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"The called-for reform does not come via protests and (the clerics) have forbidden protests since they violate the Koran and the way of the Prophet," Faisal said. Protests by a disgruntled Shi'ite majority in neighboring Bahrain are being closely watched in Saudi Arabia, where Shi'ites make up about 15 percent of the population. Faisal warned foreigners to stay out of Saudi's internal affairs: "Change will come through the citizens of this kingdom and not through foreign fingers, we don't need them," he said, adding: "We will cut any finger that crosses into the kingdom."

The revolution in Egypt is being masterminded by a phalanx of young Internet executives in the Big Apple’s SoHo specially set up for fomenting revolutions, and the unwitting American taxpayer is paying for it. When it comes to Revolution, today’s third world, digital activists are being better trained than anything to be found in Sun Tzu’s famed Art of War,

Activists slowly chip away at health-care lawBy Amy Gardner Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 3, 2011; 5:32 PM **SNIP** Operatives are also playing an inside game, advising members of Congress on how to bring up repeal. Before the Senate vote Wednesday, they urged new members elected on the tea party wave to keep the pressure on Republican leaders. Former House majority leader Richard K. Armey, now chairman of FreedomWorks, met directly with Republican House leaders to urge a vote on the issue earlier this year. The most passionate objection to the health-care measure is to the individual mandate -...

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Half-naked women standing on the street do tend to raise some eyebrows, regardless of their cause. And the pair of scantily clad animal-rights activists at the corner of Third Street and Yakima Avenue on Thursday certainly drew more attention from pedestrians and more honks from passing cars than the labor demonstrators directly across the street. "I kind of like their sign better," said Nicholas Kinzel, one of the Carpenters Local 770 demonstrators in front of Chase Bank.

Small explosion in Davos hotel, nobody hurtBy Emma Thomasson Friday January 28, 2011 DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Left-wing activists claimed responsibility for a small explosion on Thursday that broke windows at a hotel in Davos, close to where top executives and world leaders were meeting, but nobody was hurt. Devin Wenig, CEO of Thomson Reuters' Markets division, was in a breakfast meeting of senior executives at the hotel when the explosion happened shortly after 9 a.m. (0800 GMT). "A huge boom went off. The whole ceiling lifted. Everyone was convinced it was a bomb," he said, adding participants were told...

As President Barack Obama prepares for Tuesday's State of the Union address -- considered by many to be the real kickoff of his 2012 presidential campaign -- a group of vocal progressive activists have launched what they promise is an aggressive campaign to fight his re-election. The group of 150 liberal activists, authors, and academics -- including Code Pink's co-founder Medea Benjamin and author Daniel Ellsberg -- Tuesday released a petition announcing early opposition to Obama's re-nomination by Democrats. Many of the names included are Greens and indies, not necessarily Democrats themselves, but they said they intend to "actively seek...

Maturen, 22, had been a volunteer at the sanctuary for more than three years. She recalls the events of Feb. 12 [2010] in great detail. [snip -- she relates the horror in detail next] No one from the sanctuary called 911...Just before 11:30 a.m., someone else did call. A man told the dispatcher..."Something's happening over there," he said. "I don't know if one of those apes got loose, but we had to run out of there real fast, and there were women screaming over there." Deputy Gregory Mason arrived at 11:37 a.m. and found the gates locked.... [snip -- she...

Maria Neal, 21, was part of a gang which attacked four branches in Hampshire in 2008 by daubing graffiti including the words "murderers" and "scum" on doors and gluing post boxes and cash machine slots. .... Miss Neal has the online identity "vegan23" on the website myspace. On it, she lists her reasons for wanting to defend animals and claims her aim is to become a political leader and cites her mood as "mischievous". ..."im very in to all aspects of animal rights! im anti everything that inflicts creuelty upon innocent animals as everyone should be. things such as using...

Link only - Tea party activists seeing red over Delaware's green initiatives

Grass-roots activists organizing boycotts against large corporations like Target stores and BP now find themselves directing some of their ire at another corporate monolith: Facebook. The boycotters turned to the popular social media site to spread word about their pressure campaigns, but those efforts became much more difficult last week when Facebook disabled key features on the boycott pages. As the number of Facebook members signed up for the “Boycott Target Until They Cease Funding Anti-Gay Politics” page neared 78,000, Facebook locked down portions of the page — banning new discussion threads, preventing members from posting videos and links to...

Record spending on judicial elections around the country has prompted calls for changes from a broad array of advocates, including moderate conservatives such as retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But a report issued Thursday by a small conservative group active in judicial elections alleges that the efforts to change such elections amount to a campaign to bolster liberals, with backing from financier and philanthropist George Soros. The report from the American Justice Partnership alleges that Soros has spent millions on "a highly coordinated, well-funded campaign" to "fundamentally alter the composition of America's state courts." Some advocacy groups say...

TOKYO – A Japanese court on Monday convicted two members of the environmental group Greenpeace of stealing whale meat they claim was intended for illegal consumption. The Aomori District Court gave suspended sentences to the activists after finding them guilty of stealing 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of whale meat from a delivery service company's warehouse in April 2008. The meat came from whales killed during Japan's government-backed research hunts.

Tea party groups converged on a remote section of the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday to show support for Arizona's controversial immigration law and hear from more than a dozen conservative speakers, many of them candidates running for office in crowded Republican primaries. Several speaking to the crowd of more than 400 demanded Congress and President Barack Obama devote more resources to increase border security in remote areas like the site of Sunday's demonstration southeast of Tucson. "We are going to force them to do it, because if they don't, we will not stop screaming," said former state Sen. Pam Gorman,...

If there are tensions between urban police departments and the African-American community, this kind of stuff won’t help one bit. An Indianapolis police officer was invited to give a presentation at a youth symposium where organizers staged a fight to see how the [white] officer would react. Full story...

The Washington Post reported yesterday on the frustration and anger among international AIDS charities with the White House. The groups argue that President Obama’s administration has reneged on pledges to fund antiretroviral therapy programs. The programs have been big successes in Africa, which faces epidemic levels of infection. “In sub-Saharan Africa, antiretroviral therapy, much of it paid for by the U.S. government, is resurrecting whole communities,” the Post reports. That progress is endangered, the charities say, by a shortage of funds. They now long for the good old days of ... the previous administration.

Activists disable some London BP petrol stations LONDON (Reuters) - Protesters from environmental group Greenpeace disabled some of BP's 50 petrol stations in central London on Tuesday in protest at the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Greenpeace said its activists had managed to close down 47 service stations in the capital. BP confirmed 30 had been forced to close temporarily. The company branded the demonstrations an "act of vandalism" and said it would reopen the sites as soon as it was safe to do so. The protests coincided with BP's second-quarter results where the oil company reported a $17 billion...

For The Record - The IPT Blog "Arab Journalists Come Out in Support of Israeli Flotilla Actions" by IPT News • Jun 29, 2010 at 6:01 pm SNIPPET: "Journalists in the Arab world have come out in support of Israel in the aftermath of last month's flotilla incident, which left 9 dead after Hamas-tied "humanitarian activists" attacked Israeli commandos with clubs, knives, and other weapons. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) released excerpts from an interview with Magdi Khalil, an Egyptian-American writer, aired on June 15 on Al-Jazeera TV. Khalil explains: "The Turkish ship, however, was organized by a...

Iran blinks, will not send "aid ship" to Gaza SNIPPET: "IRNA said that Sheikholeslam told reporters in the northern city of Rasht that the ship had originally been scheduled to depart for Gaza on Thursday, but that its departure was postponed until Sunday because of restrictions imposed by Israel. He added that officials then decided instead to cancel the trip altogether, shipping to Gaza the goods by other means, IRNA said."

(CNSNews.com) – At an event celebrating Gay Pride Month on Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged State Department employees to let teenagers know homosexuality is okay. “We’ve come such a far distance in our own country, but there are still so many who need the outreach, need the mentoring, need the support to stand up and be who they are and then think about people in so many countries where it just seems impossible,” Clinton said. “So I think that each and everyone of you, not only professionally, particularly from State and USAID and every bureau and every embassy...

OAKLAND, Calif. – Hundreds of protesters condemning Israel's recent raid on an international flotilla bound for Gaza are picketing at the Port of Oakland, where an Israeli ship is due to arrive. The demonstrators gathered Sunday to prevent the incoming ship from being unloaded. The dock's day shift of longshoremen agreed to not cross the picket line. Meanwhile Sunday, Israel said it will immediately allow all goods into Gaza except weapons and items deemed to have a military use under its decision to ease its three-year-old blockade of the Palestinian territory. Israeli officials had decided last week to ease the...