How To File Credit Card Complaints Under New Regulations

Posted on May 25, 2011 by admin

When you have a problem with your credit card issuer, it is hard to find someone who can help, or sometimes, even listen. It is frustrating at best, and unresolved issues can magnify your personal financial crisis.

On July 21, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will begin accepting complaints about deceptive or abusive financial products and services.

This includes credit cards, check-cashing services, and “pay day loans.” The bureau is already receiving complaints but is directing them to other government agencies.

How the CFPB handles complaints will be closely scrutinized. Every step the bureau takes is likely to be controversial and will probably be disputed by banks and politicians since it will be public information.

The Dodd-Frank regulations require the CFPB to create a way for banking customers to report their problems with financial products and services, and send them to the appropriate state or federal agency.

It can accept complaints by phone, letter, email or on its website. The bureau must also make sure the financial firms respond to consumers.

Banks are protesting what happens to the information after it is filed. They want to keep the complaints as quiet as possible to protectthemselves from trivial or malicious complaints. Nonprofit groups want full disclosure so that anyone can read the complaints.

File a Complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Complaints are processed by the local BBB, usually the BBB where the company is located. Complaints are sent to the company within two business days and the company is asked to respond within 14 days. The consumer will be notified of the company’s response.

Contact Your State Attorney General’s Office

Each state has a state Attorney General’s Office. It is authorized to bring legal action only in the name of the state. It does not serve as an attorney for individual consumers. It does not give advice or conduct research on behalf of individuals or businesses. Always contact the Attorney General’s Office in writing so your file may be kept up to date.

It is generally better to try to resolve the dispute with the company or individual before filing a complaint with your state’s Attorney General’s Office. This Office can’t force a company to respond or make an adjustment. However, there are times when filing a complaint can bring resolution. Patterns of complaints involving the same company or a new issue often help the Attorney General’s Office to allocate law enforcement resources. The AG Office will also help refer to the government agencies that can best address the problem.

File a Complaint with Federal Government Regulators

You can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Credit Practices ( https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ ).

However, the FTC does not resolve individual complaints. Complaints made to the FTC help the agency detect patterns of wrong-doing, and lead to investigations and prosecutions. The FTC enters complaints into a secure online database that is used by thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement authorities worldwide.

You can file a credit card complaint with the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ( http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/ ), a government agency responsible for regulating credit cards issued by national banks in the United States. The agency encourages consumers to first attempt to resolve the complaint with your financial institution.

The bank must also be a National Bank in order for consumers to receive help from the OCC.

You can also file a complaint with the Federal Reserve if your bank has been unfair or misleading, discriminated against you in lending, or violated a federal consumer protection law or regulation (http://www.federalreserveconsumerhelp.gov/).

LowCards.com simplifies the confusion ofshopping for credit cards. It is a free, independent website that helps consumers easily compare credit cards in a variety of categories such as lowest rates, rewards, rebates, balance transfers and lowest introductory rates. It also gives an unbiased ranking and review for each card. The LowCards.com Complete Credit Card Index is the most objective and comprehensive resource on the Internet which allows consumers to compare rates for over 1000 credit cards offered in this country. Created by Hampton & Associates, the company has been analyzing the credit card industry and supplying objective websites on various consumer expenses for eleven years.

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Why gasoline prices are so high

Posted on May 11, 2011 by admin

Why are gasoline prices so high and expected to go even higher? We’ve all experienced the shock, frustration and anger that “gas-price grief” has given us. After all, our country is dependent on the “Black Gold”, crude oil. Without it, our economy would crumble. Let’s explore the insides of gas pricing and how you can get an edge in the marketplace.

