Author Archives: Matthew Cordell

>>Zimbabwe – Partial results from the recount of the vote in the parliamentary election, released over the weekend, confirm that President Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party has lost control of parliament. Results from 18 of 23 constituencies have been retabulated and confirmed with no seats changing hands. Mugabe will now have to choose whether to appoint an opposition cabinet or attempt to run the country on presidential orders instead of parliamentary legislation. Representatives from Mugabe and opposition leadership will be invited to verify results from the presidential election today, prior to their release. It is possible that opposition leader Tsvangirai has won outright and will avoid a runoff but not likely.

>>Afghanistan – Suspected Taliban insurgents executed a well-coordinated, but unsuccessful assassination attempt against President Karzai during the Afghan national day military parade on Sunday. Three were killed in the attack — a tribal chief, a member of parliament, and a 10-year-old boy. Afghan security forces, which the government has pressed as a replacement for foreign troops guarding Kabul, prepared for weeks in advance of the event. The Taliban, claiming to have received help from within the security forces, worked in two teams, one working a mortar and the other guns, which were fired into the V.I.P stands.

>>Olympics – On Sunday the Olympic torch traveled to North and South Korea. In South Korea, it was greeted by protesters seeking better treatment for North Korean refugees in China and thousands of young pro-China demonstrators who subsequently attacked the others with rocks and steel pipes. Two North Korean refugees attempted to light themselves on fire in protest. North Korea on the other hand, was the least contentious stop on the torch’s world tour. Tens of thousands of North Koreans waving flags lined the 12-mile route. Meanwhile Chinese authorities are locking down Lhasa in advance of the torch’s visit.

• For Somalia, Trouble By Land and By Sea –
• A Building Made of States –
• Harold Pollack Says, “Send a Net, Save a Life” –
• Getting an Education for Afghan Girls –
• Bad Moon Rising Over Northern Uganda –

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Today is World Malaria Day. Play the Deliver the Net game, and a life-saving bed net will be sent to Africa on your behalf.

>>China – The Chinese state news organization announced today that Chinese officials will meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama. A spokesman for the Lama said they had received no word of the meeting. The announcement comes as a surprise given the fact that China’s government denounces the Dalai Lama as a traitor and as an instigator of unrest, particularly the most recent. The Olympic torch, which has met with widespread protests — generally about the status of Tibet — in its world tour, will be brought into Tibet in May, where the relay will include a summitting of Mt. Everest, and into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, in June.

>>Iraq – After a year-long boycott, Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in Iraq’s government, has agreed to rejoin the cabinet of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Representatives cited the recently passed amnesty legislation, which has already led to the release of some Sunni prisoners, and the government’s fighting of Shi’ite insurgents as reasons for the policy shift. “Details” reportedly have not been worked out, a designation that has, historically in Iraqi politics, represented a significant hurdle.

>>Nepal – The results are final from Nepal’s historic April 10 parliamentary election. The party respresenting former rebel Maoists has won 220 of 601 seats, twice as many as the second-place Nepali Congress party. The new assembly will craft a new constitution, and the Maoists have stated that they will end Nepal’s 240-year-old monarchy. The election caps the 2006 peace agreement, which ended a bloody 10-year civil war.

• Judged by the Company We Keep? –
• What has been most successful? –
• An Apollo metaphor for peacekeeping –

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Today is World Malaria Day. Play the Deliver the Net game, and a life-saving bed net will be sent to Africa on your behalf.

>>China – The Chinese state news organization announced today that Chinese officials will meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama. A spokesman for the Lama said they had received no word of the meeting. The announcement comes as a surprise given the fact that China’s government denounces the Dalai Lama as a traitor and as an instigator of unrest, particularly the most recent. The Olympic torch, which has met with widespread protests — generally about the status of Tibet — in its world tour, will be brought into Tibet in May, where the relay will include a summitting of Mt. Everest, and into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, in June.

>>Iraq – After a year-long boycott, Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in Iraq’s government, has agreed to rejoin the cabinet of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Representatives cited the recently passed amnesty legislation, which has already led to the release of some Sunni prisoners, and the government’s fighting of Shi’ite insurgents as reasons for the policy shift. “Details” reportedly have not been worked out, a designation that has, historically in Iraqi politics, represented a significant hurdle.

>>Nepal – The results are final from Nepal’s historic April 10 parliamentary election. The party respresenting former rebel Maoists has won 220 of 601 seats, twice as many as the second-place Nepali Congress party. The new assembly will craft a new constitution, and the Maoists have stated that they will end Nepal’s 240-year-old monarchy. The election caps the 2006 peace agreement, which ended a bloody 10-year civil war.

• Judged by the Company We Keep? –
• What has been most successful? –
• An Apollo metaphor for peacekeeping –

READ MORE

>>North Korea – Seven months after a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria was destroyed by Israel, the U.S. government has said that it will make public video evidence of North Koreans working on the reactor. Analysts say that the reactor was molded on the one that North Korea used to obtain fuel for its nuclear weapons. Some question the timing of the release; A senior administration official said, to the New York Times, “Making public the pictures is likely to inflame the North Koreans. And that’s just what opponents of this whole arrangement want, because they think the North Koreans will stalk off.”

>>United States – General David Petraeus and Lt. General Raymond Odierno, two commanders most closely associated with President Bush’s strategy in Iraq, have been promoted. Petraeus will become commander of CentCom, covering East Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East; Odierno, formerly Petraeus’s deputy, will take his spot as the senior commander in Iraq. Petraeus’ promotion could jumpstart a renewed focus on Afghanistan, which he has said could stand some more American troops.

>>Pakistan – Bailtullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander said to have ordered the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, has ordered his followers to cease attacks. Mehsud operates mainly in the Southern Waziristan area of Pakistan. On Monday night, Pakistan’s government set free Maulana Sufi Mohammad, the founder of an outlawed Islamist group that has fought in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mehsud’s spokesman said in an interview that his release was part of a new peace deal.

• Not Good for Anyone –
• The political baggage of Great Powers troops –
• What Color is Earth Day? –
• Nicole Kidman at the UN –

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>>North Korea – Seven months after a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria was destroyed by Israel, the U.S. government has said that it will make public video evidence of North Koreans working on the reactor. Analysts say that the reactor was molded on the one that North Korea used to obtain fuel for its nuclear weapons. Some question the timing of the release; A senior administration official said, to the New York Times, “Making public the pictures is likely to inflame the North Koreans. And that’s just what opponents of this whole arrangement want, because they think the North Koreans will stalk off.”

>>United States – General David Petraeus and Lt. General Raymond Odierno, two commanders most closely associated with President Bush’s strategy in Iraq, have been promoted. Petraeus will become commander of CentCom, covering East Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East; Odierno, formerly Petraeus’s deputy, will take his spot as the senior commander in Iraq. Petraeus’ promotion could jumpstart a renewed focus on Afghanistan, which he has said could stand some more American troops.

>>Pakistan – Bailtullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander said to have ordered the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, has ordered his followers to cease attacks. Mehsud operates mainly in the Southern Waziristan area of Pakistan. On Monday night, Pakistan’s government set free Maulana Sufi Mohammad, the founder of an outlawed Islamist group that has fought in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mehsud’s spokesman said in an interview that his release was part of a new peace deal.

• Not Good for Anyone –
• The political baggage of Great Powers troops –
• What Color is Earth Day? –
• Nicole Kidman at the UN –

READ MORE