· May, 2006

Stories about Breaking News from May, 2006

China: Don't learn Chinese for business opps, learn it for this book

  31 May 2006

For unavoidable reasons known to all, or at least presumed, Lifeweek editor Wang Xiaofeng, one of China's most entertaining bloggers—known to many for a hoax [#026] pulled in March this year which brought many bloggers’ scorn—mysteriously killed off his widely-read Massage Milk (also known as Wears Three Watches) in early...

South Korea: Local elections end

  31 May 2006

Some big changes in store can be expected following the conclusion of local elections in the South Korean capitol of Seoul, the results of which can be found in RJ Koehler's The Marmot Hole.

Indonesia: Java Quake Help Wiki Needs Online Volunteers

  31 May 2006

In response to the Java Quake of 27th May, 2006, the World Wide Help Group have set up the Java Quake Help Wiki and since it was set up, in the past 24 hours they are coordinating disaster relief operations with major aid agencies and relief teams on the ground....

Japan: Radio station webcast

  30 May 2006

from the inside, looking in blogger Shinichiro Fukushige links in a post today to the announcement of one of Tokyo's most popular radio stations’ long overdue internet broadcast.

Special Indonesia Earthquake Blog

  28 May 2006

The helps and donations which come from around the globe on the 6.2 richter scale earthquake in Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia have been heartening. Indonesians outside Yogyakarta also watch the post-earthquake news very closely some of them a bit confused as to how to make donation and to which institution...

Arabisc: Arabic Bloggers Ken

From Egypt… Malek who was scheduled to be free few days ago is now officially free. He just made his first post, titled: Free Morning. Malek writes: الحمدلله تم الافراج عني اليوم في حوالي الساعه الرابعه والنصف من قسم ترحيلات الخليفه لحد دلؤتي مقريتش حاجه اتكتبت عني بس بجد شكرا...

Bermuda: Breaking news: gay rights amendment defeated

  26 May 2006

Bermudan MP Renee Webb's private member's bill proposing the amendment of the Human Rights Code to include sexual orientation has just been defeated in the House of Assembly, reports Christian S. Dunleavy. “The Bill was defeated in committee, therefore there was no formal vote in the House and therefore —...

North Korea: Foreign bureau opens

  26 May 2006

International news agency Associated Press has opened a bureau in the North Korean capitol of Pyongyang, blogs Asiapundit‘s myrick, making it the third to do so after China's Xinhua and Russia's Tass: “It will be interesting to see what sort of copy the local staff will produce for AP. But...

China: Technorati learns Chinese

  26 May 2006

Welcome news on Danwei today of Technorati's announcement of a partnership with public relations firm Edelman which will see an increase of the blog aggregator's services to include five new languages. While Chinese is one of the languages on the list, a focus on mainland users brings with it some...

Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome

There is a new government and this historic event has raised more than a ripple in the Iraqi blogs, but, actually, not much more than that. And in this week snapshot of life in Iraq blogs I will show what has been diverting bloggers attention. From high jinks to the...

Taiwan: Can't stop blogging

  25 May 2006

“[T]he Net has taken over my life,” decided prominent English-language The View from Taiwan blogger Michael Turton last Sunday, “and I need to regain control. So expect a drastic drop in posting.” The drop didn't last long as there is a long, new post today.

China: Christians and democrats forced to take sides

  25 May 2006

A small decision in a complicated affair which sent ripples all throughout China's social activist community has now bounced back through the blogsphere (via BBS’ first, of course). The facts are being still hammered out, but when three Chinese Christians—one being prominent legal scholar and veteran blogger Wang Yi—in attendance...

Palestine: Land Grab

Olmert plans to remove the smaller settlements and puts it in such a way as if he’s doing the Palestinians a favour! Bush says he accepts the larger settlements (which are illegal under international law) since he considers them “facts on the ground”. So basically the criteria for making a...

China: Biggest bank's IPO

  24 May 2006

The Bank of China went public this week, blogs Jeremy Goldkorn at Danwei, and brought in $9.7 billion with its long-anticipated IPO. “Despite the fact that everyone knows China's state-owned banks are wobbly and burdened with numerous non-performing loans,” Goldkorn writes, “it seems that investors have confidence in the Bank...

China: Hi-tech weapons trade

  24 May 2006

A significant amount of research went into the AngryChineseBlogger blogger's lengthy post looking at Israeli aviation technology company and defense contractor Emit's recently-uncovered selling of hi-tech equipment to China, which concluded with company executives being arrested Monday.

Arabisc: Update on Detained Egyptian Bloggers

The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Egyptian Arabic-language blogsphere. It's been more than two weeks since the detention of Alaa along with many other bloggers and activists. Today we came to know about some good news related to some other detained Egyptian bloggers. Two bloggers were...

Montserrat volcano watch and West Indies cricket

  22 May 2006

A woman looks at the rear window of her car, broken by a flying rock from the nearby Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat, on Saturday. Photo from the Trinidad Express website Nearly eleven years ago, Montserrat’s long-dormant Soufriere Hills Volcano began erupting for the first time in the island's recorded history....

Syrian Blogsphere in a Week

This week the Syrian blogsphere was mostly busy discussing the latest developments in Syria. Last week the Syrian security forces initiated the largest crackdown on opposition figures and dissidents since President Bashar al-Assad came to power in 2000. Ammar Abdulhamid of Amarji has an interesting analysis of this escalation from...