NEWS))))))
Iranian authorities hanged two men Monday morning in the volatile south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan, state media reported. Both men were executed in a prison in the provincial capital Zahedan, the official news agency IRNA said. They were accused of drug trafficking. Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug smuggling. Sistan-va-Baluchistan Province is home to Baluchis, a predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic minority. Iran has witnessed escalating unrest since 2006 in areas populated by Baluchis, who complain of discriminatory and repressive policies by the theocratic regime. Since 2006, Iranian authorities have stepped up executions in the restive province in what many Baluchis believe is a response to a spate of attacks by dissidents on government and security officials.
******
The Iranian judiciary in Fars province sentenced two young men to death by throwing them from the heights. Their names are Tayyeb and Javan. Another young man was also sentenced to death in Tehran. His name is Omid and he is 20 years old.
Iranian regime also hanged 13 people on Wednesday including a mother of two young children, the Associated France Press reported. . RAhele Zamani 27, a mother of 2 young children aged 3 and 5 was hanged on Wednesday despite international pressure on the Iranian regime to hult her execution.
The mullahs’ henchmen hanged in public three men identified as Safar AL Nazari, 36, Sohbat’ollah Maleki, 39 and Habib Oliaee in the Motahari Square in the holy city of Qom, the official news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.'The death sentence for these (three) people was issued by Qom’s Islamic revolutionary court ... and was carried out this morning,' the mullahs’ judiciary official Hoda Tarshizi said.Two prisoners were also hanged in the prison yard in the southeastern city of Zahedan, the state-run news agency Fars reported on MondayThe executions, the first reported in 2008, were the latest in a growing number of executions in the Islamic republic as the authorities impose a drive they say is aimed at improving security in society.Human rights groups have accused Iran of excessive resort to the death penalty, but the authorities say capital punishment is an effective deterrent that is only used after an exhaustive judicial process, added AFP.
******
According to reports, on Dec. 31 the people of Golestan, Mazandaran and Semnan (northeast provinces of in Iran) staged gatherings in protest of gas cut off and problems due to shortages of heating in freezing weather in front of the governors’ offices in their cities. Reports indicate many schools, hospitals, bakeries, and industrial units in various cities in these provinces are closed and the people are suffering from terrible conditions. On Monday people in Shahroud gathered in front of state gas company and protested gas cut and officials’ carelessness on the matter. The manger of Gas Company in Shahroud in an interview with the state run Fars news agency said: the gas is cut off in %50 of the city and it might extend to other parts of the city too. Ali Ashghar Mayeli manager of Gas Company in Ghaemshahr said about 30% of gas consumers are cut off. Reports also indicate Iranian regime increased the number of suppressive forces in front of governors’ offices to stop spread of protests.
******
A German diplomat has been ordered to leave Iran, a German news agency said on Saturday, in what may be retaliation for the expulsion of an Iranian diplomat from Germany in July. The Hamburg-based weekly Der Spiegel reported last month that an Iranian official was forced to leave Germany last summer after he tried to acquire components for Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.German news agency DPA reported on Saturday that the German diplomat had had to leave Tehran and it was thought this was a result of the expulsion of the Iranian official from Germany.
