This blog may have been the first news source anywhere (or at least the first non-Azeri source) to confirm that Adnan Hajizade was actually released from prison – although RFE/RL was apparently first to report the court’s decision to release him. See attached two superb pictures taken by freelance journalist Turkhan Karimov. Karimov emailed me, saying […]
After a brief calm in which it looked as if modest post-election violence might abate Guinea has experienced the storm. Opposition leader Alpha Conde has been declared the winner. Resultant violence has led to the imposition of a state of emergency. Now the key is stanching the violence. What is done is done. And a […]
On November 19 and 20, Lisbon will be hosting the latest NATO Summit. The main purpose behind the Summit will be to adopt a new ‘Strategic Concept’ and try to bring Russia closer to the Alliance. This Summit is extremely important for the future of the Alliance and transatlantic relations. For these reasons, I will […]
In a surprise move, jailed “donkey blogger” Adnan Hajizade was released from prison in the last two hours. He had been serving a two-year sentence on charges of “hooliganism” after being mauled by thugs in a Baku cafe in 2009. Coincidentally, the charges and the assault took place not long after Hajizade produced (and starred […]
We all know Pakistan is facing serious challenges and regretfully, there are no simple solutions for these problems. So far, repeated experiments with democracy and dictatorships in the country have yielded nothing, but more failures and even more misery. When Benazir returned to Pakistan to help steer the country in the right direction, she was […]
Zambian police arrested and charged Emmanuel Mwamba, former Zambian president Fredrick Chiluba’s Public Relations aide, for allegedly authoring and publishing contemptuous articles on the online publication Zambia Watchdog. More: http://www.africanews.com/site/Expresident_Chilubas_aide_arrested/list_messages/36106Ex-president. Also see: http://www.zambianwatchdog.com/2010/11/17/police-to-arrest-emmanuel-mwamba-today/ Charles Andrianasoavina, a colonel with the Madagascan military, announced on Wednesday that he and a group of dissident top-ranking officers have taken […]
Speaking of football results, I was remiss this weekend in pointing out that Lubumbashi-based DRC club TP Mazembe won this year’s CAF Champions League, completing a repeat of last year’s win, a feat Les Corbeaux also accomplished in 1967 and 1968. They won the continent’s crown jewel for professional clubs by drawing Esperance 1-1 after […]
A callow United States team defeated Bafana Bafana 1-0 today in a friendly at Cape Town’s Green Point Stadium that the South Africans really controlled throughout. I am often asked about what happens if the US faces off against South Africa in soccer or in rugby. In both cases I support South Africa for the […]
What’s the difference between spray-painting a gigantic penis on a St Petersburg drawbridge and overturning a couple of police cars? Possibly five years in jail. But if both were symbolic acts of petty hooliganism (recently done by the hipster anarchist group Voina, Russian for ‘War’), why did the activists get off with only a slap […]
Greenland is requiring companies that drill in its waters to pay for a $2 billion bond upfront – before drilling even begins – in order to cover the cost of cleaning up any oil spills that might occur. Already, Greenland had some of the “strictest [requirements] made to date to any oil company,” according to […]
The International Crisis Group (ICG) released a new paper on Afghanistan’s judiciary sytem, its faults, failures and the way back to institutional legitimacy and stability. Please find the executive summary here. However, I highly recommend that you read the paper that you’ll find here, in PDF format. In the meantime, here’s a taste: The legal […]
“Before you pay to volunteer abroad, think of the harm you might do”, article @http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/orphans-cambodia-aids-holidays-madonna
The fight over forced homelessness of one by the other has gone beyond personal and political rivalry between Sheikh Hasina and Begum Zia. BNP supporters have called a strike this weekend and took to the streets to protest Khaleda Zia’s eviction from her cantonment home; police have beat back party activists, and failing to do […]
The news of reconciliation in Afghanistan is nothing less than three-headed Cerberus, internally conflicted and unruly. One head: the Karzai story, pushed about in the major media outlets, that NATO is helping broker preliminary, testy, exchanges that might well precede a contested power-sharing agreement. The second, reported by the BBC is that the Taliban are […]
I am not sure if it is just me, but it is dawning on me that the IMF has one standardized economic solution when it comes to tackling Africa’s economic crisis: Cut spending, cut spending, and cut spending! Under the guise of the so-called “fiscal road map” presented in October to the International Monetary Fund (otherwise […]