‘Anti-free speech’ law scrapped

ISRAEL: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that he would scrap a new law banning journalists working for the country’s public broadcast authority from expressing their opinions on air.

The law, passed last week, says that broadcasts should “avoid one-sidedness, prejudice, expressing personal opinions, giving grades and affixing labels.”

The Israel Press Council urged parliament to repeal the law, saying it violated free speech.

Concert pays tribute to Hill

UNITED STATES: Labour movement martyr Joe Hill will be remembered at a concert in Salt Lake City, Utah, today, in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of his execution by firing squad in November.

Trade unionist Mr Hill was framed for the 1914 murder of a grocer and his son in the city. He was later eulogised in a song made famous by Pete Seeger.

His last words to supporters were: “Don’t waste any time mourning. Organise.”

Mass protest over missing $1 billion

MOLDOVA: Tens of thousands of people protested in the capital Chisinau yesterday, calling on the government to properly investigate the up to $1 billion that disappeared from three banks last year.

Protesters yelled: “We want the one billion back!” and urged the central bank governor, the general prosecutor and others to resign.

Non-governmental organisations have threatened to stage non-stop demonstrations.

Holocaust victims laid to rest

FRANCE: The remains of Holocaust victims stored for decades in a medical school have at last been laid to rest.

Dozens of corpses were sent to the anatomy institute at the University of Strasbourg for nazi research.

Some remains were buried after the war, but a few were saved and even put on display for what were described as scientific purposes.

Dutch journalist detained in Turkey

TURKEY: A Dutch journalist says she has been detained by police while covering clashes in a town in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south-east.

Frederike Geerdink said on her Twitter account yesterday that she was detained in the town of Yusekova and would be questioned by a prosecutor.

Ms Geerdink was previously briefly detained in January and acquitted of charges of engaging in propaganda on behalf of the Kurdish rebels in April.

Abortion clinic fire ‘was arson’

US: A pre-dawn blaze that badly damaged an abortion clinic in Pullman, Washington, was arson, fire investigators have determined.

The fire followed a recent wave of protests at Planned Parenthood clinics across the country.

On August 22, around 500 protesters gathered outside the Pullman clinic, waving signs and calling for Congress to stop funding the organisation.

Guatemalans head to the polls

GUATEMALA: The Central American nation went to the polls yesterday to elect a new congress and president to replace disgraced former general Otto Perez Molina.

Liber party candidate Manuel Baldizon was the pollsters’ favourite, but he faced a strong challenge from anti-corruption independent Jimmy Morales. Also standing are Sandra Torres, ex-wife of former president Alvaro Colom, and Zulia Rios, daughter of former dictator and war criminal Efrain Rios Montt.

Court rejects Bravo appeal

CHILE: A Chilean appeals court has upheld the convictions in the killing of two US citizens shortly after the 1973 military coup that overthrew democratically elected president Salvador Allende.

The Appeals Court of Santiago confirmed on Saturday the seven-year sentence given to retired General Pedro Espinoza Bravo as the mastermind in the killings of documentary film-maker Charles Horman and journalist Frank Teruggi.