Three of the Muslim Brotherhood’s senior leaders, including Mahmoud Ezzat, the Brotherhood’s deputy leader, were detained alongside at least 11 other members for engaging in banned political activity. Although the Muslim Brotherhood is banned, its members won a fifth of the parliament seats in the 2005 election when they ran as independents. A spokesman for the group said the arrests were intended to thwart its preparations for elections later in the year.
Silvio Berlusconi’s has stepped up his campaigns against his television rivals, press freedom and the internet. Giulio D’Eramo reports
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Two reporters from The Monitor newspaper, Angelo Izama and Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi Izama lost an appeal to compel the government to release papers relating to oil deals, when the judge decided the information was not in the public interest. Izama was arrested and bailed for criminal libel last week in an unrelated case.
Mexican politicians are seeking to regulate the use of social media, like Twitter, Facebook or Myspace. They claim Mexican users are using these sites to avoid drunk-driving checkpoints.