Stories about International Relations from April, 2011
How China reports the Arab world
David Bandurski from China Media Project has translated al-Jazeera‘s chief correspondent, Ezzat Shahrour's excellent blog post raising questions on Chinese media's reports on the Arab world.
Argentina: Judge Recognizes Armenian Genocide
An Argentinean judge issued a historic ruling in which he condemned the Turkish state for committing the crime of genocide against the Armenian population. Argentina received an important stream of Armenian immigrants fleeing the genocide, whose descendants maintain their customs and traditions grouped under distinct institutions that form the Armenian Collective.
Uzbekistan: President's daughter sues French publication
Joshua Foust opines on the news that the daughter of Uzbekistan’s authoritarian ruler Islam Karimov filed suit against the French website Rue89.com over an article that identified her father as a dictator and characterized her charity work as an attempt to whitewash the Uzbek repressive regime.
France, Japan: Debating President Sarkozy's Visit to Japan
When French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Japan on March 31, 2011, less than three weeks after the earthquake and tsunami that caused a nuclear emergency, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is reported to have said: "When it rains, a friend who comes is a true friend". Bloggers ask if Nicolas Sarkozy really came to visit out of friendship alone.
Russia: Interviews With Miriam Dobson, Thomas de Waal, Christopher Ward
Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog interviews authors Miriam Dobson (“Khrushchev’s Cold Summer: Gulag Returnees, Crime, and the Fate of Reform After Stalin”), Thomas de Waal (“The Caucasus: An Introduction”) and Christopher Ward (“Brezhnev’s Folly: The Building of BAM and Late Soviet Socialism”) for New Books in Russia and Eurasia.
Czech Republic: Presidential pendemonium
Czechmate Diary discusses how the Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, apparently snatches a pen during a state visit to Chile, and how people now are sending him loads of pens so that he will not be left without one.
Libya-Bosnia-Hungary: Origins of Gaddafi's wife
Pestiside.hu reports about uncorroborated rumours that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's wife, Safiya, is from Bosnia with origins in Hungary.
Cuba: True Democracy
“If young gang members are sentenced to several years behind the bars for robbing a gas station, the same should apply to bankers, managers, financiers, or even presidents of countries if they engage in corruption”: Iván García fears that “democracy is stammering.”
North Korea: One American Has Been Detained
North Korea confirmed that it has detained an American man. The United States is urging North Korea to release the man on humanitarian grounds. North Korean Economy Watch blog summarized the latest detention cases.
Russia: Yuri Gagarin's “Public Diplomacy Legacy”
Yelena Osipova of Global Chaos pays tribute to Yuri Gagarin and his “public diplomacy legacy” in this overview of web stories and events devoted to the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight.
Armenia: Starlet ‘upset’ about Turkish magazine cover
Ianyan comments on attempts by the Armenian lobby in the U.S. to scandalize the use of a photograph of American-Armenian starlet Kim Kardashian on the cover of this month's Turkish edition of Cosmopolitan magazine. Coinciding with the anniversary of the the 1915 deportation and massacre of ethnic Armenians in the...
Cuba: No Questions Asked
“We have to see Fidel Castro as a piece of living history. A stream of bright ideas…the only comandante. The man who never makes mistakes”: Iván García would like to comment.
Czech Republic: The President's Chilean Pen Incident
The Reference Frame comments on the Czech President Václav Klaus’ successful attempt to steal a protocol pen during a joint press conference with the Chilean President Sebastián Piñera in Chile.
Cuba: Threat of the Internet
“In Cuba, access to the internet is restricted and very expensive for citizens, but it is also controlled by state institutions”: Laritza Diversent explains.
Russia: Bloggers Debate Military Operation in Libya
The situation in Libya, especially after the start of military operations by Western countries, has become one of the main topics of discussion in the Russian blogosphere. Marina Litvinovich analyzes the reactions and trends surrounding the issue.
Honduras: US State Department's Human Rights Report
Greg Weeks in Two Weeks Notice comments on the US State Department's Human Rights Report on Honduras: “On the one hand, it has 47 single-spaced pages detailing a wide variety of serious abuses–acknowledgment of these abuses is commendable. On the other, the report dances around assigning specific responsibility to anyone...
Iran:Iranian exiles killed in Iraq
Iraqi forces attacked Iranian opposition group, Mujahedin of People, in Iraq's Camp Ashraf killing at least 25 people. Here is a film shows Camp Ashraf under attack.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: “Remembering War in Sarajevo”
Café Turco writes about the April 6 commemoration of the liberation of Sarajevo in WWII and the beginning of the siege of the city in 1992.
Poland, Russia: Smolensk Plane Crash, One Year On
On OpenDemocracy.net, Adam Szostkiewicz shares thoughts on the Polish-Russian relations one year after the plane crash near Smolensk that killed Poland’s president and nearly a hundred other dignitaries.
Colombia: Finding Colombia in New York City
Elsa Tobón walks around and Roosevelt Avenue [sp] in New York City, pointing out all the details that make her believe for a moment that she is back in Medellin, Colombia.
Jamaica, Barbados: Search Putting CARICOM at Risk?
Abeng News Magazine says that “Jamaica’s foreign minister…is intimating that…CARICOM could be threatened if an alleged vaginal search of a Jamaican woman mid March by Barbadian border service agents is not dealt with frankly and honestly.”
