Dec. 17 saw the first battle between protesters and Egyptian army soldiers since Oct. 9 at Maspero. Certainly, it represents the first battle on such a scale between the army and protesters since the start of the Egyptian Revolution in January.
Al Jazeera:
Egypt's prime minister says fighting since Friday between protesters and soldiers is an attack on the country's revolution.
Eight people have been killed and hundreds injured in street battles, since renewed fighting erupted between protesters and security forces again on Saturday, on the streets leading to the parliament building and nearby Tahrir Square.
Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reports from Cairo.
This Al Jazeera report is worth watching. The attitude of the PM astounds me!
Kikhote writes in the caption to our second video: "Army move in to Tahrir to violently break up sit in. Most cameras on the square have been confiscated or smashed."
Taken the previous day, this video shows objects being thrown down on the street protesters from the top of a high buiding.
Click on the "Egypt" tab at the top of this page see what live-tweeters are reporting now.
Caption: "Round-up of key events from the four first days of the #Nov19 days of the Egyptian Revolution. Special thanks to Cressida Trew and Aida El Kashef for their very important footage." Hat tip @jeremyscahill
I found some other interesting videos on the group's YouTube page. I'm going to post a few of them below.
November 19th
Blood at Night, Grief by Day | Maspero 9/10
This is an event I didn't cover on this blog. The tragedy can now be seen as a prelude to the violence unleashed by the security forces during the present uprising. The caption reads:
The day after the Egyptian Army fatally attacked a peaceful demonstration, hundreds gather to mourn the dead. Special thanks to Sarah Carr for her excellent footage. See her whole film Shubra - Maspero march, October 9 2011 - Graphic. Thanks to all other sources. Their work is collected at http://www.mosireen.org
The Maspero Massacre - 9/10/11 - What Really Happened
Earlier in the day, Chancellor Ketehi was interviewed by KQED radio. You can listen to the show here. For commentary, see this post by Glenn Greenwald.
Nov 20: Clashes continue for a second day in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Hundreds suffered injuries from pellets shot by riot police and from tear gas inhalation. A mosque was turned into a makeshift hospital where the wounded were treated. Clashes began on November 19th when riot police forcefully tried to disperse a small sit-in.
Thousands of police have clashed with protesters for control of downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square, leaving at least 81 people injured and four arrested.
The violence comes just nine days before Egypt's first elections since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, the former president, in February.
Witnesses said clashes erupted after riot police dismantled a small tent camp set up to commemorate protesters killed in the earlier revolt and attacked around 200 peaceful demonstrators who had camped out in the square overnight.
A second Iraq war veteran has suffered serious injuries after clashes between police and Occupy movement protesters in Oakland.
Kayvan Sabehgi, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is in intensive care with a lacerated spleen. He says he was beaten by police close to the Occupy Oakland camp, but despite suffering agonising pain, did not reach hospital until 18 hours later.
Sabehgi, 32, is the second Iraq war veteran to be hospitalised following involvement in Oakland protests. Another protester, Scott Olsen, suffered a fractured skull on 25 October.
On Wednesday night, police used teargas and non-lethal projectiles to drive back protesters following an attempt by the Occupy supporters to shut down the city of Oakland.
Sabehgi told the Guardian from hospital he was walking alone along 14th Street in central Oakland – away from the main area of clashes – when he was injured.
"There was a group of police in front of me," he told the Guardian from his hospital bed. "They told me to move, but I was like: 'Move to where?' There was nowhere to move.
"Then they lined up in front of me. I was talking to one of them, saying 'Why are you doing this?' when one moved forward and hit me in my arm and legs and back with his baton. Then three or four cops tackled me and arrested me."
Sabeghi, who left the army in 2007 and now part-owns a small bar-restaurant in El Cerrito, about 10 miles north of Oakland, said he was handcuffed and placed in a police van for three hours before being taken to jail. By the time he got there he was in "unbelievable pain".
He said: "My stomach was really hurting, and it got worse to the point where I couldn't stand up.
"I was on my hands and knees and crawled over the cell door to call for help."
A nurse was called and recommended Sabehgi take a suppository, but he said he "didn't want to take it".
He was allowed to "crawl" to another cell to use the toilet, but said it was clogged.
"I was vomiting and had diarrhoea," Sabehgi said. "I just lay there in pain for hours."
Sabehgi's bail was posted in the mid-afternoon, but he said he was unable to leave his cell because of the pain. The cell door was closed, and he remained on the floor until 6pm, when an ambulance was called.
A blogger at FireDogLake documented the extent to which the U.S. media ignored this story.
I then turned on CBS News to see if they’d have anything on this poor gentleman. No, they did not. Instead, they had a story on how the “black bloc” crowd was trying to “hijack” the protests.
I then checked the front pages of Google and Yahoo. Nothing on Google, and a link to this story from the British news agency Reuters with the link header making it sound like Sabeghi was somehow at fault. (See the screen shots above for proof.) I checked Google News and found (as the third accompanying screen shot shows) that the cites were composed of the Guardian article, the Reuters article, an Al Jazeera story and a Russia Today story, and local Bay Area TV news source KGO...
