Chinese Responses to the North Korea Missile Launch

Adam Cathcart from Sino-NK has translated and collected a wide range of reports, comments and discussions from Chinese government, media outlets and concerned citizens about the North Korea Missile launch...

Video Plea for Public Toilet Facilities in Jharkhand, India

Amit Topno, a ‘Video Volunteers’ community correspondent reports that the residents of Nichitpur village in the Indian State of Jharkhand do not have any working public toilet. The villagers plea...

Film Festival on Organic Farming in Japan

The international Film Festival on Organic Farming was held in Satta Hall at Hosei University in Tokyo, December 16, 2012. One participant ama_san [ja] commented on Twitter: Yesterday I went to the International...

Xi Jinping: a hardline nationalist in control of China?

South Sea Conversations looks into the new Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's political speech, in particular his talk about “the great revival of the Chinese nation”'s implication to foreign...

Lobbying and Transparency: Pressuring the European Union

In the European Union, there is considerable political resistance to the culture of transparency. NGOs and bloggers stand up for citizen rights and for participatory democracy.

Yemen's Long Awaited Army Restructure

Yemenis were pleasantly surprised yesterday to hear about President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's bold decisions to unify the Yemeni army - and sack the remaining relatives of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who hold prominent positions in the military and security. Netizens react with caution, and some expect retaliation.

Former Dictator's Daughter Elected As President of South Korea

On December 19, 2012, Park Geun-hye was elected as the next President of South Korea. She is from the ruling conservative Saenuri party and daughter of the former dictator Park Chung-hee. Despite Park's feat in being elected as the first woman president in a largely patriarchal society, young progressives and activists are strongly opposed to Park.

Tempers Flare As Court Frees Dagestani Boxer Who Killed Russian Teenager

Rasul Mirzaev, a 26-year-old mixed martial arts world champion from Dagestan, is a convicted killer. His victim was a 19-year-old Russian man, Ivan Agafonov, whom he murdered in a scuffle outside a nightclub in August 2011. On November 27, 2012, a Moscow court let him walk free, after a little more than a year in custody. The RuNet has responded with often vehement emotion.

Mirelis Morales’ ‘City of Fury': A positive view of Caracas

Mirelis Morales Tovar is a tweep, blogger, journalist and, above all, a Caracas native. In this interview she tells us a little more about her blog Caracas Ciudad de la Furia [Caracas City of Fury], a space dedicated to showing the positive side of the Venezuelan capital.

Zambian President Orders Killing of “Rebels” No One Can Find

It remains difficult to confirm the existence of the Barotse Liberation Army, the supposed paramilitary wing of various groups calling for the secession of Zambia’s Western Province. After President Michael Sata’s ordered the army to kill the rebel activists, some have accused the government of fabricating lies.

The Ten Biggest Sex and Gender Stories of 2012 in China

DANWEI has translated an annual roundup done by the Sex and Gender Institute at the Beijing Forestry University on the ten biggest sex and gender stories of 2012 in China.

Copa Sudamericana Final Ends in Violence

The heated final match of the Copa Sudamericana on the 12th December 2012 at the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo, between Brazilian team São Paulo FC and Club Atletico Tigre, from Argentina, ended unexpectedly. And violently, too. A fight between the players spilled over to the changing rooms, where the Argentinian team claims to have suffered aggression from the Military Police and São Paulo security staff.

Guaraní language is less spoken in Paraguay

Group blog E'a Periódico de Interpretación y Análisis [es] tells that, according to parcial results of the 2012 Population Census, there are 10% less Guaraní speakers in the country. Among...

A Comparison of China's and America's Richest People

Liz Carter from the Tea Leaf Nation translated an info-graphic by CN politics [zh], which compares the character of China's and America's richest people.

Caribbean: What Happened in 2012 (Part 2)

The first part of this post observed that in the Caribbean blogosphere, the year was punctuated by hunger strikes - the first in Cuba and the second in Trinidad and Tobago. Part 2 of the regional blogosphere's 2012 summary recalls other issues that got Caribbean netizens talking - from the Olympics to the need for greater political transparency…

#Sopacriolla: The Tough Road to ISP Regulation in Peru

In a previous post, we commented on the project known as #sopacriolla, an initiative by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism for allegedly collecting contributions for the construction of a standard for copyright and ISP (Internet Service Provider) responsibility. To learn more about the issue, we talk with the blogger Miguel Morachimo, and the lawyer in charge of the initiative, Erick Iriarte.

Tajik City at Night

Macedonia Fails to Honor Victims of 1911 Terror Campaign

GV Author Filip Stojanovski blogs about Macedonia's failure to properly commemorate the victims of “the so-called ‘Donkey Assassinations'” that took place in the city of Štip in 1911: […] Several...

Reflections on the Croatian Generals’ Acquittal

Alan Jaksic of Balkan Anarchist posts a follow-up to his initial comments on the Nov. 16 reversal of the convictions of the Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač: […]...