Today a seminar entitled “The New Political Role of Internet and Mobile Phone: Example Iran” took place in Brussels with the presence of tens of Iranian and European journalists, political analysts and social activists.
Radio Zamaneh correspondent reports that Ben Roome, Nokia-Siemens representative was questioned about the equipment his company has provided for the Islamic Republic government.
In 2008, through a Nokia-Siemens Company agreement with Iran, the Islamic Republic was provided with equipment that gave it the capability to interfere and monitor the messages of protesters. The people in attendance claimed the sale of this equipment to Iranian government led to the incarceration and death of numerous Iranian activists.
In response, Ben Roome stated: “Nokia typically provides the tracking technology to any state that demands it and primarily the equipment was given to Iran without specific knowledge of the precise nature of their government. In 2009, after understanding the actions of Iran, Nokia stopped providing Iran with the equipment.”
Former Iranian National Television reporter, Reza Valizadeh dismissed Roome’s explanation and called it “Shameful.” He also contended that the German government was also aware of this affair and claimed they should apologize to the Iranian people.
Omid Memarian, the International Campaign for Human Rights researcher and other present journalists presented the European Union Parliament with a series of solutions for improving the situation of media in Iran.
Pressing Iran to stop blocking international media networks and restricting the activities of Iranian state television networks abroad were amongst the proposals.
Omid Memarian said that recent energy sanction imposed by the US against Iran were “to the detriment of the people of Iran” and claimed that restricting international travels of Islamic Republic officials could be more effective.
Barbara Lochbihler, Member of European Union Parliament, as the head of the panel about Iran claimed there is widespread solidarity in the region with the issues in Iran, and Daniel Cohen Bendit, Deputy Chief of European Green Party compared the use of internet in Iran with that in China and claimed internet in China stops the government form being able to completely suppress dissent.
Iranian journalist, Delbar Tavakoli stressed the importance of internet in disseminating the news about Iran’s recent protests and added that this was done not only by journalists and bloggers but more so by ordinary people.

Source: Zamaaneh

انتقاد از نوکیا زیمنس در همایش ایران در بروکسل

امروز یکم ژوییه 2010، همایشی با نام «نقش تازه‌ی سیاسی اینترنت و تلفن همراه: نمونه‌ی ایران» با حضور ده‌ها نفر از تحلیلگران، روزنامه‌نگاران و فعالان سیاسی و اجتماعی ایرانی و اروپایی در پارلمان اروپا واقع در بروکسل، پایتخت بلژیک برگزار شد

به گزارش خبرنگار اعزامی «زمانه» به این نشست، گروهی از سخنرانان و دیگر حاضران از آقای بن روم، نماینده شرکت نوکیا-زیمنس در مورد تجهیزاتی که این شرکت در اختیار دولت ایران قرار داده‌است، خواستار توضیح شدند

در سال ۲۰۰۸، قرارداد مشترک شرکت‌ نوکیا-زیمنس با ایران این امکان را به دستگاه‌های مخابراتی و امنیتی ایران داد تا پیام‌های مخالفان را مهار و شنود کنند

به گفته برخی حاضران، فروش این تجهیزات به دولت ایران موجب به زندان افتادن و کشته شدن شمار زیادی از معترضان شده‌است.
آقای روم در پاسخ به اعتراض‌ها گفت که «نوکیازیمنس به صورت عادی اطلاعات ردیابی را در اختیار دولت‌هایی که بخواهند می‌گذارد و این تجهیزات نیز ابتدا بدون شناخت دقیق از ماهیت دولت ایران در اختیار این دولت قرار گرفته ولی در سال ۲۰۰۹ با پی بردن از عملکرد دولت ایران، شرکت نوکیا تحویل این دستگاه‌ها را به ایران قطع کرده‌است

در ادامه، رضا ولی‌زاده، خبرنگار پیشین صدا و سیما که ایران را ترک کرده، به شدت به نوکیا-زیمنس اعتراض کرد و سخنان نماینده آن را شرم‌آور خواند. آقای ولی‌زاده همچنین دولت آلمان را آگاه از این جریان دانست و خواستار عذرخواهی دولت این کشور از ملت ایران شد

