Turkey - Factory fire kills 3 people injured 6

Three workers were killed and six more suffered from smoke exposure after a fire broke out at a factory dorm in Turkey's southern province of Mersin early on Thursday morning. 

According to the Cihan news agency, the fire started for an unknown reason at around 2 a.m. inside a dormitory belonging to a vegetable and fruit-packing factory in Mersin's Erdemli district. The fire grew and 25-year-old Murat Bulut, 27-year-old Mücahit Ünal and 18-year-old Umut Gönül lost their lives. Six other workers inhaled smoke and were taken to a nearby hospital by an ambulance. The six were later released after receiving treatment at the hospital.

Fire fighters who were dispatched to the scene by the Mersin Metropolitan Municipality experienced difficultly in extinguishing the fire. An investigation has been launched into the incident in order to identify the cause of the fire.

Behnam Ebrahimzadeh Transferred to Solitary Confinement

 Posted on: 4th February, 2015

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HRANA News Agency – Behnam Ebrahimzadeh has been transferred to solitary confinement in ward 209 of Evin prison, from 14 days ago and has had no contact with his family.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on Thursday 22nd January, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh was transferred from ward 2 of Rajai Shahr prison, in Karaj, to solitary confinement in ward 209 of Evin Prison.

By the time of this report, he has not been able to call or visit his family and there is no precise information about the reason of this transfer.

One of his relatives told HRANA’s reporter, “Behnam’s child was admitted again in Mahak hospital because of blood cancer that he suffers from. His wife called Khodabakhshi (Tehran deputy prosecutor and prosecutor for political prisoners) regarding this transfer and he said that he has no idea.”

Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, whose 5 years imprisonment sentence is near to finish, has been sentenced to more 9 years and 4 months imprisonment in relation to the events of  “Black Thursday” in ward 350 of Evin prison.

Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Labor activist and Children’s rights activist, was arrested on 12th June 2010 by the security forces and by Revolutionary Court was sentenced first to 20 years imprisonment but his sentence was reduced to 5 years imprisonment by the appeal court. He is serving fourth year of his sentence.

Uruguay expels Iran diplomat over bomb scare

 

Belgium - AFP - 2/6/2015 - The European Union Uruguay has expelled a senior Iranian diplomat over last month’s planting of a dummy bomb near Israel’s embassy in Montevideo, AFP reported on Friday.
Citing an unidentified 'senior official', it said the diplomat was expelled two weeks ago and although Uruguayan officials briefed Israel on the move they made no public announcement.
'Investigations carried out by Uruguay’s intelligence services after the discovery of the device yielded information pointing to a possible involvement of someone at the Iranian embassy,' Haaretz’s diplomatic correspondent wrote.
On January 8, Montevideo bomb squad officers detonated what turned out to be a fake bomb near the Israeli embassy, located in the World Trade Centre office complex in the city.
The convincing-looking fake -- complete with fuse, detonator and other elements found in a real bomb -- was detected some 70 metres (230 feet) from the building by bomb-sniffing dogs.
After destroying the device, bomb brigade Lieutenant Colonel Alfredo Larramendi told reporters that it 'never posed any danger' but might have been part of a dress rehearsal for the real thing.
In 2013, Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman accused Iran of opening secret intelligence stations in several South American countries to plan and conduct terror attacks.
Nisman was found dead in his apartment with a gunshot wound to the head last month on the eve of a congressional hearing at which he was expected to accuse President Cristina Kirchner of covering up Iranian involvement in a 1994 bombing at a Buenos Aires Jewish center.
The bombing killed 85 people and wounded 300, the deadliest such attack in Argentina’s history.has pledged one billion euros in funding for Syria and Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State militant group, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Friday.
'This package will strengthen our actions to help restore peace and security in a region that is so close to us and that has been devastated by terrorism and violence for too long,' Mogherini said in a statement.

Political Activist Beheaded in Central Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Police found the decapitated body of political activist Gustavo Salgado on a highway in the central Mexican state of Morelos, the People’s Revolutionary Front, or EPR, said Thursday.

The body of the 32-year-old EPR member was found on Wednesday afternoon, a day after he was reported missing, by police in Mototepec, a town outside the city of Ayala.