Unstable conditions throughout the world create uncertainty within the global marketplace. Wholesalers may not know if they’ll receive the much needed oil. Consequently, wholesalers are willing to pay more to secure their share in the marketplace.
Today, the demand for gasoline has increased, creating the need for gas stations on every major street corner. In the early 70′s the demand was not as high. The gasoline supply was high relative to the demand. However, in the late 70′s we entered into the era of the ‘oil shortage’ causing the gasoline price to escalate. (In hindsight we now know there was no real oil shortage, it was based on cutting the supply thus the affect was increased gasoline prices.) Gradually, as our demands for gasoline increased, more gas stations came into the marketplace. Unfortunately, most of the gas stations were owned by the same corporations taking away the competition and allowing for the reason why are gasoline prices so high. Simply, large demand with little competition.

China, only one country within the global marketplace, has increased their oil supply by 30% in 2003. Other economically growing countries increased their demand too. Over all, the demand for oil worldwide has increased, thus, increasing the gasoline price on a world market level.

With some profit, it costs Saudi Arabia $3.50 to produce each barrel of oil, in the most expensive areas of the Gulf of Mexico, it costs around $10.00. At those oil prices the cost of a gallon of gas should be around $1.10.

In the US, the oil companies are making 100′s of times more profit, than normal, because they sell our own oil to us at the speculative market price. Even if we produce more of our own oil, the oil companies will sell it to us at speculative prices. They need to cap the price of the oil we produce in our country so that we don’t pay speculative prices. If we produce more oil, the OPEC will reduce supply to keep the prices of oil high, the same way that they have been doing it fore years.

The OPEC is a group of countries that are dedicated to cut the production/supply of oil to force it to increase it’s price. It has to force countries to not sell more oil, and it has become better at controlling countries to cut their production over the last couple of years.

The Oil companies have created their own mini-OPEC with the refining of gasoline. They practically have not built any refineries in decades, so that they can increase the gasoline price by putting the supply in the critical area. They just need to put one refinery on maintance mode and they will cause the price of gas to rise. If one refinery has an accident, and the price of the gasoline will sky rocket..

In addition to that, Oil and gasoline traders have learn to manipulate the buy/sell/delivery/storage process and they can cause further spikes in the price of the oil and gasoline. All in the name of greed.

Oil companies are making 100′s of billions of dollars, per year, for a reason, which is we are getting shaft by OPEC, the oil companies, the traders, and the corrupt politicians that let this happen to our country since it affects directly our economy, our own pockets, and raises the price of everything we need.

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life destruction and climate change

Posted on April 27, 2011 by admin

Personally, from what I have observed of history of the past century, people in the U.S. have gotten to be very comfortable with their seat at the top of the world. It seems that after Europe had willing handed over the torch of global influence to America after so many devastating world wars, it was happy to maintain a more secondary role. However, I wonder whether Americans will do the same.

As has been evidenced by actions in the past, e.g. the Vietnam War and now the Iraq war, America tends to go leaps and bounds beyond what may be immediately necessary. Even though this is generally done with good intentions, it can be seen in the state of Iraq today that adequate planning doesn’t really happen when it needs to. Lack of planning, understanding, and overall apathy towards a situation is also evident in the state of the U.S.’ environmental policy and the opinion on this issue of the general public.

Many American citizens neither really have an idea of how to fix the world’s environmental issues, nor do they understand the gravity of the situation. Of course almost everyone knows that global warming is an issue (for which the credit goes to Al Gore), but not everyone is willing to make a change to solve it. This fact can be seen in the general American consensus on nuclear power as a solution to CO2 emissions, even in the short term. Many simply do not see it as a viable option because of accidents in the past. So many cite Chernoybl and Three Mile Island as their reasons for not supporting nuclear power, although almost no one seems to know that Chernobyl occured because of a flaw in the basic design of the reactor (a design that is no longer in use anywhere outside of Lithuania), and that only one person is thought to have died from the Three Mile Island incident, without conclusive evidence to support that the accident was the cause of death. This overeagerness to help change things and the lack of knowledge or unwillingness to accept alternatives when affecting a change is a failure common to both much of the American public and the American government.

