The body of a Muslim woman, killed in a German courtroom by a man convicted of insulting her religion, has been taken back to her native Egypt for burial.


x-posted to my LJ

Current Mood: pessimistic

Current Mood: okay

justice souter explains to savannah redding's principal why it might be inappropriate to strip-search a 13-year-old girl because someone said she had ibuprofen once; says he won't get a spanking this time as long as it doesn't happen again.

There's a new search engine out there. It's called Koogle, and it blocks anything an Orthodox Jew shouldn't see on the aethertubes.

The ups and downs of asking the aethertubes how to run your government. Mostly, the people want information on UFOs and Obama's birth certificate.

The ups and downs of trying to make sure your citizens only see what you want them to see on the aethertubes; in brief: to block the stuff you want to block effectively, you have to block a lot of harmless stuff, too, which upsets people who don't care about politics but want their LOLcats, dammit. (Huh. I didn't realize until I typed that up that there's a theme to the first three links. ;-)

Full-day government-run child care proposals have re-ignited the Mommy Wars in Canada.

A Canadian research team has discovered where HIV hides, which leads to the possibility of actually eradicating it in the body, rather than minimizing it.

Cognitive-Behavioral therapy is effective at curing chronic insomnia.

It's World Refugee Day.

Iranian police clash with protesters. Iranian police have used water cannon, batons and tear gas to disperse protests over the presidential election, witnesses in Tehran say.

World hunger 'hits one billion'; the worst hit are in the Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa regions.

US admits Afghan airstrike errors.

France wants to study the small but growing trend of burqa wear, with an eye to possibly banning the Islamic garment from being worn in public, the government's spokesman said Friday.

Tuscon, AZ area: An outspoken anti-immigration activist and 2 others were charged with the May 30 slaying of a man and his daughter in an attack that also wounded his wife.

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: Erasure "Victim of Love"

I have been asked how we can help the movement in Iran; apparantly there is a need for proxy servers and setups that allow Iranian citizens to access social networks and other services that are being blocked by the Iranian government.

This site currently contains information on how to set up such services: http://blog.austinheap.com

I want to stress that I am not an especially technical person have not had any time to review any of it. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Current Mood: busy

Fark.com user Tatsuma continues to update his current events timeline; the full version of which is available here: https://sites.google.com/site/tatsumairanupdate

Here is an except detailing events of yesterday and expectations about today:

18th of June - The protests show no signs of slowing down, and the fact that the government has been less violent so far and concentrating on discrediting the protesters instead shows that they are losing grip and painfully aware of all the attention given to what is happening right now, CNN notwithstanding. It's also a worrying step, because the moment they start feeling they are losing grip even more is the moment where they might begin to unleash brutal waves of violence again, much worse than what we've seen so far.

- Iran Human Rights reports that today alone hundreds of members of the opposition and known Reformists have been arrested, some of them tortured in the basements of government buildings.

- There is a (so far) quiet march going on, where all the protesters are dressed in black and mourning those who have died so far. The crowds are estimated to be as big as they have been for the last few days, so that puts them between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 in Tehran alone.

- Khameini has agreed to a recount of 600 out of the thousands of ballot boxes, but this has been rejected by the opposition, who says that these elections are to be declared null and void, and that new elections have to be rescheduled. Khameini in return rejected this. There are reports that Mousavi went as far as saying that Khameini does not have authority to preside over the state of Iran anymore.

- As a sign of growing tension in the governmental apparatus, fist-fights were said to have broken out in Parliament over who to support, but it seems that the Parliament will ultimately back Ahmadinejad and Khameini to the end. The Interior Ministry has ordered a police investigation into the massacre of 7 civilians by a Basij firing in a crowd. There are also reports of police officers deserting their posts and joining the protesters, while others use their position in the police force as a way to warn protesters from incoming arrests or crack downs. The army is still silent. There are reports that the man who leaked results of the election giving Khatami winner and Ahmadinejad as losing in third position has been killed in a car "accident".

- The State TV has been turned into a full-blown anti-Revolution machine, constantly hammering on how evil the "thugs" who are smashing around private property are. Problem is that those thugs are in fact Basij dressed in green, but IRIB is reporting it as pro-Moussavi supporters. They have also been showing documentaries about the evils of the internet and how the US, UK and Israel are behind the protests. State Radio is not much better, with talking heads calling for the death of those evil thugs destabilizing the country at the behest of external forces. They have also issued false reports that Moussavi was "condeming the rioters".

- The Government has closed Iran to all foreign communication and coverage, according to many reports. It would also seem that the Iranian government has opened an account in the name of Ayatollah Khameini on Twitter. There are reports that senior aides to all reformist candidates have been arrested, but it has yet to be corroborated and this is not the first time we hear such reports.

- According to Reuters, Iranian prosecutors have warned of the death penalty for the rioters who are involved in violence. Islamic cleric have warned that not going to Friday's prayer service makes you worthy of the death penalty. It is unclear yet what isn't worthy of death penalty at this point if you protest against the regime.

- All the violence reported over Iran is now exclusively done by the Basij, Ansar and, if the rumours are true, Hizbullah and Hamas. The police have completely stopped participating in the repression of the population, and both the Army and IRG are standing still and not doing anything. This is good news, but the Basij are sadly not reducing the level of violence they are unleashing on the population, beating up everyone they can get their hands on. It continued all throughout the night and during the day, but due to the mass of people involved it seems that they are restraining themselves when it comes to the mass rallies, preferring to pick isolated targets.