امید معماریان، پژوهشگر کمپین بین‌المللی حقوق بشر و از دیگر روزنامه‌نگاران ایرانی حاضر در نشست نیز، چندین پیشنهاد را در زمینه بهبود وضعیت رسانه‌ای ایران به پارلمان اروپا ارائه کرد؛ فشار به دولت ایران برای متوقف کردن ارسال پارازیت بر روی شبکه‌های رسانه‌ای و فشار به شبکه‌های دولتی تلویزیونی ایران که در خارج از کشور آزادانه به فعالیت مشغولند ار جمله این پیشنهادها بودند

امید معماریان تشدید تحریم‌ها مانند تحریم‌های اخیر بنزین از سوی آمریکا را «به ضرر مردم ایران» دانست و پیشنهاد محدودیت سفر برای مقام‌های جمهوری اسلامی در میان کشورها را داد

بارابارا لوخبیهلِر، مدیر هیأت مربوط به ایران در پارلمان اروپا در بخشی از این هماش، اظهار داشت که «همبستگی عظیمی در منطقه با مسائل ایران وجود دارد» و از حضور گسترده ایرانیان و غیر ایرانیان در این نشست ابراز خوش‌حالی کرد

دنی کوهن-بنْدیت، نایب‌رئیس حزب سبزها که سخنران آغازین این سمینار بود وجود اینترنت در ایران را با چین مقایسه کرد و اظهار داشت که «اینترنت در چین هم باعث شده دولت نتواند آزادی‌ها را به طور کامل سرکوب کند

در ادامه، دلبر توکلی یکی از روزنامه‌نگاران پیشین روزنامه‌های اعتماد و سرمایه، نقش اینترنت در ارسال صدای جنبش در همان لحظات وقوع، به دنیای خارج را بسیار مهم دانست و افزود که «بسیاری از مردم عادی و نه روزنامه‌نگاران و وبلاگ‌نویسان» این کار را انجام دادند

در بخشی دیگر، رضا معینی، مدیر بخش ایران گزارشگران بدون مرز، ورود اینترنت به ایران را با ورود تلگراف به کشور مقایسه کرد و اظهار داشت که «اینترنت و تلگراف هر دو از بابت منافع داخلی و خارجی، درگیری و چالش به‌وجود آورده‌اند

G8 leaders pressed Iran for more transparency in its nuclear activities as well as urging it to respect the rule of law and freedom of expression for its citizens.
In their summit, G8 leaders expressed concern over the expansion of nuclear weapons and referred to Iran and North Korea as the main sources of threat in this respect.
In a communiqué, the eight industrial powers who are meeting in Canada this weekend announced: “We are profoundly concerned by Iran’s continued lack of transparency regarding its nuclear activities and its stated intention to continue and expand enriching uranium, including to nearly 20 percent.”
The leaders of eight rich nations called on Iran to meet its “international obligations” and to respect the sanctions approved by the UN.
Reuters also reports that the G8 statement also urged all countries to impose all the recent sanctions approved against Iran.
The leaders of Britain, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and USA urged the Islamic Republic to respect the rights of its citizens amid a year-long crackdown on opposition supporters who have challenged the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in the 2009 election.
In their statement, the G8 leaders write: “We expect the government of Iran to respect the rule of law and freedom of expression as outlined in the international agreements to which Iran is a party.”
They also state that they are ready to hold further talks with Iran on its nuclear program.
The UN approved a new set of sanctions against Iran on June 9. The US, the European Union and Australia have gone on to approve further unilateral sanctions against Iran which has caused Russia to balk and threaten to back down from its support for the UN sanctions.
The world powers accuse Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons, a charge that has been repeatedly denied by Iran which claims its nuclear program is wholly peaceful.

Source: Zamaaneh

تاکید «جی ٨» بر پیمان‌های بین‌المللی

رهبران هشت کشور صنعتی جهان روز گذشته با صدور بیانیه‌ای از ایران خواستند علاوه بر اجرای قطع‌نامه اخیر سازمان ملل متحد بر حق آزادی شهروندان خود نیز احترام بگذارد

این گروه موسوم به « جی ٨» پس از برگزاری نشستی دو روزه در کانادا با صدور بیانیه‌ای از گسترش سلاح هسته‌ای ابراز نگرانی کردند و از «ایران» به همراه «کره شمالی» به عنوان «تهدید اصلی» یاد کردند

به گزارش رویترز، رهبران هشت کشور ثروتمند جهان، انگلستان، کانادا، ژاپن، فرانسه، آلمان، ایتالیا، روسیه و ایالات متحده آمریکا از همه کشور‌ها خواستند تا تحریم‌های اخیر علیه ایران را به طور کامل اجرا کنند.
آن‌ها گفتند که ایران هنوز در مسیر گسترش «سلاح» هسته‌ای است

