Iran Charges Imprisoned U.S. Journalist With Spying/Karzai Vows to Review Family Law

Iran Charges Imprisoned U.S. Journalist With Spying
Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist jailed for more than two months outside Tehran, was charged with espionage, dashing hopes of a quick release days after her parents arrived in the country to seek her freedom, the Associated Press reports.
“The espionage charge is far more serious than earlier statements by Iranian officials that the woman had been arrested for working in the Islamic Republic without press credentials and her own assertion in a phone call to her father that she was arrested after buying a bottle of wine,” the AP’s Ali Akbar Dareini reports from Tehran.
Saberi, 31, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Iran, has lived in Iran for six years and reported from there for several news outlets, including National Public Radio and the BBC. (See background on her case.)
Saberi’s lawyer had not been allowed yet to read the indictment, The Los Angeles Times reports. However, the attorney said he would request that his client be released on bail until a trial, AP says. In another sign of the seriousness of the case, the lawyer learned that the case would be reviewed by Iran’s Revolutionary Court, which normally handles cases related to national security, AP adds.
For more information, see http://freeroxana.net/.
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U.S. hostage flees Somalia pirates, is caught

Richard Phillips, the American ship captain taken prisoner after the crew of his vessel fought off Somalia pirates, jumps into the ocean but is soon recaptured, a U.S. official says.
By Julian E. Barnes and Edmund Sanders
April 11, 2009
Reporting from Washington and Nairobi, Kenya -- Adrift with his captors in sight of U.S. warships, the American sea captain being held for ransom by Somali pirates briefly escaped their lifeboat by jumping overboard, a U.S. official said Friday, but was recaptured and brought back.

The U.S. military said Richard Phillips, who was taken by the pirates from the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on Wednesday, appeared unharmed after the escape attempt. The military, which has been maintaining real-time video surveillance via a drone aircraft, observed him moving around on the lifeboat after he was recaptured.

But another hostage drama off the coast of Somalia turned bloody. French naval forces attacked pirates holding a yacht 40 miles offshore. One hostage and two pirates were killed, the French government said. The yacht, which was carrying a French couple, their small child and two friends, was seized this month.

It was one of more than a dozen vessels being held by pirates operating out of ports in the chaotic Horn of Africa country, which has not had an effective government since 1991. The pirates typically move the hijacked vessels close to shore and then open negotiations for a ransom.

During 2008, the pirates are believed to have collected more than $50 million. In response to a spate of hijackings, including that of a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 battle tanks and a Saudi tanker with $100 million of crude oil, warships from North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries, including the U.S., and other navies have been patrolling the area since last year.
Sources in Somalia said they had heard that the pirates holding Phillips had made a ransom demand Friday, and news reports said a Norwegian-owned tanker was freed after a ransom was paid.

But other Somali maritime experts predicted that, facing the firepower of two U.S. warships, Phillips' captors were probably looking for a way out.

Pentagon officials said they had heard, but could not confirm, that Phillips was pulled back into the lifeboat by one of the pirates who jumped into the water after him.

The escape drama marked the third day of captivity for Phillips, 55, who is drifting in a 24-foot lifeboat in the Indian Ocean about 250 miles off the Somali coast. The rest of his 20-person, American crew managed to retake the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama from pirates who boarded it and attempted to seize control. They are now cruising toward their original destination, the Kenyan port of Mombasa, with a cargo of food aid for African countries.

With the Maersk Alabama gone from the scene, two large U.S. naval vessels, the destroyer Bainbridge and the frigate Halyburton, were keeping watch.

One report from Somalia suggested that the pirates were demanding money and free passage to shore in exchange for Phillips.

"They made a ransom demand earlier this morning, but I'm not sure if the Americans are meeting their demands," said Mohammed Jama, a trader in the port city of Eyl, who sells fuel to pirates. His account could not be verified.

Though the pirates have radio contact with the Bainbridge, it was unclear whether they had a satellite phone. U.S. officials and representatives of the shipowner, Norfolk, Va.-based Maersk Line Ltd., have declined to comment on negotiations.

