Global Voices Online

Srebrenica Genocide Blog reports on the ICTY trial of Zdravko Tolimir, an unrepentant former Serb general charged with “genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of laws and customs of war.”

“After the shooting of the police officer, about 5 000 residents of Prishtina […] marched peacefully through the city to show their disgust at crime in the city,” Prishtine: Independence and Kanun reports and posts photos.

Prishtine: Independence and Kanun posts pictures of a favorite store in Kosovo's capital: “‘ginger' … when you have a need to feel suave, intellectual or just plain bourgeoisie, ginger is the place for you — books, music, dvds, couch, dog and all. This store rocks….”

Belgrade 2.0 writes about the noise of turbo folk music: “It is designed to destroy brain cells more effectively than most advanced weapons today, without harming the natural environment, pretty much like the new Russian vacuum bomb.” And about the noise of a military celebration that invlolved MIG planes flying over Belgrade: “If you really must show off, do it somewhere where there aren’t any people who experienced the Serbia bombing of ’99 comitted by NATO.”

Novala, Europa posts pictures from Sarajevo and recommends some of the city's museums.

TOL's Balkanizer writes about “the fear of democratic exclusion” in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Balkan Yankee writes about Beirut, a band that blends “American Indie roots and the Balkan brass/Gypsy sounds that inspired them,” and about Foltin, a band that mixes “contemporary jazz with traditional Macedonian sounds.”

Real Life in Thailand makes a point by point rebuttal of statements made by the former prime minister Thaksin on the anniversary of the coup that ousted him. The letter attacks the current administration in Thailand.

Bangkok Pundit responds to the criticism that Thailand is singling out North Korean detainees for harsh treatment. North Koreans fleeing the desperate conditions in their country are increasingly using Thailand as a transit point to South Korea.

Loveless, A mainland Chinese living in Singapore responds to a post on another blog that talks about some reasons why locals in Singapore do not like people from China.

Balouch says [Fa] that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's request to visit World Trade Center, in N.Y., was refused by American authorities.It seems Iranian president wanted to lay flowers in memory of 9/11 victims.The blogger says Iranian president,instead of visting WTC, can go visiting Khavaran cemetery where thousands of executed political prisoners were buried in 1988 in Iran.Baloch says Khavaran is in Iran and Ahmadinejad does not need a permission or visa!

Hanif,one of Iranian bloggers who had been arrested and jailed for blogging, says[Fa]that Haleh Esfandiari,Iranian-American scholar, contrary to many other former prisoners,after leaving Iran,told that she had not been mistreated in prison.Hanif says according to his prison experience,political prisoners had been asked by security agents to talk positively about their prison time after being released.He adds that if we did not obey their requests our friends would stay in jail.Hanif says Esfandiari is in the same situation and she is still a prisoner.There are at least a couple of American-Iranians still in Iran.

Mohmmad Masih in his blog, Sineh Sorkh, writes [Fa]that several Iranian feminists have recently left country.The blogger says that these women activists have found a place to stay in UK,Netherlands and USA.The blogger adds that Iranian feminist movement is disappearing.

The Culture and Politics of Tamil Cinema on the culture of adulation and comparing the cases of two contemporaries in different states.

Some of Cerno's friends feel that a particular advertisement has lesbian undertones. People in the comments section don't seem to quite agree.

Indi.ca picks up the specific case of Malaka Silva, and the denial of justice. “Sri Lankans already have little faith in a justice system where connections can so easily get you off, but this would just shatter it.”

The Pakistani Spectator has an interview with Fahd Mirza who has been blogging for a grand six years.

Mohammad Ali Abtahi,blogger and former vice president, writes that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,Iranian president,when he was elected two years ago, talked a lot about that using private flight and private plane is against public treasury and that trips should be made through ordinary gate and not VIP gate.The blogger adds “after one or two trips, the president made his trips by private planes. The holidays of the parliament, their foreign trips and special fuel card allocated were also either like the past or even more.”

Adda on the detention of Arifur Rahman because of a cartoon, laws and sensitivity of religious groups.

Kuwaiti blogger The Stallion posts a few caricatures and comments on them here.

Don't open your door for strangers, warns blogger Tooomz from Kuwait, who writes about a bizarre incident in which a woman called on her friend's house, pretended she was a neighbour, made up a convoluted story about how her son was sick and needed brain surgery and then begged for money.

Libyan blogger the Highlander suggest new awards to encourage Libyan bloggers to blog. She also writes about a misunderstanding between Libyan bloggers and urges bloggers to reconcile and bridge their differences.

