Transcript
1. G8 urges Iran for positive response on nuclear incentives
The Group of Eight foreign ministers urges Iran today to respond positively to a newly updated Security Council incentives package aimed at resolving the dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“We call on Iran to respond to the updated incentives package in a constructive manner,” G8 ministers said in a statement issued after a two-day meeting in Kyoto, Japan.
The ministers also called on Iran to act in a more responsible way in the Middle East, notably with regards to the stability in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, they welcomed North Korea’s nuclear declaration submitted to China yesterday and expressed the need for the country to swiftly disable all its existing nuclear facilities.
2. Iran Judiciary Chief calls for greater use of lashings as punishment
Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi said yesterday that he favors public lashings over imprisonment as a form of punishment. Therefore, he has ordered the country’s judges to issue lashing sentences instead of jail sentences whenever possible.
Shahroudi described lashing as one of the “best, most legal, and most just” forms of punishment, “especially if it is carried out in public because [its] deterrent effect is greater.”
But pressure from international bodies according to him, has influenced the sentencing practices of judges in Iran. “We have been placed under the effect of European laws” he said “and for many crimes, we have specified prison as punishment.”
Iran’s penal code assigns punishments such as lashings, bodily amputations and stoning, which human rights groups and the West have constantly opposed .
3. Iran leads world in opium seizures, users
A United Nations report released yesterday praised Iran for its role in the global fight against drug trafficking. It also noted that the Islamic Republic continues to have an “above average” rate of opium abusers.
Iran is responsible for 81 percent of global opium confiscation. The world’s largest heroin seizures were also reported in Iran – 10.7 metric tons, or 19 percent of the world total.
“The work of Iran has been extraordinary in terms of results related to drug seizures,” said Roberto Arbitrio, UNODC representative in Iran at a ceremony in Tehran marking the occasion of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
Despite Iran’s successes in seizing illegal drugs the Islamic Republic continued to face high rates of drug use among its population. An estimated 2.8 percent of the population aged 15 and 16 years old use opiates – compared to an average of 0.4 percent of the global population.
Most of these drugs enter the country from neighboring Afghanistan en route to Western Europe. Afghanistan followed Iran, with 1.4 percent of the population reportedly using opiates.
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