Word: saturdays
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Following on the heels of an unprecedented mass trial of 100 opposition figures a week ago, Saturday's session at Tehran's Revolutionary Court focused on the British embassy's chief political analyst, Hossein Rassam; a local staff member of the French embassy, Nazak Afshar; and a 24-year-old French teacher, Clotilde Reisse, who was working and studying in Isfahan, according to IRNA, Iran's official news agency. In a vague and rambling indictment, the three were charged with espionage and "acting against the national security," and for inciting "riots." It went on to blame a litany of Western...
...been a successful few days in the war on terror. On Aug. 5 Baitullah Mehsud, leader of Pakistan's Taliban, was apparently killed in a strike by a U.S. drone. And on Saturday Aug. 8, Indonesian authorities reported that Noordin M. Top, the country's most wanted terrorist, was probably killed during a police raid, ending a years-long manhunt for the Malaysian believed responsible for a string of bomb attacks in Jakarta and Bali in recent years. In a dramatic shootout broadcast on national TV, police surrounded and fired shots at a small house in Temanggung in central Java...
...There has been signs that the nation's honeymoon with its new leader was coming to an end. In July, a former government minister who defected to the opposition had told local media that Mr Najib is an "iron fist in a velvet glove." The mayhem on Saturday, his critics are now saying, are a harbinger of worse things to come. The brutal display of force unfolded in the middle of a Saturday afternoon in central Kuala Lumpur as protesters marched to Istana Negara palace to ask King Mizan Zainal Abidin - whose role in Malaysia today is largely ceremonial...
...part, Najib had been doing okay until Saturday's mayhem, according to political analysts. After inheriting a ruling coalition in disarray and a government lacking firm direction amidst an economic slowdown, he had pulled the government together and give "hope of a fair, just and united society under his One Malaysia banner," says political scientist Denison Jayasooria. Mr Najib saw to it that more non-Malays were employed in the civil service, started several new, government-managed, big-sized unit trust schemes allowing non-Malay participation. He even allowed unsold portions of the units reserved for Malays, to be offered...
...opposition lawmakers say this abrupt use of "brute force" against peaceful dissenters marks the end of Najib's brief honeymoon. "Saturday's message is clear...toe the line, or face brute force," says opposition MP Tian Chua. Jayasooria says the Prime Minister has not shown a respect for human rights, a commitment to tolerate dissent and see political opponents as partners in a democratic system. "The use of overwhelming force against peaceful dissenters is a serious indictment of his administration," says Jayasooria. August 5's raw display of force is also a far cry from the tolerant and liberal atmosphere...