While still sorting out the best blog layout and a whole lot of other technical details, there are two more neweurasia blogs that have started to post:

Joel does a great double-job of posting on http://georgia.neweurasia.net (and will soon be joined by Austin and others) and http://kazakhstan.neweurasia.net (where Aidar, me and others will help out as well).

Meanwhile, Marianna has her latest Azerbaijan election update on http://azerbaijan.neweurasia.net.

Don’t miss out on Rico’s coverage of Turkmenistan, either.

Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan will commence posting within some days, as well.

Rico over at turkmenistan.neweurasia.net has a new post, shedding light on Turkmen Gas production.

Hulegu has the latest in the Andijon controversy, which ever more becomes a smear campaign against my professor at SOAS, Dr. Akiner.

Also, Nathan has an extensive post about what seems to be the begin of retaliation against Uzbekistan.

neweurasia, Thinking-East’s dedicated Central Asia and Caucasus offshoot, has semi-started operations, with Rico Isaacs being the first active blogger on turkmenistan.neweurasia.net – one of our country blogs. Rico’s first post is on President Nyazov’s latest dismissal. Interesting story, make sure to read the story linked in the post.

We are still looking for interested bloggers to cover the Central Asian or Caucasian country of their choice. All blogs are online now (though yet idle), except for the Tajik one. The URLs are generic: http://countryname.neweurasia.net

It’s up at Commoner Sense. Click here for your weekly dose of democracy-related news from the blogosphere.

The new Carnival of Revolutions is up at Quid Nimis. Go check it out!

So, I arrived well in Tblisi – and after hours of being online for the Carnival, I thought I’d take an internet break. I’ve mostly been eating and sightseeing here for the last three days. I went to Gori (Stalin’s place of birth) and Mtshketha, the ancient Georgian capital, on two trips. There is only one day left now before I’ll head home via Vienna. That was almost it…

This week’s (relatively short, no chance competing with onefreekorea’s) Carnival reaches you from Sheki, a town afoot the mighty Caucasus in Azerbaijan. It is published on Sunday, since I’ll be on the road to Tblissi tomorrow. I have been travelling the wider region for some weeks now and was completely unaware of the logistical problems posting here might bring with it. However, I found this fast internet cafe – so let the show begin.

Much of the week’s news was overshadowed by apocalyptic Katrina, one of the worst hurricanes ever to hit the United States. New Orleans is under water and almost completely destroyed. You can donate money for the victims via the Red Cross here. Instapundit has collected a whole range of charities you can help with a little donation.

General blogosphere
DW-Deutsche Welle sent an Email inviting submissions for the BOBS – The Best of Blogs awards. The Reporters without Borders sponsor the freedom of expression category.
Two blogosphere events took place this week, the Blog Day 2005 and the International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day (both via Global Voices).

Africa

South Africa
50,000 women report being raped every year. To tackle this, one needs harsh measures and innovative thoughts. This is certainly one.

Sudan
Sudan Watch says that Western companies should stay in the country, despite recent developments that saw a lawsuit against a Candian oil producer, alleging it was aiding genocide.

Zimbabwe
Gatewaypundit has a comprehensive post on latest development in this South African republic. Due to a massive foreign exchange shortage, the government fails to provide fuel and had to see telephones cut off. Meanwhile, constitutional amendments will demolish the opposition to President Mugabe, says Publius Pundit. The Zimbabwean Pundit has a longer and more detailed essay on the same topic.

Egypt
This article from the Online Journalism Review portraits the nascent Egyptian blogosphere and has great background information as well as links to the best Egyptian blogs.

Near and Middle East

Iraq
Robert Mayer at Publius Pundit has a great post on Iraqi unity amidst the federal constitution. Some people remain optimists regarding the October 15 vote, finds the Internet Freedom Trail. Nearly 1,000 people died in a stampede, in Baghdad this week, overshadowing all political discussions.

