Hong Kong: Discriminating tastes

Simon world comments on the slowness of the legislation against racial discrimination.

India: A city named Madras (or Chennai)

DesiGirl at My Word! muses on Madras (now Chennai), on how the city has room for the new and the old with its own unique charm. “The old and the new have meshed together so well that one barely leaves a dent on another. The Geetha cafes and Saravana Bhavan...

Ethiopia's bloggers disappear again

The bulk of Ethiopia's bloggers disappeared from Ethiopian computer screens for the second time in seven months this week. All sites hosted by the popular Blogspot platform stalled when internet users tried to log on to them through their Ethiopian Telecom Corp dial-up connections. The small stable of anti-government blogs...

Pakistan: Government tracks your movement

The Oyster travel card in London maybe a bit more than just a device for convenience according to Suspect Paki. “If you register your Oyster Card, the police can, without your knowledge, determine the extent of all your London Transport wanderings.”

Pakistan: Headgear for Pakistan

All Things Pakistan has a wonderful post on headgear in Pakistan. “Even though with increased travel, TV, and urbanization some of the caps (not turbans, though) worn in one part of the country have also been adopted by people in other parts but, by and large, the cap or a...

Arabisc: Bahraini Elections, Dying Children and Confusing Freedom!

Bahrain held its second Parliamentary elections in its modern history this week, with about 300,000 voters going to the polls. Amongst them was Bahraini blogger Haythoo, who hoped his ‘party’ would emerge victorious. أنا الأن متوجه لتغطية العملية الأنتخابية.. أتمنى أن يحالفنا الحظ و نفوز بأكثرية نيابية.. يجب أن نعمل...

Sri Lanka: Loss of childhood and the ethnic conflict

The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka has meant the loss of life, opportunity and innocence for many children. Indi.ca has a post on the issue. A heartbreaking photograph by Agron with commentary “This womens 15yr old son was abducted by the LTTE (Libeartion Tigers of Tamil Elam). She was desperately...

Arabisc: Plagiarism, Arrests, Bans and Democracy!

The Arabs are as usual busy this week debating anything and everything, from plagiarism to the arrest of bloggers, and from banning public meetings to embarrising George Bush Senior at a conference held in the UAE. Ahmed from Egypt had always wanted to become a journalist. But because not all...

Palestinian-Jordanian blogger Haitham Sabbah tells us about the plight of a Palestinian refugee who is looking for a lawyer/s to help her “present a case, or cases, against the State of Israel and private individuals and organizations, for damages, because of human rights abuses and many other crimes perpetrated against...

Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel was killed in a terrorist attack in Jdeideh in Beirut, Abu Kais reports minutes after the attack. Follow the link for more updates as more details about the assassination emerge.

India: Statues in Chennai

Metroblogging Chennai on the politics of statues in public areas in the city. “The noise associated with the removal is directly proportional to their caste association, that is how much influence they had over their caste, it doesn't matter if they had a huge pan-caste image like Nehru or Gandhi....

Bangladesh: The Constitution

Salam Dhaka on the tense political situation in Bangladesh and a brief look at the constitution. ” Yesterday, out of sheer frustration, I read our constitution. I stopped half-way because of all the contradictions there were in it and its confusing demands. You can tell politicians manipulated it with bad...

Nepal: The King and Prachanda

Nepali Netbook has some observations on the current state of affairs in Nepal. How is it that the Maoist leader Prachanda is more easily absolved than the King? “He is being asked to take responsibility for the deaths of 22 protesters (hadn’t the toll reached 24 at one point?), while...

Nepal: A little love for Gmail

Gmail catches on as Wagle Street Journal writes about why the author prefers Gmail to other email services, and the trend of emailing in Nepal. “Even if we are one of the poorest countries in the world, emailing has become a very necessary part of Nepali life; that is to...

Pakistan: Blog-o-success

As part of my extremely philanthropic nature, (which not only parallels but also surpasses the likes of George Soros, Warran Buffet and Bill Gates some say) I have decided to share with you a colossal secret, hidden for years by the high order of the Cyber Templar. Risking life and...

Arabisc: One Blogger Arrested..1000s More to Go!

There doesn't seem to be a week passing by without Egyptians and its bloggers rocking the boat and taking the virtual limelight in our part of the world. This week the huge ripples in the Nile are being caused by no other than Egyptian Culture Minister Farooq Hosni, who has...

Egypt's Culture Minister Farooq Hosni is being investigated, following comments he has made on the Hijab or head scarf, reports The Big Pharoah. The Big Pharoah himself is however unruffled and goes on a rampage, berating the religious symbol and saying the religion was “in dire need of reform.”

Zany who writes for The View from Fez, Morocco, posts part of a paper which highlights plans to increase the number of women candidates in Parliament. Mohammad V University law professor Mohamed Mouaquit, who prepared the study for the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women, states political representation of women in...

Lebanese Mark who lives and works in Kuwait had to fly into Dubai for urgent business. Although he didn't like his hotel, traffic and the fact that an exhibition he wanted to visit was closed by the time he had finished his work, he found items he really wanted but...

The abuse of domestic maids is on the rise in Jordan, reports Black Iris. So far 10 maids have committed suicide this year in the country which has about 38,000 registered maids from abroad in addition to 60,000 illegal domestic workers.

In the United Arab Emirates, police first arrest men accused of sexual harrassment and then start questioning them, writes Lou Lou in her blog Renderings of Me. There is zero tolerance for any type of sexual harrassment in UAE which is something that deserves respect, she adds.