NCRI – A 21-year-old man identified as Homayon Shabestari was hanged in the western city of Kermanshah on Monday. He allegedly committed a crime in 2005 when he was a minor.

Earlier this month, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) expressed grave concern over the violation of human rights in Iran. U.N. Human Rights official, Rupert Colville, told reporters "On the 27th of July, for example, 29 executions are reported to have taken place. A month later, on the 28th of August, another five people, including a woman, were reported to have been executed. In all, more than 220 people, including six juvenile offenders, are believed to have been executed this year in Iran already.

"Iran's legal obligation not to impose the death penalty for juveniles was assumed voluntarily when it ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both of which prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by people below the age of 18,'' Coleville added.

International outrage over the wave of executions heightened in late August when the regime executed two teenagers, Reza Hejazi and Behnam Zare, for crimes they allegedly committed when they were under 18. On September 10, the state-run daily Etemaad reported that the mullahs’ Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence for a 17-year-old boy named Hossein for a crime he allegedly committed when 14. According to rights groups, 140 minors are awaiting the death penalty in Iran.

NCRI – A young man, Rahim Ahmadi, soon will face gallows in Iran. Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, chief of mullahs' judiciary on Sunday upheld a death sentence by the lower court for him. Ahmadi was 15 at the time of the alleged crime.

Mohammad Mostafai, Ahmadi's attorney maintains that his client is innocent and had no intention of murdering the victim who was his friend.

It is interesting to know that Mostafai's other client, Behnam Zare, was hanged without the judiciary branch notifying either him or his family in August.

Mostafai fears that Ahamdi's fate would not be any better than that of Zare since both cases were tried by the mullahs' judiciary in the southern city of Shiraz.

Earlier this month, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) expressed grave concern over the violation of human rights in Iran. U.N. Human Rights official, Rupert Colville, told reporters "On the 27th of July, for example, 29 executions are reported to have taken place. A month later, on the 28th of August, another five people, including a woman, were reported to have been executed. In all, more than 220 people, including six juvenile offenders, are believed to have been executed this year in Iran already.

"Iran's legal obligation not to impose the death penalty for juveniles was assumed voluntarily when it ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both of which prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by people below the age of 18,'' Coleville added.

International outrage over the wave of executions heightened in late August when the regime executed two teenagers, Reza Hejazi and Behnam Zare, for crimes they allegedly committed when they were under 18. On September 10, the state-run daily Etemaad reported that the mullahs’ Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence for a 17-year-old boy named Hossein for a crime he allegedly committed when 14. According to rights groups, 140 minors are awaiting the death penalty in Iran.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's Interior Minister Ali Kordan has admitted to holding a fake Oxford University degree which he thought was valid, coming clean after weeks of controversy, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

"In a letter to the president on Saturday, Ali Kordan said he had pressed charges against the person who claimed to represent Oxford University in Tehran as soon as he realised his degree was fake," the government daily Iran said.

Pressure has been mounting on Kordan after Britain's prestigious university denied awarding him any qualification through a representative.

"Over the past eight years, I never doubted the validity of the degree and that's why I presented it in the course of the confidence vote," Kordan wrote in his letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The minister, who was appointed in August, said he approached Oxford University after MPs cast doubt on his degree, but "to my utter disbelief, the university did not confirm (the degree) when my representative went there".

The degree had been issued for his "managerial and executive experience and for submitting a thesis to Oxford University via a person who had opened an affiliate office in Tehran in English-language affairs," the minister said.

Kordan said his search for the intermediary had proven fruitless and that he had filed a complaint against the unnamed person on September 14.

By GEORGE JAHN

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — A six-year probe has not ruled out the possibility that Iran may be running clandestine nuclear programs, the chief U.N nuclear inspector said Monday, urging the country to end its secretive ways.

Europe also urged Iran to fully cooperate with a U.N probe that is trying to assess its past and current nuclear activities. An EU statement at the opening session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 145-nation conference declared: "The international community cannot accept the prospect of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons."

Iran and ally Syria are among four nations seeking their region's nomination for a seat on the IAEA's decision-making 35-nation board.

Iran is running to counteract a U.S. push to have Afghanistan or outsider Kazakhstan elected over Syria, which is under IAEA investigation for allegedly hiding a secret nuclear program, including a nearly completed plutonium producing reactor destroyed last year by Israel.

If the regional group does not agree on a candidate by the time the conference turns to the issue, there will likely be a vote — an unusual turn because these meetings normally decide by consensus.

But chief U.N nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA, focused on more overriding nuclear concerns about Iran — its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment and alleged past plans to develop the bomb.

On Saturday, the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution critical of Iran's defiance on uranium enrichment, which can create both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads.

Urging it to "implement all transparency measures ... required to build confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program," ElBaradei declared: "This will be good for Iran, good for the Middle East region and good for the world."

He also warned the session that his organization is increasingly stretched in trying to carry out responsibilities that include nonproliferation and preventing terrorists from acquiring the bomb.

"All is not well with the IAEA," ElBaradei declared, appealing for more money and authority for his agency.

Speaking for the EU, Luc Chatel of France called on Iran to "open the doors of its facilities, to give access to persons and documents, and to answer all the questions posed by (IAEA) inspectors."

The annual meeting allows the agency's member countries to set policies that range from strengthening nonproliferation to carrying medical and scientific research. But tensions between Islamic members and the West threaten to hamper decision-making.

A tradition of consensus, has normally led all sides to bridge sometimes substantial differences and opt for compromise for most of the conference's 52-year history. A vote on any topic is unusual and considered a huge dent in the meeting's credibility.

But frustration among Muslim countries over Israel's refusal to put its nuclear program under international purview, and resistance from the Jewish state to Muslim pressure on the issue, threatens to force a vote for the third year running.

As in the past two years, Muslim IAEA members are expected to put forward a resolution urging all Mideast nations to refrain from testing or developing nuclear arms and urging nuclear weapons states "to refrain from any action" hindering a Mideast nuclear-free zone.

After losing the vote two consecutive years, Islamic nations are threatening to up the ante this year, warning they will call for a ballot on every item, no matter how uncontroversial, unless they get conference backing on the Israeli nuclear issue.

Arab members — backed by Iran — this year have again asked conference organizers to include an item on Israel, this time labeled "Israeli Nuclear Capabilities" instead of "Nuclear Threat," as in previous years. That is being protested by Israel.

