When Mousavi arrived at the grave site, hundreds of police surrounded him as supporters chanted "Yaa Hossein, Mir Hossein"—comparing their leader to the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein, who is the most revered Shiite saint. Police forced Mousavi to leave Behesht-e Zahra, the vast cemetery on Tehran's southern outskirts where many of those killed in the crackdown have been buried, the witnesses said.
Afterward, his supporters remained at the grave, chanting, "Death to the dictator," as the crowd swelled to several thousand, said the witnesses who asked not to be identified out of security concerns.
The police charge came when an ally of Mousavi, Mahdi Karroubi—who was also a candidate in the June 12 election—tried to give a speech. Karroubi had to flee the site, and several of aides were beaten and harassed, according to pro-opposition Web sites.
The Freedom movement in Iran refuses to die. Instead, due to government crackdowns on dissidents, it appears to be growing throughout the Iranian population.
Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, both recipients of taxpayer TARP bailout money, and both posting heavy financial losses for the year, have both paid out hundreds of bonuses to top executives amounting to billions of dollars.
According to a report compiled by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Citigroup paid more than a million dollars in bonuses to 738 employees, while posting receiving public bailout money and posting losses of $27.7 billion.
Merrill Lynch, which lost $27.6 billion during that period of time, paid 696 top executives a million dollars or more, while receiving taxpayer bailout funds.
“There is no clear rhyme or reason to the way banks compensate and reward their employees. Compensation for bank employees has become unmoored from the banks’ financial performance," said Cuomo.
"Other banks, like State Street and Bank of New York Mellon, paid bonuses that were more in line with their net income, which is certainly what one would expect in a difficult year like 2008."
Other banks which received TARP taxpayer money, such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan also paid billions in bonus compensation, but those banks have already paid back the taxpayers.
JPMorgan, which earned $5.6bn in 2008, set aside a total of $8.7bn for bonuses. The report shows that JPMorgan paid out bonuses in excess of $3m to more than 200 employees The bank received $25bn in Tarp funds last year and paid the money back last month.
At Goldman, the bonus pool last year was $4.8bn, more than twice the $2.3bn it earned for the year. Goldman paid $3m or more to 212 employees. The bank paid back $10bn in Tarp funds last month.
Why exactly was it necessary for the American people to bail out these financial institutions?
The jobless rate in Japan reached a six year high last month, increasing from 5.2% to 5.5%. At the same time, due to falling demand for goods and services, the core consumer prices, not counting food, fell by 1.7%, sparking fears of deflation.
The statistics show that in a declining economy, the Japanese people are tightening their belts, reducing spending, and riding out the recession.
"The problem is that price falls are spreading to various categories such as food and household items," said a Japanese economist. "Consumers increasingly are leaning towards low prices. In other words, deflationary expectations are taking hold in both businesses and households."
On the upside, separate data on Friday showed Japanese factory output added 8.3% in the three months to June from the quarter before - the biggest rise since 1953.
This came after a fall of 22.1% in the quarter to March - a record decline.
This recession is worldwide, and despite rosy pictures painted by the White House, it shows no real signs of being over.
Amid long waits for government procedures and to ensure fairness, the British government is banning all private organ transplants from dead donors. Reports of private citizens paying for organs for transplant prompted the government action.
Elisabeth Buggins, former chairwoman of the Organ Donation Taskforce, carried out an inquiry after allegations in a number of newspapers that organs from NHS donors were being given to patients from countries such as Greece and Italy.
It emerged that more than 700 transplants, mostly liver transplants, had been carried out on non-UK patients over the past decade.
In total, 631 of those transplants used organs from dead donors and, of those, 314 recipients were from outside the EU.
Where government creates a scarcity, free enterprise will create a market. Government, in order to maintain its monopoly will need to squelch that market.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com columns “One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson