“Eight presidential candidates running in Iran’s June 14 elections are taking radically different stands on personal freedoms, women’s rights and censorship in the country’s second round of televised debates, with moderates vowing to loosen restrictions and hard-liners backing strong state intervention in people’ lives”:
- Iran Presidential Candidates Debate Freedoms (AP / abc News)
As the anti-development protesters add a call for Erdogan to respect free speech and freedom of assembly to their list of demands in the wake of the documented brutality of police actions exacerbating the polarization in Turkish society …
- Activists Present List of Demands in Turkey (AP / abc News)
- Turkey’s Resistance Image Forged as Pepper Spray Burns Woman in Red Dress (Guardian)
- Turkey Protests: Erdogan Support Still Strong Elsewhere (BBC)
… an observer notes, “If Erdogan is able to point out the mistakes of 1923, he shouldn’t be repeating them again in 2013” …
… and the deputy prime minister tries to diffuse the situation with a “partial apology”:
“I came here because I wanted to learn something … but I couldn’t hear because the audience was so disrespectful…. I cried when I got here. It makes me really sad especially because these people say they’re Christians. The God I worship doesn’t teach hate” –Â Elaine Smith, 55, of Bedford County:
- Muslim Group’s TN Forum with Feds Disrupted by Heckling (Tennesseean)
“[L]aws need to change…. Punishment by prison for anything related to ideas is in conflict with freedom†—  Sami Triki, a lawyer and member of Ennahda’s executive committee:
- In Tunisia, a Free Speech Tussle Could Land a Professor in Jail (Christian Science Monitor)
“According to Egyptian law, NGOs have to be formally registered with the government. However, critics argue that the relevant legislation is ambiguous. Under article 5 of the current law regulating civil society, organisations which do not receive a response to their registration within 60 days are deemed to be legal”:
- Egypt Convicts US NGO Workers (Guardian)
The possibility that McCain unwittingly posed for a photo-op with a member of a terrorist group only not as serious as the “evidence that weapons that were sent to Syrian fighters in a joint US-Saudi-Jordanian operation ended up within months in the hands of” such terrorist groups as Jabhat al-Nusra:
- An Egyptian Preacher and a US Senator Compete over Syria’s Future (Christian Science Monitor)
“The shootings marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on a rogue U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and further eroded strained U.S.-Afghan relations after more than a decade of conflict in that country”:
“A spokesman said the letters EDL (English Defence League) were sprayed on to the building, used by the Somali Bravanese Welfare Association. London Mayor Boris Johnson called the attack ‘cowardly and pathetic’”:
“In their latest report, they said they had received allegations that Syrian government forces and rebels had used the banned weapons, but most testimony related to their use by state force”:
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