Earlier this month, Egyptian blogger Abdel Rahman Faras was arrested in Cairo by Egyptian authorities.
I checked in with Antony Loewenstein, author of The Blogging Revolution to check in to see what he could tell me about this.
Our 12 minute conversation is here.
TEHRAN, Iran – The American journalist convicted of spying in Iran has gone on a hunger strike to protest her imprisonment, her father said Saturday.
Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was convicted of spying for the United States and sentenced to eight years in prison after a swift, closed door trial earlier this month.
Saberi was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials, but earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled the far more serious allegation of espionage.
“She went on a hunger strike Tuesday to protest her imprisonment. Today is the fifth day,” Reza Saberi told The Associated Press. “She will remain on hunger strike until she is freed.”
Her father said Roxana’s lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, has appealed the sentence.
“The lawyer filed his appeal today,” he said.
Iran’s judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, ordered a full investigation into the case Monday, a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Tehran’s chief prosecutor to ensure Saberi be allowed a full defense during her appeal.
TALLINN (AFP) — Estonia’s government and telecom companies operating there announced on Friday a 283 million euro (374 million dollar) project to provide access to broadband Internet for all by 2015, a report said.
“If the railway was developed in the 19th century and the electrical grid in the 20th century, then the 21st century is the era of developing communication networks,” Estonia’s Minister of Economy and Communications Juhan Parts [pictured] was quoted as saying by the Baltic News Service (BNS).
“The project makes it possible to quicken the economy and at the same time to create new jobs,” he said.
Dubbed the EstWin project, the plan calls for the creation of a 100 megabit broadband network with access for all households and businesses across Estonia by 2015 in a bid to aid the development of the country, especially its rural areas.
Plans call for a 6,640-kilometre network of fibre-optic cable to be created in the initial phase of the project.
All major Estonian telecom companies will be involved in the project which is to be co-funded by the European Union.
In other news:
Estonia’s ‘Eagle-cam’ helps snare wood thieves (April 16, 2009, AFP):
TALLINN (AFP) — Two thieves who stole wood in an Estonian forest were caught on a webcam set up to watch a family of eagles, wildlife rangers said Thursday.
Internet surfers contacted authorities Wednesday after hearing a sawing noise via the webcam perched near an eagle nest in Jogeva in central Estonia, Raivo Vadi, head of the local environmental inspectorate, told reporters.
Rangers went to the site and caught two men felling trees without a licence, he said.
My presentation from the Engineers Without Borders Conference in Milwaukee (March 27-28, 2009) is now online.
You can view it online here, or download the PowerPoint file (.ppt) here.
Everything is made available under a Creative Commons license, naturally.
The Dodgers have an eight-game winning streak and have the second best record in the NL. What a great way to start the season!
I’ll be moderating this session on May 27 at the Global Health Conference in Washington, D.C.
Transformations: Discovering New Strategies Using Proven Technologies
9-10:30 am
The technology evolution is sparking a health-care revolution. The rapid adoption of mobile technology throughout the world, with more than 4 billion mobile phones alone, has resulted in a leapfrogging over the digital divide. Those in remote and resource-poor settings, without the infrastructure to support wired technology, now have the same access to information and communications as those on the other side of the divide. The potential to transform the way we work, teach, learn and connect, one-to-one or one-to-many, is enormous. In the global health field, mHealth – the use of mobile devices to gather health data and to increase access to and dissemination of health information and services – has just begun to tap into this potential. In this session, we’ll explore the concept of technology transformation – adapting available technology to solve problems – and highlight the adaption and adoption of mHealth solutions throughout the world.
The speakers will be:
Paul Meyer, JD
Co-founder, Chairman & President
Voxiva
Katrin Verclas
Co-founder & Editor
MobileActive.org
Andrew Zolli
Curator
Pop!Tech Conference
Fellow
National Geographic Society
Agence France Presse (April 19 2009):
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Sunday for fair treatment of US reporter Roxana Saberi, who was sentenced to eight years in jail as a US spy, the state news agency IRNA reported.
In a rare intervention in judicial proceedings, Ahmadinejad said the Tehran prosecutor should examine the case against both Saberi and Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian-Canadian blogger who has been behind bars since November, IRNA said.
“At the president’s insistence, you must do what is needed to secure justice … in examining these people’s charges,” said a letter from Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff Abdolreza Sheikholeslami to Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi.
“Take care that the defendants have all the legal freedoms and rights to defend themselves against the charges,” the letter said.
Saberi, 31, a former US beauty queen, was convicted of spying for the United States during a closed-door trial and sentenced to eight years in jail, in a verdict unveiled on Saturday.
US President Barack Obama, who has called for dialogue with Iran since he took office in January, was “deeply disappointed” at the sentence, according to his spokesman.
The State Department branded the espionage charges as “baseless,” while Saberi’s father has said his daughter was “tricked” into confessing by being told she would be released.
Saberi’s lawyer has said he would appeal the verdict, which is the harshest sentence ever to a dual national on security charges in Iran.
She has been held since late January, when she was initially reported to have been arrested for buying alcohol, an illegal act in the Islamic republic.
Derakhshan, a prominent blogger, has been detained since his arrival in Iran in November 2008 and is being investigated on charges of insulting Shiite imams.
© 2009 AFP
[via Antony Loewenstein and Hamid Tehrani]
Dear Friends,
I’ve been informed that my radio piece on Urban Pacman in Lyon is airing today. (Scope my photo as Pacman here.)
It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams):
NYC – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org
Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org
Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg
Boston – 4 pm Eastern – WGBH – 89.7 FM – www.wgbh.org
San Francisco – 2 pm Pacific – KQED – 88.5 FM – www.kqed.org
You can also find it on The World’s site later in the day and on my site if you miss the broadcast.
Also, don’t forget about The World’s Tech Podcast, hosted by my boss, Clark Boyd. It comes out every Friday.
Lemme know if you hear it!
Update: Audio is here.
ANDREW CHUNG
QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF
MONTREAL – In Lara Croft’s latest action adventure, part of the wildly popular Tomb Raider video game series, the lithe heroine can demand of her evil doppelganger either, “What the hell are you?” or, “Qu’est-ce que tu es, exactement?”And that’s exactly the way Quebec wants it, from now on. French language rules on video games come into force today prohibiting the sale of new English-only video games in Quebec if a French version is available.
It’s causing a lot of consternation among retailers and gamers alike, who fear the rules will lead to delays in video games arriving in the province, and may not accomplish what the law intends, which is to promote and protect the French language.
Ronnie Rondeau, co-owner of the eight Game Buzz stores around Montreal, said he even fears bankruptcy.
“I’m afraid it’s going to cost me my business,” Rondeau said. “If it really was going to make a difference, I’d be for it, but only a small number of people want to play in French. The rest don’t care.
I first encountered Evgeny Morozov about a year and a half ago when researching a story for Foreign Policy‘s back page, Net Effect.
Over the last several months (and increasingly in the last few weeks), I’ve seen his name pop up all over the Internet. He’s one of the smartest researchers and thinkers about the Internet’s effects on the world at large that I know of.
I’m thrilled that he’s just been selected to run Foreign Policy‘s new Net Effect blog.
Big ups, Evgeny!