Many see China as the logical successor to America as a global superpower. In terms of effects on the environment, China has already surpassed the U.S. in its CO2 production, even though peak energy production has likely not yet been reached. However, pressure on China to clean up its act, so to speak, is ever-increasing as China becomes the new center of attention. China realizes this, and so, many nuclear power plants are already in construction, as well as other alternative energy sources. In terms of foreign relations, China is being a bit careless, but at least it hasn’t so far invaded another country without any solid grounds to do so.

In short, I believe that whether it is left to the Western world to lead the rest of the world is a potential change that the West must allow to happen if it does. The way in which this possible evolution is handled will likely be a reflection upon whether the West will allow the world to continue to advance, or whether it is too stubborn to relinquish its control, and is willing to bring the whole world down with it in order to maintain that control.

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Nuclear Power life ending

Posted on March 22, 2011 by admin

For decades we have been told that with the lessons learned from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, nuclear energy is safe. As the still unfolding mayhem at the Dai-Ichi plant in Fukushima, Japan, proves, nothing could be further from the truth.

The fuel rods in at least three reactors are partly molten. All six reactors are in trouble, although most were not on-line during the earthquake! In spite of all downplaying by officials, the nuclear industry, and science apologists, a complete meltdown of some reactors and a nuclear chain reaction of molten fuel are still possible.
The Fukushima plant is 40 years old and was supposed to be dismantled, but is kept alive just like many frail reactors all over the world. Already during an earthquake in 2008 did water leak out of a fuel rod storage facility at the Fukushima plant.

Friday, March 11, 2011

An earthquake with a subsequently to be expected tsunami wave triggered the far reaching problems in the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. It needs to be stressed: This was the trigger, not the reason for why the mostly off-line reactors are in trouble. As we will discuss, the reason is the same as it was in Chernobyl in 1986, the same as for the 1979 Three Mile Island incident before that: nuclear power is inherently unsafe and too complicated to be safely handled by humans under the pressures of human society, which includes economical and political pressures.

Merely three of the reactors in Fukushima were running at the time. The widely praised automatic emergency shut-off did therefore little to prevent the catastrophe. A boiling water reactor needs active cooling even when “switched off” – that means, you cannot actually switch it off! It keeps going at a steady rate of at least 3% normal for over 30 years. Remember, we are talking 3% of the power output of a nuclear reactor, which is huge and the reason for why such reactors have been build in the first place.

After the diesel generators failed to keep the cooling water pumps running, batteries only lasted one hour. The water necessary to cool the fuel rods started to boil away. External diesel generators were brought to the plant, but could not be connected because the batteries’ sockets were under the waterline that one would expect in the basement suffering flooding. None of this involves nuclear physics. These are failures that humans always encounter with long and well known technologies. No future advance in nuclear technology is expected to improve the usual error rate when humans meet conventional technology.

Chernobyl is often conveniently blamed on “the stupid Ukrainians messing up”. Keep in mind: The present failures occurred in the technologically most advanced human society, which arguably is Japan!
The Japanese survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki lived the rest of their lives with the stigma of having been exposed to radiation, a stain that years never erased. Known as Hibakushas, they are formally recognized by the government if they lived within proximity of the blasts, and receive a special medical allowance.

But the designation also led to them being ostracized by other Japanese, who feared wrongly that the contamination was contagious or could be hereditary. The result was that many survivors of the bombings, and even their children, lived ghettoized lives because of their exposure to radiation.

The prospect of a similar stigma now worries some of those in and around the Fukushima plant.

the question is how much time we need to think about the human life?

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A record number of immigrants were deported from the USA in 2010

Posted on January 4, 2011 by admin

During Fiscal Year 2010, ICE deported 392,862 undocumented foreigners, of whom more than 195,000 were convicted criminals, an increase of more than 23,000 deportations – including 81,000 people with criminal records – compared with 2008.

In 2009, deportations totaled 389,834 and the goal for 2011 is 404,000.