Lebanon
The Beirut Spring reports on tensions and fear to be felt everywhere in Lebanese streets. While the police arrested suspects in relation to the Hariri assassination, anti-Syrian politicians leave the country into French exile, fearing threats on their lives.

Iran
The Iranian blogosphere celebrated its 4th birthday. Now, there are approximately 75,000 Farsi weblogs that have mushroomed also thanks to high-profile bloggers such as Hoder. Global Voices has a post, too.

Eurasia

Armenia
Onnik Krikorian at Oneworld Multimedia tells us Opposition Says No to Constitutional Amendments. Katy over at Blogrel has an interesting post about kids in Armenia that can’t afford to go to school.

Azerbaijan
Marianna does an excellent ongoing job covering the elections slated for the 6th of November over at neweurasia. Her latest post features uneasy developments such as the appearance of candidate clones, having the exact same names than opposition members. Oneworld has a roundup.

Central Asia
Mental Wanderlustress has a fine roundup of the region’s latest news. The same site also features a discussion about the future of the CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States. It seems that Ukraine and Georgia are planning to set up a competing organisation.

Uzbekistan
While marking its 14th year of independence, Uzbekistan is becoming a larger issue to the blogosphere. Nathan over at the Registan has posts on a cotton-embargo here and here. The latter post has lots of trackbacks to discussions underway in other blogs. Sepra and The Sharpener have good posts and – all of which I forgot are listed in Disillusioned Kid’s great link list.

Turkmenistan
Curzon at Coming Anarchy is disappointed with the seeming US interest in establishing a base in Turkmenistan, which has a regime ‘that makes Uzbekistan look tame’. Saparmurat Nyazov’s madness, which I was able to witness last week, has culminated again: His book Rukhnama was sent to space. The Turkmen TV was reporting about nothing else, making watching it incredibly dull.

Russia
This week has many anniversaries, but none as sad as this one: One year ago, a group of Chechen rebels stormed School No. 1 in Beslan and took hundreds of children and teachers hostage. It ended as one of Russia’s darkest blood-baths in history, leaving more than 300 dead. Gatewaypundit has a comprehensive overview and features links to other blogs.
David McDuff translates parts of an article that says a striking characteristic of the Putin regime is that it exists in order to create its own enemies. The site also features many posts on the Beslan anniversary.

Asia

South Asia
Global Voices has this roundup of South Asian blogs. Of particular ‘revolutionary’ interest is this link here to a story on increasing numbers of women drivers in Sri Lanka.

India
India is trying to tap Central Asian hydrocarbon resources, says Nathan over at the Registan.

China
Peking Duck sheds light on the contradiction between ‘China’s peaceful rise’ and the modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army. The post takes a report on Conventional Arms Sales to Developing Countries as a basis.

Latin America

Venezuela
The Devil’s Excrement translated an article that tells us about 6,127 Venezuelans that have been executed under ’strange circumstances’ in the last five years.

Bolivia
Via Global Voices, MABB translates the bios of presidential candidates.

Europe

Germany
The run-up to the elections is heating up. It looks all set that Angela Merkel, from the opposition party CDU, will be the first female chancellor ever. More than that, though, as she’s also from East Germany, protestant, and divorced. Viva la revolucion. Try David’s Medienkritik for ongoing (and conservative) commentary and this openDemocracy special, in which famous publisher Michael Naumann offers his take on the events. The Rolling Stones enter the show, too.

North America

USA
As said above, Katrina pretty much dominates the American blogosphere. I found two sites (though there are millions more) to be especially interesting. Via Desipundit, this list of what it means to be poor is intriguing. The post came in response to this original on BoingBoing, trying to find out who was not able to leave New Orleans. The Oil Drum has a lot about the energy crisis that seems about to unfold after the hurricane destroyed parts of the southern petro-industry.

Roundups
Winds of Change posted its comprehensive Winds of War last Thursday, with lots of interesting stories inside.

Visit Willisms.com for the Carnival Home Base, featuring the publishing schedule and some words on why we do this.