BEIJING — In another era, China’s leaders might have been content to let discussion of the protests in Egypt float around among private citizens, then fizzle out.
But challenges in recent years to authoritarian governments around the globe and violent uprisings in parts of China itself have made Chinese officials increasingly wary of leaving such talk unchecked, especially on the Internet, the medium some officials see as central to fanning the flames of unrest.
So the arbiters of speech sprang into action over the weekend. Sina.com and Netease.com — two of the nation’s biggest online portals — blocked keyword searches of the word “Egypt,” though the mass protests were being discussed on some Internet chat rooms on Monday. Searching for “Egypt” has also been blocked on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter....
Not my Life, an independent documentary on child exploitation and abuse today premiered at New York’s Lincoln Centre. The film, which was filmed across five continents, looks at the devastating issues of child trafficking, sexual exploitation and child labour.
Not My Life features Dr. Nicholas Alipui, UNICEF Director of Programmes, and Dr. Susan Bissell, UNICEF’s Chief Child Protection, who provide insight into the key issues.
“It is important to bring global awareness to these issues. Trafficking of children is a grave violation of their rights, robbing them of their childhood, their well-being, and the opportunity to reach their full potential,” said Dr. Susan Bissell. “Documentaries such as Not my Life are important, because they spotlight abuses that are otherwise often underreported.”...
After studying the pattern of the veins on his hand, American investigators concluded that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a senior operative for Al Qaeda, wielded the blade that killed Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and executed before a video camera in Pakistan in 2002, according to a new report.
The report, “The Truth Left Behind: Inside the Kidnapping and Murder of Daniel Pearl,” by a team of journalists working at Georgetown University who “spent more than three years investigating the roles of 27 men linked to the 2002 kidnapping and murder,” was published online in conjunction with The Center for Public Integrity.
The report reveals for the first time that ...
(ATLANTA) — Despite having their first black president, Americans are no more certain than before that the country is closer to the racial equality preached by Martin Luther King Jr., a poll shows.
Seventy-seven percent of people interviewed in an AP-GfK poll say there has been significant progress toward King's dream, about the same as the 75 percent who felt that way in 2006, before Obama was elected. Just over one in five, 22 percent, say they feel there has been "no significant progress" toward that dream. "The exuberance and thrill of seeing an African American elected to the presidency has been tempered by the outrageous claims that we've heard about him," said William Jelani Cobb, a history professor at Rutgers University. ...
Amnesty International is calling for the release of three anti-slavery activists who were jailed after exposing a case of two young girls allegedly forced to work as servants.
Biram Dah Ould Abeid, Cheikh Ould Abidine and Aliyine Ould Mbareck Fall, all members of an anti-slavery NGO, were sentenced to one-year in jail - including six months suspended - on Thursday in the capital, Nouakchott.
"Those jailed are prisoners of conscience, detained solely on the basis of their actions in the struggle against slavery," said Erwin van der Borght, Africa Director at Amnesty International.
"The three men must be immediately and unconditionally released and Biram Dah Ould Abeid urgently treated for injuries he apparently sustained when ill-treated in detention."
The men were arrested last month by security forces after reporting that ...