ICE broadened the Secure Communities program, a biometric technology effort that compares the fingerprints of people being held in local jails with those in ICE and FBI databases.

According to ICE spokesperson Barbara Gonzalez, during 2010 about 90,937 people were arrested on the federal level for immigration violations after being identified by Secure Communities and deportation proceedings have been begun against 49,739 of them.

Of that latter group, 11,493 are being deported for committing major Level 1 crimes, another 19,271 for Level 2 crimes such as drug trafficking, and another 5,275 for Level 3 infractions including traffic violations.

The rest – 13,700 – were acquitted of the criminal charges against them in court but their immigration cases remain pending because they were found to be in the country without the proper documents.

“The goal of Secure Communities is for it to install the system in the country’s more than 3,000 jails by (the end of) 2013” said Gonzalez.

In the two years that the measure has been in effect – and according to a report by the Immigration Policy Center it lacks the proper supervision and a complaint procedure and it spurs racial profiling against immigrants – 69,905 foreigners have been identified as being in the country illegally and deported.

“It’s deplorable that under the mandate of President Barack Obama the number of deportations has increased. The expansion of Secure Communities paints a difficult panorama for our community in 2011,” complained Ruben Campillo, North Carolina coordinator of the group Reform Immigration for America.

Campillo said that NC is an example of the abuses that have been committed during the course of the implementation and expansion of programs like Secure Communities and 287g, which mainly identifies immigrants who do not have criminal records.

“It will be of great importance to work closely with the agencies of local public order to ensure that their personnel are trained and to establish an alternative to accepting official identification documents that enable the high number of arrests of immigrants who don’t have driver licenses to be avoided,” the community leader said.

ICE has given no sign of easing up during 2011, and on the contrary, it is threatening next year to be even more severe with immigrants with criminal records and with companies that hire unauthorized labor.

They documented how the number of deportations have escalated to an astounding 387,000 per year under President Obama. That’s more than 1,000 per day and a population the size of Minneapolis or Tulsa every year. Deportations are ripping apart families, destabilizing communities and forcing businesses to close. Add to this the deplorable conditions in which we hold immigration detainees, the brutality with which we apprehend people, and the complete inflexibility of our legal system, and you have a deportation crisis

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How To Make A Complaint About An Estate Agent

Posted on October 25, 2010 by admin

In our civilization today, people would always be looking for a comfortable shelter or home that his/her will live in. Having a good and nice house can make a happy and healthy family.

If you are away from your family, you must ensure that they are in a high-quality house so that you will not constantly focus your awareness on just thinking of them if they are safe or in danger. If you don’t have a house that you can live in just surf the internet and you will find many techniques and ways on how to buy a house at low quality price. This opportunity is very interesting and this is what we called reselling. What is reselling? Who are the citizens involve in this commotion? What are some practices to make these things easier?

Sometimes, real estate transactions simply go bad. This can be due to a myriad of possible reasons: inspections, appraisals, lending … or, from either party to the transaction: the buyer, the seller or the real estate agents. While remediations for incidents vary per individual state legislation-and range from litigation to mediation, and everything in between-whenever there’s a perception that a realtor has acted unjustly, the first action to be taken by a consumer who feels that they have been treated unfairly should always be in the form of a formal real estate agent complaint.

While methods for filing a real estate agent complaint do vary from state to state, generally speaking, the best way in which to submit a complaint about a realtor’s conduct is through their licensing board. Each state has its own licensing authority, and they should each have a web site online, through which you can access their forms and procedures for filing a complaint.

In most cases, you should expect to fill out a standardized form with information such as the names of the parties, the property address to which the complaint is being addressed and specific complaint details. You might also need to be prepared to write a letter explaining the situation. Complaints should be mailed to the appropriate real estate licensing authorities; they will then forward it on to any additional parties to the complaint, if need be. Again, details on this may be found at each individual state’s real estate licensing board web site.