رهبران گروه در بیانیه‌ای گفتند که ما عمیقا از ادامه «عدم شفافیت ایران» در برنامه‌های هسته‌ای‌اش نگران هستیم

هشت کشور صنعتی جهان همچنین از گفته ایران مبنی بر ادامه و گسترش غنی‌سازی اورانیوم در حدود ٢٠ درصد ابراز «نگرانی» کردند

رهبران هشت کشور صنعتی جهان که در کانادا گردهم آمده بودند، یک بار دیگر از ایران خواستند تا به طور کامل تحریم‌ها را «رعایت» کند

آن‌ها با اشاره به عضویت ایران در پیمان‌های بین‌المللی، از این کشور خواستند تا «به حاکمیت قانون و آزادی بیان همان‌طور که در این پیمان‌‌ها آمده احترام بگذارد.»  رهبران هشت کشور ثروتمند جهان از آمادگی برای مذاکره با تهران درباره برنامه هسته‌ای جمهوری اسلامی خبر دادند.

استفن هارپر نخست وزیر کانادا در این نشست گفت که دولت‌های ایران و کره شمالی دستیابی به سلاح هسته‌ای را برای «تهدید همسایه‌های خود» انتخاب کرده‌اند.   این درحالی است که علاوه بر کشورهای دارای حق وتو در شورای امنیت یعنی بریتانیا، فرانسه، روسیه و آمریکا دیگر اعضای گروه «جی ٨» نیز از تحریم‌های سازمان ملل حمایت کرده‌اند

از سوی دیگر تصویب تحریم‌های بیش‌تر و یک‌جانبه اتحادیه‌ اروپا و آمریکا علیه ایران، روسیه؛ یعنی یکی از شرکای تجاری ایران را عصبانی کرده است.  رهبران هشت کشور صنعتی جهان موسوم به «جی ٨» برای مذاکره دو روزه درباره مسائل اقتصادی جهان، جمعه و شنبه در کانادا گرد هم آمده‌ بودند.  کشورهای غربی همواره ایران را به تلاش برای دستیابی به سلاح هسته‌ای متهم می‌کنند، ایران نیز بر صلح‌آمیز بودن برنامه هسته‌ای‌اش تاکید دارد

The US has carried out its first execution by firing squad in 14 years.

Convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, who had spent 25 years on death row, was executed soon after midnight local time (0600 GMT), after a final appeal had been rejected.

Gardner, 49, chose the firing squad before Utah banned the method in 2004. Critics say it is barbaric, harking back to the Wild West.

Gardner was only the third man put to death in this way in the US since 1976.

He was convicted in 1985 of fatally shooting a lawyer during an attempt to escape from a court where he was facing another murder charge dating from 1984.

Family vigil

The execution was carried out at a prison in Draper, a suburb of Salt Lake City, by a five-man firing squad of police officer volunteers.

Four of the .30 calibre Winchester rifles were loaded with live bullets but a fifth carried a blank, so that none of the men would have known with certainty that he had shot a lethal round.

Gardner was asked if he had any final words and said: “I do not. No.”

He was hooded and strapped to a black metal chair, with a white target pinned to his chest.

Gardner was then shot at a range of 25ft (7.6m).

Utah department of corrections director Thomas Patterson said there was a countdown from five, with the volunteers beginning to fire at two.

But Marcos Ortiz, of the KTVX TV station, said: “It was so sudden, so quick. Boom, boom, just like that. We didn’t get a countdown. It happened so quickly.”

Gardner was pronounced dead at 0020 local time.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff used the Twitter micro-blogging site to say he had given the go-ahead for execution.

“May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims,” Mr Shurtleff tweeted.

Mr Patterson said: “This is an unusual task but one we have done professionally. It has been done with absolute dignity and reverence for human life.

Members of George "Nick" Kirk's family (front row from left) Jamie Stewart, Mandi Hull, and Barb Webb, listen as the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole announces its unanimous decision to deny Ronnie Lee Gardner's request for commutation. Gardner, who shot and injured Kirk in 1985, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Friday for fatally shooting attorney Michael Burdell. (Associated Press)

“It’s been a balancing act of being sensitive to the families who lost loved ones and the family who lost a loved one tonight.”

More than 20 of Gardner’s friends and family members had gathered outside the prison to hold a vigil.

