Global Voices Online

The UAE's telecoms regulatory authority has blocked the blog Sorry Dubai, following a post that criticised the monopoly state telco Etisalat. The blog also attacked Etisalat's blocking of popular Internet telephony website Skype. UAE bloggers are in a nervous mood after this.

The blog, written by someone who goes by the name of FeedYourHead, has since deleted his blog, some of which can still be found in Google's cache. His posts were often very negative and always very spirited.

Recent Links also in Middle East & North Africa

Adil Najam discusses about a recently released list of 8000 persons including the president of Pakistan and 34 Pakistani politicians who have benefited from the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf on Oct 5, 2007. This ordinance “grants amnesty to all those against whom politically-motivated cases were registered between Jan 1, 1986, and Oct 12, 1999.”

Maghreb Blog reports that the sentence of Chakib Khayari, a human rights activist and whistleblower, has been upheld in a Casablanca court. Khayari is set to serve three years in prison for accusing high-level civil servants of aiding in drug trafficking.

Moroccan resident Ibn Ibn Battuta shares a list of nonfiction and travel books that keep him busy on the road in Morocco.