The text of the New York court decision on Tuesday allowing protesters to meet in Zuccotti/Liberty Park but preventing them from bringing in tents, sleeping bags, and tarps:
2200 GMT: Josh Harkinson and James West of Mother Jones present the climactic moments of the police raid of Zuccotti/Liberty Square early this morning:
2155 GMT: A New York court has ruled that the city can bar protesters from bringing tents, sleeping bags, and tarps back into Zuccotti/Liberty Square when it is re-opened.
2115 GMT: Opposition Watch. The opposition website Rah-e Sabz, which appealed last month for funds, has said that it will remain live, thanks to the help and encouragement of supporters.
2110 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Grand Ayatollah Sane'i, in greetings to the people of Iran and opposition leaders for Eid Ghadir, has demanded the release of political prisoners and free speech.
2115 GMT: Several of EA's sources are reporting that rolling electricity blackouts and oil shortages are getting worse across Syria, but some are saying that Aleppo, because of its high electricity and oil usage, may be hit the hardest. Now Josh Landis shares this story on Syrian Comment, where the full impact of sanctions is rapidly becoming clearer:
A friend writes that his parents cannot find cooking gas in Aleppo. The replacement bottles for the stove are unavailable in the market. Mazoot, or fuel-oil, which is used to heat homes, power taxis and farm equipment is also absent. Aleppo authorities also warn that extended electric cuts are coming due to lack of power. Syria is facing a cold winter. Older people are standing in lines to get small containers of mazoot filled. The Syrian pound has fallen to 54.25 to a dollar.
Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones was one of the few journalists --- perhaps the only one --- who could get inside Zuccotti/Liberty Park as it was raided by New York police early this morning. This is his account of the moment when he witnessed the remained protesters being seized by riot police::
I just got shoved out of the park by a police officer. I'm now going to explain what I saw.
The riot police moved in with zip cuffs and teargassed the occupiers in the food tent. Then they wrestled them to the ground and cuffed them. Everyone I witnessed being arrested was resisting peacefully.
As I was observing, a cop approached me and asked me who I was. I told him that I am a reporter with a national magazine, He asked me who. I said Mother Jones. That's when he said I had to leave.
I told him I wold not. That is is my right to be here and observe what is going on. He said that all the press is in the press pen, and that's where I had to go. I said I would not,.That he would have to arrest me, but I would go peacefully. At that point he grabbed me by the arm and started hauling me away. I quickly realized he was just trying to escort me out, so I began resisting. He literally started hauling me across the park. My feet were slipping on the ground.
All around me, protesters were being pepper sprayed and zip cuffed. I realized that I could either drop to the ground and meet the same fate, or let him haul me out. I decided it would be better to stay out of jail and keep reporting on what's going on tonight, so I let him haul me out, arguing with him.
He told me if I stayed in the park I could get hurt. I pointed out that there was no chance of that. I had just been standing around. Cleanup already done for the most part.
Then he dragged me in front of a dump truck that was backing up. He said, "Look, this dump truck is backing up, you could get hurt". I pointed out that he dragged me in front of it.
Then he deposited me on the other side of the street, where I am now sitting on a bench in front of a pizza joint.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is far too shrewd and tough a politician to be called a mug.
However, that is no reason why you cannot have him on your dining room table, as you host relatives and friends. To add the Presidential touch to your gatherings, we present the Ahmadinejad teapot:
Ghazi Farhan and Alaa ShehabiSo there has been an utter lack of fairness in anything that has happened. The entire state apparatus has been turned into tools of repression and persecution. As far as the types of people who have been arrested: you could be sharing a prison cell with some of the best athletes, the best teachers in the country, even the best doctors were there at one point. The dragnet just swept across the entire spectrum of society. And you must have heard of the case of twenty doctors being convicted to fifteen years in prison. These sentences were handed out like parking tickets. In fact, a parking ticket takes longer to issue than some of these sentences, given they were held in these military tribunals.
1645 GMT: The Bahrain Plot. Tehran has denied any link to an alleged plot to stage attacks in Bahrain, as a lawyer for two of the five suspects said reports of their confessions were not true.
Bahraini authorities said this weekend that Qatar had handed over four men who planning to attack the Interior Ministry, the Saudi Embassy, and a causeway linking Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. A fifth man was arrested in Bahrain.
On Sunday, the public prosecution's spokesman said the plot was coordinated with the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia as well as two Bahraini opposition figures in London.
The atmosphere in Egypt is tense. There is concern, nine months after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, about the hard task of building a nation, as Observers warn, "Two weeks before parliamentary elections billed as a first big step toward democracy, there are new signs that the generals still ruling Egypt are trying to steer the transition to preserve their vast political and economic power." The military rulers have imposed punishment on 11,697 civilians since February. Prominent activists like Alaa Abd-El Fattah are detained.
In the midst of this is an incident on 9 October, when 28 people were killed after a march, mainly of Coptic Christians, was attacked in the Maspero section of Cairo. The regime blamed protesters for causing trouble and assaulting the military. Activists say the deaths were due to the security forces --- this is their account of that evening:
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 8:33
