July, 2009
Stories from July, 2009
20 July 2009
19 July 2009
Russia: Medvedev Murder Mystery
Anna Politkovskaya... The mere name evokes images of Moscow's worst public relations nightmare in years - an ongoing ordeal for Russia's international reputation in the realm of rule of law. Still, the murderers have not been brought to justice, and Politkovskaya turned into a martyr for world voices critical of Russia - for them epitomising everything that is wrong and wretched with the country. So, should President Medvedev's quick reaction to this week's murder of Human Rights' acitivists Natalya Estemirova merely be regarded as lessons learnt from the Politkovskaya assassination? The answer might be more complicated, as voices from the Russian blogosphere have their say.
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Mauritania: Election Fraud?
Yesterday, 11 months after a military coup d'état led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mauritania has elected the General to the presidency, resulting in Abdel Aziz's main challengers denouncing the election as a “charade,” according to BBC News. A quick scan of the Sahelian blogosphere shows that the challengers are in good company.
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Dominican Republic: The Financial Cost of Undocumented Haitian Immigrants
Ever since the Dominican Republic declared independence from Haiti in 1844, the fates of the two have been intertwined. Since economic development in Haiti is low in comparison, approximately 1 million Haitian immigrants have made their way to the D.R. Many are worried about the increasing cost of providing services to undocumented immigrants.
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Azerbaijan: Activists' support site goes down
Yesterday, as Önər Blog [AZ] reported, the Appellate Court in Baku was to consider again the case of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, the recently beaten and detained youth activists and bloggers sentenced last week. Yesterday, however, one of the main websites created in their defense went down.
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I think the reason it stuck with me is that I was fired from my first real job--teaching at a...