The family of wrongly imprisoned Pastor Saeed Abedini says that he has been beaten while in an Iranian hospital and then taken back to prison.
Iranian family members have reported that Pastor Abedini was beaten by Iranian jailers while shackled to his hospital bed and then rushed back to Rajai Shahr prison. No explanation was given to the family or hospital staff for the immediate removal of Abedini.
Abedini had been hospitalized because of beatings taken at the hands of jailers and prisoners at both Evin and Rajai Shahr prisons. Untreated internal bleeding had caused massive complications and heavy pain for Abedini and he had been scheduled for surgery until the Iranian government stopped it.
“It is a very disturbing development that underscores what we have known from the very beginning. There is much upheaveal and uncertainty in Iran,” Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice said. “This unexpected move raises great concern.”
The Obama Administration has not yet made any comment regarding this sudden reversal in treatment of American citizen Abedini by the Iranian government.
Meriam Ibrahim, the 26-year-old Christian woman sentenced to death for converting from Islam when she had never been a Muslim, is reportedly being mistreated by her captors in a Sudanese jail.
Ibrahim’s husband, U.S. citizen Daniel Wani, was able to see his wife for the first time since her capture and trial on Monday.
“She was shackled and her legs were very swollen,” Wani told members of a U.S. based advocacy group that is fighting for his wife’s release. Wani said that the prison is keeping her shackled at all times and making no accommodations for her advanced pregnancy.
The courts are allowing the couple’s 18-month-old son to stay in the jail cell with his mother because they do not recognize Wani’s rights as the boy’s father. The government says the boy is automatically Muslim and because Wani is a Christian he cannot have custody or parent the child.
Witnesses say that her brother who recently converted to Islam brought Ibrahim to the attention of the authorities. The brother created a fake birth certificate for his sister that he used to claim she was born a Muslim.
A Florida school district is responding to the release of a video showing two students beating another student by putting armed police on busses.
“We are going to have order on that bus one way or another,” said Dick Mullenax, head of the Polk County School Board. “We provide transportation to those schools, but if they can’t behave, we will see where we go from there.”
The video shows two students beating a third until they knocked out their victim with a sucker punch.
A spokesman for the sheriff’s office says that while the measure seems a little shocking at first, it’s necessary on a temporary basis to protect the safety of the children. They also believe that having the deputies on the bus gives them a chance to build relationships with the students that could lead to benefits in the future.
“They’re not going to be these hard-core monitors, they’re just going to be there, have a chance to interact with those kids, maybe get some information with things that are going on, It’s not going to be an adversarial relationship,” Sheriff’s Office spokesman Scott Wilder said.
Five children under 16 have been arrested by the NYPD after a mugging spree in New York’s Central Park.
The five children, including a 12-year-old and 13-year-old, are facing charges of robbery, assault and attempted assault.
The gang attacked a 31-year-old man on Monday morning, beating him with a stick and punching him in the face when he refused to give them all the money in his wallet. The group then attacked two female joggers and stole their iPhones and iPods.
The only suspect named by police was 16-year-old Angel Munoz. Police say that Munoz and one of the 14-year-old assailants turned themselves in to police after discovering they were the subject of a manhunt.
The victims then identified the other suspects from lineups conducted at an NYPD precinct.
A man who calls himself a “militant atheist” will spend the next eight years in prison for his attack on a pastor last October.
James Maxie, 28, approached Pastor Norman Hayes of Bridge Community Church in North Hampton, Ohio after services after the pastor asked Maxie’s girlfriend if she was being abused. Maxie then beat the pastor, leaving large cuts on his face.
Maxie jumped on top of the pastor and kept beating him after the pastor had fallen to the floor. Witnesses say that they feared Maxie was going to kill him.
The police chief who responded to the incident said he had never seen “an incident this brutal.”
Maxie was sentenced under a plea deal that had him pleading guilty to second-degree felony assault.
