Tag: Freedom

England and Essex batsman Alastair Cook has been given the Freedom of the City of London following his performances during England’s Ashes win. The...

Punjab Union of Journalists (PUJ) and Lahore Press Club (LPC) held a rally in relation to the “World Press Freedom Day” from PUJ office...

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani Saturday said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led government had given real freedom to media, adding that the role national...

AMMAN - Thousands of Syrians chanted slogans calling for greater freedom at independence day rallies on Sunday, witnesses said, a day after President Bashar al-Assad promised to lift emergency law.
"The people want freedom," several hundred people shouted at the grave of independence leader Ibrahim Hananu in Syria's second city Aleppo, which has been mostly free of pro-democracy protests that erupted more than a month ago in the south. Hundreds also turned out in the southern

DAMASCUS/DERAA - Syrian security men seized dozens of people who staged a brief pro-democracy march in Damascus on Friday, as protests that have flared in the south inspired support in the capital.
But a day after President Bashar al-Assad, scion of half a century of Baathist rule, offered to consider granting political freedoms, thousands marched freely in the southern city of Deraa behind the coffins of protesters gunned down by Assad's forces.
"Freedom is ringing out!"

DERAA - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made an unprecedented pledge of greater freedom and more prosperity to Syrians on Thursday as anger mounted following a crackdown on protesters that left at least 37 dead.
As an aide to Assad in Damascus read out a list of decrees, which included a possible end to 48 years of emergency rule, a human rights group said a leading pro-democracy activist, Mazen Darwish, had been arrested. In the southern city of Deraa, a hospital official said

DHAKA - South Africa will start as firm favourites to win Friday's World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand -- provided they can overcome their trademark knock-out blues. In five previous tournaments, the Proteas crashed out three times in the semi-finals, once in the quarter-final and another time in the first round, earning them the unwanted tag of cricket's perennial chokers.
It was not the defeats, but the manner in which they happened, that left their fans dumbfounded and

LAHORE - The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is practising its right of freedom of speech on the Supreme Court's (SC) judgement against the appointment of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, People's Lawyers Forum (PLF) Punjab office-bearers said on Saturday. They said that Sindhis have reservations about being judicially targeted. PLF Senior Vice President Malik Nasir Awan and Additional Secretary General Rana Sufyan Arshad said that positive criticism of a decision should

ATHENS - Greek police clashed with protesters on Wednesday as around 100,000 workers, pensioners and students marched to parliament in protest at austerity policies aimed at helping Greece cope with a huge debt crisis. Riot police fired scores of rounds of teargas and flash bombs at protesters hurling petrol bombs, choking the main Syndagma square with smoke and sending crowds of striking protesters running for cover.
Public and private sector employees' 24-hour strike grounded

ANKARA - Turkey on Thursday rejected US criticism over media freedom in the country following the detention of four opposition journalists in a probe of alleged coup plots. "Press freedom in Turkey is greater than press freedom in America... There is no problem in Turkey in this sense," Interior Minister Besir Atalay said, according to Anatolia news agency.
Monday's detentions fuelled accusations that a probe into alleged plots to topple the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and

KHARTOUM - A group of women demonstrated in the Sudanese capital on Sunday to demand the release of dozens of protesters arrested last month, as three journalists were detained in a separate rally. Around 25 women, among them mothers of those still in custody since anti-government protests on January 30, stood waiting for hours outside the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) building.
Anti-riot police outnumbered the women, who carried pictures of their loved ones,

KAUDA - Thousands of Sudanese demonstrated in the Nuba mountains on Saturday, demanding free and fair elections as a prelude to greater autonomy within the north, as a southern independence vote wrapped up.
In Kauda, a remote mountain town that is a stronghold of southern former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement even though it lies in the northern state of South Kordofan, large crowds gathered chanting anti-government slogans and waving SPLM flags. "Down, down, old

VATICAN CITY - Sexual and civic education in schools in Europe is an "attack" on religious freedom, Pope Benedict XVI said on Monday in a traditional annual address to foreign diplomats to the Vatican.
"I cannot remain silent about another attack on the religious freedom of families in certain European countries which mandate obligatory participation in courses of sexual or civic education," the pope told the ambassadors.
He said such courses "convey a neutral concept of the

YANGON: Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi called for freedom of speech in army-ruled Myanmar on Sunday and urged thousands of supporters to stand up for their rights and not lose heart, indicating she might pursue a political role.
"Democracy is when the people keep a government in check. I will accept the people keeping me in check," she said in her first major address since being freed from seven years of house arrest a day earlier.
Suu Kyi could give Myanmar a strong

Actor Abhishek Bachchan, who is playing freedom fighter Surya Sen in the forthcoming period film "Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey", says lack of reference about Sen made it difficult for him to essay the part.
"As an actor it was difficult because there was no ready reference. While discussing someone who is a true life character, you can't be untrue or deviate too far," said Abhishek at a press conference. "If we just conceive a character from our imagination, it's easy to play