Focusing on Israel by name "is substantially unwarranted and flawed," said a letter prepared for review by the conference from Israel Michaeli, the Jewish state's IAEA representative.

Sponsors of the item should instead "address the most pressing proliferation concerns in the Middle East," the letter said, an allusion to Iran.

The Barbican Center has held a Kurdish music concert by the prominent Iranian Kamkars music ensemble in the British capital of London, PressTV reported.

The event was held as a part of Barbican's Ramadan Nights festival, which featured music pieces from various Muslim countries.

The Kamkars presented intricate and beautiful arrangements of traditional folk songs on Sep. 27, 2008 at Barbican Hall.

A Kurdish family of virtuosic vocalists and instrumentalists, the Kamkars are among Iran's leading musical ensembles which perform traditional Kurdish and Persian music.

NCRI – Workers in Haft-Tapeh Sugar Cane factory went on strike again on Wednesday.

Some 1,500 workers of different parts of the industrial complex walked out including those in logistics, engineering, services and maintenance, mechanical work shops and administration. The factory with more than 5,000 employees has been virtually shutdown over payment dispute with the government appointed management most of this year. The factory owes the workers at least six months of salaries and benefits.

Thousands of workers in Haft-Tapeh, Pars, Ahwaz Rolling and Pipes and many more have been on strike.
Workers as the most vulnerable part of the Iranian labor force have faced great difficulties receiving their salaries. Managements in most of the factories which were owned previously by the government have been turned over to the relatives and friends of the ruling mullahs with a fraction of their actual values. The managers with no real experience in running industrial units and keen in pocketing what revenues the factories may have are turning the screws on the workers not paying the salaries for months and cutting their benefits in particular health insurance.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - At least 10 Turkish fighter jets bombed suspected Kurdish guerrilla positions in northern Iraq on Thursday, senior security sources said on Friday.

The sources, who declined to be named, told Reuters the strikes began after 1900 GMT on Thursday in two separate regions in northern Iraq.

"Last night two separate regions were bombed where the PKK was believed to be taking shelter," a high-ranking Turkish security official said.

The mayor of the town of Jarawa in Iraq, Azad Wassu, said there were Turkish air strikes on the Kandil mountains from 10 p.m. on Thursday until 12:30 a.m. He said there was no damage or casualties.

Turkish armed forces have conducted several cross-border operations, including a brief land offensive, against the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) bases in mountainous northern Iraq over the past 12 months.

Turkey says it believes that thousands of separatist PKK guerrillas use northern Iraq to stage attacks inside Turkey.

The government has asked parliament to extend a mandate, which expires next month, to launch further military operations against the PKK in Iraq.

Since a land offensive in February, Turkey's military has confined its cross-border operations to air strikes and shelling against PKK targets.

Ankara blames the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, for the deaths of more than 40,000 people since it launched its campaign for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

(Reporting by Thomas Grove and Dean Yates; writing by Paul de Bendern; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran plans to launch a satellite into space soon using its own satellite carrier rocket, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

According to a report Thursday on Iranian state TV, Ahmadinejad said the Persian nation will soon "launch a rocket, which has 16 engines and will take a satellite some 430 miles" into space.

The satellite will likely be a commercial one for communication or meteorological research purposes. Iran has never announced plans to launch military satellites.

But the country has long pursued the goal of developing a space program, generating unease among world leaders already concerned about its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Earlier this month, Tehran announced that a joint research satellite built by Iran, China and Thailand, was sent into orbit by a Chinese-made rocket. At the time, Iranian officials said the three countries suffer from natural disasters and that the satellite would transmit photos to help deal with such crises.

Also, Iran tested a rocket last month which it hopes will one day carry an all-Iranian research satellite. Tehran sent its first commercial satellite into space on a Russian rocket in 2005.

The remarks by the Iranian president came during his meeting with a group of Iranian expatriates in New York, where Ahmadinejad is attending the U.N. General Assembly.

There were no details about what type of satellite the rocket would carry, and Ahmadinejad gave no time frame for the plan.

Iran Human Rights: According to the site "Iranian human rights activists", Nemat Safavi (20), son of Akbar, has been sentenced to death for "lavat" (a term used for sexual acts between men), and his sentence is now sent to the supreme court for final approval.

According to this report, Nemat who is born in 1988, was arrested in 2006, and at that time he was a minor.

Iran Human Rights is currently investigating further details on this case.

According to the same site two others men identified as "Hamzeh Chavi" (19) and "Loghman Hamzehpour" (20) were sentenced to death for homosexual acts in February 2008 in Sardasht.

International human rights organizations have reported several executions for homosexual acts in the past years in Iran. However, it is believed that the Iranian authorities use increasingly charges such as "rape" for death penalties issued for homosexual acts.

www.iranhr.net

NEW YORK (AFP) — The United States and Russia agreed here to hold further ministerial-level meetings in the future in a bid to stop Iran's sensitive nuclear work, a senior US official said Wednesday.

State Department official Daniel Fried told reporters the agreement was reached in talks in New York between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, their first since ties tensions soared over the Georgia conflict last month.

Fried said both "agreed that they should have a ministers" meeting in the future, but set no date.

The United States and its P5-plus-one partners -- Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany -- decided to call off a meeting this week in New York after Moscow complained Washington sought to "punish" it, apparently over Georgia.

"They also agreed that the two governments should be in close contact to signal that the P5-plus-One process is intact," Fried said, referring to the six-country negotiations on Iran.

PARIS (AFP) — France still hopes the six world powers leading an international response to Iran's nuclear programme will meet this week, despite Russian reluctance, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.

Paris had earlier called for foreign ministers from Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States to meet along with France on the sidelines of this week's United Nations General Assembly in New York to discuss the crisis.

But Moscow, already at loggerheads with the West over its intervention in Georgia last month, said Tuesday it saw no immediate need for the talks, which were expected to deal with possible further sanctions against Tehran.

"We hope this meeting will be held," said French foreign ministry spokesman Frederic Desagneaux, insisting that the six power group was still the right forum in which to devise a response to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

He added that discussions were continuing in New York between senior non-ministerial officials from the six power group.

On Tuesday, Russia announced that it could see no need for a minsterial meeting and the United States confirmed that planned talks had been cancelled.

