A Swedish prosecutor today requested that Julian Assange, founder of the Wikileaks whistleblower website, be detained for interrogation concerning a re-opened sexual assault investigation. The application could lead to an international arrest warrant.
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In the last year, foreign and Mexican news reports have relayed the dangers faced by the Mexican provincial media by recounting anecdotes of journalists been intimidated, killed and disappeared.
But nothing illustrated better how dangerous the situation was than a meeting with a group of reporters in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon last May. There was mistrust, fear and expectation. One reporter was paranoid when a colleague kept the list of participants in the meeting with him; another one asked a colleague not to take pictures of those present. And a third said he would be quizzed by local drug traffickers about his trip to Monterrey. Those from Monterrey listened carefully to what those in Matamoros and Ciudad Victoria, two cities on the US Mexico border, were saying. One of the reporters from Monterrey told me, “It looks like we could become like them.” read more …
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A man has been charged with soliciting murder and offences under the Terrorism Act in connection with a blog that listed MPs who voted for the Iraq war. Bilal Zaheer Ahmad, 23, was arrested last week for allegedly using the blog to call for action against those MPs. RevolutionMuslim.com, hosted in the USA, has previously been cited as one the websites responsible for radicalising Roshonara Choudhry. She was sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this month for attempting to murder Labour MP Stephen Timms. US authorities have closed the site at the UK’s request.
A new report shows Mexico’s regional newspapers keep quiet on cartel killings. Ana Arana reports
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