18 November 2008

Stories from 18 November 2008

Sri Lanka: Shooting in the air

Indi.ca slams Sri Lanka's air defense to protect citizens from air raids by LTTE planes: “All we can do is black out Colombo, fire guns in the air and get...

18 November 2008

Bhutan: On Thimphu

Most Beautiful Cities in the World describes about Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan: “It's expensive to visit Bhutan, and expensive to stay here – a deliberate policy to keep tourism...

18 November 2008

India: Podcasts

Here are links to some podcasts by Indian bloggers. Kiruba Shankar interviewed Benjamin Wegg Prosser, the director of LiveJournal. Kamla Bhatt interviewed Yogen Dalal of Mayfield Fund, Mitchell Baker of...

18 November 2008

Costa Rica: Free Trade Agreement Ready For Implementation

After a lengthy process, which included a nationwide referendum where Costa Ricans approved a free-trade agreement with the United States, the laws will go into effect on January 1, 2009. However, it took consensus building within the National Assembly in order to pass the necessary laws, while some sectors of society had been calling for a process of renegotiation.

18 November 2008

Tunisia: Yes, they can. No, we can't!

The week of the US election coincided with the 21st anniversary of 'change' in Tunisia. But while Americans went to the polls to elect their 44th president, in its 50 years of independence, Tunisia has had just two presidents. Tunisian bloggers mark Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 21st year as president with a call for change.

18 November 2008

Egypt Ranks High in Corruption

Egypt ranks 115 in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, which tracks 180 countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. The rankings are in ascending order, with the more corrupt countries scoring higher ranks.

18 November 2008

Bahrain: Playground politics?

Bahraini blogger Yagoob is not impressed with the behaviour of a member of parliament who followed another member to Kuwait to make sure he didn't taint Bahrain's reputation at a...

18 November 2008

Saudi Arabia: The problem of pirates

Crossroads Arabia comments on the case of the Saudi oil tanker hijacked by pirates and now anchored off the coast of Somalia: “Perhaps we’ll be seeing Saudi naval vessels escorting...

18 November 2008