Recent Posts
One of China's most prominent political activists has been formally charged with inciting subversion. Liu Xiaobo is accused of spreading rumours and defaming the government, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency. Mr Liu's arrest comes six months after he was taken into custody. He was detained just before the publication of a document that he co-authored calling for political change in China.
link: BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Chinese activist formally charged
Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Iran's defated reformist presidential candidate, have called for protesters to gather outside parliament in Tehran in defiance of government orders for protesters to stay off the streets.
The call for the rally in the Iranian capital's main square at 1600 local time on Wednesday came after Iranian authorities reportedly deployed more security to break-up any gatherings and quell further protests.
The move will be a key test of whether the current crackdown on demonstrations by the government will keep protesters at home.
link: Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Iran protesters plan new rally
Since her death, public displays of mourning for Neda have been prohibited, the friend said.
link: Who was Neda? Slain woman an unlikely martyr - CNN.com
To the Editor:
Re “For Colleges, Small Cutbacks Are Adding Up to Big Savings” (news article, June 19):
I would like to suggest a place to look for large savings: presidents’ salaries. Although most colleges and universities are classified as nonprofits, the obscene salaries paid to their top administrators have risen to the level of those paid to bank chief executives and hedge fund managers.
Alan Mironer
Bedford, Mass., June 19, 2009
link: Letter - One Way Colleges Can Save - Cut Presidents’ Salaries - NYTimes.com
Phil Bronstein writes:
Look, Twitter can't cure cancer. But it's certainly part of the genetic makeup of a future vaccine to combat the transitional disease affecting professional journalism.
Like any chemical/medical mystery though, it needs some magical combination to unlock the door.
HuffPo's Nico Pitney, live-blogging time line with feeds from Twitter, YouTube, AP, the wires, Web sites, etc., making clear the sourcing in each case, comes close. It's not perfect, but it's more than just show-off aggregation or the kind of gawking and pointing at the new kid that's happened with Twitter in much of more traditional media.
A photo showing Iranian clerics prominently participating in an anti-government protest speaks volumes about the new face of Iran's opposition movement.
In a blatant act of defiance, a group of Mullahs took to the streets of Tehran, to protest election results that returned incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. Whether these clerics voted for Ahmadinejad or one of the opposition candidates is unknown. What is important here, is the decision to march against the will of Iran's supreme leader who called the results final and declared demonstrations illegal.
link: Clerics join Iran's anti-government protests - CNN.com
Jeff Zeleny and Peter Baker write:
WASHINGTON — President Obama strongly denounced the Iranian crackdown against protesters on Tuesday, declaring the rest of the world “appalled and outraged” while dismissing what he called “patently false and absurd” accusations that the United States instigated the demonstrations.
In his sharpest and most expansive reaction to the crisis since disputed June 12 elections sent hundreds of thousands of people into the streets of Tehran, Mr. Obama for the first time used the word “condemn” to assail the “unjust actions” by the government. He mourned the killing of protesters, including a young woman whose death was captured on video shown around the world.
“It’s heartbreaking,” the president said of the images of Neda Agha-Soltan bleeding to death on the street from a gunshot wound. “And I think that anybody who sees it knows that there’s something fundamentally unjust about that.”
But he warned Tehran that its attempts to snuff out public dissent would not succeed, saying that “in 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests of justice.”
link: Obama Condemns Iranian Crackdown - NYTimes.com
Steven Stern writes:
The Beekeepers Ball, held Monday night at the Water Taxi Beach in the South Street Seaport, was, among other things, a lesson in coalition politics.
In attendance were New York City beekeepers, aspiring New York City beekeepers, beekeepers not from New York City, friends of beekeepers, friends of bees, people who like to dress as bees, people who like to dress their children as bees, bee-dressed children, one cross-dressing beekeeper, a couple of guys who spend much of their time dressed in armor, fans of honey, fans of local food and a team of French videographers.
Honey bees are shaping up to be the latest urban agricultural must-have, the new backyard chickens.
The wrinkle is that beekeeping is illegal in New York City. Fines, while rare, can run to $2,000