Title says all. During peacefully Occupy Movement, police came in to tear down tents and proceeded to arrest students who stood in their way. Once students peacefully demanded the release of the arrested, a police officer unnecessarily pepper sprays the students to open a path for the rest of the officers
The video above -- it provides an aerial view of NYPD officers clubbing citizens -- is the one of several videos showing police brutality against protesters at the #OccupyWallStreet protest of Oct 5.
A Fox News crew was pepper sprayed and a reporter for the network said police hit him in the stomach.
MYFOXNY.COM - While covering the Occupy Wall Street protests on
Wednesday night, Fox 5 photographer Roy Isen was hit in the eyes by mace
from a police officer and Fox 5 reporter Dick Brennan was hit by an
officer's baton.
The protests on Wall Street continued to grow all day. The rallies and their participants are showing no signs of slowing down.
In
the evening, crowds surged past barriers and NYPD officers moved in to
contain the protesters. By many accounts, mayhem broke out.
Officers,
many wearing white shorts indicating supervisor rank, swatted
protesters with batons and sprayed them with mace, video from the scene
showed.
Fox 5's Isen and Brennan were there and witnessed the
chaos. At one point, Brennan was hit in the abdomen by a police baton
and Isen got irritant in his eyes. Both journalists were all right and
continued to cover the protests and arrests.
Cops appeared to arrest dozens if not hundreds of protesters, but the final tally was not known.
A video has just emerged from the scene now near Occupy Wall Street’s headquarters at Zuccotti Park in the Financial District, where police are barricading the protesters with metal fences in order to control the large and agitated crowd. After today’s megamarch with the unions and students from at least five universities, protesters regrouped at Liberty Park Plaza around 6:30 p.m.
The Observer reporter was nearby:
The cops were obviously tense.
Who coordinated the barricade?
“Chiefs,” one blue-shirt outside the Broad Street Starbucks said. “Lots of chiefs.”
“Too many chiefs in the kitchen?” one of the techies asked. The police officer affirmed.
But as we slipped through the cracks of the barricade, we could hear the cries of the protesters one street over. As of 10:20 p.m., the official count from Occupy Wall Street is 18 arrests.
It’s unclear exactly what time this video was taken or what happened immediately beforehand to provoke the violence, but it was just posted to YouTube and shows a white-shirted police officer beating protesters with a baton.
WeAreChange.org, a video production group, shot at least two videos of police beating protesters:
The caption for the second video posted by WeAreChange.org reads: "Journalist Luke Rudkowski was attacked by police Wednesday night while trying to document the Occupy Wall Street arrests in NY."
Protesters were pepper sprayed on Oct. 5. IAmNatalieCash, the poster of the next video, wrote "a girl got pepper sprayed by police during police attacks on protesters on the corner of Wall Street and Broadway on Oct 5th."
Was the use of night-sticks on protesters planned in advance by police? In this video, an NYPD officer talks about using his stick.
Tim, an American student there live Egypt, reports on 25 and writes the next day:
Quickly, however, one narrative pushed itself to the forefront: January 26th was going to be very different. Within 15 minutes to half an hour of arriving to any spot of protestors, police were quickly put into place. After their lines were established, it was only minutes until they began to march forward. The locations were different, but the scenes were all the same: protestors tried to hold their ground until police raised their batons and began to charge, mixing the charge with tear gas canisters flung into the middle of the fleeing crowd.
The Guardian reports that Egypt is braced for "day of revolution," tweeting that "Democracy activists, Islamists, workers & football fans demand reform."
Adam Makary is a producer for Al Jazeera English who says the protesters' demands are "protester's demands: increase in minimum wage, dismissal of interior ministry, removal of emergency law, shorten presidential term" Adam adds that "outside of cairo, jan25 protests will also take place in mahalla, tanta, alexandria, ismalia, sohag, fayoum and mansoura." You can follow him @adamakary on Twitter.
Twitter tips:
The hashtag is #jan25, or try city names, such as #Cairo or #Alex.
@Dktr_Sus is live-retweeting, a good person to follow.
Our list of English-speaking journalists and citizen reporters on the streets of Cairo and Alexandria is here.
Update 1:
Seems Egyptian security forces/police were unprepared for the size of the protest.
If you're in Egypt trying to break the block on Twitter, Hossam (3arabawy) who has been providing important updates from Alexandria, recommends to use the proxyhttp://hidemyass.com/#Jan25
Ahram online has great photos and an hour-by-hour summary of events during the protest of Jan. 25.
Another problem facing citizen reporters is lack of mobile network access. Alshaheeed suggests "All who live close 2 Tahrir square asked 2 unlock their wifi passwords so public use their internet instead of mobile coverage"
To learn about other techniques for accessing Twitter from Egypt, see the end of this post.
Update 2:
I've posted some remarkable videos by citizen journalists here.
