Global Voices Online

Foreign Notes posts an account of how the Ukrainian parliament “[spit] in Putin's porridge.”

The beatroot wonders whether the recent resignations mean that the Polish government is falling apart and provides more info on the resignation of the minister of the interior Ludwik Dorn. Traveling Life has more on defense minister Radek Sikorski's departure.

Russian Kafe reports: Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin join forces against Bill Gates in the pirated software case brought against a Russian schoolteacher.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky's lawyer Robert Amsterdam releases a statement from his client.

Snowsquare reports on Moscow's mayor's “annual head injury.”

An Iranian history forum is launched where people can discuss about different topics and periods in Iranian history.I discovered it thanks to Iranian.com.

Tunisian blogger Sami Ben Gharbia writes (Fr): “Shams, the Kuweiti singer just released her video “Ahlan Ezzayak” [Welcome, how are you?] which has become popular in Arab countries. The video which caricatures the American administration (Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney) mocks American policy in the middle east arab-style.” The blogger goes on to post the video.

Lebanese blogger Nancy D describes this picture as ‘So Lebanese.'

Lebanese blogger The Human Product visited Hatta, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and posted pictutres here.

Nick discusses a condemnation from the International Crisis Group of expanding European ties with Uzbekistan and wonders why there are different standards for European relations with Uzbekistan than with countries like Iran.

Aussie Dave at Israellycool ridicules Palestinian officials performing the Muslim pilgrimage rituals here.

neweurasia reports on recent developments related to press freedom in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Jonathan at Head Heeb gives us his two cents on the Palestinian agreement reached in Mecca. “There are, to be sure, some positive signs. The fact that the Fatah and Hamas leadership had the political maturity to perservere despite factional violence, and that they succeeded in reaching an agreement, is evidence by itself that the gunman's veto can be overruled,” he writes.

Levan continues to mine MySpace for Georgian music, coming up with a list of folk an classical musicians.

Onnik Krikorian posts his latest Armenian parliamentary election monitor at its new home, which will not only monitor online coverage of the election, but also occasionally produce its own original reporting and research.

The Armenian Economist applauds the Armenian tax service for making information on the top 1000 tax payers more transparent but says that it needs to be explained better.

A course on human rights is being held in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, in March 15-16, reports Saudi Jeans.
“The course is the first of its kind here, and the seats are limited,” he explains.

Saudi Jeans wonders how can bloggers protect themselves, following Bahraini Mahmood Al Yousif's incident.
“Mahmood's suggestion to arrange a workshop run by professional journalists to teach us how to criticize, but not get legally caught for their efforts is a good start, but I think there is more to do here, although I don't know exactly what to do. More suggestions?” he writes.

Qatari television network Al Jazeera has opened an office in Israel, writes blogger Eliesheva.
“My Israeli side is annoyed; why do they get to freely tramp around the country as professional journalists and Israeli citizens can’t even step foot inside most Arab ones?” she says.

Worldwide demonstrations to call for the release of Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabil Sulaiman are being planned on February 15, writes blogger Esraa in Mideast Youth.

Bahraini blogger Lulu is wondering whether it is safe to blog in Bahrain, after the Godfather of Bahrain's blogger was released on bail for describing a minister as 'stupid'.

Trinidad and Tobago has a new user driven social content website called Allyuh.com, which also maintains a blog.

Puerto Rican blogger Rafi posts an annotated mix of songs he considers representative of the main themes present in the work of Cuban folk singer Silvio Rodriguez.

Expat French blogger Katuali complains (Fr) about the ridiculous markup in prices on French products in New Caledonia, an Oceanian island which is technically part of France: “That there be taxes and custom fees is fine but from there to selling a product 6.65 times more than what it costs in mainland France, is it really worth it? To top it all off, it's a product that is supposed to be eaten fresh.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has denounced Rhie Won-bok’s comic “Far Country, Neighbor Country” for its anti-Semitic content. The issue has much resonance in the blogsphere.

Robert Koehler from Marmot's Hole hopes that more foreign press would pick up the story.

Michael Hurt tries to trace the history of anti-Semitism in Asia.

Joe Mondello has been translating the content of the book from Korean to English to throw light on the counterfactual nature of the book.

Fons Tuinstra in China Herald blogs about the prospect of e-commerce in China.

Sina.com opened a blog for the famous contemparory writer Wang Shuo. Wang in his Pi-zi (slandering) manner (video)asked “what make you think that I will write for you for free?” Wang Xiaofeng shows his support for Wang and criticizes Sina's blog policy further, especially that the editors would delete and edit the bloggers' post (zh).

More and more wealthy and famous people, such as artists, popstars are violating the one child policy. Zengying feels that such kind of open violation of policy is a reflection of social inequality (zh).

ESWN translates a reporter's account about his experience (with 5 other newspapers' media workers) in working with the Labor Supervisory Department to obtain back wages for migrant workers.

Isaac has written “An Open Letter to Google Founders— to save Google in China and save Internet in China” and propose 3 ideas to Google for its China strategy in a long term run, to survive, and live better.

Robert Neff from Ohmynews writes about the history and practice of circumcision (”Whale Hunt”) in South Korea.

Michael Hurt blogs about the superiority of Korean Chicken, the secret is in the seasoning and the size.

Vietnamese God visits the village of Bat Trang for his Tet (Vietnamese New Year) shopping and post images and description of the village. The village is well known for its ceramics.