Witnesses said pirates on several ships were rushing to the scene in an apparent bid to assist their trapped colleagues. One of the ships, according to wire reports, was a hijacked German freighter with a crew of more than 20 that later headed back toward the coast.

It was unclear whether any such vessels would be able to penetrate the Navy security perimeter. U.S. officials vowed to keep other vessels away from the lifeboat and said they would block the cornered pirates from moving to another vessel or resupplying. The U.S. negotiating position will grow stronger, officials predicted, as the pirates run low on supplies.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to comment on why the Navy did not have smaller boats in the water, which might have been better positioned to assist the captain during the escape attempt. One family friend of Phillips' suggested in a television interview Friday that the Navy had not been prepared to respond to the captain's move.

Whitman called such characterizations an "oversimplification."

"People can second-guess the activities task force out there, but this is a vast body of water," Whitman said. "To operate in those waters and to be able to maneuver around, you need vessels that can move distances and have staying power."

One Somali maritime expert said the pirates were probably growing tired and might be ready to give up.

"They're probably saying to themselves that they've made a very big mistake by taking this American and now they are wondering how they will survive," said Abdi Wali Alitaar, a businessman who runs a maritime security firm in the port city of Bosasso.

At the same time, Alitaar faulted the U.S. for not seeking more assistance and support from inside Somalia, including clan leaders, government officials and private consultants such as himself. He said his firm has a track record of rescuing hijacked ships and capturing pirates.

Longer-term, he said, sending foreign warships to patrol waters and combat piracy "will absolutely fail."

"How long are the Americans really going to stay?" he said.

"A year or two? These pirates will just go on vacation and come back after the Americans leave."

julian.barnes@latimes.com

edmund.sanders

@latimes.com

A special correspondent in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.

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Taliban Gunmen Murder Leading Afghan Women's Rights Activist

Taliban gunmen murdered one of Afghanistan’s leading female rights activists yesterday, as she stood outside her home. In the latest blow against women’s rights, two men on a motorbike shot Sitara Achakzai in the southern city of Kandahar.

'This cold-blooded assassination puts in question the direction that Afghanistan is heading,' warns the director of the UN Development Fund for Women. Fore informations in DG Alert blog.


Karzai Vows to Review Family Law


President Hamid Karzai ordered a review on Saturday of a new law that has been criticized internationally for introducing Taliban-era restrictions on women and sanctioning marital rape.

The president defended the law, which concerns family law for the Shiite minority, and said Western news media reports were misinformed. Nevertheless, he said his justice minister would review it and make amendments if the law was found to contravene the Constitution and the freedoms that it guarantees.
Added by Kasem Ali


