17 Dec 10 | Index Index, minipost
Grace Mugabe has filed a lawsuit against Standard newspaper claiming $15m for defamation. The newspaper published leaked US cables from wikileaks alleging the first lady of gaining millions of dollars from illegal diamond trade. Other high ranking officials implicated by the cables include Joyce Mujuru, the vice-president, and the head of the army, General Constantine Chiwenga. The first lady has reacted calling the allegations “false, scandalous, malicious, wrongful and defamatory”. The diamond trade in Zimbabwe, known as “blood diamond” is notorious for its violence and extensive human rights abuse.
16 Dec 10 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
The High Court in London has upheld the lower court’s decision to release Wikileaks founder on bail. The 39-year-old Australian was granted bail on Tuesday but prosecutors objected to the decision and he remained in jail. Assange is fighting extradition to Sweden over sex charges involving two women. He denies the allegations. Assange is likely to be released in the next 24 hours.
14 Dec 10 | News and features
Wikileaks‘ founder Julian Assange was granted bail by a London court, but he will remain in custody until an appeal against the decision is heard. Assange is facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges including one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape. He denies the charges.
Before he is freed Assange must pay a £200,000 security into the court, he will be electronically tagged and subject to a curfew from 10am-2pm and 10pm-2am.
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13 Dec 10 | Uncategorized
This morning 350,000 Facebook users vanished into a black hole. Facebook banned Popolo Viola’s page (Purple People), the organisers of the biggest anti-Berlusconi protest, only to reverse its decision this afternoon.
One of the pages administrators expressed his suspicions about the page’s closure, noting it happened “just as the Purple People was organising the protests tomorrow, December 14, during the vote of confidence to [Italian Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi,”
The Purple People movement, born and bred on the web, has attracted hundreds of thousands of keen followers. After the first No Berlusconi Day protest, which took place just over a year ago, its popularity spread. Now the grass-roots organisation has a huge network of local organisations in Italy and abroad (there is even a London branch).
The reasons for the Facebook blackout are still unknown. The page’s administrators say “We are waiting to get to know the motivations of what happened. We will keep you informed about the developments”.
The activists themselves speculated that the outage could be linked to tomorrow’s vote of confidence in the Italian parliament. A vote that could cost Berlusconi his presidency. Last week, leaked Wikileaks cables revealed that Berlusconi was worried about the activists, whom he defined “extremists to be kept under control”. Although others, including a reporter at Fatto Quotidiano newspaper, suggested that internal quarrels within the Purple People caused the temporary suspension.
