Global Voices Online

Sebastian Molina of Plan B [ES] helped launch a new blog aggregator called Piensa Bolivia [ES] “Think Bolivia,” which focuses on entries about the political situation in the country.

Inside Krasnodar announces in the middle of the Russian night: “SOCHI WINS! Sochi has just been awarded the 2014 Winter Olympics!! Molodetz Sochi.”

La Gringa writes about how, when, and where cell phones are used in Honduras.

Medallo Bloguero [ES] writes about the national blog competition sponsored by the magazine Semana, in which the top three winners will form part of the magazine's bloggers.

Khorshidkhanoum has published the photos of eight jailed student activists from Amir Kabir University.

Pa Brehneh Bar Khat says[Fa] that in Bandar Abbas,a port city on the southern coast of Iran,you can hardly find a taxi.The blogger adds after,last week,government rationed gasoline,taximen started to sell their own gasoline in black market instead of consuming it.

Our Man in Tirana reports on investing in Albanian property.

Srebrenica Genocide Blog reports that the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) will hold its 7th meeting in Sarajevo on July 9-13, 2007: “Our conference theme, Responding to Genocide Before It's Too Late: Genocide Studies and Prevention, is always appropriate, of course, but also has an immediate resonance as we convene in a site of one of the shameful genocides of the last century.”

Marginalia reports that in Latvia, July 4 is “set aside for remembrance of the genocide against the Jews — ca. 70 000 Latvian Jews and 20 000 foreign Jews were murdered here during the Nazi phase of the occupation.”

The beatroot returns with a news roundup: “The EU deal that wasn't; striking doctors and nurses; and the Father Henryk Jankowski – Mel Gibson connection: the usual weird and wonderful stories out of Poland didn’t stop just because I went on holiday.”

Darkness at Noon links to a collection of Soviet jokes translated into English.

Siberian Light writes: “The Russian government has finally bitten the bullet, decided it wants to be in the World Trade Organisation more than it wants to be seen as a haven of music piracy, and closed Allofmp3.com.” Robert Amsterdam has more.

The Accidental Russophile and Sochi Travel Info await the announcement of the winner of the 2014 Winter Olympics bid in Guatemala today: one of the candidate cities is Sochi.

Ukrainiana reposts pictures of Victor Yanukovych's Crimea residence and writes: “As “people all over Ukraine struggle to make both ends meet” — the truth championed in a recent Party of Regions ad — some people obviously defy the order of the day. Their luxury lifestyles know no end.”

Metroblogging Chennai on the courts coming to the rescue of trees that were to be cut down by the Chennai Corporation.

Metroblogging Islamabad attempts to collate opinions on the Lal Masjid shootout.

With the race on for the world's new seven wonders, Twilight Fairy has a lovely photo post on the Taj Mahal.

Joel Martinsen from DANWEI translated a local report about drinkable Beijing tap water. However he also pointed out: the fact that the city's tap water is drinkable doesn't mean it's drinkable from the city's taps.

Videos and photos of the Information Technology sector on the July 1st demonstration in support of 2012 universal suffrage in Hong Kong.

cerno on going to the Sri Lanka Immigration Passport office. The bloggers calls it a drama in two acts!

ESWN translated an article by Chen Guanzhong about three types of mistakes in the self-knowledge of Hong Kong: misconception, false issues and lagging consciousness.

“You see a girl, wearing fashionable clothes, driving a brand new car, carrying the latest mobile phones, going out often, spending money here and there, yet when it comes to books, 8 JD's is too much!!” writes Ola Eliwat from Jordan.

“The Oman Community Blog has been unleashed to the public as a ‘beta' stage. You now have the opportunity to see what the blog looks like and what it aims to be and make any possible suggestions as a reader or perhaps still have that last chance for yourself to sign up as a contributer,” writes Sleepless in Muscat.

Lebanese blogger Sophia “wonders if women's activism within Islam couldn't be, after all, the right remedy to the economic, political and social pressures exerted on Muslims and Muslim societies by the West and by their own rulers and their extremists.”

Lebanese blogger Mark, who lives in Kuwait, posts a picture of an Iranian using an ATM machine in Iran here.

Naseem from Jordan reviews new blockbuster The Transformers here.

Neurotic Iraqi Wife lashes out at the Iraqi doctor implicated in the UK bombings in this moving post.

Egyptian Ahmed Sherif tells us all about his new online project - the Islam Electronica Project.

Ibn Al Dunya, from Egypt, tells us about a horrific road accident in Sinai, in which 12 people were killed.

After exploring the streetlife of Herat, a city in Eastern Afghanistan, Tom T met with local students who are actively involved in civic projects and who will receive more training in Kyrgyzstan this summer.

Read the latest post from Charles Taylor's trial in the Hague: Taylor entered the courtroom in a dark blue suit with a bright yellow tie, nodded to the judges and sat, flanked by two uniformed guards. After being informed that the delay was due to the fact that the route from Taylor’s detention facilities had to be adjusted for security reasons, Judge Sebutinde stated that “the reason is noted but it is not satisfactory.” She therefore directed the Registry to communicate with security personnel to ”ensure that court time is not wasted because we are waiting for someone to transport Mr. Taylor to court.”

LJ user megakhuimyak has a bunch of interesting statistics about Kazakhstan in 2007.

A story about a Kenyan computer game maker, Wesley Kirinya: Since I had done a piece on a Wesley Kirinya, a Kenyan game maker, he had tracked me down. We talked about the future of game designers in Africa. His piece is now published, titled “A ‘Lonely’ Inventor Creates a Computer Game in Africa”

Irene thinks (RUS) that the behaviour of certain government officials is not really promoting foreign direct investment in Kazakhstan. KZBlog provides the gist of the story in English: A German delegation was made to pay for their “friends'” lunch, although the friends hastily disappeared in government cars once they finished their meals.

Afghan Lord thinks that by launching a mobile FM radio station in the southern provinces of Afghanistan, the Taliban are proving how powerful they have again become.

Cuba Daily News explores Areito, the Cuban music of the aboriginal people.

After a performer uses obscenities on stage, Abeni is “wondering why an island with 19 homicides thus far in 2007 is getting bent out of shape because of an expletive or two.”

“Americans do not deserve to be free because we are Americans, and Cubans do not deserve to be free because we are Cubans. All men and women deserve to be free because that is how we are born.” July 4th gives Uncommon Sense a chance to reflect on freedom.

“Barbados recently chose to import 100 construction workers from China rather than allowing trades to come from other CARICOM nations.” Barbados Free Press, reporting on the CARICOM Summit, calls this decision “the elephant in the room”.

“Caribbean governments need to be thinking about what they must do to foster innovation and creative talent while developing enabling policies designed to keep our creative industries attuned to domestic and global realities.” Bahamian Nicolette Bethel reprints an article by a Trinidadian media consultant to make the point that culture is an economically viable industry.

Pacific Empire in a guest post at cominganarchy.com looks at the concepts of “arc of instability” and “Africanization of the South Pacific” that some academics and analysts use to describe the instability in the island nations of Pacific Ocean.

Real Life Thailand lists five Thai politicians he considers as role models.

Richard Barrow is giving suggestions on what places a tourist can visit along the Bangkok's subway. Richard highly recommends the Snake Farm.

Lost Boy explains why a falling lizard might bring good or bad luck for you depending on where its tail points to.

Teresa visits and blog about Sa Pa, the mountainous region in the North of Vietnam.

Quito Mas [ES] is a photo blog that collects interesting images from around Ecuador's capital city of Quito.

eBlog [ES] writes that the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin is looking for the “Argentine Homer Simpson” and invites readers to nominate someone they may know.