From Julie Burchill at the Independent

"Sticks and stones may break my bones – but names will never hurt me." I was reminded of the highly sensible old saying when I read about the typically level-headed and well-modulated attack on First Française Carla Bruni and the actress Isabelle Adjani for daring to add their voices to the international protest against the proposed stoning to death of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, the 43-year-old mother-of-two accused of adultery, by the Iranian newspaper Kayhan.

This paragon of the free press is directly under the supervision of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government and has its editor appointed by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khameini – and don't you just wish you could be a fly on the wall at one of their editorial meetings.

"That Carla Bruni – she says we shouldn't stone adulteresses to death."

"She must be a prostitute!"

"Yeah, and her Mum!"

"And that actress – Isabelle Adjani? She says it too."

"Right, that's it. She was in that film Ishtar, with that Zionist thug Dustin Hoffman – I hated that film! That's 103 minutes of my life I'll never get back again!"

"She's probably a prostitute too!"

"OK, there's our headline – FRENCH PROSTITUTES ENTER HUMAN RIGHTS PROTEST. Now, next up – who's the stunna getting stoned to death on Page 3 today?"

Fidel Castro has criticised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for what he called his anti-Semitic attitudes.

The former Cuban leader also warned that an escalating conflict between Iran and the West could lead to nuclear war.

Mr Castro, speaking to a US journalist, also questioned his own actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Asked if he stood by his recommendation for the Soviets to bomb America, he said "it wasn't worth it at all".

Mr Castro was speaking to Jeffrey Goldberg, a journalist with The Atlantic magazine based in Washington, DC, whom he personally invited to Cuba.
Mr Castro led Cuba for almost 50 years after toppling the government in a revolution. He fell ill in 2006 and handed power to his brother Raul in 2008. Since then, his public appearances have been rare, but in recent months he has made a series of public speeches and televised appearances.

An Iranian woman whose sentence of execution by stoning for adultery provoked a worldwide outcry will instead be hanged for murder on Wednesday, a human rights group has said.

"The authorities in Tehran have given the go-ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution … Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," the International Committee Against Stoning (Icas), a German-based campaign group, said on its website.

"It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday, 3 November."

Officials in Iran were unavailable to confirm or deny the report.

Ashtiani's stoning was suspended after prominent political and religious figures called the sentence "medieval", "barbaric" and "brutal". Brazil, a close ally of Iran's, offered to grant asylum to the 43-year-old mother of two.

A government spokesman said in September that Ashtiani's adultery conviction was under review but the charge of being complicit in the murder of her husband was still pending.

Under the law in force in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, murder is punishable by hanging, and adultery by stoning.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/02/iran-stoning-sakineh-mohammadi-ashtiani

see toon at top

An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after she was convicted of adultery has been freed, it was reported yesterday. A video broadcast on Iran's state-controlled television network appeared to show Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani at home with her son.

Ms Ashtiani, whose plight became an international cause célèbre, was said to have been released along with her son, Sajad, her lawyer and two German journalists who were all arrested in connection with the case.

Last night, Press TV showed film of her and Sajad at their home in Osku, near Tabriz. However, it was unclear when the footage was recorded. In the tape, she was heard to admit: "We planned to kill my husband."

Mina Ahadi, a spokeswoman for the Anti-Stoning Committee which has campaigned on Ms Ashtiani's behalf, said: "This is the happiest day in my life. I'm very happy for her son, Sajad, who fought single-handedly and bravely in Iran to defend his mother and tell the world she is innocent.

"I'm sure this day will be written in Iranian history books, if not the world's, as a day of victory for human rights campaigners. We have got news that they are free. We are waiting for another confirmation ... and then we will be 100 per cent sure."

There were no statements about Ms Ashtiani from the authorities in Tehran. The British Government said it was awaiting clarification about her release as the Foreign Office Minister, Alistair Burt, condemned the laws used against her as "medieval".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iranian-woman-threatened-with-being-stoned-to-death-is-freed-2155889.html

TEHRAN — Iran denied reports on Friday that it has freed a woman sentenced to death by stoning after human rights campaigners stoked confusion by releasing unconfirmed reports to the press.

A report Friday on the Web site of Iran’s state-run English language news channel Press TV said reports of the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, were false and were part of a “vast publicity campaign by Western media.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/world/middleeast/11iran.html?_r=1&hp