Jailed Iran Activist Smuggles Out Letter Of Thanks For Nobel Peace Prize

Jailed Iranian Activist Smuggles Out Letter Of Thanks For Nobel Peace Prize

Narges Mohammadi is serving multiple sentences in Tehran’s Evin Prison. (FILE)

STOCKHOLM:

Jailed Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi has smuggled out a letter of thanks for her Nobel Peace Prize awarded earlier this month, saying it marked a turning point in “empowering protest and social movements worldwide”.

The imprisoned women’s rights advocate won the 2023 peace prize on Oct. 6 in a rebuke to Tehran’s theocratic leaders and boost for anti-government protesters, while also drawing the Islamic Republic’s swift condemnation.

Mohammadi is serving multiple sentences in Tehran’s Evin Prison amounting to about 12 years imprisonment, one of the many periods she has been detained behind bars, according to the Front Line Defenders rights organisation.

Charges include spreading propaganda against the state.

In the letter smuggled out of prison and read by her daughter Kiana in a video posted on the Nobel website, Mohammadi said the news of her Nobel prize had been met with cries from her cellmates of “Woman, Life, Freedom”, the slogan of the movement of which she is part.

“I am grateful to all of you and urge you to support the people of Iran until the final victory,” she said in the letter read by her daughter, the first official reaction from Mohammadi to her winning the prestigious award.

“Victory is not easy, but it is certain.”

Tehran, which has called the protest movement in Iran a Western-led subversion, accused the Nobel committee of meddling and politicising the issue of human rights in the wake of the decision to award Mohammadi the peace prize.

Mohammadi said she was sending greetings and gratitude to the Nobel Committee on behalf of what she said were 46 women prisoners of conscience and political prisoners held at Evin.

Arrested more than a dozen times in her life, and held three times in Evin since 2012, Mohammadi has been unable to see her husband for 15 years and her children for seven.

“The strength of this movement lies in the agency of Iranian women. We assuredly know what we want far better than what we do not want,” she said in the letter, the text of which was also published on the Nobel website.

“We believe in it, commit to it, and are certain of victory!”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mancherial: Man gets 10 years rigorous imprisonment for raping woman


District court principal judge K Prabhakar Rao pronounced the verdict against Mesineni Karthik from Uru Mandamarri village for outraging modesty of the woman in a cotton field when she was proceeding to a bus stand on January 8 in 2018.

Published Date – 07:35 PM, Tue – 31 October 23


Mancherial: Man gets 10 years rigorous imprisonment for raping woman

Representational Image

Mancherial: A court in Mancherial on Tuesday sentenced a man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 1,000 after finding him guilty of abducting and raping a woman five years ago.

District court principal judge K Prabhakar Rao pronounced the verdict against Mesineni Karthik from Uru Mandamarri village in Mandamarri mandal for outraging modesty of the woman in a cotton field when she was proceeding to a bus stand on January 8 in 2018. The court cross-examined 11 eye witnesses and evidence produced before it by public prosecutor Puli Rajamallu.

The then Sub-Inspector K Bhaskar Rao had registered a case against Karthik and filed a charge-sheet in the court.

Ramagundam Commissioner of Police Rema Rajeshwari commended the officers for securing a conviction in the case.

Israel committing crimes against humanity with West support

Saying that the Israeli regime has been committing crimes against humanity in the past 25 days with the support of the US and the European Union, Erdogan told reporters following a cabinet meeting in the capital Ankara on Tuesday that Turkey is holding discussions to make sure that perpetrators behind war crimes in Gaza are held accountable before the law.

Erdogan also criticized Western countries for their complicity in the Israeli regime’s war crimes, Daily Sabah reported.

The Western world, mainly European countries, have failed their humanity lesson once again in Gaza, he said, adding that they have completely lost their credibility.

“Those who are bystanders to the deaths of thousands of Gazan children today will have no credibility for anything they might say on any topic tomorrow,” he said.

Turkish authorities are exploring ways to bring crimes committed by the Israeli regime against Palestinian civilians before the International Criminal Court (ICC), Erdogan further stressed.