The so-called P5+1 group -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- was set up in the hope of convincing Tehran not to enrich uranium, amid fears Iran intends to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran insists it is simply developing a civilian nuclear energy programme.

Russia is helping Iran in this civilian project and has been the most reluctant among the six power group to push for tighter sanctions.

Diplomatic relations between Russia and the West have soured since August when Russian forces intervened in the conflict between Georgia and its breakaway regions, triggering international outrage.

Iran Human Rights, September 22: According to the site "Iranian human rights activists" Iranian authorities have sentenced Ebrahim Mehrnahad (16) to 5 years of prison. Ebrahim mehrnahad, is charged with "attempts against the nations security" and was tried in a revolutionary court, without access to a defence lawyer. He is sentenced to five years of prison where two of them are going to be conditional.

He has been under detention, with physical and psychological torture since March this year.

It is believed that Ebrahims weblog activities, along with his role in mediating the news about his older brother Yaqub Mehrnahad have been decisive in his sentence.

Yaqub Mernahad, the older brother of Ebrahim, and a well known journalist and blogger, was executed in the prison of Zahedan on August 6. this year. Yaqub was also tried in a revolutionary court without access to lawyer.

Iranian authorities are trying to pass a new legislation according to which one could be sentenced to death charged with "internet crimes"!

www.iranhr.net

Iran Human Rights, September 22: The death sentences of the juvenile offender Mahyar, and his mother Maryam, are approved by the Iranian supreme court, and they are few steps closer to the execution now, reported the Iranian daily Kargozaaran.

Mahyar is convicted of murdering his father in 2004, when he was 17 years old. His mother is also sentenced to death for assistance in the murder. According to reports at the time of alleged murder , Mehyar’s father, who was alcoholic, was beating up his mother. Mehyar seem to have suffered from temporary insanity at the time.

Mehyar, whose family name is Haghgoo, was sentenced to death by a copiurt in the northern city of Rasht. The court didn’t take into consideration Mahyar’s mental status or age at the time of offence. With the supreme court’s approval of the sentence, Mahyar and his mother Matyam are at imminent risk of execution.

Iranian authorities have executed 26 of the 32 minor offenders who have been executed worldwide since 2005.

More than 150 minor offenders are on the death row in the Iranian prisons today.

www.iranhr.net

By NASSER KARIMI

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that Iran's military will "break the hand" of anyone targeting his country's nuclear facilities.

The president spoke during a military parade displaying various types of Iranian-made missiles, including Shahab-3 and Ghadr. Also taking part in the parade was a military truck carrying a huge banner saying "Israel should be eliminated from the universe" in both English and Farsi.

"If anyone allows himself to commit even a tiny offense against Iran's legitimate interests, borders and sacred land, our armed forces will break his hand before he pulls the trigger," Ahmadinejad said during the parade.

The phrase "legitimate interests" is Iranian parlance for the country's nuclear program, which the West says is a cover for developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which denies the charge, already is under three sets of sanctions by the U.N. Security Council over the issue.

Washington and its Western allies are pushing for quick passage of a fourth set of sanctions to underline the international community's resolve.

But Ahmadinejad said Sunday that sanctions only help Iran achieve self-sufficiency.

"Those who once imposed sanctions, today should open their eyes and see our nation's technical achievements," he said.

Both the United States and its ally Israel say they support a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with Iran but cannot rule out the military option.

"Today, Iran is not in a position to show softness toward its enemies," said Ahmadinejad, but added that threats made against Iran's nuclear facilities amounted to only "psychological warfare."

Sunday's parade commemorated the start in 1980 of Iran's ruinous eight-year war with neighboring Iraq.

Meanwhile, the official IRNA news agency reported that on the sideline of the parade, the air force chief of the Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Hossein Salami, rejected the notion that Iran had any ambitions for nuclear weapons, describing them as "ineffective."

"Any report about Iran's intention to use nuclear weapon is a sheer lie," he said, while adding that "our missiles are able to target the enemy's points in the region."

NCRI – Colonel Mehdi Ahmadi, the State Security Forces (SSF) – mullahs' suppressive police— spokesman said that 61 people were arrested for eating outdoors while 157 others were given warning citations for the same crime, reported the state-run website Tabnak on Friday.

"Four restaurants were sealed for selling food in the morning hours," Ahmadi said.

Police stopped seven divers and towed their vehicles away for violating the strict regulations imposed for the holy month of Ramadan. They ate while driving, the SSF spokesman added.

Eating in public is considered a serious violation of the law in the month of Ramadan in Iran. The only exception to the rule are passengers, provided that they can back their claim by presenting a valid airline, train or bus ticket. The   restaurants are allowed only to cook between the permitted hours posted by the police before Ramadan.
 
Three weeks into the Ramadan in Iran, harsh treatment of those breaking the fast has added to people's problems with the mullahs' regime.

In a figure given by the deputy chief of the SSF on September 9, nearly 26,000 citizens have already received warning citations for breaking their fast in the streets.

NCRI – Yahya Mohammad-Zadeh, the mullahs' prosecutor in the northern city of Tabriz announced that those violating the strict Ramadan penal code for refraining from eating or drinking will be whipped in public if the violators do not comply with the rules in the holy month, reported the state-run news agency Fars on Sunday.

"After 20 days into the month of Ramadan more than 50 people were sentences to whipping for violating Ramadan's rules," Mohammad-Zadeh said.

"However, we are prepared to enforce the law in public if necessary in the days remaining from Ramadan," he said.

According to article 638 of the Islamic criminal codes, eating in public is considered a crime punishable by law which includes whipping or fines.

With the start of Ramadan in Iran, harsh treatment of those breaking the fast has added to people's problems with the mullahs' regime.

In a figure given by the deputy chief of the SSF on September 11, nearly 26,000 citizens have already received warring citations for breaking their fast in the streets.
In a directive issued a few days before Ramadan, the SSF ruled that no one is allowed to consume food or beverages in public.

Iran Human Rights: The human rights organization "Human rights Watch" and "Child Rights Information Network - CRIN" have taken initiative for a petition to end all executions of juvenile offenders. Several human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Iran Human Rights have joined the petition.

Go straight to petition

Iran Human Rights: The death sentence of a young woman has been sent to the section for implementation of the verdict, after its approval by the Iranian supreme court reported the daily newspaper Kargozaaran and the state run news agency Fars.

