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Good Friday Protests Against Dancing Ban in Germany

BERLIN – Several German cities hosted symbolic protests against the ban on dancing that is prevalent in most of the country’s states on Good Friday, the Friday preceding Easter Sunday.

The “ban on dancing,” which generally also includes the suspension of public entertainment or sporting events on the holy day, is regulated by regional or municipal ordinances and local authorities who are responsible for ensuring compliance.

Just as years past, various associations, including the Pirate Party, have called on supporters to gather in squares of cities like Stuttgart, Cologne, Frankfurt, Bochum and Mainz to dance in public as a form of protest against the legislation.

The president of the German Evangelical Church, Bedford Strohm, told the regional broadcaster SWR that he could not understand why an order to stop partying for one of the year’s 365 days was too much to ask.

The goal is merely to devote one day to contemplating and reflecting on the suffering in the world, said Strohm, noting that this ban is “a very important cultural value” that transcends belief and religion.

The Pirate Party said on its Facebook page that everyone should be able to decide how to celebrate different holidays, stressing that religious or governmental regulations that unnecessarily restrict freedom are unacceptable.

Recalling that 40 percent of the German population does not practice Christianity, the party has called on citizens to gather in central squares, listen to music on their headphones, and dance in silence.

One Body Found, 9 Cubans Detained off Puerto Rico’s West Coast

SAN JUAN – U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to Customs and Border Protection on Thursday found a body floating offshore and detained nine Cubans near Mona Island, located in the channel separating Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

CBP announced in a communique that a Dominican citizen was also detained in the operation.

The group of undocumented immigrants consisted of six men, two women and a 3-year-old boy, all of them Cubans, along with the Dominican citizen, all of whom arrived in the vicinity of Mona Island from the Dominican Republic on board a homemade boat.

The body, whose identity was not made public, was taken to the port of Mayagüez, on Puerto Rico’s northwest coast, where the Homicide Division of the island’s police took charge of the investigation.

The migrants will be handed over to the Border Patrol for interviews and other immigration procedures

Iran hardliner condemns the nuclear deal

Tehran - April 3, 2015: Iran’s hard-liners are criticizing a tentative nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, saying the deal was a bargain for the West and a disaster for Iran.


Hossein Shariatmadari, an advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and editor of the hard-line Kayhan daily told the semi-official Fars news agency today that Iran exchanged its 'ready-to-race horse with a broken bridle.'
Another conservative analyst, Mahdi Mohammad, referred to the Fordo underground uranium enrichment facility and told the news outlet that under the deal, 'A disaster happened in Fordo.'
Iran agreed to stop enrichment at Fordo, changing the facility to a nuclear research centre. The proposed deal limits Iran’s nuclear program in return for an end to crippling economic sanctions.

31,000 YOUNG GIRLS UNDER THE AGE OF 15 MARRIED IN IRAN IN JUST 9 MONTHS

NIU- According to the latest statistics provided by the Civil Registry Organization of Iran, the first 9 of months of Iranian calendar year 1392 (March – November, 2013) saw the registration of 31,000 marriages of young girls under the age of 15. One third of the total marriages during this time involve girls under the age of 19, Deuche welle website reported on July 7, 2014. 

The organization "Justice for Iran", citing official statistics from the Civil Registry Organization of Iran, reported that during this period nearly 178,000 marriages involving young girls between the age of 15 and 19 occurred. This means that during the first 9 months of the year, over 36% of marriages involve women under the age of 19. 

A comparison between these statistics and the previous year's figures shows that the rate of marriages of girls under the age of 15 has increased. The number of 10 to 14 year old girls who got married in 2012 was 29,827, whereas in 2013, in just the first 9 months of the Iranian calendar year 1392 (2013), this number has reached 30,956. 

In addition, it was reported that in 2012, 235 girls under the age of 15 married men over the age of 35. Nearly 100 girls under the age of 15 married men over the age of 40, and 602 girls between the age of 15 and 19 married men over the age of 40.  

According to the International Covenant on Child Rights, to which Iran is a signatory, all individuals under the age of 18 are considered children. The International Covenant also prohibits child marriage. This is while, according the Iranian law, the legal age for marriage for girls is 13 and boys 15, but the law also permits the father or grandfather to allow their child to marry before the age of 13. 

Palestinian refugees outside Syrian capital ‘at extreme risk of death’

Russia Curtails Crimean Free Speech

Many journalists of Crimea’s independent television station ATR broke into tears on air during their last live show at midnight on March 31.

A year after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula, a censorship and harassment campaign on the part of authorities has become a part of daily life in Crimea. The world’s only TV channel that served Crimean Tatars, a native people, went silent on April 1 because it could not overcome the bureaucracy and other obstacles to continue broadcasting.

Ostensibly, every news outlet had to re-register in Crimea by April 1, the deadline set by Russian regulators. Some 232 media outlets got the license, including the only Crimean Tatar newspaper Yeni Dunya.

Those who did not include FM radio stations Meydan and Lider, children’s television channel Lale, news website 15 Minutes; Crimean Tatar news agency QHA, and newspapers Avdet and Yildiz.

ATR, which had broadcast in Crimean Tatar, Ukrainian and Russian languages since 2006, tried three times to obtain licenses. Each time the regulator rejected the applications citing mistakes and inaccuracies.

Dunja Mijatovic the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe representative on media freedom, voiced concerns that Crimean Tatar media outlets are having their registration rejected for “subjective reasons.”

In an emailed statement, Mijatovic said “this is yet more proof that the politically selective censorship of free and independent voices in Crimea is continuing.

For Lilya Budzhurova, deputy head of information policy at ATR, it was a “political attack” since the occupying authority often blamed the channel for “giving hope for the return of Crimea to Ukraine.” 
Budzhurova said they had little hope of obtaining a license.

“We thought that the Crimean authorities would take into account the needs of Crimean Tatars, but we were too naïve,” Budzhurova said, adding that the channel tried to be objective, a policy that rarely pleased the authorities.