By: Sebastian Abbot, AP, August 27, 2009
Women’s rights activists say they aren’t fooled by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s nomination of the first female Cabinet ministers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, calling it a ploy to improve his popularity that will actually hurt the cause of women. With the nominations of three women for his new government, the hard-line president appears to be seeking to burnish his image at a time when he is under siege from the pro-reform opposition, which claims he won the June presidential election by fraud.
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Iranian protesters ‘not agents’
By: BBC, August 27, 2009
Iran’s supreme leader says he has seen no proof that opposition leaders blamed for the post-election unrest were agents of foreign powers. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments contradict accusations which have frequently been made by hardliners. But he said there was “no doubt” the mass demonstrations, in which at least 30 people died, had been planned in advance, “whether its leaders know or not”.
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Iran’s Khatami slams trial confessions as ‘lies’
By: AFP, August 26, 2009
Iran’s former president Mohammad Khatami on Wednesday dismissed confessions made by his aides at a Tehran trial of people arrested for opposing the re-election in June of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “These kinds of comments are invalid… these claims are utter lies and hold no truth,” Khatami said in a statement posted on his website.
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New prison-rape allegations in Iran bring practice to light
By: Golnaz Esfandiari, Radio Free Europe, August 26, 2009
Karrubi has upped the ante, publishing on his website a graphic account of the rape of a young male detainee. Karrubi has also handed the names of four individuals who say they were raped in prison to a special parliamentary commission that is in charge of investigating the postelection unrest. And Karrubi’s son told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda on August 25 that his father will present other rape cases to parliament in the future.
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Iran’s factional disputes grow increasingly bitter
By: Michael Slackman, New York Times, August 26, 2009
“The game in Iran is no longer between the reformists and the conservatives,” said Mustafa El-Labbad, an expert in Iranian affairs and the director of the Middle East Center for Regional and Strategic Studies in Cairo. “It is now between the pragmatists and the radicals.”
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Iranian protest figures could face execution
By: Thomas Erdbrink, The Washington Post, August 26, 2009
The attorney prosecuting leading opposition figures in Iran asked a court Tuesday to give them “the maximum punishment,” offering the clearest indication to date that the government crackdown against the organizers of protests this summer could include executions. The request for maximum punishments reflects the determination of a group of Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, Friday prayer leaders and lawmakers supportive of the government to prosecute their political enemies for disputing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election victory.
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Popular analyst seen smiling at his ‘show trial’
By: Borzou Daragahi, LA Times, August 26, 2009
Just days before Iran’s fateful June 12 presidential election, analyst, economist and writer Saeed Laylaz confided to The Times that he saw dark days ahead. He was held in solitary confinement out of public view until Tuesday, when he was seen inside the courtroom at the fourth session of the trial against reformists and domestic political rivals. No one’s quite sure why Laylaz was arrested, other than the fact that he’s long been a vociferous and vocal critic of Ahmadinejad.
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Freed academic Haleh Esfandiari: ‘Iranians want evolution, not revolution’
By: Diane Tucker, Huffington Post, August 26, 2009
Renowned journalist and academic Haleh Esfandiari was arrested and charged with plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, with a little help from the United States in 2007. The soft-spoken intellectual (and grandmother of two) spent months in Evin Prison, sleeping on the floor and enduring harrowing interrogations, until an international outcry hastened her release.
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Iran MPs to probe ‘mass burials’
By: BBC, August 25, 2009
A member of a parliamentary committee reportedly says it is investigating claims of a mass burial of protesters after Iran’s disputed June election. Last week, a reformist website said “tens” of people had been interred in anonymous graves at a Tehran cemetery.
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Top Iran reform figures on trial
By: BBC, August 25, 2009
The trial has begun in Iran of a number of senior opposition figures following June’s disputed presidential election. The defendants, who include former ministers in the 1997-2005 Khatami government, are accused of conspiring with foreign powers to organise unrest.
