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China: 7.8 scale earthquake felt across most of China

John Kennedy · 08:57, May 12th, 2008 · East Asia

lingua → mk · sq · bn

At 2:28 pm Monday Beijing time, an earthquake registering 7.8 on the Richter scale struck in southwestern China's Sichuan province, centered in Wenchuan county, and with tremors felt as far away as Beijing and Hong Kong. China's Seismological Bureau has warned that aftershocks ranging in scale from 2 to 6 will take place later in the evening. 33 comments · »»

PangeaDay: an event lived worldwide

Juliana Rincón Parra · 04:14, May 12th, 2008 · Americas , East Asia , Middle East & North Africa , South Asia , Sub-Saharan Africa , Western Europe

lingua → mk · sq

Pangea Day took place Saturday, and people from different parts of the world got together to watch movies and be a part of the worldwide event where movies, speakers and music showed us a bit of life on the other side of the globe, uniting people from all walks of life to believe that we aren't as different as we would believe. It also included a mobile video contest, with an international lineup of winners. 2 comments · »»

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Stories

May 13th, 2008

China: “Strolling” for the Environment

Kelly · 13:03 · East Asia

Earlier this month, before an earthquake killed thousands, about 400 to 500 people in Chengdu, China took to the streets to protest the construction of a proposed petrochemical plant, calling their outing a "stroll" to get around applying for a permit to protest. The event was organized through cell phones, ... 0 comments · »»

Kyrgyzstan: A Slow Time

Elena Skochilo · 09:56 · Central Asia & Caucasus

The May month traditionally comes to Kyrgyzstan with the holiday days. 1st May is the Labor Day, 5th May is the Constitution’s Day and on 9th May Kyrgyzstan celebrates Victory’s day. These day the life of Kyrgyzstan is rather quiet and slow. On 1st May, the Communist’s party held the short ... 0 comments · »»

Korea: Candlelight Vigils and Teenagers

Hyejin Kim · 06:16 · East Asia

Since the beef trade between South Korea and the U.S. was recently negotiated after the new President Lee Myung Bak’s visit to the U.S., and the concern of mad cow disease from imported meats upset Korean society, those issues have caused complaints against the new President to balloon and mingle ... 0 comments · »»

Palestine: Blogging for Palestine on May 15th

Jillian York · 03:32 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → ar · de

May 15, 2008 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba or commemoration of the displacement of Palestinians from what is now Israel. Of course, for Israelis the date signifies the 60th anniversary of their country's independence. And for bloggers, May 15 signifies Palestine Day. 3 comments · »»

Venezuela: Publishing House Provides Works Online

Laura Vidal · 01:05 · Americas

lingua → mk

There is good news for fans of literature in Spanish. Thanks to an initiative from the Venezuelan Ministry of Culture, literary works from the publishing house Ayacucho Library is now available online for free. Bloggers celebrate the selection of works that make it easier to access literature. 0 comments · »»

May 12th, 2008

Moroccan Student in Lebanon Chronicles Life in the Middle of Political Crisis

Lydia Beyoud · 23:41 · Middle East & North Africa

Manal, a Moroccan student at the American University of Beirut, blogs firsthand accounts of life in the middle of Lebanon's political crisis. 0 comments · »»

Kuwait: Elections Getting Closer

Abdullatif AlOmar · 17:53 · Middle East & North Africa

Kuwait is gearing up for another round of Parliamentary elections on Saturday (May 17), allowing women to cast votes and nominate themselves for the second time in the country's history. Abdullatif AlOmar brings us the latest reactions from Kuwaiti blogs in this post, including a call for women to use their votes wisely to safeguard the future of their children. 0 comments · »»

Sri Lanka: Government Wins Eastern Polls

Nishadha Silva · 17:13 · South Asia

The much hyped Eastern Provincial council elections were held last Saturday ( 10, May ) with the government winning 20 of the of the allocated 37 seats.United National Party won 15 seats and JVP and TDNA won 1 seat each.While the government hailed this as a major victory in the ... 0 comments · »»

Global Voices partners with NewsTrust

Amira Al Hussaini · 15:42 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → zhs · zht

Today marks the first day of a week-long 'news hunt' between Global Voices and NewsTrust, in search of good journalism on the Middle East. The timing of this partnership is particularly important as this week marks the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding, or what many Arabs refer to as 'Al-Nakba, or 'the catastrophe.' Iraq and Lebanon are also facing new escalations in their security situations as the region continues to make headlines around the world. Join us in rating our coverage on NewsTrust. 0 comments · »»

China:Quake damage rising; witness in affected cities

Bob Chen · 13:39 · East Asia

lingua → es

Death tolls: 11921 Updated: The previously isolated towns in epicenter finally saw the first 1300 soldiers. But as the landslide cut off most the roads and high way, communication remains hard. Situation of another 50 thousand people is yet unknown. In Peng-zhou, over 100 thousand people were estimated to be blocked ... 12 comments · »»

Links

Sub-Saharan Africa

Ntwiga interviews Simon Mwacharo, a Kenyan entrepreneur: “Simon owns and runs CraftSkills, a small business based in Nairobi, Kenya that focuses on designing and building self-sustaining renewable energy projects in places not accessible to the electric grid. Craftskills had to date undertaken challenging projects in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Cameroon and Rwanda among other places.”

Central Asia & Caucasus , Middle East & North Africa , Western Europe

Unzipped covers the Queen and Prince Philip's first visit to Turkey since 1971. As the official state visit has been taken as signifying the importance of Anglo-Turkish relations, the blog makes reference to concerns that it could also impact on the international campaign to have the 1915 massacre and deportation of Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire recognized as Genocide.

East Asia

Blogger smashmedia comments [ja] on a CNET article [ja] explaining that mobile carrier DoCoMo is planning to change the ordering of certain “i-menu” items on mobile phones to reflect the size of monetary bids from companies, rather than reflect preferences of users.

Americas

Haitian blogger kiskeácity notices that “there appears to be yet another calypso anthem to Barack.”

Central Asia & Caucasus

The Azamat Report analyzes some individual attempts to rewrite history of Kyrgyzstan, and says that these attempts are mostly unsuccessful mainly because of Russia's growing influence.