Egypt: violent clashes in Cairo

Egypt: violent clashes in Cairo

Egyptian soldiers and police fire tear gas and rubber bullets, and protesters throw stones in retaliation. This video was filmed by blogger Mostafa Sheshtawy as clashes erupted on Sunday. The demonstrations against the military rulers taking place in the emblematic Tahrir Square over the past few days have been harshly repressed.

This video has been widely relayed on social networks, activists claim it shows a police officer dragging along the lifeless body of a protester and dumping it on a rubbish heap. Web users are using these images to denounce the security forces excessive use of violence, accusing them of holding on to the repressive reflexes of the former regime.

The number of people wounded in the violence keeps growing. These images were uploaded by the blogger Amr Bassiouny, and were apparently filmed in a field hospital set up in the vicinity of Tahrir Square to tend to the many wounded.

But for some, it’s already too late. This photograph has been circulated all over the Egyptian blogosphere we see a doctor’s anguish when he fails to save the life of a protester.

Many web users have been moved by these images and are turning to social networks to organize help for victims of the violence. Under the key words “Tahrir needs”, activists are providing real time updates on what the makeshift hospitals need, and urging people to take the missing medical supplies to them.

USA: Occupy protesters denounce police brutality across the country

These images were filmed on Friday at the Davis campus of the University of California, located around 25 kilometers west of Sacramento, and have sparked outrage in the United States. We see police pepper spraying students taking part in a non-violent protest in solidarity with the “Occupy Wall Street” movement which began mid-November. Numerous activists are saying the amateur video footage illustrates how the police are resorting to violence to try and quell the protest movement which is sweeping across America.

The intervention on the Californian campus has been met with widespread outrage and indignation. Nathan Brown is an English professor at Davis University, and has voiced his anger in an open letter to the University’s chancellor Linda Katehi. He condemns the disproportionate use of violence against students and demands the chancellor’s immediate resignation for authorizing the police intervention.

But Davis University students and professors are not the only ones accusing police of excessive force. There is a lot of amateur video footage doing the rounds on sharing sites testifying to the heavy handed approach taken by police at demonstrations across the country. We see them firing tear gas at protesters at point blank range for example, and the high number of arrests being made at rallies, in New York in particular.

France: webdocumentary on the Clearstream scandal

With this web documentary, "Manipulations" available on the France Télévisions web site you can carry out your own investigation into the Clearstream scandal. It’s a multimedia continuation of the documentary series of the same name and looks back over this financial and political scandal in which a number of high profile politicians were falsely accused of having secret bank accounts in the Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream. It’s an interactive experience for web users, with press clippings, interviews with the people implicated in the scandal and documents which up until now had been only been made available to magistrates and journalists.

Now trending on social networks

He’s only just been elected, but Spain’s new Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has already incurred the wrath of web users who are calling for his resignation under the hashtags "Rajoy Dimision" et "Mariano Dimision". They are unhappy with the austerity measures that Spain will soon be adopting and feel that the high levels of abstention at Sunday’s legislative election do not give Rajoy the legitimacy required to govern the country. The online campaigning heralds a difficult term in office for Spain’s new leader.

Video of the day

Winter sports season is just around the corner and this video should get enthusiasts in the mood. Swiss snowboarder Stephan Maurer has attached a camera to his helmet so he can take web users along for the ride on his off piste descents…