Once the state licensing board has received your complaint, they will typically open a file on both sides of the transaction. The entire transaction will be reviewed, in detail, from both angles to determine if and where there had been any misconduct. (This often goes well beyond the initial complaint, and if they exist, this process will discover problems on either side of the transaction, regardless of which side of the party has issued the complaint.) In some instances, if there is evidence of wrongdoing on the part of a realtor, they will face any one of several punishments, ranging from fines to losing their license-and beyond, depending on the severity of the crime. In other instances, the case may be referred to mediation or litigation in order to be handled by a neutral third party. Again, the procedures will vary by state, but this is a good general idea of what to expect when sending in a realtor complaint.

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Chilean miners confront the cartel problem

Posted on October 19, 2010 by admin

The rescue of the Chilean miners was a heartwarming miracle. The miners have both my sympathy and respect – I can’t even begin to imagine what those first 17 days were like, trapped far underground without any hint that rescue was even possible. I wish them the best as they try to return to normal life.

I also thank them for providing an excellent case study for my microeconomics class. According to media reports, the 33 miners agreed to a pact of silence in which none will speak about the details of the first 17 days of their ordeal. In addition, they struck an agreement to coordinate the telling of their story and to share equally the resulting profits.

In short, the Chilean miners formed a cartel. A justified and moral cartel to be sure — they deserve whatever profits they can jointly extract from their ordeal — but a cartel nonetheless.

All of which raises a natural question: Can such a cartel be successful? Or will it succumb to the perennial challenge that confronts all cartels: how to enforce a joint agreement in the face of individual temptations? A unified silence may well maximize the financial value of the story and defend the privacy of those moments that some miners do not want to share with the world. But the media circus will tempt some miners to cheat on that agreement either for monetary gain or to ensure that their individual perspective gets reported.

I wouldn’t want to downplay the solidarity among these men, but over at the New York Daily News, Jaime Urabarri reports that there are already concerns that the agreement may break down. In “Chilean miners may break pact of silence, for the right price,” he writes:

Some of the rescued Chilean miners are apparently willing to tell their story for the right price, despite a promise made between all 33 of them that none would reveal details about the worst of their 69-day ordeal buried underground.

During a special Sunday mass held in honor of last week’s dramatic rescue, miner Jorge Galleguillos said that the pact was non-binding and hinted that he’s entertaining offers to spill the beans on exactly what happened.

“I have to think about myself,” he argued, without going into specifics about what information he’d be willing to share.

There are also rumors that some of the miners have already reached deals to tell their story. El Mercurio reported last week that Victor Segovia agreed to sell the contents of the journal he kept during his time in the mine for $50,000 to German newspaper Bild.

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Nobel prize

Posted on October 8, 2010 by admin

In the course of my life, for more than half a century, June 1989 was the major turning point. Up to that point, I was a member of the first class to enter university when college entrance examinations were reinstated following the Cultural Revolution (Class of ’77). From BA to MA and on to PhD, my academic career was all smooth sailing. Upon receiving my degrees, I stayed on to teach at Beijing Normal University. As a teacher, I was well received by the students. At the same time, I was a public intellectual, writing articles and books that created quite a stir during the 1980s, frequently receiving invitations to give talks around the country, and going abroad as a visiting scholar upon invitation from Europe and America. What I demanded of myself was this: whether as a person or as a writer, I would lead a life of honesty, responsibility, and dignity. After that, because I had returned from the U.S. to take part in the 1989 Movement, I was thrown into prison for “the crime of counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement.” I also lost my beloved lectern and could no longer publish essays or give talks in China. Merely for publishing different political views and taking part in a peaceful democracy movement, a teacher lost his lectern, a writer lost his right to publish, and a public intellectual lost the opportunity to give talks publicly. This is a tragedy, both for me personally and for a China that has already seen thirty years of Reform and Opening Up.

