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.

Laos: Act of charity

  5 April 2008

Laotian Teacher reminds the public that “an act of charity is not just giving of things or monetary donations; it is also an act of caring for others with our words and deeds.”

Philippines: Politician's dilemma

  5 April 2008

Doralicious, a city councilor, is confused whether to publicly promote events through billboards. She said: “If I do not promote my events, people would say I am a useless councilor…But if I do promote my projects via tarpaulins, they then say that these are unnecessary expenses.”

Free Speech Roundup: Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Yemen

  5 April 2008

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.

Angola: Miss Landmine Crowned

  5 April 2008

Miss Landmine has been crowned: “Augusta Urica is the winner of Miss Landmine beauty pageant in Angola. The pageant was organized for survivors of landmine explosions in the country. Eighteen women competed in the controversial event organized to raise awareness about the ongoing situation with landmines in Angola.”

Zimbabwe: Anyone know someone with a truck?

  5 April 2008

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."

Israel: Israeli Startup Falsely Accused of Rigging Zimbabwe's Elections

  5 April 2008

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.

India: The Olympic Torch and Tibet

  5 April 2008

It seems like Tibet refuses to go away from people's mind. Tibet continues to be the dominant topic of conversation and is clearly gathering a lot of public support, especially in virtual India. Baichung Bhutia, India's well-known football player has refused to carry the Olympic torch when it comes to...