Stories from 5 February 2008
Costa Rica: Violent Murder Rate Increases
Rod Hughes of Costa Rica Blogs writes about gruesome murders that took place in southern part of the country and that these types of crimes have rapidly increased since 2005.
Uruguay: The International Year of Languages
From Uruguay, La Bitácora de Gelman [es] writes about the International Year of Languages.
Peru: The Return of Alejandro Toledo
Former president Alejandro Toledo is back in Peru for a few days, and Juan Sheput of Mate Pastor [es] is pleased, and indicated that his presence as a professor at Stanford University and a lack of any charges of corruption or human rights abuses as had been typical of former...
Armenia: Blog Top Ten
Now that a local radio station is interested in blogging, Global Voices Author Artur Papyan recently asked one of Armenia's most experienced bloggers, Kornelij, to compile a list of his top ten Armenian blogs. As The Armenian Observer, Papyan posts the albeit subjective assessment of blogs in Armenian, Russian and...
Armenia: Pop & Politics
BBC and Moscow Times journalist Matthew Collin reports on the use of local pop singers to campaign in support of the governmental favorite, prime minister Serge Sargsyan, ahead of the 19 February presidential election in Armenia. This is Tbilisi Calling says that while the authorities might be utilizing the stars...
Armenia: Decisive Rally
Unzipped comments on this coming Saturday's pre-election campaign rally by former president and candidate for the 19 February presidential vote, Levon Ter-Petrossian. The blogger says it is being billed as a “decisive” and expects the opposition to finally unite.
Blog Outreach in Madagascar – From Forumists to Bloggers
We are delighted to introduce to you the first of the second round grantees of Rising Voices. Foko Blog Club is a blog outreach arm of FOKO, a project founded by four bloggers committed to the development of Madagascar by teaching blogging skills to the young people in Madagascar.
India: Run-up to Super Tuesday
Indian Muslims Blog rounds up the process of presidential elections in the U.S. as of a day before Super Tuesday.
Pakistan: Arbitrary Censorship
Arbitrary censorship of websites in Pakistan – affecting KO and Wired Pakistan.
Pakistan: Where are these clock towers?
A quiz at All Things Pakistan. Recognize the location of the clock towers in the photographs!
Sri Lanka: LTTE and War
Times Eye comments on the sheer scale of violence caused by LTTE's activities, and why war may be the only way out.
India: How the US elects
Elections in the US can appear quite muddled-up to an outsider. confused of calcutta explains the various stages of the presidential elections.
Nigeria: 2Face Idbla attacked
Last week, Nigerian superstar, 2Face, was attacked and robbed, Bella Naija reports: “Nigeria superstar, 2Face Idibia was attacked by armed robbers AGAIN! On Thursday last week, armed robbers attacked Tuface Idibia around 11PM in Anthony Village, Lagos State. The robbers allegedly got away with Tuface’s new Range Rover SUV.”
South Africa: Campaign to end hate
Sokari blogs about the campaign to end hate in South Africa: “The 07-07-07-Campaign to end hate against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Intersexed (LGBTI) persons was launched at the Saartjie Baartman Centre, Heideveld in Cape Town on the 2nd anniversary commemorating the violent and brutal death of 19 year old...
East Africa: Stay away from falling coconuts
Pernille writes about the dangers of falling coconuts in East Africa: “In East Africa people do die in relatively significant numbers each year from falling coconuts hitting them on the head. Coconuts can weigh up to four kilos and may fall 25 meters with an impact velocity of 80 km/h...
Kenya: Presidential elections after 10 years
Oscar Obonyo argues that Kenya should hold presidential elections after 10 years: “JUDGING from events of the just concluded presidential polls I opine that Kenyans ought to change the existing electoral laws to subject the holder of the Office of President to elections only after a straight term of ten...
South Africa: Twaction 2.0
Tyler writes about a site he launched last year in South Africa, Twaction: “In December I launched a site called Twaction. In short, it’s a site that turns tweets from Twitter into actions. I am really grateful for the coverage it has received and I owe a lot to those...
South Africa: Blogging memories in graphs
Vincent uses graphs to tell the 2007 South African blogging memories: “This post is based on 6-month data from Amatomu, showing blog audience reach as a percentage. Some of them compare blogs, others show single blogs and each illustrates something I think has been fairly important.”
South Africa: Voting for blog awards begins next week
Nominations and voting for the 2008 South African Blog Awards begins next week: “The 2008 South African Blog Awards is scheduled for its annual process of nominations and voting this year from 11th February through to 14th March, and the winners announced at the final awards ceremony on 3rd April.”
South Africa: TED Africa Conference 2008
Juliana writes about the 2008 TED Africa conference in South Africa: “The TED Africa conference in Capetown South Africa, promises to build on the magic of TED Global 2007. The concept for this years’ conference makes that quite clear.”
Kenya: Music for peace
Kenyan musicians make a music video for peace: “Musicians from around Kenya join to create a music video and song to help stem the violence in Kenya.”