Global Voices Online

Copydude believes that Litvinenko's lethal poisoning could have actually been “a smuggling accident.” Also, here's his overview of Russia's unfriendly relations with its neighbors and the West: “Poland has a beef ban and an energy problem. Poland has a port blockaded by Kaliningrad. The lifeline Odessa-Plok pipeline has just been shelved. Estonia has a fish ban from Russia, Lativia a sprat ban, Georgia and Moldova a wine ban and assorted sanctions. Lithuania has an oil ‘delivery problem’ to its major refinery.”

The beatroot offers more flashbacks into Poland's martial law years - here and here.

Itching for Eestimaa writes about Estonia's relations with Sweden.

TOL's Belarus Blog reacts to the newly-introduced Russian export quotas for oil shipped to Belarus - and to the U.S. State Departments response.

Neretva River writes about one more reason not to allow the Balkan states to join the EU: “…meetings are simply becoming too large and the EU is unable to cope with the demand for translators.”

The-malaysian looks at the intrigue behind the murder case of a Mongolian fashion model in Malaysia. The model was involved romantically with a well known Malaysian defence analyst. The analyst is currently the prime suspect in the murder.

Thai-blogs has a post on Thai people's fascination with finding lucky numbers to help them win at lotteries.

Despite Guyana Providence Stadium's Christmas Wish, it seems like Guyana is not the only Caribbean territory behind schedule for the ICC Cricket World Cup: Barbados Free Press quotes their Local Organizing Committee's Chief Executive Stephen Alleyne, who says that “Kensington is still a construction site.”

The Trinidad and Tobago Government intends to proceed with the TT$15 billion rapid rail project, despite calls from several construction industry interest groups for Government to put a halt to the initiative: Juhel Browne posts an update at ttgapers.com.