22 July 2008

Stories from 22 July 2008

Sudan: UN peacekeeper attacked, Iran opposes ICC action

  22 July 2008

John Boonstra at The UN Dispatch reports that a security officer working with the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has been assaulted by Sudanese Government military personnel. He also reports that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vocally defended his Sudanese counterpart, Omar al-Bashir.

Russia, UK: TNK-BP Battle

The Oil and the Glory reflects upon the currently strained relations between Russia and Britain, with the battle over TNK-BP and Russian nationalisation of energy resources as a background. Tim Newman of White Sun of the Desert reflects further on the issue of what will happen if BP is actually...

Brazil: Electoral censorship at work

  22 July 2008

Pedro Dória [pt] reports that a contestant in the local elections for Porto Alegre, Brazil, was forced to close down her Orkut account and suspend her videos on YouTube. “They are being censored: they can't express themselves using all the resources allowed by the Internet allows. They can not use...

Zimbabwe: Fear and indifference

  22 July 2008

A beautiful gift shares his impressions on the situation Zimbabwe after his recent visit to see his family: “I have heard a lot say western media […] exaggerate about the situation in Zimbabwe. On the contrary I now am convinced that western media understate the gravity of the situation in...

Idols East Africa

  22 July 2008

Wanjiku Unlimited, who has been closely following the Idols East Africa competition, describes the last three contestants left on the show.

Abkhazia, Georgia: “Home”

As everyone seems to be talking about an impending war over Abkhazia, here is a translation of a post by LiveJournal blogger cyxymu, a Georgian who spent his childhood in Abkhazia but now lives in Tbilisi, having become an "internally displaced person" during the hostilities in the early 1990s.

Iranian bloggers react to Israel-Hezbollah deal

While the Iranian government rejoiced at the release of Lebanese prisoners from Israel, bloggers were quick to ask about the fate of Iranians captured in Lebanon, writes Hamid Tehrani, who sums up the reactions of Iranian bloggers on the Lebanon-Israel prisoner swap in this post.

China: Bus-bomb attack creates panic and indignation

  22 July 2008

The bus-bomb attack on 17 shocked not only the city but also China, that people suddenly feel how close terrorism is. The attack is characterized by that it is against innocent people rather than the authority, making it special among the recent unrests. Is it a harbinger, or just another ramdom event?

Barbados, Cuba, U.S.A.: The Times Rejects Mc Cain

  22 July 2008

Caribbean blogs are irate over The New York Times‘ rejection of John Mc Cain's rebuttal to Barack Obama's recent editorial on Iraq: Babalu Blog: “Who the hell gave them the power to think they speak on behalf of my best interests?” Barbados Free Press: “As much as we support Obama,...