4 May 2011

Stories from 4 May 2011

Pakistan: Probing Questions After Bin Laden

Three days after the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in a compound less than 2 kilometers away from the country's premier military academy, a lot of questions remain unanswered. As the world media continues to criticize and demand answers from Pakistani authorities, Pakistanis have also raised similar questions and continue to discuss possible scenarios.

4 May 2011

Palestine: Gaza Celebrates Hamas/Fatah Reconciliation

Palestinian rival factions Fatah and Hamas ended their bitter feud today, in a reconciliation deal brokered in Cairo, Egypt. News of the deal, which will unite the Gaza Strip, which had been under Hamas' control, and the West Bank, which was under the grip of the Fatah movement, was welcomed with celebrations in Gaza.

4 May 2011

Côte d'Ivoire: New Videos Detail Capture of Former President

After the arrest in the city of Abidjan on April 11, 2011, of Laurent Gbagbo, former president of Cote d'Ivoire, and his wife Simone, some confusion remains regarding the process that led to his capture. Website Abidjan.net has published a series of videos that show the sequence of events of the Gbagbos' arrest, from the bombing of their residence by French Special Forces, to the transfer of the Gbagbo family to the Hotel du Golf.

4 May 2011

Mexico: Netizens Put Death of Osama Bin Laden in Context

As news of United States Special Forces' targeted killing of Osama Bin Laden was broadcast around the world, netizens in Mexico tweeted and blogged their responses to this signal event in the “war on terror.” Tellingly, in the vast majority of cases their language invoked the “war on drugs” that has been imposed on them by their own government since 2006.

4 May 2011

Tanzania: Is Osama Bin Laden Really Dead?

The Tanzanian blogosphere has taken the news of death of the al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden with a pinch of salt. While few voices welcomed the news, a number of blog readers expressed doubts and came up with a number conspiracy theories.

4 May 2011

Russia: Anti-Corruption Donor Details Leaked

RuNet Echo

In the middle of April 2011, donors to the Russian anti-corruption, whistle-blowing website Rospil.info [ru] began to report that they had received strange calls and emails from unknown people, some claiming to be journalists, asking about their donations to Rospil and why they support the website’s founder, popular Russian blogger Alexey Navalny.

4 May 2011

Suriname: Street Art

Srananart's Blog says that “Suriname has known a flourishing culture of street art, with the painted buses and the colorful shave-ice carts as eye catchers that make a lasting impression...

4 May 2011

Bahamas: Safer Prisoner Transport

“We should not have our lives or property put at risk to accommodate the prisoners”: Weblog Bahamas‘ Jerome Pinder thinks that “the current practice [of transporting prisioners] remains a dangerous...

4 May 2011

Bermuda: Paying for Past Policies

“The Bermuda Government should be sitting on several hundred million dollars of surpluses…instead we're incurring expensive debt which could take more than 10 years to retire”: Bermudian bloggers think the...

4 May 2011

Jamaica, U.S.A.: News & Children

“While the US government ponders what pictures to release, I ponder what pictures to try to censor”: Grasshopper Eyes The Potomac blogs about how to explain Osama Bin Laden's death...

4 May 2011

China: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The past week has seen a real-life version of film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” reenacted in China. The Chinese protagonist, Xu Wu, has been detained in a psychiatric hospital for four years over a labour dispute against a state-run enterprise. He escaped from the hospital and told his story to a television station, but police forced their way into the station building and abducted Xu, remanding him back to the psychiatric ward.

4 May 2011

Indonesia: Kartini Day

Tikno blogs about Raden Ajeng Kartini, a pioneer of women's rights in Indonesia. Kartini Day, which is being celebrated in Indonesia every April, is similar to Mother's Day in Western...

4 May 2011