Arash Saghar Remains in Ward 209, Five Months after his Arrest

Arash Saghar

The Humanrights House of Iran: Arash Saghar, a Mousavi campaign worker in eastern Iran, remains in ward 209 of Evin Prison 5 months after his arrest

RAHANA – 5 months after his arerst, Arash Saghar remains in limbo in the notorious ward 209 of Evin prison, according to one his friends. Saghar was a senior Mousavi campaign worker in Sunni regions during the June 2009 presidential election. He is reportedly being interrogated over his relationship with Molavi Abdolhamid, the leader of Iran’s Sunni minority.
Saghar who is a native of Gonbad Kavoos was Mousavi’s campaign liaison officer with the region’s Sunni population. He was arrested on November 22, 2009 and his refusal to cooperate with his interrogators has resulted in his continuing detention. Following his arrest, Saghar was fired from his work.

Man with golden voice, Ted Williams, one year after shooting to fame

Ted Williams

YAHOO News:

Just over a year ago when the world first saw Ted Williams, he was homeless and standing at the side of a road holding a sign that said he had a great voice.

Now the man with the golden voice has a much different look. He has a clean haircut, glasses, is no longer wearing a camouflage jacket and is living under a roof.

Williams shot to fame after the Columbus Dispatch newspaper posted a video shot by Doral Chenoweth. Williams was standing at the side of a road with a sign that read, “I have a God given gift of voice.” Curious, Chenoweth asked Williams to say something and the video took off.

Ismailova Theatre of Dance

Merey Ismailova - Theatre of Dance

Neighbourhood Arts Network:

About: Ismailova Theatre of Dance brings theatre and dance together to express sincere feelings, tell real stories, show touching characters and dreams through original choreography. Dancers and actors of Ismailova Theatre of Dance work in various dance styles such as classical ballet, contemporary dance, traditional folk dance, commercial dance, contact improvisation, musical theatre, physical theatre.
The Ismailova Theatre of Dance regularly performs on various stages of the city and provides educational opportunities in dance, acting and singing.

Thoughts about art and community:

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov registered as a candidate for President of Turkmenistan

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov

Turkmenistan Ru: President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has been registered as a candidate for the highest office in the country. The Turkmen leader received the appropriate certificate today at the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CEC) of Turkmenistan.

Upon completion of the registration procedure, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov got acquainted with the working conditions of the CEC. He viewed an electronic scoreboard for monitoring the pace of election across the country, as well as reference materials for preparation and holding of elections, instructions for filling out of documents. The President of Turkmenistan also viewed samples of identification cards for local and foreign observers and media, boxes for stationary and early voting and voting at home.

Foreign Terrorist Organizations

Foreign Terrorist Organizations

U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE: Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism

Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) are foreign organizations that are designated by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended. FTO designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business.

Current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations

1. Abu Nidal Organization (ANO)
2. Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)
3. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (AAMS)
4. Al-Shabaab
5. Ansar al-Islam (AAI)
6. Asbat al-Ansar
7. Aum Shinrikyo (AUM)
8. Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)
9. Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army (CPP/NPA)
10. Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA) …

The Murder of Rafiq Tagi!

Rafiq Tagi

Pen Info: And they broke another pen, to keep the oppression alive…

Sword against pen, torture and persecution against free speech and freedom of thought: this is the way of custodians of darkness; this is the natural extension of the inquisition and heresy tribunals of the medieval age, now revived under the cover of Islam and by Muslim fundamentalists. The guardians of the inquisition spilled the blood of another writer: Rafiq Tagi. He was a prominent Azerbaijani writer and intellectual whose views ran counter to the official and fundamentalist interpretations of Islam by Iranian mullahs.

Merry Christmas – سال نو میلادی بر همگان مبارک باد

Merry Christmas- سال نو میلادی بر همگان مبارک باد!

The Interview of Reza Moridi as a First Iranian-Canadian Elected to Legislature

The One Who Goes Away

There are always, in each of us, these two: the one who stays, the one who goes away— —Eleanor Wilner But I am the one who always goes away. The first time was the most— was the most silent I did not speak, did not answer those who stood waving with the soft noise of saris flapping in the wind.

To help the journey coconuts were flung from Juhu beach into the Arabian Sea— But I saw beggars jump in after those coconuts—a good catch for dinner. And in the end who gets the true luck from those sacrified coconuts? I am the one who always goes away. Sometimes I’m asked if I were searching for a place that can keep my soul from wandering a place where I can stay without wanting to leave.

Who knows. Maybe the joy lies in always being able to leave— But I never left home. I carried it away with me—here in my darkness in myself. If I go back, retrace my steps. I will not find that first home anywhere outside in that mother-land place. We weren’t allowed to take much but I managed to hide my home behind my heart.

Look at the deserted beach now it’s dusk—no sun to turn the waves gold, no moon to catch the waves in silver mesh— Look at the in-between darkness when the sea is unmasked she’s no beauty queen. Now the wind stops beating around the bush— While the earth calls and the hearth calls come back, come back— I am the one who always goes away. Because I must— with my home intact but always changing so the windows don’t match the doors anymore—the colours clash in the garden— And the ocean lives in the bedroom.I am the one

who always goes
away with my home
which can only stay inside
in my blood—my home which does not fit
with any geography.
—Sujata Bhatt, from

“The Stinking Rose,”

1995

Prepared By: Erkana Omot

Ashgabat’s “Palace of Happiness” registers first pairs of newlyweds

Palace of Happiness

Turkmenistan Ru: – The Wedding Palace “Bagt Koshgi” (Palace of Happiness) was inaugurated in Ashgabat in the days of celebration of the 20th anniversary of Turkmenistan‘s independence. The Wedding Palace has already registered the first pairs of newlyweds. The building with original architecture was erected in the southwestern part of the Turkmen capital. A three-step structure is crowned by a cube with a ball with a diameter of 32 meters displaying the map of Turkmenistan.

Iranians Accused of a Plot to Kill Saudis’ U.S. Envoy

Mansour J arbabsiar

By CHARLIE SAVAGE and SCOTT SHANE – Published: October 11, 2011

WASHINGTON – The New York Times — The United States on Tuesday accused Iranian officials of plotting to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States in a bizarre scheme involving an Iranian-American used-car salesman who believed he was hiring assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million.

The alleged plot also included plans to pay the cartel, Los Zetas, to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Argentina, according to a law enforcement official.

The plotters also discussed a side deal between the Quds Force, part of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Los Zetas to funnel tons of opium from the Middle East to Mexico, the official said. The plans never progressed, though, because the two suspects — the Iranian-American and an Iranian Quds Force officer — unwittingly were dealing with an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, officials said.

A wedding feast is in the imam’s office of Kazan’s Qolsharif mosque

A Wedding in Kazan

Saudi Aramco WORLD: A wedding feast is in full swing in the imam’s office of Kazan’s Qolsharif mosque, a gleaming white, blue-domed landmark atop the city’s citadel. As my interpreter Olga Kassimova and I tuck into round duck pies, called belish, and achpochmak, triangles of pastry stuffed with chopped meat and potatoes, Rustem Zinnurov, the 34-year-old imam, spells out the Russian city’s well-deserved reputation for religious tolerance.

“Muslim-Christian relations here are more than just tolerant,” he contends. “They are fraternal.” In a city whose 1.2 million inhabitants split about evenly between Tatar Muslim and Russian Orthodox Christian backgrounds, this is no small accomplishment. For example, he says, the Muslim holiday of ‘Id al-Fitr, here called by its Turkish name, kurban bayrami, is a day off work for the whole city. …