Stories from 9 March 2006
Ukraine: Jackson-Vanik Amendment Scrapped
Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine reports that Ukraine is finally going to have “normal trade relations status with the United States,” after the House of Representatives passed legislation yesterday “to...
Latvia: President May Be Future UN Secretary General
David McDuff of A Step At A Time reports that Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga might replace Kofi Annan as the U.N. Secretary General at the end of the year.
Korea: Metrosexuals, men, manicures
The Asia Pages rhapsodizes about Korean men, berating herself as a defector and a racist for doing so. “Korean guys do something that absolutely drives me nuts and it is...
North Korea: Multiple choice
NKZone picks up a report from the official Chinese Xinhua news agency about changes to middle school testing in North Korea, where authorities are opting for multiple choice test formats...
China: Watching Hanoi
Michael Anti posts a long article (ZH) analysing the current debate going on ahead of the Vietnamese 10th Communist Party Congress in April, about the direction the country's socialism should...
China: Human rights stand-off
The Opposite End of China summarizes and compares the accusations of human-rights violations traded by Beijing and Washington and finds strong similarities.
DRC: Towards elections or turbulence?
At Le Blog du Congolais, blogger Philippe Lomboto Liondjo questions (FR) whether elections will happen as scheduled on June 30, 2006. Liondjo thinks back to the aborted election of June...
Rolling Stones and U2 in Argentina
The most commented-upon issues of the moment in Argentinean blogs are music related; in the same week The Rolling Stones and U2 visited this country to perform two shows, each...
China: Critical Readers Named
Wang Yi's Microphone posts a list of the core members of the Critical Reading Group of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department, and key officials in the secretive Propaganda...
Hong Kong: Blogger takes break
Glutter, post-relationship break-up, vows to take a break from blogging, in quest of reality and solidity, as opposed to the disembodiments and shifting perspectives of cyberspace.
China: The Great Blog Hoax
After managing to get some overseas MSM stalwarts to report on their ‘demise’, Massage Milk and MilkPig are back. In this post, entitled ‘Sorry’ (ZH), Massage Milk says this wasn't...
Tunisia: 11th meetup
It was a nice evening as usual full of funny topics and a lot of laughs like in all the meetups I've attended until now. But to avoid repeating what...
United Arab Emirates: Literal pearls of purple prose
Dubai Police had better sharpen their pencils: they are in serious danger of losing this year's Purple Prose Prize. An associate has forwarded a press release of such exquisite floridity...
Libya: Libyan Berber and a remarkable Laghouat archaism
In case you ever wondered where in Libya Berber languages are spoken, check out this map at Tawalt (Arabic). Note at least two oases that don't get any mention in...
Algeria: Vieux Turbans and Algerian National Identity
Where did the Algerian Revolution, or perhaps more importantly, the Algerian national movement come from? It is often debated, mainly among Algerian nationalists and others that the movement arose as...
Jordan: Replacing Burqa with Surgical Mask
If the Netherlands becomes the first European country to ban the burqa and other Muslim face veils this month, Hope says she’ll resort to wearing a surgical mask to dress...
Syria: In Baath … who trusts?
Rime Allaf says: “Apparently, the Syrian people do not need human rights (even though this was an approved EU initiative). They do not need freedom of expression either (but such...
Syria: Syria Planet
Syria Planet, the community site for Syrian bloggers, is now online, it features an aggregator of member blogs (Syrian or about Syria), and forums for arranging activities and meetings, and...
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
These days in Iraq, death is never far away. In this weeks posts several bloggers deal with the different aspects of death. The death of someone close, death of a...
Africa: Searching for your roots
Ethnic Loft comments about the growth in genealogy in the US amongst African Americans seeking to trace their ancestoral roots. “South African has introduced a different twist to the topic...
