Russian police free 15 child slaves

Russian police have reportedly exposed a sweatshop in the Moscow region, where 15 Kyrgyzstan children under the age of 18 were kept as slave laborers.

The illegal workshop was forcing labor on underfed children as young as 11, while some of the children were also mistreated, RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday.

"An illegal sewing workshop was discovered at the site of a factory in the town of Noguinsk. Among the workers, were minors from Kyrgyzstan," the police said.

"No salaries had been paid to the minors, they had no days off. These underage slaves were fed twice daily with a ration of break and mayonnaise."

A Kyrgyz national was in charge of luring the children's parents with the promise of 5,000 rubles (168 dollars) per month, provided they allowed the children to be taken abroad. He would also guarantee the children would have good living conditions and two days off per week.

The criminal organization would lock up the children in factories' facilities upon arrival in Russia.

With hundreds of thousands of migrants smuggled into Russia each year from Kyrgyzstan and other ex-Soviet republics, slave trafficking is growing as profitable as the drug trade.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114823§ionid=351020602.

Polls close in Uzbekistan parliamentary election

Polls have closed in Uzbekistan's parliamentary elections and vote counting is underway, after a high turnout in Central Asia's most populous nation.

Despite rumors of voter apathy, some 88 percent of those eligible have cast their ballot, according to the country's central election commission.

Candidates from four parties are contesting for 150 seats in Uzbekistan's lower house of parliament, with the election being described as free and fair by Western observers.

President Islam Karimov, who has overseen a tightly-controlled economy, said a high voter turnout showed his policies were popular.

"We have been resilient to the crisis thanks to the timely implementation of our anti-crisis program," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Karimov as saying after casting his ballot on Sunday.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114822§ionid=351020406.

Scientists find aggressive brain cancer genes

US researchers have discovered two genes reported to be responsible for the development of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.

According to a study published in Nature, C/EPB and Stat3 are active in about 60 percent of patients suffering from glioblastoma, the most lethal human malignancy that rapidly invades the normal brain and produces inoperable tumors.

"When simultaneously activated, they work together to turn on hundreds of other genes that transform brain cells into highly aggressive, migratory cells,” said lead researcher Antonio Iavarone.

The two genes act as the master control knobs of the tumor; suppressing the two genes simultaneously and thereby helping treat patients.

Scientists are optimistic that their findings will lead to the development of new treatments for brain cancer.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114821§ionid=3510210.

Germans lose faith in political system

A poll shows that the German public now has less faith in their political system than at any other time since World War II, mainly due to the financial crisis.

The survey conducted by Bertelsmann Foundation found on Sunday that about 70 percent of those questioned did not feel that they could count on their political and business leaders, or the education system and the social welfare network.

Nearly fifty percent of respondents said they have reservations about representative democracy as a political system.

"Even the social market economy is far from being seen as positively as it once was," opinion researcher Peter Kruse said of Germany's system of free markets with a strong social safety net.

The loss of faith is believed to be mainly due to what Germans see as their government's inadequate attempt to revive the slumping economy.

The poll also shows that the EUR 8.5 billion (USD12.2 billion) tax relief package passed by parliament this month has unsettled Germans at a time of record public debt.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114819§ionid=351020604.

Opposition figures arrested after Iran protests

Iranian security forces on Monday arrested a number of opposition figures one day after anti-government protests erupted in Tehran on the religious ceremony of Ashura, Press TV has learned.

The Iranian capital on Sunday was the scene of anti-government protests on the anniversary of the Shia Muslim Ashura religious event, during which people commemorate the 7th century death of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hussein (PBUH).

Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters who used the religious ceremony to chant slogans against the government. Eight people were killed during the unrest.

A source told Press TV that security agents on Monday arrested Ebrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister who is the secretary general of the Iran Freedom Movement.

Qorban-Ali Behzadiannejad and Mohammad Baqerian, two aides to former presidential candidate turned opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, were also arrested.

Among those killed on Sunday was Seyyed Ali Mousavi, Mousavi's nephew. Police say his death was "suspicious" and investigations into the incident are underway.

Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said the force did not use violence against protesters and it was not involved in the killing.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114820§ionid=351020101.

Riyadh arrests 40 officials over Jeddah flood

At least 40 Saudi officials and contractors have been arrested following a probe into the November flood, which killed over 120 people in Jeddah.

The authorities, including a number of senior officials of the Red Sea city's mayor office were rounded up by two dozen police officers on Sunday, AFP reported.

An assistant to the Jeddah mayor, four department heads, and the former head of the city's projects division were among the detainees.

More than 30 other officials were also arrested to be questioned by an investigation committee, which was formed at the order of King Abdullah and is led by Prince Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of the Mecca region, which also includes Jeddah.

"We will not show any leniency to any official who is found negligent in this case," King Abdullah told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassah in an interview published Saturday.

The investigation has been launched into the uncommonly heavy rainfall, which sparked a flash flood in the kingdom's second largest city on November 25.

The flood which drowned 120 people, left thousands of others homeless and more than 7,000 vehicles destroyed in the city.

It provoked outrage among the citizens, who subsequently called for the ouster of public officials for not keeping their promises to build adequate drainage in the city.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114818§ionid=351020205.

Iranian commander calls protests disgraceful

A senior Iranian commander has condemned sporadic anti-government protests in the Iranian capital of Tehran as "disgraceful" and "reproachable."

Protestors on Tuesday took to some central and downtown streets during ceremonies commemorating the 7th century martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hussein (PBUH), known as Ashura.

Brigadier-General Masoud Jazayeri, the deputy commander of Iran's armed forces, on Monday defined the "actions of a group of hooligans on such days of mourning" as another "low act" incomparable to anything seen before.

He described the "small group of vandals" as marginal compared to "millions of real Ashura mourners."

Jazayeri also called on the judiciary to effectively deal with "the unbelievers and apostates" who had staged the riots in the capital.

At least eight people lost their lives during the Sunday riots which saw protesters chanting slogans against top Iranian government officials.

Confirming four of the deaths, Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said one of the deceased fell from a bridge, two others were hit by cars while one other victim was shot dead by an unknown assailant.

Police identified the person who was shot dead by unknown assailants as Seyyed Ali Mousavi.

Police say the force was not involved in the killings, adding that the incidents are under investigation.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114812§ionid=351020101.