Egypt court sentences 16 American workers
CAIRO – An Egyptian court Tuesday sentenced 43 nonprofit workers, including the son of the U.S. secretary of transportation and 15 other Americans, to prison in a case against foreign-funded pro-democracy groups.
The ruling and heavy jail time of up to five years deepen worries about the operations of nongovernmental organizations in Egypt as parliament considers a bill proposed by Islamist President Mohammed Morsi that critics warn will profoundly restrict their activities.
The defendants were convicted on charges of receiving foreign funds to foment unrest in Egypt. The charges were rooted in claims that the nonprofit groups, which were working in various forms of democracy training, were fueling protests in 2011 against the military, which took power after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in February that year.
All but one of the Americans were sentenced in absentia because they had long left the country.
The only American defendant who remained in Egypt throughout the trial was Robert Becker, who was sentenced to two years. He left on a flight to Rome on Tuesday just hours after the verdict was announced.
Chinese activists call on people to wear black
BEIJING – Activists in China are taking to social media to urge the public to wear black on the 24th anniversary of the bloody military crackdown on protesters who had camped out for weeks on Tiananmen Square.
The crackdown on pro-democracy protesters on June 4, 1989, killed hundreds, possibly more. The Chinese government has never fully disclosed what happened on that day and branded the protests a “counterrevolutionary riot.” It remains a taboo topic inside the country, but the growing use of Twitter-like sites known as Weibo and other social media – although largely censored – has made it difficult for authorities to control all information about the Tiananmen crackdown.
Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia said he had been appealing online for people to wear black T-shirts on Tuesday or light a candle at home on Monday evening to remember the event.
While protests in mainland China are off-limits, tens of thousands have gathered to mark the anniversary in past years in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park. The territory – returned by the British in 1997 – operates under a separate political system that promises freedom of speech and other Western-style civil liberties.
Cubans try out new Internet centers
HAVANA – Cuba has begun offering Internet access at more than 100 publicly run computer centers around the country.
People are lining up at one of the cyber-salons in Havana, waiting for a turn at one of a dozen computer terminals.
Currently, most islanders who go online only get as far as a domestic Intranet, not the broader World Wide Web.
The Internet service that began Tuesday costs $4.50 per hour. That’s a tall order for the legions of Cubans making around $20 a month from government salaries.
Island officials have said the service was made possible by an undersea fiber-optic cable strung from Venezuela that began carrying data traffic in January.
Associated Press
