· June, 2007

Stories about Politics from June, 2007

CIA facility in Tunisia?

From his prison cell in Bizerte (65km north of Tunis), The Tunisian prisoner Ramzi Bettibi managed to smuggle a very alarming letter that found its way on to the Internet (available in French). Ramzi is serving a four-year sentence at Bizerte for copying, onto a forum board he moderated, an...

Russia: Beslan Evidence

A Step At A Time reports on the copies of faxes published by PravdaBeslana.ru, which “show that the local [North Ossetian] authorities were aware of preparations for a major terrorist attack involving the movement of convoys of vehicles, and targeting a public building, most probably a school, on “Knowledge Day”...

Latvia: The Battles of Cesis

An outstanding post by Marginalia‘s Peteris Cedrins on the history of Latvia's the Battles of Cesis – as well as some musings on the Internet vs real libraries: “Though I adore and am addicted to the Internet — I would rather my mind resembled a library than looked like cyberspace....

Estonia, Russia: Echo of a Childhood War

Itching for Eestimaa looks at the European leaders’ childhood years, in order to find an explanation for some of their current policies: “The young Putin learned that Estonians were fascist betrayers. Can anyone wonder why Russia now sees Estonia in the light, even though to most of us the concepts...

Hong Kong: Political painting

  26 June 2007

Imagethief picked up a political painting to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 1997 hand-over of sovereignty and compared it with some other propaganda paintings: In the segment I can see, he (President Hu) is the only person who's body is completely unobstructed. He has the greatest amount of negative...

Tajikistan: Truce Anniversary

Beyond the River says that recent political developments highlight questions that have remained open since the peace agreement in Tajikistan's civil war, the tenth anniversary of which is coming in a few days.

If Bloggers attended the Conference on the Caribbean…

  25 June 2007

This past week (June 18-21) leaders of CARICOM met with President George W. Bush and other top U.S. government officials in Washington as part of the Conference on the Caribbean. Official word from the U.S. Press Secretary is that: “The Conference on the Caribbean continues an important dialogue between the...

Arabeyes: How the Palestinians Defeated Themselves!

What is happening in Palestine? Why have the Palestinians turned against each other? What is fueling the conflict? Who is the victor and who is really being defeated? And what next? Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah sums up his feelings of disgust and attempts to answer these questions in the following...

Lebanon: Almost Non-Political Questions

What are we eating? Why are our banks flourishing? Who are those clearing cluster bombs? How will Brazil help in recycling Lebanese wastes? Where are some of the children who were caught in the crossfire? What about some music? These are some of the questions answered in this week’s selections from the Lebanese blogosphere.

China: Pollution in Shanxi

  25 June 2007

Among the 10 most polluted cities within China, the top three were at Shanxi province. As Zuo Ai Chong pointed out, pollution in China is always related with politics, Shanxi's pollution is somehow related to its illegal mining of coal and recent slave workers scandal (zh).

Argentina: Cristina.gov.ar

  25 June 2007

Un Lugar [ES] looks at the new domains registered by Cristina Kirchner, Senator and wife of the current Argentine president. There is also speculation how she was able to register domains specifically set aside for special government projects.