China Sentences 8 Construction Workers to Prison in Street Trial

BEIJING – Eight construction workers in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, who protested over not having received their wages, have been sentenced to between six and eight months of prison in a trial that was conducted on the street.

The official Beijing News on its webpage Friday published photos of the accused, accompanied by armed policemen on the street during the trial on Wednesday in the province’s Langzhong city.

The workers were tried for having blocked, along with hundreds of others, entry and exit of tourists in the nearby Nan Jin Guan tourist locality in August 2015, to protest against non-payment of wages.

The official media reports that the workers were “instigated” by two of the sentenced workers, surnamed Zhang and Qi, to pressurize the authorities into paying their wages.

Following a scuffle with the police, who reached the spot to disperse the protests, several workers were detained, including the eight workers sentenced Wednesday for jeopardizing public affairs, according to The Beijing News.

Experts are of the opinion that trial at a public space is reminiscent of Maoist times and a step backward with regards to human rights in China.

Donald Trump’s Son Sent Letter Containing Suspect White Powder

NEW YORK – A son of magnate and politician Donald Trump was sent a letter containing a suspicious white powder, though preliminary reports indicate that it is not dangerous, authorities said Friday.

The New York City Police Department said Friday that an envelope containing a powder of unknown origin was delivered Thursday night to Eric Trump’s Manhattan apartment.

According to those involved in the investigation, cited by the CBS network, the white substance does not appear to be dangerous, though it is under investigation.

Included in the envelope was a letter threatening to harm Donald Trump’s children if the billionaire refuses to drop out of the Republican presidential primaries.

The envelope was delivered to the home of Eric Trump around 7:15 p.m. Thursday and was opened by his wife Lara, who immediately alerted the authorities, CBS reported.

The network also said that the envelope was postmarked Massachusetts.

FBI agents are taking part in the investigation, and this morning police were seen guarding the apartment building where Trump’s son lives.

Eric Trump, 32, is Trump’s third child by his first wife, Ivana Zelnickova Trump, and works as executive vice president of the Trump Organization.

The real estate mogul has two other children, one each by second wife Marla Maples and current spouse Melania Knauss.

Donald Trump leads the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Boy Killed, 4 Other Children Wounded When Grenade Goes Off in Central Peru

LIMA – A 9-year-old boy was killed and four other children were wounded when a grenade exploded near Teoria, an Indian community in the jungles of central Peru, the Armed Forces Joint Command said Wednesday.

The grenade went off on Tuesday “under circumstances that are still being investigated” by the Armed Forces Joint Command, which has a counterinsurgency base in the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers, or VRAEM.

Two of the children wounded by the grenade are listed in guarded condition with multiple wounds and broken legs, RPP Noticias reported.

VRAEM Special Command personnel provided medical assistance to the children wounded in the blast and later airlifted them to Lima, the joint command said in a statement.

The dead boy was identified as Abel Valderrama, RPP Noticias said.

The boy’s father told RPP Noticias that soldiers from the counterinsurgency base in the VRAEM staged live-fire exercises for several hours on Tuesday around Teoria and blamed the armed forces for his son’s death.

The father of Wilfredo Santos, a boy wounded in the explosion, told the radio network that his son had wounds on his head, face, hands and legs.

The man said he requested the boy’s transfer to a Lima hospital so specialists could treat him.

Iran: The boy screams ’don’t hang my father!’

The meaning of a smile

A big smile in my country
Rides on the face of a mullah
Cherished in the west
But when you translate it into a portrait
You see this photo
You may not believe this, but be certain
When this smile is translated in to a number
You see 2300
It is the number of those hanged
Since the presidency of that mullah

Iran is world’s biggest prison for women journalists - watchdog

Iran is the world’s biggest prison for women journalists, the international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Wednesday.

"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reiterates its concern about the conditions in which journalists are being detained in Iran, especially Afarine Chitsaz of the daily newspaper Iran, a young woman arrested at the same time as three other journalists on 2 November," the group said in a statement.

In addition to Chitsaz, four other women journalists – Rihaneh Tabatabai, Roya Saberi Negad Nobakht, Narges Mohammadi and Atena Ferghdani – are serving jail terms ranging from one to twelve years and some are in poor health, RSF said.

With a total of 36 journalists and citizen-journalists currently detained, Iran is still one of the world’s five biggest prisons for media personnel and is ranked 173rd out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Mullah calls for crackdown on Iran’s women over dress code

NCRI - A high-ranking mullah in Iran's regime has called for stronger measures to further restrict women in Iran in choosing their type of clothing, the Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has reported on its website.

Mullah Naser Makarem Shirazi blamed the government for failing to implement the mandatory dress code and called for formation of a ministry in this regard.

He said: “Patrols promoting virtue and prohibiting vice must be established in society. There should be no surprise if we establish a ministry for this purpose.” (State-run Howza news website, March 13, 2016)

He is the second so-called religious authority within the regime who has called for the formation of such a ministry. The 89-year-old Makarem Shirazi had previously opposed women’s presence in stadiums and the lifting of gender segregation in universities.

A law entitled “Supporting those promoting virtue and prohibiting vice” was adopted in October 2013 and led to a wave of acid attacks against women under the pretext of mal veiling.

Mullah Naser Makarem Shirazi

In September 2010 Makarem Shirazi was quoted by the Iranian regime’s state news agency IRNA as saying, "The Holocaust is nothing but superstition, but Zionists say that people of the world should be forced to accept this."

"Americans and Westerners are affected by newly appeared superstitions such as the Holocaust," he said on September 4, 2010, according to the state-run ISNA news agency.

"The truth about the Holocaust is not clear, and when the researchers want to examine whether it is true or the Jews have created it to pose as victims, they jail the researchers," he added.

Second Batch of Russian Fighter Jets Depart from Syria

MOSCOW – A second batch of Russian fighter jets departed on Wednesday from Syria’s Hmeimim airbase to permanent deployment bases in Russia, as part of the withdrawal from the Arabic country ordered by President Vladimir Putin.

“Another group of Russian aircraft took off from the airbase in Hmeimim heading to places of permanent deployment on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the military said in a statement, according to local media outlets.

The withdrawal of Russian military personnel, which began on Monday, is being completed in batches, with the warplanes returning separately to their home bases.

“I think that the tasks of Defense Ministry have been fulfilled. That is why I ordered our military group to begin withdrawing from Syria starting tomorrow,” Putin said on Monday during a meeting with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as quoted by state-run news agency TASS.

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin has discussed and coordinated the decision to withdraw Russian forces with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.