Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate sentenced to another 6 months in prison

Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate sentenced to another 6 months in prison
Mohammadi is the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian woman after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi in 2003. Mohammadi, 52, has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and years behind bars. (AFP)
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Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate sentenced to another 6 months in prison

Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate sentenced to another 6 months in prison
  • It said the charge was brought after Mohammadi staged a protest against the execution of another political prisoner in the women’s ward of Evin Prison on Aug.6
  • She has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and years behind bars

DUBAI: Iranian authorities have issued an additional six-month prison sentence against Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, a group campaigning for the activist said.
The Free Narges Coalition said in a statement on Thursday that Mohammadi was sentenced on Oct. 19 to an additional six months in prison on the charge of “disobeying and resisting orders.”
According to the statement, the charge was brought after Mohammadi staged a protest against the execution of another political prisoner in the women’s ward of Evin Prison on Aug.6.
Mohammadi is the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian woman after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi in 2003. Mohammadi, 52, has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and years behind bars.
She is being held at Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, which houses political prisoners and those with Western ties. She already had been serving a 30-month sentence, to which 15 more months were added in January. Iran’s government has not acknowledged her additional sentencing.
The latest order reflects the Iranian theocracy’s anger that she was awarded the Nobel prize in October 2023 for years of activism despite a decades-long government campaign targeting her.
Mohammadi was a leading light for nationwide, women-led protests sparked by the death last year of a 22-year-old woman in police custody that have grown into one of the most intense challenges to Iran’s theocratic government. That woman, Mahsa Amini, had been detained for allegedly not wearing her headscarf to the liking of authorities.
The statement demanded Mohammadi’s unconditional release, saying her health situation has deteriorated drastically during her long incarceration and she is suffering from heart disease.


EU says ‘race against time’ to avoid Lebanon ‘conflagration’

EU says ‘race against time’ to avoid Lebanon ‘conflagration’
Updated 5 sec ago
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EU says ‘race against time’ to avoid Lebanon ‘conflagration’

EU says ‘race against time’ to avoid Lebanon ‘conflagration’
  • Josep Borrell says the first step needed is a ‘ceasefire’ between Israel and Hezbollah
  • Israel has been at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon since late last month

BRUSSELS: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday said the international community must speed up efforts for a political solution to end the fighting in Lebanon and prevent a “conflagration.”
In a statement released the day after a conference on aid for Lebanon in France, Borrell said the first step needed was a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We are currently engaged in a race against time between the possible start of a political process in Lebanon and a generalized conflagration with incalculable consequences,” Borrell said.
“Without a suspension of hostilities, nothing will be possible,” he said.
Borrell said once fighting was halted, Lebanon needed to organize long-postponed presidential elections “as soon as possible.”
He said the Lebanese Armed Forces must become the “only military force present” in the south of the country, where Israel is engaged in ground battles with Hezbollah.
A UN peacekeeping mission in the area must also be strengthened, he said.
International calls for an end to fighting have so far failed to end the fighting in the region.
The Paris conference on aid for conflict-stricken Lebanon raised around $800 million for humanitarian aid but saw little diplomatic progress.
Israel has been at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon since late last month, in a bid to secure its northern border after nearly a year of cross-border fire from the Iran-backed armed group.
Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest in its history.
After nearly a year of war in Gaza sparked by the attack, Israel expanded its focus to Lebanon and last month launched a massive bombing campaign targeting mainly Hezbollah strongholds across the country, sending in ground troops on September 30.
The war in Lebanon has killed at least 1,580 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.


UAE government reduces driving age, amends traffic regulations

UAE government reduces driving age, amends traffic regulations
Updated 31 min 5 sec ago
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UAE government reduces driving age, amends traffic regulations

UAE government reduces driving age, amends traffic regulations

DUBAI: The UAE Government on Friday announced a new federal decree law on traffic regulations via a statement on X.

The minimum driving age has now been reduced to 17 under the new law. 

Previously the legal age for obtaining a driver’s license was 18. 

The announcement comes with a new law prohibiting pedestrians from crossing roads that exceed the speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour.


