23 July 2012

Stories from 23 July 2012

Spain: King's Controversial Son-in-law Gets Salary in Millions

  23 July 2012

Amid austerity cuts, the Duke of Palma and son-in-law of the King of Spain Iñaki Urdangarín's new salary has caused a scandal in the country. Urdangarín will receive a 1.5 million euro salary as well as 1.2 million euro in-kind this year, after renewing his contract with the telecommunications company Telefónica. Urdangarín is also currently being investigated for misappropriating public funds, for which he could be sentenced up to 18 years in prison.

India: Fellowships At Pad.ma

  23 July 2012

Kracktivist informs that Pad.ma, an online archive of densely text-annotated video material, is offering Fellowship to Indian and non-Indian individuals for experiments and research with video archives.

Sri Lanka: Remembering 23rd Of July 1983

  23 July 2012

Shubha remembers the dark days of the Sinhalese-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka which began on the 23rd of July 1983, in the aftermath of a funeral of 13 Sri Lanka Army soldiers, who were ambushed and killed by the LTTE in Jaffna.

Mauritania: Outrage Over the Murder of a Worker

In the early hours of Sunday [July, 15], Guard Forces (police) in Mauritania attacked a group of workers on strike, at the headquarters of the Mauritanian Copper Company [MCM], where they work. The attack led to the death of a worker for the first time since the sixties of the last century. The case sparked the interest of Mauritanian activists. Mohamed Abdou summarizes their online reactions.

Paraguay: Tweets for Federico Franco on his Birthday

  23 July 2012

E'a [es] aggregates tweets dedicated to Federico Franco on his birthday. Federico Franco is the new President of Paraguay after Fernando Lugo was removed from office on June 22, 2012. You can read more tweets under the hashtag #EnTuDiaFrancoGolpista [es].

Portugal: Tugaleaks Bank Account Deemed as Terrorist and Closed

  23 July 2012

Website Tugaleaks, which aims to serve since December 2010 as Portugal's Wikileaks, had its bank account for donations arbitrarily closed on July 13 with no official communication [pt]. Tugaleaks contributors were finally told the account had been closed based on Act 25/2008 [pt] of money laundering and terrorist financing, which...

Colombia: Scientific Community Concerned Over Resignation of Top Official

  23 July 2012

The resignation of Jaime Restrepo Cuartas, director of the Administrative Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Colciencias, has raised concern among the scientific community about the future of Colciencias (the main source of funding for most Colombian scientists) and the future of research in general in the country.

Russia: Hacker Hell, Scourge of the RuNet

When noted Russian anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny's email and Twitter accounts were hacked, it came as no surprise that the hacker "Hell" took responsibility. A legendary figure in the RuNet, the hacker can either be characterized as a Kremlin shill or a professional troll.

Tajikistan: Learn the National Anthem to be a Doctor

Tajikistan's Deputy Health Minister has recently announced [ru] that “without knowing the national anthem, doctors will not be able to correctly diagnose their patients”. Netizens have responded to the announcement with irony. Blogger Harsavor writes [ru], for example: “[M]y donkey cannot diagnose people. Maybe it is because he does not know...