The Daily Nite Owl, a live blog from Iran has confirmed violent clashes between police and opposition protestors. 6:40 PM (Tehran Time) I will stop liveblogging now. There are still reports of small protests in Tehran and other cities, but people are largely returning home. Here’s a brief summary of the day’s events in Iran: […]
The Iran Blog has posted some bullet points about the celebrations and protests in Iran today please see here In addition, Ahmadinejad has declared a Iran a nuclear state, stating that Iranian scientists have enriched the first batches of uranium to 20% purity and that Iran has the capacity to enrich to 80% purity. As […]
Sec. of State Hillary Clinton released a statement today on the Middle East peace process after meeting with Quartet Envoy Tony Blair. Clinton reiterates the long-held U.S. position and outlines Blair’s goals, which lack shock value. The statement reads: “I spoke today with Quartet Representative Blair to discuss developments in the Middle East. This Administration has, […]
Twenty years ago, on 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela left Victor Verster prison in Paarl. Today South Africa and the world celebrates that epoch-shifting event. After twenty-seven years the ANC leader, who had by the 1980s become a symbol of the anti-Apartheid movement and the embodiment of South Africa’s pariah status, was free. Mandela spent […]
I received an email from a reader this morning. The emailer (it was basically anonymous, and so I do not know the writer’s gender) asserted that they like this blog, but believe that I am too negative about Africa, and suggested a website (theirs, I assume) for me to visit that takes a sunny view […]
Two stories from today serve to hint how precarious Nigeria’s political situation might be if Goodlove Jonathan’s Interim Presidency goes awry. In his first day in power after taking over the presidency for Umaru Yar’Adua, who is hospitalized in Saudi Arabia with no indication if he will ever recover well enough to return to power, […]
One reason why Jacob Zuma is likely to weather the storm surrounding his latest controversy is that his popularity ratings were incredibly high before the story broke and had been rising throughout the early months of his presidency. According to polls in November 2009, 77% of South Africans felt that Zuma was doing his job […]
The Latest on the 31st Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution (February 11, 2010) : There are reports of martial law in Tehran to stem the growing anti-government demonstrations Anti-government protesters tear posters of Ayatollah Khamenei and Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Republic Widespread clashes in different parts of Tehran between pro-democracy demonstrators and security […]
Zainab Jeewanjee continues on drones in Pakistan, with Part 3 in a series of articles on Unmanned CIA aircraft in Pakistan. She discusses the scarcely heard Pakistani perspective that the drones are actually welcome in Waziristan. Skeptical of the argument, Jeewanjee explains the consequences of dismissing valid concerns Pakistani’s have about drones.
I have been struggling for a while now to find something positive, if not uplifting about Pakistan, but despite my consistent efforts, I have been largely unsuccessful in my quest. I called friends, journalists, government officials and private citizens across Pakistan but all of them shared horror stories about life in Pakistan. So, what is […]
Two years ago – February 2008 – Pakistan began its transformation to democracy with a general election that brought Benazir Bhutto’s PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) into power. The party decided to continue its policy, introduced by its slain leader Ms. Bhutto, of reconciliation with all political players. It formed a coalition government with its rival […]
A couple days ago, I gave my latest views of the US use of drone assassination attacks, especially their substantial increase of usage by the Obama administration, in Pakistan. I am overall very pro-Drone use, but believe we can overuse them as a strategic tool. Here is a video of some members of the Wall […]
The student affiliates of the major political parties have always had a major hand in the decades long perverse politicking in Bangladesh. Time and again mutually non-deterrent and devastating clashes have shut down the major cities in Bangladesh. Student leaders of these political groups often find lucrative contracts in the private sector; alternatively they […]
According to the opposition website National Council of Resistance of Iran, the government is taking some pretty stark measures to control the planned protests to take place on February 11, 2010, in honor of the anniversary of the takeover by the Islamic Revolution Regime. The government has asked students to spy on classmates and report […]
Nigeria’s Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has now taken over as the country’s Interim President, a position he will maintain until (and if) President Umaru Yar-Adua is able to recover from his rather dire health problems and return from Saudi Arabia. Theoretically the country has thus avoided a major political crisis and Jonathan said all of […]