· August, 2007

Stories about Breaking News from August, 2007

Turkey is Typing….WordPress Still Blocked

Last week Sami Ben Gharbia did an excellent posting about the blockage of the Wordpress blogging platform in Turkey, this week we will examine what Turkish bloggers have to say about it. There is anger, resentment, and sense of utter amazement at the absurdness of the situation. And yet, there is a powerful spirit of strength in combating this ban.

China: Websites Forced To Close By Police

  30 August 2007

Vapano from a data company D2EX reported that many Internet Data Centers have received notices from Gong-an (Police department) which forced them to close down thousands of websites. To prevent other clients service being affected, his company has to close down all BBS data storage (zh). The police's policy is...

Afghanistan: Hostage deal

  30 August 2007

Although 11 hostages still remain in the hands of their kidnappers, Carl Robichaud speculates why the Taliban agreed to release the Korean missionary workers who have been held hostage for over a month.

Chinese cartoon cops patrolling websites

  29 August 2007

From September, 1st, Beijing’s new virtual cops will be active on 13 of China’s portals, including China’s biggest blog-hosting services, Sohu.com and Sina.com. By the end of the year, the virtual police’s patrols are expected to cover all websites registered with Beijing servers.

Egypt: Is Mubarak Dead?

“I got a call late tonight from a friend asking, “is Hosni Mubarak dead?” I dont quite know where he got his information from but supposedly there is a rumor that Hosni..AKA “the Great Dictator” was airlifted to a hospital in Germany and that his fate is unknown and presumed...

Afghanistan: Releasing the hostages

  29 August 2007

Although the Korean hostages are likely to come free after more than a month in custody in Afghanistan, OneFreeKorea is unhappy with the deal struck with the Taliban. In the blogger's opinion, this will “stamp “kidnap me” in fluorescent letters in every Republic of Korea passport”.

Greece: On Fire

  27 August 2007

We've probably all heard it in the news by now: Greece is ablaze. Today the fires reached the ancient city of Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics and home of the Olympia Museum, which houses one of Greece's greatest archaeological collections. Athens in Flames (From flickr user alefbetac) While the...

Papua New Guinea: AIDS patients buried alive.

  27 August 2007

Caledosphere links to an article in which people living with AIDS in Papua New Guinea (New Caledonia's neighboring country) were buried alive by their relatives because they could not afford their treatments and were also afraid of being infected (Fr).

Barbados: Apartment Building Collapses

  27 August 2007

Barbados Free Press, Barbados Underground and Pull! Push! all report on Barbados’ most recent tragedy – a young family feared dead after their apartment building collapsed into a cave.

Reunion: Mild earthquake felt on the island.

  24 August 2007

At. 15:17 local time, an earthquake (3.6 on the richter scale) was felt all around the island of Reunion today. There is no report of major damages as of yet. Jonathan Gravier said he was driving in St-Denis at the time but did not feel the earthquake (Fr).

Bangladesh: under curfew

  23 August 2007

Civil unrest began in Bangladesh on the 20th of August when a petty dispute broke out concerning comments passed by armed forces personnel during a soccer match at a university gymnasium ground. An army camp has occupied part of the ground since the declaration of a state of emergency on...

Syria: On PM Maliki's Visit

Sasa from The Syria News Wire reports that Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki praises Syria's cooperation, during his three-day visit to Damascus this week. “He says Syria's co-operation is helping to stabilise Iraq. The US accuses Damascus of the exact opposite.”

Jamaica, Cayman Islands: After Hurricane Dean

  21 August 2007

As Hurricane Dean continued its devastating progress across the Caribbean, bloggers in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands reported on emergency preparations, and post-hurricane images uploaded to Flickr showed damage to be significant but not as severe as feared.