Feb 27 Pertaining to a mourning or wailing over braided rope or a basket.

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AP: Reported on 2/27/2012

Amnesty: Iran quadrupled rate of public executions
By PETER JAMES SPIELMANN -  Associated Press – Mon, Feb 27, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — Iran put to death more than twice as many people in 2011 as it did the year before, Amnesty International said Monday in a new report. The rights group said that the rate of executions in public increased even more dramatically, in an apparent bid to suppress political dissent and promote a climate of fear among those who might defy harsh Iranian law."Casting a shadow over all those who fall foul of Iran's unjust justice system is the mounting toll of people sentenced to death and executed," said the 70-page report, released in the run-up to Iran's parliamentary elections on March 2.
"There were around four times as many public executions in 2011 than in 2010, and hundreds of people are believed to have been sentenced to death in the past year," it said. In Iran, prisoners are usually executed by hanging.The report said the heightened pace of executions "may be a strategy to spread fear among the population and to deter protests. As the repression of dissenters widens, the risk of further death sentences and executions cannot be excluded."
Amnesty's report interprets the increase in public hangings, and an overall crackdown on dissent and freedom of the press — particularly Internet-based communication — as a harsh response to the public protests that erupted after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed 2009 re-election.Calls left at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations seeking comment were not returned by Monday evening.
"Since the 2009 crackdown, the authorities have steadily cranked up repression in law and practice, and tightened their grip on the media," Amnesty said in the report.
The fear even reaches overseas. Earlier this month, the BBC said family members of employees of its Persian language service — which is banned in Iran — had been subjected to harassment, including one who was arrested in January and held in solitary confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Others had their passports confiscated.
"They have stopped public protests using articles of Iran's Penal Code that make demonstrations, public debate and the formation of groups and associations deemed a threat to 'national security' punishable by long prison sentences or even death," Amnesty said.
The report noted that Iran does not provide official statistics on their use of the death penalty, and said there is credible evidence that many people are put to death in secret.
Amnesty's Iran specialist Elise Auerbach told The Associated Press that there were 50 officially acknowledged public executions in 2011, compared to 14 such executions in 2010.
"In a couple of photographs of hangings, I've seen little boys and girls watching executions," Auerbach told the AP. "It's degrading and demeaning."
The total number of executions reported in Iranian state media, meanwhile, increased from 253 to 600. She said both figures were the minimum known, and stressed that "the true number was quite a bit higher."
Among those on death row in Iran is a former U.S. Marine interpreter arrested while on a trip to visit his Iranian grandmothers.
Arizona-born Amir Mirzaei Hekmati was sentenced to death in January as a CIA spy, the first time an American citizen has been condemned in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based group.
Amnesty International's report, and the United Nations, also pointed to Iran's adoption of capital punishment for drug offenses beginning in 2011 as another factor behind the increase in executions.
"There was a noticeable increase in the application of the death penalty, including in public, since the beginning of 2011. The execution of political prisoners and juvenile offenders was also reported," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the General Assembly in September.
About 80 percent of the executions involved drug offenses, Auerbach told the AP. Some death penalty cases involved rapists and murderers, but she said the expanding use of capital punishment "desensitizes the public" and paves the way for wider use of the death penalty in politically motivated cases, or on religious grounds such as apostasy or "enmity against God."
Last year, a report on the death penalty worldwide by Amnesty International found that China was the most prolific user of the death penalty, with executions believed to number in the thousands in 2010. Iran ranked second with 253. North Korea executed 60 people in 2010; Yemen executed at least 53; and the United States executed 46 prisoners that year.
___
Online: Amnesty International: http://www.amnestyusa.org/

Iran : Amnesty International


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Feb 26 Pertaining to a loud noise like a trumpet's wail and merchandise.

