5 October 2005

Stories from 5 October 2005

Panama: Blogs in the Media

  5 October 2005

TecnoCHICA, written by two young women in Panama received some international media coverage with the help of Ecuadorean blogger and journalism professor, Christian Espinosa.

Egypt: Egyptians Third Happiest Population

Ritzy Mabrouk says that in this report, Australia topped the chart with 46 percent of its population saying they were ‘‘very happy’’, followed by the US (40 percent), Egypt (36 percent) and India (34 percent). The UK and Canada shared the fifth spot, with 32 percent claiming to be very...

Bahrain: Where is Bahrain?

  5 October 2005

Zainab on a trip to Madison, she meets someone: “where are you guys from?” I said “Bahrain” The guy said “OHHHHHHHHH Bahrain” “You KNOW Bahrain??” “Yes…” “Really??” I was still in shock “Yes, thats where Michael Jackson is, isn't it”

Peru: Are Weblogs Profitable?

  5 October 2005

Coming off the success of the first “Festival of Blogs,” the folks behind BlogsPerú have announced the theme of the second Festival of Blogs to be “Are Weblogs Profitable?”

Venezuela: Switching to Linux

  5 October 2005

Matt Asay says two Venezuelan government officials approached him at LinuxWorld UK, where he spoke, wanting to learn more about switching from Microsoft to Linux-based systems.

Syria: Operation “Block the Vote”

  5 October 2005

Joshua Landis at Syria Comment reports that the US military offensives in western Iraq have driven thousands of Sunnis–and Sunni voters–into Syria. The Iraqi Parliamentary Speaker Hajem al-Hassani has spoken out against Operation Iron Fist, saying it was a deliberate attempt by Washington to dissuade Sunnis from going to the...

China: Top of Asian blogosphere

  5 October 2005

Letters from China carries out a Google Blog search to find that China has the most blogs in the Asian blogosphere, although s/he uses a somewhat unusual definition of “Asia”.

Malaysia: Fighting corruption

  5 October 2005

Brand New Malaysian posts an essay on corruption, which he says exists at every level in Malaysian society. “A good many Malaysians actually condone/contribute to it, and that is where the battle should lie. It must start intrinsically…”

Taiwan: Google map dispute

  5 October 2005

ESWN comments briefly on the furore over Google's map of Taiwan, which has it marked as a province of China, linking to a previous post which shows that the U.S. State Department's map is just the same.

Hong Kong: Dispute with NYT

  5 October 2005

Hong Kong-based blog SimonWorld details attempts to get the New York Times to abide by its stated terms of use when filleting its comments and posts for a report on the Kissel murder trial.

Bermuda: Vibrating Sales

  5 October 2005

A Limey in Bermuda says the Bermuda Sun put a picture of a vibrator on its front page in order to get attention and boost sales. It seems to have worked.

Thailand: Army in the south

  5 October 2005

At Thai-Blogs, Stilee posts a long article with photos on the Thai army which is stationed in Betong-Yindee in the troubled south of the country, together with an account of how the armed forces have turned their focus to internal threats since the 1960s.

Uganda, D.R. Congo: Kampala reaction

  5 October 2005

Coalition for Darfur picks up a news dispatch about Uganda's dismissal of calls for a U.N. arms embargo against it after 400 of its Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel fighters crossed into the D.R. of Congo. Eugene Oregon comments briefly on a reference to “LRA fighters and their families”.

Uganda: Moment of truth

  5 October 2005

The Uganda Conflict Action Network (Uganda-CAN) calls on the Ugandan government to better protect its citizens, support an amnesty program for abducted fighters, and work for a clear and transparent peace plan with broad support in the international community.