Activists on UC Berkeley’s campus protested Wednesday against the use of torture by the US government in the current “War on Terror,” by simulating a “waterboarding” interrogation.
Category: Blog
2 pigs under investigation for ordering 2 teens raped in custody
From AP:
Two police officers are under investigation after two teenagers alleged that the officers ordered other prisoners to rape them at a police station, prosecution officials said Wednesday.
A lieutenant and first lieutenant at the Kafr el-Sheik station allegedly ordered older prisoners to rape the teenage boys, ages 16 and 17, after the two were arrested for drug possession last week and ordered detained for four days, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media about the case.
After their release, the teenagers’ families filed a complaint with the local prosecutor’s office, and a forensic examination taken after they left police custody showed they were recently sexually abused, the officials said.
The Egyptian government has not confirmed the investigation. But on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry released a statement saying the police director of the Kafr el-Sheik station, a police general and two of his senior assistants were removed from their posts and transferred to administrative jobs. The statement did not elaborate.
Tax officers demonstrate
I received the following report from journalist and friend Jano Charbel…
The real estate tax employees remain steadfast in their demands of affiliation to the ministry of finance, or at least equity with their co-workers – the general tax, customs tax, and sales tax employees – who are affiliated to the ministry, and on average, earn 5x as much as these real estate tax employees.
Over 1000 real estate tax employees demonstrated outside the headquarters of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation on downtown Cairo’s Gala’ Street. They came from a number of Governorates across Egypt – Daqahlia, Bani Suef, Port Said, Demietta, Giza, etc. Hundreds of CSF troops cordoned the demonstrating tax employees on the sidewalk outside the ETUF headquarters . They are sleeping in there and are expected to continue with their demo until their grievances are addressed.
Chants at this demo on Tuesday (Nov. 13) called upon Egypt’s 55,000 real estate tax workers to resume strike action by not collecting taxes – until their demands are met. The ETUF’s Hussein Megawer is said to have conducted some sort of negotiations with the strike leaders/worker delegates.
Some photos of the protest, below, taken by Jano…
