11 Aug 2009 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Saudi authorities have closed an office of an Arab TV station after it broadcast an interview with a man speaking frankly about sex and showing off erotic toys, a government official said today. Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, spokesman for the ministry of culture and information, said the office of LBC, a Lebanese-based satellite TV station was closed because of the programme and because it was unlicensed. “The closure is indefinite,” Hazza said. The Saudi man, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, has been in detention since last Friday. Read more here
11 Aug 2009 | Index Index, minipost
Ramazan Esergepov, the owner and editor of the weekly Alma Ata Info in Kazakhstan, has been sentenced to three years in prison on charges of gathering and divulging classified documents. The trial, which also banned Esergepov from publishing a newspaper for two years, had been held behind closed doors since it began in April on the grounds that state secrets were involved. Read more here
11 Aug 2009 | Index Index, minipost
The couple responsible for the death of 17-month-old Baby Peter have been named after a court anonymity order expired. He died in Haringey, north London, in the care of his mother Tracey Connelly, 28, and her partner Steven Barker, 33. A third defendant in the case named as Jason Owen, 37, is now identified as Barker’s brother. Baby Peter’s surname, Connelly, has also been released. Read more here
11 Aug 2009 | Index Index, minipost
A Russian NGO chief and her husband were found shot dead in Chechnya on Tuesday, with their corpses stuffed into a car boot. The murder of the head of Let’s Save the Generation, Zarema Sadulayeva, and her husband came less than one month after Natalya Estemirova, one of the best known activists in Chechnya, was killed in similar circumstances. Read more here