The woman who is just identified as "Zahra", is convicted of murdering her husband 7 years ago. According to the reports, Zahra has explained to the court that her husband used to drink alcohol and hit her. She also mentioned that she was often sexually abused by the husband.

Aftre approval of the death sentence by the supreme court, she could be executed very soon.

Last month, another woman by the name Shabnam (34) was hanged in Tehran’s Evin prison convicted of murdering her husband.

 
The State Security Forces – mullahs' suppressive police – has adopted new measures to crackdown residents in the western city of Sanandaj.

Since Wednesday, it is using Ramadan as a pretext to enforce a new phase of so-called "boosting public security plan." 

In an unprecedented move even by the SSF standards, Special Units belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are deployed on street corners and other busy intersections making a visible presence to intimidate the public.

In the first day, the SSF agents concentrated on what is called combating "mal-veiling" by stopping women shoppers in the streets and shopping centers. Female residents of Kurdish city of Sanandaj traditionally observe Ramadan with all due respect by paying additional attention to what they wear in public. Families advise their youngsters to be extra cautious in observing the customs and traditions of the holy month.

Presence of SSF and IRGC in the streets has forced residents to stay home despite the usual mode of the holy month for spending more time in mosques.

ncri

Three Turkish soldiers were seriously wounded in a landmine blast southeast of the country, according to the Army Command on Saturday.
In a statement posted on its website, the Army Command said the mine was planted by rebels of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in the village of Arcelik.

NCRI - The State Security Forces – mullahs' suppresive police--  beat up and arrested  three girls in their early 20s for eating potato chips during the day in the month of Ramadan in a sidestreet in Tehran, on September 13.

The girls struggled to get released but the agents paid no attention and forced them into their car and transferred them to an unkown location.

Since the start of Ramadan, SSF agents have been busy enforcing a law strictly forbidding eating and drinking in public regardless of age brackets. From a 60-year-old man in the western city of Khorramabad who was severely beaten in public for smoking a cigarette to under aged children chewing gum in a park while playing with the rest of the kids on their block.
In a directive issued a few days before Ramadan, the SSF ruled that no one is allowed to consume food or beverages in public.

Three weeks into the Ramadan in Iran, harsh treatment of those breaking the fast has added to people's problems with the mullahs' regime.

In a figure given by the deputy chief of the SSF on September 9, nearly 26,000 citizens have already received warning citations for breaking their fast in the streets.

The Associated Press

By BARRY SCHWEID

WASHINGTON (AP) — The next president would be wise to make contingency plans for a military attack against Iran, but even a successful strike might not stop Tehran's development of nuclear weapons, a bipartisan study group has concluded.

Intensified diplomacy and tougher economic sanctions aimed at Iran's oil and gas industries are more likely to be productive, said the forthcoming report by the Bipartisan Policy Center, prepared under the guidance of former Sens. Daniel Coats, R-Ind., and Charles Robb, D-Va.

"A military strike is a feasible option and must remain a last resort to retard Iran's nuclear development," the report said.

The next president could conclude that the risks of a military strike are outweighed by the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran dominating the Persian Gulf and Iran possibly acting to eradicate Israel, the report said.

The U.S. military is capable of launching a devastating strike on Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure, probably a more decisive one than the Iranian leadership realizes, the study group said.

And it could set back significantly Iran's nuclear program, the report said.

"However, unless sustained by repeated strikes against rebuilt or newly discovered sites over a period of years, military action alone is likely only to delay Iranian nuclear development while entailing risks of retaliation ... which could quickly escalate to full-scale war."

Any U.S. military strike also would run a number of risks, among them rallying Iranians around their "unstable and ideologically extreme regime" and triggering widescale Hezbollah and Hamas rocket attacks against Israel, the report said.

While a successful bombing campaign would slow Iranian nuclear development, Iran would retain its nuclear knowhow. The United States would have to be prepared to attack previously undiscovered nuclear sites to ensure Iran does not resurrect its military nuclead program, the report said.

Iran's nuclear development may pose the most significant strategic threat to the United States during the next administration, threatening the Persian Gulf region and its vast energy resources, spark nuclear proliferation through the Middle East and destabilize Saudi Arabia and other nations in the region, the report said.

The Bush administration has kept the military option on the table while saying it would talk to Iran under certain conditions.

Republican candidate John McCain's approach is similar. He emphasizes retaining the military option. Democratic candidate Barack Obama would consider unconditional talks with Iran. He has not ruled out a military option.

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will not speak at a rally against the president of Iran next week and White House hopeful Sen. John McCain said on Thursday organizers had withdrawn her invitation under pressure from their Democratic rivals.

A group of Jewish organizations had said both Palin and Sen. Hillary Clinton would speak at the protest near the United Nations on Monday against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said Israel should be wiped off the map.

But a senior Clinton adviser said the New York Democrat canceled her appearance after learning Palin was scheduled to address demonstrators as well.

"Gov. Palin was pleased to accept an invitation to address this rally and show her resolve on this grave national security issue, regrettably that invitation has since been withdrawn under pressure from Democratic partisans," McCain said in a statement.

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with Republicans, Democrats and independents alike to oppose Ahmadinejad's goal of a nuclear armed Iran," he said. "Sen. Obama's campaign had the opportunity to join us. Sen. Obama chose politics rather than the national interest."

Clinton decided not to attend because she did not want to take part in a "partisan political event," her aide said. She lost a hard-fought battle for her party's nomination to Sen. Barack Obama, but is now supporting the Democratic nominee for the Nov. 4 U.S. presidential election.

Among those scheduled to attend the protest are Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and the speaker of Israel's parliament Dalia Itzik, publicist Casey Sanders said on behalf of the organizers.

"In order to keep the focus on Iranian threats and to ensure that this critical message not be obscured, the organizers of the rally have decided not to have any American political personalities appear," she said.

U.N. officials have also said it was possible McCain and Palin might show up on the sidelines of the opening of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

This would give Palin a chance meet a few world leaders on the day President George W. Bush and one of his main foes, Iranian President Ahmadinejad, address the 192 U.N. member states.

Although Palin, 44, has brought new energy to the McCain campaign and helped narrow Obama's lead in opinion polls before the election, Democrats say the mother of five lacks the foreign policy experience a vice president should have.

Iran denies Western allegations that it is seeking atomic weapons, but has refused to suspend sensitive parts of its nuclear program that could be used to make atom bomb fuel.

Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, Mashhad's prosecutor said that "500 prisoners are facing the gallows."
This is the second time in less than a month that shocking news of increasing number of death row inmates surface in Iran.

The first was that of the 150 prisoners soon to face gallows in the southern city of Dashtistan in the coastal province of Bushehr.

Colonel Ardeshir Gholami, chief of the State Security Forces (SSF) – mullahs' suppressive police -- in Dashtistan in an interview with the state-run daily Payam Asaloyeh, stated while defending the public execution of four prisoners in a Borazjan's city squares also in Bushehr, on July 10, that “the people of this city have more than 150 murderers in jail facing the gallows.  The debate is on publicizing the executions. People will see that there is order in the country and that the law will punish whoever commits a murder."
 
While the state-run media is calling public executions a violation of an order issued by Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, the chief of mullahs' judiciary, the governor of the city of Dashtistan in recent days revealed that the executions have been conducted in public after securing a permit from Shahroudi. 
Gholamreza Keshtgar, the governor of Dashtistan, told Payam Asaloyeh, "Execution in public has been banned unless approved by an order from the chief of the judiciary, or in special cases.  In the city of Dashtistan, the authorities demanded a public execution and Shahroudi permitted." 

On January 30, the speaker of the judiciary, five months before the execution of four prisoners in Borazjan, held a press conference where he discussed an order related to the ban on public executions by Shahroudi.
 
According to Gholami, in July alone, twelve prisoners were executed in the Borazjan with a population of 250,000.
NCRI

Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, mullahs' judiciary chief upheld death sentence for a minor, reported the state-run daily Etemaad on Sunday. The teenager was identified only by his first, Rahim, allegedly committed a crime when he was 15.
 
In his last trial Rahim maintained that he was innocent and acted in self-defense in a group fight.

Earlier this month, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) expressed grave concern over the violation of human rights in Iran. U.N. Human Rights official, Rupert Colville, told reporters "On the 27th of July, for example, 29 executions are reported to have taken place. A month later, on the 28th of August, another five people, including a woman, were reported to have been executed. In all, more than 220 people, including six juvenile offenders, are believed to have been executed this year in Iran already.
''
"Iran's legal obligation not to impose the death penalty for juveniles was assumed voluntarily when it ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both of which prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by people below the age of 18,'' Coleville added.

International outrage over the wave of executions heightened in late August when the regime executed two teenagers, Reza Hejazi and Behnam Zare, for crimes they allegedly committed when they were under 18. On September 10, the state-run daily Etemaad reported that the mullahs’ Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence for a 17-year-old boy named Hossein for a crime he allegedly committed when 14. According to rights groups, 140 minors are awaiting the death penalty in Iran.

Five former secretaries of state, gathering to give their best advice to the next president, agreed Monday that the United States should talk to Iran, USA Today said.
 
The wide-ranging, 90-minute session in a packed auditorium at The George Washington University, produced exceptional unity among Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Warren Christopher, Henry A.

Kissinger and James A. Baker III.

They did not agree on who should move into the White House next January. Albright and Christopher are Democrats, the others Republicans.

Albright surprised no one by endorsing Democrat Barack Obama to replace Republican George W. Bush.

"It would be sending a message of diversity" to the world, she said, drawing cheers from an audience of dozens of diplomats and hundreds of students.

AN Iranian appeals court has upheld suspended flogging and jail sentences against two women's rights campaigners, their lawyer was quoted as saying today.

"A Tehran appeals court confirmed a one-year jail term and 35 lashes for Massoumeh Zia. The sentence will be suspended for five years," Farideh Gheyrat was quoted by the Kargozaran newspaper.

"The appeals court also upheld the six month jail term and 10 lashes, which will be suspended for two years, for Marzieh Mortazi Langrudi," she added.

Zia, 31, was arrested with 70 other people in a June 2006 demonstration in a Tehran square which was broken up amid reported police brutality. The protesters were demanding equal rights for women in divorce, inheritance and child custody.

Mortazi Langrudi, 55, and 32 other women were detained in March 2007 outside a Tehran revolutionary court where five fellow feminists were standing trial for organising the 2006 protest.

Several participants in both demonstrations have been charged with disturbing public order or harming national security and given jail terms, some suspended.

Iran has exerted mounting pressure on women's rights campaigners over the past year. Earlier this month four activists were sentenced to six months in jail over articles on feminist websites.

It has also cracked down on women involved with a signature campaign that calls for change to Iranian laws deemed as discriminatory to women.

Ms Gheyrat added that the appeals court had sentenced a member of the teachers' union, Ali Pour-Soleiman, to one year in prison and 35 lashes, which would be suspended for five years.

But the court commuted a three-year sentence against activist teacher Mohammad Hashemi to a 15 million rial ($A1920) fine.

Dozens of teachers were arrested following demonstrations in March last year, in which they demanded higher salaries and accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of not keeping his election promises to spread wealth.

Damascus: A human rights group said that a Syrian military court has sentenced 50 Kurds to jail on charges related to a 2005 protest.

The National Organization for Human Rights (NOHR) said in a statement on Monday that the Kurds were arrested in June 2005 for participating in a demonstration in Qamishili.

The Syrian Kurds were protesting the assassination of a prominent Kurdish cleric at the time.

NOHR said the court passed the sentences on Sunday.

The Daily Telegraph

A Taliban commander has credited Iranian-supplied weapons with successful operations against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
 

By Kate Clark in Kabul

The comments by the commander, who would not be named but operates in the south east of the country where there has been a surge in Taliban attacks, were a rare admission of co-operation between elements within the Iranian regime and forces fighting British and American troops in Afghanistan.

"There's a kind of landmine called a Dragon. Iran's sending it," he said. "It's directional and it causes heavy casualties.

"We're ambushing the Americans and planting roadside bombs. We never let them relax."

The commander, a veteran of 30 years who started fighting when the Soviet Union was occupying Afghanistan, said the Dragon had revolutionised the Taliban's ability to target Nato soldiers deployed in his area.

"If you lay an ordinary mine, it will only cause minor damage to Humvees or one of their big tanks. But if you lay a Dragon, it will destroy it completely," he said.

A "Dragon" is the local nickname for a type of weapon known internationally as an Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP) or "shaped charge" and has been used with devastating effect in Iraq by Iranian-backed groups. It is shaped so that all the explosive force is concentrated in one direction - the target - rather than blasting in all directions and weakening its impact.

