26 Apr 2010 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
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.
26 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost
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”.
26 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
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.
26 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost
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.”
