A protester stands with a placard during a rally at a free-speech park called Speakers’ Corner in Singapore on June 8, 2013 (AFP Photo / Roslan Rahman)
In Singapore, up to 2,000 activists lead by local bloggers staged a rally against recently introduced licensing rules for news websites, including breaches of “racial or religious harmony”, which protesters see as an attack on freedom of expression.
A crowd with posters denouncing “internet censorship” gathered on Saturday in Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park to demand the withdrawal of the policy. The peaceful demonstration in the Southeast Asian city-state was organized by a group of bloggers called “Free My Internet.”
The message of the gathering – “the government must trust us, and stop treating us like babies,” said Choo Zheng Xi, the group’s spokesperson. “It is an international embarrassment when governments around the world are working to deregulate the Internet, and Singapore, one of the wealthiest nations per capita, is going in the opposite direction,” the activist told AFP.
A Caricature of former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew is displayed during a rally at a free-speech park called Speakers’ Corner in Singapore on June 8, 2013 (AFP Photo / Roslan Rahman)
Under the rules that came into force in June, news websites must obtain annual licenses if they have over 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore every month and publish at least one weekly article on the island’s news over a period of two months.
Iranians are preparing for a changing of the guard – the country will be welcoming a new President for the first time in eight years. Six candidates are vying for that position in the Islamic republic – with the first round of voting due to begin on Friday. But election campaigning and the process itself – have some noticeable differences from most other nations.
RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 1 billion YouTube views benchmark.
In the course of its investigation into the Reyhanlı bombings (11 May 2013), the Turkish police conducted on Monday, 27 May 2013, a series of raids on the homes of Al-Nusra Front militants in Adana and Mersin. 12 suspects were arrested.
2 kg of sarin gas were found.
The Al-Nusra Front is the Levantine branch of Al-Qaida. The militants were preparing to use the sarin gas inside both Turkey and Syria. Sarin gas is a chemical weapon banned by the United Nations in 1991.
This discovery comes as the French daily Le Monde, in its edition dated May 28, published a five-part report by Jean-Philippe Rémy and Laurent Van Der Stockton “certifying” the use of gas by the Army Syrian Arab against the “rebellion” in Jobar (district of Damascus).
The report is a carbon copy of the one carried out in Homs, more than one year ago by the same newspaper, which was translated into the main European languages and published by all major outlets in NATO member states. The report contains several absurdities: journalists describe a chemical warfare at the heart of the capital supposed to affect only “opponents“; the people show diverse symptoms, but no convulsions; and photos illustrating the first installment point to an eye treatment which is incongruous with for poison gas (which penetrates the skin and is not a tear gas). This piece of propaganda was disseminated and widely relayed on the eve of the lifting of the EU embargo on sending weapons to armed groups in Syria.
In Chile, thousands of students angered at rising education costs, clashed with police in the capital, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. The students had flooded the streets for a peaceful march, still wearing their uniforms and backpacks, before it then turned violent. At least 40 were arrested. The students oppose the fact they have to pay 75% of the cost of their own educations – one of the highest rates in the world.
RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 1 billion YouTube views benchmark.
BAE Systems – the UK’s largest arms manufactures – was the first stop on what would be a fast-paced journey across Central London highlighting the capital’s ties to the global arms trade. With scores of protestors arrested during Tuesday’s Stop G8 demos, the police presence was a heavy one. Demonstrators from a coalition of anti-capitalists groups explained why the arms firms provoked their anger. With just days to go before the G8 Summit kicks off in Ireland the capital is the focal point. With the demonstrators taking the media and other protestors on what seemed like a magical mystery tour of locations associated with the arms trade in London.
PN 