Four Iranian Kurds who died trying to cross the Channel in high winds were members of one family who paid smugglers thousands of euros after two failed attempts to reach Britain, the Guardian has been told. Rasul Iran Nezhad and his wife, Shiva Mohammad Panahi, both 35, and two of their children, Anita, nine, and Armin, six, drowned as they tried to reach Britain by boat, according to a relative of the family and the Iranian-Kurdish human rights organization Hengaw. The fate of the family’s third child, 15-month-old Artin, is unknown, though French officials have said it is possible an infant also died when the vessel sank. The family was from the north-western city of Sardasht. Speaking from Sardasht, Iran Nezhad’s brother Khalil said he had last heard from the family two days ago. He said they had crossed from Iran into Turkey during the summer before proceeding through Europe to France. A representative from Hengaw said the family had attempted to enter the UK by train twice but fai...
In elementary school every day after coming home I used to watch Battle of the Planets. My favorite character was Keyop who stuttered and seemed to have a verbal tic. Years later I heard a rumor that this was done because the original character spoke using much profanity and that Keyop's excess mouth motion would cover up deleting the words. It seemed to be baseless although in the original Japanese version he spoke quite normally.