News & Stuff

Death of Iranian-Canadian photographer - Zahra Kazemi - is becoming a real problem for the government. I just saw Italian minister for equal opportunities, Stefania Prestigiacomo said: "What happened to the Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi in Tehran is appalling, and I am very worried now. It is not tolerable that today, when civilization should have overcome barbarities, a person can be beaten to death just because it wants to do its job." Then added: "It is time for the international community to intervene with determination in countries such as Iran, to make them adopt real and concrete measures in favour of human rights." Those are strong words & very important because as far as I know Italy is head of UE now. News about Iran's government Blocking websites are still around as I found an article on Index For Free Expression which says: "In addition to banning about 80 newspapers and magazines, authorities have created a list of 'immoral' and 'political' sites that 'make fun of religious and political figures in the country'. ISPs could face court action if they do not comply." After giving information about some arrested journalists it concludes: "A total of 17 journalists are currently detained in Iran, which makes it the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East."
As things go crazy in Iran around topics like Human Rights & Freedom Of Speech Iran postpones visit of U.N. rights official. The reason might be new journalists arrests or death of Canadian photographer although Iran's official IRNA news agency said the visit was postponed due to problems arranging Ligabo's schedule.
I can't believe this - Cuba jams Iran broadcasts. I always thought Cuba was a reliable country in the world. I don't like the channels broadcasting from the U.S. myself but they had no right to jam them, I mean come on Mr. Castro! What did you think you were doing teaming up with our government? Do you wanna die alone?
Seems to be true, Iran has Al-Qaeda's spokesman & after they tried to get rid of it by returning him back to Kuwait, their Interior minister says "his country does not want to know al-Qaeda spokesman after being stripped of his citizenship." There have been some gossips about Iran trying to make a business out of arresting Al-Qaeda's members with U.S. which haven't been proved to be right yet.
Inside Iran, reformist forces are making what some observers have described as a last-ditch effort to thwart the country's increasingly defiant conservative minority, which controls the key levers of power in the Islamic Republic. The strongly worded appeal to Khamenei, sent on July 15 and signed by 350 reform-minded intellectuals, is clearly an attempt to blunt the conservatives' political momentum. There is a really good article about it here which I stoled some sentences of. I really want to go to bed now but you may have time to see this and something I really wanna show you is a Private art exhibition held by a couple who have been in iran around the 50s. One of them said in an interview: "I've learned that a lot of times when we are in America, we think of other countries as being uneducated, but that is very wrong," she said. "Some of the most well educated people I've met were in Iran."