29 April 2009

Stories from 29 April 2009

Pakistan: Pak Voices

Pak Voices is a crisis reporting tool for Pakistan based on the Ushahidi engine. The website is mapping the recent unrest in Karachi city. “Submitted incidents will appear online [pending...

29 April 2009

Bangladesh: Summer Pickles

Its hot and humid in Bangladesh now and the perfect season for hot and sour pickles. Dhaka Dweller Shahnaz shares her recipes for Mango pickles and posts mouth watering pictures.

29 April 2009

Georgia: Alternative Eurovision

Following the scandal surrounding Georgia's aborted attempt to enter a song mocking the former Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Moscow, This is...

29 April 2009

Azerbaijan: Police

Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines comments on the continuing saga of Parviz Azimov, a youth activist recently expelled from his university. The blog notes that whereas the police usually concentrate...

29 April 2009

Pakistan: This Is Not Islam

Pakistani blogger Faisal K. at Deadpan Thoughts questioned an enlightened scholar of Islam to confirm that what the Talibans are preaching is “hardly the Islam brought by the Quran and...

29 April 2009

Syria: Reactions to the Hariri Tribunal

The UN's Special Tribunal for Lebanon today ordered the release of all four suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on February 14th, 2005, in Beirut. Syria was largely blamed for the attack, and that caused the deterioration of its relations with the West, including the Bush Administration's recall of the American Ambassador to Damascus. Anas Qtiesh rounds up reactions from Syrian bloggers in this post.

29 April 2009

China: Growing climigration

At Absurdity, Allegory and China, Jim Gourley discusses the extent and severity of China's climigration problem, and the reasons there's yet to be seen meaningful change.

29 April 2009

China: Year of the solar

Julian Wong at The Green Leap Forward scans the plans the “California of China” has to boost solar power projects this year and for the coming few.

29 April 2009

China: Green stimulus omissions

Beijing has earmarked a substantial portion of its economic stimulus package for environmental protection; Charlie McElwee at the China Environmental Blog shows us just how far that money has gone.

29 April 2009

Cuba: Path to the Future

“This little accessory hanging from the hip could well come to be all the newspapers we lack at the kiosks”: Cuba's Generation Y has faith in the potential of SMS...

29 April 2009

Jamaica: Mad Tax

Abeng News Magazine‘s Michael Spence says: “The new gas tax added in the latest Jamaican national budget is bad but when you tax reading material…this has to come from a...

29 April 2009

Jamaica: Career Crime?

“In times of economic downturn, crime pays”: Jamaica Salt is saddened that “more and more Jamaicans are taking up robbery as a professional career.”

29 April 2009

Guyana: e-Waste

“The mo’ they fall, the mo’ they break, the mo’ they break, the mo’ you buy. Slick, smart cell-phone makers and sellers”: Guyana-Gyal considers where all the e-waste goes.

29 April 2009

Egypt: Plans for Sexual Harassment Film Unveiled

After the success of Egypt's Anti-Harassment Day, Egyptian blogger Asser Yasser invited women to share their personal experiences with this issue. Women and young women will be filmed going about their everyday lives, registering the different forms of harassment they are subjected to. Marwa Rakha has the story.

29 April 2009

Bubisher: A Bus of Books for Children in Western Sahara

Do you want to go to the Sahara desert and read for children living in the refugee camps? Bubisher is a mobile library being driven across Western Sahara refugee camps. In those refugee schools, the bus shares with youngsters food for the soul and mind: books. Renata Avila highlights the initiative.

29 April 2009

UAE: Torture video sends shock waves around the world

Last week, a grainy video from 2005 made headlines, shaking up viewers around the globe. The video, first shown on U.S.-based ABC News, showed Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan - brother of UAE's crown prince torturing an Afghan grain farmer, attacking him with a cattle prod then literally pouring salt on his wounds. Jillian C. York brings us reports from the blogosphere.

29 April 2009