Global Voices Online

The detention, beating and subsequent release of bloggers Yoaní Sánchez, Claudia Cadelo and Orlando Luis Pardo by Cuban state security on November 6, is receiving widespread coverage in both the mainstream media and the blogosphere and twittersphere. Yoaní has written (es) about the incident on Generación Y, her blog, and English-language blogs like Babalú Blog, Repeating Islands and Uncommon Sense are following the story. An audio interview (es) with Sánchez about the incident has been posted to YouTube.

On the evening of November 6, Babalú blog linked to a post by Penultimos Dias (es) reporting that a number of prominent Cuban bloggers, including Yoaní Sánchez and Global Voices contributor Claudia Cadelo, were detained by state security forces. An update from Penultimos Días reported that Sanchez and Orlando Luis Pardo were “verbally abused and severely beaten”.

“Although public discourse in Jamaica might lead you to believe that at the root of the country's problems are the ‘irresponsible' lyrics emanating from its dancehalls, reality suggests otherwise”: Annie Paul delves into “the case of Christopher ‘Dudus' Coke, wanted by the Americans for a number of drug-related crimes. Their demand for his extradition to the United States to stand trial for his offences has literally thrown a cat among the pigeons here…”

After a news item in the local press reported that a British MP had been appointed as rapporteur on Armenia and Turkey, Unzipped says that it used Twitter to check the accuracy of the story. Tweeting a question to the MP in question, it turned out that the report was false.

Ella's Blog from the Philippines posts photos of donated goods intended for typhoon victims rotting in government warehouses. The expose has sparked fears that the goods might be misused to support administration candidates in next year's elections. The original site shows a “404 Not Found error” when it is accessed but the contents have been reposted by concerned citizens in blogs and social networks.

Teeth Maestro informs that “independent efforts by a group of volunteers have finally paid off to present a fully routable GPS map for Karachi (& Pakistan) available FREE to the general public.”

Michael Collins, on the MEI Editor's Blog, writes that Queen Fatima of Libya has died at 98 years old.

International news sites, French radio [fr], BBC Africa, Twitter [fr], journalists, NGOs and political leaders report of on armed forces shooting on unarmed crowd in Conakry, Guinea capital, today on sept.28th a number of 58 protesters, wonded or dead, were evacuated to the main hospital in Conakry. The crowd was attending a rally called by the opposition group “Coalition des forces vives” .

The government of Myanmar had announced on state television and radio that a new currency note of 5000 Ks. will be issued starting from October 1st, 2009.