Puffs of Smoke and other News

Should Alcohol be Legalised in Libya? (Global Voices) — I’m totally biased on this question. Yep. It should be. Then, you can control the quality and tax the Hell out of it. And all the good Muslims can look down on the Muslims who drink. And the Catholics in the country can laugh and get drunk like the priests. The Jews can drink wine like the rabbis. And everyone else can just roll their eyes at all of them.

Malaysia

Malaysians Support Army Offensive Against Sabah ‘Terrorists’ (Global Voices)

Mexico

Mexican eco-terrorists declare war on nanotechnology, threaten scientists (Boing Boing)

Moldova

Moldova Without Government: What’s Next – East or West? (Global Voices)

Myanmar

Myanmar’s Exiled Broadcaster to Return Home (Global Voices)

Pakistan

Angry Mob Torches Christian Neighbourhood in Pakistan (Global Voices)

Rome

Election of First Latin American Pope Stuns Analysts (Moderate Voice)

Pope Francis: A New Center of Gravity (Moderate Voice)

The New Pope Speaks to Vatican Crowd (VIDEO) (The Moderate Voice)

New Pope, Jorge Bergoglio, is Argentinian (Global Voices)

Bergoglio, Age 76, A New Pope (The Moderate Voice)

Argentine Pope Elected (The Moderate Voice)

New Pope Elected: Live Blogging (AFP) (Moderate Voice)

Cardinals Poised to Begin Historic Conclave (Moderate Voice)

Breaking the Silence: Secrets of Papal Elections (The Moderate Voice)

As cardinals gather to elect Pope, Catholic officials break into a sweat over news that priests share €23m building with huge gay sauna (The Independent)

Russia

How Using Twitter Can End Your Political Campaign in Russia (Global Voices)

Propaganda & Mystery in Russia’s Browder-Magnitsky Case (Global Voice)

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Court Sentences Reformists to 10 and 11 Years in Prison (Global Voices)

Serbia

“Ten Years Without Zoran Djindjic”: Serbia Honors Slain Politician (Global Voices)

South Korea

South Koreans Rip ‘Chicken Hawk’ Politicians As War Rhetoric Heats Up (Global Voices)

Taiwan

Taiwan Denies Entry to Anti-Nuke Visitor Ahead of Protest (Global Voices)

Tunisia

Self-immolations Continue in Tunisia (Global Voices)

United Kingdom

LibDems leave over support for secret trials; I resign from the party (Boing BOing)

Venezuela

The Curious Case of Hugo Chávez and Peru (Global Voices)

AP: Chavez made “meager” gains, only reduced poverty, didn’t build the world’s tallest building (Boing Boing)

The Curious Case of Hugo Chávez and Peru (Global Voices)

Death of Hugo Chavez a CIA Plot? Views from Venezuela, Bolivia and Russia (The Moderate Voice)

Vietnam

Digitizing the National Library of Vietnam (Global Voices)

Up, Down, All Around, World News

Dec10

Why can’t we all just get along?

United Nations

Abbas wins UN ‘birth certificate’ for Palestine state (The Moderate Voice)

US Senate Fails to Ratify UN Treaty on Disabilities (The Moderate Voice) — Hint: B/c they are @#^$%$*(%(@#$ing idiots and the idiots are already putting in a protest to downgrade the bastards to something worse.

UN’s International Telecommunications Union sets out to standardize bulk surveillance of Internet users by oppressive governments (Boing Boing)

Belgium

Protesting dairy farmers hose down EuroParl and cops with milk (Boing Boing)

Brazil

Amazon Launches Brazil Kindle Store (The Passive Voice)

Organized crime, bureaucratized (Boing Boing)

Canada

Canadians: write to Parliament about keeping generic pharma available to poor countries (Boing Boing)

Why copyright trolls will have a hard time shaking down Canadians (Boing Boing)

China

Two dozen Tibetans have set themselves on fire this month, in protest of Chinese rule (Boing Boing)

Denmark

Danish entrepreneur helps people with autism get jobs that require focus, attention to detail (Boing Boing)

Ecuador

Blogger proves flaws in Ecuadoran security system by hacking president’s identity (Boing Boing)

