With Sandy blowing through, I’m a little behind on everything. Still, I’ve collected some articles and I think they might even be interesting to other people. So here we go.
Africa
An African Election: Rhetoric Around Voting In Close Elections (Racialicious)
Middle East
New respiratory virus identified in the Middle East: What you need to know (Boing Boing)
Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s first female rapper tells the stories that might otherwise be lost (The Guardian)
Canada
Inside Montreal’s Mafia Wars (Guest Voice) (The Moderate Voice)
Canada gets a huge raft of user-rights in copyright (Boing Boing)
Survey: Canadian retailers losing $10.8 million per day to shrink (Security Director News)
U.S., Canada test harmonization of cargo screening at border (Security Director News)
China
What it’s like to be a journalist in China (Boing Boing)
China’s leadership change leaves Obama little respite (Moderate Voice)
Egypt
Egypt Plans to Pull Plug on All Night Shopping (The Moderate Voice)
Greece
In Greece, financial tragedy creates horrific conditions for cancer patients (Boing Boing)
Germany’s Merck halts supply of cancer drug to Greek hospitals (Reuters)
Guatemala
7.4 quake strikes Guatemala; at least 15 dead, 100+ missing (Boing Boing)
Hungary
Man steals phone on subway (Boing Boing)
India
World’s Biggest School Gives Indian Kids Lessons for Life (The Moderate Voice)
Starbucks Launches First Cafe in India (The Moderate Voice)
Israel
Israelis Aim to ‘Fix World’ with Custom Cannabis (The Moderate Voice)
Kebedom Mengistu’s little newspaper gives hope to Africans who’ve fled to Israel (Guest Voice) (The Moderate Voice)
Italy
Manslaughter Verdict For Italian Experts Who Failed To Warn Of Earthquake (The Moderate Voice)
Italian scientists guilty of manslaughter after failing to predict L’Aquila quake; face 6 years in prison (updated) (Boing Boing)
Former Italian PM Berlusconi gets 1-year reduced sentence for fraud (RT News)
Seismologists guilty in Italy: More on the L’Aquila verdict, and what it means for the future of science (Boing Boing)
Collective Intelligence: Science on Trial, Berlusconi sentenced. Dispatch from Italy, by Jasmina Tesanovic (Boing Boing)
Netherlands
Dutch government scraps “weed cards” – foreigners will still be able to smoke weed in Amsterdam’s “coffee shops” (Boing Boing)
New Zealand
New Zealand has Hobbit Coins(I Can Has Cheezburger)
New Zealand record industry flubs its first three-strikes prosecution (Boing Boing)
Mexico
Second to US in Obesity, Mexico Wants Kids to Slim Down (The Moderate Voice)
Kidnapped radio engineers forced to build comms networks for the Zetas, never seen again (Boing Boing)
Pakistan
Pakistan Girl Shot by Taliban Stands Up for First Time (the Moderate Voice)
Pakistan acid attack parents ‘feared dishonour’ (BBC)
Panama
Panama leader tells Germany he wants to adopt euro (Reuters)
Russia
Pussy Riot activists sent to secret harsh labor camps (Boing Boing)
Spain
Spain’s Empty Highways Lead to Bankruptcy (The Moderate Voice)
Spanish Novelist Javier Marias Refuses Spain’s National Narrative Award, 20,000 Euro Prize (Writers Write)
South Africa
South African Police Unit Prosecuted for Fighting Violence with Thuggery (The Moderate Voice)
South Korea
Quack medicine pills made from babies and super bacteria smuggled from China to South Korea (Boing Boing)
Syria
Free/open source programmer and Creative Commons activist Bassel Khartabil faces torture in notorious Syrian prison (Boing Boing)
United Kingdom
English town wins its war against chain coffee (Boing Boing)
UK record industry demands expansion of the Great Firewall of Britain (Boing Boing)
Accidental CC from wedding planner to couple reveals thriving English class snobbery (Boing Boing)
UK surgeon accused of misdiagnosing cancer to perform unnecessary surgeries on women (Boing Boing)
Britain’s free press cringes in anticipation of coming regulation; plutocrats and oligarchs celebrate (Boing Boing)
