MIDEAST: Virtually, There Are No Borders

Israeli entrepreneurs dream of a region without borders. Given their country's remoteness from its vicinity, that's a natural need. It's a dream also nurtured by their Palestinian counterparts, and a national necessity given their own encirclement by Israel. That's where high-tech comes into play...

GREECE: Social Media Advances Against Elite Owners

An unflattering report on Greece’s media by a former United States envoy to this country, revealed by Wikileaks, evoked little public reaction because it was taken as a faithful portrayal.

OP-ED: Manipulating Social Networks

If there's one thing that net-savvy activists from Tunisia to Bahrain are aware of, it’s that the Internet isn’t always safe. From the constant threat of surveillance to the knowledge that posting the wrong picture on Facebook can get you arrested - or worse - activists have for a long time taken measures to mitigate risks, censoring themselves, using special tools like Tor, or staying off certain networks altogether.

Q&A: “When People Are Mad, They Start to React” to Corruption

The fight against corruption has taken centre stage in the government of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, and has led to the resignation or dismissal of several ministers over just a few months.

LATIN AMERICA: Citizens Chart Crime Using Online Maps

"I was walking down the street, talking on my cell phone, when a guy on a motorbike came by and grabbed the phone out of my hand. I ran after him but I couldn't catch him. He had probably been following me."

New Scientific Network on Climate Change Adaptation

In Central America the temperature is rising and forests are taking longer to grow, while farther south, the Amazon rainforests have yet to feel the effects of global warming. This is just one example of how climate change is manifested differently in different parts of the region.

CHINA: Microbloggers Launch Long March to Freedom

China’s rapidly growing legion of microbloggers is proving a worthy foe against ongoing government efforts to monitor, influence and censor information on the country’s vast Internet. Government efforts have failed to curb an outpouring of anger and grief in the wake of the recent Wenzhou train disaster.

Computers Help Create a Clean Energy Future

The use of information technology in energy planning can contribute not only to developing renewable energy sources but also to moving towards a green economy.

People Find Online Power Now in Malaysia

Following a major rally involving tens of thousands of protesters calling for electoral reforms in Malaysia, someone set up a Facebook page calling for Prime Minister Najib Razak to step down. Within ten days, the number of people who said they "like" the page crossed 200,000.

BELARUS: Clap Again This Wednesday

For the past nine weeks, Belarusians have been getting out in the hundreds into the main squares of big and small cities across the country on Wednesdays at seven in the evening. They clap, or let their mobiles ring all at once. The ‘Revolution through Social Networks- movement’ started by five students, and growing on the Russian equivalent of Facebook, Vkontakte, is posing a new threat to the Lukashenko regime.

E-Waste Hits China

Despite new government regulations, China, for decades the dumping ground for the world’s electronic waste, still struggles to treat and process millions of tonnes of e-waste, prompting health and environmental concerns.

Q&A: CAPTCHA Creator Would Like to Tap Crowdsourcing to Fight Crime

If you use the internet, you will have come across CAPTCHA, a test to determine whether the computer user is human or a machine. What you may not know is that one of its inventors, mathematician Luis von Ahn, comes from one of the poorest countries in Latin America, Guatemala.

Cuban Twitterers Meet Face-to-Face

"I want to meet @salvatore300 and @elainediaz2003" was a comment overheard at #TwittHab, the first meeting in Cuba of social network users. After years of being connected only via the web, the internet is now being used to facilitate real-world contact between citizens of this socialist island nation.

CUBA: Video Games Spread Despite Limitations

Despite the many limitations on access to digital-age technology in Cuba, a taste for computer games is spreading in this country, giving rise to a youthful movement that is beginning to conquer new public spaces.

Africa’s Biggest Market Lies Within

Global demand for African oil and precious metals has fuelled a continental surge in exports, helping some of the world’s poorest countries rebound from the 2009 economic shock.

Q&A: “Africa Can Provide More Than Minerals in South-South Trade”

South-South co-operation is firmly on Africa’s agenda. Leading the way is South Africa, which has recently joined up with Brazil, Russia, India and China’s BRIC formation to form a new global grouping of emerging markets, known as BRICS.

INDIA: With No IT Sector, Kashmir Lags Behind

At a time when information technology has revolutionised life across the globe, Kashmir in north India lags behind the rest of the country, and the world, because it has no IT industry to speak of.

Argentina and U.S. Launch Climate Observatory into Orbit

Argentina and the United States have launched a jointly developed satellite observatory that will provide real-time information critical to understanding two major components of the earth's climate system: the water cycle and ocean circulation.

EUROPE: Space Agency Maps Mosquitoes to Combat Tropical Diseases

In times of war, the accurate mapping of enemy positions can be the key to victory. In the war on mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, mapping the distribution and habitat of mosquitoes can play a crucial role in combating epidemics at the source.

SINGAPORE: Social Media Challenges Govt Grip

Weeks after a watershed general election in Singapore, the influential role played by social media to dramatically transform political debate in this affluent city- state continues to reverberate through cyberspace.

ZIMBABWE: Cross-Border Traders Don’t Trust Banks With Their Money

A newly available electronic banking service has received a lukewarm reception from cross-border traders in Zimbabwe’s second largest city Bulawayo, despite it alleviating the need to move around with large sums of cash.