Egypt

Egypt’s Islamists rally for Morsi as rifts widen (The Moderate Voice)

Panel to vote on new Egypt constitution amid turmoil (The Moderate Voice)

Egypt sentences ‘Innocence of Muslims’ director to death, in absentia (Boing Boing)

Finland

In Finland, piracy fines are orders of magnitude higher than fines for rape, torture and murder (Boing Boing)

Greece

Greek schools ‘fertile ground for neo-Nazis’ (The Moderate Voice)

India

Indian village bans mobile phone use by women (Yahoo News)

India’s ‘Dancing Bears’ Retire in Animal Rights Victory (The Moderate Voice)

India to change hate speech law after Facebook row (The Moderate Voice)

Israel

Israel Settlement Bid a ‘Fatal Blow’ to Peace: Ban (The Moderate Voice)

Italy

Vandals Destroy Prized Brunello di Montalcino Wine (New York Times)

Amazons with a Cause (Boing Boing)

Mexico

Mexico: Calderon’s Legacy of Blood and Busts (Guest Voice) (The Moderate Voice)

Can Mexico’s President-elect Peña Nieto and Obama set a new tone? (The Moderate Voice)

New Zealand

Public interest groups fly to Auckland, NZ to meet with TPP negotiators, are only allowed in the building to give a 15-minute joint presentation
(Boing Boing)
New Zealand give $120M subsidy to Hollywood for local production of The Hobbit, plus a passel of new anti-union and copyright laws — and corrupt police raids (Boing Boing)

North Korea

Covert assassin weapons from North Korea (Boing Boing)

Norway

Norwegian hotel calls cops on man because they got his name wrong and thought he used an assumed name; police arrest him in the nude; hotel charges him for the room (Boing Boing)

Palestine

Israel Settlement Bid a ‘Fatal Blow’ to Peace: Ban (The Moderate Voice)

Arafat’s remains exhumed to rule out murder by radioactive polonium poisoning (Boing Boing)

Abbas wins UN ‘birth certificate’ for Palestine state (The Moderate Voice)

Russia

Ad for freelance Russian bank-robbers (Boing Boing)

Slovenia

Demonstrations in Ljubljana: Carnations, Neo-Nazis and a Water Cannon (Boing Boing)

Syria

Syria Mixing Chemicals for Sarin Gas: US Official (The Moderate Voice) — Because if a tiny terrorist group can do it, why not a country?

Syrian internet blackout continues for second day (Boing Boing)

Tibet

Two dozen Tibetans have set themselves on fire this month, in protest of Chinese rule (Boing Boing)

United Kingdom

UK home secretary says Britain needs more data retention, cites an example where a corrupt cop gave murdered victims’ details to crime boss (Boing Boing)

UK ISPs will unblock The Promo Bay (Boing BOing)

Overblocking of The Pirate Bay in the UK blocks perfectly legal, indie artist promotion site (Boing Boing)

UK record lobby wants Pirate Party to shut down its Pirate Bay proxy (Boing Boing)

Spinning at the Top of the World

Nov28

So, for some reason, unknowable to mortals like myself, news-worthy stuff keeps happening in places that aren’t the US. Crazy right? Important things that affect very real people and sometimes very large groups of people.

United Nations

Act now to stop unaccountable, censor-friendly UN agency from hijacking control of the Internet! (Boing Boing)

Interpol

Interpol Elects Its First Female President, And You Don’t Want to Mess With Her (the Mary Sue)
Taliban

Taliban uses CC instead of BCC, exposes identity of 400+ contacts (Boing Boing)

Africa

Teenage Girls Harness the Power of Urine, Create a Pee-Powered Generator (The Mary Sue)
Afghanistan

Afghan Women Learn Literacy Through Mobile Phones (The Moderate Voice)

EU’s trillion euro budget summit ends in failure (Repost Us)

Canada

Toronto mayor Rob Ford is out (Boing Boing)

Canadian Supreme Court puts Viagra in the public domain because Pfizer wouldn’t disclose enough of its workings (Boing Boing) — This is Schadenfreude pie at its best.

