Archive for the ‘International News’ Category
Global Voices: Bridging the blogger gap
This article is interesting. It talks about a new web site for citizen journalists.
Global Voices Online is now a project of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School in Massachusetts and receives additional funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the Dutch nongovernmental organization Hivos and Reuters.
Co-founders Zuckerman and MacKinnon spent so much time finding and reading blogs that they felt there was a great need to curate the hundreds of sites, creating a hub for an international community of “bridge bloggers” who want to communicate, often anonymously, with the broader world.
Global Voices is a select guide to conversations, information and ideas appearing on various forms of participatory citizen media such as blogs, podcasts, photo-sharing sites and videoblogs, according to Zuckerman.
Paid regional editors who work 20 hours or 30 hours per week receive $800 a month to assure that Global Voices covers the world accurately, Zuckerman said.
U.S. Remains in Control of Internet
TUNIS, Tunisia — Negotiators working late into the night Tuesday shook hands on a deal that creates a new U.N.-sponsored global forum to explore problems like spam and cybercrime, while leaving the United States firmly in control of the internet’s domain name system.
The last minute accord settled an issue that threatened to derail the U.N.’s World Summit on the Information Society, which began here Wednesday. The multilateral gathering — conceived to bridge the “digital divide” between rich nations and poor — has drawn thousands of delegates and observers from around the globe to this port city in the North African desert.
Paris under lockdown
CNN.com reports Paris is on lockdown. And, the police will protect the major tourist attractions. Why such drastic measures? Internet postings and cell phone messages alerted police.
Paris on lockdown to prevent unrest
PARIS, France (AP) — Emergency security measures went into effect Saturday in Paris, with 3,000 police patrolling train stations, the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysees to prevent France’s worst unrest in decades from spreading to the capital.
National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said police were taking “every precaution,” including banning certain public gatherings, a day after calls for “violent actions” Saturday evening in Paris were posted on Internet blogs and sent in text messages to cell phones.
“This is not a rumor,” Gaudin told a news conference, citing Paris’ best-known landmarks among potential targets. “One can easily imagine the places where we must be highly vigilant.”
Paris
The New York Times reports that Paris tourists are not affected by the riots. But, getting to the city from Charles De Gaulle airport may be another story:
For Tourists, a Calmer Paris
By Donald Morrison
The reality - contrary to what foreigners may deduce from television broadcasts of burning cars with the word “Paris” superimposed over them - is that the rioting remains distant from visitors. It has so far been confined to a handful of relatively distant, heavily working-class, immigrant communities. Inside the Périphérique, the highway that rings Paris and serves as an informal city line, life goes on pretty much as normal. That’s because in Paris, unlike most big American cities, the rich and the middle-class tend to live in the center of town. The poor are relegated to the “banlieues” - the decrepit bedroom communities at the far ends of commuter rail lines, where tourists rarely go.
Except, perhaps, when they arrive. Charles de Gaulle Airport, the main point for arrivals from overseas, lies about 15 miles northeast of the city. The route from the airport to the center of Paris passes directly through the riot-torn district of Seine-St.-Denis. One of the cheapest ways into the city from de Gaulle is the RER B train (about $10). Service has been disrupted in recent days, and one train was hit by rocks. The United States Embassy in Paris has been advising visitors to avoid the train.
London Terrorist Attacks
In January I was lucky enough to visit London for the first time. Today, I sadly saw where a bus blew up right across the street from the Tavistock hotel where I stayed and the Russell Square Underground, which I used daily,where one of the bombs detonated.
The area is called Bloomsbury, where the notable author Virgina Woolf lived in the late 19th to early 20th century. Nearby is the British Museum, known for their Reading Room and the British Library, which houses such items as the Gutenberg Bible. I spent two weeks in London and fell in love with walking Bloomsbury. I can not fathom the terror and fear that people must be feeling in that area.
The BBC is posting citizen accounts of the terrorist attacks. It’s citizen journalism at it’s best. There are several other news organizations posting citizen accounts and I’m sure Londoners are blogging.
Paris…
This article about Paris made me yearn to go back to discover the city I so fell in love with in January. It’s the only city where I have been where tears came to my eyes frequently because I was in a complete state of awe. The sites are fantastic and the Eiffel tower is mesmerizing. I loved London, as she talks about it in the article as well, but my heart will always belong to Paris…
The Anglo-French envy cordiale
Paris is the most beautiful city in the world, especially on a summer’s evening, when a golden light seems to glow from the rooftops.
This week I walked by the River Seine and watched the Eiffel Tower begin its hourly night-time sparkle - an extravaganza of light, a spectacle that never fails to inspire in me a childish delight.
