Stories about Breaking News from July, 2010
Philippines: Opposition to Rail Transit Fare Hikes
Metro Manila commuters of the Metro Rail Transit will be facing fare hikes as the Philippine government plans to abandon subsidies for the public transportation because of rising operation and maintenance costs. Bloggers react
Russia: Prosecutor That Banned Youtube Gives Interview
Marker.ru publishes an interview with Vladimir Pakhomov, city prosecutor that obliged the local Internet provider to block Youtube, Web.archive.org and other websites [EN]. Pakhomov expressed Chinese-government-style philosophy on Internet-filtering: “Provider is obliged to filter the information that goes through its channels to the Worldwide Web”, and didn't exclude probable filtering...
Russia: Forest Park Defenders Attack Khimki City Administration
User berillii posts [RUS] a footage of the storming of the Khimki city administration [EN] by anarchists and antifascists that took side of the Khimki forest park defenders. LJ-user mmet supplies photos of the event. A peaceful meeting grew to a chaotic demonstration, after authorities once again detained [RUS] the...
Bangladesh: Minimum Wages Raised In Garments Sector
After long protests and bargaining with the employers and the workers, the Bangladesh Government has decided to raise the minimum wages to Tk. 3000 per month ($44) which is approximately double of the current minimum wages. Bloggers discuss how this impacts the workers and the industry.
Russia: Reginal Court Blocks YouTube for Extremist Content
Komsomolosk-on-Amur [ENG] city court, at the Russian Far East, ordered local Internet provider “Rosnet” to block access to Youtube and four other websites (including web.archive.org), Cnews reported [RUS]. The decision was made due to a request by the city prosecutor's office. YouTube had been blocked because of the nationalist movie...
China: Explosion in Nanjing
A ruptured gas main is the reported cause of an explosion [zh] this morning at a plastics factory currently being torn down in NE Nanjing. Injuries are reportedly in the hundreds, while the number of deaths has yet to be confirmed. Free More News has been aggregating links to photos...
Côte d'Ivoire: Journalists accused of document theft are freed
The three journalists of Le Nouveau Courrier d'Abidjan arrested for refusing to reveal their sources have been finally released [Fr] this evening after a two-week ordeal. The journalists were found not guilty of theft but the newspaper is fined and suspended for 15 days for publishing information under legal consideration.
Liveblog of global reactions to Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs
More than 90,000 classified U.S. military documents about the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. As an experiment, we are using Google Wave to live blog global blog and citizen media reactions to the war logs (#warlogs) made public today by Wikileaks, Der Spiegel, New York Times and The Guardian.
Serbia: A Journalist Is Attacked on a Public Bus
Teofil Pancic, a well-known Serbian journalist, was beaten up on a public bus on Saturday. Sinisa Boljanovic translates some of the initial reactions by Serbian netizens.
Mali, Mauritania: Hostage Michel Germaneau Killed in Failed Raid as Tension Rises
A French-Mauritanian raid to free French aid worker Michel Germaneau inside Malian territory has raised tension [Fr] between the two nations, Diaspora Sahauri blog reports. The 78-year-old engineer Germaneau was killed after the failed attempt to free him.
France: Rioting in the Itinerant Community after Shooting Sparks Row
On July 18th, after 22 year old Luigi Duquenet was shot and killed, riots shook the quiet town of Saint Aignan in the Loire valley and immediately revived law-and -order reactions while also highlighting the discriminatory practices towards Roma people.
Russia: First Cyrillic Word Tops Twitter Trends
Russian heatwave makes history not only in the streets of Moscow but also in the virtual space. The Russian word “дождь” (rain) turned to be the first Cyrillic word in Twitter's worldwide trending topics, RIA Novosti [RUS] reports. It happened after Moscow bloggers witnessed a minor rain, that followed several weeks of unusually...
UK: No Reckoning for Police Excessive Force
Today marks five years since the shocking shooting death of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes by London police. The Brazilian blogosphere has yet to respond. Random Blowe reminds that no official has been held responsible, and compares to the G20 brutality case in which it was just announced there will...
Philippines: Manila Water Crisis
Metro Manila, the national capital region of the Philippines, is now experiencing a water shortage crisis with millions enduring water supply rationing. Filipino bloggers try to make sense of the crisis.
China: Unrestricted cultural imports coming soon, maybe
Remarkable news if it's true, that China has agreed to end restrictions on imports of entertainment products. Despite initial reports, hesitation and eager film buffs, final confirmation, however, remains to be seen.
Nigeria: More violence in Maza, near Jos
Carmen McCain reports fresh killings near Jos, a city still recovering from deadly riots earlier in the year. “It is with a sick feeling in my stomach that I post this. One of my friends, Godfrey Saeed Selbar… called me around 11:51am this morning, telling me that there had been...
Côte d'Ivoire: Blogger and Journalist Théophile Kouamouo Arrested with his Team since July 13th
Three journalists of Le Nouveau Courrier d'Abidjan were taken into police custody when they refused to disclose sources for an investigative report on the coffee and cocoa export trade. Here are reactions from citizens and media in Côte d'Ivoire as the three colleagues are still fighting for their release.
Argentina: Senate Approves Equal Marriage
The Argentinean Senate sanctioned a law that establishes equal rights to marry, without discriminating between heterosexual and homosexual couples, and with the same rights to adoption, among other issues. With this measure, Argentina becomes the first Latin American country to allow same-sex marriage.
Croatia: Police Breaks Up Peaceful Protest in Zagreb
Croatian police broke up a peaceful protest against usurpation of public space in the center of Zagreb and arrested at least 11 civic activists. Once again, Twitter is the main source of immediate info and photos (#Varsavska).
Côte d'Ivoire:3 Journalists Including Théophile Kouamouo Arrested for Posting Classified Documents on Coffee and Cocoa
Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) reports that three journalists were arrested on July 13th in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire for publishing classified documents regarding coffee and cocoa production [Fr]. Among them is Théophile Kouamouo, the founder of Abidjan Blog Camps, a Rising Voices project grantee. Here is a petition to show support...
Russia: Priest's Blog Hacked
While police denied to start investigation [RUS] of the hack attack of Maxim Sviridenkov's blog [EN], one more blog had been hacked [RUS]. This time the victim of “Hacker Hell” (alleged Bonn-based hacker Sergey Maksimov) is Yakov Krotov [EN], a priest and a publicist. Content of both his LJ-account and personal site krotov.info had been...