Friday World Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Spreading the blog gospel (blogspel?):
Hossein Derakhshan (aka Hoder)  posts his recent presentation on How Weblogs are affecting Iran.  He also outlines his upcoming talk on how to make a blogosphere.
Mideast:
The Lebanese Blogger Forum points out that Lebanese expatriates outnumber Lebanese in Lebanon, and is supporting a campaign to enable Lebanese expats to come home to vote in elections next month.
Iraq the Model is angry with those who call the resistance “patriotic.”
Southeast Asia:
Cranial Cavity smells a “very big sea-going rat” in the Malaysian government's approach to shipping security in the Malacca Straits.
Reporters Without Borders reports that Singaporean student Jiahao Chen (now studying in the U.S.) was forced to take down his blog, AcidFlask, after he criticized government policies and a research scholarship program.
Our Man in Hanoi reflects on the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Noodlepie says Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) is awash with foreign journalists and has started a Flickr photo pool. Great idea.
Africa:
Sokwanele laments: “We have been reduced from a major sugar exporting country to a country to one that can't even guarantee supplies for its own domestic market!”
Music & culture: Kenyan Pundit is excited about the Sweet Mother Tour.
South Asia: Radio Free Nepal complains of “state vandalism.”
United We Blog describes how schoolchildren got cold and rainsoaked when required to line up on the roadside to greet King Gyanendra when he returned from overseas. UWB also announces a freedom rally in Washington D.C. on May 15th.
Indian blogger AnarCapLib asks: should India invade Nepal?
Central Asia:
Armenian blogger Blogrel has no love lost for the Armenian police.
Next door in Azerbaijan, Registan.net points us to a jazz festival.
East Asia:
Isaac Mao reports that Skype.com seems to be blocked in China.
Food: Joi Ito has a mouthwatering account of a visit to a Japanese-French fusion restaurant near Technorati's Tokyo office.
Sports: Japundit has a long post on sumo and championship wrestling.