By: Reuters, January 14, 2010
An Iranian court has banned a weekly for slander and spreading lies, media reported, and one opposition website said it was for insulting former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The official IRNA news agency, in a report on the court’s move late on Wednesday, did not mention Rafsanjani, who backed opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in last year’s disputed presidential election.
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Sister of Iran Nobel laureate freed
By: Al Jazeera, January 14, 2010
Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace laureate, has told Al Jazeera that her sister was released from prison in Iran. Noushin Ebadi was released on Thursday after being arrested during opposition protests at the end of last year, her sister said on Al Jazeera’s Frost Over the World programme.
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Iran: Zahra and millions like her call for change
By: Abbas Djavadi, RFE, January 14, 2010
Zahra and millions like her won’t stop supporting freedom and calling for an open, moderate country with an accountable government. “…we want to live in a moderate and free society with better perspectives for our kids,” she says. “The election proved that our votes don’t count and everyday there are new restrictions and hostilities…It’s as though we were constantly at war with ourselves and the world.”
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Iran: The greening of Islam
By: Abbas Milani, New Republic, January 13, 2010
The Green Movement is a revolt against theocracy. Most of its adherents are young Iranians with little or no religious motivation. Yet, an iconic figure of the revolt was the nation’s highest-ranking cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri; and, last month, Ashura, a holy day celebrating martyrdom, occasioned some of the movement’s most massive protests.
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Iran arrests reformist cleric
By: Washington TV, January 13, 2010
Iranian security forces have arrested reformist cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Khalaji at his home in the city of Qom, a Washington-based think-tank said on Wednesday. Khalaji’s son, Mehdi Khalaji, who is an Iran expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, condemned the arrest.
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Baidu hacked by ‘Iranian cyber army’
By: BBC News, January 12, 2010
China’s most popular search engine, Baidu, has been targeted by the same hackers that took Twitter offline in December, according to reports. A group claiming to be the Iranian Cyber Army redirected Baidu users to a site displaying a political message.
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Iran: Assassination in Tehran
By: Gary Sick (Gary’s Choice blog), January 12, 2010
About the assassination of the Iranian physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, an Iranian government news channel concluded that the US and Israel were responsible. Stop and think for a moment about what that news report really means. It suggests that US and Israeli agents are able to penetrate residential areas in the capital city. It indicates that they are able to target individuals almost at will, conduct a dramatic assassination, and then escape completely undetected. What does that say about the Iranian security services?
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Relatives of arrested mothers dispersed by Iranian police
By: RFE, January 11, 2010
A human rights group says police in Iran made two arrests and violently disrupted a demonstration in Tehran by relatives of a group of arrested mothers whose children are missing.
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Citizen journalism in Iran
By: Haideh Daragahi, Sign and Sight, January 11, 2010
Thirty years of superficial reporting of the Iranian situation by the Western press neglected the build-up to the current unrest. Even now, presenting the alleged election fraud as the cause of the revolt rather than an ignition key which released three decades of accumulated frustration, leaves people outside Iran quite perplexed.
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CENTRAL ASIA
Azerbaijan: Rights defenders appeal for western support
By: Shahin Abbasov, Eurasianet, January 13, 2010 Human rights activists in Azerbaijan characterize the criminal prosecution of opposition editor Eynulla Fatullayev, as well as the recent convictions of youth activists Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, as politically motivated efforts to repress dissenting voices. Activists add that more Western pressure on Baku is needed to arrest the government’s efforts to stifle freedom of speech. Read full article… Kazakhstan: Four journalists in jail and counting Kyrgyz opposition criticizes U.S. reaction to rights violations Kyrgyzstan relegated to the back of the freedom class
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SOUTHEAST ASIA
Burma: Three activists sentenced to three years each
By: Myint Maung, Mizzima, January 13, 2010 A township court in Burma’s former capital city of Rangoon on Wednesday sentenced three opposition party members to three years imprisonment each. The defendants, members of the humanitarian committee of Burma’s main opposition party, National League for Democracy (NLD), were charged with unlawful association and handed three year sentences with hard labor by the Insein Township court, according to their lawyer, Kyaw Hoe, who was present at the court session on Wednesday. Read full article… Burma freedom is ‘worst of the worst’ Vietnam: Mine critic questioned Burma silencing critics with internet law
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EAST ASIA
Tensions between Google and China complicate U.S. diplomacy
By: Ariana Eunjung Cha and Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, January 15, 2010 Google’s threat to pull out of China after revelations by the search-engine giant that hackers in China stole valuable corporate secrets from its computer systems comes as the United States is making a concerted push for closer ties with the Asian giant. A pullout could complicate a delicate diplomatic dance: The Obama administration would like China to make progress on human rights but also needs it to help press Iran and North Korea on nuclear issues and to restructure its economy so its people buy more and export less. Read full article… Police say China lawyer ‘went missing’ By: AP, January 14, 2010 The brother of an activist Chinese lawyer who security forces are believed to have taken into custody almost a year ago said Thursday that police told him his brother “went missing” in September. It’s the first word on the whereabouts of Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s most daring lawyers, who disappeared in February 2009. Read full article… China’s Google dilemma: Soften on censorship or anger millions of internet users Google China cyberattack part of vast espionage campaign Google’s China move gets Yahoo’s support China: Google’s possible exile leads to cyber protests Chinese citizens mourn Google in candlelit vigil Google changing course in China: A teachable moment Google’s threat echoed everywhere, except China China: Blocking U.N. sanctions is more than just a business decision
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By: Radio New Zealand International, January 14, 2010
The Information Ministry in Fiji has contradicted the interim prime minister and says the regime has not yet cut the pensions of its critics despite implementing a new decree. The interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama told Radio Fiji his regime passed a decree last week and already stopped the pensions of its critics from this week.
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