US journo rushed to trial in Iran. The news is not getting any better for American journalist Roxana Saberi, 31, who was arrested in Iran in January ostensibly for working without press credential, but was later charged with espionage. The Times is reporting that Saberi (who has dual American/Iranian citizenship) was rushed to trial yesterday, behind closed doors. An Iranian spokesperson said “Yesterday, the first trial session was held. She presented her final defense…The court will issue its verdict within the next two to three weeks.” — FishbowlNY

Amazon’s silent mistake in the face of a social-media sh-tstorm. “Amazon: the Internet company that doesn’t understand the Internet” is my favorite of thousands of tweets on the subject of Amazon’s sudden censorship of gay- or lesbian-themed books. The episode proved that even a well-liked, household-name company can pay a high price for not monitoring its brand in social media. Whether the incident is a glitch or the work of a hacker is rather beside the point. Amazon should have been monitoring its brand in social media 24/7. And clearly it wasn’t. — Advertising Age

The Tweets of Roland Hedley. An unedited transcript of the complete G-20 Summit coverage of Roland Hedley, senior Twitter correspondent for Fox News, who appears regularly in “Doonesbury”:

Theory: Maybe nobody ever WANTED to touch the Queen, starting with E.R.1, owing to cold-fish factor. To avoid embarrassment, protocol created. 9:13am. Apr 2nd

Think I’ll stir the pot and report previous tweet as fact. We report, you decide. 9:14am. Apr 2nd

Breaking: Historically, nobody ever wanted to touch Queen owing to unattractiveness. To avoid embarrassment, protocol was created. 9:17am. Apr 2nd

— Read the rest at The New Yorker

Sudan: nine hanged for newspaper editor’s murder. Nine men convicted of the murder of a newspaper editor were hanged Monday, state media and a police official said. The nine men, all from Darfur, had been found guilty of killing Muhammad Taha Muhammad Ahmed, the editor and owner of an Arabic newspaper in Khartoum. — New York Times

President Obama reaches out to ethnic media, journalists respond. Obama’s decision to reach out directly to ethnic media tells us the White House knows something that mainstream papers and television are learning the hard way: As communities change, so do their sources for news and information. A spokesman for the White House, Shin Inouye, said in an interview that working directly with the ethnic media allows the administration to relate particular topics, such as the stimulus package and the budget, to diverse communities. If power among the Washington news corps is measured by sources and access, the ethnic media have tapped a main vein. — Poynter Online

Eight Twitter username tips. Twitter is growing fast. Grab your name fast! Actually, it’s probably too late. But don’t give up and settle for a lame name. What you’re called on Twitter matters. Here’s our advice for picking your name: 1. Don’t be afraid to use your real name. 2. Don’t use curse words or obscenity in your username. 3. Do tell us about your profession or your interests. 4. Do be creative. 5. Do distinguish yourself. 6. Don’t look like a bot. 7. Don’t use a celebrity’s name unless it’s your name too. Impersonating a celebrity is lame. Don’t do it. Nobody likes a faker. 8. Do consider its impact. — cnet news

The Twilight equation, applied to broadband When it comes metered broadband, most consumers don’t understand how its implementation could affect what it costs them to download content. So I decided to compare how much, depending on which of the nation’s top ISPs’ metered bandwidth plans you choose, it would cost to rent the teen vampire flick “Twilight.” First I looked at how many gigabytes “Twilight” eats up. If I download an HD version of the movie from the iTunes store, all of the digital bits and bytes that make up the movie add up to 3.8 GB. Other HD movie downloads on iTunes are also in this range. — Gigaom