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Follow along with me now. This is not complicated. Russia reached a tentative agreement with the Government of Sudan to build a base for the Russian Navy on Sudan’s coast. Yet the media claims that Moscow is behind the current counter coup by the Rapid Security Force aka RSF, which is trying to replace the Government that reached the agreement with Russia. Not one word about the United States activities there. Here is one example: The Russian mercenary group Wagner has been supplying the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group in fights against the Sudanese army, according to CNN. Okay....

The U.S. military has successfully completed the evacuation of the American embassy in war-torn Sudan, President Joe Biden said late Saturday evening. Biden confirmed the evacuation of U.S. government personnel from Khartoum and that the administration would continue to assist Americans in Sudan. "I am proud of the extraordinary commitment of our Embassy staff, who performed their duties with courage and professionalism and embodied America's friendship and connection with the people of Sudan. I am grateful for the unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought them to safety. And I thank Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia, which were...

The US ambassador to Sudan has been forced to take shelter after sustained fighting broke out in the capital Khartoum, as tension between the military and powerful paramilitary forces escalates. John Godfrey said he and embassy staff were sheltering in place as heavy firing was heard in a number of areas. The Rapid Support Forces militia claimed they had seized Khartoum airport and the presidential palace, as well as an airport and air base in the northern city of Marawi. It accused the army of attacking its forces at one of its bases, while the Sudanese Army said the fighting...

Before killing himself with a drug intended for rapid and painless animal euthanasia, Richard A. Morrisett had endured a nightmare at the University of Texas in Austin. The 57-year-old tenured professor of pharmacology and toxicology was once a rising star in the College of Pharmacy – a man regarded as a first-rate research scientist and teacher during his 21 years at the state's flagship university. Morrisett's research offered new insights into alcohol-related brain disorders and alcoholism – an arcane area of research among neuroscientists. Some colleagues called him “brilliant.” Morrisett's career, however, was destroyed by a single newspaper article. Published...

The 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), reflects growing animosity towards journalists. Hostility towards the media, openly encouraged by political leaders, and the efforts of authoritarian regimes to export their vision of journalism pose a threat to democracies.The climate of hatred is steadily more visible in the Index, which evaluates the level of press freedom in 180 countries each year. Hostility towards the media from political leaders is no longer limited to authoritarian countries such as Turkey (down two at 157th) and Egypt (161st), where “media-phobia” is now so pronounced that journalists are routinely accused...

Denmark continued its position as one of the few success stories in an era in which global media freedom is coming increasingly under threat, says a new report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). For the second year running, Denmark took fourth place on the RSF index, despite it being a year in which the global situation relating to press freedoms has worsened in nearly two thirds of the 180 countries in the Index. The authors of the index cited an article in Denmark’s 1849 constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and says that “censorship and other preventive measures can never...

Imminent Ulster car bomb attack foiled by police (Filed: 19/04/2006) Police in Northern Ireland have seized 250lb of home-made explosives, foiling a potentially devastating car bomb attack. Local youths threw petrol bombs at police after the raid A senior policeman said those behind the plot - likely to be dissident republicans - planned to explode the device "as soon as possible". Four men were arrested during the raid on a breaker's yard in Lurgan, Co Armagh. A car was also taken away for forensic examination. Superintendent Alan Todd, Lurgan's police commander, said the police had no knowledge of a specific...

It all started as a rather pleasant, if not exciting evening. We had heard a speech from British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw once again trying to "explain" the evil of Islamofascim in pseudo-theological, rather than political, terms. But that had been compensated for with a poem from the great mystic poet Roumi recited by Iranian journalist Nazanin Ansari. Apart from the usual contingent of "the great and the good" most of the 800 or so people present were media people and their friends, come to cheer or boo as the Foreign Press Association in London distributed its annual prizes. The...

More sites banned, overhaul of filtering system planned Reporters Without Borders today accused the Iranian government of seeking to increase its control of the Internet in recent measures that have included contracting an Iranian company, Delta Global, to set up a new online censorship system. While developing a woefully oppressive model of Internet management, Iran is participating actively in international talks about Internet governance that are being held as part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the press organisation said. “These new measures point to an ideological hardening in the Iranian government and a desire by the...

from the September 22, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0922/p01s02-woap.html China's model for a censored Internet Some worry China's controls could be copied elsewhere. By Kathleen E. McLaughlin | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor SHANGHAI, CHINA - As China began to go online, observers made brash predictions that the Internet would pry the country open. Cyberspace, the thinking went, would prove too vast and wild for Beijing to keep under its thumb. Now these early assumptions are being sharply revised. Under an authoritarian government determined to control information, China has grown a new version of the Internet. As former US President...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the kidnapping of France 3 TV crew soundman Mohamed Ouathi by three gunmen yesterday in Gaza and urged the Palestinian authorities to do everything possible to ensure that he is quickly released. "We call for Mohamed Ouathi's immediate and unconditional release and we ask the Palestinian authorities to react quickly so that he is freed as soon as possible," the organisation said. "The fact that his abductors did not have their faces covered shows that a degree of impunity and laxity prevails in Gaza." Ouathi and the three other members of the French TV station's...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned what it called "the criminal attitude" of Iran's top leaders in refusing to release journalist Akbar Ganji, who has now been on hunger-strike for nearly 50 days. "They must release him for humanitarian reasons. He has been unjustly detained for more than five years but he is a determined man," the worldwide press freedom organisation said, calling on the international community and journalists everywhere to join in exerting pressure on the Iranian government. Ganji will begin his 50th day without food on 31 July. He now weighs only 52 kg and is unconscious much of...

WASHINGTON — Free speech advocates are frustrated with a host of American companies they say have been collaborating with oppressive regimes in countries like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to help them filter and monitor the Internet activity of their citizens. Big technology names like Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco have been criticized roundly in recent years for providing foreign governments with the tools they need to crack down on Internet use, but critics say they have not been able to do much more than complain. "These companies' lack of ethics is extremely worrisome," said Lucie Morillon, the Washington representative of...

European online press rally to the support of five imprisoned online journalists 20.10.2004 20 leading european online news sites have rallied to join Reporters Without Borders in support of colleagues in Iran as the fifth journalist was arrested on 18 October in a crackdown against the online media. They are calling for the release of Shahram Rafihzadeh, Hanif Mazroi, Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi, Omid Memarian and Javad Gholam Tamayomi. "We want to demonstrate our solidarity with our Iranian colleagues, imprisoned simply for doing their jobs," the media said in a statement. "At a time when the Internet has become one of...

Reporters Without Borders called today for the immediate release of Abbas Kakavand, who was imprisoned on 7 June for allegedly disseminating "false news" in articles he wrote for the website gooya.com since February after leaving the conservative newspaper Ressalat. His articles criticised corruption and the political payments received by many conservative leaders. The organisation described the jailing of Kakavand as "flagrant evidence of the systematic violation of press freedom in Iran," and pointed out that "it came just a few days before talks on human rights are scheduled to get under way between the Islamic Republic and the European Union"....

Media watchdog says concerned CNN had armed guard PARIS, April 13 (Reuters) - A media watchdog expressed concern on Sunday that a CNN team reporting from Iraq was travelling with an armed guard, saying it set a "dangerous precedent" that could imperil other journalists. Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) made the comments after an incident in the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit in which a security guard hired by CNN fired his machinegun at a checkpoint when the CNN convoy came under gunfire. "This behaviour creates a dangerous precedent that could imperil all other reporters covering this conflict and others in...