Global Voices Online

LJ user ingannatore reports [RUS] on yesterday's arrests of some 50 opposition activists in Minsk and other cities in Belarus and goes on to comment the conduct of the authorities.

Recent Links also in Eastern & Central Europe

More updates on the flu situation - Greetings from Kyiv: “Flu is all anyone is talking about in Ukraine right now.” Ukraine Today: “Ukraine's best hope now is to pray for an early winter in hope that the virus will not survive Ukraine's bitter cold winters.” Ukrainiana: “People are dying because the hospitals don't have enough oxygenators.”English Russia: photos of Ukrainians in masks. What's up, Ukraine?: WHO's first press release from Kyiv.

Looks like political shoe-throwing is becoming mainstream not only in Iraq. The world has seen the sixth case recently, when, during a press conference, Vitaly Papilkin (aka LJ user papilkin [RUS]) threw his shoe at Samara mayor Viktor Tarhov, elected to his post in one of Russia's largest cities (pop. 1.13 million) in 2007. Two YouTube videos [RUS] of the incident are available - Video 1 and Video 2.

Foreign Notes writes about the possible consequences of the flu situation for Ukrainian politicians. MoldovAnn is considering whether to wear a mask in public or not.