Posts Tagged ‘demonstration’
September 7th, 2010
The US and NATO commander in Afghanistan
warned today that a Florida church’s plans to burn copies of the Quran on 11 September could endanger troops. The
Dove World Outreach Center is encouraging its members to engage in an “
International Burn a Koran Day” to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. General Petraeus said that the demonstration would jeopardise the safety of soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan and other parts of the world. He pointed out that rumours of the book-burning sparked
protests in Kabul yesterday. Local authorities in Gainesville, Florida have
refused to grant the church a permit for the fire, but Pastor Terry Jones says the demonstration will go ahead as planned.
February 11th, 2010
Police have
seized a Polish cultural centre in the town of Ivyanets outside Minsk.
An activist who was travelling to the centre has also been detained. President Lukashenko claimed in 2005 the organisation responsible for the centre was trying to destabilise his regime and set up a government-approved alternative. Both the
EU and the
US have condemned the actions. There are around 400,000 Poles in Belarus. Belarus has also recently
detained 20 activists demonstrating in support of political prisoners.
February 9th, 2010
The Iranian authorities have launched a new
webmail service intended to be a substitute for public employees currently using Gmail, Yahoo mail or Hotmail accounts. The new Iran.ir webmail service is easier to control than the foreign services currently used by 95% of Iranian public sector employees. Internet and text-messaging services in Iran has recently been the victim of the government’s crackdown on free speech in the country. Both services will experience
disruptions this week as heavy protests are anticipated on the anniversary of the Islamic revolution on 11 February. The authorities claim the disruptions are due to damages to the fibre-optic cables and ‘changing software’.
