By: Iran Focus, November 18, 2005
An Iranian opposition group demonstrated outside the prime minister's office Friday for the release of two men it believes are being tortured in Iraq, and called on Iran to cease "meddling" in Iraq.
By: BBC News, November 10, 2005
A Malaysian city is introducing a curfew for online gamers in a bid to stem a rise in the number of addicts.
By: The Baltic Times, November 11, 2005
TALLINN - Every 100th person in the world uses Skype to make free calls over the Internet, but few people know that several young Estonian men are behind the innovative technology that has radically shaken up the communications world. Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn and Toivo Annus, who developed the program under the vision of Swede Niklas Zennstrom and Dane Janus Friis in 2002, will soon head the list of Estonian millionaires after the sale of Skype to eBay has been completed.
By: International Herald Tribune, November 13, 2005
Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said Sunday that he would meet with the leaders of a march in Madrid over the weekend that drew hundreds of thousands of people protesting against possible changes to religious teaching in Spanish schools.
By: The Daily Star, November 14, 2005
BEKAA: Hizbullah MP Ismail Sukkarieh said Sunday he backed the residents of the Bekaa in their calls for a decrease in the price of fuel, following furious demonstrations over the weekend. He added the people "have a democratic right to hold demonstrations," and the government should meet their demands, since they cannot bear the high prices of fuel.
By: BBC News, November 14, 2005
This week, the North African nation of Tunisia hosts a UN summit on the internet. One big item on the agenda will be how to ensure freedom of expression online. But Tunisia's own record of censorship has led some critics to question its suitability to host such an event.
By: The New York Times, November 14, 2005
At a cultural festival last year, Sameer al-Qudah recited a poem of his depicting Arab rulers as a notch below pirates and highwaymen on the scale of honorable professions. Within days, Jordan's intelligence police summoned him.
By: Middle East Online, November 11, 2005
At least three thousand supporters of Egypt's banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood staged a demonstration Friday outside a Cairo mosque to protest against the "rigged" results of the parliamentary vote.
By: The Washington Post, November 13, 2005
ONE OF THE modestly positive features of Egypt's unfree presidential election two months ago was the set of promises made by the 77-year-old incumbent, Hosni Mubarak, on his way to being awarded a six-year-extension of his 24 years in power. Mr. Mubarak, a de facto dictator up until now, promised to allow a free press and independent judiciary, lift emergency laws that stifle political activity, and reduce presidential powers in favor of a more freely elected parliament. In short, he offered the prospect of a slow but steady journey by Egypt toward liberal democracy. The first test of his commitments, and of the country's direction, came last week, with the beginning of parliamentary elections. The results so far are discouraging.
By: The Washington Post, November 13, 2005
MANAMA, Bahrain -- An international conference that had been intended to advance democracy in the Middle East ended yesterday without a formal declaration, eliciting expressions of disappointment from US officials, who considered the conference a key part of President Bush's regional democracy initiative.
By: The Boston Globe, November 14, 2005
An outspoken critic of President Nursultan Nazarbayev was found fatally shot in his home, his family's lawyer said yesterday. Zamanbek Nurkadilov's wife found him lying face-down Saturday night, shot twice in the heart and once in the head, said the lawyer, Serially Musin. Nurkadilov, 61, who was fired as the emergency situations minister last year after criticizing Nazarbayev, had been supporting the opposition candidate in next month's presidential elections. Police chief Moldir Orazalin ruled out any political connection in the death.
By: The Washington Post, November 12, 2005
SANSHAN, China -- When Chen Weiying rode up on the back of a sputtering motorbike that chaotic morning, what she saw changed her life. Dozens of women were crying and shouting as uniformed policemen carried them away, Chen recalled, and three elderly farmers lay in the fields to block a squad of front-end loaders and dump trucks poised to attack the fertile earth. Chen decided on the spot -- without planning, she said, and without thinking it through -- that she could not stand on the fringes.
By: I-Newswire, November 13, 2005
The release of political prisoner Wang Wanxing after 13 years in a Chinese psychiatric institution exposes another example of psychiatry's long tradition of using governments for its totalitarian purposes. Wanxing was picked up on the eve of the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown for displaying a banner critical of the Communist Party and, having committed no criminal offense was sent to a psychiatric facility called an ankang where he was electroshocked and drugged. He watched other inmates die in the ankang.
By: CNN, November 14, 2005
Images from video smuggled from North Korea show a public execution and what appears to be a concentration camp housing political prisoners, according to a CNN documentary set to air Sunday night. In one clip, the residents of a village gather on a hillside to watch the firing-squad execution of a man accused of helping a defector cross into China.
By: International Herald Tribune, November 10, 2005
The Bush administration, facing complaints that it is trying to impose democracy in the Middle East, is establishing a government-financed but semi-independent foundation to promote political activities with less of a taint from being paid for directly by Washington, administration officials say.
By: The New York Times, November 13, 2005
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe - President Robert G. Mugabe has one word for reports that Operation Drive Out Trash, the urban-demolition campaign aimed at slum dwellers that his government describes as a civic beautification program, has rendered thousands of his impoverished citizens homeless.
By: BBC News, November 14, 2005
Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been arrested three weeks after he returned home from four years in exile. Police have used tear gas to disperse thousands of his supporters outside the police station where he is being held.