlier, the health minister for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the restive northwestern province where the attack took place, said two other teachers were among the dead, according to AFP.

Sharif Khan, a doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital in the city of Peshawar, where the attack is still under way, said they had received the bodies. A senior police official confirmed the toll.

A Reuters journalist at the scene could hear heavy gunfire from inside the school as soldiers surrounded it. Ambulances were transporting wounded children to hospital.

"We were standing outside the school and firing suddenly started and there was chaos everywhere and the screams of children and teachers," said Jamshed Khan, a school bus driver.

Military officials said at least six armed men had entered the military-run Army Public School. About 500 students and teachers were believed to be inside. 

"Our suicide bombers have entered the school, they have instructions not to harm the children, but to target the army personnel," Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani told Reuters.

Revenge

Explaining the reason behind the attack, the Taliban said it was a revenge for the Pakistani military targeting their own families, a spokesman said.

“We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females,” said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani.

“We want them to feel the pain.”

Following the tragic event, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called the school massacre a “national tragedy” and said he was heading to Peshawar. 

RWB: Sixty-Six Journalists Killed this year

The Paris-based press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) says a total of 66 journalists have been killed while performing their duties across the world this year.

According to the report released Tuesday, Syria, where 15 journalists have been murdered, remains the most dangerous country to work in for the second year in a row.

Seven reporters died when covering events during the Middle East conflict, while six others were killed in Ukraine and four each in Iraq and Libya.

In its annual report the group says 66 reporters have been killed in connection to their work over the past year, down 7 percent on 2013.

In India in May this year, a journalist, Tarun Kumar Acharya, was killed and in Pakistan two journalists -- Irashad Mastoi and Abdul Rasool -- met a similar fate in August, the report added.

Meanwhile, the number of those kidnapped during journalistic activities has been on the rise. A total of 119 reporters were abducted this year around the world, with most cases reported in Ukraine (33), followed by Libya (29), Syria (27) and Iraq (20).

This figure is 37 percent higher than last year, when a total of 87 journalists were abducted.

The report says 178 journalists have been sentenced in 2014 due to their professional activities. A total of 29 reporters are serving jail terms in China, 28 in Eritrea, 19 in Iran, 16 in Egypt and 13 in Syria.

Struan Stevenson condemns abuses in Iran and Iraq

The president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA) condemned Iran's meddling in Iraq and widespread abuses of human rights in both countries.

Struan Stevenson criticised the US for appeasing the Iranian regime over its human rights violations. And he praised Iranian Resistance leader Maryam Rajavi for her 'democratic and tolerant version of Islam' that can play a vital role in isolating the Iranian regime.

He told a conference to mark International Human Rights Day in Brussels: "Not every day is Human Rights Day in Iran and Iraq. For too long, the international community has remained silent towards human rights violations in Iraq and Iran.

"Maliki utilised the claim of fighting a war against terror to secure his grip on power and the West fell for it.

"When Maliki came to power, step by step his government distanced itself from Washington and got closer to Tehran. A clear indication of this was Maliki’s approach towards the main Iranian Opposition, members of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

"3500 PMOI members had lived in Iraq for almost 25 years. But from the first day after the fall of Saddam, Tehran had conspired to massacre their arch foe and to annihilate Ashraf and in Nouri al-Maliki they found a willing tool."

"The predictable outcome materialised in the form of six brutal massacres during the years 2009 to 2013. We warned the US, UN and EU again and again that these massacres would take place. But our cries fell on deaf ears."

He added: "The PMOI and Maryam Rajavi's democratic and tolerant version of Islam, can play a vital role in isolating the Iranian regime and its twisted Islamic Ideology inside Iran."

And he said of Iraq: "It has a dreadful human rights record and now is in third place after only China and neighbouring Iran in the number of people it executes. In spite of vast oil revenues, per capita income is only $1,000 per year, making it one of the world’s poorest countries.

"The situation for women in Iraq is dire. Women are subject to rape, attack and violence. Iraq has 5 million widows and 5 million orphans, but only 120,000 receive state aid.

"The world now looks to Haider al-Abadi to take control and restore order inside Iraq. He must purge the army of Iranian mercenaries and all those that Maliki recruited under his sectarian policy, restoring patriotic officers and turning it into a professional and national army.

"The new Prime Minister should also disclose to the Iraqi people the names of those who carried out the executions, massacres, bombardment and rocket attacks against innocent people and those responsible for poverty and state corruption; all should be held accountable in the courts. He must re-establish the independence of the Judiciary, dismissing those who have turned Iraq’s justice system into a political tool wielded by Maliki. He must also arrest and hold to account the perpetrators of the six massacres at Camps Ashraf and Liberty."

