Global Voices Online

The Armenian Observer comments on reports that ARF-D presidential candidate Vahan Hovannisian has resigned as Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly. The move follows last week's presidential election in Armenia.

Unzipped comments on reports that four senior Armenian diplomats have resigned following Tuesday's disputed presidential election in Armenia. One of them, Armenian Ambassador to Italy, Spain and Portugal, Ruben Shugaryan, was presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian's aide and press secretary from 1991-3.

The Armenian Patchwork posts photos from one of the post-election protest demonstrations staged by presidential candidate and former head of state, Levon Ter-Petrossian. The blog says that to date there has been no coverage of the rallies held to protest the 19 February presidential election in Armenia on national television.

Negarakha says[Fa] a UN report on Iranian nuclear activity just got announced and we don't know that we should be happy or sad. The blogger says while Iranian government celebrates,western countries say the report proves new sanctions should be imposed on Iran.Read about report here.

Evelyn in Morocco shares her struggles of learning Arabic.

Abdelilah Boukili of Regular Comments Based on Issues Raised by BBC World Haveyoursay questions the practice of Western countries recruiting health care professionals from developing countries.

Persian Arts Festival celebrates Norouz (Iranian New Year) at Queens Museum of Art in New York.Persian Arts Festival has joined forces with the Queens Museum of Art to present a groundbreaking exhibition, Weaving the Common Thread.

Parviz Imani has published several photos of a 2000 years old (or more) Stony Lion in Hamadan in Iran. The blogger says[Fa] such a monument should be preserved in much better conditions and neither people nor government care about it.

According to Timor Online [pt], Gastão Salsinha, who replaced Alfredo Reinado as the rebels' leader after he was killed during the attacks on the East Timor's top leaders, has admitted having opened fire against Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão but said they did not intend to kill him. “So the theory of coup d'etat and attempted kidnapping has been dismissed. It is still unclear what Alfredo Reinado was doing at Ramos-Horta's house”, asks the blog. The state of emergency will be in place for another 30 days.

Blog do Tchôla [pt] has a video and pictures from a massive popular protest on the streets of Maceió, capital of one of Brazil's poorest states. The protest was against the public corruption that has led to R$ 200 million (around US$ 114 million) losses caused by unauthorized, irregular, and wasteful expenditure, as well as criminal activity. “The protest took the streets of the capital in an orderly and peaceful manner. The message was delivered and I believe that many of those [politicians] involved will only be able to rest on sleeping pills and lots of imported whiskey”.

(R)evolução em Angola [pt] publishes the first of a series of posts by Mukuolua Kinamatos about racism in Angola. “White or mixed races? Asked me the lady who was filling my identity card form. White, black and mixed races are the 3 races that can be provided on the Angolan identity card. A very naive person could say, “there is no racism in Angola”. And I respond to this person: look at the identity card, and see more than official evidence that ours is a racist country which encourages racism”.

“Between Conakry and Bamako there are 1000 km of motorways. First forests, then mountain, savannas after. It is a gift to the eyes and a way to ease the 15 hours' drive. The trip ends in a bath of dust, by the entrance to Mali's capital”. On publishing an incredible picture he took last week, Jorge Rosmaninho [pt] says sorry to those people who live by the motorways he drove past carelessly and left in a cloud of dust.

A journalist has been jailed this week for taking photographs in Cape Verde, Nós Media [pt] reports. The blogger has learned the piece of news trough a newspaper's website. “Despite the ambiguity of the piece of news, that don't let us really understand the circumstances in which the journalist was arrested so that we be able to ascertain whether there was an obstruction to the exercise of his work through a violation of Right to Information and Freedom of the Press, it is always bad to arrest a media professional while they are on duty”.

Angola Haria [pt] has created a new discussion forum for Angolans, a place where the blog's readers may write a simple message, share memories or promote healthy discussions.

Avayeh mohitzist (means voice of environment) says[Fa] the seventh international exposition on environmental protection in Iran was a failure. The blogger adds factories and companies that are responsible for destruction of our environment, were main organizers of this exposition.You can see some photos of exposition here.

Thouq from Kuwait posts the pictures of three gulf politicians, two from Kuwait and one from Bahrain, comments: “With all respect to all our brave women working in politics: you certainly have power, but not style!”

“A police informer entrapped and shot dead an officer, after the pig tortured and sodomized him just like what happened with Emad Kabeer…,” writes Hossam Al Hamalawy from Egypt.