| Pakistani journalists allowed to carry arms Posted: Journalists in Pakistan have been allowed to carry small arms for self-protection following the killing of Syed Saleem Shahzad, who was said to have been picked up by the ISI and tortured. Geo News quoted Interior Minister Rehman Malik as saying that orders have been passed to allow journalists to carry small arms with them. Malik visited Shahzad's residence where he condemned his murder. The body of Shahzad, 40-year-old correspondent of Asia Times Online who wrote on Islamist groups, was found in a canal in Punjab province. The journalist had written an article that said the Al Qaeda's operational arm, 313 Brigade, had carried out the May 22 attack on Karachi's PNS Mehran naval base after the navy refused to free sailors who had been arrested for suspected Islamist links. This article may have been linked to his kidnapping and eventual murder, some of his friends say.
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| Missing journalist found dead in Pak Posted: A Pakistani journalist has been found dead near the capital Islamabad after writing about links between the Pakistani military and Al-Qaeda, officials said Tuesday.
Syed Saleem Shahzad (40) worked for an Italian news agency and an online news site. He went missing on Sunday after he left his home in the capital to take part in a television talk show, but never arrived.
Officials said his body was identified by relatives after being found near his car in Sarai Alamgir, 150 km southeast of Islamabad.
"Relatives visited the police station and now they have identified the dead body. They said it is the body of journalist Saleem Shahzad," said police official Zulfiqar Ali.
He disappeared two days after writing an investigative report in Asia Times Online that Al-Qaeda carried out last week's attack on a naval air base to avenge the arrest of naval officials arrested on suspicion of Al-Qaeda links.
Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said Shahzad had complained about being threatened by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
"The other day he visited our office and informed us that ISI had threatened him.
He told us that if anything happened to him, we should inform the media about the situation and threats," said Hasan. 
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| Egyptians decry 'virginity tests' on protesters Posted: Soldiers allegedly abused the women detained after rallies
Activists and bloggers are pressing Egypt's military rulers to investigate accusations of serious abuses against protesters, including claims that soldiers subjected female detainees to so-called 'virginity tests'.
Bloggers say they will hold a day of online protest today to voice their outrage, adding to criticism of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took control of the country from ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February.
The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report, which claimed female protesters were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges and forced to submit to virginity checks
The accusations of virginity tests first surfaced after a March 9 rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square that turned violent when men in plain clothes attacked protesters and the army intervened forcefully to clear the square.
One woman who was arrested spoke out about her treatment, and Amnesty International further documented the abuse allegations in a report that found 18 female detainees were threatened with prostitution charges and forced to undergo virginity tests.
They were also beaten up and given electric shocks, the report said.
Egypt's military rulers have come under heavy criticism from the youth protest movement, which is upset at the pace of reforms that they hope will lead Egypt to democracy.
Since Mubarak's fall on February 11, the military has led crackdowns on peaceful protests, and critics accuse it of failing to restore security in the streets or launch serious national dialogue on a clear path forward for Egypt.
The military council denied soldiers attacked protesters at the March 9 rally. But one general used a press conference to make negative remarks about women who mingle with men during the sit-ins and suggested lewd acts were taking place in protest camps.
"There were girls with young men in one tent. Is this rational? There were drugs; pay attention!" General Ismail Etman, spokesman of the council, said at the end of March.
He confirmed then that the military police arrested 17 female protesters among 170 others at the March 9 rally. He said the women were among a group of protesters given one-year suspended prison sentences.
"We secure the people. We don't use violence," he said. 
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| Tweets from the Taliban Posted: Why is the Islamist militant group now on the world's favourite micro-blogging platform?
On October 4, 2010, best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell used The New Yorker magazine to explain at length why, despite news reports to the contrary, social media would not spark any revolution.
His essay came in the wake of protests against Moldova's Communist government a year before, organised via Twitter.
South Korean activists wear cigarette-shaped outfits during a campaign marking the World No Tobacco Day in Seoul yesterday
That same year, student protests in Tehran (brought about using the same platform) prompted Mark Pfeifle, national security advisor for President George W Bush, to nominate Twitter for the Nobel Peace Prize. Gladwell remained unimpressed.
While he did admit that social media helped give the powerless a voice, he pointed out that these platforms were 'built around weak ties' as they involved following, or being followed by, people users may never have met.
His essay argued that while Twitter made it easier for people to express themselves, the adaptability that made it popular also made it harder for that expression to have any impact.
His comments, though lucid and extremely well-articulated, seem to have had no effect on a certain group of people known as the Taliban. They are, for better or worse, now active on Twitter.
A report in The Guardian first mentioned their presence on May 12 this year, pointing out that their Twitter feed using the handle @alemarahweb was 'pumping out' several messages a day to 993 followers.
Earlier this month though, they began interspersing tweets in Pashto with English.
At the time of this report being filed, the account, linked to the official website of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan had posted 1,291tweets to its 5,706 followers.