Chile

China Unveils New Leadership With Xi at Helm (The Moderate Voice)

Cosplaying Chilean students protest education cuts (Boing Boing)

China

Barbie crashes and burns in China (Boing Boing)

Firefighters in Tiananmen Square at the ready to douse self-immolators (Boing Boing)

Ecuador

Ecuador officials reject donkey as candidate (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Egypt

Egypt Judges Slam Morsi Over ‘Unprecedented Attack” (The Moderate Voice)

Cairollers: Cairo’s first rollerderby team (Boing Boing)

Morsi meets judges over Egypt power grab dispute (The Moderate Voice)

Finland

Finnish police confiscate 9-y-o’s laptop after she downloads a song from the Pirate Bay (Boing Boing)
France

More than 100,000 March Against Gay Marriage in France (The Moderate Voice)

Gaza Strip

Gaza Death Toll passes 100 as Truce Efforts Build (The Moderate Voice)

Israel PM says Hand Held Out in Peace, Other Holds Sword (The Moderate Voice)

Truce Agreed to End Week of Gaza Bloodshed (The Moderate Voice)

World Powers Denounce Terrorist Israel bus bombing (The Moderate Voice)

Blast on Tel Aviv Bus as Gaza Truce Remains Elusive (The Moderate Voice)

Israeli Gaza Raids Continue, Hitting Media Centre (The Moderate Voice)

Israel air raids kill 10, destroy Hamas HQ in Gaza (The Moderate Voice)

Israel OKs reserve call-up of up to 75,000: TV (The Moderate Voice)

Eight Journalists Wounded After Israeli Missile Strikes Gaza Media Center (the Moderate Voice)

Greece

Hacker steals entire nation’s identity (Boing Boing)

India

Bring Mumbai Masterminds to Justice: Indian Press (The Moderate Voice)

Iran

Iran Minister Confirms Firing at US Drone in Gulf (The Moderate Voice)

Iranian Blogger Who Died In Custody Is Buried (Radio Free Europe Radio Library)

Israel

Israel Presses Gaza Assault as Rocket Panics Tel Aviv (The Moderate Voice)

Rocket defense of Beersheva (Boing Boing)

Israel live-tweets Gaza offensive (Boing Boing)

Israel pushing ahead in medical marijuana industry (USA Today)

Italy

Student Riots in Italy: a dispatch from Jasmina Tesanovic (Boing Boing)

Gay anti-mafia politician breaks mold in Sicily (Reuters)

Mexico

Who is shooting and mutilating dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, and why? (Boing Boing)

Pakistan

Fears blight ‘Malala Day’ in schoolgirl’s hometown (The Moderate Voice) — I don’t blame them for being afraid. Cowards who shoot at children are unpredictable. I applaud the courage that it takes to continue when you’re scared.

Palestine

Arafat Body ‘To be Exhumed Tuesday’ for Poison Tests (The Moderate Voice)
Russia

Meet Sveta, Pussy Riot’s perky, pro-Putin antithesis (Boing Boing)

Russians enraged with bureaucrat motorcades creating massive gridlock on a daily basis (Boing Boing)

A Single, Severed Cable Cut Contact Between Russia and Its Satellites (The Atlantic)

Grandma in Russia kills wolf with bare hands and axe (Metro UK)

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia implements electronic tracking system for women (The Raw Story)

Somalia

Deforestation Risks Turning Somalia to Desert (The Moderate Voice)

Spain

Catalan Leader Seeks ‘Freedom’ in Snap Election (The Moderate Voice)

Thailand

Following a chain of unexplained deaths in Thailand (Boing Boing)

Uganda

Uganda to officially pass ‘Kill The Gays’ bill (ontd-polical)

United Kingdom

Britons! Stop the Snoopers’ Charter, end the government’s spying plan! (Boing Boing)

UK: ex-politician wrongly accused as pedo will sue tweeters who linked him to sex abuse (Boing Boing)

UK man gave cocaine to trick-or-treaters by mistake (Reuters)

Love-rat dad of nine children to eight women who headbutted ex-girlfriend in row over cheese toastie jailed for just 20 days (The Daily Mail)

Twitter and UK libel law (Boing Boing)

I hope you kept the receipt (ontd-Political)
Woman ‘denied a termination’ dies in hospital (Irish Times)

