Regions

Ad nauseam, ad infinitum.  For the 8th time, the Lebanese parliament has postponed electing a president.   The many factions had agreed on choosing Gen. Michel Suleiman to replace Emil Lahoud, but it has hit many, many snags.  For one, the Lebanese constitution forbids high-ranking state employees from becoming President, so Suleiman will have to resign or the […]

You’ll probably want to bookmark IOL's Polokwane coverage, which has frequently updated news stories, opinion pieces, and much more.

At least 60 people have been killed as a result of two bombings in Algiers today- one near a government bulding and the other near United Nations offices.    The government is sure that the GSPC is responsible (The GSPC, a splinter of the GIA group which waged the civil war in the 1990s,  was known as […]

I tend to believe that The Mail & Guardian is the best newspaper in South Africa (and maybe in the entire region), both in print and online, and as my readers know, I refer to it often in my posts and commentary. But I was stricken by an example of sloppiness in this story on […]

Jose Narro Robles was named the new rector of Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM). Robles is a doctor who previously headed the university's medical school. UNAM, with approximately 160,000 undergraduates and 21,000 graduate students, is the largest — and often ranked the best — university in Latin America. 

Next year the Great Decisions series at the Foreign Policy Association will have a blog on Russia, which will complement Central Asia reporting here–we are going to press onward.  For the purposes of Central Asia reporting though, it's important to note that Russia's electoral process sends messages to Central Asia as well and suggests the […]

With a title like this, I had to write in: they finally filmed a mammal in the Gobi desert that, okay, my fellow tree-huggers, is a really cute cross between a mouse and a rabbit: a long-eared jerboa.  BBC has pictures, a story, and a video.  It is also an endangered species.  We should look […]

Director Luis Mandoki's latest release, “Fraud: Mexico 2006,” opened in Mexico to large audiences, generating interest and controversy. The documentary suggests that Felipe Calderon defeated Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in a fraudulent process that included improprieties at polling places and an unlawful smear campaign against the leftist candidate, Obrador. The film's pro-Calderon critics dismiss it as propaganda, […]

Quick one: Since transparency continues to be an issue in Central Asia and elsewhere, I found this article of interest–and it uses the U.S. as an example, but the principles are perhaps universal.  Over at How Stuff Works: how to launder money.  Now don't go saying I told you what to do here!  🙂  The idea is […]

If it's a new day in South Africa it inevitably means that the tension level has been ratcheted up another notch. The biggest story may be the rumors that if Jacob Zuma wins the ANC presidency he will get to work trying to find a way to force Mbeki out of office. One cannot help […]

The EU-Africa summit kicks off tonight in grand style. The central figure in the drama that plays out will still be Robert Mugabe whose very inclusion in the meeting has been the source of much debate in the past few months. Still a hero to a few but a pariah to most, the wily despot, […]

Polokwane is not the only (or arguably even the most) contested political terrain in South Africa. One can be certain that the naming of Jake White's successor as Springbok head coach will be every bit as full of recriminations, barbed comments, and backroom politicking as anything that happens among the ANC's National Executive Committee in […]