Protesters will not let the E.U. forget Zimbabwe
It must have been refreshing for Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe to see (allegedly) a million people marching on Friday in support of his administration, even though recent reports show that many of those marching were not only forced to do so (The Standard, 12/4/07), but were left stranded after the march and not given transportation back home. What a change it will be for the president to see large numbers of people protesting against him as he arrives in Portugal for the E.U. Africa summit (SW Radio Africa, 12/3/07). A contingent of writers from Africa and Europe added fuel to the fire by accusing both continents’ leaders of cowardice for ignoring the importance of the situation in Zimbabwe as well as that in Darfur (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07). The cause is, of course, the dire situation in Zimbabwe, where state mismanagement has made inflation soar, leaving a vast percentage of the population in poverty (The Times, 12/3/07). Mugabe is doing little to ease this suffering, but instead scheming to win the upcoming elections by pretending to appease the opposition (The Times, 12/3/07).

New probe set in journalists’ killings (United Press International, 12/3/07)
A judge has ordered a new investigation into the cases of Italian TV journalists Ilaria Alpi and cameraman Miran Hrovatin, who were both shot in Mogadishu by a seven-man commando force. Italian Judge Emanuele Cersosimo said that the pair may have been killed to stop their reporting a high-level conspiracy about Italian aid being diverted to weapons trafficking and toxic waste dumping.

Ending famine, simply by ignoring the experts (New York Times, 12/2/07)
Malawi, the little land-locked nation that needed emergency food aid for five million of its people just two years ago, is now selling the most amount of corn to the U.N. World Food Program, whilst simultaneously supplying the same food to Zimbabwe. The prevalence of indicators like child hunger within the country have fallen drastically over the years. Malawi’s secret: doing what the West does rather than what it preaches. The World Bank had long been telling the country to end fertilizer subsidies; instead president Bingu was Mutharika increased fertilizer subsidies, and slowly watched the grains pile up in the warehouses.

Congo army attacks rebel base after town falls (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07)
The Congolese military has been shelling the area around the town, but have held back their helicopter gunships, according to a state official. Tens of thousands of civilians had fled the towns after they were captured, adding to the already large number of refugees in the country.

Unstoppable rise of tainted Zulu warrior (The Sunday Times, 12/2/07)
Meet Jacob Zuma – he has 20 children from nine different women, no formal education and is generally seen as a leftist firebrand. He could also be South Africa’s next president. Loved by many for his big laugh and for being “100% Zulu,” he has won majorities around the country and seems to have an immense momentum.

Releases and revelations
This week marked the release of several political prisoners across the board. The Sudanese government released opposition leader Mubarak al-Fadil (Yahoo! News, 12/2/07), who was originally accused of partaking in a plot to overthrow the government. The Sudanese government has been notably jittery since the southern region of the country made alarmingly clear its want to separate. In nearby Somalia, the new prime minister Nur Hassan Hussein formed a cabinet and announced that he will try to open a dialog with all opponents, even Islamists (Yahoo! News, 12/2/07). Fighting in the region has already claimed 6,000 lives this year. Israel has released 429 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture during the current negotiations between it and Palestinian leaders (United Press International, 12/3/07). Of course, most of the prisoners were members of the Fatah movement rather than the increasingly hostile Hamas (Reuters, 12/3/07). Even Egypt, during its recent crackdown on anything outside the mainstream, has released two Shiite activists who were campaigning against torture (Yahoo! News, 12/2/07). The Iraqi government released Adnan al-Dulaimi from house arrest, a leader of the Sunni Accordance Front who claimed that Sunnis were being marginalized by the Shia-led government (Al Jazeera, 12/2/07). With his release, the Sunni Accordance Front ended its its parliamentary boycott.

The rift continues between Hamas and Fatah
Do not take to heart imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti’s optimistic belief that Palestinians will back a peace agreement with Israel (United Press International, 12/2/07); take into consideration first that the Palestinians themselves have to see eye-to-eye first. Fatah party leader Mahmoud Abbas recently forced 92 Hamas-linked charities to close their doors (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07), supposedly to curb international funding that the group is using to arm itself. Hamas has been equally uncooperative by stopping a Palestinian census which would have been the first of its kind in ten years (Yahoo! News, 12/2/07). Israel has been active in the region as well – apart from freeing 429 Palestinian prisoners (out of approximately 9,000), the state claims to have killed four Hamas members in a recent shelling, bringing this week’s total to 20 (BBC News, 12/3/07). With promises to strike even deeper into Gaza (United Press International, 12/2/07), Israel truly has innovated the conjunctive use of the carrot and stick.

Turkey claims it attacked Kurdish rebels (International Herald Tribune, 12/2/07)
The army claims to have dealt significant damage to rebel forces along the Iraq border. The rebels insist that there was no such attack and that there are no casualties on their side (Reuters, 12/2/07). Nevertheless, Turkey restated its readiness to take action along and even within the Iraq border.

Ahmadinejad: Iran, Gulf nations unite (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07)
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was an odd but powerful presence at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit. The fact that he was at the Sunni-dominated summit representing a largely Shiite nation shows the influence that Iran has in the region. Ahmadinejad asked his fellow leaders to join together for security “without foreign influence.” Considering that GCC nations have close ties to the U.S., it is hard to gauge the effect his words had on the other leaders, especially since these leaders are keeping mum about their thoughts on Ahmadinejad’s words (Reuters, 12/3/07). Whatever his effect on the GCC nations, the Iranian president is confident that his country’s ties with Syria are rock solid (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07), even though the former lambasted the latter for attending the U.S.-sponsored Middle East summit recently.

