SF News – To prepare for its October 11 World Cup Football (Soccer) FIFA qualifying match against Bahrain, Iran is to play a friendly warm-up game against Palestinians Wednesday at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran.
Palestinians have already arrived in Tehran and will be practicing in Azadi Stadium Tuesday evening.
Stop Fundamentalism – As Iran continues to shell the Kurdish region of Iraq along its border with this country to eliminate the Iranian Kurdish opposition group PJAK, hundreds of residents in the region are forced to leave.
The displaced families are staying in tents near Bozan in Soran district and humanitarian groups express fear that disease may break in the camps they live in.
International Committee of Red Cross says it has provided food and basic hygienic necessities to some 600 people. The supply should provide for a month says the head of ICRC’s sub-delegation in Erbil, Béatrice Oechsli.
Stop Fundamentalism – Amnesty International reported Monday that the Syrian intelligence agents in Europe and the United States have been monitoring, threatening and harassing dissidents living in these countries who voice their concerns about the treatment their countrymen receive at the hands of Bashar Al-Assad forces.
30 activists in eight countries have approached Amnesty International complaining threats and harassments they received from embassy officials. Some say their relatives in Syria have been subject to harassments, detention and torture due to their activities abroad.
The dissidents interviewed by Amnesty lived in Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the USA.
Stop Fundamentalism – Considering the major role the internet and social media played in flaring up popular protests in the Middle East and North Africa since the rigged presidential elections in Iran back in 2009, dictators in the region are now attempting more and more to block access to open internet by their citizens.
Heavy control of communication lines by governments and usage of internet filtering systems, and also the usage of internet surfers’ profiles and access history to find and arrest dissidents has led many Iranians and other citizens of countries in the region to start using a technology known as Virtual Private Network or VPN to cloak themselves from the government eyes.
Using the technology, surfers in Iran could sign in to a server in the United States for example and pretend that they are actually located in the US and not Iran. This way they circumvent the Iranian government’s installed filters and Iran’s information agents will not easily know which websites they visited.
Stop Fundamentalism – The humanitarian aide agencies could be running out of supplies and resources to help flood victims in Pakistan, says the United Nations.
UN estimates a total of five million people in South Pakistan affected by floods.
The funding request by United Nations to come to the aide of the government of Pakistan in addressing the needs of victims, has only received $19 million of the original $357 million requested after two weeks. The budget was requested to cover for a six months period.
Stop Fundamentalism – A cross political party intergroup in the European Parliament discussed the latest developments concerning Camp Ashraf, where members of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK/PMOI) reside, in a meeting at the EP site in Strasbourg on Wednesday, September 28.
Participants that included some 40 Euro MPs and their assistants from different political groups expressed grave concern against threats posing the defenseless residents of the camp. They described the deadline to close the camp by the year’s end “impossible” and urged the UN Secretary General and UNHCR to adopt strong measures to protect the unarmed and defenseless residents of Ashraf.
Stop Fundamentalism – International right groups are calling on all United Nations Security Council Ambassadors to support a strong resolution on violations of human rights in Syria by Bashar Al-Assad’s government against Syrian protesters and dissidents.
In a joint letter, eight international watch and advocacy groups expressed concern over ongoing violations in Syria that would very likely “amount to crimes against humanity.”
“Since mass protests began in mid-March,” wrote in their joint letter, the groups said, “The United Nations has estimated at least 2600 civilians have been killed across Syria.”
SF News – The Iraqi ambassador to Algeria, Uday Khair Allah, told reporters Wednesday that the Algerian government has decided to forgive all Iraq’s debt to this country and invited all Arab and world countries to follow Algeria’s footsteps.
Iraq’s debt to Algeria was estimated at $400 million. The amount included $167 million in unpaid interests and over $91 million in payment delay fines.
Stop Fundamentalism – Mahmoud Bahmani, Iranian director of the Central Bank said Wednesday that people will notice a fall on Dollar prices during the next few days, reported Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA.
“What is observed as ups and downs in the market for US Dollar is due to problems in the international economy,” said Bahmani adding, “Internally, we are planning to stabilize the currency.”
“We don’t determine the value of Dollar but we try to stabilize the price working with supply and demand in the market,” said Bahmani.
Stop Fundamentalism – Iranian Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, a leading church figure in Iran has been condemned to death by the Iranian government and his death sentence could be carried out imminently.
Nadarkhani who is 30 years old, became the pastor of the evangelical community in Iran when he converted to Christianity from Islam at the age of 19, reports AFP.
He was arrested and charged with apostasy in 2009 and was later sentenced to death by the Iranian regime Judiciary.
