Stories about Breaking News from June, 2010
France: Reflections on Being Part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Miloud was on board of a Greek ship sailing to Gaza with the Freedom Flottilla that was raided by the IDF. Back in his home town of Marseilles, he tells [Fr] Marseille Bondy Blog about his experience.
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan: Initial Coverage of the “Osh Massacre”
On June 10, 2010, local clashes between the ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek population in the Kyrgyz part of the Ferghana valley turned into a full-blown massacre and further exodus of the Kyrgyzstan-based Uzbeks. It seems that the conflict had been incited by the Kyrgyz organized criminal gangs in order to destabilize the region and might be connected with the revolutionary events in Kyrgyzstan two months earlier. The post summarizes initial coverage of the event by local bloggers.
Kyrgyzstan: “I Call It a Massacre!”
English-language coverage of the situation in Kyrgyzstan – at neweurasia.net. Kyrgyz blogger writes: “Call it whatever you want, but I name it a massacre of Uzbeks in Osh and Jalalabad (Kyrgyzstan), which is, at the moment, still going on and the Interim government headed by Rosa Otunbaeva cannot do anything...
Puerto Rico: Decisive Moment 50 Days into the Student Strike
Students of the state-run University of Puerto Rico (UPR) have sustained a student strike that enters its 50th day today. On this decisive day, the students' National Negotiating Committee has another round of negotiations with the UPR's administration. Students have transmitted their second message to the country via the website UPR es un País [ES] in which they explain their proposals...
Egypt: Khaled Said – An Emergency Murder by An Emergency Law
Khaled Said, a 28-year-old Egyptian from the coastal city of Alexandria, was allegedly tortured to death at the hands of two officers who wanted to search him under the emergency law. The story goes: he asked for a reason or a warrant - they killed him.
Russia: Mysterious Death of a Soldier in the Far East
Alexey Navalny, famous anti-corruption blogger, posted a shocking video [RUS], depicting an observation of Roman Suslov's dead body. According to Russian military officials, Suslov committed a suicide during the transfer to Far East military base, though his family and independent journalists suspect [RUS] he was tortured and later murdered by military...
Russia: Far East “Partisans” – Nationalists or Corruption Fighters?
Maxim Sviridenkov posts the recording of the coversation with Vladimir Savchenko [RUS], father of one of the members of the Primorsky krai [EN] partisan group. The “Partisans” were claimed to be a nationalist cop-killing gang [EN], although Savchenko says they “went to the woods” because of the police corruption and...
China: Ongoing online ‘jihad’ against Korean pop fans
Following a stampede outside a Korean boy band concert at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai, an ongoing culture war between China's devoted K-pop fans and their equally crazed World of Warcraft gamer counterparts has broken out in a fresh online skirmish.
Russia: Prosecutor's Office Forces Provider to Close Website
Prosecutor's office of Zabaikalsky region [EN] demanded to block [RUS] the website of newspaper “Russkoye Zabaikalie” (previously available at www.srn.megalink.ru), whose content has been officially recognized as “extremist.” Earlier, the newspaper's editor was given a 1-year suspended sentence [RUS] for xenophobic and anti-Semitic articles.
China: Tan Zuoren’s Harsh Sentence Upheld by Sichuan High Court
The Sichuan Provincial High People’s Court upheld the judgment of activist and environmentalist Tan Zuoren (谭作人). Tan was convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” in February 2010 and sentenced to five years in prison, with an additional three years’ deprivation of political rights, following a trial in August 2009....
Colombia: Twitter and Facebook Users Report Possible Election Fraud
Twitter and Facebook were buzzing with images of discrepancies between the forms where votes were manually counted and the reported results for the past Presidential elections. These differences affected the number of votes for each candidate and voting totals, and had the population wondering about possible election fraud, as can...
Ecuador: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Visits Ecuador
U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Ecuador on June 8, where she met with president Rafael Correa to discuss various issues. Twitter users commented on Clinton's visit, reflecting a whole array of sentiments towards the United States and its relationship with Ecuador.
Philippines: Congress Fails to Pass Freedom of Information Bill
The Philippine Congress last session was marked by its failure to pass the Freedom of Information Bill, a landmark measure that will enforce a policy of disclosure to government transactions. Bloggers react
India: Bhopal Gas Tragedy Verdict – too little too late?
More than 25 years after India's worst ever Industrial disaster, a court in Bhopal has pronounced a guilty verdict on the Indian arm of Union Carbide (UCIL) and also convicted 8 former UCIL officials for negligence in the large-scale, Bhopal gas leak tragedy. Bloggers react.
Jamaica: The Real ‘Dudus’
Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke is probably one of the most wanted men on the planet. Annie Paul and Jamaica Salt find out more about the person behind the persona.
Russia: Protest Against Building in the Historical Center of Moscow
Bloggers post photos [RUS] and footage [RUS] of the protests against a building site next to the Church of the Resurrection in Kadashi that is located in the historical district of Moscow [EN]. Moscow authorities deny both the problem and the conflict, while conventional media simply ignore them.
Egypt: Protests and Policy Changes After Flotilla Raid
News of the flotilla raid in Gaza has sparked an uprising in Egypt. Thousands of Egyptians protested both Israel's actions and the stance of their own government earlier this week.
USA: American student loses eye in West Bank protest
One of the many protests that erupted after Israel's deadly raid on the Turkish aid convoy ended in tragedy for a 21-year-old American student, Emily Henochowicz, who was protesting in the occupied West Bank, at the Qalandiya checkpoint on May 31.
Iraq: The Flotilla Attack – A Series of Double Standards
Iraqi bloggers, whose country has been at the receiving end of sanctions, terrorist attacks, tyranny, Al-Qaida extremists, and wars for a very long time, are having mixed reactions to Israel's attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla. Tarek Amr rounds up their opinions in this post.
Global: Rachel Corrie “Immortalized” With Ship's Mission
A humanitarian aid ship called the MV Rachel Corrie (named after a young American peace activist who was killed by a bulldozer Gaza in 2003) set sail for Gaza from Ireland carrying 11 passengers and 9 crew members from 5 countries, but was soon intercepted.
Israel: A mixed bag of reactions to the flotilla raid
The following post is an assortment of blog entries translated from Hebrew, all taken from the 'hot-topic' page dealing with the flotilla raid, on the Israeli blogging platform Israblog, writes Gilad Lotan.
