· January, 2013

Stories about International Relations from January, 2013

Morsi Courts Merkel while Unrest Continues in Egypt

A Photoshopped picture of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi kissing German Chancellor Angela Merkel went viral, drawing ridicule from netizens, who criticised Morsi for traveling abroad at a time when his country was facing unrest. Online, Egyptians were quick to dismiss the photograph as unreal but were also dismissive of Morsi and his policies.

31 January 2013

Slovak PM's Support for 2022 Winter Olympics Bid Draws Criticism

Whereas Norway and Switzerland are planning to hold referenda before submitting their 2022 Winter Olympics bids, the fate of the Slovak-Polish joint bid already seems decided: the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has declared his support for it, without waiting for the government's approval. Tibor Blazko reports.

31 January 2013

Colombia: A Long Way to Peace?

Despite ongoing peace talks, Colombia refused to recognize the most recent ceasefire declared by the FARC and launched an airstrike on New Year's day. Meanwhile, the deadline for brokering a peace agreement approaches.

30 January 2013

Why Did Mali's ‘Soldier of Death’ Go Viral?

This photo of a French soldier wearing a scarf depicting death's face has been shared around the world and has become a concrete symbol for many of the start of French military operations in Mali. But why has this soldier captured imaginations on the Web?

30 January 2013

First International Urdu Bloggers Conference

Mehwish Khan at ProPakistani reports that the first international Urdu bloggers conference was held on January 26, 2013 in Lahore, Pakistan. Over 70 Urdu bloggers from different parts of the...

30 January 2013

“The Un-European Union”

GV Author Filip Stojanovski, on his blog Razvigor, has translated into English a mock story [sr] by Njuz.net, “the Serbian equivalent to The Onion,” about the UK striving to join...

29 January 2013

North Korea: A Sign of Change or the Same-Old Rhetoric?

Kim Jong-un’s New Year message emphasized, among other issues, the importance of inter-Korean relations. While many observers read this as a signal that North Korea plans to open-up in 2013, others say it contained the same old rhetoric of the past half century.

29 January 2013

Where Russia's Honest Ones Go to Die: Dolmatov's Suicide

RuNet Echo

On the morning of January 17, Russian political refugee Alexander Dolmatov was found having hanged himself in a solitary cell of a Dutch deportation center. Dolmatov left Russia last summer, believing himself to be under observation by Russian security forces and in danger of arrest for participation in a May 6, 2012, Moscow rally that turned violent.

27 January 2013

Meeting the Mummy at the Museum in Mumbai

Anuradha Shankar at ‘A Wandering Mind’ writes about the ongoing Egyptian Mummy exhibition in Mumbai, India. These mummies started a global tour from the British Museum to educate people across...

27 January 2013

Turkmenistan: Human Rights? What Human Rights?

In Turkmenistan, which ranks among the world's "worst of the worst" human rights abusers, the very existence of such rights is seen as 'fiction'. Some netizens blame Ashgabat's repressive regime on geopolitics. Yet some others say the country has a right to restrict the rights of its citizens.

24 January 2013

Philippines: US Navy Ship Damages ‘Protected’ Tubbataha Reefs

Filipino netizens, environmentalists, and nationalists are angry after a United States Navy minesweeper, the USS Guardian, caused damage to the corals of the Tubbataha Reefs in the Sulu Sea. The Tubbataha Reefs was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. It is a protected marine area that is off-limits to ships.

23 January 2013

Côte d'Ivoire: Charles Blé Goudé Charged with War Crimes

After his arrest in Ghana, Charles Blé Goudé, nicknamed ‘Street General’ and close associate of former president Laurent Gbagbo, was charged with war crimes on January 21, 2013. His arrest caused great debate in the Ivorian blogosphere as it happened against a backdrop of national reconciliation in Côte d'Ivoire.

23 January 2013

On Inauguration Day, US Drones Strike Yemen

Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term as President of the United States yesterday [Jan 21, 2013]. Ironically while the crowd was cheering his inauguration line “A decade of war is now ending”, more than three drone strikes hit Yemen. Monday was also Martin Luther King's Day. Many tweeps said that while King had a dream, Obama has a drone.

22 January 2013