It is precisely because of such convictions and personal experience that I firmly believe that China’s political progress will not stop, and I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future free China. For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme. I also hope that this sort of progress can be reflected in this trial as I await the impartial ruling of the collegial bench—a ruling that will withstand the test of history.

If I may be permitted to say so, the most fortunate experience of these past twenty years has been the selfless love I have received from my wife, Liu Xia. She could not be present as an observer in court today, but I still want to say to you, my dear, that I firmly believe your love for me will remain the same as it has always been. Throughout all these years that I have lived without freedom, our love was full of bitterness imposed by outside circumstances, but as I savor its aftertaste, it remains boundless. I am serving my sentence in a tangible prison, while you wait in the intangible prison of the heart. Your love is the sunlight that leaps over high walls and penetrates the iron bars of my prison window, stroking every inch of my skin, warming every cell of my body, allowing me to always keep peace, openness, and brightness in my heart, and filling every minute of my time in prison with meaning. My love for you, on the other hand, is so full of remorse and regret that it at times makes me stagger under its weight. I am an insensate stone in the wilderness, whipped by fierce wind and torrential rain, so cold that no one dares touch me. But my love is solid and sharp, capable of piercing through any obstacle. Even if I were crushed into powder, I would still use my ashes to embrace you.

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Hugo Chavez and dictatorships in Latin America

Posted on September 29, 2010 by admin

fidel castro hugo chavez 1 300x244 Hugo Chavez and dictatorships in Latin America

Latin America has a set of features very own from its formation until the present , therefore , many novelist fiction boom Latinamerican has been baptized as REAL WONDERFUL O MAGIC , THERE MANY OF THEM DESCRIBED exotic landscapes , dictators who rule until death as the “General in His Labyrinth “by Gabriel García Márquez, ” Yo el Supremo ” de Roa Bastos many more writers wrote about dictatorship with its peculiarities own of this continent. were the first, to describe and explore this reality, people themselves have not understood , nor explained this phenomenon own from our history.

Now we also see something similar to what is happening in Venezuela, a very peculiar emerged from the quarries Latin America , made in the barracks, but in this case with another additional ingredient , a dictator waving the flags of the Bolivarian revolution , socialism , justice social and democracy to his style. He is a extranbótico very peculiar.Look singing Ernesto chegavara , one of the guerrillas emblematic romantic history Latinaomericana. beside by some and is considered demigod by many generations.

Another feature , is also joining unconditionally, to the principles of Fidel Castro , who appears in many passages of his vida.Hugo Chavez. Also using the same strategies of dictators traditional of the right cavernous American , wanting to remain in power , using it , the whole state apparatus, but it is unfortunate that this is going on in Venezuela , a country with a long democratic tradition in Latin America.

They also had the guilt previous rulers nieter that did not solve the problems most urgent Mayari of the Venezuelan population , they as usual always followed to the letter the recommendations of the Fund Monetrio Internacional.No were able to innovate and be more realistic the needs of the population.No forget the famous custom themes , featuring the Venezuelan people against these rulers unable were expelled from the government

Juan Velasco Alvardo , another military in the seventies of last century has surprised Latin America with his ideas entirely new, never expected that these ideas of revolution , of change had emerged from the barracks , this character was a soldier just as the earlier , took over the government of Peru through a coup, overthrew a democratic government , but his speech surprised everyone and his reforms were also a time again misunderstood in Latin America, no one could explain what was it occur, it was evident its duration was brief, because we were living the period of dictatorship fiercest and sanguenarias of Pinochet, Alfredo Stroessner , Rafael Videla, Anastasio Somoza, Hugo dance, Jean -Claude Duvalier call Bébé Doc, is one of the stages darkest democracy Latinoanericana.The politicians were unable to resolve for themselves the internal problems of their countries , many of them contributed to these governments bloodthirsty .

