Global Voices Online

In 1996, Khadija Teri took seeds of a Florida tree to her new home in Libya. “I planted two of them in my garden and they overhang in the street in front of my house offering the only respite from the harsh north African sun on my block. People fight to park their cars in the cool shade, oftentimes I am left with my car in the sun,” she explains.

Recent Links also in Middle East & North Africa

Maghreb Blog reports that the sentence of Chakib Khayari, a human rights activist and whistleblower, has been upheld in a Casablanca court. Khayari is set to serve three years in prison for accusing high-level civil servants of aiding in drug trafficking.

Moroccan resident Ibn Ibn Battuta shares a list of nonfiction and travel books that keep him busy on the road in Morocco.

Iranian students in Paris criticized Iranian government and its repression policy against Iranian students and opposition in a meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian president's advisor in Paris. Here are the films [fa].