Global Voices Online

Trinidadian blogger Jeremy Taylor admits: “I don’t normally swell with nationalist pride, but I confess I was very touched to see and hear this young half-Trinidadian commanding the very stage where Tosca was first produced in 1900, and the Roman audience warming to her and giving her long generous applause.”

Notes from Port of Spain weighs in on everything from the Pope's visit to the US: “It's not enough for the Pope to be ‘ashamed' of his American paedophile priests…he also has to do something about them” to international politics: “It's a lesson to every crook in office or aspiring to it: just brazen it out long enough and the world will lose interest.”

The Bard's identity has long been a matter of debate, but a new candidate has entered the scene. Could Shakespeare have been an Italian Jewish woman? Jewcy's John Hudson provides eight pieces of evidence to change your mind.

Unzipped comments on reports that four senior Armenian diplomats have resigned following Tuesday's disputed presidential election in Armenia. One of them, Armenian Ambassador to Italy, Spain and Portugal, Ruben Shugaryan, was presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian's aide and press secretary from 1991-3.

Ibrahim Owais, from Jordan, draws our attention to a Baby on Board sticker for garbage bin. The campaign, from Italy, is part of a drive to stop people from ‘dumping' newborns into garbage bins.

Living in Shkoder writes about the work of Adrian Paci, an Albania-born, Italy-based artist.

Beirut-born Ali Ayach, 28, is one of the nineteen contestants in the eighth edition of Grande Fratello, Italy's version of Big Brother, reports Lebanese blogger Skylark.

A Fistful of Euros writes about Kosovo: “So we’re going to end up with a Balkan Taiwan: a de facto state without a UN seat, recognized by some nations but not others.”