A former mujahideen fighter who knows the Afghan arms market well and who asked to be known as Shahir said the Dragon mines came directly from Iran.

Iran has denied these allegations, but Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British Ambassador in Kabul, said the British Army, which is deployed in south-western Afghanistan, had intercepted consignments of weapons which they believe were "donated by a group within the Iranian state".

The only other possible source, the arms expert said, would be Pakistan's Tribal Areas where a relatively sophisticated arms industry has grown up. "Until now," he said, "no-one in the Tribal Areas has been able to copy these mines. Both the metal and the explosives are different, very high quality and very effective, obviously not Chinese or Pakistani."

He said there were two routes for Iranian weaponry getting to the Taliban. "There are people inside the state in Iran who donate weapons. There are also Iranian businessmen who sell them."

Iranian-made weapons, he said, whether smuggled or donated, were the most popular among Taliban fighters and fetch premium prices on the open market. "A Kalashnikov rifle made in Iran costs two to three hundred dollars more than one made anywhere else" he said. "Its beauty lies in the fact that it can also fire grenades, up to 300 meters. This is something new and it's in great demand."

Iran, a theocratic, Shia Muslim state should have little common cause with the Taliban, an extremist Sunni Muslim movement which massacred hundreds of Afghan Shia civilians and killed nine Iranian diplomats when it was in power.

Only the worsening relations between Iran and America might explain the weapons supply.

Sir Sherard said Iran was playing "a very dangerous game".

He added: "I suspect some of their agencies genuinely don't know what others are up to. We've seen a limited supply of weapons by a group within the Iranian state, not necessarily with the knowledge of all other agencies of the Iranian state, sending some very dangerous weapons to the Taliban in the south."

- Kate Clark's full report is on BBC2's Newsnight on Monday Sept 15 at 10.30pm, and the BBC World Service on Thursday Sept 18 at 10.10am

Kurdistan region President Masoud Barzani welcomed the decision of Iraqi presidency council to consider what had been done against Kurdish people from oppressions, mass killings and chemical bombardments as genocide by all the standards.
Kurdish region president office chief of staff Dr. Fuad Hussein announced in a statement that, President Barzani had described the decision as important and hoped that Kurdish people not to face such sufferings again.
The statement reads as follows:
After Iraqi national assembly on 14th April of 2008 approved a law bill considering Anfal campaign and Halabja chemical bombardment against Kurdish people as Genocide, Iraqi presidency council in its 26th resolution upheld the assembly’s approval and described the crimes against Kurdish people as genocide.
Kurdistan region president warmly welcomes such important decision and hopes that Kurdish people will not e subjected to such sufferings and oppressions, and all realize what has happened to this nation.
Such decision is an evidence of the tragic facts in the history of Kurds. At the time we welcome that resolution, we also confirm that we will continue on serious and common working with the federal government of Iraq to end the aftermath of those catastrophes came over our nation, and reduce the size of the sufferings and miseries of the victims.
Fuad Hussein
Chief of Kurdistan region presidency office

Geneva  - The Greens party parliamentary group supported the families of Iranian opposition in Iraq. It called on the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene to protect opponents, threatened with deportation by the authorities in Baghdad.

In a letter addressed to President of the ICRC, Jakob Kellenberger, the Greens parliamentary group expresses great concern about the situation of refugees
in the Iranian city of Ashraf, north-east of Baghdad.

Some 3500 opponents of the Iranian regime have been refugees since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, under the protection of U.S. forces. The Iraqi authorities call for the transfer of control of Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi security forces. Iranian opposition fears that Baghdad, at the request of Tehran, expels them to Iran.

Humanitarian law

"Under the international humanitarian law, residents of Ashraf can neither be extradited to Iran nor deported from Iraq, nor displaced inside the Iraqi territory, "  says the letter, signed by the president of Greens parliamentary group, Therese Frösch.

"In order to protect theses people, we ask the ICRC to do its utmost to ensure that the Ashraf region remains under the control of the multinational forces,"
Swiss Greens continued.

The ICRC said that it is in contact with all parties in this case. The residents of Ashraf are protected by provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Some fifty representatives of families of Iranian opposition have held a daily sit-in since August 25 outside the UN in Geneva.

A festival for the Kurdish culture is expected to be held on September 19 in Moscow.
The festival will be arranged within the activities of Committee of inter-regional relations and national policy of the Moscow City.

A large number of Kurdish artists from Kurdistan region of Iraq and Artists Associations in Moscow and other Russian cities will participate in the festival.
The festival is conducted in Svetlanovski Hall at (15-22).
For more information, you can contact the following phone numbers:

5147520 – Matlab Osmanov
89037927189 – Yuri Daseni
89265273116 - the committee organizing the festival
KURDSAT

Four people dead as a major flood occurred in Choman district, north-west of Hawler province in Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Heavy rain started on Wednesday evening, destroying many buildings and hundreds of hectares of lands were covered by mud.

The heavy rain lasted for several hours; 3 members of one family drowned in Kania-Rash who were in the area for grazing cattle, and another shepherd and 120 head of sheep were drowned in Wadi-Balayian.

Flooding cut the main road between Choman-Soran-Hajiomaran and paralyzed traffic.

Public Statement by Amnesty International

Amnesty International is concerned about more than 50 imprisoned members of Iran's Kurdish minority who are currently on hunger strike in prison in protest against continuing torture, executions and other gross abuses of human rights. There are growing concerns for their safety as a result of their hunger strike.

The hunger strike was launched by a number of prisoners on 25 August 2008. Reliable sources indicate that those protesting now include 15 prisoners who are being held in Sanandaj, 33 at Oroumiye, three at Saqqez and four who are being held in Tehran. The hunger strikers include three women's rights activists - Zeynab Beyezidi, Hana Abdi and Ronak Saffarzadeh, all prisoners of conscience who should be released immediately and unconditionally and at least eight prisoners who were sentenced to death after unfair trials.

The hunger strikers are calling for an end to the use of torture and other ill-treatment of prisoners and for an immediate end to executions and the use of the death penalty. They are also calling for better prison conditions and independent inspection of Iranian prisons by national and international human rights bodies, for an end to the use of internal exile as a method of punishing dissent and for an end to official discrimination against the Kurdish minority, including prisoners.

