Global Voices Online

“There are heavy gun-shots going on near us, and my roommate made me laugh amongst the shootings: ‘these are crazy mother-******s, i am happy to be as normal in comparison,'” writes Razan in Beirut.

“…Hezbollah's private telecommunications network that triggered the confrontation is a 'secure network of primitive private land lines [that] helped the guerrillas fight Israel's high-tech army in the 2006 summer war' quotes GPC on one of the direct causes of the current conflict in Lebanon.

Ben gives us a quick run down of who is who and what in Lebanon right now.

Prof Rami Zurayk, who is in Beirut with his family, writes his observations and what he is witnessing on the third day of the conflicts in Lebanon.

Carlos Pereira [pt] has found a very interesting video showing the mass emigration of Portuguese-descended settlers and white Angolans from Luena, with scenes classified by the blogger as “great drama moments for the victims of a disastrous decolonization process”.

Guilherme Felitti [pt] has some good tips for those who wish to take part of the Reporter Blogger [pt] experiment or want to experiment with Citizen Media. “Remember that, be you a journalist or a blogger, you are committed to telling your readers a story as close to as possible to reality”.

Deane's Dimension takes a look at the issue of poverty, and writes that the question is not how poverty can be reduced, but how wealth can be created.

LIRNEasia on a timeline of Cyclone Nargis and the lack of an effective early warning system.

Mash writes on the race between Obama and Clinton, from the perspective of a Brown American.

In a post titled “Hell in the time of Junta”, Sepia Mutiny writes about the humanitarian crisis in Burma.

Almost as good as Chocolate writes about the upcoming Pangea Day - a day devoted to films in different locations of the world.

Peruvians are concerned with recent presidential decrees, which critics say, will make it easier for the military to arrest protesters and will be a blow to human rights in the country. C.J. Schexnayder of Andean Currents writes that the timing may coincide with two international summits to he held in Peru.

Aszaka has published several photos of street children in Iran. The blogger says[Fa] it is the crime of capitalism to leave these “angels” into poverty.

Egyptian blogger/journalist Wael Abbas has received the Hellman-Hamlett Award from the Human Rights Watch, writes Ibn Al Dunya from Egypt.

From Cairo, Zeinobia gives us a digest of Lebanon's Hizbulla leader Hassan Nasrulla's Press conference.

From Bahrain, Mahmood Al Yousif paints a colourful picture of the proceedings of a parliamentary session - which discussed witchcraft.

The rising cost of living prompts St. Vincent & the Grenadines blogger Abeni to say: “Seriously though, I find times are changing a little too fast for me.”

“It is no secret that people are football crazy in Trinidad and Tobago,” writes Discover TnT Blog, adding that “the upcoming friendly match between Trinidad and Tobago and England is already stirring up debate.”

KnowProSE.com refers to an article in the Trinidad Express to make the point that “in the continuation of an era where government is being accused more and more of corruption and overspending, it seems counterintuitive that a government that wishes to stay in power would remove public hearings.”

Jamaican Geoffrey Philp blogs about the life and work of Guyanese poet Mahadai Das, and features one of her poems.

Social Science in the Caucasus, the blog of the Caucasus Resource Research Centers, looks at the the subjective well-being of citizens living in all three South Caucasus republics. Although the data used for the survey is from 2006, the survey finds that the impact of poverty and unemployment is more significant than in other former Soviet countries such as Ukraine and Russia.

The “Presbítero Maestro” cemetery in Lima celebrates its 200th anniversary and Javier Vargas of Deveritas [es] posts colorful photos about its “beautiful tombstones, mouments and mausoleums adorned with marble sculptures belonging to wealthy families and national heroes.”

Detained Malaysian blogger Raja Petra has posted bail and is now at home.

William Long introduced the release of a new Chinese-English translation tool by Google and Kingsoft [zh]. Fons also writes about it at China Herald.

Fons from China Herald quoted a report from market watch about the Guangdong government's plan to lift wages of all employees by 12 percent this year.

Zheng Jingyan said that the national security police intimidated her neighbors and told them not to let their kids play with her baby. Zheng's husband, Hujia, was sentenced to 3.5 years earlier this year and Zheng is monitored.

Unzipped features a guest blogger from the Armenian Student Association in California who reports on how Armenian-American university students remember the Armenian Genocide through art and performance.

Ben Ng notices that the Fujyoshi (female ontaku) sub-culture is on the rise in Japan.

Ampontan blogs about government and private sector's plan for meeting the demographic challenge.

Japan Observer comments on Chinese President Hu Jintao's 5-day visit to Japan.

Junni wrote a Korean film festival guide at Ohmynews.

“Apparently many Saudi women believe that late night weddings are highly inconvenient, so they’re campaigning and holding workshops to try and change this tradition,” writes Bahraini blogger Esra'a, who argues that Saudi women should be rallying for other, more pressing issues.

“[T]here had been news circulating saying that the regime ordered the three mobile phone operators in Egypt either to cancel all the accounts with unregistered data especially in Mobinil and Vodafone or to close the SMS service for these accounts,” writes Zeinobia from Egypt.

From Egypt, My Life Thinking writes about increasing gas prices in his country.

“The Israeli government's Foreign Ministry is involved in efforts to influence public opinion on the Internet. Israel's Foreign Ministry orders Internet propagandists, so called ‘trainee diplomats,' to skew online polls and public forums to conform with the Israeli line,” writes Window Into Palestine.

Egyptian blogger Tarek says: “Egyptians, you've been punk'd,” following news that Egypt's parliament endorsed Monday a government bill to raise taxes and fuel prices less than a week after President Hosni Mubarak announced a 30 per cent salary increase for all government employees.

Dutch sweets will soon be available in Morocco, according to 24 Oranges.