Stories from 8 July 2007
Japan: Baby Mammoth Discovery
Edo at Pink Tentacle reports that the frozen body of a baby mammoth, preserved in ice about 10,000 years ago, was discovered in northwest Siberia by a local reindeer herder. The body will be shipped to the Jikei University School of Medicine in Japan for analysis.
Brazil: Blogs follow the ethanol debate as it goes global
Ethanol has suddenly turned into a popular word among Brazilian bloggers, specially because of the foreign attention it attracts. In fact, “alcohol” is the word Brazilians have been using to call its sugar-cane derived biofuel since the 70s, when Proalcool started, but blogs are surely under global influence. As President...
Russia: “The Other ‘Other Russia'”
Along with Gary Kasparov and Eduard Limonov, Mikhail Kasyanov was a leading member of the Other Russia coalition, until he quit last week because of the failure to reach consensus on a single presidential candidate from the opposition. According to media reports, he is planning to run for the presidency himself. Eight months remain before the 2008 vote, and it looks like there are going to be a number of sequels to the June 27 Global Voices translation about the Russian opposition's lack of unity. Here's the first one.
China: Cruise missile carted into Beijing
July 7 marked seventy years since the Second Sino-Japanese War began with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The day ostensibly started well, with a reconciliatory tone as Taiwanese and Chinese scholars just the day before had moved to team up on research into the resistance. Then, assuming this is related,...
Oman's Oryx Sanctuary – First Site Ever to be Deleted from the World Heritage List
Omani bloggers are weighing the benefits of sacrificing a sanctuary for the Arabian Oryx, which are facing extinction, in exchange for more oil exploration, reports Riyadh Al Balushi, after the Sultanate made history by becoming the first country to be unlisted from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage List.
