The Economist

Muffled Voices

WHEN Liban Abdullahi Farah was gunned down in Galkayo, a city in the central province of Puntland, in July, he became the sixth journalist to die violently in Somalia this year. This comes as a media law just introduced in Mogadishu, the capital, forces journalists to reveal their sources, curtailing whatever press freedom existed previously.

North Korean Cyber-Rattling

AMERICANS have grown accustomed to North Korean nuclear petulance. Now they are learning to live with its cyber sabre-rattling. Earlier this month the Department of Defence delivered a report to Congress accusing the hermit kingdom's expanding army of “cyber-warriors” of using foreign infrastructure, such as broadband networks, to launch cyber-attacks on American allies, most notably South Korea.

Why do Germans shun Twitter?

WHEN the official Twitter feed announced the microblog's IPO in November, around 8,000 followers retweeted the news the following week. Barely 50 of them were German. According to Semiocast, an analyst, Germany ranks 31st worldwide in terms of public tweets, with 59m per year. Germany's 82m people have just 4m Twitter accounts. 

Burkinabes Against Blaise

NEW YORK CITY’S 6,000-strong Burkinabe community is based largely around the Shrine, a music venue in Manhattan's Harlem district. The bar was founded by a friend of Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s Marxist former president, whose murder in 1987 brought to power President Blaise Compaoré  who has ruled the country ever since. Every weekend immigrants gather to drink, dance and talk politics.