MP/PR

Telangana’s schemes found nowhere else in country, says Vinod Kumar


Vinod Kumar said the NITI Aayog had given awards and rewards to the development and welfare schemes being implemented in Telangana

Published Date – 08:04 PM, Tue – 31 October 23


Telangana’s schemes found nowhere else in country, says Vinod Kumar

TS planning board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar addressing disabled persons in a meeting held in Vemulawada on Tuesday.

Rajanna-Sircilla: TS Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar said various development and welfare schemes that were being implemented in Telangana were not been implemented in any other State.

Participating in a mandal-level meeting of differently-abled persons along with Vemulawada BRS candidate Chalmeda Laxminarsimha Rao in Vemulawada town on Tuesday, Vinod Kumar said the NITI Aayog had given awards and rewards to the development and welfare schemes being implemented in Telangana.

Moreover, union ministers had also appreciated Telangana’s schemes in the Parliament as well as outside the House. However, the same ministers were criticizing the State government for the sake of politics, he said, adding that the people were watching everything.

Stating that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao would not go back on his promises, Vinod Kumar said the path for the welfare and development would be laid once the Chief Minister gave his word.

Besides 5.69 lakh Aasara pensions, a pension of Rs 3,116 for differently-abled persons had been enhanced to Rs 4,116. The BRS Government would further enhance this to Rs 6,116, he said.

Terrorist attack in Pakistan leaves 5 killed

The incident happened in the Nasirabad area of Turbat district where the gunmen attacked a compound when the laborers from the country’s east Punjab province were sleeping, Nadir Shah, station house officer of police Nasirabad told Xinhua.

The slain policeman was deployed at the security of the laborers, and the attackers entered the compound after shooting him dead, he added.

The officer said that one laborer got injured in the attack and his condition was stable as he received the bullet injury in his hand.

It is the second incident of target killing of laborers in the district this month.

Earlier on Oct. 14, six laborers were killed and another was injured in firing by unknown assailants inside a compound in Turbat.

The police officer said that the security of the laborers working on different projects of public and private companies has been enhanced, following Tuesday’s incident.

MP/PR

Iga Swiatek Wins Opener, Coco Gauff Thrashes Ons Jabeur At WTA Finals

World number two Iga Swiatek overcame a shaky start to defeat Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in straight sets in her opening WTA Finals match in Cancun. In Monday’s other clash, US Open champion Coco Gauff opened her tournament with a 6-0, 6-1 drubbing of Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur. Polish star Swiatek looked out of sorts in an error-strewn first set in which she trailed 2-5 before roaring back to clinch a 7-6 (7/3), 6-0 victory. The 22-year-old four-time Grand Slam champion is bidding to reclaim her world number one ranking from Aryna Sabalenka at this week’s season-ending finals in Mexico. However that goal looked unlikely during a nervy opening from Swiatek, who was broken in her first service game before seventh seed Vondrousova held for a 2-0 lead.

Swiatek managed to claw the break back in the fourth game to square the first set at 2-2 but then fell to pieces as Vondrousova broke for a 3-2 lead and then held to go 4-2 up.

Another shaky service game from Swiatek ended in a break of serve to leave Vondrousova in the driving seat at 5-2.

But Vondrousova’s game collapsed thereafter, and Swiatek broke back twice in quick succession to level the set at 5-5 before holding for 6-5.

Although Vondrousova steadied the ship to hold serve and set up a tie break, it was only a temporary reprieve.

Swiatek quickly took control of the breaker and clinched the set when Vondrousova double-faulted.

Vondrousova’s service game went into meltdown in the second set, with Swiatek breaking her three times in a row.

Another Vondrousova double-fault left Swiatek 5-0 up, and the Pole sealed victory on her serve in the final game.

“In the first part of the match I wasn’t feeling like I was playing bad,” Swiatek said.

“I just felt like I was making mistakes on the last shots within the rally. I felt there was room for improvement but I didn’t need to change a lot.

“So I just tried to be more precise, not play risky.”

The 19-year-old Gauff raced through the first set against Jabeur to win 6-0 in just 23 minutes and then shrugged off a lengthy rain delay to take the second set 6-1 for a convincing win.