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Pierre Guillaud/AFP

AFP: Reported on 2/26/2012

French trumpet virtuoso Maurice Andre dies aged 78: family
By AFP - AFP – Sun, Feb 26, 2012
French virtuoso Maurice Andre, who started out working in mines before becoming one of the world's biggest names in classical trumpet performance, died aged 78, his family said Sunday.He died late Saturday in a hospital in the southwestern city of Bayonne, his family said, declining to provide the cause of death.
Andre, who collaborated on more than 250 recordings, was born in a mining community near the southern town of Ales in 1933 and was introduced to classic music by his father.
He was seen elevating the trumpet to the level of serious classical concert music and encouraged contemporary composers like Andre Jolivet and Marcel Landowski to write for the instrument.Andre gave his last concerts in 2004 before going to live in the Basque Country of southwestern France.

France

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Feb 25 Pertaining to a causing to forget related to a military leader.

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AP Photo/Anjum Naveed

AP: Reported on 2/26/2012

Pakistan razes bin Laden's home, erasing memories
By AQEEL AHMED - Associated Press
ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan pushed ahead Sunday with its surprise demolition of the compound where U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden last year, likely an attempt to erase the symbol of the colossal security failure that humiliated the nation and severely damaged ties with Washington.Islamabad was outraged by the covert American raid in the northwestern town of Abbottabad because it was not told about it beforehand — a decision the U.S. explained by concerns that someone in the Pakistani government might tip off the al-Qaida chief.The operation left Pakistan's powerful army in the awkward position of explaining how it was unable to stop U.S. troops from attacking a compound deep inside Pakistan and located next to the country's military academy. Citizens also demanded to know how bin Laden was able to live in Abbottabad for six years without the government's knowledge, a question that remains unanswered.
The raid drove the crucial anti-terror alliance between the U.S. and Pakistan close to the breaking point, and in many ways it has never recovered. The relationship is critical to U.S. efforts to wind down the decade-long war in neighboring Afghanistan.
Heavy machines began tearing down bin Laden's three-story compound Saturday night under heavy security without the government providing advance notice. By Sunday evening, workers had destroyed around three-quarters of the large concrete compound and its tall boundary walls. They were clearing debris in large trucks so they could finish the job, according to an Associated Press reporter who managed to get close to the site.
Large numbers of police still surrounded the compound Sunday to keep spectators and journalists away, but the army soldiers present the previous night had departed.Local residents expressed mixed feelings about the demolition, with some applauding the move and others saying the government should have put the building to public use.
Shabbir Ahmed, a 22-year-old college student in Abbottabad, said the presence of the compound sparked bad memories and made the lives of local residents more difficult.
"We were searched and questioned every time we wanted to reach our homes," Ahmed told The Associated Press. "When this symbol of evil is finally gone, people in the area will be able to rest."
But Mohammad Sarwar, a retired 60-year-old businessman, said razing the compound didn't make sense and was a waste of money.
"I don't know what benefit the government will get by its demolition instead of using it for some official or public purpose, like establishing a school, library or laboratory," said Sarwar.
The former trader said he suspected the government's decision was driven by U.S. pressure — a common sentiment in a country where anti-American attitudes are rampant and conspiracy theories flourish.
Some Abbottabad residents said in the wake of the raid that the compound should be turned into a tourist attraction to help the town earn money. There was always the danger, however, that it could also draw al-Qaida supporters.
American officials said they buried bin Laden's body at sea to avoid giving his followers a burial place that could become a makeshift shrine.
Pakistani officials have declined to say why they decided to raze the compound.
Many U.S. officials expressed disbelief that bin Laden could have lived in Abbottabad for years with his wives and children without the Pakistani government knowing. But the U.S. has not found any evidence that senior Pakistani officials knew of the al-Qaida chief's whereabouts.
The U.S. Navy SEALs who attacked bin Laden's compound on May 2 flew in under the radar by helicopter from neighboring Afghanistan. The raid, which lasted around 40 minutes, was a serious blow to the already troubled U.S.-Pakistan relationship.
Pakistan responded by kicking out more than 100 U.S. troops training Pakistanis in counterterrorism operations and reduced the level of intelligence cooperation.
Some members of Congress called on the U.S. to cut of the billions of dollars of military and civilian aid to Pakistan unless Islamabad explained bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad and boosted cooperation on the Afghan war. The aid has continued, although at a somewhat lower level.

Osama bin Laden : Pakistan


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