Police say they obtained confession over tax evasion charges from activist, who spent more than two months in detention China has released world-famous artist and political activist Ai Weiwei after more than two and a half months of detention, state media has announced. Beijing police said they released him on bail “because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes” and because he has a chronic illness, Xinhua news agency reported . No mention was made of his whereabouts. Ai’s detention on 3 April sparked an international outcry. He vanished after he was detained by police at Beijing airport. Officials later said he was detained on suspicion of economic crimes, but police did not notify his family of detention. The Xinhua report added: “The decision comes also in consideration of the fact that Ai has repeatedly said he is willing to pay the taxes he evaded, police said. “The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, a company Ai controlled, was found to have evaded a huge amount of taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents, police said.” The article gave no details of what has happened to several friends and colleagues of Ai, who went missing shortly after him. Ai’s family said they had only heard of his release through the media. His sister Gao Ge added: “Our family thinks the Xinhua news should be reliable, but the only thing we can do is wait for notification and his return.” “We won’t sleep tonight,” Ai’s mother Gao Ying told NPR. Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, welcomed news of the 54-year-old artist’s release. “His detention was political and his release is political. It is the result of a huge domestic and international outcry that forced the government to this resolution … I think Beijing realised how damaging it was to hold China’s most famous artist in detention,” he said. Bequelin said he expected Ai to be allowed to return home, but that he would probably not be allowed to travel abroad without official permission and would have to report to police regularly. The Chinese government has said that Ai was arrested for for economic crimes, although his family believe it was retaliation for his social and political activism. Some human rights campaigners thought the economic focus of the allegations was intended to make it harder for other governments to press Ai’s case. But others suggested that it offered officials the possibility of drawing back – as they appear to have done – whereas it would have been too embarrassing to drop political charges. Ai Weiwei China Human rights Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …If you spotted a tall white male covered in crap fleeing a yoga festival, police in Colorado would like to talk to you. Authorities say a woman entered a portable toilet at a yoga festival in Boulder and discovered a man hiding in the tank below when she lifted the…
Continue reading …Nova Scotia’s government has been ordered by a government panel to help out a disabled couple who say they’re too poor to start growing their own medical marijuana. The Canadian province’s Income Assistance Appeals Board ordered the Department of Community Services to provide the couple with $2,500 in start-up…
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Friends fear photojournalist Maryam Majd was arrested before boarding flight to cover Women’s World Cup in Germany An Iranian photojournalist and women’s rights activist who campaigned for female football fans to be allowed to enter stadiums has disappeared. Maryam Majd, 25, is feared to have been held by security officials before boarding a flight from Tehran to Düsseldorf, Germany, where she intended to cover the Fifa Women’s World Cup. Petra Landers, a former German national footballer who had invited Majd to join her in a book project about women’s sport, said she has not heard from her since Friday when the photographer was scheduled to arrive in Düsseldorf. “I waited for hours in the airport but eventually found that she was not on the plane at the first place,” Landers told the Guardian. “The last time I talked to her she was in the airport in Tehran waiting to board the plane and I have not been able to contact her nor her family since then.” Majd specialised in sports photography, although her pictures of female athletes were usually censored in the official media. Shadi Sadr, a prominent women’s rights campaigner living in exile in London, said: “We are almost sure that she has been arrested but the question is why authorities in Iran refuse to give any information about her after five days since her disappearance.” Many opposition figures have been arrested at Tehran airport, especially since the disputed presidential election in 2009. Majd has been campaigning to allow women to watch football matches in stadiums. Women in Iran are prohibited from entering them amid fears they could face verbal abuse or violence. “Maryam is one of the very few women sports photographers in Iran and because she is a woman, she has exclusive access to women’s sports and had been able to attract lots of attention towards sportswomen in the country,” said Sadr. Sportswomen in Iran are required to cover themselves from head to toe, but despite the restrictions they have been active in international competitions. International games, however, are not broadcast on the state television because they feature foreign women players who are not covered. Iran’s women’s football team was banned from an Olympic qualifier recently after Fifa ruled that their full-body strip broke the organisations rules . President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the football association “dictators and colonialists” after the move and Iranian sports officials plan to file a complaint against the decision. Offside, a 2006 Iranian film directed by Jafar Panahi – who has been sentenced to six years in jail and banned from filmmaking for 20 years – features a group of girls attempting to enter a stadium to watch a World Cup qualifying match. Iran Journalism Journalist safety Women’s World Cup 2011 Middle East Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …JPMorgan has paid $153.6 million to settle SEC charges that it misled investors as it scrambled to offload mortgage-backed securities before the 2007 collapse in the housing market, reports Reuters . ” We are soooo pregnant with this deal, we need a wheel-barrel to move around,” the exec in charge of…
