It would have seemed absurd to have suggested as much nine months ago, but could Kenya end up providing something of a model for post-conflict resolution? The country provides an outlier of a test case, to be sure. The country had achieved hard-won stability that already had people pointing to it as a seemingly shining example […]
On any given day it is difficult to discern the status of negotiations in Zimbabwe. They might be resuming, if they ever ended, if they haven't been done for a while. Robert Mugabe is grabbing as much power in the form of ministries as he possibly can (causing Morgan Tsvangirai to considering pulling out of […]
The ANC dissidents, led by Mosiuoa Lekota and former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa, have continued apace with their plans to form a separate party. They claim that the ANC had become too beholden to the far left, particularly the South African Communist Party (SACP), or at least that the SACP increasingly felt entitled to have […]
Most of you have probably heard the reports of Christian-targeted violence in Iraq in recent weeks. Religious minorities face many uphill battles, some higher and harsher than others, in most societies. Just this last week we heard people, though on a very marginal scale, at McCain rallies shouting derogatory Muslim references toward Barack Obama. It […]
President Michel Suleiman seems to be engaged in shuttle diplomacy. Taking in consideration that the local players are heavily influenced by outside actors, this is a good initiative. I hope General Suleiman will be able to deliver but thus far he has done a good job. Minister of State Nassib Lahoud told LBC television on […]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suicide bomber on Thursday attacked a police station in northwest Pakistan, killing four security officers — the latest in a series of blasts that are eroding confidence in the country. The attacker struck in the mountain valley of Swat, one of several regions where government forces have been struggling to defeat […]
In recent weeks the Mediterranean states of Greece and Turkey have pushed to strengthen their diplomatic ties to the Central Asian region and its states. In the case of Turkey, it is the continuing of a growing relationship, and in the case of Greece, it is an attempt to reinvigorate what has in recent times […]
Zambian election officials and politicians met on Wednesday in order to address concerns about vote rigging on the eve of the country's October 30 elections. Whether the Electoral Commission of Zambia hopes to preempt an electoral nightmare along the lines of those that have flared in Kenya and Zimbabwe in the last year or is reactively […]
WASHINGTON ‚ A growing al Qaida -backed insurgency, combined with the Pakistani army's reluctance to launch an all-out crackdown, political infighting and energy and food shortages are plunging America's key ally in the war on terror deeper into turmoil and violence, says a soon-to-be completed U.S. intelligence assessment. A U.S. official who participated in drafting […]
Pakistani intelligence agents re-arrested an American detained in the country's volatile border region and were questioning the man, police said Wednesday. The man ‚ identified by Pakistani police as Juddi Kenan ‚ was carrying a laptop computer when he was arrested Monday at a checkpoint in the northwestern district of Mohmand, near where Pakistani security […]
The impact of the (now global) financial crisis on Mexico has been more than marginal. Not only have remittances fallen dramatically since April 2008, but the Peso fell to a record low against the US dollar in the last few days. It seems that both the Treasury Secretary and the Head of the Central Bank […]
Sean McCormack, State Dept. spokesman, declines to confirm both the possibility of alternatives to a SOFA and the intelligence demonstrating Iran's meddling. He “is right in the middle of the spectrum, which says that we are continuing to work on the SOFA.”
In Saudi Arabia, women and men disagree over whether a law banning men from working in lingerie stores should be enforced. Sawt al Nisaa, a women's advocacy group, is poised to begin a boycott of lingerie stores who refuse to enforce teh law, which was designed to bring more women into the workforce. Market forces […]
Whenever my girlfriend goes home to her native Milan, it does wonders for her Russian. Wading through the swarm of Slav fashion slaves on Via Montenapoleone packs more listening comprehension than did her entire grad school course. Last week, she went shopping with her older sister, who wanted to celebrate a recent promotion by […]
“Every blog has the commentariat it deserves”, observed sad young literary man and post-Soviet film critic Konstantin Gessen. For a long time, this axiom was clearly borne out by many cryptic, subtly menacing, and downright bizarre comments on this blog (eg. “Wasn't easier (sic) to get rid of Saakashvili by buying him a stove made […]