Update 3:
Find links to Global Voices coverage (more videos, photos, Egyptian blogger reactions) at a page titled Egypt Protests 2011.
On 17 Jan 2011, On Martin Luther King Jr. Day about one hundred rallied outside the J. Edgar Hoover F.B.I. Building to protest the detainment of Bradley Manning and the "criminalization of dissent." Manning is believed to be charged in connection with the unauthorized release of two Iraq War helicopter attack videos and 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks. Participants at the rally included FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley and retired CIA officer Ray McGovern.
Jotman blogged the protest outside the FBI building in Washington D.C. (above photo). More photos here.
William Hughes (website) interviewed Ray McGovern and Coleen Rowley outside the FBI building:
After short speeches by defenders of the First Amendment, protesters joined a caravan to Marine Corps Base Quantico where military authorities have been holding Bradley Manning for eight months in solitary confinement.
Civil libertarians have described the conditions of Manning's detainment as inhumane and unlawful, particularly in view of the fact Manning has not been convicted of anything. The new United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan E. Mendez, has submitted a formal inquiry to the Department of State about Manning's treatment.
On July 5, 2010 Manning was charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for transferring classified data onto his personal computer and communicating national defense information to an unauthorized source. Chat logs disclosed by Adrian Lamo, a former hacker and convicted criminal who has recently received psychiatric treatment, suggest that Bradley Manning had admitted to being the "leaker" of materials obtained by WikiLeaks.
The following video from the Quantico base in Virginia (about an hour from DC) was produced by David Swanson. Swanson, who blogs at warisacrime, comments: "It is a crime to witness felonies and stay silent; Manning didn't."
Caitie Parker of Oro Valley, Arizona claims to have been a friend of Jared Lee Loughner, 22, accused of attempting to assassinate Representative Gabrielle Giffords in a Tucson Arizona shooting spree that injured or killed 18 people Saturday January 8, 2011. Giffords, who took a bullet in the head, is in hospital in serious condition. A federal judge and a nine-year-old girl were among those killed.
On her Twitter profile page, Caitie introduces herself as "a singer/songwriter, a foodie with a passion for baking, & politically charged gal, just trying to make the world a better place."
Caitie spent Saturday responding to questions about Jared Lee Loughner on Twitter. These are her tweets.
That's all for tonight folks. Goodnight. @VaginaHedgeFund no, just friends, nothing more. @RufusRLeaking first few years of hs yes. Junior year & on, no. @johnedelstein possibly. I'm looking back at this at a 14-19 year old. Who knows if any of us knew what for sure we were yet. @ko_im_16 closure, not yet. More digging deep to try & find a root cause of his insanity. @informedblackmn not craving attention at all just replying to those who are tweeting me. Shedding light, that's it. @BronxBebe hopefully by Monday I'll be a no one again. @johnedelstein not as I knew him no. Very accepting of everyone. But that was 3 years ago. @nyctheblog 32 counting Facebook, Email, & DM's. (not adding the actual tweets to me) @FriendThatCooks 3 years ago when I saw him last he was more leftist. Now I don't know. @johnedelstein & when I say "us" or "our" I mean our group. There were 5-6 of us that hung out in hs. @johnedelstein well for the Bush/Kerry election we all wore "1 term president" buttons.That election was HUGE to us. @StevenFudd it's been a whirlwind for sure. Thanks for being so respectful & nice. :) @johnedelstein we listened to political punk in high school & agreed with their leftist opinions for the most part Anti-Flag was our band. @H_Nicole_Young he dated one of my friends (who was a girl) in hs. Also had many group discussions about girls (I hung out w/ mostly guys) @DaveMinger no. Last time I saw him I had just started dating someone & he was super excited & happy for me. @johnedelstein also probably more libertarian & definitely socially liberal. @johnedelstein liberal in wanting to change the way the world was run, we both wanted to. He took it to an extreme I never would've. @whatmakesexpert I've never had kids. I was replying to a woman regarding the loss of her own child. @icwhatudo crazy. Maybe they wanted a right spin. Either way it's probably more psychological than anything. @H_Nicole_Young when I knew him he did. Not sure about now. @TexSean awww you poor thing, I'm so sorry. My grief is more in disbelief. @pursueliberty who knows. It could all be merely a psychotic snap. I don't think anyone knows. I surely don't. @icwhatudo leave to the media to leave out the important 3 years ago but. Thanks for the heads up. @Capt_Hawkeye I'm gonna pass this time. Did 2 interviews & I'm gonna leave it at that. Thanks so much for the offer though. Much success. @icwhatudo he was leftwing when I knew him in hs & college, 3 years ago. So he may have changed, who knows. But thanks. @StevenFudd I don't know. As I've stated before, I hadn't seen him in 3 years. @MindlessPrey Adam Richman from Man V Food @Altnewsforum he wore shirts & bracelets about it. & liked to discuss 2012 w/ everyone! @H_Nicole_Young happy? http://twitpic.com/3odowm http://twitpic.com/3odown http://twitpic.com/3odowj @StevenFudd his left arm? @H_Nicole_Young