There is little to indicate that the Iranian authorities will accede to the hunger strikers' demands even though the prisoners have termed their hunger strike 'unlimited'. To date, the authorities have not expressed any reaction to the demands or to the hunger strikers themselves.

The prisoners' demands reflect longstanding problems in Iran which affect the Kurdish minority and many others who oppose or criticise the authorities (see, for example, Amnesty International's report, Iran: Human rights abuses against the Kurdish minority, published July 2008.

Amnesty International continues to call for an end to torture, executions and other human rights violations in Iran, including discrimination against Kurds and members of other ethnic and religious minorities. The organisation also continues to call for the immediate, unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, including the three women's rights activists who are among the hunger-striking prisoners, and for the suspension of all death sentences, including those against hunger strikers Arslan Oliya'i, Anvar Hossein Panahi, Habib Latifi, Farhad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili and Ali Haydariyan.

---------

For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or visit our website at http://www.amnesty.org

East Gulf Team
Middle East and North Africa Programme
Amnesty International
International Secretariat
1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom

NCRI – A 30-year-old women prisoner identified as Gilan Mohammadi and an Afghan national, Gholamali Eskandari, are sentenced to death by stoning. Both are awaiting their sentences to be carried out in Isfahan prison central Iran.
 
Despite much smoke screening by the mullahs' judiciary last month regarding the commuting of all such rulings, there has not been any change made in these two cases.

In July 2007, the Iranian regime caused international outrage when Jafar Kiani was stoned to death in the northwestern city of Qazvin.  

A man and a woman -- Abbas H. and Mahbubeh A. -- were also stoned to death in May 2006 in the northeastern city of Mashhad, although their execution has never been officially confirmed.

On February 4, the mullahs' Supreme Court upheld the death sentence by stoning of two sisters Zohreh (27) and Azar (28) Kabiri-Neyat in the notorious Gohardasht (Rajaishahr) prison in Karaj some 40 km west of the capital Tehran.

Similarly, in the winter of 2007, the death sentence by stoning of a 49-year-old man named Abdullah Farivar was upheld by the Supreme Court in the northern city of Sari. The man has two children.

NCRI – The mullahs' Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for a 17-year-old boy named Hossein for an alleged crime he committed when 14, reported the state-run daily Etemaad on Wednesday.

In his court sessions, he denied committing a crime. However, the lower court refused to accept his claim and ruled against him.
According to rights groups, 140 minors are awaiting the death penalty in Iran. Twenty-four human rights organizations around the world – including NGOs from Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, Turkey, Bahrain and Iran itself – launched an appeal on July 8 to Teheran authorities to suspend the executions and commute the prison sentences. Across the globe, voices have been raised to ban the death penalty for minors once and for all in Iran.

“These executions are contrary to international law which bans capital punishment for minors, however serious their crimes,” said Bernard Boeton of Terre des Hommes during a press conference in Geneva on July 8. “Iran has signed and ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International covenant on civil and political rights. No other reason, whether religious or cultural, can prevail over international treaties.”

NCRI – The mullahs' regime hanged a prisoner without identifying him in the northern city of Sari, reported the state-run daily Iran on Thursday.

Another prisoner arrested with the man hanged today was executed in March while a third one received life imprisonment. 

The mullahs' regime executed more people than any other country in the world per capita so far this year.
 
The European Parliament (EP) expressed deep concern over human right violations in Iran especially execution of juveniles on September 4.

"Having regard to the Declaration of 29 July, 2008, by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the execution of 29 people in Evin prison in Iran,

Having regard to Council declaration of 25 August 2008 on the execution by hanging of Reza Hejazi,
Having regard to the statement of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union on the imminent execution of Behnood Shojaee and of Bahman Soleimanian on 19 and 28 August 2008," the final statement said.

NCRI – The State Security Forces (SSF) – mullahs' suppressive police – beat up a 60-year-old man for smoking in public in the western city of Khorramabad.

SSF agents paid no attention to the man who was shouting that he had just arrived in the city and did not mean any harm.

Shop keepers and onlookers stepped in to get the man freed. The local residents also tried to help the man by booing the SSF agents.

With the start of Ramadan last week in Iran, harsh treatment of those breaking the fast has added to people's problems with the mullahs' regime.

In a figure given by the deputy chief of the SSF on Tuesday, nearly 26,000 citizens have already received warring citations for breaking their fast in the streets.

In a directive issued a few days before Ramadan, the SSF ruled that no one is allowed to consume food or beverages in public.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has shut down more than 200 eateries and warned 26,000 people for violating a ban on eating and offering food before sunset during Ramadan, Iran's deputy police chief was quoted as saying.

"Since the beginning of Ramadan more than 26,000 who had eaten in public, or vendors selling food during the day, have received a warning in 27 provinces," Kargozaran newspaper quoted Hossein Zolfaghari as saying.

He added that "208 businesses have been shut down in this regard" during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims are required to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk.

Iranian police issued a stern warning before the September 2 start of Ramadan to crack down on businesses selling food -- with the exception of supermarkets and grocery stores -- before the sunset breaking of the fast.

They also said people eating in public would be confronted.

For more than a year, Iranian police patrols have been ubiquitous on the streets to enforce a nationwide crackdown on appearance and behaviour deemed as immoral or un-Islamic.

NCRI – Brig. Gen. Hossein Zolfaqari, deputy chief of the State Security Forces (SSF) – mullahs' suppressive police – said that 26,000 people were stopped on the streets to receive warring citations for not fasting only in the first week of holy month of Ramadan.
"They ate in public during hours of fasting," Zolfazari said. In addition to that number, some 755 restaurants and 766 drivers were ticketed for breaking the fast.

"To that end, there have been 1,029 cases pending for judicial reviews. Some 208 restaurants were shutdown and 376 driver licenses were revoked," Zolfzqari added.

According to mullahs' laws, there is no room for breaking the fast under any circumstances. Whipping in public is a customary punishment for citizens breaking fast earlier than dusk. Many people go through a very difficult period during month of Ramadan.

Widespread arrests of youths not abiding by the suppressive rules are made by the SSF agents in Ramadan.