Scottish charity looks to save forgotten forest of wee trees (ontd-political)

ORG needs your money to kill UK copyright trolls (Boing Boing)

Petition for transparency in the selection process for the new BBC boss (Boing Boing)

Apple ordered to pay Samsung’s legal fees in UK after ‘false and misleading’ notice (Boing Boing)

Tower of London intruder walks off with keys (Reuters)

Why the UK’s mandatory opt-out censorware plan is stupid (Boing Boing)

Man ordered not to throw horseshit at Prince Charles (Boing Boing)

UK lawmakers slam Starbucks, Amazon and Google on tax (The Passive Voice)

BBC director general George Entwistle resigns in wake of misreported pedo story (Boing Boing)

Add witty title here – World News

Nov10

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

China won’t permit human rights monitors in Tibet, because hey, come on, nothing bad is going on there, you guys

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)

What a world! What a world!

Oct25

And I don’t even like that movie.

Anyhow, these are the stories that caught my eye recently.

Nobel Prizes

The First Chinese Laureate: Mo Yan Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature (Writer’s Write)

United Nations

Latin American Nations Push UN to Drop Zero Tolerance on Drugs (The Moderate Voice)

Australia

Australian Prime Minister Gillard’s Sexism Speech Sparks Divisive Reaction (The Moderate Voice)

Australian PM lances a sexist boil in Parliament (Boing Boing)

Australian Attorney General says that public scrutiny of spying bill would not be in the public interest (Boing Boing) <– I don't know about you, but when I hear that, the only thing I can think is "what the *Hell* is this man trying to cover up.

Austria

Austrian Daredevil Felix Baumgartner Breaks Sound Barrier in Record Space Jump (The Moderate Voice)

Bhutan

Bhutan Aims to Be First 100% Organic Nation (The Moderate Voice)

Brazil

Brazil to roll out national radio-chip ID/surveillance/logging for all vehicles (BOing Boing)

Bolivia

Kids are at Home, with Parents, in Bolivia Prisons (The Moderate Voice)

Canada

Canadian Teen Who Posted Anti-Bullying Video Commits Suicide (Newsy.com)

What Canada stands to lose in the war on science (Boing Boing)

China

Ai Weiwei guest-edits the New Statesman, which pirates itself to evade the Great Firewall of China (Boing Boing)

France

Climate of Fear Takes Hold in France’s Jewish community (The Moderate Voice)

Germany

German teen sells mum’s jewels for brothel visit (Reuters)

Twitter censors Germans’ access to Neo-Nazi group’s Twitter account (Boing Boing)

Greece

Antifascist Greek protesters say they were tortured by police (Boing Boing)

GreeceWatch: Troika Spat, Cuts Near, Rightist Rage (Guest Voice) (The Moderate Voice)

India

India’s Top Court Orders Toilets for Every School (The Moderate Voice)

India’s 50,000 Missing Children (The Moderate Voice)

India Fights to Protect Traditional Home Remedies (The Moderate Voice)

Lebanon

The Help: Status, Servants and Double Standards in Lebanon (The Global Mail)

Libya

Libya Consulate Was Invaded, Torched by Armed Mob: US (The Moderate Voice)

Attack on U.S. Consulate and Citizens Must Never Be Repeated (Quryna, Libya) (The Moderate Voice)

Netherlands

Dutch government gives itself the right to break into your computer and destroy it (Boing Boing)

Pakistan

To summarize the below: The Taliban are whiney, scared, little boys, who can’t handle the idea that a woman is a person and has the ability to think, learn, and succeed. To prove to their spineless little wonder-worm that they’re better than women, they attacked a little girl. Brilliant, a******les.

