Putin blames West for Ukraine crisis during trade visit to Egypt

UK, U.S and France closes embassy in Yemen amid civil war fears

IRAN: Tehran protest halts police action to confiscate satellite dishes

NCRI - A protest erupted in Tehran after Iranian police began removing satellite dishes from the roofs of homes and hurling them into the street below.

Police finally halted the removal of dishes in Iran Street in the Iranian capital on Sunday fearing the protest could spread to other areas of the city.

The police action was part of the latest crackdown on satellite TV by the regime's rulers, who have also used teenage members of the Basij paramilitary force to remove dishes and confiscate satellite equipment in other parts of the country.

A Revolutionary Guards’ website has reported that on the occasion of anniversary of the revolution, a teenage member of Basij collected 10 satellite receivers from the homes of the residents of Ahamad Abad village, in Fars province.

Prior to this, a number of young Basij force members also confiscated equipment in the village of Khosrow Abad.

The Cultural Deputy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps said on January 29 that over 60 percent of Iranians watch satellite TV channels.

On February 8, Ali Jannati, the minister of Islamic Culture and Guidance, acknowledged that the regime’s efforts to prevent use of satellite TVs have failed.

He said: "Wherever we collected the satellite dishes from rooftops, two days later the dishes were returned. It seems that we only create business for the dish installers."

But he warned: "The enemy is seeking to change the behavior of citizens, particularly youths, in Iran."

IS Publicly Executes Former (Female) Parliamentary Candidate in Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq – The Islamic State, IS, jihadist group on Wednesday shot dead in public a female former candidate in the Iraqi parliamentary elections held last year, according to a local official in the city of Mosul where the killing took place.

The official, who declined to be identified for security reasons, told Efe that Nahla Yunis al-Badrani, who worked as an official in the province of Nineveh, was executed in the center of the provincial capital.

The Sunni jihadist group said it killed her for apostasy, for not complying with the teachings of Islam and for supporting the Iraqi government which it said was “loyal to the West and Iran.”

IS has executed a large number of candidates who took part in the last Iraq legislative elections, including several women.

Suspected Afghan ISIL leader killed by drone strike

Iran: Hassan Rouhani government will not permit women to sing, minister says

NCRI - Hassan Rouhani’s government will not issue permits for women to sing solo, Ali Jannati, the minister of Culture and Guidance has declared.

Speaking in Isfahan on Friday, Ali Jannati said: “Those political currents that to seek to weaken and destroy the government offer incorrect information to religious scholars and members of parliament and distort the issue.”

He stressed that: “The Ministry of Guidance and Culture does not issue permits for women to sing solo.”

He added: “Ministry of Guidance works in adherence to Supreme Leader’s viewpoint.”

Jannati remarks followed statements by two senior clerics in Qom announcing that women cannot sing in Iran.

Nouri Hamedani and Makarem Shirazi in their lectures in Qom protested an album that had songs of a female singer, state-run news agency website Tabnak reported on February 4.

Nouri Hamedani said in his lecture: There is no problem with women talking, but “women singing cannot become common and we will stop it”. He continued: it is “religiously forbidden” for women to sing or play musical instruments in front of men.

“Any film, festival, book or music that is in contrast with revolutionary values will be stopped,” he reminded.
Makarem Shirazi, another senior mullah also showed his opposition to women singers in his lecture as a matter that “causes popular discontent”.

US aid worker and ISIL hostage Kayla Mueller confirmed dead

The United States has confirmed the death of aid worker and ISIL hostage Kayla Mueller. Her family say they are heartbroken.

It comes four days after the Islamist captors of the 26-year-old, seized in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in August 2013, claimed she had been killed in a coalition airstrike by Jordanian fighter jets outside Raqqa, the capital of the extremists’ self-proclaimed caliphate.

Jordan has expressed doubt about the Islamist militant group’s account and US officials have said they had no evidence to support ISIL’s claims although the details surrounding Kayla’s death remain unclear.

Her family have released a handwritten letter they said Kayla wrote to them while in captivity. In it, she says: “I…have learned that even in prison, one can be free.”

In control of wide areas of Syria and Iraq, ISIL is said to have sent Kayla’s family an e-mail and photograph that confirmed her death. She was the group’s last known American hostage.

Paying tribute to her, President Obama said the US would “find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible”.

He added in a statement released by the White House: “ISIL is a hateful and abhorrent terrorist group whose actions stand in stark contrast to the spirit of people like Kayla”.