16 June 2008
Stories from 16 June 2008
China: Curse of the Olympic mascots?

In case you ever wondered if those Olympic Fuwas weren't just a little too cute to be true, apparently you aren't the only one. For China, the superstitious formula to...
Palestine: Obama on Jerusalem as Undivided
Barack Obama's pledge on June 11th to AIPAC that Jerusalem should be Israel's undivided capital has angered Palestinian officials. President Mahmoud Abbas made a statement that Obama's pledge is “totally...
Iraq: Black - The Colour of Grief
Iraqi women are now accustomed to wearing black - the colour of grief and mourning, notes Inside Iraq. But amid the darkness and gloom, some young women admit to wearing brown, green and even pink!
Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia: Top war crimes suspect Župljanin arrested
Stojan Župljanin, one of the four top remaining war crimes suspects from the 1990s Balkan Wars wanted by the International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), was arrested on Wednesday near Belgrade. The ICTY had been seeking Župljanin since 1999, and the US government had even offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Zupljanin's arrest or conviction. The Balkan blogosphere has been abuzz with the news.
Japan: Reflections on the Akiba Massacre (Part 2)
The massacre on June 8th in Tokyo's Akihabara district sparked heated debates in Japanese blogs about the limits of citizen media. Two Ustream users who were on at the scene just after the killing shot live footage of victims of the knife attacks, images that were was streamed onto the Internet and attracted as many as 3000 viewers before going down. While many have criticized the decision to stream the images live from the scene, others have described what happened as inevitable.
Vietnam: Detention of journalists sparks web debate
GV author Caroline Finlay writes about how the arrest of two Vietnamese journalists last month sparked an online debate about media freedom and corruption in Vietnam. The spirited online discussion was interesting and encouraging since the press is tightly controlled in Vietnam.
































Next time we will be there again :)