Stories from December, 2006
Bombs in Bangkok
It was not a good start to the new year in Bangkok as a series of bombs exploded in the city killing two people and injuring several others. From 2Bangkok's Youtube page The lost boy has pictures from one of the explosion sites At 6.45 p.m. today, less than 300...
Iran:A Happy New Year?
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, reformist politician and blogger, says probably situation in Iran and many other parts of the world, in 2007 won't be better than previous year. He adds, but there are events in the world that you can never predict.The blogger writes,we live in hope, happy new year to...
The Saudi Blogosphere this Past Week
Sleeping blogs, zombie computers, Saudi driving culture, Saddam Hussein's hanging, Arabic MTV, Saudi lesbian bloggers, Christmas, and more in this week's roundup. Let's get this started… Relating to the demise of the blogging trend, mentioned in last week's roundup, Ahmad published a very interesting post about Saudi “sleeping blogs.” The...
Russia, Belarus: “Gazilla”
There's a distinct sense of deja vu this New Year's Eve: Gazprom, Russia's largest (and state-controlled) company and the world's biggest extractor of natural gas, is in the spotlight again, both locally (due to an ambitious and controversial construction project in St. Petersburg) and internationally (due to a dispute over...
Haiti: Government's Tougher Stance on Insecurity
Reacting to a Christmas speech by Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis announcing a tougher stance on gang-driven kidnappings, Deky Lakyel from Collectif Haiti de Provence writes (Fr): “Not so long ago the stance was still to negotiate with the bandits. Today the approach and the discourse are more a-propos to...
The Iranian Blogestan on Saddam Hussein's death
Several Iranian bloggers talked about Saddam Hussein's death and remembered the Iran-Iraq war. Alpar says this year can be considered one of the worst for dictators, adding that Monday's newspapers could carry the following headline: “Four less dictators for 2007″. Alpar writes that Iranian people will celebrate this event, even...
Trinidad & Tobago: Smeltdown
The Trinidad and Tobago government's decision to re-locate a controversial aluminium smelter project prompts Jeremy Taylor to raise numerous questions about some key development decisions taken by the current administration: “Would we really need a rapid-rail system costing TT$15 billion if a bit more common sense was applied to the...
Saddam at the Iraqi Blogodrome…
… for the last time. Today I post without comment on blogger reactions to Saddam's execution. I'll be posting more updates as the blogs develops. From my honorary Iraqi of the week. A cartoon by Latuff that sums up the mood of many: Like a gathering storm, realization that the...
Malaysia: Failure in Disaster Management
Opposition Malaysian politician Lim Kit Siang asks “why the authorities were caught off-guard despite the availability of sophisticated early-warning systems about the massive floods in the south of the country”. Southern states of Malaysia have seen record levels of rainfall and massive flooding in the last couple of weeks.
Malaysia: Saddam's Execution
Ktemoc comments on the execution of Saddam Hussein and calls the execution as “unnecessary” and is concerned about more violence. “The Iraqis would be better off locking up Saddam and throwing the key away.”
Haiti: Competition for AA on Miami-Port-au-Prince
Jojo of Collectif Haiti de Provence is happy (Fr) that Spirit Airlines is offering a Miami-Port-au-Prince flight in addition to American Airlines’ but cautions: “Spirit Airlines is welcome so long as it doesn't align itself to the detriment of the public with American Airlines’ practices. $370 for a 2 hour...
Kazakhstan: where are we going to be in 15 years?
15 years ago we came into existence. I mean – we existed before, but no one knew. 15 years ago after the 1991 August putsch in Moscow, and followed collapse of the Soviet Union, new Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan, came into existence for the rest of the world (ok,...
Uzbekistan: Russia Moves In
At neweurasia, Kamron discusses Uzbekistan's decision to allow Russian military planes to land at the Navoi airport, saying that the government is filling the vacuum left by the expulsion of the US Air Force last year.
Russia: A Typical New Year's
Snowsquare guides the readers through a typical New Year's celebration in Russia (a ten-day affair, by the way!) Happy New Year, everyone!
Russia: More On Litvinenko's Death
Aleksandr Litvinenko's case is probably off everyone's radars by now, but Sean's Russia Blog offers a latest news roundup.
Romania: A Fire
Brasov fire department ignores a minor fire, local residents have to cope on their own, Romerican reports: “Without the help of paid city officials, they began dismantling burning objects from the fire with their bare hands and rolling each hot item in the dirt until the flames subsided. Then, they’d...
The Balkans: EU Enlargement
Did Romania and Bulgaria manage “to get on the last train to Europe” or will the EU enlargement continue? More at Neretva River.
Iran:Ahmadinejad after defeat in Council of City Election
Pro Ahmadinejad's forces got defeated in city council election. Digital Kelachinkov analysed the outcome of this defeat. He says“Populist-fundamentalist” is probably the best term for describing Ahmadinejad and his group. This group has a theoretic wing and also a populist one recent defeat of their supporters in the elections may...
The Balkans: Main 2006 Stories
Ed of Balkan Baby lists the most important regional stories of 2006: “Slovenia moves towards Eurozone,” “Croatia and Serbia Disappoint at World Cup,” “Croatia Stop-Start its way towards EU,” etc.
Africa 2.0: Important New Sites
Africa 2.0 shares (Fr) two new links: Makossa TV, a self-described media center for African artists and Ouestaf, a West African news site.
China: Cops and bikers
Guangzhou, China's third largest city just a few hours north of Hong Kong, is the last major city to do away with motorbikes, effective January 1, 2007, in a move aimed at tackling pollution, traffic congestion and, more seriously, the high levels of street crime for which Guangzhou and a...