But before you have insurance, leaving her heir to power is none other than his own brother Raul Castro , opened another option the heritage government’s family and interpreted by Fidel Castro as his property the kingdom of Cuba, is the typical ideal of Latin American dictators , to perpetuate themselves in power, longing for the life is for them eternal.

The second Alberto Fujimori left office fleeing their own scandals that have shaped their own advisors and supporters who have created a dark power and parallel with more power, have made the diversion of public funds on a regular basis to the accounts of people who have collaborated with them.Now is sitting there in the courts awaiting a sentence for the crimes has made. Calling himself INONCENTE of the charges.

In recent years, democratic governments are not addressing the needs most urgent of the majority of the population, always are dreaming of assumptions outdated of nenoliberalism and the schemes rewritten IMF Internacional. Even that these assumptions are no longer viable countries where the 80 was a real boom in theories economic .

It is a cause that in many countries Latin American the majority of the population requires urgent reforms in the whole structure of society, since the international crisis in this part of Latin America will not only create protests but phenomenon social uncontrollable in recent 20 years and we have had a inestibilidad policy in the region. we were witnesses and the people to expelled democratic governments unable , as in Venezuela , Bolivia , Argentina and Ecuador also no are strangers to the armed groups fighting to implement republics style socialist Cuba in Latin America, we have the cases of Colombia , Peru, Gatemala , El Salvador and Mexico.

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Stoning Women to death

Posted on September 14, 2010 by admin

The stoning of women is one of the more savage, and revealing aspects of the mullahs’ rule in Iran and of fundamentalist application of the law in Afghanistan. Since the inception of the mullahs’ rule in Iran hundreds of women of various ages have been and continue to be stoned to death throughout the country.

The penalty for adultery under Article 83 of the penal code, called the Law of Hodoud is flogging (100 lashes of the whip) for unmarried male and female offenders. Married offenders may be punished by stoning regardless of their gender, but the method laid down for a man involves his burial up to his waist, and for a woman up to her neck (article 102). The law provides that if a person who is to be stoned manages to escape, he or she will be allowed to go free. Since it is easier for a man to escape, this discrimination literally becomes a matter of life and death.

Interestingly, Article 6 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Iran has ratified, states: “Sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime.” Offenses for which the Law of Hodoud provides the death penalty do not involve murder or serious bodily harm, constituting the “most serious crimes”.

Article 104 of the Law of Hodoud provides that the stones should not be so large that a person dies after being hit with two of them, nor so small as to be defined as pebbles, but must cause severe injury. This makes it clear that the purpose of stoning is to inflict grievous pain on the victim, in a process leading to his or her slow death.

The Iranian woman facing death by stoning has expressed surprise over reports that she was lashed after a British newspaper published a picture showing her without a headscarf, a judiciary official who says he met her told Fars news agency on Wednesday.

“She was unaware and surprised by reports of (receiving) lashes after a British newspaper printed a picture which was not hers and had mistakenly mentioned her name under it,” Kazemzadeh said.

Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad, told a Paris news conference by telephone on Monday that he “heard” his 43-year-old mother received 99 lashes in prison after The Times of London published on August 28 a picture claiming to be of Mohammadi-Ashtiani and showing her hair unveiled.

By law, women in the Islamic republic must be covered from head to foot, with their hair completely veiled.

Kazemzadeh said Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s death sentence had been “suspended on the orders of the head of the judiciary and will not be applied for the moment”, confirming what Iranian officials have been saying since July.

On Tuesday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said that her stoning sentence remained stayed as a final verdict in her case was still pending.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International said in a statement in London that suspending the sentence was not enough.
“The whole world is aware of my situation because of Mostafaie’s rogue action. I am ready to be present in front of the media and on television any time to defend myself,” Kazemzadeh quoted Mohammadi-Ashtiani as telling him, adding that she had filed a complaint against the lawyer with the judiciary.

Kazemzadeh said the condemned woman, a mother of two, told him that she continued to have weekly meetings with her family and children, Farideh and Sajjad.

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