All my love, affection, good wishes, and compassion go to Malala Yousafzia

Pakistan Child Rights Activist Shot in Head: Doctors (THe Moderate Voice)

Online diaries of girl who took on Taliban and was shot as punishment (BOing Boing)

Taliban Vow Again to Kill Pakistani Girl (The Moderate Voice)

Shot Pakistani girl shows improvement: military (The Moderate Voice)

Pakistan Child Activist Facing ‘Critical’ 36-48 Hours (The Moderate Voice)

Doctors Hopeful for Pakistani Girl Shot by Taliban (The Moderate Voice)

Why Malala Yousafzia Matters (The Moderate Voice)

Serbia

The Decent People: LGBT pride in the former Yugoslavia (Boing Boing)

Spain

Fury in Spain Boils Over at Mitt Romney’s Debate Remark (Spanish Newspaper Roundup) (The Moderate Voice)

United Kingdom

UK website taken down by spurious copyright complaint regarding UK ultra-right groups (Boing Boing)

Cheating F1 team wins the right to deduct its fines from its taxes (Boing BOing)

UK surveillance bill: 19,000 letters opposing, 0 in favour (Boing BOing)

As it happened: Gary McKinnon extradition decision (BBC)

Gary McKinnon on the decision not to extradite him to the USA (Boing Boing)

Creeped out by the World… news

Oct5

Remember, this is drained through the filter of my interest…

United Nations

U.S.-led “war on drugs” questioned at U.N. (The Moderate Voice)

European Union

EU working group produces the stupidest set of proposed Internet rules in the entire history of the human race (Boing Boing)

Middle East

Alleged Anti-Muslim Film Maker Arrested, in Court (The Moderate Voice)

Man behind “Innocence of Muslims” video ordered jailed for violating fraud probation by using computers (Boing Boing)

Bahrain

CNN suppresses its own award-winning doc on human rights abuses in Bahrain; has commercial ties to the regime (Boing Boing)

Canada

Art textbook with no art: school trying to fix it (Boing Boing)

Denmark

Michael Sinan, Mr. Gay Denmark 2012, On Being Out And Proud As A Muslim (Huffington Post)

Egypt

Let Us Boycott and ‘Put on Trial’ Those Who Mock Muhammad) (Gomhuria, Egypt (The Moderate Voice)

‘Prophet Mohammad Endured Personal Insults without Retaliating’ (Web Site of the Grand Mufti, Egypt)

France

French doctors on trial for cancer radiation overdoses (The Guardian)

Greece

Greek State Tries to Stem Neo-Nazi Rise (The Moderate Voice)

Honduras

Pinochet 2.0: US economist talks Honduras’ military dictator into establishing a private city owned and regulated by offshore corporations (Boing Boing)

India

Walmart Aims for First India Store in 12-18 Months (The Moderate Voice)

Italy

Eurocrisis Spurs Italy’s ‘Big Baby’ Boom: Grown Children Living with Parents (The Moderate Voice)

Iran

Iranian cleric beaten and hospitalized by “badly covered” woman (Boing Boing)

Mexico

In Mexico, Breaking Out of Jail the Easy Way (Guest Voice) (The Moderate Voice)

New Zealand

New Zealand’s spies illegally bugged Kim Dotcom, complicity may go all the way to the prime minister’s office (Boing Boing)

Prime Minister of New Zealand apologizes to Kim Dotcom for letting spy agency wiretap him (Boing Boing)

Pakistan

Pakistan Rejects Filmmaker Bounty as Muslims Keep Up Protest (The Moderate Voice)

Pakistan Minister Offers Bounty for Anti-Islam Film-Maker (The Moderate Voice)

New Film Protests in Pakistan as Death Toll Rises to 21 (The Moderate Voice)

Panama

Panama’s new copyright law is the worst in the history of the universe (Boing Boing)

Russia

Pussy Riot Punks and the ‘Innocence of Christians’ (Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia) (The Moderate Voice)

Spain

Man dresses as car seat in attempt to move to Spain without the usual red tape (Boing Boing)

After Spain Nixes New Fiscal Deal, Catalonia Considers Independence Push (The Moderate Voice)

United Kingdom

UK government spent millions arming and training Congolese and Sudanese soldiers (Boing Boing)

UK banks use robo-callers to make fraud-check calls, conditioning customers to hand out personal information to anonymous machines that phone them up out of the blue (Boing Boing)

Pranksters crash final speech of corporate tax avoidance taxman, posh hilarity ensues (Boing Boing)

World News Insanity

Jul2

Remember, these are just the ones that have caught my eye. I make no representations as to continuity. *winks*