- Universities have cancelled all exams all over the country, and a long list of rebel students was given to all universities and they have to report the students, who are to be arrested on sight.

- There have been a few confirmed cases of people threatened inside the United States for providing proxies for the revolution. Their details were available on the internet so they were passed around pro-Government forces. If you are helping this revolution, be careful to do so as anonymously as you can. It doesn't mean you are risking your life, but it could potentially result in harrassment or vandalism.

19th of June - The day has yet to begin in Iran as I write this (19pm EST), but today looks to be by far the defining moment of this week. Supreme Leader Khameini has called for Friday Prayers where he will be present. There are fears that the IRG has been called in support and that they will have a massive presence, which could possibly be a post-prayers trap. On the other hand, not attending makes the reformists enemies of Islam and worthy of the death penalty according to Khameini. Iranian prosecutors have also warned protesters that violence might be punished with the death penalty, according to Reuters. Supporters of Khameini are expected to flood Tehran from all corners of Iran on Friday, so big clashes are expected. As explained above, details are presently unclear as to what the protesters have planned for tomorrow.

- As the Basij, they are cracking down on the population as ever, roaming the streets, vandalizing both pro and anti-Mousavi targets while pretending to be pro-Mousavi forces and trying to crack down on all dissenters.

Current Mood: anxious

Are you a little confused by what's going on in Iran? Trying to figure out what is going on right now? This well-written and lengthy summary gives you deep background on Iran from 1900 to now. It's very readable and very detailed. (Written by kuwdora.)

 The summary I have been quoting is now being hosted at https://sites.google.com/site/tatsumairanupdate/ along with links to torrents of many videos.  If you are interested in the current events in Iran at all, I highly recommend this summary.  An expansion on the basic political structure of Iran has been added; overall it is a fascinating read.

Current Mood: hopeful

Iranian voter turnout in some cities was as high as 141%. Nope, no problems here - please move along...

June 16 was chosen because it also the anniversary of the day hundreds of black school children were killed in the South African township of Soweto in 1976. They were demonstrating for the right to better education (among other issues, not to be forced to learn Afrikaans). Thousands of children are participating in activities across Africa advocating for governments to boost child survival.

Current Mood: determined

 I'm quite tired, but wanted to provide at least a partial update:

 The Christian Science Monitor analyzes the official reported Iranian election results, and concludes that it doesn't look quite right.   

 Meanwhile CNN's coverage has been remarkably pro-government, has desribed the situation as political rivals within the same regime, and generally paints those potesting the election results in a rather negative light.  Their top headlines include "Thousands of Ahmadinejad supporters crowd streets of central Tehran" - whereas the pro-Moussavi demostration was reportedly in excess of 1 million.

 Fark.com continues to host very active ongoing conversations/coverage of the events featuring excellent summaries such as that copied in my last post; a partial update of recent events take from that source follows, behind the cut:

( midday 16th of June to 17th of June - The fourth wave of violence has started, )

Current Mood: sleepy

Questions about the legitimacy of recent election results in Iran which had shown the re-election of the current President, Ahmedinejad, are resulting in massive civil unrest.

It now appears that the results were manipulated and the moderate reformer candidate, Mousavi, is the likely winner. His supporters, mostly youth, have been gathering in the streets - but generally peacefully. This picture in particular from day-before-yesterday of a Mousavi supporter helping a policeman injured by the crowd, is especially poignant:



More recently a gathering of Mousavi supporters in Tehran, the capital city, is said to have numbered in excess of 1 million people.

Twitter has been being used extensively as a means of communication for dissidents, and it is rumoured the Iranian goverment is searching Twitter for Iranians publishing dissenting opinions and cracking down on them. All Twitter users are being encouraged to change their city and time zone to Tehran, to make this at least a little bit harder.

Personally I have been following this in real-time by reading comments threads on fark.com; user 'Persepolis' has family in Iran and has been in communication with them and has also been translating some videos posted to youtube of current events, and user 'Tatsuma' has compiled a very informative background piece and timeline which explains recent and current events there as well as the major players extremely well, and also provides some additional links.  I am reposting it here, behind a cut:

( History in real-time )

Current Mood: tired

Growing numbers of children in Zimbabwe are turning to prostitution to survive, the charity Save the Children says...Unemployment in Zimbabwe is thought to top 90% and many cannot afford to pay for food, medical care or school fees.


x-posted to my LJ

Current Mood: drained

Via Feministing: A court has ruled that the heirs of the late actress Choi Jin-sil must compensate an advertiser since she failed to maintain her dignity as a model when pictures of her after a beating by her then-husband Cho Sung-min were publicized in media.

Current Mood: cranky

*Warning: This might be overly gruesome for some to read.


PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Khmer Rouge torturer recounts baby-killing policy. Khmer Rouge guards killed babies by battering them against trees under an official policy to ensure the children of the brutal Cambodian regime's victims could never take revenge for their parents' deaths, the group's chief jailer testified Monday.

Current Mood: uncomfortable
Current Music: Sleater-Kinney "Ballad of a Ladyman"

Two bodies and debris have been found from the Air France plane which went missing over the Atlantic last Monday, the Brazilian air force has said.

Current Mood: uncomfortable

It's the 65 anniversary of D-Day.

Current Mood: contemplative

International scientists say they have found the first evidence of resistance to the world's most effective drug for treating malaria.

Current Mood: cranky

The United Nations humanitarian wing is urging greater protection for civilians in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has witnessed a surge in sexual violence since the beginning of this year.



x-posted to my LJ

Current Mood: bitchy
Current Music: My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult "Devil Bunnies"