Stories from 17 April 2007
South Africa: Amatomu #1 referrer in South African blogosphere
Nicharalambous blogs about Amatomu, South Africa's new blog aggregator: “Amatomu.com, as well as a string of other paths from Amatomu, has officially become the #1 referrer on the SA Rocks blog.”
Nigeria: whither democracy?
Black Looks on Nigerian elections: “Nigeria went to the polls on Saturday for the first leg of the elections – the second leg voting for the President and national assembly is next Saturday. Today the Supreme Court ruled null and void the INEC’s (Electorial Commission) disqualification of Vice President Atiku...
Nigeria: post-election video
State elections in Nigeria last Saturday were marred by chaos, violence, and irregularities. Greenlight Nigeria posts a post-election video on YouTube.
Japan: Adult Woman
It is funny that the beauty of adult woman has to be reminded in a society: With nine-year old girls in thong bikinis currently leading the march of eroticism in Japan (or at least grabbing the most real estate in der Zeitgeist), refined culture magazine for urban professionals Brutus has...
Iran:Watch how a student activist was kidnapped in 35 seconds
You can watch in 35 seconds how Bijan Sabagh,a student activist in Babol university in Iran was kidnapped by security forces.Persian words in film are: Do not push..he is a student.
Japan and China: Tea
Alexpappas in Japundit blogs a news report about Japanese merchants in taking tea back to China as it is the biggest potential market: Affluent Chinese are paying as much as 6,000-7,000 yen for 100 grams for the finest-grade longjing tea, often bought as gifts…
China and Hong Kong: You won't understand my sorrow
ESWN has translated an in-depth investigative report by Yuan Lei at Southern Weekend on the case of Andy Lau fan Yang Lijuan, whose father had committed suicide.
Bahrain: Ambassador Attends Passover Dinner
Bahraini blogger Silver reports that his country's Ambassador attended a Jewish Seder dinner to mark Passover in Washington DC, US. He wonders what this gesture means. “(S)o is this building bridges? or going against our core beliefs ? anyone cares to comment,” he writes.
Taiwan: Mainstream media distortion
Ilya blogs about the distortion by the mainstream media, especially from T.V channels on the recent Losheng parada. Michael Turton also posted photos of a demonstration in April 14 protesting against the fabrication of the gangster video by the Chinese-owned news station TVBS.
Taiwan: Presentation on English Bloggers in Taiwan
Michael Turton posted his presentation on Taiwan English Bloggers of the Taipei Blogging Conference.
Saudi Arabia: The 1,000km Thank You
A 73-year-old Saudi man walked 1,000km to thank the Saudi King, reports the Angry Arab News Service.
China: New Slang
Joel Martinsen from Danwei translated two articles (one from YWeekend and another from Wu Fei's blog) discussing about new slang in China, the latter was worried about the impact of hooliganish language on the society.
Al Jazeera Pleasing US Too Much
Qatari-based Al Jazeera goes out of its way to show its objectivity to the US, claims blogger Asad Abu Khalil. “(F)rom Sep. 11 until two years ago: Aljazeera aired 11 hours of Bin Laden tapes and some 500 hours of Bush's tapes. The network now goes out of its way...
China: Crisis in Humanities
Xueyong blogs about the crisis of the faculty of humanities in universities in as a result of the students’ pragmaticism in choosing major subject. He suggests the only way out is general education [zh].
Russia: Dissenters’ March in Moscow (1)
The volume of blog coverage of the weekend's opposition rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg is truly overwhelming - as overwhelming, perhaps, as the number of riot police deployed from all over Russia to disperse these rallies - but nowhere near as shocking.
China: Orchid crime
Zeng-ying blogs about a homocide case in Cheng-du. The murderer has killed 4 people and assaulted 2. Behind this cold blood murder is the Orchid market (zh). The price of some rare orchids has increased 10 of thousand times in the past few years.
Syria: Israel Ready for Peace
Syrian blogger Sasa links to an article which says that Israel is ready to negotiate peace with Syria.
Egypt: Inheriting Presidencies?
Following the success of former Syrian president Hafez Al Assad of handing down power to his son Bashar, who now rules Syria, Egyptian blogger Zeinobia argues that the inheritance of presidencies is contagious in the Arab region and is spreading across Egypt, Libya and even Yemen.
Egypt: Remembrance Day for PoWs
Egyptian blogger Zeinobia calls for commemorating the lives of Egyptian PoWs in the 1967 war with Israel just like the Israelis mark April 16 as Yom HaShoah or The Remembrance Day for the Holocaust and Heroism.
Algeria: The Status of Fouad Ajami
Algerian blogger Nouri sums up his opinion on whether John Hopkins professor Fouad Ajami is more of a Shia or a nationalist when it comes to discussing the developments in Iraq.
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
The day I lost my hair mother had dragged me out to shop the wait for lulls in incessant crossfire had not come to a stop and the children were hungry for more than just candy check points where faces had traces of trashed deaths dying answers in stillborn questions...
