India: Dowry And The Boys

Nitisha Pandey at Youth Ki Awaaz discusses the current market rates for grooms in India and asks:

Does a boy’s parents’ give him good education only to get a handsome dowry?

Ukraine: Taras Polataiko's ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Project

Katherine Brooks of The Huffington Post and Natalia Antonova at the Guardian's Comment is Free write about Taras Polataiko's Sleeping Beauty project, which did open on Aug. 22 at the...

Macedonia: Demanding Triumphal Welcome for Paralympics Champion

Macedonian social media users are calling [mk] for a state-sponsored celebration for Olivera Nakovska-Bikova, who won a gold medal in shooting at the Paralympic Games finals in London, after setting...

Sri Lanka: The 3rd Annual #TweetupSL is Tomorrow

Indu Nanayakkara informs that the third edition of the annual meet of the Twitter users in Sri Lanka will take place on Saturday, September 1, 2012. Details are here.

Armenia: Ties With Hungary Severed Over Prisoner Row

Following Hungary's release of an Azerbaijani army officer convicted of murdering an Armenian soldier, Armenia has severed diplomatic ties with the Central European country.

Turkmenistan: Hip-Hop Key to Regime Survival

…[Turkmenistan's] young generation literally has got nothing to do. Which is why they love Hip Hop… But the government should not censor Hip Hop… for its own long-term survival. NewEurasia.net's...

Portuguese, a Global Language?

A community page on Facebook, Língua Portuguesa: Uma Língua Global? (Portuguese Language: A Global Language?) [pt], provides a diversity of materials to promote the debate about the expansion of Portuguese...

‘Free’ Kyrgyzstan Marks Independence

…[D]espite being generally underdeveloped as a state, I am the freest of all other countries that were also born in 1991! Blogger Ilya Karimdjanov offers a ‘Monologue of Kyrgyzstan‘ [ru]...

Mali: Can Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Be Stopped?

The solution to the Mali crisis seems to be vanishing as time goes by. It has been five months now that the country has been divided into two parts. Julie Owono explores the current situation in the Sahel region.

Russia: Moscow's Peculiar Illegal Parking Problem

Russian adventures and misadventures in parking could be a movie plot. But Russia’s parking problems are anything but comedy. It remains to be seen how vigorously the country will deal with illegal parking. If it succeeds, its methods could show what kind of transportation system and cities Russia will have, and even what kind of country it will be.

Bolivia: Consultation on Hold as TIPNIS Communities Reject Militarization

[…] the consultation process on the Bolivian government’s proposed highway through the Isiboro-Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS) has ground to a halt. Emily Achtenberg from NACLA blog Rebel Currents...

Paralympic Games Kick Off in London

After hosting a most memorable Olympics, the British capital city of London welcomed the world's Paralympians for what is claimed to be the biggest Paralympics Games ever.

UK: Lion Spotted Is Actually Pet Cat Named Teddy Bear

United Kingdom police officers were busy last weekend with a major operation launched on the evening of Sunday August 26, following the apparent sighting of a lion in the English county of Essex. It was later revealed to have actually been a large domestic cat named 'Teddy Bear'.

Angola: Before Polls, Serious Questions Arise

On the eve of Angola’s elections, leader of the country’s largest opposition party was loud and clear to the media, stating the electoral process was the worst ever. Citizens report on lack of transparency around the electoral rolls, problems with polling staff assignments and lack of accredited observers.

Thai MP Advice for Women to Marry Foreigners Stirs Controversy

Get a German husband. Get a Swedish husband. Get a Norwegian husband…All you need is a farang husband and their government will pay you to study. This was the advice...

Ukraine: Humorous Political Ad Sparks Online “Pussy Cat Riot”

After weeks of tensions caused by the adoption of the controversial Language Law and in the midst of an intense pre-election mudslinging period, Ukrainians are finally rewarded with the much-needed comic relief - which they have promptly transformed into something of an online political protest movement.

Venezuela: Preserving the Oral Traditions of the Plains

The oral traditions of the plains are brilliant protagonists of the culture that has spread to other regions of Venezuela. Many natives of the Venezuelan plains use social networks and other Web 2.0 tools to spread, highlight, and preserve these traditions.

Colombia: Miners Flee from Killings and Attacks

In his blog “El que piensa gana”, [es] Juan Jose Hoyos talks about the precautions that miners, union leaders and others who oppose illegal mining or mining by multinational companies (like...

Combatting Cocaine Production in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru

Drug production and trafficking is a major issue in Latin America that governments are constantly trying to deal with. However, as the continent leaders gathered last April in Colombia for the Summit of the Americas fully agreed, the so far US-led war on drugs has failed in the Region. Peru, Colombia and Bolivia are the three largest illegal cocaine producing countries in the world. What are these Andean Countries doing to combat illegal drugs?

Central African Republic: Less than 3% have Access to Electricity

Louis Philippe Wallot writes in Journal de Bangui [fr]: According to the statistics of the ministry of energy, only  3% of the capital city Bangui  has access to electricity and it is even at...

Kyrgyzstan: Facebook Post Spurs Row with Belarus

A photo uploaded on Facebook suggests that Janysh Bakiyev, the brother of the former Kyrgyzstani president ousted by 2010 protests, lives in Minsk. This has sparked an extradition request, the withdrawal of an ambassador and the storming of an embassy.