Global Voices Online

Dominic in Armenia, a Peace Corps Blog, posts photographs of a charitable football match recently held in Yerevan with the involvement of international aid workers and under-privileged local children. The blog says the women's team was the most impressive and changed the perception of many local Armenians towards gender and sport.

Recent Links also in Central Asia & Caucasus

Musafirbek says that the president of Uzbekistan officially thanked the cotton-growers for gathering the harvest of this strategic product for Uzbekistan. However, those who sweat away, collecting this cotton (including children) were not mentioned in the president’s address.

Alexander Visotzky writes about the opening of a monument in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, where the authorities uncovered a 15-foot high bronze statue of incumbent president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Dafydd reports that the EU has lifted the arms embargo on Uzbekistan. Reasons given are abolishment of the death penalty and release of political prisoners.