An Iranian blogger severely beaten up and transferred to hospital

According to Rahana, imprisoned blogger Hossein Ronaghi who is suffering from kidney disease and has undergone 2 major operations in the last few months, was transferred to Taleghani  hospital with serious injuries sustained after being brutally attacked. His father, Ahmad Ronaghi Maleki, told Human Rights House of Iran (RAHANA), “After the beating, Hossein was severely injured and lost consciousness. They transferred him to Taleghani Hospital where he was unconscious for hours. At the end of the night, they transferred him back to the prison.” Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, a blogger and human rights activist was arrested on December 13, 2009 and is now spending his Fifteen year sentence behind bars.

Mohsen Ansari, a resident of Camp Ashraf, passed away due to lack of medical services

According to NCRI (National Council of Resisntance of Iran)’s statement Aug. 18 Mohsen Ansari, a PMOI member in Camp Ashraf and a former political prisoner, passed away on Thursday morning August 18 after many years of suffering from MS (multiple sclerosis). His death was an outcome of hindrances made by the forces under the command of Nouri al-Maliki against Ashraf residents’ access to specialized doctors and medical services. 

4 Political Prisoners Held in Ward 240 of Evin Prison

Behrouz Javid-Tehrani, Saleh Kohandel, Farzad Madadzadeh, and Mohammad Ali Mansouri who were transferred to Evin Prison from Rajaei Shahr Prison, are still under interrogation, enduring torture and held in solitary confinement according to reports. It’s worth mentioning that Mr. Javid-Tehrani was arrested during the student uprising in 1999 when Mohamad Khatami, a so called reformist was the regime’s president.

After Khosrow and Shirin, now Bijan and Manijeh is announced as not fit for publication.

The Director of Peydayesh Publications who had previously announced that sections of the 9 century old classic Persian book Khosrow and Shirin will be censored, has now reported that the children’s book Bijan and Manijeh  is in it’s eighth publication will be banned. “Unfortunately the problem is that the Ministry of Culture and Guidance is not clear about the reasons or the words that cause them to censor books. If there were a guidance provided to publication companies, they would be followed in order to prevent these situations.”, said the director of Peydayesh publication. He added: “Due to this ambiguity, out of 10 books that we sent for licensing to the Ministry of Culture, 7 of them were audited, resulting in their scheduled publications being halted.” The Ministry of Islamic Cultura and Guidance is a body which oversees the publications of books in Iran. Thousands of books are banned every year in Iran due to what is called an “unislamic content”. It is known fact in Iran that the people who run this organization do not have enough education to undrestand the meaning of the words.

Jack Layton dies of cancer at the age of 61

Jack Layton the leader of New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) died at his home on Monday Aug. 22. He was 61 years old. He was leading the official opposition party and during the last federal election while fighting cancer he was also recovering from hip surgery and was walking with a cane. He was a determined man but lost his fight to cancer on Monday morning. The man who was known to many as the "man with the mustache" became the "man with the cane" during the election.