Stories from 17 January 2009
Israel: Voices against the violence
The Hebrew blogosphere is battling over right and wrong, support vs. opposition and what it means to be patriotic to your own country, while at the same time condemning its actions. In this post, Gilad Lotan translates four different entries which highlight their writers' struggle with the grave outcomes of a war. A war where news is biased; where one side is considerably more powerful than the other; where innocent civilians are used as human shields and where the death toll is steep.
Flashfloods and landslides in south Philippines
More than 115,000 people in the Philippines’ northern Mindanao region had fled to safety due to flashfloods and landslides. The local government reported that the series of flashfloods that struck the region have reached humanitarian crisis proportions
Korea: Your 17 habits which cause your skin to age faster
Hyejin Kim introduces a post that gives interesting (or funny) information: the 17 habits you have which age your skin.
Malaysia: Worst flooding in years
Malaysia’s State of Sarawak suffered from severe flooding last week. The two hardest hit areas were Kuching and Sibu. Almost 10,000 people were forced to move to higher ground because of rising water level. In some parts of the state, flood waters rose to 14 feet.
Indonesia: Flooding in 13 provinces
Thirteen Indonesian provinces experienced flooding the past week due to torrential rains. The disaster has claimed the lives of 14 people while three others are still missing. More than 50,000 people have to be evacuated. Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, is under up to two meters of water.
Bulgaria: Protest in Sofia
Maya Markova of Maya's Corner posts a report on the Jan. 14 rally and rioting in Sofia: “Participants and eye-witnesses say that protesters were given absolutely no order or warning, that they were beaten indiscriminately, including children, women (see photo), elderly people and people already lying on the ground, that...
Lithuania: Rioting in Vilnius
Lituanica reports on the riots in Vilnius: “82 rioters were detained, 15 people were injured. 2 million Litas of damage was done to Seimas. Some of the arrested had knifes, iron bars and Molotov cocktails. The police use tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd of rioters.”
Latvia: Rioting in Riga
In his post about the Jan. 13 peaceful protest rally followed by rioting in Latvia's capital, Aleks Tapinsh of All About Latvia wrote that the country's PM had "told the people in his New Year’s Eve address how penguins deal with severe winter - they huddle together to stay warm - the same way as Latvians ought to do when going through the economic turmoil." What happened in Riga Tuesday has thus been labeled by some as the "penguin revolution." Below are some accounts and opinions from the blogosphere.
Palestine: “Everything is in vain in Gaza – breathing, running, hoping”
In this roundup of blogs from Gaza, we hear in detail about the attacks on Al Quds hospital in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City from an Australian activist who was in it at the time, and an Italian activist describes a man lying injured in hospital, unaware that...