Jared in my yearbook. The band was an alternative band. I have a few pics in a box, somewhere... http://twitpic.com/3odkge @LucretiaPruitt will do, thanks :) @Capt_Hawkeye ignoring you about what? Refresh my memory. Sifting through a flood of tweets. May have missed you. @H_Nicole_Young in a band not hs band. I'm trying to find everything. Been a little busy all day. You can think what you will doesnt matter @H_Nicole_Young tobacco supported hardly. Just a girl recanting memories, nothing more. It just turned in a media circus, I didn't do this. @nyctheblog yeah over 20 facebook messages, emails, & people harassing my poor mom & sister. @BlogLuvr29 you're so very kind. I'll be fine. Send your prayers to the families they need more help than I. @java_ I hope everyone sees it that way. The last thing I'd want is for people to think I'm capable of what he did, or how he thinks. @georgehencken thanks you're so very nice! @Barrister1966 there's a RT button I used it, end of story. I posted a lot of things trying to figure out the madness today. @toyotabedzrock yep, I'm merely stating how I remembered an old friend as he was when I saw him last, 3 years ago. I've make that clear. @nyctheblog wow, I knew it was A LOT, but 45, wow! That's just insanity. I can't even process all this media madness. @veronacodex thank you. I'm not looking for media fame. Someone asked about Jared, I answered. Never expected this. Just an average girl. @BrandonJCarroll thanks so much. You're fantastic! @MindlessPrey could be. I always try to see the best in others, so maybe I was blind. Who knows. Just have to let it be. @BrandonJCarroll you're words are so kind, & so very much appreciated. @georgehencken thank you so very much. I'm glad I could be used positively (I hope) in such darkness. @Barrister1966 I RT what I RT & whatever RT you're talking about it was the knowledge on my feed at the time, doesn't mean I agree. @Tiffanybr I'm trying. Now I know a smidge of how the fantastic Ted Williams feels. Phones blowing up!! @LaLaLives I'm trying you're words are very kind. @kurtbradwill I never said anything about him being a Tea Partier, check your facts. @Toka248 nope @LaLaLives trying. Just so much to wrap my head around. Thank you for being so compassionate. @Tiffanybr I'm sorry he became this person. Praying for everyone involved, it's just horrible. @georgehencken very true. Just wish I could've done something to help & stop this tragedy. You're very kind. @sigridmac thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot. @H_Nicole_Young believe what you want. I know the truth & god does, that's all that matters. @BrandonJCarroll thank you. It's nice that people can have compassion, in such a bleak world of negativity. @veronacodex I wish I could give everyone a hug & apologize for lack of knowledge to know, that a guy I new, was troubled, & didn't see it. @climatebrad very true, thank you @Barrister1966 that was all before I knew anything. I was just RT'ing all the speculation on what caused this tragedy. @michaeldcarney thank you very much! @Gnushound very true. The guy I knew 3 years ago isn't the evil he became today. @MindlessPrey thank you, I hope everyone involved finds peace @MindlessPrey yeah a map. It's like downwiththe20.com or something like that. @ArizStFanatic42 I'm not, just wish I could've done something to help or sway him into sanity. @shaunlandry trying. Just trying to calm down, still in shock! @CurbsideAudio thanks so much!! @stewmj I went to high school, college, & was in a band with him. I know what I know & not asking anyone to believe me in this madness. @stewmj I looked in the yearbook to make sure I spelled his last name correct. Could never remember just odd spelling.Believe what you want @LaLaLives thank you so much. I'm trying, but my brain has other plans. @Indica_Man thanks. I just wish I could've done something. Feeling helpless, not so fun. You're very kind. :) @MindlessPrey I have no idea. I think he slowly descended in a psychotic break. Something in him snapped. He wasn't always like this. @kAZual520 she had a "target list" Take back the 20. Dems in leadership had targets & names on a map. It's very odd, don't get it. @BrandonJCarroll I'm sure it will. I'm still just floating above it. It's like a dream I keep rewinding. @SkipTerrio your words were very touching & something I needed to hear. I truly thank you. @SkyZiegler you're welcome. I'm glad I could be of some help in this horrible tragedy. Can't help but think if I had been there today, if things would've come out differently. Maybe I could've talked him down. Stages of grief? @shaunlandry haha why thank you. Your kindness is so needed right now, can't thank you enough. @shaunlandry sweet. I bet that's fun. @FrankMorrison Anti-Flag is a band. Rep. Giffords reportedly awake in hospital room, recognizes husband - Politico http://politi.co/e5FRw4 @shaunlandry love Tyler Florence. His food always looks so yummy. Those killed today: Christina Greene, 9, Gabe Zimmerman, 30, John Roll, 63, Dorthy Murray, 76, Dorwin Stoddard, 76, Phyllis Scheck, 79 @shaunlandry nice. I love baking. I'm a cupcake queen haha. @larrywitness today is a horrible day, but people are suffering more than I. The hate should be turned to love for the victims & families. @caldodge thanks for your kindness, much appreciated. @LaLaLives very much appreciated, thank you. @TQMKA b/c they're all related. I'm all about peace & acceptance. That goes hand in hand in my faith & political views. Everyones well wishes & kindness are much appreciated. Now let's direct our positivity towards the victims & families. @lonelyfame I have nothing against differing political views. That's what our country is built on, freedom of opinions & beliefs. Thank you! @ToureX thank you sir. I haven't seen him in 3 years, but the guy I knew was a polar opposite of the evil he became today. @ToureX I did know him & as stunned & horrified as anyone else. The Jared I knew, want like this. All about peace. @Brothergrimace the question was odd & didn't make sense, I can't remember what it was. Just know it was weird. @royaldavis the band It's Like Love? Love those guys. I tweeter about Jared b/c writing is my means of coping. I had to write to get it off my chest. People hanging on my words, NOT expected. Anyone who says I'm milking or lying for media attention is WRONG! one tweet & my phone, twitter, & facebook blew up. I never wanted this. @theEcon_tweets I was saying how annoying it was when newscasters smile through horrific stories. I'm all about peace never murder, ever! @TheBakerOfOz I went to school with him & if you choose not to believe that it's your prerogative. I never asked for the attention. @beckerz_311 I never said he was unusual, I was just answering a question. @PaulaInTulsaOK thank you for your kindness. In a sea of negativity, your well wishes are appreciated. @SarahsAngel thank you. I hope all of us can come together in spite of this tragedy. @cdmichal thank you. It all has yet to sink in. Just praying for the victims by Jared's senseless act. @shaunlandry I stated I went to high school, college, & was in a band with him, & made it clear how I knew him THEN not NOW. @DoubleDutchPoli I haven't had a chance to let it sink it. Thank you for your positivity. @theEcon_tweets what does that have to do with anything regarding today. I was making a observance of a TV show. I voted for Giffords & came into this story wondering what kind of evil could do this. Sadly, I know him, & I'm not proud of that. I do not condone anything Jarod has done, it is horrific. I'm still in shock & haven't stopped shaking since the news. Did GMA(+ ABC Radio) & The Today Show. No more interviews. I said how I knew Jared, & my shock at this incident. Now to reflect & pray. I can't manage all these media requests & @ replies. Too much too fast, can't keep up. This is a circus. Good Morning America just called me. @antderosa it's loughner just checked my year book. @lakarune I haven't seen him since '07. Then, he was left wing. @noboa more left. I haven't seen him since '07 though. He became very reclusive. @antderosa he had a lot of friends until he got alcohol poisoning in '06, & dropped out of school. Mainly loner very philosophical. @antderosa As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal. & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy. @antderosa he was a pot head & into rock like Hendrix,The Doors, Anti-Flag. I haven't seen him in person since '07 in a sign language class @antderosa He was a political radical & met Giffords once before in '07, asked her a question & he told me she was "stupid & unintelligent" @antderosa I can. That is him @antderosa I went to high school, college, & was in a band with the gunman. This tragedy has just turned to horrific.
There has been totally anarchy today in Rome, only fire, tear gas and streetfights. People burning cars, police’s vans, rubbish, more than 100 000 students, immigrants, people from Aquila, people fired up at work because of the politics who don’t substain their industries…1500 cops, everything blocked by the Guardia di finanza, and every kind of army force. People that has came from all over the country. Political leaders have had to stay into the parliament defendend from people who wanted to reach them from the streets all around there. We are quiet like in a dictstorship. A policeman had tried to take his gun to front the aggressions and had been stopped in time.Students have errupted in the Stock exchange today in Milan. We, the students have started our protest almost two years ago, it has all intensified in these 3 months, we have blocked train stations like in Milan, Venice, Padua, Pisa, and many more…we have blocked higways like Bologna, Salerno…Universities are occupied by students, there are manifestations everyday in our cities, we have reached our monuments, we are trying to let us be listened by institutions, but no one cares about us. We aren’t yet only students now, people is enjoying us. We are fighting not against a simple educational legislative act, we are fighting against our sick system: we can’t find jobs, we don’t have any kind of agevolation for families, for living by ourselves, only depending from the people you know a career can come. We don’t have information, we don’t have cultural and social possibilities, all the best of us have to go away from the country, everything is corrupted, everyone is corrupted…and at least, thanks the Vatican for not paying any kind of taxes…I think we are at the break point. Please Help us in keeping attention. Excuses for the english but we are still fighting and we haven’t time.
CNN (USA) gave the unrest in Belarus about 20 seconds -- just long enough for the announcer to explain that some "young rioters" in were "destroying property and attacking the police." That was the whole report!
However, I knew there was more to the story, having checked a few websites yesterday. This VOA story provides a brief summary of events:
On Monday, Belarus Central Elections Commission Chairwoman Lidia Yermoshina disregarded domestic and foreign complaints about the secret vote count, and announced that Mr. Lukashenko had won 79.7 percent of the vote.
