When 145,000 Blackberry users in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) received this message from operator Etisalat, the majority of them went ahead and downloaded the supposed upgrade. But what they had agreed to was more than just an "ultimate experience" - they had just opened access to all their messages. Read more...

Yoani Sanchez, our Observer in Cuba, is under permanent surveillance. She decided to photograph the men who camp outside her house. Unfazed by the affair, she comments: "at least since they've been there, nobody pisses on the steps anymore." Read more...

The Czech press is dismayed bu Milan Kundera after a document, dug out of Czechoslovakian police (SNB) archives, reveals that the esteemed writer was an informant in the 1950s. Read more...