Stop Fundamentalism, July 27 – Iran has reportedly banned the sale of The Da Vinci Code after protests country’s Muslim and Christian clergy, the culture ministry said yesterday. The book’s translation in Farsi is already in its eighth edition.
Many Christians have condemned Dan Brown’s page-turner, saying the plot is offensive.
Stop Fundamentalism, July 26 – An Iranian woman has been sentenced to death by stoning. The sentence of Ashraf Kalhori could be carried out in the coming weeks, her lawyer said. With various fatwas, or religious edicts, issued in 2003, some ayatollahs had asked judges to stop giving death sentences by stoning, in favour of alternative punishment. Reports from Iran over recent months however indicate that sentences ordering death by stoning are again being issued: at least five in the past 12 months.
"Fatwas are not enough to stop this barbaric and medieval practice," said Shadi Sadr, a women’s rights lawyer. "Single judges are not obliged to respect the fatwas. To stop stonings, we need a change to the law," said Sadr in a telephone interview.
"My client, who has been held for five years in Tehran’s Evin jail, three days ago received a judicial ordinance which announced her imminent execution by stoning," she added.
Honda Motor Co, Japan’s third-largest automaker, reported Wednesday, July 19 a jump of almost 30 percent in net profit for the last quarter. Strong sales in North and Latin America seem to be the reason for this jump.
Computer hackers built a fake Google Tool Bar website to trick people into downloading a malicious program that could turn machines into "zombies," a US Internet security firm said on Friday, July 21.
Top South Korea online video game website announced plans on Monday, July 24 to become a player in the US market this year, AFP reported.
At least 103 people have been hanged in Iran since January of 2006
Stop Fundamentalism, July 26 – In the past four days, Iran’s theocratic regime hanged four people in the cities of Aq Qala, and Boroujerd.
According to the official news agency IRNA, on July 24, the mullahs’ judiciary hanged two young men in public in the northern town of Aq Qala. The victims were identified as 18-year-old Ibrahim Arokhi and 19-year-old Abdollah Qare-Qoul.
LONDON, July 25, 2006 (AFP) – A couple in Scotland were jailed Tuesday for making their four children live in a house filled with dog excrement and garbage.
Education officials were concerned after one of the children, aged five, eight, 12 and 13, began growling, barking and would try to squeeze into small spaces at school.
Scott P. Davis
Obviously, it is far easier to create an inanimate object that achieves a realistic visual image in CG, than an organic, living object. This is because organic objects move, change color, and have almost an infinite diversity of textures. Creating a human face that is challenging, but not impossible. A very good job is done by Luiz Amaral and his team for TV Globo in Brazil. They created a human character that is very photorealistic. The character is female and does the job of a news anchor on television. They actually ran the spot called Eva Byte for some time. Although this is experimental, the implications of this are astounding.
Reuters AlertNet, JUly 24 – Iraq has completed repairs to one of two sabotaged oil pipelines that export crude from its northern fields to Turkey and aims to restart the flow this week, Iraq’s oil minister said on Sunday.
"We completed the repairs today," Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told Reuters in London. "We hope to restart it very soon. This week."
USAID, July 24 – Iraq has further advanced in the Stand By Agreement.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) project advisers were major participants in the Ministry of Finance’s 2007 Budget Preparation Retreat held in May.
