Report: Freedom in decline for 4th straight year

Iran is number one!! Such pride!

The Middle East remained the most repressive region in the world and Africa sustained the most significant decline, the report said after examining political and civil rights in 194 countries and 14 territories.

Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, cited attacks on front-line democracy activists, including what she said was brutal repression on the streets of Iran. She also pointed to sweeping detention in China of "Charter 08" advocates of expanding freedom and an end to Communist party dominance, as well as the murders of journalists and human rights activists in Russia.

Despite repression in China, the most significant rights improvements occurred in Asia.

The year was marked by intensified repression against human rights defenders and civic activists in 40 countries that comprise 20 percent of the world's population.

The four-year decline was the longest stretch of civil rights setbacks in the 40 years Freedom House has been publishing reports on freedom.

Video- CNN: President Obama's Trip To Ghana

Video- Ghana gets ready for Obama visit

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Video- President Obama on National HIV Testing Day

Okay, the YouTubes say this was posted two days ago, but I check every morning and never saw this. I remember hearing about it when the first whispers were going out about Obama and thinking how sensible and cool it was. I was right.

President Obama To Attend World Cup

How very international of him. /end winger talk. Via Ben.

Forget the Urdu poetry. He's going to the World Cup:

FIFA president Sepp Blatter ... told a media briefing: "The World Cup in Africa will go well, there is no doubt.

"And the man who said, 'Yes we can do it' will be there. President Obama has accepted an invitation to the opening ceremony.

"Of course, the schedule of heads of state can change, but he has said he will be there if he can."

President Obama' s half brother to write book

At first I was dismissive, but if this guy is really making a difference in his area, more power to him.

President Barack Obama’s 27-year-old half-brother, George Obama, who lives in Huruma, Kenya, has inked a deal for his memoirs, The Associated Press reports.The book, tentatively titled “Homeland,” is set to be published by Simon & Schuster in January 2010.

George is the youngest of the seven children by Obama's father and is about 20 years younger than the president. His book will be written with author-journalist Damien Lewis, according to the AP, and it will tell the story of his fall into crime and poverty as a teenager and his eventual embrace of community organizing and advocacy for the poor.

Obama to make first African visit in July

Nice choice for first African nation to visit, Kenya would have been too obvious.

ACCRA (Reuters) - Barack Obama will visit Africa for the first time since being sworn in as the first black U.S. president when he travels to Ghana in July, a trip many Africans hope will herald powerful help for their poor continent.

Ghanaians celebrated Washington's decision to choose their country for Obama's presidential debut in Africa, where he is a hugely popular figure.

They said the visit represents a chance for Ghana, which expects to start producing oil in 2011, to press its claims for greater engagement with the West.