· August, 2006

Stories about Breaking News from August, 2006

Guyana: Election watch

  29 August 2006

On Monday 28 August, an estimated 300,000 Guyanese turned out to vote in elections for the unicameral National Assembly. Elections in Guyana have historically been fraught with public anxiety and violence. The two leading parties, the People's Progressive Party (PPP/Civic) and the People's National Congress (PNC/Reform) have traditionally drawn their...

DRC: Election results fragmented

  29 August 2006

The Head Heeb analyses the partial results from the Democratic Republic of Congo's National Assembly election which took place alongside the better-publicised presidential poll. It's already clear that the incoming parliament will be highly fragmented,” he concludes.

Kenya: Praise piles up for Obama visit

  29 August 2006

Whispering Inn joined other Kenyan bloggers welcoming the visit of Barack Obama, the USA's only black senator, to the country. “[Obama has been] chewing out president Kibaki for State-sanctioned corruption, encouraging folks to fight AIDS by getting tested, advocating media freedom at the Standard Newspapers, touring Kibera, and giving a...

South Africa: Apartheid feet-washing apology dismissed

  29 August 2006

A notorious South African Apartheid-era security minister hit the headlines after he washed the feet of an anti-Apartheid campaigner in an act of contrition. South Africa Logue dismissed the gesture saying: “[Adriaan] Vlok’s act – which strikes Your Correspondent as deeply offensive to many a South African’s sense of justice...

Kenya: Thousands flock to see Obama

  28 August 2006

Barack Obama, the USA's only black senator, is visiting his father's Kenyan homeland. “Everyone, and everything, from the man on the street, to livestock, to stray cats and dogs, to insects and grubs, to pond scum all the way down the politicians fell over (it/them)selves to see and shake the...

Chad: Oil companies kicked out

  28 August 2006

“It's not often that one gets to hear a government telling an oil multinational to get out” wrote Chippla's Weblog – Thoughts on Issues after Chad took the unprecedented decision to eject ChevronTexaco (of the US) and Petronas (of Malaysia) for alledgedly failing to pay tax.

China: Leading Bishop released

  26 August 2006

Bishop An Shuxin of China's underground Catholic Church has been released after ten years in prison, blogs China Digital Times‘ Liu Yong.

China: Patron saint of activist-bloggers?

  26 August 2006

How to describe twenty two-year old MSN Spaces blogger Zeng Jinyan? A threat to national security? An AIDS activist who brings support, joy and hope to countless AIDS orphans? A young wife radicalized after her husband was kidnapped by the state for over a month? Patron spokesblogger for otherwise voiceless...

China: ipod China contractor sues newspapers reporter

  24 August 2006

Mindmeters pastes a post from donews discussion board which provided details concerning Foxconn's – ipod's contractor in China – legal charge against an editor and a reporter in First Financial Daily in Shanghai. The newspapers wrote two reports on the situation of workers in Foxconn ipod production line in June...

Israel: Assessment at 08:00

Will the ceasefire hold? Maybe, maybe not, but the more meaningful question is whether the other clauses in the latest UN Security Council Resolution 1701 will be implemented, David Lisbona said.

Lebanon: Going home

Zeina went to the school and looked for Zainab but she and her family had left early this morning back to Tyre. They have lost their house in Maroun Ras but they're going farthest south they can drive and will wait for the Israelis to leave their town so they...

Lebanon: On Winning

Hizballah did NOT win this round, and neither did Israel. Gloating would be foolish at this time. This last war was not a zero sum game. Actually it was a very costly game for everyone. Let's not forget that. I would rather this not have happened at all, so I...

Lebanon: A comparison

It took thirty days before Israel admitted its military failure. It took less than 2 hours -after the cease fire- for the lebanese people to return to what remained of their villages. Welcome to LEBANON, Hilal Chouman said.

China: Yanshi Incident

  13 August 2006

ESWN blogs about another rural land dispute in China: Yanshi Incident – “ I really don't know how else to get you to understand the inhumanity of it all …“

The Week That Was in Bahrain

Bahrain's Internet scene witnessed what could be described this week as ‘no step forward and 10 steps backwards!’ On Monday, newspapers reported that the Kingdom would ban Google Earth. ‘(T)he Ministry of DISinformation has instructed the Bahrain Internet Exchange to block Google Earth. Possibly because through Google Earth, the whole...

China: Who could that be knocking on my door?

  13 August 2006

Links and headlines from two BBC Chinese stories found at the end of a post [zh] today from Blogbus blogger Boy70: The first mentions a China Eastern pilot who after flying from Shanghai to Los Angeles applied for asylum as a Falun Gong practitoner, and the second tells the story...

Lebanon: Call for Action!

A new blog called, Civilian Resistance in Lebanon – www.lebanonsolidarity.org has started a campaign for Lebanon; ‘An Open Country for Civil Resistance.’ The campaign is calling upon the local and international community to join a campaign of civil resistance to Israel's war against Lebanon and its people and declare Lebanon...

Syria: Hamas Official Abducted and Tortured

“While the whole world is preoccupied with the situation in Lebanon, Israel has been taking this chance to kill more civilians in Gaza, and kidnap the odd cabinet minister from the democratically elected Hamas government. Israel's latest victim is the speaker of the parliament, Aziz Dwaik, who was abducted from...

China: Xiangyin Massacre

  8 August 2006

ESWN translates several reports related to a violent incident at Xiangying in Hunan province and asks “Could they possibly be about the same events? So what really happened in Xiangyin?“