22 May 2013

Stories from 22 May 2013

How Big Is Alexey Navalny's Army?

RuNet Echo

As Navalny's show-trial for lumber embezzlement continues, such questions are perhaps more important than ever. Here are some data-points which could be used to make a rough approximation:

22 May 2013

Private Plane Trip Rocks Costa Rican Government

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla has been questioned for using a private airplane owned by a company linked to a businessman who is allegedly involved with drug trafficking in Colombia. Some of the President's closest officials have had to present their resignations as a result of the incident.

22 May 2013

Free Speech and South Korea's Child Porn Law

A DeviantART website user wrote how South Korea's Children and Youth Protection law, that cracks down on child porn, can greatly undermine freedom of expression. Rough English translation appears in the latter half...

22 May 2013

Video: Mapping North Korea

Several months earlier, Google debuted its new crowd-sourced map of one of the most reclusive countries in the world, North Korea. Martyn Williams shared a video on his Youtube channel where Google...

22 May 2013

Update on Colombia Peace Process

WOLA (Washington Office on Latin America) has published an update on the talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The report concludes: As they...

22 May 2013

How Social Commerce Tightens China's Grip on the Internet

A deal between e-commerce firm Alibaba Group and Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblogging service, has been heralded as a jump-start to the era of social commerce in China. But it could also enable the authoritarian state to tighten its grip on the Internet.

22 May 2013

Egypt: “Are you Happy Morsi?”

Egyptian Ahmad Khalil tweets [ar]: الكهرباء قطعت من الساعة 9.5 وبالتالى النت قطع ، لعلك سعيد يا ريس مرسى ؟؟ نحن نعيش فى العتمه والقادم اسؤأ @ahmad_khalil:The electricity has been...

22 May 2013

Guinea-Bissau Youth Calls for Peace

The Guinean movement Ação Cidadã (Citizen Action) [pt] released an open letter [pdf] on May 8 “from a youth who wants to have their place in their own land in peace,...

22 May 2013

Cadmium-Laced Rice Found in China

Rice contaminated with high levels of the toxic heavy metal cadmium, dubbed "cadmium rice," is the latest food scandal in China to trigger public panic and anger among the country's consumers.

22 May 2013