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☆ Sept. 11 Trial Plea Negotiations Still Underway at Guantánamo Bay
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Carol Rosenberg | More About Carol Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Prosecutors and defense lawyers are still negotiating toward a plea agreement for the men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks despite the Biden administration’s refusal to endorse certain proposed conditions, the lead prosecutor said in court on Wednesday at Guantánamo Bay. “This is all whirling around us,” said Clayton G. Trivett Jr., the prosecutor, discussing key details of the negotiations in open court for the first time. He added that “around the edges we have agreed to do things” and that “the positions that we took at the time are still available.”In mostly secret negotiations in 2022 and 2003, prosecutors offered to drop the death penalty from the case in exchange for detailed admissions by the accused architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and four other men who are charged as his accomplices in the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people. Since then, one of the five men has been ruled not mentally competent to stand trial. The occasion of the briefing was a legal filing by lawyers for Ammar al-Baluchi, one of the defendants and Mr. Mohammed’s nephew, asking the judge to dismiss the case or at least the possibility of a death penalty because of real or apparent political interference by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and other members of Congress last summer.

Persons: Biden, ”, Clayton G, Trivett Jr, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Ammar al, Mohammed’s, Ted Cruz Organizations: Republican Locations: Guantánamo, Texas

MIAMI (AP) — A Florida man who was attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a man-made hamster wheel is facing federal charges after it took the U.S. Coast Guard five days to bring him ashore, according to a criminal complaint filed in Miami. And on Sept. 1, he was brought to the Coast Guard base in Miami Beach. Baluchi attempted a voyage in a similar homemade vessel in 2014, the complaint said. In 2015, he was served a captain of the port order from the Coast Guard that applied to any subsequent voyages. He attempted another voyage in 2021, and the Coast Guard intervened then as well.

Persons: Reza Baluchi, Hurricane Franklin, Baluchi, Michael A, Perez, Campbell, Valiant, Micki Bloom Organizations: MIAMI, U.S . Coast Guard, The Coast Guard, Coast Guard, U.S . Navy, Ordinance, Unit, Associated Press Locations: Florida, Miami, Tybee Island, Georgia, England, Miami Beach

☆ Man Tried to Travel the Atlantic in a Hamster Wheel, U.S. Says. Again.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Livia Albeck-Ripka | More About Livia Albeck-Ripka | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

They next day, officers tried again, but this time Mr. Baluchi showed them two knives, again threatening to kill himself. It was two days before officers — who had tried to deliver food, water and news of the approaching hurricane to Mr. Baluchi — were finally able to coax him from his floating wheel. Neither Mr. Baluchi, a former professional cyclist who was born in Iran and was granted asylum in the United States, nor his lawyer could immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday evening. According to court documents, the voyage was Mr. Baluchi’s fourth attempt in a decade at traveling on the ocean in a homemade contraption. Each time, the Coast Guard ultimately intervened, according to court records.

Persons: Baluchi, —, Baluchi —, Baluchi’s Organizations: Coast Guard, Southern, Southern District of, Justice Locations: Tybee, U.S, Southern District, Southern District of Florida, Miami, Miami Beach, Iran, United States

☆ Overnight protests rock Tehran, other Iranian cities, videos show
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Videos on Friday showed demonstrations in several neighbourhoods in Tehran as well as in the cities of Karaj, Isfahan, Qazvin, Rasht, Arak, Mashhad, Sanandaj, Qorveh, and Izeh in Khuzestan province. Reuters was able to confirm three of the videos on the protests in Zahedan and one of those in Tehran. Other videos showed large protests on Friday in Zahedan, capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, home to Iran's Baluchi minority. [1/5] People take part in a protest in Zahedan, Iran in this screen grab taken from a social media video released February 17, 2023 and obtained by Reuters. In recent weeks Iranian media have reported closures of several businesses, restaurants and cafes for failure to observe the hijab rules.

☆ Gulf Arab states can’t give up oil. But they can slash their emissions
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Abu Dhabi CNN —As Western states try to wean themselves off their addiction to hydrocarbons, Gulf oil nations have been pushing back hard, warning that a hasty transition away from fossil fuels will be counterproductive. According to the World Bank, Qatar had the highest carbon emissions per capita as of 2019, followed by Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. So, investment in clean energy projects and renewables “makes very good business sense and PR sense for the Gulf,” he said. Gulf petro-states are warning against a quick transition away from hydrocarbons, with the UAE calling for a “mixed energy” approach that minimizes emissions without cutting hydrocarbons. Much of the hydrocarbons exported by Gulf states go to some of the world’s biggest consumers and polluters, including China and India.

Iranian authorities did not respond to requests for comment for this story. His comments have angered Iranian authorities, who placed him under a travel ban in 2017. The supreme leader's office wrote back and said Iran's government does not allow discrimination or inequality. Iranian officials have occasionally counted on him in times of crisis. The group, denounced by Tehran as terrorists, has carried out repeated attacks on Iranian security forces.

☆ Iran's Guards warn cleric over 'agitating' in restive southeast
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Molavi Abdolhamid, Zahedan's leading Sunni cleric, said during his Friday sermon that officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, head of the Shi'ite-dominated state, were "responsible before God" for the Sept. 30 killings. State media said at the time of the Sept. 30 violence that "unidentified armed individuals" opened fire on a police station, prompting security forces to return fire. The Revolutionary Guards said five members of its forces and the volunteer Basij militia were killed during the Sept. 30 violence. Abdolhamid, the Sunni cleric, described the Sept. 30 killing as a massacre, saying bullets had been fired at heads and chests. The activist news agency HRANA reported on Friday that 244 protesters had been killed in the countrywide unrest, including 32 minors.

☆ Iranian cleric calls for tough crackdown against protests
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

DUBAI, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Iran's judiciary should take tough measures against protesters and anyone who thinks the country's rulers will fall is dreaming, a senior cleric said on Friday. The nationwide protests have turned into one of the boldest challenges to Iran's clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution. Protesters have called for the downfall of the Islamic Republic, although the protests do not seem close to toppling the system. Amnesty International has said security forces killed at least 66 people in a violent crackdown after Friday prayers in Zahedan on Sept. 30. Videos of protests have been delayed because of internet restrictions imposed in Iran by authorities, activists say.

☆ Factbox: Ethnic groups swept up in Iran's nationwide protests
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Critics say these accusations aim to present the protests as ethnic unrest rather than a country-wide uprising, and to justify a crackdown. Rights group Hengaw says it has recorded the deaths of at least 32 civilians killed by government forces during protests. Estimated to number some 10 million, Iranian Kurds are also Sunnis and mostly live in northwestern regions bordering Turkey and Iraq - which also have large Kurdish minorities. Kurdish human rights organisation Hengaw has identified 23 Kurdish people killed in the latest protests. The Revolutionary Guards, which have put down unrest in the Kurdish region for decades, have accused armed Iranian Kurdish dissidents of involvement in the protests.

☆ Khamenei warns Iran is like a 'mighty tree' that cannot be uprooted
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"That seedling is a mighty tree now and noone should dare think they can uproot it," he said in remarks shown on state TV. Rights groups say more than 200 people have been killed in the crackdown, including teenage girls. Amnesty International said at least 23 children have been killed by security forces in Iran during the protests. State TV reported at least 26 members of the security forces have been killed. Security forces have also pressed their crackdown this week in Kurdish regions where the Revolutionary Guards have a track record of putting down dissent.

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