NEWS))))))
A man was hanged in the western city of Kermanshah, the semi-official daily Kayhan reported on Tuesday.The report did not identify the man by name but said that he had been convicted of murder and armed robbery.It said that he was hanged in public in the city’s Freedom Square on Monday.
******
Two young men were hanged in public in the northern Iranian province of Gilan, state media reported on Sunday.The government-run news agency Fars identified the two men as 25-year-old Taqi J. and 28-year-old Massoud M.They were hanged in public in the town of Langeroud on Sunday.They had been accused of murder.
******
Iranian authorities have hanged two men in public in the restive south-eastern city of Zahedan.The government-run news agency Fars reported on Saturday that the two men were hanged in the early hours of the day at the junction of Saadi and Amir-ol-Momenin streets.The two men, who were accused of kidnapping several years ago, were not identified by name.Their sentences had been upheld by the State Supreme Court.Zahedan is the provincial capital of Sistan-va-Baluchestan, which has been a hotbed of anti-government activities since 2005.
******
Iran Focus an Iranian news agency reported on Thursday that the Iranian regime has sent 30 mobile rocket launchers over the border to insurgents in neighboring Iraq.Iran Focus added: a secret document bearing the stamp of the State Security Forces (SSF) in the south-eastern city of Khorramshahr, states that between 17th and 21st of November of 2006, 30 Peugeot-make vehicles fitted with rocket launchers were smuggled over the border to Iraq.The rocket launchers can be mounted on the vehicles or dismounted to be carried by hand.The white and grey Peugeot vehicles were smuggled through Iraq’s al-Sha’ab and al-Jamila regions.The United States and Iraqi officials routinely blame Tehran for aiding Shiite militias responsible for dozens of assassinations every day.
******
The international press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders accused Iran of stepping of censorship of websites on Wednessday.“Reporters Without Borders expressed deep concern for the future of the Internet in Iran where censorship is now the rule rather than the exception, after the video sharing website YouTube and that of the U.S. daily New York Times were added to the country’s blacklist”, the group said in a statement.“The government is trying to create a digital border to stop culture and news coming from abroad - a vision of the Net which is worrying for the country’s future”, it said.The group described Iran’s hard-line government of being a “threat” to the worldwide web which, instead of aiding understanding between peoples could be changed into a “medium of intolerance”.Tests carried out by Reporters Without Borders confirmed that the YouTube (www.youtube.com) and the New York Times had been inaccessible in Iran since December 1st, it said.In addition, the English version of the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia was blocked from 1-3 December 2006. These steps come two months after Iranian regime banned high-speed Internet access.The head of the Agency for the Development of Information Technology in Iran, Vafa Ghafaryan, told the official news agency ISNA that the government planned to enhance surveillance of “harmful” text messages.Iran is on the press freedom group’s list of 13 enemies of the Internet.