The Guardian informs its readers that A court in Tehran has sentenced the prominent activist Kouhyar Goudarzi to five years in jail, an Iranian human rights group says. The Committee for Human Rights Reporters (CHRR) in Iran reported that Goudarzi, one of its members, had been sentenced to serve his five-year sentence in an internal exile, a prison in the eastern city of Zabol, near the Iranian border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Goudarzi, 26, was picked up by plainclothes security officials last Julyfrom a friend's house in the capital, Tehran. At the time of his arrest, neighbours said he was taken away with two of his friends by people believed to be from Iran's ministry of intelligence.
The same news agency published an article headlined “Azerbaijan has Eurovision in more ways than one”. According to its author, for Baku Eurovision means big business at a time when even bigger business – namely the oil industry – is already booming in the city. Once a small corner of the Soviet Union, this beautiful country on the Caspian Sea is finally carving out its own identity, after years caught between the twin super powers (and cultures) of Russia and Iran. “And nothing expresses that identity better than its visual arts. Away from the brash billboards advertising Eurovision with the slogan 'Light Your Fire', the Azeri capital is being taken over by another spectacle: the 012 Baku Public Art Festival. Every Friday for five months, a new artwork is unveiled in a different corner of the city, each by a homegrown Azeri artist – old, young or emerging – and each interrogating the history of its location and Azerbaijan at large”, sais the author.
According to the Washington Post, NATO’s measured exit plan in Afghanistan faces new obstacles. as the Taliban suspended peace talks with the United States and Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded that NATO withdraw forces from the small, rural outposts that are at the heart of its military mission here. The developments are the latest in a cascade of challenges to the exit that the administration and its coalition partners are planning, including a gradual turnover of security responsibility to Afghan troops, a paced U.S. and NATO withdrawal and a negotiated peace with the Taliban.
The Associated Press reported today that Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he told Chinese leaders Friday that Iran poses the gravest danger to world peace and stability, although it was unclear whether he’d won any stronger support for pressure on Tehran. China is one of five permanent veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council and has generally sided with Russia in arguing against tougher action to force Iran into greater openness over its nuclear program.
According to the Turkish Today’s Zaman, the Germany-based, non-profit research and policy institute European Stability Initiative (ESI) has said the European Union's current visa policy regarding Turkey is illegal and in violation of its own legal obligations, not to mention unsustainable. In a newsletter the ESI posted on its website titled “The time is now: Changing EU visa policy on Turkey,” it says Turkey is the only EU candidate country without a visa-free travel agreement with the EU. Moldova and Ukraine, which have yet to receive any promise of membership, are participating in an EU visa liberalization process.
The Hurriyet Daily News informs its readers that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal arrived in Turkey today to meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The meeting was not on Erdoğan's daily itinerary distributed to the press. The Islamic-conservative government led by Erdoğan is at odds with Israel, and an ardent defender of the Palestinian cause for establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.
