The U.S. government is covertly testing technology in China and Iran that lets residents break through screens set up by their governments to limit access to news on the Internet. The “feed over email” (FOE) system delivers news, podcasts and data via technology that evades web-screening protocols of restrictive regimes, said the U.S. government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors. Read more here
A ban on wearing the all covering burka in France would stem the spread of what French minister Fadela Amara called the “cancer” of radical Islam. The Muslim minister for urban regeneration told the Financial Times newspaper that the head-to-toe body covering and veil represented the “oppression of women, their enslavement and their humiliation.” Read more here
The American man John Yettaw whose unauthorised visit to Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi led to her extended detention, has been released, the office of US Senator Jim Webb has said. The statement said Webb, who was on a two-day visit to Burma, secured the release of Yettaw, who was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years’ hard labour. Webb was allowed to meet Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to 18 months house. Read more here
Journalists, writers and booksellers united in Baghdad today to stage a protest against censorship. The protesters are concerned about encroachments by the government on the freedom of writers, both in print and online. The demonstration took place in front of Baghdad’s Mutanabi Street book market, with the crowd chanting: “Yes, yes for freedom. No, no to silencing journalists.” Read more here