Some wore T-shirts bearing Gardner’s prisoner number, 14873, but none witnessed the execution.

Brother Randy Gardner told Associated Press news agency: “He didn’t want nobody to see him get shot. I would have liked to be there for him.”

Ronnie Lee Gardner had spent his final day watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy and meeting lawyers and clergymen.

On Tuesday, Gardner had eaten his final meal of steak, lobster, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7-Up, before beginning a 48-hour fast.

Gardner’s lawyers said he had undertaken his fast for “spiritual reasons”, the Salt Lake City Tribune newspaper reported.

‘Fair opportunity’

In 1985 Gardner had been attending court in Salt Lake City to face a charge of murdering barman Melvyn Otterstrom a year earlier.

Gardner shot dead lawyer Michael Burdell during a failed attempt to escape from the courthouse.

Mr Burdell’s family had asked for Gardner’s life to be spared but the Otterstrom family had argued against clemency. Mr Otterstrom’s son, Jason, attended the execution.

The US Supreme Court – the highest court in the nation – had rejected Gardner’s final appeal hours before the execution.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert also rejected a request for a temporary stay on Thursday, saying Gardner’s legal team had presented no material that had not already been considered by the courts.

“Mr Gardner has had a full and fair opportunity to have his case considered by numerous tribunals,” he said in a statement.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Gardner’s execution showed the US’s “barbaric, arbitrary and bankrupting practice of capital punishment”.

Death row convicts in Utah were for decades allowed to choose their method of execution.

State legislators removed that choice in 2004 and made lethal injection the standard method – but inmates sentenced before then can still opt for a firing squad.

The BBC’s Rajesh Mirchandani says that of the nine members of the state’s death row who can choose the method, four say they want to die this way.

Source: BBC

اجرای حکم اعدام در آمریکا از طریق تیرباران

در ایالت یوتا در آمریکا مجرمی پس از ۲۵ سال حبس در “سلول مرگ” تیرباران شد. اعدام “رونی لی گاردنر” توسط جوخه مرگ باردیگر به بحث‌ها پیرامون مجازات اعدام در آمریکا دامن زده است. تنها در سال گذشته ۵۲ نفر در آمریکا اعدام شدند

برای نخستین بار پس از ۱۴ سال حکم تیرباران برای یک مجرم در ایالت یوتا در آمریکا به اجرا گذاشته شد. به گفته مقامات زندان یوتا، رونی لی گاردنر، که به جرم قتل در دادگاهی به مرگ محکوم شده بود، در بامداد جمعه (۱۸ ژوئن) در برابر جوخه اعدام قرار گرفت و با شلیک گلوله کشته شد.

آخرین تلاش‌ها برای تخفیف مجازات اعدام گاردنر بی‌نتیجه ماند. نهاد‌های مسئول با رد تقاضای وی، مجازت مرگ را مجدداَ تایید کردند. تقاضای تخفیف مجازات نخست از سوی دادگاه استیناف در شهر دنور، سپس از سوی گری هربرت، فرماندار ایالت یوتا و سرانجام از سوی دیوان عالی آمریکا رد شد.

تیرباران رونی لی گاردنر ۴۹ ساله، در زندان شهر “دراپر” اجرا شد. او ۲۵ سال گذشته را در “سلول مرگ” در انتظار اجرای حکم خود به سر برده بود. به گفته مقامات رسمی گاردنر اجازه انتخاب میان تیرباران و آمپول سم را برای حکم اعدام خود داشته است. وی با انتخاب تیرباران اجرای حکم را بدست ۵ مامور جوخه مرگ سپرد.

اجرای این حکم اعدام بار دیگر به بحث‌ها و اعتراضات در آمریکا دامن زده است. در آمریکا اجرای حکم اعدام از طریق تیرباران به شدت بحث‌برانگیز و غیرقابل قبول است.

گاردنر در سال ۱۹۸۵ به جرم قتل یک وکیل در حین فرار از دادگاه به مرگ محکوم شد. در آن زمان در این دادگاه ، پرونده قتلی دیگری از سوی وی در جریان بود.

منبع فارسی: DW-World

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Iran to meet its international obligations and release all political prisoners, as well as three American hikers held for almost a year.

On the anniversary of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reelection and the deadly unrest it triggered, Clinton said Iran continues to deny its citizens their fundamental, constitutional rights.

