Global Voices Online

Ben Paarmann has posted part two of his series of posts on the determination of Central Asia's national borders during the Soviet period.

Leila and Ben of neweurasia post an interview with Urker, a Kazakh pop-folk band from Almaty.

Sean Roberts reports that awarenes of Kazakhstan in the United States is much higher than it was a few years ago as a result of Sascha Baron-Cohen's “Borat” character. He notes that an official Kazakh media campaign campaign promoting the country in the leadup to President Nursultan Nazarbaev's visit to the US will coincide with advertisements for the Borat movie.

Afghan Warrior talks about the importance of cooperation between Nato forces and Afghan National Army. The blogger says last week 12 border police were killed by a coalition air strike in Paktia province. He adds if they have radio communication with every provincial security official, it would be very useful to prevent such friendly fire. According to recent reports, the US soldiers will be deployed along the border with Pakistan to monitor terrorist activities, which is a very good decision by the American army.

According to Full Metal Jacket, cartoonist, Mana Neyestani and his editor Mehrdad Ghasemfar got permission to come out prison for ten days [Fa].These two were arrested 80 days ago after riots had erupted by ethnic Azaris in Iran when they took offence in Mana Neyestani's cartoon, published in the children's section of the 12 May 2006 supplement of Iran, a government run newspaper.

According to Haftan, Webna is a new radio to inform news about websites [Fa]. This radio has also its own blog and site. Webna calls itself Iranian Website News Agency.

Russia Blog writes about two August tragedies: an explosion at a Moscow market and a Russian plane crash in eastern Ukraine.

Romerican posts a lengthy account of hitchhiking in Romania.

LEvko of Foreign Notes writes about the organized crime and political connection of the recent murder of a senior officer involved in investigation of a “money laundering operation linked to a ‘Donetsk financial establishment'.”

Sean's Russia Blog writes about the possibility of “Putin 3.0” and about a new youth organization called the Young Guard.

David McDuff of A Step At A Time translates an article “on the strained efforts of the Moscow-backed Chechen government to claim the capture of an Umarov, even if it wasn't the Umarov they really wanted.”

Copydude writes about the fate of Sokol, a Soviet-time “intellectuals’ thinkpark” near Moscow, and a common belief that “in St. Petersburg, the woman sweeping the yard will stop to discuss French impressionist film-making.”

Boo and Warsaw Station write about crime and the Polish laborers in Europe.

The beatroot writes about Poland's richest politicians and the problem of corruption: “…it’s they, after all, who are the least bribable.”

A restaurant with the strange (and seemingly offensive) name of of Hitler's Cross is in the news these days. Amit Varma on how the law shouldn't play a role in the issue.

With business outsourcing becoming a major source of employment and economic development for South Asia, LirneAsia presents a baseline sector analysis of Sri Lanka's BPO sector.

La Ventanita asks: “Who's better off since 1959, Cubans or Puerto Ricans?“

Asks Trinidadian Elspeth Duncan: “Can our ‘tourism truth' continue to lie in pretty cliches, unchanging statistics and glossy, tropical images Photoshopped to seduce foreigners?“

Achieving peace in Sri Lanka with the “Sudan Model” - “But, GOSL have all reasonable excuses to set such a condition, given that the tigers have denied ample opportunities to sit in the negotiation table even as a military organization (carrying weapons) through out last 3 years.”

Barbados Free Press calls euphemistic the Barbados's Minister of State's pronouncement that “the threat is “terrorism” itself”.

Lynn Sweeting gets at what may be the real issue behind an English editor's position at a Bahamian newspaper. As one commenter put it, the issue is “the hiring of Bahamian managers, not freedom of the press.”

Samudaya.org on Svankmajer's Lunancy - “Svankmajer appears in the opening scene to present a short monologue: the film, he says, debates the ideology governing the operation of a lunatic asylum—whether to run on the principle of absolute freedom, or an absolute system of control and punishment.”

Maila Baje summarizes the international politics perspective of the Maoist supremo Prachanda. How and why India chooses to interfere in the country, and has China been fair to the aspirations of Tibetans?

Bahamian educator Neil Sealey lays out the steps necessary to upgrade the Bahamian education system.

Forum Realisance believes (Fr) former colonial powers and pharmaceutical companies are partially to blame for the AIDS crisis but saves harsher words for Africans and failed African leaders: ” Ignorance and illiteracy reproduce AIDS blindly without the least use for reason. Isn't it sacred and legitimate to protect oneself? Why not do it? By weakness in front of the beauty of orgasm? Weakness because of the taboo of sexuality? Curious logic.”

At UDPS Liege, BanaCongo representatives deplored (Fr) the decision by some BanaCongo members to issue a declaration in the pressure group's name encouraging the Congolese to remain calm during the electoral period. BanaCongo's President Aubin KIKONKI KINGOTOLO says the declaration was prompted by Joseph Kabila's camp and disavows the members in question.

Daniel Duquenal and Steven Taylor both note that Governor of Zulia state, Manuel Rosales formerly registered as the unified opposition candidate for the December 3 presidential election. Miguel Octavio attended Rosales' rally, which he photographed and described in detail: “Attendance was quite diverse, not a huge middle class presence, which is good, you know who they are going to vote mostly for. It was clear that the political parties worked at bringing people to the rally. There were buses, but not on the scale of Chavez' last Saturday and clearly people were there because they decided to go. No Government resources at work.” Finally, Aleksander Boyd has his own thoughts on Rosales' candidacy.

Planning on traveling to El Salvador? Why not stay at the hostel of “super-art blogger, dancer, and artist Paola Lorenzana.” Liz Henry explains at BlogHer.

Writing from Oaxaca, Mark in Mexico's post titles say it all: More shootings, chaos in the city; Violence escalates; Bad, very bad, and getting worse.

Following a poll which puts Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega in a comfortable lead, Boz offers four talking points on the November 5 Nicaraguan election.

Ana Maria Salazar is tracking the very latest in Chiapas' closely contested gubernatorial election.

Yasmin, a Malaysian film maker talks about

East Asia