Global Voices Online

Sociolingo's comments about Mali's election photos from BBC: “Politics in Mali is a youth movement, and there are many young Malians who take a keen interest in the political parties. In schools we have mock parliaments and elections. It is a BIG thing and each class has to choose their representative. The kids go round class to class campaigning, even the littlest ones.”

Pernille blogs about the 4th Ugandan Bloggers' Happy Hour: “It is an interesting phenomenon - this Ugandan Bloggers Happy Hour. In how many African capitols do people get together for a few hours on the last Thursday night every month for a beer and a chat? Just because they blog. Or as someone said to me last night; ‘I'm here because I read blogs', which I find just as good a reason.”

Ahmad Shirzad,former reformist deputy in Iranian parliament, writes [Fa]that we can find out about Ahmadinejad's real thoughts if we listen to his speeches during his trips to country's provinces.According to the blogger, he rejects all achievements of human being.Shirzad says in a speech he said educated people from USA and UK can not solve our problems and we have asked religious teachers and clerics to find solutions for us.The blogger reports that Ahmadinejad says now world is disgusted about democracy.

“Egyptian bloggers will hold a “wedding party” in Talaat Harb Sq., Friday 4 May, 6pm, to celebrate the marriage of our future president Gamal Mubarak to the lovely Khadiga, which will be held simultaneously in Sharm el-Sheikh. The bloggers’ protest party will be held under the slogan: “Heyya ah! Baladna La!” (basically: Go and marry her, but don’t marry our country!)” writes blogger Hossam El Hamalawy.

Ukrainiana posts pictures from a recent opposition rally in Kyiv and writes: “As the rally drew to a close, it started raining lightly. A group of opposition supporters headed for the Counter-Maidan and streamed past it unobstructed, with 0.0 casualties. Sorry, Mr. Yanukovych, no civil war. Just a civil walk.”

Oneworld Multimedia rounds up the latest news on Armenia's parliamentary election campaign.

Another personal reflection on Mstislav Rostropovich, written by an anonymous contributor to Robert Amsterdam's blog - “who as a young musician had the distinct honor of personally meeting the great Russian master.”

Mongolia Matters shares a photo of something remarkably rare for Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, carless streets.

Megan Case shares a personal memory of Mstislav Rostropovich, who died in Moscow last week.

LJ user morrire has photos from Kemin (ru), where a by-election for Kyrgzystan's parliament just took place.

Onnik Krikorian reports on the Armenian parliamentary election campaign from behind the scenes at public television.

Trinidad and Tobago is talking about constitutional reform - Jeremy Taylor puts in his two cents' worth.

Uzbek has been written with four different alphabets over the last century, and the government of Uzbekistan has been trying to make the transition from Cyrillic to Latin for many years. Beyond The River discusses an article on the coexistence of the two alphabets and the importance of still knowing Cyrillic.

South Asia