Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Egyptian Ahmad Khalil tweets [ar]:

الكهرباء قطعت من الساعة 9.5 وبالتالى النت قطع ، لعلك سعيد يا ريس مرسى ؟؟ نحن نعيش فى العتمه والقادم اسؤأ

@ahmad_khalil:The electricity has been out since 9.50am and as a result there has been no Internet. Are you happy President Morsi? We are living in darkness and the future looks worse.

Lebanese blogger Habib Battah narrates how he was held against his consent, forced to delete photographs of ruins from his phone camera and repeatedly assaulted in this post on the Beirut Report. When he reported the case to his local police station, the officers in charge said it was his word against theirs. He adds:

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Yemeni blogger Noon Arabia writes an open letter to US President Barak Obama in which she says:

All Yemenis are against terrorism and condemn Al-Qaeda, yet are also against the violent and unethical use of predator drones in combating them. We are against the death of civilians, whom you refer to as collateral damage in the war against terror. We are against the long-term effects on their communities and their lives. We are against any extrajudicial killings.

Nora Abdulkarim shares a Saudi-American perspective on the Boston Bombings.

She explains:

I won't try to simplify what is inherently complex. I will simply present and reflect, and nothing more. No fancy theorizing, no overarching message. This post is only meant to be a glimpse at personal identity – that wild thing which one cannot pin down.

Arabic hashtags finally trending worldwide on Twitter

Kuwaiti Hamad Al Sabah tweets:

@hmalsabah: Twitter is finally allowing Arabic hashtags to trend worldwide #كلام_مصري_مترجم pic.twitter.com/tb84Nkrk94

Netizens are using the hashtag, which translates to Egyptian Talk Translated, to translate Egyptian expressions and idioms.

Carmen Weinstein, Egypt's Jewish community leader, has died at the age of 82. Zeinobia, at Egyptian Chronicles, collects reactions from the funeral service, which gathered a lot of media attention:

There is a huge surprising media presence as well security presence where those invited to the funeral have to show their IDs. I am surprised to see such media presence as I knew from a friend who is attending the funeral it was private event.