Yermoshina said that second place candidate Andrei Sannikov received only 2.6 percent of the vote. None of the eight other opposition candidates drew more than two percent of the vote, she said. About 6.4 million people, 91 percent of the electorate, reportedly turned out for the election. The government banned private companies from conducting exit polls.
The White House says Washington does not accept the results of the presidential election announced by the Belarussian Central Election Commission.
The number of votes Mr. Lukashenko received was slight more than what he had predicted, but slightly less than the 83 percent of the vote he won in the 2006 elections. After that election, he said he actually had received more votes, but that he had reduced the number to make it look more democratic.
Already Europe's longest serving president, Mr. Lukashenko tenure in this former Soviet republic will last through 2015, which would make 21 years in office.
After learning that ballots would be be counted in secret, opposition leaders called a mass demonstration on Sunday night. Almost 1,000 people were jailed, including seven of the nine opposition presidential candidates.
Videos:
1. From KurssorTV's Channel.
2. Goradby's Channel:
Gorad.by has a blog. This page has a full account of events in Minsk:
In important protest in central Minsk - more than two hundred people were detained (List). Many beaten. Among the beaten and detained - sevenpresidential candidates: Andrei Sannikov, Nikolai Statkevich, VitalyRymashevsky, Vladimir Nyaklyaeu, Gregory Kostusev, Alexei Mikhalevich and Dmitri Uss. For now unknown location Vladimir Neklyaeva that the shares received atraumatic brain injury. Many battered in the data currently in hospital.
Минск. Спецназ на площади перед парламентом. - MINSK. Riot police on the square in front of Parliament.
Минск. Разгон демонстрации у здания - MINSK. Crackdown in the building
A list of names -- 260 detainees -- is posted here. If you know of a detainee, you should post the person's name on this website. (Калі Вы маеце нейкую інфармацыю пра затрыманых пакідайце інфармацыю на сайце альбо лістуйце на электронную пошту)
http://electby.org/ website has a live-updating Ushahidi map showing incidents of violence, and voting irregularities.
Rally in Moscow in memory of slain football fan degenerated into race riot. Photo by Ilya Varlamov.
People getting beaten up in subway. Photo by Ilya Varlamov
A raced riot rocked central Moscow Saturday, but it was not prominently reported in the Western news. BBC covered the event, "But somehow their coverage is more football-themed" noted Sanjuro, a contributor to JOTMAN.COM.
Gazetta.ru reports:
During the rally in memory of murdered fan of FC Spartak in the Manege Square in Moscow brought together more than four thousand people, the correspondent of Gazeta.Ru Many of the participants close their faces with scarves and masks. Priodically, the crowd chanting "Russian, go!", "Moscow is not the Caucasus" Fans Fire burn and behave aggressively. During the campaign, one participant fired several shots from a signal flare to the side of the Moskva Hotel, where several janitors Asian appearance were clearing snow.
Sanjuro comments that "in the previous demonstrations last week (on the same occasion), the slogans were: "Russia for Russians, Moscow for Muscovites."
Russian blogger and photographer Ilya Varlamov was there live. Varlamov live-blogged the unfolding race riot, posting throughout the day to Twitter. Here are some of his tweets that have been translated (from earliest to most recent):
Thousands of fans at manezhke
Screams: Down with Jew power!
Stolkovkniya fucking around with riot police
Five Caucasians severely beaten
Crowd of 10,000. Entire area is filled with cops.
Teaming up for battle
Explosion or fire
Police clean up area
I want a helmet, scary
Half the area cleaned up
9 riot police taken away in an ambulance
SWAT demands return of the detainees, there are negotiations
Muscovite preparing for the Olympics in Sochi (photo)
Police descended into the subway where people were beaten up after 15 minutes
At the Manege Square 64 have been detained.
Today at the Manege in Moscow, according to various sources was killed either 1 or 2 people.
Contradictory information is received about the state of affairs in the area of three stations. There is a version that there is now the crowd is going to "beat the non-Russians."
Riot police called in.
I can not forget old Uzbek man in the subway. He was not beaten, he just sat in a corner shaking and crying, but looked as beat up as the others.
Sanjuro points us to some shocking videos from the riots:
This one is not very intense - but informative video by a Youtube user. It's quite lengthy, show the progress of the events for most of the day, but doesn't have some of the most intense stuff. User comments are mostly nationalistic:
A bit more coverage from LifeNews on the same day: shows groups of young men beating supposedly non-Russian persons in the Moscow subway. Police is present but is outnumbered and does nothing.
Official TV footage, quite boring "fans of the FC Spartak gathered for an unsanctioned meeting to mourn their comrade..." But somehow the news lady says there's about 50,000 people there:
Update:
Looking at various headlines concerning the Moscow riots in the Western media, I'm struck by 1) the fact you could count on one hand the number of Western media outlets that ran stories about the riots; 2) how those few Western media outlets that reported the story label the event "football" rioting. The casual reader is given the impression that the rioters are just your typical unruly soccer fans.
