Rwanda: Ex-presidential hopeful, “Hotel Rwanda” inspiration face scrutiny

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She was aiming at inciting the people she calls the Hutus, to make them get conscious that there is something going against them.
A Rwandan prosecutor • Speaking during the trial of Victoire Ingabire, a Hutu woman who attempted to run for president in the country last year, only to get arrested on charges of attempting to incite terrorism and denying the infamous genocide (along ethnic lines) that destabilized the country nearly two decades ago. Ingabire’s trial began Friday, and prosecutors — surprisingly — have claimed that there is evidence that links her and Paul Rusesabagina, the man who was the inspiration for Don Cheadle’s character in “Hotel Rwanda,” to a terrorist group. And they’re considering bringing charges against Rusesabagina, now considered a international hero (albeit one who has feuded with the current Tutsi government), as well. Two decades after the fact, politics in Rwanda remain complicated and emotionally charged. (h/t @JohnNess) source

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10 Sep 2011 14:01

» A depressingly common occurrence: Accidents like these happen in the region every few years, most recently in 2009. And while this incident was certainly a tragic event, it wasn’t the worst maritime accident Tanzania’s ever experienced. That happened in 1996, when at least 443 people died on a sinking vessel, but as many as 800 could’ve been on board.

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One of the first real sites to take on social media in a tangible way — where it encouraged offline interaction as much as online — was Meetup, which started up nearly a decade ago. The roots? September 11, 2001. Really. “A lot of people were thinking that maybe 9/11 could bring people together in a lasting way,” noted CEO and co-founder Scott Heiferman. “So the idea for Meetup was born: Could we use the internet to get off the internet — and grow local communities?” Nine months later, a site which has proven an important tool for social and political organization went online, turning a negative into a positive — and likely building the roots for many social media sites that came after. A fascinating story. source

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three people killed in the attack on the Israeli Embassy in the Cairo suburb of Giza
1,000+ people injured in the incident — a level so high it made us do a double-take
19 people arrested for their alleged roles in the attack, which hurt Egypt-Israeli relations source

» Emergency measures in place: In the wake of the attack, Egypt has enacted measures to speed up the response to the incident — including pushing those arrested through an emergency state security court. The country seems to be doing everything it can to prevent an international crisis over this. “About 95 percent of the Egyptians are disgusted at the attack on the embassy and any other violence that took place,” noted Hisham Kassem, a veteran editor and publisher in the region. “Even commentators who appeared on channels like Jazeera … who normally have a very anti-Israeli position, were saying, ‘This is wrong. We can’t attack an embassy.'”

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Ryan, You need to get off TWITTER immediately and protect your family from the hurricane. That is an order.
A suspicious e-mail sent to NBC director of social media Ryan Osborn • Leading to a possible infiltration of Osborn’s computer. Osborn, being obviously confused by such a weird message (received during Hurricane Irene), responded and received another message in return that said “I’m the girl next door” and contained an attachment. Osborn then mistakenly opened the attachment which contained a Christmas tree. Security experts say an infiltration like that could have caused a keylogger to get installed on Osborn’s computer, which may have led to yesterday’s hack. This, of course, underlines why having strong computer security is important, even for an organization like NBC News, which claims their security was otherwise so tight that only three executives knew the Twitter account’s password. And how far The Script Kiddies were willing to go to pull off such a hack. source

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