Global Voices Online

Honduras Last Week explains how carbon trading will fund a new hydroelectric project thanks to new Kyoto Protocol funding.

Baheyya from Egypt posts new photos of ‘Writers and Artists for Change' while they staged their second protest in the public square at Cairo.

Zimpundit asks if opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has seen the light with his plan to travel around the country soliciting the views of ordinary people on how to remove the government of President Robert Mugabe from power.

Congo Girl picks up on a Save the Children report that 12,500 girls are currently involved with both government and non-government troops in the D.R. of Congo, but are seen as “wives” and camp-followers, and are rejected by both their former communities and rehabilitation programs for child soldiers.

Nazret.com's Ethioblog compiles a round-up of news reports about criticisms of the Ethiopian elections by EU election observers.

A number of bloggers have pledged to blog for sanctions on cotton from Uzbekistan, to put pressure on the country's president on Sept. 1 (the country's independence day) over human rights violations.

Dimitar Vesselinov, at The World 2 Come, wonders what happened to Bloglines, and shares his feeds with the rest of the blogosphere while he's waiting.

Registan has an analysis of Russian foreign policy towards the former Soviet states, and the battle for influence in Central Asia.

Blogger Nathan Hamm points out via del.icio.us that China's official Xinhua news agency appears to be the only major media outlet covering a denial by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev of speculative reports that the U.S. will open an airbase in Azerbaijan.

Oneworld Multimedia posts a photo of a refugee from Shahumian in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Charles Levinson - Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, writes about Egypt's growing blogger community and mentions Baheyya, The Sandmonkey and The Big Pharaoh. On the Iranian side, he talks about Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian emigrant to Canada, who published directions on how to make a blog in the Farsi. Not to forget to mention that Hossein is one of the Global Voices authors. Last but not least, he talks about how Bahrain's bloggers made a mark, quoting the Silly Bahraini Girl and Haitham Sabbah.

Human Rights Watch reports that the Chadian government has promised to remove all the henchmen of former dictator Hissène Habré, and calls for their prosecution.

M (Thinker's Room)gives an account of his flight from Nairobi to Botswana, including a few tips for the airport authorities in Johannesburg.

Unheard Voices links to a tell-all article on Dhaka as a city.

indi.ca on how Colombo is turning into a Checkpoint city, and cops seem to be found everywhere.

Uma has two posts on leading film actors seemingly clueless on social issues, and with feet in their respective mouths.

Peace along the border can bring back surprising dividends, even rare goats! Read more at pakistani perspective.

Cemeteries in Sri Lanka on Sepia Mutiny. The tigers of LTTE, and how graveyards help to confer legitimacy to the LTTE.

While Shenzhen-based chat service QQ has been ordered to register the real names of all its customers, it's business as usual for Blogcn, one of China's largest weblog hosting companies, said founder and chairman Hu Zhiguang in BusinessWeek.

Newspaper readers are asked whether they agree that “People who read blogs are basically voyeurs who have no lives of their own.” eGen objects to what they called a sweeping statement. “As with most inventions, blogging can be a helpful tool – it depends on why and how we use it. Blogging can be therapeutic and it allows you to gain awareness of yourself. As you type, you stimulate your thoughts and might formulate good conclusions on your own.

The fight against piracy continues in Singapore. The Recording Industry Association Singapore (RIAS) collaborated with the police to arrest 3 people for sharing their music collections on the net. Under Singapore's new anti-piracy laws, the trio can face up to 5 years jail time or a S$10,000 fine each.

Huitabbychen who blogs at www.wretch.cc links Blog Tag to psychologist Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory… “Human being's sense of safety will only come about after their biological needs are fulfilled, which results in a sense of belonging.” Bloggers are said to be following the same pattern of needs fulfilment. Tagging and track-backs flock bloggers together to render each other that sense of belonging.

As floodwater subsided in Chiengmai, a city north of Bangkok, blogger SiamJai goes about exploring the restrictions foreigners have to face in Thailand, and restrictions Thais have to face abroad. He sights this in Laos: “It is prohibited to break in and sleep in the home of a Lao citizen without the owner's consent.”

Blogger Avianto stays on in Berlin, jobless, after finishing his Master of Science in Digital Media degree at ISNM in Lübeck, Germany. Re-reading “Understanding Media” by Marshall McLuhan which briefly touched on Narcissus, he blogs: “Human beings are so simple, we always have extensions when we communicate with the world… The Internet is the latest extension of human as a being and I dare to say that it evolves us into a different level.”

Blogger Ahmad SS Ramadhana estimates that some 2 million Indonesian female undergo abortion every year. Of the number, some 900 of them go through unsafe abortion procedure conducted by untrained personnel. Free sex is said to be one of the main causes of unwanted conception that led to abortion.

Malaysians reject Alfred Kinsey's 10% rule-of-thumb but readily admit that 1 to 4% of the national population are likely to be gay. thecicak.com says official gay organisations are non-existent in Muslim-majority Malaysia. However, there are organizations that support the gay community, such as HIV/AIDS non-governmental organizations like the Pink Triangle. There are also hangout spots, a few bars and clubs throughout Malaysia. But for the most part, the gay community in the country is underground.