But it wasn't a football (soccer) riot, it was a race riot. These headlines are misleading:
MASSIF 101 has posted a video showing mounted police charging student protesters at a demonstration against cut backs to education in London, commenting:
I wasn't planning on uploading this, I assumed the BBC would mention it along with their coverage of all the other protests, they haven't.
These protesters are not those who were kettled outside the treasury building, we weren't allowed in for that, after some kids had started fires and thrown some sticks n junk at the police lines separating us from the main protest they began to move forward.
This happened about an hour and a half after police started pushing us back, they had already deployed the cavalry 3 times, although those instances were less aggressive than this one.
I have decided to follow the anticuts campaign and make a documentary out of all the footage I gather, so this will eventually be in there
Here's the video:
Liberal Conspiracy blog summarizes the action: "It shows a woman first trying to get back her wallet, which she says was just grabbed and taken by a police officer. Then the crowd is attacked by police on horses, leading one woman to burst into tears and run away." A reader of the blog comments:
I was in the middle of the crowd when the mounted police charged. Even this video does not catch the full extent of the charge. There was complete panic in the the crowd. I am 65 and not as agile as I once was, but I had to run as fast as I could to avoid being trampled. By this time the media were just focussed on the kettle. This charge happened outside the kettle at the Trafalgar Square end of Whitehall. Both before and after this the TSG were particularly violent. Very pumped up. One of the officers directing events was Sergeant Smellie, who attacked a girl during the G20 protests.
Azuriel, posting on the bulletin board at expat-advisory.com, left an eyewitness report of the deadly stampede in Phnom Penh that has taken hundreds of lives:
November 23, 2010 - 3:06am
Just arrived back home after the missus and I spent some 4 hours stuck on Koh Pich ... we were just about to cross back to the mainland from the island when the stampede started, and police started cordoning the area off ... total chaos' prolly the best way to describe it ...
spent most of my 4 hours trying to help out, inclusing performing CPR on 4 girls that got fished out of the river ... unfortunately only managed to revive 2 of them ... ( ... of the other 2, only 1 had a pulse when they rushed her to hospital, but nevertheless, hope the ambulance crews managed to do more than my meagre first aid skills ...
From talking to the locals, some of the security and event management staff, and first-hand experience, I gather the following chain of events occurred; not sure these events occurred in this order though, but it's close:
about 30-odd people were electrocuted (few direct deaths, but many losing consciousness, suffering severe burns) from contact with the metal guard rails on either side of the bridge ...
about a dozen people fainted from the crush of the crowd, heat exhaustion, dehydration, or a combination of these, and fell underfoot ...
Crowd panicked from the electrocutions and surged into a stampede; More people tripped or got pushed over, and got trampled underfoot ...
People started jumping off the bridge into the river below to escape the mob; some were electrocuted climbing over the railings; some died from jumping into shallow water, or missing the water altogether, and landing on the concrete escarpments. One of the girls I performed CPR on had a nasty gash stretching from her collarbone down to just past her belly button ... not bleeding too badly, but was still a pain to patch up half-decently ...
Curious onlookers surged towards the bridge from both ends trying to find out what was going on. POLICE WERE VERY FORCEFULLY PUSHING BYSTANDERS BACK, USING FISTS, BATONS, PISTOLS, AND PIECES OF METAL PIPING!!! ==>> AND IN PARTICULAR, SHAME SHAME SHAME ON THE BIG BLACK GUY WITH THE AMERICAN ACCENT THAT PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED MY WIFE AND I, NOT ONCE BUT TWICE: WHEN I TRACK DOWN YOUR DETAILS, I'LL BE USING ALL MY POLICE AND LEGAL CONTACTS TO PRESS CHARGES!! <<== Wish more foreigners could've put their energies into helping the wounded, as opposed to bashing up on the innocent bystanders ...
Some police near the Koh Pich end of the bridge fired warning shops to try to disperse the crowd, but it only served to set off a 2nd panic, since no-one at that stage knew who was shooting, nor at who or what ...
The crowd was warned to stay away from the metal guard rails along the easter edge of Koh Pich, for fear of electrocution. Around the same time, all the neon lights on the bridge were turned off, along with most of the street lamps along the eastern shore of the island.
As of 3am on Tuesday morning, the official death toll sits at 332 deaths, and 329 injured ... a moment of silence please ... ironically, the bayon TV concert a couple of hundred metres away blasted on throughout all of this ...
This video was shot on the morning of Nov. 23, showing the debris from the stampede:
John Tyner, a California man who elected not to be subjected to either an Backscatter X-ray scan or a full-body search (the latter which would have included allowing an official to touch his crotch), was detained by TSA officials at San Diego International Airport. The TSA officials later advised John Tyner that -- despite his having agreed to relinquish his ticket -- he faced the prospect of a $10,000 fine.
CNN covered the story -- see here. Unfortunately, the CNN hosts discussing the story provide a distorted interpretation of the passenger's dilemma. When John Tyner discovered that the alternative to the X-ray was a full body search, Tyner reconciled himself to the fact that he would not be allowed to board the plane.