Salgado, who appeared to have been tortured, was identified by EPR members, who blamed the government for the murder.

“This crime is part of the policy of terror that the state has implemented to try to scare the popular movement in general and our organization in particular,” the EPR said.

The EPR released a statement on Tuesday reporting Salgado’s disappearance as he headed to Ayala after attending a meeting with peasants who are demanding housing in the town of Emiliano Zapata.

Local political bosses and officials had Salgado under “constant surveillance and harassment” because of his work on behalf of migrant workers from Guerrero and Oaxaca who want land and housing, the EPR said.

Salgado was the victim of an “illegal arrest on March 20, 2014, in Cuernavaca, Morelos, while participating in a march organized by the Citizens Front against the Income Tax Law,” the EPR said.

Iran News in Brief, 5 February 2015

Protests in Buenos Aires to Demand Explanation of Nisman’s Case

BUENOS AIRES – Thousands of members of the Argentine Workers’ Central Union (CTA) and humanitarian organizations marched in the streets of Buenos Aires demanding an explanation for the death of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who died shortly after he had leveled accusations against President Cristina Fernandez.

Wednesday’s protests were organized by CTA, a union umbrella group that opposes the government, together with social organizations including the Association for the Clarification of the Unpunished Massacre of the AMIA, the Jewish community center which was bombed in 1994.

Nisman, who was investigating the attack, was found dead in his residence with a shot to his head on Jan. 18, four days after he accused the president and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman of allegedly orchestrating a plan to cover up an Iranian role in the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association.

At the end of the march, the demonstrators read out a joint statement demanding, among other things, the “immediate” opening of all secret files of the AIMA case and the creation of an independent commission in parliament to “analyze them, arrive at the truth and initiate legal proceedings and punish the guilty.”

“We are protesting against the fact that the AIMA case is at zero. There is total and absolute legal impunity. And to add to that is Nisman’s death. There has to be an investigation to determine what happened. Twenty years cannot lead us to impunity,” said the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who also participated in the march.

The president of the Association for the Clarification of the Unpunished Massacre of the AMIA, Laura Ginsberg, described Nisman’s death as “a political crime” that “has once again highlighted the impunity and the lack of truth.”

“We demand the opening of the secret files that the Argentine government continues to conceal and that they be handed over to a commission of inquiry,” Ginsberg told Efe.

The legislators decided to hold a public hearing in Congress next Wednesday to discuss Nisman’s death and the accusations he had made against the president.

They also agreed to draw up a document pledging that they work together to demand an explanation into the Nisman case which could be signed by all political parties with seats in parliament.

In a statement, the opposition legislators said that they had also agreed to seek an audience with the Supreme Court to “convey the need for it to arbitrate means to ensure the independent work of judges and prosecutors in the investigation into Nisman’s death, as well as in the charges leveled by prosecutor in the AIMA case.”

11 Colombian Troops Punished for Killing Civilian

BOGOTA – The Colombian Inspector General’s Office, or “Procuraduria,” dismissed and banned from military service for a decade 11 marines who “arbitrarily” executed a civilian whom they falsely claimed was a guerrilla, the institution said Wednesday.

The office said that the soldiers’ deeds were “very serious” in a communique, adding that it ruled as it did because the men could not prove that the murdered civilian was really a rebel, as they maintained, a situation that constitutes a “serious violation of International Humanitarian Law.”

“The defense did not manage to prove that the victim was directly participating in the hostilities ... of the conflict the country is experiencing,” said the Procuraduria, which did not specify when the killing occurred.

The dismissed soldiers belonged to the Cobra Reconnaissance Group with the 1st Counterinsurgency Battalion, which is part of the 1st Marine Infantry Brigade operating in the Caribbean province of Sucre.

During the investigation, evidence was presented that the victim lived with his family in the northern town of El Carmen de Bolivar, had a job and friends “who testified as to his good habits” and denied that he was a guerrilla, claims that corresponded with his lack of a criminal record or other brushes with the law.

In sum, the authorities ruled that the soldiers violated international norms that prohibit “attacks on the life, health and physical and mental integrity” of people, a situation that applies to all those affected by an armed conflict.

The soldiers may appeal the ruling.