“The kid's have really started school. And guess what? They are all going in the morning! This is the first time this has ever happened. I actually have peaceful and childless mornings! I've dreamed about this for years and years,” writes an ecstatic Khadija Teri from Libya.

Leila Al Haddad, from Palestine, writes: “Today Israel officially announced Hamas a “hostile entity” (although that sort of had me confused-is this to say they were of “friendly entity” status before??). And made the decision to cut fuel and electricity, once again. But fear not, country folk. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed reassuringly that the U.S. ‘would not abandon the innocent Palestinians'.”

“When a man follows governmental rules and regulations; people call him a good citizen. He’s patriotic. When a man follows society’s rules and regulations; people call him civilized. When a man follows God’s rules and regulations; people start asking questions,” writes Jordanian-Palestinian Sugar Cubes.

Maytha, from Kabobfest is back in the US after a two-week visit to Syria. “The reason for the trip was to study Arabic and to learn how to become a better devoted worshipper of Bashar al-Asad,” she writes.

Caribbean Beat Blog reports that the cover of its magazine's latest edition, which features “Barbadian singer Rihanna draped on a purple couch in a provocative pose, looking over her shoulder straight into the camera” has turned out to be quite controversial for some readers.

Shawn and Sue's Island Adventure has a theory about Bermuda: “This island is fat, and not with a “ph” like the kids say. It turns out that 63% of the island's adults are overweight/obese.”

After receiving what he refers to as “e-mails of propaganda” from the Bahamas' recently ousted political party, Rick Lowe at WeblogBahamas.com asks: “Maybe we are not as politically mature as we attempt to portray?”

Elspeth at Now is Wow reviews Trinidad-born director Frances-Anne Solomon's film A Winter Tale.

Cheese-on-Bread links to reports on the funeral of the late Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Sir John Compton.

“Nassau as we know it today is largely a creation of the revenue earned from bootlegging”: Larry Smith at Bahama Pundit revisits the days of the rum runners.

Nasratha writes about presidential elections in Sierra Leone where the opposition candidate won: “Sierra Leoneans can finally breathe easy after 5 weeks of waiting for election results…Earnest Bai Koroma's All People's Congress has won the 2007 Elections.”

Suh Jung-Hwan from Voice of the People reports on the openning ceremony of a new organization, Solidarity Against Disabled Discrimination, in September 5. The ceremony ran parallel with the government-led ceremony of Disabled People's International World Assembly in order to criticize the government' hypocrisy on disabled people's rights.

Debito comments on the withdrawal of moral education plan proposed by former Prime Minister Abe: teaching (and grading) “patriotism”, would leave Japan’s children of international roots in a bind–how can they “love” Japan “properly”, in a way quantifiably gradable?

Ibrahim El-Mouelhy from Outblaze blogs about the web and blogger gathering in September 18: over 80 people signed up at the wiki event page and around 70 showed up. For nearly three hours industry people and enthusiasts mingled, drank, ate, and made merry.

Xu Zhi-yuen from mindmeters blogs about his experience in playing computer game in his college time (zh). At that time, computer represented new technology, progress and future; and his roomates had spent more time for computer game, chatting than studying. The blogger is skeptical about technology and considers it a deceptive myth.

Wang Ling spoofs the 17 Party Congress in the coming October by listing out 17 correlations. For examples, 8 honors + 8 humiliations + harmonious society = 17; control the price of pork to 17 yuan per 0.5 kilogram; close 17,000 websites before the congress; etc (zh).

The Devil's Excrement writes about the threat made by President Hugo Chavez to take over Venezuela's private schools.

Blogger Arima from Egypt talks about Arablish in this hilarious post. Arablish is a “form of speech that mixes Arabic with English. It is widely used among Arab Western-educated elites.”

Egyptian blogger Mosfata Hussein introduces us to TV presenter Booby Julia. “As a blogger, a doctor and an Egyptian citizen. It is my duty to bring forward the latest socio-cultural phenomena happening in my environment. I would like to introduce to you BOOBY JULIA!” he explains.

“Well, I'm sure you've heard of court cases where people have won millions of dollars for suing others over all sorts of issues. Anyway, this totally blows them out of the water; here, we have a Nebraska State Senator whose decided to sue… God,” rants Bahraini blogger Ammaro.

Bahraini in Alaska, Dr Haitham Salman, shows us a picture of the migrating geese in his backyard. He is now waiting for the deer to show up.