Karzai Vows to Review Family Law
By:CARLOTTA GALL and SANGAR RAHIMI
Published: April 4, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai ordered a review on Saturday of a new law that has been criticized internationally for introducing Taliban-era restrictions on women and sanctioning marital rape.
The president defended the law, which concerns family law for the Shiite minority, and said Western news media reports were misinformed. Nevertheless, he said his justice minister would review it and make amendments if the law was found to contravene the Constitution and the freedoms that it guarantees.
“The Western media have either mistranslated or taken incorrect information and then published it,” Mr. Karzai said at a news briefing in the presidential palace on Saturday. “If there is anything in contradiction with our Constitution or Shariah, or freedoms granted by the Constitution, we will take action in close consultation with the clerics of the country.”
If changes are needed, he said, the bill would be sent back to Parliament.
Human rights officials have criticized the law, in particular for the restrictions it places on when a woman can leave her house, and for stating the circumstances in which she has to have sex with her husband.
A Shiite woman would be allowed to leave home only “for a legitimate purpose,” which the law does not define. The law also says, “Unless the wife is ill, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband.” Critics have said that provision legalizes marital rape.
The law also outlines rules on divorce, child custody and marriage, all in ways that discriminate against women, said Soraya Sobhrang, commissioner for women’s rights at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.
While the law applies only to Shiites, who represent approximately 10 percent of the population, its passage could influence a proposed family law for the Sunni majority and a draft law on violence against women, Ms. Sobhrang said. “This opens the way for more discrimination,” she said.
Mr. Karzai signed the law last week after a vote in Parliament last month, Ms. Sobhrang said, adding that she had seen a copy of the law with his signature.
However, the presidential spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, would not confirm that the president had signed the law and said only that the he was still reviewing it.
Mr. Karzai’s decision to review the law came after a storm of criticism in recent days. Canada called in the Afghan ambassador for an explanation, and NATO’s secretary general questioned why the alliance was sending men and women to fight in Afghanistan when discrimination against women was condoned by law.
Asked about the law at a news conference in Strasbourg, France, on Saturday, President Obama called it “abhorrent.”
“We think that it is very important for us to be sensitive to local culture,” he said, “but we also think that there are certain basic principles that all nations should uphold, and respect for women and respect for their freedom and integrity is an important principle.”
Also on Saturday, Italy’s defense minister said Italy was considering a temporary withdrawal of the women serving in its force in Afghanistan to protest the law, Reuters reported.
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said the law represented a “huge step in the wrong direction.”
“For a new law in 2009 to target women in this way is extraordinary, reprehensible and reminiscent of the decrees made by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the 1990s,” Ms. Pillay said in a statement posted on her agency’s Web site. “This is another clear indication that the human rights situation in Afghanistan is getting worse, not better.”
In addition to the clauses on when women may leave the home and must submit to their husbands, Ms. Pillay said she was concerned about a section that forbids women from working or receiving education without their husband‘s permission.
Ms. Sobhrang, who has been working on the issue for the last two years, said women’s groups and the human rights commissions had worked with Parliament to introduce amendments but then the law was suddenly pushed through with only three amendments. The bill as originally drawn up by Shiite clerics barred a woman from leaving the house without her husband’s permission, she said. The parliamentary judicial commission amended that provision to say that a woman could leave the house “for a legitimate purpose.”
Mr. Karzai cited that provision in a news conference on Saturday, pointing out that the final version of the law did not ban a woman from leaving her house. But Ms. Sobhrang said even as amended the law contravened the Constitution, which recognizes equal rights for men and women. The term “for a legitimate purpose” was open to interpretation, she added.
She said Mr. Karzai had supported women’s rights in the past but seemed to have given that up in recent months. Some Western officials have speculated that he signed the law to win the support of conservative Shiite clerics in coming presidential elections.
Yet the leading cleric behind the Family Law, Sheik Muhammad Asif Mohseni, complained last week that he was dissatisfied with the amendments that Parliament had made to his original draft. Speaking on his own television channel, Tamadun Television, he objected to the introduction of a legal age for marriage, “16 for women and 18 for men,” saying that people should be able to decide for themselves.
Human rights officials consider raising the marriage age a critical step toward ending the common practice of forced marriages and the marriage of young girls.
Another amendment gave women longer custody of young children in the case of divorce. In the original draft, women could have custody of a son until he was 2 years old, and a daughter until she was 7. The amended version raises the ages to 7 for boys and 9 for girls.
Ms. Sobhrang criticized both versions for not taking into account the interests and desires of the children.

Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources
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Event
2nd Pan-African Forum on OER - May 27, 2009 - UCADII Conference Center - DAKAR
Dates: Apr 13, 2009 - Apr 13, 2009
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Popularity: 24

