Cairo - "God is not a policeman, grabbing perpetrators by their necks," Egyptian poet Helmi Salem wrote in his 2007 poem, On the Balcony of Leila Mourad.
"He is a simple villager, feeding the duck, checking the cow's udder with his fingers, crying: there is a plenty of milk."
When a lawyer brought a lawsuit against Salem and Ibdaa, the government-funded magazine that published the poem, charging them with "insulting the Divine Entity," Salem's defence attorney never expected it would go far.
Tehran - An Iranian-American reporter detained in Tehran for alleged illegal press activities has been charged with espionage, local media reported Wednesday.
Roxana Saberi, 31, a reporter for US-based National Public Radio (NPR), was initially detained for buying alcohol and has been held in Tehran's Evin prison since the end of January.
In March, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said Saberi was denied official press accreditation since 2006 and was working illegally.
Paris - The press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders Wednesday strongly criticized the Algerian government's decision to ban three French publications in the run-up to Thursday's election.
"This censorship is disgraceful," the group said in a statement about the repression of the current issues of the weeklies L'Express, Marianne and Le Journal du Dimanche.
The ban "constitutes a denial of press freedom and therefore a denial of democracy," the organization said.
Washington - Newspapers on Monday published the first photographs of the flag draped casket of a killed member of the military being returned to the United States since a ban on the images went into effect in 1991.
A military honour guard was seen carrying the casket of Air Force Staff Sergeant Phillip Myers off an airplane at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware late Sunday. He was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Saturday.
New York - The Sun-Times Media Group Inc, owner of the Chicago Sun Times and more than 50 other US newspapers, filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday as it became the latest casualty of the advertising slump that is wreaking havoc throughout the newspaper industry.
The company said it would continue to operate as usual as it tries to stabilize its operations, though it said it was ordering all non- union employees to take a week of unpaid leave in April or May. The company listed assets of 479 million dollars and debts of 801 million dollars.
New York - The two most prestigious newspapers in the United States both announced job cuts Thursday in a dramatic sign of how the recession and the rise of the internet is eroding the newspaper industry.
The New York Times said it was eliminating 100 positions and lowering the salaries of all non-union employees by 5 per cent for the rest of the year, due to sharply declining revenues. All the job cuts are administrative, but the company warned that it would be forced to eliminate newsroom positions if the union did not agree to similar pay cuts.
Cairo - "God is not a policeman, grabbing perpetrators by their necks," Egyptian poet Helmi Salem wrote in his 2007 poem, On the Balcony of Leila Mourad.
Tehran - An Iranian-American reporter detained in Tehran for alleged illegal press activities has been charged with espionage, local media reported Wednesday.
Paris - The press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders Wednesday strongly criticized the Algerian government's decision to ban three French publications in the run-up to Thursday's election.
Washington - Newspapers on Monday published the first photographs of the flag draped casket of a killed member of the military being returned to the United States since a ban on the images went into effect in 1991.
New York - The Sun-Times Media Group Inc, owner of the Chicago Sun Times and more than 50 other US newspapers, filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday as it became the latest casualty of the advertising slump that is wreaking havoc throughout the newspaper industry.
New York - The two most prestigious newspapers in the United States both announced job cuts Thursday in a dramatic sign of how the recession and the rise of the internet is eroding the newspaper industry.