“One year later,” Clinton said in a statement, “many political prisoners continue to suffer in jail, some facing death sentences for expressing their opinions.

“Other civil society activists in Iran are not in prison, but they face other forms of persecution,” she added.

Clinton called on Iran’s leadership “to meet their obligations to their own people and to the international community by respecting the rights and dignity of their citizens and by fully upholding Iran’s international obligations.”

She also called for the “immediate release of all imprisoned human rights defenders, including Shiva Nazar Ahari, Narges Mohammadi, Emad Baghi, Kouhyar Goudarzi, Bahareh Hedayat, Milad Asadi, and Mahboubeh Karami.

“We ask the Iranian authorities to release the three American hikers, detained without charge for almost a year, and to provide information on the status of Mr Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007,” she added.

Clinton reaffirmed US commitment “to engage with Iran on all issues in pursuit of a negotiated diplomatic resolution, on the basis of mutual respect and mutual interests.”

“But we also will continue to speak out in defense of basic human liberties and in support of those around the world who seek to exercise their universal rights,” Clinton said.

Source: AFP

کلینتون خواستار آزادی فعالان حقوق بشر در ایران شد

هیلاری کلینتون، وزیر امورخارجه آمریکا با صدور بیانیه ای از حکومت ایران خواست فعالان حقوق بشر بازداشت شده در این کشور را آزاد کند

خانم کلینتون در این بیانیه که به مناسبت سالگرد انتخابات جنجال برانگیز ریاست جمهوری ایران صادر شد، از حکومت این کشور می خواهد هر چه سریع تر شیوا نظرآهاری، نرگس محمدی، عمادالدین باقی، کوهیار گودرزی، بهاره هدایت، میلاد اسدی و محبوبه کرمی را آزاد کند

این بیانیه همچنین از حکومت ایران می خواهد به تعهدات بین المللی و مسوولیت خود در برابر مردم این کشورعمل کند

بر این اساس، در پی برخورد “خشونت آمیز” یک سال گذشته حکومت ایران با معترضان “صلح طلب” در ایران، بسیاری از زندانیان سیاسی همچنان دربند هستند، تعداد زیادی از فعالان جامعه مدنی ایران تحت فشارند و بسیاری از روزنامه نگاران برجسته، دانشگاهیان و فعالان سیاسی مجبور به ترک کشورشان شده اند

هیلاری کلینتون همچنین از ایران خواسته است هر چه زودتر سه کوهنورد آمریکایی بازداشت شده را آزاد کند و اطلاعات خود از وضع رابرت لوینسون، مامور بازنشسته پلیس فدرال آمریکا که در پی سفر به جزیره کیش مفقود شد را منتشر کند.

او همچنین بر تعهد این کشور به گفتگو با ایران برای پیدا کردن راه حل همه موضوع های مورد اختلاف تاکید کرده است

به گفته خانم کلینتون آمریکا همزمان با این رویکرد، به دفاع از آزادی های اولیه فردی ادامه خواهد داد

Source: BBC

For thirty years, the Turkish government had banned demonstrations
there following a massacre in which 37 people were killed on May Day
1977.

Efforts by unions in recent years to demonstrate in Taksim Square on
May Day were always thwarted. As recently as 2008, union headquarters
were besieged early in the morning and attacked with tear gas.
Hundreds of activists were arrested.

Last year thousands of you from all over the world sent messages
through LabourStart to the Turkish government supporting the union
call for the right to once again celebrate May Day in Taksim Square.

And this year, it finally happened.

Last Saturday, an estimated 200,000 workers peacefully demonstrated
in Taksim Square this year for the first time in a generation.

This was a great victory for the Turkish labour movement.

And it was further proof that international solidarity — including
the online campaigns ran by LabourStart — really do work.

Source: LabourStart

On January 12, Haiti was hit with an earthquake 7.0 on the Richter scale, leaving possibly 200,000 dead and 3 million affected. Much of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, is now living in makeshift camps with their water, food, and health at risk. While many countries around the world responded with aid, the US and Canada also quickly deployed troops. This talk will discuss current events and press coverage in the context of the past decade of Western policy towards Haiti, as well as the prospects for constructive relief and solidarity work.

Dan Freeman-Maloy is a Toronto-based activist and writer. He studied Canadian media coverage of the 2004 Haiti coup and has written for ZNet and other publications.

*Early in the video, Dan refers to “hurricanes” when he means “earthquakes” and “earthquakes” when he means “hurricanes”.

