Five Things You Probably Didn't Know About Osama Bin Laden

Okay well firstly, if you have been living in a cave or out of the loop for the last few hours, Osama Bin Laden is dead.

1. Did you know his mother was the tenth wife of his father Mohammed Bin Laden, they would later divorce. 

2. He is believed to have fathered around 25-26 children.

3. His father died when his American pilot misjudged a landing in Saudi Arabia and his oldest brother died when he flew his plane into power lines in Texas.

4. As a result of these deaths he inherited over 300million dollars.

5. Although he was believed to be 6 foot 4" or more many interviewers have maintained that he was in fact not actually that tall. 

Now you know, let's hope he is dead and it all isn't just a propagandist PR stunt. 

Racism Rampant In Les Bleus

The national federation's (FFF) technical director Francois Blaquart is suspended due to a row over an alleged project to enforce racial quotas in youth academies. There is an ongoing investigation expected to be completed within 8 days. The investigation will try to find all those responsible for the absurd racial slurs against Arabs and African's playing in the national team. There were plans made to ensure that only whites would prosper in the national team and that they would do all they could to limit the development of any other players in the country's youth systems. On Thursday, French investigative website Mediapart (www.mediapart.fr), citing sources within the FFF, said Blaquart proposed to enforce racial quotas to limit the number of players of black or Arab origin in youth academies."We can mark out, in an unspoken way, a sort of quota. But it needs to remain unspoken," Blaquart was quoted as saying by Mediapart.

The independent media outlet also said that at a recent FFF meeting

the decision was made to change the criteria for players to be called up to the illustrious French youth centers. Unlike before, players will no longer solely be judged on their footballing qualities, but the FFF will also take their ethnic background into account before inviting a player to a training center

Zinedine Yazid Zidane the greatest French player of all time would be discriminated against in such plans.

Immigration will be a heated debate for the next French presidential election to be held next year

Stoning in Iran

If a morbid sense of curiosity ever leads you to wondering about possible ways of dying, you could probably imagine many gruesome, painful and horrific ways to die. Without a doubt there are not many worse ways to die than to be stoned to death. Shockingly, stoning is still an acceptable form of capital punishment that is still used in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, Iraq and Iran. Below is a video of a woman being stoned to death by the Taliban. 

But perhaps the most well known case concerning stoning is happening in Iran today. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning for being convicted of adultery. If it were not for the intervention of her sons and the subsequent media coverage that her case received internationally she would have already have been executed. Having had her execution postponed on more than one occasion her lawyer has now been sentenced to death by hanging for mainly fabricated charges. If you watched the video above you can only imagine how horrifically painful it must be to be bombarded by rocks and stones. Some crimes deserve dramatic punishment and we cannot judge what crime deserves what punishment because different cultures do abide by different belief systems. Nevertheless, punishment in the form of stoning should be abolished for any crime, the method lacks any ounce of humanity and the 'rock throwers' can only be perceived as indulging in a twisted pleasure and obtaining some form of malevolent satisfaction, military or government orders aside.

Please send copies of any protest letters, actions and emails, and acts of solidarity to iransolidaritynow@gmail.com