Continue reading …It’s getting tough to figure out airline dress codes. One thing’s clear, though: The tightest, tiniest “pants” will fly. Days before a college football player was bounced—and busted —for wearing saggy pants, an older male passenger tarted out in women’s bikini briefs and thigh-high black stockings was allowed to…
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Police say loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force set off two nights of rioting in which press photographer was shot in leg Dissident republicans were responsible for the gunshots that wounded a press photographer during rioting in Belfast, police said. The Press Association photographer was taken to the Royal Victoria hospital with an injury to his right leg following the burst of three shots. He is said to be in a stable condition. Petrol bombs, fireworks, bottles and bricks were among items thrown at police during a second night of the worst violence in east Belfast for many years. A police spokeswoman said: “Police can confirm that dissident republicans were responsible for the shots that were fired during last night’s disorder in east Belfast.” Dissident republicans have been responsible for a string of attacks on members of the police and army. In April they killed Constable Ronan Kerr, 25, in car bombing outside his home in Omagh, County Tyrone. There have been pitched battles between loyalists and republicans in the Lower Newtownards Road and Short Strand areas during the past two days. The police were targeted after they came between the two sides. The Ulster Volunteer Force has been blamed by senior police for igniting trouble after a second night of serious rioting in Belfast. Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay said the loyalist paramilitary group started the violence. Finlay said: “The UVF in east Belfast started this – there was no sense of anyone trying to finish that. Their hands are upon this, whether by direction, by omission or commission.” A 20-year-old woman was arrested on a weapons charge during the rioting, which saw youths smashing police vehicles with sledgehammers and hurling petrol bombs. A water cannon vehicle sustained a cracked windscreen and there were marks from live fire. Finlay said the attacks were less orchestrated than the previous night, when two people were injured by gunfire. He refused to say whether the shots were fired from the nationalist Short Strand or the loyalist Newtownards Road but called for dialogue to discuss all issues behind the violence. “Last night again we witnessed serious, sustained violence. Over two nights we have seen three people shot and injured, communities wrecked, houses and businesses damaged, lives put at serious risk. “This has got to stop, it is a time for cool heads, for people to take a step back.” Northern Ireland guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Police say loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force set off two nights of rioting in which press photographer was shot in leg Dissident republicans were responsible for the gunshots that wounded a press photographer during rioting in Belfast, police said. The Press Association photographer was taken to the Royal Victoria hospital with an injury to his right leg following the burst of three shots. He is said to be in a stable condition. Petrol bombs, fireworks, bottles and bricks were among items thrown at police during a second night of the worst violence in east Belfast for many years. A police spokeswoman said: “Police can confirm that dissident republicans were responsible for the shots that were fired during last night’s disorder in east Belfast.” Dissident republicans have been responsible for a string of attacks on members of the police and army. In April they killed Constable Ronan Kerr, 25, in car bombing outside his home in Omagh, County Tyrone. There have been pitched battles between loyalists and republicans in the Lower Newtownards Road and Short Strand areas during the past two days. The police were targeted after they came between the two sides. The Ulster Volunteer Force has been blamed by senior police for igniting trouble after a second night of serious rioting in Belfast. Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay said the loyalist paramilitary group started the violence. Finlay said: “The UVF in east Belfast started this – there was no sense of anyone trying to finish that. Their hands are upon this, whether by direction, by omission or commission.” A 20-year-old woman was arrested on a weapons charge during the rioting, which saw youths smashing police vehicles with sledgehammers and hurling petrol bombs. A water cannon vehicle sustained a cracked windscreen and there were marks from live fire. Finlay said the attacks were less orchestrated than the previous night, when two people were injured by gunfire. He refused to say whether the shots were fired from the nationalist Short Strand or the loyalist Newtownards Road but called for dialogue to discuss all issues behind the violence. “Last night again we witnessed serious, sustained violence. Over two nights we have seen three people shot and injured, communities wrecked, houses and businesses damaged, lives put at serious risk. “This has got to stop, it is a time for cool heads, for people to take a step back.” Northern Ireland guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A horrifying side effect is emerging among people who use cocaine cut with a drug that deworms livestock. Users who suffer a bad reaction to the drug levamisole are developing large patches of dead, blackened skin on their faces and bodies as the additive damages blood vessels and causes skin…
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