Mexican Jihad's join war?

Jihadism experts said the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that a man of Mexican nationality joined the ranks of the Islamic State, his nom de guerre Abu Hudaifa to be Meksiki (Mexican, Arabic).Few details have leaked the identity of Abu Hudaifa to Meksiki, whom even his true identity is unknown.

"All we can say is that is the only Mexican enrolled in the Islamic state or at least the only one whose trail we could follow," says El Mundo, daily Veryan Khan, editorial director of TRAC (Consortium of analysis and research on terrorism , for its acronym in English).

The Mexican jihadist is not the only foreigner among the ranks of the Islamic state, which according to reports this organization has more than 15,000 foreign fighters who have traveled have joined the jihad (holy war). It is estimated that at least 184 people from Spain or Latin America in the jihadist organization

Free Dr. Stacey Addison! - American imprisoned in East Timor

Free Dr. Stacey Addison!

Angelina Brouillette

Mariposa, CA

Dr. Stacey Addison, a Portland, Oregon veterinarian is unjustly imprisoned in the South East Asian country of East Timor. While living her dream of an around the world trip Dr. Addison had the extremely bad luck to share a hired vehicle with a stranger who committed a crime. She has been imprisoned, denied due process and can be held with no charge against her for one year. What should have been a trip of a lifetime has turned into a nightmare. I've known Stacey for 15 years and I'm helping her mother bring her home with this petition. Our government and the government of East Timor must take action immediately to release Dr. Stacey Addison from her illegal imprisonment.  

On September 5th Stacey entered East Timor and shared a hired taxi from the border to the capital city of Dili with a stranger. This practice is very commonplace and usually safe. It’s like Lyft or Uber, but other people can share the car if it’s on the same route. Unknown to Stacey, the other passenger in the car was a criminal. En route he asked the driver to stop so he could pick up a package. The police were waiting, tipped off that the package contained illegal drugs. The car was surrounded by the police and everyone arrested.

After her belongings were searched, her drug test came up negative, and statements by everyone declaring they didn’t know her beyond sharing the cab were acquired, Stacey was still held for 5 days before being brought before a judge. She was given a conditional release, but told that her passport could be held for up to one year pending an investigation. Stacey found herself trapped and unable to travel back home to Portland, Oregon.

For nearly 2 months, waiting in agony and willing to cooperate, Stacey and her lawyer heard nothing from the authorities. Suddenly, on October 28th she was rearrested without a charge and taken to a women's prison.  She was told that the prosecutor had filed an appeal to have her conditional release rescinded without notifying Stacey or her lawyer. This is a violation of her Human Rights and illegal under Timorese and International law.

Stacey is not a criminal. She is a dedicated and caring veterinarian, often volunteering for causes close to her heart. Even on this trip, before these horrifying turn of events, Stacey volunteered as a vet in Peru and Ecuador. This is who Stacey is and the last place she deserves to be is in prison.

We are sharing her story in hopes you will join our friends and family in calling for her to be released and for her passport to be returned. We already have the support of both US Senators from Oregon and the media is starting to pay attention. Your support could create the momentum needed to ensure Stacey gets home. Please take a moment to sign and share our petition calling on the East Timor government to free Stacey now and return her passport.

You can also go to the Facebook page Help Stacey for more info and "like" it to show your support: https://www.facebook.com/PleaseHelpStacey 

Iran: Hundreds of nurses protest low wages and difficult work conditions

NCRI – Hundreds of Iranian nurses held a gathering on Sunday outside Hassan Rouhani’s office in Tehran to protest low salaries and difficult working conditions.

The group of 700 nurses also renewed their long demand for the implementation of the ‘Nursing Tariff Act’ that had been ratified in 2007 which limits the amount of overtime nurses can work, among other benefits.

Nurses, who came from various cities across Iran to Tehran, said large groups of nurses in their cities were distracted from attending the protest after a state institution contacted their hospitals.

The hospitals in Iran are experiencing a shortage of nurses, who leave the country on a daily basis due to low salaries.

According to international standards, there should be a minimum of two nurses per hospital bed each day, while in Iran this number is half this, according to some officials.

The shortage of nurses has forced nurses to work many hours in overtime.

The protesting nurses chanted “ignoring nurses in the country results in more and more nurse migration”.

They carried signs that read: “Five percent of the health care is taking the 95 percent of the income” and “This is injustice”.

It is estimated that some 40 nurses leave Iran every day to work in other countries making the situation in the hospitals critical.

The flow of Iranian immigrant nurses to Canada has increased. Canada is the first immigration destination for Iranian nurses with close to 50 percent, while the UAE attracts some 30 percent of immigrants.

Australia, the USA and the UK are among other major destinations for Iranian nurses.