Global Voices Digest

Kuwait: Sad for Shaikh Saad

Former Kuwaiti ruler Shaikh Saad Al Abdulla Al Sabah died today after a long illness at the age of 78. Kuwait’s online community was moved by the news, as hundreds of messages of sympathy and condolences poured onto blogs, in Arabic and English. The country has declared three days of official mourning - but the parliamentary elections, scheduled for Saturday, will go ahead as planned.

India: Jaipur blasts, Terrorism and the Government

On 13th May, serial blasts rocked Jaipur. Reports suggest that more than sixty people were killed, and another 150 were injured. While terrorism is not new to India, and various cities have seen terrorist attacks, Jaipur has never been attacked on this scale before. The blasts have exposed the vulnerability of cities and its citizens, and the failure of intelligence. Neha Viswanathan brings us blogger reactions.

Korea: Resignation of the King of Samsung Kingdom

The king of Samsung, Lee Kun-Hee, finally announced his resignation last month. Since this announcement, some netizens have been collecting each others’ thoughts on the issue and how much it will influence the Korean economy, and question whether the gesture will really make changes inside the Samsung Kingdom.

Myanmar: Voices through Tweets

Twittering is getting popular among the Myanmar community and blogosphere. Although many Myanmarnese are yet to make effective use of available tech gadgets and popular medium such as twitter, facebook and the like due to lack of information and resources, a few overseas bloggers and students are beginning to indulge in various communication mediums to express their voices. The so called micro blogging mechanism, Twitter, has become quite active among Myanmar users in reporting recent cyclone Nargis news.

Tajikistan: Poor country’s most expensive trial

The poorest country in Central Asia, Tajikistan initiated the most expensive trial in the history of British legal proceedings. Tajikistan will pay 120 million USD for the legal fees which represents 5.2 percent of the country’s entire GDP. Vadim Sadonshoev explains this epic legal case.

Lebanon: Civil Strife

The military confrontations between the different factions in Lebanon have subsided a bit. The Lebanese Army has declared that it will interfere forcefully to restore order. It also seems that there is some sort of undeclared agreement between different sides to avoid escalation. There is a real fear that the conflict will slip into a full fledged civil war. The past five days were marred with killings, atrocities, destruction and violence. Here are some bloggers’ reactions on the crisis.

Israel: Knesset Freezes Talkback Law for Web-Comment Censorship

The Knesset has decided to freeze legislation regulating readers’ ability to respond to articles via the so-called “Talkback Law”, in an effort to allow web sites to practice self-regulation. The Talkback Law, submitted by MK Israel Hasson (Yisrael Beiteinu), passed its preliminary reading. It would make web sites responsible for the talkbacks (user generated comments) of its readers as though they were articles of the site itself.
*This article is cross-posted on Global Voices Advocacy*

Myanmar: Twittering the cyclone disaster

Burmese bloggers have been using Twitter to give updates and reports about the situation in Myanmar. Twitter provides useful links to recent news articles and blog posts about the relief efforts, donation information details and other eyewitness accounts of the continuing tragedy in Myanmar.

Today on Rising Voices: [Translation] Blogger Frustration

There are those days when the technology and bandwidth just doesn’t want to cooperate. Yesterday Voces Bolivianas participant Cristina Quisbert (who blogs in English here) described a frustrating experience she had at a cyber-cafe in El Alto while trying to publish a photo from her digital camera.

Also on Rising Voices: Ceibal Jam! An event for the XO

In hope of getting local Uruguayan programmers to develop educational applications for the XO laptop, Rising Voices grantee Pablo Flores of the Ceibal Project, is organizing a programming “jam” this weekend in order to introduce local programmers and get them thinking about developing innovative applications that particularly suit the needs of the hundreds of thousands of Uruguayan students who now carry their bright green laptops to school each day.

Today of Global Voices Advocacy: Syria: Three-Year Sentence for Blogger Tariq Baiasi

On Sunday 11-5-2008 the State Security Court in Damascus stated its verdict on the Syrian blogger Tariq Baiasi who was held in detention since 7-7-2007. Tariq was detained for leaving a comment on websites disfavored by the Syrian government.

Today on Voices Without Votes: Global: For Clinton, a new mandate from the ‘Mountain State’?

For those of you who weren’t aware, West Virginia, the 41st-largest state in the United States, broke away from much larger Virginia in 1861, during the U.S. Civil War. It was in the mountain state Tuesday night, where West Virginia’s voters overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton 67 to 26 per cent over Democratic front-runner Barack Obama. John Liebhardt brings us the latest world’s reactions to newest face off between the Democrats.

Roundups

Get the blog buzz from the world over in the Global Roundups, where today you can find comparing bread rations in Cuba, Nokia’s business interest in Africa, child labour in Dhaka Bangladesh, and much much more!