Tahrir Square protests in Egypt right now after the Mubarak Trial verdict results were released. (Photo)
Hosni Mubarak sentenced to life in prison
Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak has been sentenced to life in prison after a court convicted him on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters during last year’s uprising that forced him from power.
In sentencing, Judge Ahmed Rifaat Rifaat described Mubarak’s era as “30 years of darkness” and “a darkened nightmare” that ended only when Egyptians rose up to demand change. “They peacefully demanded democracy from rulers who held tight grip on power,” he said.
Egyptian TV reported that Mubarak would be transferred from the hospital suite where he has been detained to Torah prison in south Cairo but he may have the right to appeal. [pictures]
Awesome: Obama writes absence note for fifth-grader
Missing school to see the president? Be sure you get one of these. Ryan Sullivan, an employee at a Honeywell plant in Minnesota, got the chance to introduce Barack Obama Friday, which led to his fifth-grade son, Tyler, missing school. Fortunately, Barack came though with this. Awesome. (thanks HyperVocal, which is also on Tumblr)
Pretty awesome.
This came across my Tumblr dashboard from the Univision News Tumblr - a great Tumblr by the way - from Mexico. Apparently, there have been student protests in the past week in Mexico City demonstrating against repression of free speech and certain political parties.
From the Univision News article:
Thousands of university students took to the streets of Mexico City Wednesday demanding greater freedom of speech in the country and to protest the PRI’s possible return to power.
It was the third large student protest in less than a week, and it has prompted some journalists in the country to wonder if Mexico is going through a political transformation similar the “Arab Spring” that began 18 months ago.
But what exactly do these students want, and where will their movement go?
Some more -
There are approximately 30 million people in Mexico under the age of 29, almost a third of the country’s population, comprising a “market segment” that is too large for Televisa or for the country’s politicians to ignore.
Student protests so far have been limited mostly to Mexico City, and confined to political subjects like media coverage.
It seems that they have not yet reached their full potential.
Faya, who is also a professor at the Iberoamericana, hopes that students will come up with proposals that will help the student to spread their movement elsewhere in the country.
“I think this movement says good things to us about our students,” Faya said. “They know when they are being manipulated.”
To follow the protests on Twitter, the hashtag is #yosoy132. The official Spanish organizing site for the protests are also at http://yosoy132.mx/
Final results of the historic Egypt elections. Mursi got 24.9% of the votes, Shafiq got 24.5%, Sabbahi got 21.1% - an official announcement will be released later.
Fair elections for Egypt? Egypt wrapped up two days of voting Thursday in what’s being hailed as the country’s first legitimate presidential election ever.
The counting continued on Friday, but partial results suggest that Mohammed Mursi, the candidate of the once-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, has earned a spot in a June run-off. The battle for the second slot remains tight, with a darkhorse leftist candidate, Hamdeen Sabahi, neck-and-neck with Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander and holdover from the Hosni Mubarak era.
Was the balloting as fair as Egyptian leaders promised it would be?
(Source: theweek.com)
Updated English Egypt election results - as of 7:30 AM Egypt time - curated and set up by Iyad El-Baghdadi.
Tahrir Square in Egypt - the central area in Cairo where the Arab Spring uprising occurred - is all quiet, “almost sleepy,” as other areas begin to count the votes in the nation’s historic presidential elections. The Elections Committee in Egypt shared that the voter turnout has been estimated at 50%.
People walk through a portion of the Boston Common covered with American flags, in Boston, May 23. The United States will mark Memorial Day on Monday; the holiday commemorates soldiers, sailors and others who died in the nation’s military service. (Photo: Steven Senne / AP via MSNBC)
Incredible photo.
