Saudi activist: 5 women detained for driving (AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A Saudi activist says at least five women have been taken into custody accused of defying the men-only driving rule in the ultraconservative Arab kingdom.

The detentions mark the first major backlash by Saudi authorities since a campaign was launched nearly two weeks ago to challenge the driving restrictions.

Dozens of women have since driven through the capital Riyadh and other cities.

Saudi-based rights activist Eman al-Nafjan says police detained a woman Tuesday while driving in Jiddah on the Red Sea coast. Al-Nafjan says four other women accused of driving were later detained in the city.

Al-Nafjan spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday. She says there has been no new information on the status of the detainees.

Yahoo! News

Activist: Syria kills 2 protesting after funerals (AP)

BEIRUT – Syrian forces opened fire at funerals for slain political protesters, a human rights activist said Sunday, leaving two more people dead as Syria tries to subdue weeks of demonstrations against President Bashar Assad.

The two were killed Saturday in al-Kaswa, a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the London-based director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Security forces opened fire when the funerals for protesters killed on Friday turned into protests themselves, he said.

Footage posted online by activists showed dozens of people in a Saturday funeral procession for three of the dead in al-Kaswa, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" or "God is great!" and "Bashar, get out!"

One person was also killed Saturday in Damascus' Barzeh neighborhood and two were killed in the village of al-Quseir, near the Lebanese border, Abdul-Rahman said.

Hundreds of Syrians, some with gunshot wounds, crossed into neighboring Lebanon late last week fleeing the crackdown. The new arrivals joined thousands of other Syrians who fled to Lebanon in May and early June.

The military's recent sweep through northwestern Syria, where armed resistance flared in early June, also has sent more than 11,700 refugees fleeing across the border to refugee camps in Turkey.

Syrian activists said 20 people were killed in Friday demonstrations across Syria, including two children aged 12 and 13.

The opposition says some 1,400 people have been killed in recent months as the government has cracked down on the movement demanding an end to four decades of autocratic Assad family rule.

Syria's military spokesman, meanwhile, said in a CNN television interview that 1,300 members of security forces have been killed in the months-long unrest, during which the government has repeatedly said its forces have been attacked by "armed gangs."

Maj. Gen. Riad Haddad's statement, like the reports by anti-regime activists, could not be independently verified, since Damascus has banned foreign reporters from Syria and put restrictions on local journalists' reporting.

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Blind China activist beaten unconscious: wife (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A blind Chinese activist who exposed abuses in Beijing's population control policy was beaten unconscious by dozens of men led by a communist party official, his wife said in a letter released Thursday.

Human rights groups earlier reported an attack on activist Chen Guangcheng in February, but the account from his wife -- who said she was also severely abused and remains under house arrest -- offered graphic new details.

Wife Yuan Weijing said that 70 to 80 men stormed their home in February. She said around 10 beat her husband for more than two hours while the others trashed the place, taking away a computer, video-camera and even flashlights.

"Some of them twisted his arms forcefully while the others were pushing his head down and lifting his collar up tightly. Given his poor health condition of long-time diarrhea, Guangcheng was not able to resist and passed out after more than two hours of torture," she wrote.

The letter was released by ChinaAid, a US-based rights group. It said it received the letter on Wednesday.

Yuan said the couple was not allowed medical treatment. She said she was covered with a blanket and beaten, which she believed caused her broken ribs. She said she could not see for five to six days and still cannot stand up straight.

Yuan said that the assailants were led by a local communist party vice secretary and included policemen, although they did not wear uniforms or show legal documents.

Yuan said that authorities have stepped up pressure on them since the beating, with their five-year-old daughter also under house arrest and Chen's mother followed constantly by three men.

Previous attempts to verify the couple's condition independently were unsuccessful. Reporters from Western news organizations said they were roughed up in February when they tried to reach Chen's home in the city of Linyi.

Chen, a self-taught lawyer blind since childhood, served more than four years in prison after he exposed widespread late-term abortions and forced sterilizations under China's policy of restricting most families to one child.

He was released in September and put under house arrest. He later made a daring video, also released by ChinaAid, in which he said police threatened to beat him or throw him back in jail if he spoke up.

Yahoo! News

Oklahoma civil rights activist Clara Luper dies

Clara Luper died Wednesday at 88Luper was an active member of the Oklahoma NAACPShe is survived by her daughters, son and grandchildrenIn 1958, Luper organized a sit-in at a Oklahoma City drug store

(CNN) -- Oklahoma civil rights activist and educator Clara Luper -- was best known for organizing a 1958 sit-in at a segregated Katz Drug Store in downtown Oklahoma City -- died Wednesday night at her home in Oklahoma City. She was 88.

Luper, who was celebrated as a pioneer of civil rights in Oklahoma, organzied a protest that lasted several days and ultimately resulted in the integration of 38 Katz Drug Stores in Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Iowa.

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett requested that all flags on city property to be flown at half staff in honor of Luper and her contribution to the city.

In a statement issued from his office, Cornett described Luper as a "great Oklahoman and a great American."

"While her accomplishments are too many to list, her legacy is easily defined," Cornett said in the statement.

"She made Oklahoma and the United States of America a better place to live and was a shining example of the distinctly American idea that while we might hail from many cultures, we are one people."

Throughout the 1960s, Luper worked with the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to stage sit-ins and non-violent protests which ultimately led to the desegregation of restaurants in Oklahoma City.

In an interview with CNN affiliate KWTV, Luper's son, Calvin, said his mother was surrounded by family at the time of her death.

He added, though she's known for organizing the single sit-in, his mother was dedicated to making the life of citizens in Oklahoma better.

"Now we have to step up to the plate and accept the responsibility and do what Mom wanted us to do, and that would be to carry on her legacy of honesty and do anything else that would make our city and state a great place."

Luper is survived by her two daughters, a son and grandchildren.

CNN

Time's most influential: From Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim to Justin Bieber

"By emphasizing that the regime would listen only when citizens exercised their right of peaceful demonstration and civil disobedience, Wael helped initiate a call for a peaceful revolution," Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed El Baradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, writes in brief essay about about Ghonim. "The response was miraculous: a movement that started with thousands on Jan. 25 ended with 12 million Egyptians removing Hosni Mubarak and his regime. What Wael and the young Egyptians did spread like wildfire across the Arab world."

As always, Time's list ranges wide -- from Vice President Biden to Wikileaks' Julian Assange. There's Oscar-wining actor Colin Firth, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Also on the list: singer Justin Bieber, House Speaker John Boehner, and Gen. David Petraeus. Not to mention "Tiger Mom" Amy Chua.

Michelle Obama is there, a few notches ahead of her husband, Barack. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., makes the cut as does German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

See the full list here.

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