The incident raises serious questions that deserve more than a snicker from a couple of CNN hosts: Having agreed to relinquish his plane ticket, on what sensible grounds should John Tyner face the prospect of a hefty fine? Do actual risks to the traveling public justify the indignities of forcing the public to endure humiliating full-body searches? Are evasive body searches constitutional without "probable cause?"
Fortunately, we don't have to rely on smug CNN commentary. We can read about the encounter at JohnnyEdge, John Tyner's blog, where the would-be air traveller and citizen-journalist posted thirty minutes of video. John writes:
These events took place roughly between 5:30 and 6:30 AM, November 13th in Terminal 2 of the San Diego International Airport. I'm writing this approximately 2 1/2 hours after the events transpired, and they are correct to the best of my recollection. I will admit to being particularly fuzzy on the exact order of events when dealing with the agents after getting my ticket refunded; however, all of the events described did occur. I had my phone recording audio and video of much of these events. It can be viewed below.
At some US airports, the alternative to a full-body pat-down is stepping into a Backscatter X-ray scanner machine. The professed safety of Backscatter X-ray machines is questioned by some scientists. They claim that although the overall radiation dose appears low (when it is calculated relative to the total volume of a person's body), targeted areas of the body (i.e. the skin) receive a focused dose of radiation. "While the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high," wrote a group of American scientists in a Open Letter to President Obama. Hence, travelers concerned about the risk of radiation have no choice but to submit to having some of America's lowest paid federal workers touch them anywhere.
Incidentally, an American serviceman serving in Afghanistan recently commented that TSA rules can compel American women and children to undergo a more invasive body search than an American soldier can require of Afghan women and children in near proximity to a battlefield.
John Tyner's experience provides a wake-up call to the long-term implications of TSA security theatre. If citizens consent to allowing government officials the right to touch any part of their bodies without "probably cause" in airports, in the future, what invasions of privacy and person will Americans not accept? Where do they draw the line? Is there still a line? What--if any-- of their rights are Americans not willing to relinquish in return for the perception of greater security?
When fifty-thousand UK students marched to protest the Conservative government’s cuts to education, the news media only wanted to talk about the violence.
Foreign news media headlines labeled the massive student protest outside Conservative Party headquarters in London simply as "violent." That wasn't the whole story, as the firsthand accounts of there-live bloggers reveal.
"The world's media has picked up on the story and of course the violence is what has made the headlines and provided the photo fodder. National Union of Students President Aaron Porter condemned the violence, which really put a dampener on what had otherwise been a positive day.
As I left at about 6 pm, the numbers had dwindled considerably, although some diehards were still milling about and a few were staging some kind of sit-down protest...."
You can read Matt's entire account of the protests, including photos and a video, at his blog, The Lost Boy.
Socialist Worker and the Guardian extensively live-blogged the protests. Socialist Worker lists a number of additional there-live reports at the end of their main account of the protest. TheGuardian provides a concise summary of the day's events.
Experienced live-loggers are saying that today's protest, large as it was, was just a taste of things to come. For example, Lenin of Lenin's Tomb, a blogger who has covered previous UK demonstrations, writes,
"It reminds me a bit of the anticapitalist demos in London at the turn of 2000s, in terms of its militancy, and the fact that it happened in the middle of the week - but it's actually much bigger than any of those protests was.... And not a moment too soon, because if the Tories get their way then higher education is finished for millions of working class people."
For an analysis of the UK government's budget-slashing mania, see "British Fashion Victims" by American economist Paul Krugman.
On Nov. 7 Myanmar's military rulers held the country's first election in twenty years. Because parties backed by the military are assured of victory, it's unclear whether the outcome of the vote will make any difference to ordinary Burmese. As the NY Times puts it, "The process was expected to cement military rule behind a civilian facade but also to open the door slightly to possible shifts in the dynamics of power." Foreign journalists have not been allowed to cover the election, and some Western diplomats in Rangoon are refusing to participate in junta-sponsored tours of polling stations.
Pollard's photos of a protest against the election in London.
Photos of a protest held in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border.
The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) has a fantastic live-updating map tracking developments across Burma relating to the election. Incidents of violence, arrests, coercion, harassment are presented as color-coded tabs which you can click on to read a report. Another such interactive tool is Burma Partnership's election tracker.
DVB has also posted a video secretly taken from inside a Burmese polling station, along with several other election day clips. Blogger Newley has links to background and analysis.
Tens of thousands gathered on the Mall in Washington D.C. on Saturday, heeding a call by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to "restore sanity" and "keep fear alive." Jotman was there taking photos and talking to people.
On Saturday, various unions, churches, minority, environmental and gay rights groups staged a massive rally in Washington D.C.. The sponsors of the rally, called "One Nation Working Together," had billed it as the largest coming together of different groups ever on the Mall.
In an alleged attempted coup d'état, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was taken hostage in a hospital by police officers as part of a series of protests against cuts to the benefits of public service workers that were part of a financial austerity package.
