5 April 2008
Stories from 5 April 2008
Egypt Gears Up for a General Strike Sunday
An online campaign calling for a general strike across Egypt on Sunday has been gaining momentum, will thousands promising to stop work for the day in protest against low salaries and increasing prices. This prompted the government to issue a stern warning against those planning to take part in the event. Arrests have been reported in Cairo, with one blogger already detained Saturday, for his alleged role in calling for the strike.
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Free Speech Roundup: Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Yemen
The Indonesian government has ordered the country’s internet service providers to block YouTube over “Fitna” the movie. In Saudi Arabia, the blog of the detained Saudi blogger Fouad Alfarhan was blocked, along with the Free Fouad website, which is dedicated to Alfarhan's case. In Turkey, a Turkish court banned access to Slide, the maker of social networking widgets, for “harboring pictures and articles that are considered to be insulting to Ataturk.”. And Yemen blocks Maktoob blogging platform cutting off Yemeni Internet users from the more than 46,960 blogs the service hosts.
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Morocco: An Interview with Mohamed Ali Lagouader, Author
From Mohammédia, Morocco, aspiring author Mohamed Ali Lagouader has discovered the art of transcending borders and reaching out to an international audience through publishing his novels and poetry online. Jillian York catches up with Lagouader and speaks to him about his writing, reading and dreams in this interview.
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Zimbabwe: Anyone know someone with a truck?
As Zimbabweans face an uncertain future following the presidential and parliamentary elections last week, Harare has become the capital of rumours and jokes created to be spread virally using SMS. Comrade Fatso writes on his blog, "Anyone know someone with a truck? There's a guy wanting to move all his stuff from State House to Zvimba. The jokes spread as text messages refer to our aged dictator relocating to his rural home."
China: Taiwan election stirs mainland blogsphere
The 22 March presidential election in Taiwan has not only influenced the island, but also renderred an unexpected impact on mainland China ---- and it's a political one.
Israel: Israeli Startup Falsely Accused of Rigging Zimbabwe's Elections
On Friday, March 28th, an online newspaper called "Zimbabwe Online" published an article accusing Cogniview, an Israeli startup company, of helping Robert Mugabe rig the Zimbabwean elections. A lengthy response was published on Cogniview's blog, denouncing the story as blatantly false, and proposing a possible scenario of how their Open Source PDF converter was linked to Zimbabwe's elections, writes Gilad Lotan.
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That's a great list. Now that Afrigator is no more, how do we get another list of such Top Ranked...