Tuesday Links 11.25.08

via Meg Rorison's photostream

Mauritanian Dictators Prefer Botnets (Strategy Page, 11/18)
http://tinyurl.com/6658r7
"Mauritanian generals apparently hired several botnets to smother the anti-dictatorship websites with DDOS attacks."

O3B Networks Introduces Bundled IP Trunking Solution for Telcos and ISP's (O3B, 11/18)
http://tinyurl.com/58cgzw
"O3b Networks Ltd. today introduced its first turn-key offering. 'Quick Start Africa' is a, Carrier Managed Service designed for Telcos and ISPs on the African continent who need a high capacity, ultra low latency, carrier class IP trunking solution."

Mobile Finance- Indigenous, Ingenious or Both? (Kiwanji, 11/21)
http://tinyurl.com/5qv8yk
"In Ghana it's popularly known as susu. In Cameroon, tontines or chilembe. And in South Africa, stokfel. Today you'd most likely call it plain-old microfinance, the nearest term we have for it. Age-old indigenous credit schemes have run perfectly well without much outside intervention for generations, although in our excitement to implement new technologies and 'solutions' we sometimes fail to recognise them."

Troop Deployment to DR Congo Good First Step; Immediate Action Still Needed (Refugees International, 11/20)
http://tinyurl.com/5qglk3
While the UN Security Council authorized 3,000 new peace keepers in DRC, "Refugees International continued to call for the European Union to immediately deploy a short-term rapid reaction force that can defend strategic towns until UN reinforcements arrive, and allow the UN peacekeeping mission to reorganize itself."