19 November 2008

Stories from 19 November 2008

Afghanistan: Mired in Combat

  19 November 2008

An interesting pair of stories in the New York Times illustrate brilliantly just how complex the problems facing the United States in Afghanistan and Pakistan really are. The first is CJ Chivers' look at an embattled outpost in Nuristan...

Iran: More Than Five millon sites are filtered

  19 November 2008

Iranian authorities recently announced that more than five million sites and blogs got filtered. Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, a high-ranking judicial official, said[fa] that enemies try to hurt our religious identity by using internet. No-filter, a site that fighting against filtering, says[fa]that Iranian authorities two years ago talked about ten million filtered...

Iran: Cycling around the world for Peace

  19 November 2008

An Iranian couple is cycling around the world for Peace and Environmental conservation. They started their trip on 29th of April 2007 from Iran to promote peace. At present they are in South Korea. You can read all their stories in their RMC4Peace blog.

China: Protest and Repression at Earthquake Area, Gansu Longnan

  19 November 2008

According to mainstream news report, around 30 peasants from Wudu(武都) district Dongjiang(東江) town paid a petition visit to the Longnan(隴南) city committee yesterday (17-18 of Nov), but it ended with police repression. There is little explanation on what had exactly happened as information has been blocked. However, two videos have...

Russia: Tatars Ask UN to Condemn 1921 Famine as Genocide

  19 November 2008

Window on Eurasia reports: “Tatar nationalists have appealed to the United Nations to recognize the 1921-22 famine in the Middle Volga as a genocide organized by Bolshevik Russia to destroy the Tatar nation and its elite and reduce Tatarstan’s opportunities to develop its own national life and pursue its independence.”

Russia: The Crisis and the Hajj

  19 November 2008

Window on Eurasia writes: “For the first time since the end of the Soviet Union, the number of Muslims from the Russian Federation making the pilgrimage to Mecca is set to fall significantly, the result of a financial crisis that has cut incomes, increased prices and reduced private and government...