Ethan Zuckerman’s ‘My Hearts in Accra’ (http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=178) questions the ‘politics’ behind the prosecution of Belgian priest, Father Guy Theunis in the ongoing Gacaca genocide tribunals taking place in Rwanda.

“Father Guy Theunis ran a magazine called Dialogue which republished translated excerpts of articles from a pro-Hutu extremist magazine Kangura. His defense is that his “republications were part of his human rights work”. What is most interesting here is that Zuckerman takes Theunis’s defense and applies it to blogging and the ‘redistribution of content’. Speaking about the Global Voices project (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/) he states:

"Obviously we haven’t reblogged any posts where someone has advocated the extermination of other people. But I can understand the need Father Theunis felt to bring to light the extreme views being expressed in magazines like “Kangura”. What’s the responsibility of a site like ours in reporting on extreme views? Is it to give an accurate picture of the views being expressed in a country? Or is the responsibility not to amplify hateful voices?"

Nigerian blogger Chippla (http://chippla.blogspot.com/2005/09/its-abuja-bus-stop.html) takes a cynical view of the latest move towards ‘modernisation’ in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.

"…if you live in Abuja, unlike in the other cities mentioned above, the concept scheduled intra-city bus services must be strange to you. In other words, though you see bus stops, you do not wait by them to board a bus."

Apparently ‘bus stops are springing up all over the city’. It will be interesting to watch how people respond to the schedules and how well the bus’s themselves can actually keep to the schedules.

Friend of the US, President Mubarak who was recently “re-elected” in Egypt, has an appalling human rights record. Egyptian blogger “Egyptian Person” (http://egyptianperson.blogspot.com/) highlights the use of Egypt’s “Emergency Laws” which are used to imprison people indefinitely without trial.

A police officer summed up the situation very clearly to political detainee Abdel Moneim Mohammed, who has spent 13 years in the custody of the Egyptian interior ministry: "We can't release you [regardless of whether you are innocent or guilty]. After spending years in prison, you hate us - and setting you free will be a great risk."

Nigerian blogger Grandiose Parlour (http://grandioseparlor.blogspot.com/) seems to have been “captured” by Katrina. He has at least 7 extended posts on the hurricane including what appears to be a daily update of US Army Corp of Engineers called “Daily Key Messages and General Mission Talking Points”.

Finally this week some good news. Kenyan Pundit now back in Nairobi has moved her blog over to (http://www.kenyanpundit.com/) and is back in full force. Check out her “Random observations of the day” category for a “day by day” account of life in Nairobi and Kenya.