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August 29th, 2008

Costa Rica: President Arias Asks Dalai Lama to Postpone Visit

Roy Rojas · 01:41

Costa Rican president Oscar Arias asked Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama to postpone a private visit to the country, citing that Arias won't be in the country to receive him. However, many bloggers believe that the request coincided with a planned official visit from Chinese President Hu Jintao. 1 comment · »»

August 28th, 2008

Georgia, Russia, Serbia: The Use (or Abuse) of Some Historical Facts?

Sinisa Boljanovic · 19:47

Serbian bloggers follow closely the situation in the Caucasus region. Many of them compared and analyzed the Kosovo issue and the newest opportunities in South Ossetia. Some of them were careful to express their own thoughts and mainly cited thoughts of politicians. Here is a post by a Serbian blogger who quoted in his blog some pieces of the last statements by Russia's government officials, who linked military operations in Georgia to certain historical events. 1 comment · »»

Georgia, Russia: Interethnic Relationships

Veronica Khokhlova · 01:35

lingua → ru · fr

Tbilisi-based LJ user shupaka and Russian war journalist Vadim Rechkalov (LJ user voinodel) share stories about interethnic relationships in Georgia and North Ossetia, Russia, in the time of conflict between the two countries. 0 comments · »»

August 26th, 2008

Paraguay: President Lugo to Forgo Salary

Eduardo Avila · 15:34

lingua → pt · fr · bn · es

Fernando Lugo's presidency started with an announcement that he would forgo his monthly salary. "I don't need that salary, which belongs to the poor," said Lugo. Different local bloggers see things differently, as one applauds the decision and another wonders how Lugo will pay for his own expenses. 0 comments · »»

Russia, Georgia: Unilateral Recognition of Abkhazia's and South Ossetia's Independence

Veronica Khokhlova · 14:56

lingua → ru · fr · es

Russia has formally recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia today. Below are some of the initial reactions from LiveJournal's Cyrillic sector. 7 comments · »»

Palestine: Rejoice Over Prisoners' Release

Jillian York · 03:40

lingua → pt · mg · bn

Palestinians are rejoicing today in the release of 199 prisoners from Israeli prisons. The release was announced last Monday, and was likely timed according to Condoleezza Rice's arrival in Israel today 0 comments · »»

August 25th, 2008

Iran: Scandal over Minister's Forged Oxford University Degree

Hamid Tehrani · 02:04

lingua → fr · bn · pt · zht · zhs · mk · es

Ali Kordan, Iran's new Minister of the Interior, has recently been under fire for presenting a "fake" Ph.D. degree from the prestigious Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Several websites, including the conservative Alef have published a scan of Kordan's "Oxford Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree". Alef points out that there ... 2 comments · »»

August 24th, 2008

Lebanon: Israel threatens while Syria seeks to buy arms

Nash Suleiman · 14:01

lingua → es

"What’s cooking?" is probably the most common question people in Lebanon are asking since Israel Environment Minister Gideon Ezra’s speech few days ago and the recent news of the Russian-Syrian arms deal. Last week, Minister Ezra said that the Lebanese state will be considered a target if it legitimizes Hizbullah (which the Lebanese government did). On the other hand, Russia has announced that it is ready to sell new weapons to Syria. What do Lebanon's bloggers have to ay about those developments? 3 comments · »»

Links about Politics

August 29th, 2008

Patrick Frost reflects on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization 2008 summit that takes place these days in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

August 28th, 2008

Bahraini blogger Mahmood reports that 20 per cent of Bahrainis are living below the poverty line.

Photo reports (RUS) by LJ user photomans: from Tskhinvali - here; from a refugee camp in Vladikavkaz - here.

Ethan discusses the latest political events in Zimbabwe, “Once you’ve thrown an election, the preferred next step is to return matters to normalcy, dissipating the anger of those who opposed you by making your leadership appear routine and inevitable. That’s been Robert Mugabe’s plan in Zimbabwe.”

LJ user marchenk posts a collection of links (RUS) to videos of various anti-war songs in Russian, French, English, Italian, German, Hebrew, Serbian, Spanish, Polish, Arabic and other languages.

“Cite Soleil, a shanty town in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is under siege by the UN occupying forces”: The Haitian Blogger publishes a statement by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership “condemning the wholesale expropriation and demotion being undertaken in Cite Soleil of 155 homes.”

“I strongly believe that if Dominica gets busy developing its agricultural product this could well have other spin-off positive effects”: Chris at Dominica Weekly thinks that going back to the land may well be the way out of the island's economic crisis.