Reporters Without Borders today called for the release of a Kurdish contributor to national and foreign media, Massud Kurdpoor, who was arrested by intelligence ministry agents at his home in Bukan, Iranian Kurdistan on 7 August 2008. The teacher had been broadcasting regularly on foreign radio stations Voice of America, Radio France International and Deutsche Welle about increased repression and violations of human rights in the region. Kurdpoor was held in solitary confinement for three weeks before being transferred to jail in Mahabad, the main city of Kurdistan. He was charged at the Mahabad revolutionary court on 7 September 2008 with “publicity against the regime during interviews given to foreign and enemy media” without any lawyer in court to represent him. His arrest brings to six the number of Kurdish journalists behind bars in Iran.

The Kurdish high profile delegation have been able to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government concerning the existence of Peshmarga forces and Iraqi forces in Khanaqeen and the other areas of Diyala province.

London based Sharq al Awsat newspaper on Tuesday reported from Iraqi foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, member of the delegation, that the two sides had reached an agreement on keeping the Iraqi federal forces out of Khanaqeen and having collaboration between the Iraqi and Kurdish sides for any military actions in the area.
Tensions raised between the Iraqi government and Kurdistan region government when the Iraqi forces tried to break into the already secure town of Khanaqeen under the pretext of chasing the terrorists of al Qaeda.
Kurdish leadership and the people of the area were against Iraqi government decision, but Baghdad remained persistent until a Kurdish delegation visited Baghdad and held talks with al Maliki to end the problems.
“The mission of the delegation was to review all the long term issues and we are ready to open them up”, Zebari told the paper, without mentioning a specific time table set for reaching an agreement over the issues, which been periodically raised since the fall of former dictator regime.
“The goal of sending the delegation to Baghdad was to enclose the tensions raised in Khanaqeen and solve the other problems” he added

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government spokesman revealed that the Kurdish delegation had returned to Kurdistan region to discuss the attitude of Iraqi government over the recent developments, pointing out that the second round of the meetings led the two sides to a common understanding concerning the articles of constitution and scope of Prime Minister as top commander of Iraqi armed forces to move military units across the country.
In an interview with al Hurra channel, government spokesman Ali al Dabagh said KRG and Baghdad attempted to choose dialogue as the main option and problems solved according to the constitution and the political agreements among the parties in the government.
“The two sides stressed on dialogue for solving the problems, but there is one fact, which that the government should impose its authority on all the Iraqi land, except Kurdistan region that has a special status.”
He also expected the two sides to continue in their talks until reaching a constitutional agreement that would grant the interests of all.
Kurdish leadership is highly sensitive about the existence of Iraqi forces in Khanaqeen, because it’s part of the disputed territories that include the implementation of article 140, and that Kurdistan expects the areas to return to Kurdistan territory.

Syrian authorities have arrested two Kurdish leaders, charging one with a capital offence, as part of a campaign to curb political dissidents.

The National Organisation of Human Rights in Syria said Talal Mohammad of the banned Wifaq party, an offshoot of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is also active in Turkey and Iraq, was arrested without warrant in northeastern Syria last week and not heard from since.
Mashaal Tammo, an official in Future Movement, a banned opposition party which advocates democracy, was arrested earlier and charged on August 27 with committing aggression and arming Syrians to start civil war, a capital offence.

Before his arrest, Tammo, who renounces violence, said Syrian policy towards Kurds risked a repeat of riots that killed 30 people in Syria in 2004.

Tammo has denied the charges and human rights lawyer Mohannad Al Hassani said it would require a great deal of evidence to prove that Tammo had wanted to start civil war.

"The authorities cannot resort to such fearsome charges just because they disagree with someone's opinions," he said.

A US State Department spokesman denounced Tammo's arrest: "We condemn the detention of Tammo and other Syrian prisoners of conscience and call for their immediate release."

"We encourage the international community to join us in calling on the Syrian government to stop its policy of arresting critics of the regime and to comply with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

NCRI – Local shopkeepers refused to open until 11 a.m. on Saturday supporting the hunger strike by the Kurdish political prisoners in the northwestern city of Mahabad.

The State Security forces (SSF) – mullahs' suppressive regime—and local agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) attacked the shopkeepers and citizens in the streets to force them to open their businesses.

Local residents flocked outside city's court. Plain-clothes security agents were taking photos and films of demonstrators. The protesters vowed to hold another demonstration on Monday.

Kurdish political prisoners have gone on hunger strike nationwide over prison conditions, said a statement marking the start of the protest on August 25.

"There are 40 prisoners in the northwestern city of Orumieh, 15 in the northwestern city of Mahabad, 13 in the western city of Sanandaj and eight in Tehran's notorious Evin prison," said the statement not locating the four remaining prisoners.

The statement calls on the "world conscience" to act on behalf of political prisoners under the worsening conditions in the mullahs' jails. Eight Kurdish journalists and political prisoners are on death row, according to the statement.

The Kurdish prisoners called for "an immediate stay of execution sentences for political prisoners and an end to all forms of torture and degrading punishments."
The strikers also demanded that prisons throughout the country come under an international monitoring committee.
   
The mullahs' inhuman regime holds political prisoners in Evin prison ward 209 run by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). In addition, Gohardasht prison, 40 kilometers west of Tehran, is another facility with an unknown number of political prisoners constantly living in grave conditions.

NCRI – The State Security Forces (SSF) – mullahs' suppressive police — Small Businesses Task Force, cracked down on internet cafes in the western city of Sanandaj on Thursday. 

The police units virtually tore down the cafes into pieces and beat up the customers primarily youths spending time in these places in summer leisure time.

The SSF Chastity Units in line with the so-called "boosting public security plan," effective April 2007, make arrests of the youngsters deemed appearing immodest in public.

The SSF in 2007 closed down 24 Internet cafes and other coffee shops, arresting 23 people, state-run media reported then.

Colonel Nader Sarkari, a SSF official told IRNA news agency that in a single day 435 coffee shops have been inspected, 170 had been warned and "23 people were detained", adding 11 of them were women in Tehran.

"Using immoral computer games, storing obscene photos ... and the presence of women wearing improper dresses were among the reasons why they have been closed down," Sarkari said.

The cafe crackdowns coincide at that time with a new wave of suppression of women under the pretext of "improper dress".

The so-called "boosting public security plan" was first introduced in April 2007 to combat popular uprisings. Mass street arrests of hundreds of thousands of women and youth under the pretext of "mal-veiling" and cracking down on "thugs and hooligans" followed. In the same period, more than 300 prisoners were sent to gallows.