“Ons is a great player, so I felt really unsteady the whole match even though it didn’t look like that,” Gauff said.

“But I’m just happy to finally get a win here in this event.”

The WTA Finals sees eight players divided into two groups of four playing in a round-robin first phase, with the top two in each group advancing to the semi-finals on Saturday.

Topics mentioned in this article

KTR receives warning message about State-sponsored surveillance of his phone from Apple


Received a message from Apple that state-sponsored attackers are targeting my phone. It’s of course not at all a surprise as we know BJP can stoop to any lows to attack the opposition leaders, KTR posted on X

Published Date – 11:42 PM, Tue – 31 October 23


KTR receives warning message about State-sponsored surveillance of his phone from Apple

File Photo

Hyderabad: BRS working president and Minister KT Rama Rao joined the list of Opposition leaders and journalists who received a warning message from Apple about State-sponsored surveillance of their Iphone. He took to social media to confirm the same and minced no words in holding the BJP responsible.

“Received a message from Apple that state-sponsored attackers are targeting my phone. It’s of course not at all a surprise as we know BJP can stoop to any lows to attack the opposition leaders,” he posted on X.

Several opposition leaders including Mahua Moitra from Trinamool Congress, Shashi Tharoor from Congress, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, Priyanka Chaturvedi from Shiv Sena, and Raghav Chaddha from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), along with AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi and TPCC president A Revanth Reddy, have confirmed to have received these warning messages from Apple.

Centre's Fiscal Deficit Touches 39% Of Full-Year Target In FY24's 1st Half

Centre's Fiscal Deficit Touches 39% Of Full-Year Target In FY24's 1st Half

Centre projected to bring down the fiscal deficit to 5.9% Of GDP in FY24

New Delhi:

The central government’s fiscal deficit touched 39.3 per cent of the full-year target in the first half of the current financial year, slightly higher than 37.3 per cent recorded in the year-ago period.

In actual terms, the fiscal deficit, or the gap between expenditure and revenue, worked out at Rs 7.02 lakh crore at the end of September, as per data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

In the Union Budget, the government projected to bring down the fiscal deficit to 5.9 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the 2023-24 financial year.

The fiscal deficit was 6.4 per cent of the GDP in 2022-23, against the earlier estimate of 6.71 per cent.

The tax revenue was at Rs 11.60 lakh crore or 49.8 per cent of the annual target. During April-September 2022-23, the net tax collection was 52.3 per cent of that year’s annual Budget Estimate (BE).

The Centre’s total expenditure was Rs 21.19 lakh crore, or 47.1 per cent of BE for 2023-24, marginally higher than 46.2 per cent of BE for 2022-23.

The Government of India has transferred Rs 4,55,444 crore to state governments as devolution of share of taxes till September, which is Rs 79,338 crore higher than the previous year.

Of the total revenue expenditure, Rs 4.84 lakh crore was on account of interest payments and Rs 2.06 lakh crore towards major subsidies.

Commenting on the CGA data, ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said higher than budgeted dividend surplus transfer of Rs 8,742 crore from the RBI is likely to provide some cushion to meet any undershooting in other revenue streams, including disinvestment or potential overshooting in expenses, relative to respective BE, such as MGNREGA and LPG subsidy.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

66 persons caught by Rachakonda She teams for stalking, harassing women


The Rachakonda police registered cases against a few of them while the others were let off after a warning and counselling

Published Date – 06:29 PM, Tue – 31 October 23


66 persons caught by Rachakonda She teams for stalking, harassing women



Hyderabad: The Rachakonda She Teams caught 66 persons, including 32 minors, who were allegedly stalking, sexually harassing and threatening women. The police registered cases against a few of them while the others were let off after a warning and counselling.

Among those arrested was a man who was allegedly harassing a woman doctor was asking her to become his friend. The man went to the hospital where the woman doctor worked and argued with her and later hit her badly. On a complaint, the police registered a FIR against him at Medipally police station.

The police appealed to the women and girls to contact the Rachakonda She Teams over phone number 8712662111 if they are facing any problems of harassment, stalking or online bullying.