A lot of news can happen in a few weeks, here are some more notable stories that have occured while I was away:
“Bruno“ Banned in Ukraine
It only takes one of these ‘bans’ for the movie producers to get the free exposure they need for the movie’s success. Unfortunately Ukraine’s culture ministry took the bait
From Celebrity Cafe:
Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest box office hit was too much for Ukraine’s officials.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s new comedy, “Bruno.†has been banned in Ukraine, reports Reuters.
The film depicts a gay Austrian fashion reporter trying to make it famous in the United States after being fired and blacklisted in his homeland.
Officials said Wednesday that the motion picture could have damaging effect on Ukrainians’ moral health due to its scenes of nudity and homosexual sex, says Agence France-Presse.
Google Translator adds Ukrainian
I tried it out yesterday for Ukrainian Pravda and the results weren’t too bad, now English speakers have access to more Ukrainian media.
From Googleblog:
The new Translate feature is available in all international versions of Toolbar, including English, and the translation service supports 41 different languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
Ruslana performs at Soyuzvika
The biggest Ukrainian festival in the USA – and I missed it! Enjoy Ruslana’s opening performance, as well as some pictures of the event.
Kyiv charges Russian military with unauthorized transport of missiles through Sevastopol
From the Kyiv Post:
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vasyl Kyrylych said in a statement on Friday that Ukrainian law enforcement agencies on July 8 stopped three vehicles and a group of Russian Black Sea Fleet servicemen, who were transporting cruise missiles through densely populated districts of Sevastopol without agreement of competent Ukrainian bodies "in gross violation of the May 28, 1997 agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on the status and conditions of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s presence in Ukraine."
It even happened again today!
HIV/AIDS prevention program being developed in Ukraine
From the Winnipeg Free Press:
Dr. James Blanchard, director of the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Global Public Health, and Wendy Schettler, head of public health programs with Winnipeg’s International Centre for Infectious Diseases, are in Ukraine this week to help develop a model HIV/AIDS prevention program there in partnership with UNICEF.