Source: Socialist Project

Russia said today Iran must cooperate more actively with the U.N. nuclear agency to convince the world its nuclear program is peaceful, and gave fresh signals the Kremlin may back sanctions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suggested on February 18 for the first time that Iran was actively pursuing a nuclear weapons capability now, rather than merely having done so in the past.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today repeated Iran’s insistence that suspicions about its nuclear program were baseless. But the U.S.-led campaign for more sanctions against Tehran appeared to be gaining ground.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today said Moscow was very alarmed at Iran’s lack of cooperation with the U.N. nuclear agency, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

“We are very alarmed and we cannot accept this, that Iran is refusing to cooperate with the IAEA,” Itar-Tass quoted Lavrov as saying in a radio interview.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko was quoted as saying at a briefing in Moscow that Tehran must “be more active in its cooperation with the IAEA and widen it.”

The comments reinforced indications that Moscow’s patience with Tehran is wearing thin, as the United States leads a push for the U.N. Security Council to impose a fourth round of sanctions.

Russia hinted that talks on a resolution could start soon.

“No work is in progress at the U.N. Security Council in New York today to prepare a possible sanctions-based resolution on Iran. However, given the current circumstances, we cannot fully rule out the possibility of starting this work,” Interfax quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko as saying.

Suspicions

Nesterenko said Tehran should provide information to dispel suspicions about the character of its nuclear program, Russian news agencies reported.

“The international community needs to know for certain that it is peaceful,” he said.

Germany, one of the six powers negotiating with Iran on the nuclear issue, added its voice to the pressure.

“The persistent defiance … of United Nations resolutions and Tehran’s continuation of a dangerous nuclear policy are forcing the international community to pursue further comprehensive sanctions in New York against the regime in Tehran,” government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said on Friday.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on February 18 that it feared Iran may be working now to develop a nuclear-armed missile, and Washington warned Tehran of the “consequences” of ignoring international demands.

The IAEA on Thursday seemed to be cautiously going public with concerns arising from a classified analysis which concludes that Iran already has explosives expertise relevant to a workable nuclear weapon.

The report also confirmed Iran had produced its first small batch of uranium enriched to a higher purity and had set aside most of its low-enriched uranium stockpile for this purpose, although this seemed far in excess of civilian needs.

The developments will intensify pressure on Iran to prove it is not covertly bent on “weaponizing” enrichment by allowing unfettered access for IAEA inspectors and investigators, something it rejects in protest at U.N. sanctions.

“The West’s accusations are baseless because our religious beliefs bar us from using such weapons,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by Iranian media. “We do not believe in atomic weapons and are not seeking that.”

Source: Reuters

Iranian state television said the first Iranian-built destroyer was launched today in a ceremony attended by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“The first domestically made destroyer Jamaran was launched this morning and joined Iran’s naval forces in the southern waters of the Persian Gulf,” state television IRIB reported. It did not give the location of the launch.

The report showed footage of the warship and said it was equipped with torpedoes and electronic radar. The ship is 94 meters long and more than 1,500 tons, it said. Much of Iran’s naval equipment dates from before the 1979 Islamic revolution and is U.S.-made.

Tension is high in the long-running international row over Iran’s nuclear program, with Western powers calling for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment.

The West fears Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran says it plans only civilian nuclear facilities.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said in its latest report it feared Iran might be working now to develop a nuclear payload for a missile.

The United States and its western allies say they want a diplomatic solution but have not ruled out military action against the Islamic republic.

The United States said in January it had expanded missile defense systems in and around the Gulf — a waterway crucial for global oil supplies — to counter what it sees as Iran’s growing missile threat.

Iran condemned the move and accused Washington of seeking to stoke “Iran phobia.”

Source: Reuters

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei maintained that despite opposition claims, the February 11 demonstrations showed that the Islamic Revolution has not been “derailed” and “the people have not left the path of the Revolution and the Imam.”

Ayatollah Khamenei, speaking for a group of Tabriz residents, claimed the enemies of the Revolution and a few other individuals have been trying to “insinuate that the Islamic Revolution has been derailed but the Islamic Revolution is on track today toward the same goals of the Imam,” referring to the leader of the 1979 Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini.

In the past months, a number of Shiite clerics, opposition leaders and reformist parties have announced that the Islamic Republic has “deviated” from its original path.

Opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karoubi and Mohammad Khatami claim that “widespread fraud” in the June presidential elections and the consequent crackdown on election protesters has challenged the “republic” aspect of the system. They have repeatedly said that the goals of the Revolution and the path set up by the leader of the Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini has been compromised by the recent events.

The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei who took over the position of leadership after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, has chosen to back Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in the elections and reject the demands of the opposition. He claimed if the Revolution had been derailed from its path, “this vast crowd of hearts, faith and motivation would not have been mobilized in the name of the Revolution,” referring to the February 11 demonstration in Tehran which he also described as a “divine miracle.”

He claimed the enemies of the Islamic regime had “planned to draw people away from the regime by creating clashes” but the Iranian people “hurled a hard punch into the mouths of the opposition” on February 11 because “divine power had awakened their hearts.”

On February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution which is customarily observed in Iran with demonstrations and various events, opposition forces had announced that they would stage their own demonstrations to reiterate their protest against the alleged election fraud that brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back to power in June.

According to reformist media, protesters were unable to gather on February 11 due to extreme measures of the security forces.

Ayatollah Khamenei while refraining from using any names added: “a number of people out of neglect, without deep thought and even enmity, kept speaking against the movement of the Islamic regime claiming they were for the people, but February 11 showed the real demands of the people.”

Ayatollah Khamenei insisted that the opposition leaders had acted in “ignorance” in the post-election events, and the enemies had used the events to “weaken the Islamic Republic.”

The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic also criticized the US policies in the region and added: “We candidly declare that we are against the control of a few countries over the rest of the world and we will fight against it and not let these few governments to play with the fate of world.”

Source: Radio Zamaneh

A press advocacy group says 2009 was a deadly year for reporters around the world, with at least 71 killed. But the Philippines saw the deadliest single attack ever on the press, with the execution of 31 journalists and media workers by militiamen loyal to a powerful political clan. Meanwhile, China and Iran topped the Committee to Protect Journalists’ list of countries that have the most reporters in their jails.

The Committee to Protect Journalists – or CPJ – says in its Attacks on the Press report that 2009 was the worst year for journalists’ deaths in the nearly three decades since it started keeping records.

“It was a bad year for journalist deaths, it was also a bad year for  authoritarian and repressive governments putting journalists behind bars,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. “We saw an increase in the number of journalists imprisoned. Some 136 were imprisoned when we did our census in December, and since then, things have got worse.”

He cited the media crackdown in Iran that began after the disputed June presidential election that returned President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to power and saw scores of reporters and bloggers thrown into jail. As of the end of December, 23 remained behind bars, making Iran the second largest jailer of the media after China.

Maziar Bahari, a correspondent for the U.S. magazine Newsweek, found himself part of that crackdown. He spent 118 days in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, most of it in solitary confinement, accused of spying for the foreign media.

“The function of my arrest – and the function of myself – was supposed to be connecting the reformist opposition to the Western governments,” said Bahari. “So, many hours of interrogation spent on asking me about different reformist politicians that I didn’t know really. And they wanted to force me to confess that yes, I was spying for foreign government and yes, I was in touch with different reformist politicians, and I was giving them guidelines in regards to what they should do based on what I heard from that Western government.”

Bahari warned that the Iranian authorities have also stepped up their campaign against the country’s Internet bloggers.

“I think the government of Iran in the beginning it did not pay attention to the cyber space, but recently they have passed a series of cyber crime laws and digital crime laws, that also includes the mobile texts and any kind of digital, as they call it “misinformation”, that can be criminalized,” he said.

Bloggers are also under attack in China. CPJ’s Asia expert, Bob Dietz, said that although China has the most Internet users in the world, it also has the largest and most overt Internet censorship apparatus.

“The vast majority of Chinese journalists who are in jail at this point, are in jail because of on-line activity. I think we put the number at 24 journalists imprisoned at the end of this year [sic]. I think the figure is two-thirds, isn’t it, of those people in jail are in jail for Internet activity,” he said.

The CPJ report also singled out abuses against the press in other parts of the world.

In Africa, the report said high numbers of local journalists have fled or been forced into exile after being assaulted, threatened or imprisoned. While in the Middle East and North Africa, journalists that are reporting on human rights violations are under pressure from their governments. In Latin America, reporting on crime and corruption can be a dangerous occupation. And CPJ warns that the northern Caucuses of Russia remain one of the most dangerous regions in the world for journalists to work.

The advocacy group credits its work with contributing to the release of 45 jailed journalists last year.

Source: VOA