It followed just four accounts, including the website Nunn.Asia and Islamic Chechen Internet agency Kavkaz Centre. As for its followers, these included journalists from the East and West, bloggers, a couple of entrepreneurs, the Pakistan Telecom company, and even a punk rock community.
Tweets in English were restricted to reports of strikes against the West or 'US invaders' and links to news stories or video footage.
On July 14, 2001, news agency Reuters filed a report stating that the Taliban had banned the use of the Internet in Afghanistan to stop access 'to vulgar, immoral and anti-Islamic material.' It appears to have changed its mind.
Maybe it feels the need to control the dissemination of information. Maybe it simply wants to make its presence felt on a platform that clearly has a captive audience. Or maybe it believes in the possibility of inciting a revolution. Malcolm Gladwell will, no doubt, have the answers. 
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| World Bank approves USD 1 bn loan to clean Ganga river Posted: The World Bank has approved a USD 1 billion loan to India to help clean its river Ganga that accounts for one fourth of the country's water resources
The river is facing extreme pollution pressures and threats to its biodiversity, the bank said in a statement Tuesday. The Ganga basin is home to more than 400 million Indians. Only about one-third of the sewage generated by the towns and cities along the river are treated, while a significant volume of untreated or poorly treated industrial effluents are discharged into the river, it said. "The World Bank is honored to be able to support the government in its efforts to revitalize this holy and mighty river of India," Xinhua quoted Roberto Zagha, the bank's country director for India, as saying. In 2009, India had set up the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) to help clean the river. "The government of India is clearly committed to this, has a robust plan of action and is dedicating the required resources for this national effort. I am confident that with sustained public and political support for the NGRBA Program, significant progress towards cleaning the Ganga will be achieved," Zagha said.
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| Ruby dreams of Woody Allen role Posted: Nightclub dancer at the heart of Italian PM Berlusconi's sex scandal wrote to the director suggesting she appear in his next film
Karima El Mahroug, better known by her stage name as Ruby the Heart Stealer, sent a letter to Woody Allen saying that her dream was to become 'the next Mia Farrow or Diane Keaton'.
Neither she nor the prime minister turned up for the second hearing in the trial, which kicked off last month in a court in Milan.
Karima el-Mahroug aka Ruby the heart stealer dreams of being like Mia Farrow or even Diane Keaton and is envious of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who starred in Allen's latest flick
Berlusconi despite being accused of abuse of office and of paying for sex with Moroccan-born El Mahroug when she was allegedly working as a 17-year-old prostitute, was not obliged under Italian law to turn up for the hearing.
El Mahroug, meanwhile, was inspired to write to Woody Allen after he reportedly said, during this year's Cannes Film Festival, that he had seen photographs of her and wondered if she could act.
In her letter, El Mahroug said she was not the "man-eater that the media of the entire world have made me out to be", and had a dream to be the new "Mia Farrow or even Diane Keaton".
She said that in the midst of the bunga bunga sex scandal, she cheered herself up by watching some of Allen's films.
She said she was envious of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of the French president, who has a part in Allen's latest film, Midnight In Paris.
"What does she have that I don't? She is just luckier than me. She was born rich and slender. I've had to struggle for everything I've achieved."
While the teenager dreams of a career in acting, Berlusconi had to come to terms with a string of crushing defeats in local elections across Italy.
Berlusconi acknowledged the scale of the losses, which emerged when votes were counted on Monday, but expressed optimism.
"We lost. It's clear. But now we have to remain calm and move forwards. Every time I suffer a setback, I triple my forces," he said.
Woody Allen has won three Academy Awards and been nominated a total of 21 times: 14 as a screenwriter, six as a director, and one as an actor. 
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| Muslim girl stoned to death for joining beauty contest Posted: A 19-year-old Muslim girl was stoned to death in Ukraine under the Islamic Sharia law after she took part in a beauty contest, a media report said Tuesday. Katya Koren was found dead in her village. Her battered body was buried in a forest and was found a week after she disappeared, the Daily Mail reported. Koren's friends said she had come seventh in a beauty contest. Police are now looking into claims that three Muslim youths killed her. One of the three youths - a 16-year-old named Bihal Gaziev - is under arrest. He told police that Koren had "violated the laws of Sharia", and that he has no regrets about her death.
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| A website that ranks MPs' sex appeal Posted: A website in Britain that allows people to choose the sexiest MP has turned into a huge hit, a media report said Tuesday. The Sun reported that those logging on to sexymp.co.uk are shown pictures of two MPs. They are asked which they would have sex with. The responses are then utilised to come up with the ranking. Labour's Luciana Berger is leading, with Tories' Penny Mordaunt and Charlotte Leslie close behind. Sexiest male MP was Labour's Chris Evans and he was followed by Tory Zac Goldsmith. "Although I expect it to offend some people, it was not my intention," Francis Boulle, who started the site, was quoted as saying. An MP said: "I don't think sites like this are particularly desirable or helpful. It could deter people from becoming MPs."
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