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Iranian prosecutors seek to shut two reform parties
By: Michael Slackman, New York Times, August 25, 2009
Iran’s prosecutors moved Tuesday to shut down the nation’s two largest reform parties during a mass trial of former officials, journalists and academics all arrested and charged with conspiring to orchestrate a so-called velvet revolution in Iran. Prosecutors called on the judge to ban the two reform parties, the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organization.
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CRISIS IN HONDURAS
Coup catalyzes Honduran women’s movement
By: Laura Carelson, Znet, August 27, 2009 In this poor Central American nation, feminists have been organizing for years in defense of women’s rights, equality, and against violence. When the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya was forcibly exiled by the armed forces, women from all over the country spontaneously organized to protect themselves and their families and demand a return to democracy. They called the new umbrella organization “Feminists in Resistance.” Read full article… US ‘disappointed’ by Honduras mission failure Honduran government wages campaign of fear and intimidation Journalism in the Americas Toppling a coup, part VI: Electoral, armed, or something else Honduran resistance goes it alone
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AFRICA
Zimbabwe: Army steps up attacks on civilians
By: Andrew Moyo, Zim Online, August 27, 2009 Zimbabwe army soldiers stepped up attacks on civilians in the month of June as the country’s power-sharing government showed little desire to act to stop rising political violence and human rights abuses, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said this week. In its latest report on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Human Right NGO Forum said cases of political violence and rights abuses surged to 125 in June compared to 99 incidents recorded the previous May. Read full article… Hear us, stand with us: Zimbabwe women rise against sexual violence Zimbabwe: Wheels of justice slow for peace workers and activists Zimbabwe: State media ordered to run anti-Mutambara stories Zimbabwe: ‘Journos covering up rights abuses risk prosecution’ Western Sahara: The International Civil Courage Prize for Aminetou Haidar South African police quell troop rally Zambia: NGOs fear law will hobble their activities Thousands in Mali protest equal rights marriage law
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By: Meg Hewings, Hour, August 27th, 2009
The Ruckus Society pulls public stunts that wake people up and get them involved in making the world a better place. As the young executive director of the California organization, Adrienne Maree Brown is the new face of activism and grassroots organizing in the U.S. today. Hour spoke to her by email about her organization and its fight for media justice, electoral reform and citizen engagement on issues of environmental and social change, as well as its more recent activist campaigns in Canada.
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Argentine farmers to halt supplies in week-long protest
By: AFP, August 25, 2009
Argentine farmers are to halt meat and cereal supplies to shops for a week to protest government agriculture policies, industry representatives said Wednesday. The stoppage will start on Friday this week and last to September 4, one of the agriculture federations’ leaders, Carlos Garetto, told reporters. The farmers are angry at the government’s refusal to reduce taxes on grain exports — especially soya, which is called “green gold” in Argentina because of the price it fetches on the back of booming demand from China.
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Brazil: Students arrested for demonstrating in the Senate
By: Diego Casaes, Global Voices Online, August 25, 2009
Democracy and freedom of speech in Brazil are being slowly put aside as we become used to hearing about situations like blogs censored and people held for demonstrating against corruption. On 19th August, a few students demonstrating against the Senate’s President José Sarney were arrested, kept for three hours in a room within the Senate and subjected to many charges and threats.
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Mapuche protests continue in Southern Chile
By: The Patagonia Times, August 24, 2009
Approximately 100 Mapuche activists took the streets of Temuco Monday demanding a direct audience with President Michelle Bachelet. According to the protestors, only the president herself can negotiate a solution to the so-called “Mapuche Conflict,” which has intensified in the wake of the recent police killing of an indigenous activist. The incident occurred during a symbolic land occupation involving some 50 Mapuche activists, who claim ancestral ownership over the farm in question.
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Asian Americans mobilize for immigration reform
By: Vivian Po, New America Media, August 21, 2009
For the first time in the nation’s history, Asian American and Pacific Islander (API) groups came together this week to call for comprehensive immigration reform. A dozen API organizations hosted activities in cities with high Asian American populations, including the Asian American Justice Center in Washington, D.C., the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles and national chapters of the Organization of Chinese Americans.
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