Olympics

G4S: the scandal-embroiled “private security” behemoth that will provide 10,000 “security contractors” to London 2012 (Boing Boing)

Scottish cops auto-Godwin Olympic sceptic (Boing Boing)

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s supergran crimebuster on wheels (BBC)

Canada

Canadian government wants to fill airports with KGB-style hidden microphones (Boing Boing)

Hollywood’s secret, aggressive copyright lobbying campaign in Canada (Boing Boing)

Old-fashioned animation expresses Winnipeggers’ concern over mass-privatisation (Boing Boing)

Egypt

Egypt’s Turmoil Backdrop Election (The Moderate Voice)

BREAKING NEWS: Egyptian Court Rules Parliament Illegal (The Moderate Voice)

Germany

Photo released of Ray, the “forest boy” of Germany (Boing Boing)

Forest boy identified (Boing BOing)

Greece

Greece’s Pro Bailout Party Wins (For Now) (The Moderate Voice)

Mexico

Ex-Governor Calls Charges He Worked with Drug Cartels a ‘Desperate’ Campaign Stunt (El Universal, Mexico) (The Moderate Voice)

Poland

President Komorowski Thanks Obama for Helping Dispel ‘Vicious, Unjustified Language’ (Dziennik, Poland) (The Moderate Voice)

Scotland

UPDATED: Scottish town council shuts down 9-y-o girl’s wildly popular school lunch blog (BOing Boing)

Spain

Spain’s Economic Recovery’s Biggest Hurdle: Public Trust? (The Moderate Voice)

Spanish activists raise money to sue bank boss at center of financial crisis (Boing Boing)

Spanish Rescue Package Will Further Bleed Taxpayers
(The Moderate Voice)
Syria

Conflict in Syria Now Threatens World Peace (Trouw, The Netherlands) (The Moderate Voice)

United Kingdom

UK government offers unlimited budget to pay ISPs to spy on us (Boing Boing)

Tories divided over UK spying bill, Home Secretary dismisses critics as “conspiracy theorists” who want to protect freedom for “criminals, terrorists and paedophiles” (BOing Boing)

UK-wide workshops on how to talk to your MP about Internet spying and censorship (Boing Boing)

UK economic crisis ends, Tories celebrate by committing £1.8B to spying (Boing BOing)

David Cameron’s daughter Nancy left behind at pub (BBC)

Royal Ascot employs dress code assistants (BBC)

World News Collection

Jun9

Some of these stories are getting dusty. Time to spread them around. Again, these are things that caught my eye.

Canada

Canada’s national archives being dismantled and scattered (Boing Boing)

Quebeckers take to the streets with pots and pans: a charivari (Boing Boing)

Arrêtez-moi quelqu’un! Vowing to violate Quebec’s anti-protest law (Boing Boing)

Canadian border guards demand inbound journalist’s mobile phone contacts, prohibit writing while in-country (Boing Boing) — Thought y’all had freedom of the press up there.

Toronto cop who arrested drunk-driving off-duty officer harassed by co-workers (Boing Boing)

Canadian politician: My internet spying bill would help us catch serial killers like Luka Magnotta (Boing Boing)

Austerity obliterates transparency: budget cuts mean cuts to Canada’s Freedom of Information (Boing Boing)

Austerity obliterates history: Canadian heritage docs no longer available through interlibrary loan (boing Boing)

Austerity obliterates ecology: Canadian budget to make environmental impact statements optional, class eco-groups as money-launderers (Boing Boing)

Petition to save Canada’s National Archive (Boing Boing)

The Librarian and the Hot Rod Shop (Boing Boing)

Canada’s warrantless surveillance bill is back, and bigger than ever, with surveillance powers for US gov’t, too (Boing Boing)

Gay porn actor in Canada wanted for killing friend, publishing dismembering videos, mailing body parts (Boing Boing)

Severed foot and hand sent to 2 Canada schools: More missing Magnotta murder parts? (Boing Boing)

Canadian psycho arrested in Berlin (Boing Boing)

China

Tens of Thousands Turn up for Tiananmen Vigil in Hong Kong (The Wall Street Journal)