JOURNALISM IN THE AMERICAS
Media Insiders Say Internet is Hurting Journalism
In a poll of 45 prominent “media insiders,” conducted by The Atlantic and National Journal, two in three (65 percent) say the Internet is hurting journalism more than it’s helping, and 34 percent say it has helped, the magazines report. (See The Atlantic and National Journal.)
Those who say Internet is hurting journalism note the effects of the online experience on reader habits, and say “it has mortally wounded the financial structure of the news business so that the cost of doing challenging, independent reporting has become all but prohibitive all over the world.”
Those who say the Internet has helped journalism point to the range of information available online and to the way that Internet has extended the practice of journalism to more people.
The list of 45 respondents appears at the bottom of this page.
Media Insiders say Internet Hurting Journalism
What a revelation! Most journalists figured that out 5 years or more ago. The internet is cannibalizing the source of its' information and news content - journalism, particular newspapers. The analogy of "biting the hand that feeds you" fits the relationship the two have with each other. One does all the work, the other gets all the glory - which is the diffrence between a work horse (journalism) and a show horse (internet).
Danny L. McDaniel
Lafayette, Indiana

Journalism's Main Challenge: to Hold Politicians Accountable (Interview with John Dinges)
For U.S. journalist John Dinges, incidents such as the conviction of Peru's former president, Alberto Fujimori, represent the media's role "to monitor democracy, reveal its weaknesses and the violation of rules of the game by the presidents. We have to do this in every country, because in all of them there are abuses of power." The Knight Center spoke with Dinges during his recent visit to Austin, Texas.
A correspondent in Chile for TIME magazine, the Washington Post, and ABC radio during and after Pinochet's coup, Dinges was also a cofounder of the Chilean magazine APSI, which opposed the dictatorship--a period he describes in his book "The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents" (The New Press 2004). Since 1996, Dinges has been a professor at the Journalism School of Columbia University and is one of the directors of Chile's Investigative Journalism Center (CIPER), a nonprofit organization based in Santiago.
For Dinges, presidents like Hugo Chávez and Álvaro Uribe have different agendas, but their methods and populist concepts are similar. In this context, the media must monitor democracy, he says.
Read the complete interview on the Knight Center web site.

Journalism's Main Challenge: to Hold Politicians Accountable (Interview with John Dinges)
For U.S. journalist John Dinges, incidents such as the conviction of Peru's former president, Alberto Fujimori, represent the media's role "to monitor democracy, reveal its weaknesses and the violation of rules of the game by the presidents. We have to do this in every country, because in all of them there are abuses of power." The Knight Center spoke with Dinges during his recent visit to Austin, Texas.
A correspondent in Chile for TIME magazine, the Washington Post, and ABC radio during and after Pinochet's coup, Dinges was also a cofounder of the Chilean magazine APSI, which opposed the dictatorship--a period he describes in his book "The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents" (The New Press 2004). Since 1996, Dinges has been a professor at the Journalism School of Columbia University and is one of the directors of Chile's Investigative Journalism Center (CIPER), a nonprofit organization based in Santiago.
For Dinges, presidents like Hugo Chávez and Álvaro Uribe have different agendas, but their methods and populist concepts are similar. In this context, the media must monitor democracy, he says.
Read the complete interview on the Knight Center web site.


Journalism's Main Challenge: to Hold Politicians Accountable (Interview with John Dinges)
For U.S. journalist John Dinges, incidents such as the conviction of Peru's former president, Alberto Fujimori, represent the media's role "to monitor democracy, reveal its weaknesses and the violation of rules of the game by the presidents. We have to do this in every country, because in all of them there are abuses of power." The Knight Center spoke with Dinges during his recent visit to Austin, Texas.
A correspondent in Chile for TIME magazine, the Washington Post, and ABC radio during and after Pinochet's coup, Dinges was also a cofounder of the Chilean magazine APSI, which opposed the dictatorship--a period he describes in his book "The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents" (The New Press 2004). Since 1996, Dinges has been a professor at the Journalism School of Columbia University and is one of the directors of Chile's Investigative Journalism Center (CIPER), a nonprofit organization based in Santiago.
For Dinges, presidents like Hugo Chávez and Álvaro Uribe have different agendas, but their methods and populist concepts are similar. In this context, the media must monitor democracy, he says.


(Re-Edited by MUKTI MAJID, Editor/Publisher,The Monthly Muktidooth,Dacca)