Pastor Hayes says that he holds no ill will toward Maxie.
“I would want him to know going into prison hearing from me that I’ve extended forgiveness for him,” Hayes said. “[Forgiveness] is a gift. It’s something that you can’t earn.”
The head of the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon said that the only entity still operating inside the Central African Republic is the Catholic Church.
“The State no longer exists,” Samuel Kleda, the archbishop of Douala, said. “The only institution that is functioning is the Catholic Church. The displaced are living in Catholic parishes.”
Violence in the Central African Republic has skyrocketed since interim President Michel Djotodia resigned from that post earlier this year. The United Nations says the conflict has led to the deaths of tens of thousands and a peacekeeping force is being formed to try and help restore the peace.
Kleda and other leaders in the region are calling on Christians around the world to provide supplies and funds to the Catholic Church’s relief efforts within the country to provide food, medicine and shelter.
The Central African Republic is a mostly Christian nation that is 25 percent Catholic. Muslim rebels who have been attempting to take over the country have been in retreat from a Christian backed militia to the point they have fled the southern and western parts of the nation.
A teenage boy ran through his high school with two ordinary kitchen knives, slashing and stabbing anyone who came across his path.
By the time 16-year-old Alex Hribal was finished, 22 people had been wounded including at least three facing critical injuries.
Witnesses say that Hribal, who was described as “quiet and unassuming”, tackled a freshman to the ground in what looked like a typical fistfight. Nate Moore, a classmate of Hribal, said he went in to break it up when he discovered Hribal was actually stabbing the victim in the stomach.
Hribal then slashed Moore’s face and started his rampage.
An assistant principal at Franklin Regional High School, 15 miles east of Pittsburgh, tackled Hribal and held him until others could help subdue him.
Police say Hribal is facing four counts of attempted murder and 18 counts of aggravated assault. He will reportedly be tried as an adult.
His lawyers are asking for a psychological evaluation. Witnesses say during the assault that Hribal’s face stayed completely expressionless and police say he has only commented that he wants to die.
Three Arabic men who shouted anti-Semitic slurs attacked a Jewish scholar teaching in Paris.
The reports from Paris police say the three men grabbed the victim and threw him against a wall. The victim was then beaten in the face until his nose was broken and deformed. They also broke bones around his eyes.
They then threw the victim to the ground, ripped his clothing and drew a swastika on his chest.
During the attack, then men shouted “death to the Jews” and repeatedly called the victim a “dirty Jew” before punching him.
The attackers ran when the victim’s cries drew attention of people in the area.
French officials have reported a significant rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the last few weeks.
A British citizen who is a Hasidic Jew was brutally attacked on a New York street in what members of the Jewish community are calling another example of the “knockout game.”
While police are refusing to acknowledge the attack was a “knockout” attack, at least one public official says the assault on the 65-year-old man certainly appears to fit the criteria.
“He was attacked from behind by two individuals, brutally attacked,” Democratic New York City Councilman David Greenfield said. “They did not take anything from him, and he was in such bad condition that he had to be hospitalized.”
The man had traveled to New York for a wedding. He was attacked on the street in Brooklyn as he left the wedding.
The NYPD has increased patrols in the areas where the “knockout game” began in October last year. Police are reportedly looking at surveillance video of the assault for clues.
Two California students are fighting back against a college professor who assaulted them and took away their pro-life signs.
Thrin and Joan Short were part of an pro-life event at the University of California when Associate Professor Mireille Miller-Young ripped the signs they were carrying form their hands. When the girls attempted to get their signs back, the professor kicked and pushed them.
The professor, who teaches feminist studies, claims she had a “moral right” to take the signs from the people who were opposing abortion. The professor is also known for showing pornography in her classes to her students.
Joan Short told Fox News the real offending matter in this incident is abortion itself and that if someone is offended by the process of abortion they should stand up for the life of unborn children.
Santa Barbara police are investigating the incident.