Confronting America Requires Wisdom and Stamina – Not Warships (Huanqui, People’s Republic of China) (The Moderate Voice)

Google alerts Chinese when results censored (Boing Boing)

Egypt

Mubarak of Egypt: Sentenced to Life for complicity in murders of protesters (The Moderate Voice)

Greece

Greek politician punches female rival on TV chat show (Boing Boing)

Iran

Stuxnet, the worm that targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities, was created by US and Israel (Boing Boing)

Mexico

Student Movement Dubbed the ‘Mexican Spring’ (The Nation)

Excerpt: Politics365 On The Rise Of The ‘Mexican Spring’ (Racialicious)

The Netherlands

Across West, Populists on Left and Right Find New Scapegoats (Trouw, The Netherlands) (The Moderate Voice)

Poland

Every Pole Must Protest Until Obama Apologizes (Dziennik, Poland) (the Moderate Voice)

Russia

Russian unlicensed protest fines increased 15,000 percent (Boing Boing)

Syria

UN Says Most of 108 Syria Massacre Victims Were Summarily Executed Not Killed In Artillery Fire (The Moderate Voice)

Syria: a slow retreat from the abyss (The Moderate Voice)

U.S. and West ‘Morally Accountable’ for Syria Massacre (Global Times, China) (The Moderate Voice)

America and the ‘Global War Against Syria’ (Al Baath, Syria) (The Moderate Voice)

Syria is Another Iraq, with Israel Thrown In (An Nahar, Lebanon) (The Moderate Voice)

New Syrian Massacre Reported: Syria Blocks UN Monitors From Scene (The Moderate Voice)

Tibet

In Tibet, a mother of 3 burns herself alive in protest of Chinese rule (Boing Boing)

United Kingdom

Baroness Warsi’s expenses under scrutiny (BBC)

Julian Assange loses extradition fight in UK court, lawyers have 14 days to appeal (Boing Boing)

The Luvilee Jubilee: underwhelmed by opposition to Her Majesty’s Big Day (Boing Boing)

Austerity Jubilee: unemployed workers tricked into being Jubilee stewards, denied toilets, left to camp in the rain (Boing Boing)

Vietnam

Soldier’s Letters from Vietnam Finally Reaching Loved Ones (The Moderate Voice)

The Course of World Events

May26

As always folks this is just stories that caught my eye. (Also – plague of rats in Hamelin. If the BBC can’t keep a straight face, I ain’t even trying.)

Olympics

Official Protesters of the London Olympics suspended on Twitter (Boing Boing)

Space Hijackers create Official Protesters programme for the London 2012 Olympics (Boing Boing)

Afghanistan

Why Afghan Women Risk Death to Write Poetry (NY Times Magazine)

Argentina

In Latin America, Only Argentine Leader Stands with Obama on Gay Marriage (La Informacion, U.S.) (The Moderate Voice)

Azerbaijan

Sign a petition for a “guilt-free Eurovision” — keep the pressure up on Azerbaijan (Boing Boing)

Canada

Canadian MP: ripping a CD is like stealing a pair of shoes (BOing Boing)

Sickening profile of Canada’s weapons-grade patent trolls (Boing BOing)

Quebec cops kettle and mass-arrest demonstrators (Boing Boing)

Canada’s telcos secretly backing revival of “dead” warrantless surveillance bill (Boing Boing)

Toronto neighbours turn their laneway into a garage-door art-gallery (Boing Boing)

Canada’s warrantless surveillance bill is, improbably, dead (Boing Boing)

China

BREAKING: Chinese Dissident Chen Guangcheng Arrives on American Soil (UPDATED) (The Moderate Voice)

UPDATE: Mr. Chen Has Left China — China’s Military Visit to the U.S. and Mr. Chen’s Pending Release: Just Mind Games? (The Moderate Voice)

Colombia

Colombia Government Must Come Clean on Battle Drones (El Tiempo, Colombia) (The Moderate Voice)

France

France’s New Socialist President Hollande Has Three French Riveria Homes (THe Moderate Voice)

Finland

Finnish court: open WiFi owners not responsible for copyright infringement (Boing Boing)

Germany

‘Lost Nation’ of Germany is NATO’s Biggest Problem (Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany) (The Moderate Voice)

