Iran: Smart filtering does not mean lifting ban on blocked websites

Implementing ‘Smart filtering’ system does not mean that ban on already blocked websites and social networks will be removed, the government of Hassan Rouhani’s Communications and Information technology minister has said.

Mahmoud Vaezi said on Saturday that the ban on “the already blocked web sites such as Facebook and Youtube” will not be lifted.

The regime in Iran which has set up one of the strictest controls on Internet access in the world, and has blocked hundreds of thousands of websites and social networks.

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are routinely bypassed by tech-savvy Iranians using VPN software which disguises the physical location of Internet users. This is despite the fact that the authorities have arrested sellers and users of VPN software.

Deputy Information and Communication Technology Minister Nasrullah Jahangardi said on November 10: "The identity of everyone accessing a network must be known and anonymous users will be blocked.

"Only those having a clear identity will be allowed to use the Internet or access mobile networks. And this will be done when the transition from the IPV4 to IPV6 network is accomplished in Iran."

According to a report by Iran News Update, regime officials may be hoping that limited access to some websites will give citizens less incentive to circumvent outright bans. Alternatively, the regime may see this as an opportunity to more plausibly deny the observations of human rights groups and foreign politicians regarding Iran’s limits on free speech.

A survey by Iranian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports indicates that 69.3 percent of the country's young generation use proxy servers to by-pass the filters and access the banned Internet websites. According to one survey some four million Iranians are using Facebook.

Clerk shot in Scottsdale drug store robbery - Suspect In custody

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Scottsdale police say a man who allegedly shot a Walgreens worker during a Christmas Day robbery is in custody.

Police say 21-year-old Cody Ray Moore was arrested Thursday in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community after he crashed his vehicle.

They say Moore went to the Walgreens store around 4 p.m. and shot the employee while committing robbery.

He then fled in a vehicle with police in pursuit.

Police say Moore failed to negotiate a turn at Thomas Road and the 101 Freeway and struck a utility pole.

He was apprehended and police say Moore is being held on suspicion of armed robbery, aggravated assault and felony flight.

It was unclear Friday if he has a lawyer yet.

Police say Moore is recovering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Syrian boy found dead in south Lebanon home

SIDON, Lebanon: A 12-year-old Syrian boy was found dead in his house in south Lebanon Saturday, a security source told The Daily Star.

The boy, Mohammad Othman Mohammad, was found lying on the ground with a belt hanging from a ceiling and a shopping cart near him in the border village of Marwahin in the Tyre district. The source said it wasn't clear exactly how the boy had died.

Investigators summoned the father of the boy and later detained him over a warrant for his arrest on theft charges.

Security forces are looking into the circumstances behind the incident, the source said, adding that the boy was buried in the town.

- See more at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Dec-27/282387-syrian-boy-found-dead-in-south-lebanon-home.ashx#sthash.BLeyixxD.dpuf

Turkey: 2 killed in clashes between rival Kurdish groups

ANKARA: Turkish authorities say a group of Kurdish youths have clashed with supporters of a Kurdish Islamist party in southeast Turkey. Two people were killed.

The governor's office for Sirnak province says three people were also injured in the fighting that erupted in the town of Cizre, near Turkish-Syrian border, early Saturday.

Relations between the two groups have been tense since October, when Kurds - angered at what they said was Turkish impediment to efforts to defend the Syrian town of Kobani - clashed with police and the Islamist group members across Turkey. More than 30 people were killed in the rioting.

The Dogan news agency says the father of a leader of the Islamist party and a 19-year old Kurdish youth died in Saturday's clash.

- See more at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Dec-27/282385-turkey-2-killed-in-clashes-between-rival-kurdish-groups.ashx#sthash.1C96HCwZ.dpuf

Iranian Resistance welcomes Arms Trade Treaty, calls for halt of arms transfer to mullahs

Transfer of arms to Iraq should be halted until security of Iranian refugees in Camp Liberty and other innocent civilians is guaranteed

NCRI - The Iranian Resistance welcomes the enforcement of the Global Arms Trade Treaty, as a significant step towards global peace and security and calls on the state parties to immediately halt the transfer of arms and weapons parts and components to the mullahs ruling Iran and demands the cessation of the sale or transfer of arms to Iraq until the security of Iranian opposition members in Camp Liberty, as well as other innocent civilians, is guaranteed.

The United Nations Secretary General announced on December 24 the coming into force of The Global Arms Trade Treaty nearly two years, after it was adopted by the UN General Assembly.

The treaty stipulates that the transfer of all arms and ammunition is prohibited in case they would be used for 'genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements'.

The treaty emphasizes that the transferred arms should not endanger 'peace and security' or be in grave breach or facilitate the violation of International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law, and international conventions or protocols relating to terrorism and 'transnational organized crime'.

According to this treaty, the export of arms that would violate the obligations of a treaty State Party under measures adopted by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, in particular arms embargoes, is prohibited. In all of the above cases, the transfer of arms parts and components is also banned.

The arsenal of the clerical regime ruling Iran that is essentially filled by imports from other countries is totally employed in breach of the covenants and laws mentioned in this treaty and the export of any arms’ parts, big or small, heavy or light, to this regime violates the Arms Trade Treaty.

These arms are used for the massacre of the Iranian people, widespread arrests, suppression of popular demonstrations and protests, and collective executions, or are employed for crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, violation of international humanitarian and human rights laws inside Iran or in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. No wonder that neither the Iranian regime, nor the government of Iraq or the Assad regime joined this treaty.

Six ruthless massacres in Ashraf and Liberty, collective and arbitrary imprisonment of Iranian refugees, and a criminal siege on them, as well as the massacre of innocent Iraqi citizens in Iraq are all conducted by the arms sent to Iraq by states that are party to this treaty.

The Iranian Resistance calls on the state parties, especially the Western states, to refrain from transferring any arms to the Iranian regime and to make the sale of arms to Iraq conditional on them not being used in the massacre of the innocent, in particular the residents of Camp Liberty, and to secure and guarantee their security as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and as political refugees.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 26, 2014

UPDATE on my Article : Priest has been found dead in Mexico " Killed "

The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — 

A third priest has been killed in the "hot lands" region of Mexico's southern Guerrero state.

The bishop of the diocese in Ciudad Altamirano said Friday that the Rev. Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head near a highway on Christmas Day.

Lopez Gorostieta disappeared on Monday from the seminary in the city where he taught. His truck was later found abandoned near the seminary.

Many other priests have been robbed or briefly abducted in the region, which is dominated by drug cartels.

Bishop Maximino Martinez said the diocese is calling on authorities to investigate the killers and bring them to justice.

Copyright The Associated Press

- See more at: http://www.fox23.com/ap/ap/top-news/kidnapped-priest-in-mexico-found-dead/njbM8/#sthash.WHktPJX5.dpuf

Iran -Satter Beheshti 35 -year -old blogger tortured to death