Archive for April, 2010
Monday, April 26th, 2010
A video
released last week demands a Taliban leader be set free in exchange for the safety of Asad Qureshi, a British journalist ,and two retired ISI officers. The
missing men left for the North Waziristan region at the end of March. A second
video featuring one of the captured the ex-ISI officers, Colonel Khalid Khawaja, was also sent to Asia Times Online. In it, Khawaja details his involvement in negotiations between militants and the army, as well as his part in the arrest of
Muhammad Abdul Aziz during the
Siege of Lal Masjid in 2007.
Monday, April 26th, 2010
The Indian Government is to respond to the serious charges of having tapped the telephone conversations of four leading politicians, including the chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Lalit Modi, since 2007. The government began an investigation of Mr Modi and the IPL last week after allegations of tax evasion, money laundering, kickbacks, match fixing and illegal betting in cricket’s competition. Many prominent Indian figures have been implicated in the scandal, which led to the
resignation of Shashi Taroor, a junior minister and former UN under-secretary-general, and the suspension of Modi from public assignments.
Monday, April 26th, 2010
Tibetan writer Zhogs Dung was
arrested by Chinese police on Friday report
Tibetan sources. Although officials have declined to comment on his detainment, it is assumed that his arrest was related to open letter he signed with other Tibetan intellectuals criticising the government’s relief effort after the Qinghai earthquake. The letter first published on the Tibetan website
www.sangdhor.com (temporarily defunct) states that “
news from the mouthpiece for the party organisations can not be believed“ and also reminds people to not send donations directly to government organisations due to corruption. The Oslo-based
Voice of Tibet radio station reports that its
transmissions in China have been jammed for two days, despite the fact that the majority of its broadcasts have been messages of condolence from exiled Tibetans.
Monday, April 26th, 2010
The editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper al-Shahid,
Saad al-Aossi, was abducted on 14 April. Armed men invaded his home, confiscated his computer and took him to an unknown location. There have been local reports that the men were from the police and the military, though Baghdad Operations Command issued a statement denying any involvement in his disappearance. His kidnapping came six days after he wrote an article condemning Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for a lack of transparency.
Monday, April 26th, 2010
The building of
14 October, a Yemeni national media company, was overrun by soldiers on 21 April in order to confiscate the latest issue of Al-Tariq, a daily newspaper it publishes. The reason for seizing the outlet was that the newspaper ran a story about a raid by soldiers on a police station, which took place the day before in the nearby town of Al-Tawahi. According to
Al Tariq’s report, the raid was the result of a dispute between a police and a soldier during an operation to remove illegally-built homes outside Al-Tawahi.
Monday, April 26th, 2010
The
circus has finally returned to Ashgabat after a nine-year long absence, following the legacy of previous President Niyazov, who banned the cinema, opera, ballet, lip-synching, gold teeth, long hair and beards for men, as well as
renaming all the days of the week and month after members of his family. On Friday, the first circus show was attended by current President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as well as 1,500 children. Berdymukhamedov has reversed nearly all the bans, except for ballet, which was originally outlawed as the
“scantily clad women offended Turkmen morality”.
Monday, April 26th, 2010
Victoire Ingabire, who plans to stand in August’s presidential elections, was conditionally released from jail on Thursday. She faces charges of
genocide ideology, divisionism and collaborating with a rebel group. Ingabire must now
report to authorities twice a month and is not allowed to leave the capital city of Kigali. The travel conditions will impede her election campaign, Ingabire has previously been interrogated by investigators on suspicion of invoking ethnic divisions, though she claimed last month that she was being harassed for challenging the government.
Monday, April 26th, 2010
Stephen Conroy has
come under fire for not revealing information about his recent discussions with the US State Department over Australia’s controversial mandatory ISP filtering plan.
US Ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich recently criticised Conroy’s plans on an Australian news programme, stating that
“the internet needs to be free”. In a
letter to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, Liberal senator Sue Boyce criticises Conroy’s refusal to publicise any information, claiming that ”[i]t is a deplorable situation when Australians have to rely upon the frankness of a foreign diplomat to provide information about bilateral discussions on a very important matter because relevant Australian ministers either dissemble or just refuse to say anything.”
