Iran: Messaging services LINE, WhatsApp and Tango blocked

NCRI – The Iranian regime’s judiciary has ordered three personal communication apps to be blocked.

The services are popular among Iranians because they allow inexpensive or free communication with people in Iran and abroad.

Also, the messaging services circumvent the state-controlled Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI).

Social websites including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have already been blocked by censors, though many young and web-savvy Iranians use proxy servers or other workarounds to bypass the controls.

The government of Hassan Rouhani is implementing what it calls a ‘Smart filtering’ system.

Mahmoud Vaezi, the Communications and Information Technology Minister said on December 28 that implementing the ‘Smart filtering’ system does not mean that ban on already blocked websites and social networks will be removed.

He said that the ban on “the already blocked web sites such as Facebook and YouTube” will not be lifted.

The regime in Iran 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.

Maryam Rajavi welcomes French president’s call for Paris mass rally

The National Council of Resistance of Iran strongly welcomes and supports President Francois Hollande’s call for attending the Paris mass rally on Sunday.

As Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, has stated the Iranian people and their Resistance have been on the side of the people of France from a long time ago in the fight against terrorism and fundamentalism and defending the separation of religion and state.

Since three decades ago, the Iranian Resistance has declared that the epicenter of fundamentalism, export of terrorism, and retrogression is the religious caliphate ruling in Tehran, which is the spiritual godfather of the ISIS and is the world’s leader in execution, terrorism, and barbarism in the contemporary times.

Mrs. Rajavi described the remarks of President Hollande who reiterated that the terrorist crimes have no relevance to Islam as encouraging for all Muslims and nations of the region such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen that are the main victims and the primary enemies of Islamic fundamentalism.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 9, 2015

Tennessee mother and 2 yr old feared kidnapped in Matamoros, Mexico

by lucio using material from el manana and face book

A search is underway for two American citizens believed to have been kidnapped while in the border city of Matamoros, México.   

Matamoros is the location of  the last verifiable sighting.

Tennessee residents, twenty-four year-old Kelly Jean Shumake and her two year-old daughter went missing, on December 30th. Family members have filed a report with  police, of  the  disappearance,  prompting a multi-agency investigation. 

The family traveled to Brownsville, then to Matamoros, to distribute posters and file missing person’s reports there.

J.J. Treviño,  Brownsville police spokesman, confirmed that a complaint was received and filed regarding  the search for an American woman and her child, and he confirmed a complaint was also filed  in the city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

"We cannot do much in these cases, it isn’t  under our jurisdiction, so this limits us in investigation, we reply on what is provided to us." said Trevino.

The U.S. Consulate in Matamoros recently released a warning to American citizens traveling to or through the state of Tamaulipas, given recent reports of express kidnappings happening near commercial areas in broad daylight.

U.S. Priest Who Scuffled with Colleague to Enter Treatment

NEW YORK – A Catholic priest in New Jersey accused of attacking another cleric with a metal crucifix entered a one-year program of probation and counseling, the U.S. press reported.

Successful completion of the pre-trial intervention program will enable the Rev. Frank Hreno, 51, to have the charges against him dropped.

The incident occurred last April during an argument between Hreno and 37-year-old Rev. Emeka Okwuosa at the Vocationist Fathers Retreat and Conference Center in Florham Park, New Jersey.

The two priests were quarreling about an automobile that Hreno had leased.

Okwuosa said Hreno struck him on the arm with a metal staff 1.2 meters (almost 4 feet) long bearing a crucifix, leaving a cut that required 29 stitches.

Because it was Hreno’s first offense, the judge was amenable to his entering the pre-trial intervention, defense attorney Peter Gilbreth told the Daily Record newspaper.

Paris Shooting Attack: Kourachi Brothers Are Dead

Shortly after 5 p.m. in France, two simultaneous hostage standoffs came to dramatic conclusions amid gunshots and explosions. 
The mayor of the town of Dammartin-en-Goële announced that Said and Cherif Kourachi – the brothers suspected of being behind Wednesday's attack in Paris on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 – were themselves dead. 

Early Friday, the two had been trapped in a Dammartin-en-Goële printing plant within a vast warehouse complex. The town is near Charles de Gaulle Airport, 25 miles north of Paris. 

The mayor also said that a hostage, believed to be female, whom the brothers had taken before the standoff, is unhurt and has been freed. 

Also on Friday, a gunman opened fire at a kosher supermarket in eastern Parisand took at least five people hostage. Police officials say at least four people, including the shooter, are dead. 

Police said the gunman, who has been identified as 32-year-old Amedy Coulibaly, had links to the Kourachi brothers. They also blamed the hostage-taker for Thursday's murder of a French policewoman who was gunned down during an unrelated traffic stop on a Paris street. One of the two suspects in that shooting, a female identified as 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddienne, is still at large. 

Paris - police searching neighborhood for suspects (video )

Bomber takes out 35 at Yemeni police academy

SANAA: A suicide bomber driving a minibus killed at least 35 people on Wednesday as cadets gathered to enroll at a police academy in the heart of Yemen’s capital Sanaa, authorities said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Yemen’s local Al-Qaeda branch, targeted in frequent US drone strikes in the country, has carried out similar attacks in the past.
At the scene of the blast, the dead and wounded lay on a sidewalk against a wall. Water sprayed by firefighters to extinguish the blaze mixed with their pooled blood. A charred taxi cab smoldered near what remained of the minibus, meters from a gate for the police academy, located in a residential area.

The bomber struck as lines of cadets waited outside the academy, preparing to enroll, witnesses said.
“We were all gathering and ... (the bomber) exploded right next to all of the police college classmates,” eyewitness Jamil Al-Khaleedi told The Associated Press. “It went off among all of them, and they flew through the air.”
The head of police in Sanaa, Abdul-Razak Al-Moayed, said the bomber killed at least 35 people. Another security official said at least three civilians died in the blast. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, as he wasn’t authorized to brief journalists.
Tribal leaders and Yemeni officials say the rising power of the Houthis, their advance into Sunni areas and the backlash over drone strikes has caused Al-Qaeda to surge in strength and find new recruits.