Mar 16, 2007   | COMMENTS     

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Four college students asked a court last week to revoke the ban it imposed on YouTube for airing videos that prosecutors said insulted the founder of modern Turkey by calling him and the Turkish people gay. The group condemned the videos in question but said blocking access to the web site violated their rights to free speech, the private Turkish news agency Dogan reported. “Banning access to the web site does not punish those who [posted the videos] but the citizens of the Turkish republic,” said student Kursat Cetinkoz, reading from a petition the group submitted to the court in Istanbul. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Levent Bilman declined to comment on the ban, telling a news conference it was a court matter. Insulting the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, is a crime in

Turkey punishable by incarceration.
Pro-gay demonstrators seek
support for Italian rights law
ROME (AP) — Supporters of proposed Italian legislation to give many legal rights to unmarried couples, including homosexuals, rallied in Rome last week to urge lawmakers to resist Vatican pressure against the law. Premier Roman Prodi’s Cabinet last month approved the rights bill, which now faces what could be a tough battle in Parliament and which has heightened tensions in his often bickering center-left coalition. A Christian Democrat cabinet minister refused to vote on the measure, while far-left members of the coalition, including Communists and Greens, have been vigorously campaigning for its passage. A senator from a pro-Vatican centrist party in the coalition recently was criticized for making remarks gay leaders described as hostile.

Cleared of sodomy charges,
Malaysian leader plans comeback
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim, sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 by then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad over allegations of homosexuality and corruption, plans to return to active politics but still cannot run in general elections until April 2008, a party official said Sunday. Tian Chua, information chief of the opposition party Keadilan, said Anwar has agreed to run for party president in party elections on May 26, defying a ban on him holding political office because of a previous jail sentence. The party, set up in 1999, is currently headed by Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. “The division meetings are now ongoing and most of the divisions have nominated Anwar as president. He has accepted the offer,” Tian told the Associated Press. Anwar was arrested, tried for alleged corruption and sodomy, and sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison. He was released in September 2004 after being acquitted of sodomy. But he had already finished serving the corruption sentence, and that criminal record bars him from holding any political office and from running in general elections until April 2008.

Puerto Rico AIDS clinic dispute
forces rationing of medicine
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. has halted payments to some clinics that treat AIDS patients in Puerto Rico, forcing rationing of free medicine for hundreds of poor people in a U.S. territory with an AIDS rate nearly double that of the mainland. Puerto Rican officials blame the FBI, saying agents investigating fraud seized documents clinics need to get reimbursement for drugs and services. The FBI denies it is responsible. Patient advocates blame the San Juan city government and other island agencies, saying the problem is a result of mismanagement in a program that has a history of corruption. The 21 clinics, which are privately run under the administration of the San Juan city government, say they stopped receiving reimbursement from the U.S. in late 2006, but the rationing and cutbacks only began in recent weeks as their budgets have started to run low.

Anti-gay chants banned
at Scottish soccer matches
GLASGOW, Scotland — Shouting homophobic epithets during soccer games is now a crime in Scotland since the Association of Chief Police Officers has decided to clamp down on racist and sectarian abuse and include anti-gay slogans in the list of offenses, the Scotsman reported last week. The association has notified its eight forces of the new policy. Offenders will be given a warning and charged with breach of the peace if they persist. Some have criticized the decision and say it’s healthy for men to “let off steam” at games. “[Soccer] chanting is supposed to be offensive. That’s the whole point,” James Delingpole, author of ...