Dear friends, The latest news from Turkey is that in many cities in Turkey now the people are standing still, without moving, also in Ankara and Istanbul, in squares, in streets, in malls, in courts and all kind of other places. Just standing still as a silent expression of their protest. No police an or government can blame them for standing still. In Istanbul when a police man ask what the person is doing ...

While the world has been watching Turkey, another country is experiencing revolt. That country is Brazil. Just like Turkey, it is relatively successful, economically speaking. Just like Turkey, the results of economic growth are divided very unequally. Just like in Turkey, a relatively small provocation is setting off a much bigger chain reaction. Unlike in Turkey, that provocation is a direct attack on liv ...

An Open Letter to the Mediahouses in India! The Struggle Committee June 16, 2013 People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) Idinthakarai & P. O. 627 104 Tirunelveli District Tamil Nadu Dear friends: Greetings! Please allow us to bring the following to your kind attention in the larger interests of our country, people and most importantly, our democracy and freedom. As the Fourth Pillar of our demo ...

I am sitting drinking tea with friends in the Cafe Grand Boulevard in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul. It is evening and the place is busier than usual. We are sat so close together all our knees are touching. Regular contributor to Wales Arts Review, here is James Lloyd’s take on the anti-government protests in Istanbul. Jim has been on the ground with the Occupy Gezi protestors every day since the events ...

The news coming out from Istanbul via news services such as Al Jazeera show a lot of violent action from the side of the police and their allied security forces. Update - from Ankara. Listening to the speeches of the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan there are contradictions in his calls that deny any legitimacy to the protesters and mix that minority that were causing some mayhem at the beginning, with t ...

Reformist Hassan Rohani has won Iran’s 11th presidential election by a landslide win, the results in on 14 June, 2013. The announcement brought the Tehran population into the streets in jubilation. Clearly this is what the majority wants, change, and that’s what this renown cleric and politician proposes. In his first declaration to the public he asked for co-operation from all quarters saying the way forwa ...

Sad scenes of Liu Xia, wife of Liu Xiaobo - writer, professor, and political dissident, in 2009, Liu was sentenced to 11 years for inciting subversion because of his involvement in writing Charter 08, a petition advocating political reform in China - were aired on newscasts recently. She was seen crying in a car outside Huairou Detention Centre where her brother Liu Hui has been jailed in Huairou district, ...

“Tehran has developed technical expertise in a number of areas – including uranium enrichment, nuclear reactors, and ballistic missiles – from which it could draw if it decided to build missile-deliverable nuclear weapons,” reads Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper’s April 2013 report to the Senate Committee on Armed Services. Then comes the statement usually ignored by mass media: “We do not ...

The trial of Army whistleblower Bradley Manning continues at Fort Meade, Maryland. On Tuesday, Manning’s aunt testified he told her of his initial hope that the video he released of a U.S. helicopter shooting dead Iraqi civilians would become "big news" in the United States. Prosecutors also elicited more testimony about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A Marine Corps security expert testified he attended ...

In 2011, when Arab revolts began to sweep the Middle East and North Africa, the view from Washington and its closest allies was one of concern. How would the removal of mostly pro-Western dictatorships affect the balance of power in the region? More importantly – how to prevent these events fromboosting Iran’s influence? For original see: http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/sandbox/why-arabs-need-iran-part-i ...