Turkiye’s Erdogan expects a visit by China’s Xi soon, Haberturk reports

Turkiye’s Erdogan expects a visit by China’s Xi soon, Haberturk reports
Updated 41 min 58 sec ago
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Turkiye’s Erdogan expects a visit by China’s Xi soon, Haberturk reports

Turkiye’s Erdogan expects a visit by China’s Xi soon, Haberturk reports
  • Turkiye and China would discuss increasing their trade volume and potential investments during Xi’s visit

ANKARA: Turkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan expects Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to visit Turkiye soon, private broadcaster Haberturk on Friday cited him as telling reporters.
Turkiye and China would discuss increasing their trade volume and potential investments during Xi’s visit, Erdogan was quoted as saying on a flight back to Turkiye from Russia’s Kazan, where he attended the BRICS summit.


Lebanon says Israel’s killing of 3 journalists a ‘war crime’

Lebanon says Israel’s killing of 3 journalists a ‘war crime’
Updated 25 October 2024
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Lebanon says Israel’s killing of 3 journalists a ‘war crime’

Lebanon says Israel’s killing of 3 journalists a ‘war crime’
  • ‘The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ nighttime break to betray them in their sleep’

BEIRUT:  Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary accused Israel on Friday of intentionally targeting journalists in a strike on the country’s south that killed three journalists, which he described as a “war crime.”

“The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ nighttime break to betray them in their sleep... This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions. This is a war crime,” Makary said in a post on X.

Lebanese state media said Friday that separate Israeli air strikes killed three journalists in eastern Lebanon and flattened buildings in southern suburbs of Beirut.

“Our correspondent in Zahle reported the death of three journalists in an Israeli raid on Hasbaya,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said, adding that Israeli military planes struck at 3:30 am (0030 GMT) near the Syrian border.

Local media reported that the air raid hit a hotel in Hasbaya, around 50 kilometers south of the Lebanese capital.

Separately, in Beirut’s southern Choueifat Al-Amrousieh area, Israeli warplanes “destroyed two buildings and ignited a large fire, and black smoke covered the area,” according to NNA.

“The raid that targeted the Saint Therese area also caused the collapse of two buildings near the Constitutional Council.”

The NNA report of the strikes on Beirut’s south on Thursday came about half an hour after Israel issued evacuation warnings for the Hezbollah bastion following intense assaults the night before.

“You are located near facilities and sites belonging to Hezbollah, which the Israeli Defense Forces will be targeting in the near future,” said the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee in a post on X that included maps of the locations.

AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke rising from Beirut’s south following the strikes and AFP correspondents in the capital heard loud bangs.

“Israeli warplanes launched a new strike a short while ago on the Choueifat” area of south Beirut, NNA said, adding later that Haret Hreik and Hadath were also targeted.

On Wednesday evening, Israeli strikes levelled six buildings in south Beirut, state media and AFP footage showed, with Israel’s army saying it had hit Hezbollah weapons production facilities “under and inside civilian buildings.”

On September 23, Israel launched an intense air campaign in Lebanon and later announced ground incursions, following a year of limited cross-border clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah over the Gaza war.

Since then, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed at least 1,580 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented at least 128 journalists and media workers killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023.


Blinken to meet Lebanese PM in London on Friday over war: US official

Blinken to meet Lebanese PM in London on Friday over war: US official
Updated 25 October 2024
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Blinken to meet Lebanese PM in London on Friday over war: US official

Blinken to meet Lebanese PM in London on Friday over war: US official

LONDON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet in London on Friday with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati as Washington appeals to Israel to keep its military campaign against Hezbollah short, a US official said.
The top US diplomat arrived late Thursday in London after a three-nation tour of the Middle East, where he also pleaded to protect Lebanese civilians but stopped short of urging an immediate ceasefire by Israel.
Blinken will also meet Friday separately with the foreign ministers of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, two key US partners in a post-war plan for Gaza, the State Department official said.
Mikati was heading for the talks with Blinken following a conference Thursday in Paris on aiding Lebanon in which he said that only the Lebanese state should bear arms.
Israel has vowed to cripple Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militia and political movement that has long maintained its own forces.
Hezbollah has lobbed missiles at Israel in solidarity with Hamas since the Palestinian militants’ October 7, 2023 attack, which triggered Israel’s massive military assault in Gaza.
Blinken did not attend the Paris conference, sending one of his deputies.
The United States has stopped short of calling on Israel, which relies on US military and political support, to end attacks immediately in Lebanon.
Blinken, at a news conference earlier Thursday in Qatar, said that Israel was working to remove the “threat” of Hezbollah but there must ultimately be a diplomatic solution.
“We have been very clear that this cannot lead — should not lead — to a protracted campaign and that Israel must take the necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties and not endanger UN peacekeepers or the Lebanese Armed Forces,” Blinken said.