Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe freed temporarily from Iranian prison: Husband

British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was accused of links to mass protests in 2009 and was sentenced her to five years in jail for sedition. (YouTube)
Updated 23 August 2018
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe freed temporarily from Iranian prison: Husband

  • Richard Ratcliffe says his wife was released from Evin prison Thursday morning
  • He says Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s lawyer is hopeful the period of release can be extended

LONDON: British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been allowed to leave an Iranian prison for three days, her husband said Thursday.
Richard Ratcliffe says his wife was released from Evin prison and has been reunited in Iran with her 4-year-old daughter Gabriella. He says Zaghari-Ratcliffe's lawyer is hopeful the period of release can be extended.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested during a holiday with her toddler daughter in April 2016. Iranian authorities accused her of plotting against the government. Her family denies this, saying she was in Iran to visit family.
A former employee of the BBC World Service Trust, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was working for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency.
Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was heavily criticized last year after he claimed Zaghari-Ratcliffe was "teaching people journalism" when she was arrested. Although Johnson later corrected himself, Iranian state television highlighted his comments as justification for imprisoning her.
There was no immediate response from Iran's judiciary or its state-run media to her release Thursday.

However, officials rarely comment on such furloughs, especially when they involve people with Western ties.
As recently as May, Zaghari-Ratcliffe learned that she faced a new charge of "spreading propaganda against the regime," her husband said. It remains unclear if that threatened charge remains in play.


Five miners trapped deep underground after mudslide floods South African diamond mine

Updated 59 min 4 sec ago
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Five miners trapped deep underground after mudslide floods South African diamond mine

  • The miners have been trapped since the early hours of Tuesday, according to a labor alliance
  • The mine is in the central city of Kimberley, which is renowned for its diamond mines

JOHANNESBURG: Five miners were trapped deep underground at a South African diamond mine after a mudslide flooded a shaft they were working in, mine officials and a labor union said Thursday.
The miners have been trapped since the early hours of Tuesday, according to the Congress of South African Trade Unions — an alliance of labor unions that includes the main mineworkers union. The congress said the miners were thought to be trapped around 800 meters (half a mile) underground.
Ekapa Mining General Manager Howard Marsden, whose company operates the mine, told national broadcaster SABC on Wednesday that rescuers were pumping water out of the shaft while a separate team was trying to drill a hole to where the miners were believed to be trapped to try to establish communication with them “or any proof of life.”
The mine is in the central city of Kimberley, which is renowned for its diamond mines and was at the heart of the global industry after diamonds were discovered in the area in the late 1800s.
The Minerals Council of South Africa said this month in its annual safety report that 41 miners died in mining accidents in South Africa last year, a record low and down from hundreds a year in the 1990s and early 2000s.
South Africa is among the world’s biggest producers of diamonds and gold, and the top producer of platinum.