Pirates win more seats in German state elections (Boing Boing)

Balancing Act from Germany’s Angela Merkel (The Moderate Voice)

German police fired 85 bullets in 2011 (Boing BOing)

Greece

Will Greece Elect Pro-Bailout Government? (The Moderate Voice)

Greece Heads To Elections, Economy May Head Off Cliff (The Moderate Voice)

Political Meltdown in Greece: New Elections Increasingly Likely (UPDATED) (The Moderate Voice)

Iran

Iranian cartoonist sentenced to 25 lashes (Boing BOing)

Italy

Earthquake and bombs in Italy: An eyewitness report from Jasmina Tesanovic (Boing BOing)

Libya

Libya: Inside Gadhafi’s secret surveillance network (Boing BOing)

Convicted Lockerbie Bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrah Dies of Cancer in Freedom in Libya (The Moderate Voice)

Mexico

Mexican drug cartels now using Claymore mines (Boing Boing)

49 Decapitated Bodies: Mexico’s Drug War and P.R. Nightmares Continue (The Moderate Voice)

Netherlands

War Crimes trial for Ratko Mladic begins in The Hague (Boing Boing)

Netherlands becomes first EU nation to enshrine Net Neutrality in law (Boing Boing)

Mormons Perform ‘After-Death’ Baptisms of Dutch Royals (Trouw, The Netherlands) (The Moderate Voice)

Pakistan

American ‘Grandees’ Should Pay Debt to Pakistan and be Grateful (The Frontier Post, Pakistan) (The Moderate Voice)

Acid victims fear backlash over Saving Face (International Tribune)

Poland

Poland’s future of copyright (Boing BOing)

Dire Straits for Europe Absent Less Nationalism and More Cooperation (Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland) (Moderate Voice)

Russia

Microsoft invests in Russian company that attacks BitTorrent swarms (Boing Boing)

Sweden

Swedish telcoms giant Teliasonera complicit in mass surveillance in the world’s worst dictatorships (Boing Boing)

Thailand

Roasted gold-leaved foetus collection was for black magic (Boing BOing)

Tibet

Four people dead on Mt. Everest, one still missing (Boing Boing)

Turkey

Migratory bird confused for avian spy (Boing BOing)

Uganda

Uganda Re-Introduces Draconian Gay Law as Answer to Obama (Modern Ghana, Ghana) (The Moderate Voice)

United Kingdom

Publishers Association Chief Calls Opponents of Copyright Laws Thieves (Writers Write)

London cops want to suck your phone dry in an instant (Boing Boing)

UK civil servants routinely snoop on citizens’ private financial and health information (Boing Boing)

Russell Brand testifies to Parliament about drug policy, channels Groucho Marx (Boing Boing)

Yemen

Yemen massacre triggered by donkey “rape” (Boing Boing)

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean senator proposes ending AIDS crisis by mutilating women and preventing them from bathing (Boing Boing) — You, sir, are an asshole.

Goblins attack Zimbabwe family (BOing BOing)

World News – Sick at Heart

Apr21

Why is it that when I start to review the world news, it’s almost uniformly bad? Seriously, we need more positive stories. Can’t spread peace if all we see is turmoil.

ACTA, TPP, CISPA, etc.

CISPA is SOPA 2.0: petition to stop it (Boing Boing)

Inventor of the Web condemns UK Internet surveillance plans (Boing Boing)

WIPO caught secretly funneling cash to North Korea to buy patent database computers (Boing Boing)

Understanding TPP, ACTA’s nastier, more secret little brother (Boing Boing)

Why a pro-SOPA MPAA technologist changed sides and went to work for ISOC (Boing Boing)

SOPATrack: an app to show connections between campaign donations and voting records (Boing Boing)

New EU ACTA reviewer also recommends not signing it, calls ACTA a threat to civil liberties (Boing Boing)

Hilary Clinton to world governments: the world will divide into “open” and “closed” societies based on their Internet policies (Boing Boing)

Debunking CISPA supporters’ claims of harmlessness, inevitability (Boing Boing)

Americas Summit

Latin American leaders, Obama to discuss ending the war on drugs (Boing Boing)