Cairo, Egypt (AHN), Mar.27.- Amid widespread discontent from opposition groups, Egypt held a referendum on Monday in what is seen as a rubber stamp for the government's policies. Government workers flocked to polling stations across the country to cast their votes in favor of the controversial amendments.

"Of course I will give my approval for our President's policies," Ahmed, a civil servant in his late thirties, told All Headline News.

Ahmed was not alone in his unyielding support for President Hosni Mubarak, as similar scenes unfolded across Cairo and throughout the Arab world's largest nation.

In country reports presented yesterday to the InterAmerican Press Association (IAPA), representatives from Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia said the governments of their countries had become especially hostile toward the press.

Mexico had an alarming number of deaths: seven journalists murdered since October, two disappearances and eight cases of reporters receiving death threats. ...

[JURIST] Mar.10.- Ecuador's Constitutional Tribunal [official website en español] has warned President Rafael Correa [official website, en español; BBC profile] that he would be acting illegally if he ignores a potential unfavorable ruling by the Tribunal on a controversial exercise of authority by the country's seven-member Supreme Electoral Tribunal [official website], which dismissed 57 of 100 lawmakers [JURIST report] in the Congress of Ecuador [official website] on Thursday. Tribunal president Dr. Santiago Velasquez Coello [perfil oficial en español] said Friday that "it is a crime when a citizen disregards a ruling" of the tribunal. Correa said Thursday that he will ignore unfavorable court rulings and proceed with plans to hold a referendum on whether Ecuador should form a constitutional assembly to rewrite its constitution [texto en español].

The Congress voted to hold a referendum [JURIST report] in February, but last week, Congress and Correa submitted separate versions of the referendum to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, which chose Correa's version. Correa's version disregarded a stipulation by Congress that the constitutional assembly may not retroactively dismiss members of congress and other elected officials of previous elections. The 57-dismissed member of congress voted to impeach four members of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, which prompted the tribunal to respond with the dismissals. ...

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DAKAR (CNN.com ) Feb.26.- Early results reported by the state-run Senegalese Press Agency indicated that Wade was in the lead but did not say by how much. It was not known how many votes had been counted, but the agency said Wade was well ahead at some of the 12,000 polling stations across the country that had reported results, included the key cities of Dakar and Thies. ...

(NPR.com ) Feb.28.- Among the other 14 challengers, Abdoulaye Bathily, one of the main contenders, argues that "He mismanaged the country. The level of corruption has never been reached in this country. The economy is in havoc. His chaotic manner of ruling the country has created today a crisis — political crisis, economic crisis, social crisis, identity crisis."

2007 Freedom House Rating:  Political Rights - 2, Civil Liberties - 3, Status: Free
Next Scheduled National Assembly Election: 03 June 2007

According to the Internacional Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Internet is a widely used media all over the World.  The industrialized countries are well ahead, but most developing countries are narrowing the gap.  

Surprisingly, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) takes the first place in users per capita.  Followed by the Sweden, Australia, United States, Singapore, Denmark, Netherlands, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Finland and United Kingdom (in that order). 

Among Latin American countries, Chile, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico (in that order) have the most users per capita (about half the United Kingdom’s average), well ahead of the next ranking countries in that region:  Uruguay, Argentina and Perú.

Not surprisingly, countries at the bottom of this list are among the most repressive and undemocratic in the World.  Cuba is at the bottom of the Latinamerican list, behind Haiti, Nicaragua and Paraguay.  Cuba ranks below 15 African countries, where most of the bottom ranked countries are.  Others at the very bottom are North Korea, Myanmar, Laos, Tayikistan, Turkmenistan, Albania and Yemen.  Russia and Ukrania are among the last of the industrialized countries.

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[ reportaje relacionado en español ]