Global Voices Online

Abdelrahman was drafted in October. He will be spending one year in the military. He is the first Egyptian soldier with a blog. He is writing about his life in the boot camp.

A Bangalore based Collaborative Blog, Everyman's City coordinates voluntary work for some its members at Akshara (an NGO).

A brilliant photo-post capturing the vibrancy of a part of Bombay on City of Dreams.

Rezwan reports another case of terrorism - “At least four people have been killed and approx. 50 injured in another wave of suicide bombing in Netrokona (northern Bangladesh”

Metroblogging Islamabad has visuals of a stamp issued by Pakistan Post to mark the World Team squash championship

Questions for women in Islam - and for Islam about women - at Pickled Politics.

Maryanne blogs about a horse show she attended few weeks ago. With pictures of beautiful mares and fillies. She also summarizes the history of the Arabian horse in Egypt and the business of breeding.

Mr.Behi, an Iran based blogger, writes about air plane crash in Tehran: He says the level of negligence of Iranian authority is so ridiculous that only Iranian would believe it.

the leaky pen discusses the outrage on Chinese blogs over local actress Zhang Ziyi's role as a Japanese courtesan in a new Hollywood movie. He fumes: “A problem almost as big as the 400 lb. gorilla of Chinese racism is the self-inflicted stupidity of their anti-Japanese hatred.”

David Weber at Japundit watched a Tokyo showing of the movie “Lost in Translation” and has some suggestions on how it could be more representative of Japan's overwhelming capital.

Farish Noor, a guestblogger at Brand New Malaysian, shares his thoughts about racial profiling, connecting his experience abroad as a Muslim traveler and his country's discrimination against Chinese.

Mr. Brown shares his own condolences and links to posts eulogizing fellow Singapore blogger Sondra of Idle Days, who recently passed away from a rare blood disorder.

Thinking of tooling around on a motorcycle while in Vietnam? Virtual Doug warns: “Việt Nam has the second highest traffic fatality rate in the world.”

Darfur blog, The Passion of the Present annouces today as “Die-In-for-Darfur, Turn the heat on Rice”.. …join Africa Action and friends as we rally at the State Department to challenge Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice to take immediate action to stop genocide in Darfur, Sudan. To represent the 400,000 people who have died in Darfur since the genocide began, activists will risk arrest by staging a “die-in” at the entrance of the State Department, surrounded by drawings made by children survivors in Darfur. Participants that do NOT want to risk arrest will have a safe area and can still participate in the rally”.

Chippla's Weblog contributes to the Nigerian blogsphere debate on the present Biafran movement for a separate state within Nigeria…..Those calling for the creation of a State of Biafra in the 21st century happen to be misguided. They seem to be inward looking and fail to realize that the world has been significantly reshaped since 1960. Nations can no longer rely on the export of raw materials for their survival and innovation is the key in the cat-and-mouse game of global capitalism. Bonsai nation states have little role to play in this game, except they choose to be controlled by more powerful neighbors or allies. Were Biafra to be created it would be equivalent in size to Benin Republic a tiny African nation, though richer in terms of natural and human resources”

Friends of Ethiopia asks if King Tut is African or European and goes on to explain some of the issues around the debate.

This is Zimbabwe is on the short list for best Mid Eastern/African blog - so check their blog and go and give them a vote. Why are the Middle East and Africa lumped together in one category? Surely there are enough awards to allow each region its own award?

PolBlog reports that Poland is in the top 20 countries when it comes to number of internet users.

narcogen reports that a team from Kazakhstan has taken second place in an international competition, but perhaps not the kind of competition one might think.

KZ Blog rounds up reports and opinion on Kazakhstan's recent presidential election.

The Glory of Carniola reports that cosmic forces seem to be conspiring to keep the Slovenia-Slovakia confusion alive.

The Golden Road to Samarqand talks bride kidnapping with Kyrgyz law students.

neweurasia reports on ethnic and religious discrimination in Turkmenistan.