Islamic televangelists preach ‘Islam Lite’ (United Press International, 12/2/07)
Moez Masoud is not someone who would have been allowed to preach on national television ten years ago. He and other young activists are preaching a more lenient form if Islam, and being heard, from Egypt to London.

Youtube restores account of Egypt anti-torture blogger (Reuters, 12/3/07)
Youtube originally removed the content by Wael Abbas citing that it did not allow the service to maintain a “safe environment” for all users. It then claimed that Abbas did not put the sometimes graphic pictures of police brutality, anti-government demonstrations and voting irregularities into sufficient context. Abbas is now being allowed to post his photos as long as he puts his them “in context.”

Lebanon leaders back army chief for presidency (Reuters, 12/2/07)
The anti-Syrian coalition nominated General Michel Suleiman for the top post, finally coming to agreement over the matter that has been heatedly debated since President Emile Lahoud stepped down on November 23. In a surprising move, Hezbollah has voiced its support and regard for the general (International Herald Tribune, 12/2/07).

Migrants drown off Yemen coast (Al Jazeera, 12/1/07)
Around 80 Somalians drowned when the boat carrying them to Yemen capsized. 45 other survived. The Somalians were refugees fleeing fighting in their country for better opportunities in Yemen.

Militants wait in the wings as poverty and corruption plague Iraq
With the recent lull in the fighting between American-assisted Iraqi forces and various militant groups, around 25,000 Iraqis have returned to their homeland from Syria (United Press International, 12/3/07). There are nevertheless an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria today, with barely enough food to go around, even with the U.N. food program in effect (United Press International, 12/3/07). Little has changed in Iraq itself in spite of there being few military incidents – corruption and theft are soaring as the government struggles to set up some semblance of civilization (International Herald Tribune, 12/2/07), with as much as U.S. $18 billion of the government’s money getting lost or stolen since 2004. Bribery has become a cottage industry on its own. Troops are still finding several mass graves throughout the countryside, the latest being one that held 12 bodies (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07). Crumbling urban sanitation networks are a warning that a cholera epidemic may sweep the towns as the rainy season grows near (The Observer, 12/2/07). The fledgling Iraqi government has barely enough time to pay attention to any of this; it is still trying to give itself the authority to arrest foreign mercenaries (Reuters, 12/3/07). A Sunni resistance leader recently commented that even the lack of fighting in Iraq lately is not a positive sign; the insurgents are merely waiting out the 30,000 troop surge that occurred over the summer (The Guardian, 12/3/07).

Georgia to lift opposition TV ban ahead of elections (Reuters, 12/3/07)
Lifting the ban on opposition TV station Imedi is a step in the right direction, especially after the state’s disastrous attempt at setting up and enforcing martial law last month. The station was shut down for purportedly calling for a revolution against president Saakashvili’s government.

Pakistan’s Sharif barred from January vote (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07)
The Pakistani election commission has barred former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from standing for the January 8 general election on account of his criminal record. This criminal record includes accusations of corruption that were leveled against Sharif when current president Pervez Musharraf led a coup against the government and exiled the former in 1999. The Pakistani army has declared that although the country is trying to set up a liberal democracy, the armed forces will be coordinating with the U.S. to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in the region, thereby putting it out of the Pakistani parliament’s control (Asia Times Online, 12/1/07).

Afghanistan to expand its army size (United Press International, 12/3/07)
Although the process is meant to tighten internal security, it is also supposed to “interference” from neighboring nations (notably, Pakistan). This news comes during a bitter-sweet time for the Afghan security forces – security forces reportedly killed 40 insurgents in the south (Yahoo! News, 12/2/07), but were helpless to stop a suicide bomber as he attacked a police patrol and killed a total of four people (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07).

Putin wins?
Putin’s United Russia party scored landslide parliamentary wins on Saturday (United Press International, 12/2/07), making it plain to all that the president would continue to hold power even after his term is over. International monitors in the region were quick to note that the election was unfair (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07). The observers accuse Putin of breaking international commitments and abusing his power to secure 315 of the 450 parliamentary seats (The Times, 12/4/07). Europe and the U.S. were quick to express their alarm at the report and urge investigations into the election process (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07). Opposition parties have not remained quiet, but have instead attacked Putin (United Press International, 12/3/07) and the election reforms he conveniently put into place before the votes were tallied.

Myanmar rejects calls to include Suu Kyi in reforms (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07)
The military government in Myanmar refused to include pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in their “road map” to democracy. The 54-member panel created by the junta is the process of creating a new constitution that will eventually allow for democratic elections. The junta still insists that the recent protests in the country were organized by “bogus” monks in cooperation with anti-government groups.

U.S. seeks alliance with China and India to block climate protection (Spiegel Online, 12/3/07)
With Australia’s ratification of the Kyoto protocol (Yahoo! News, 12/3/07), the U.N.-sponsored Bali climate change conference began with high hopes. Unfortunately, the U.S. may be trying to find partners in crime with whom to derail any binding agreements to curb greenhouse gas emissions, especially considering that the Kyoto Protocol runs out in 2012.

Two Koreas agree on cross-border train (Yahoo! News, 12/2/07)
Economics was the basis of the deal more than anything else, which will begin with a twice-daily border crossing by a cargo train. A South Korean industrial estate exists in the north, where laborers are paid USD $60 a month to manufacture various items. The train will move raw materials into North Korea and finished product out to South Korea.

China damn project a boost for Myanmar junta:report (Reuters, 12/3/07)
China may have shocked the world by quietly chiding Myanmar for its treatment of protesters; less surprising is the state’s hydro-power project in Myanmar that is set to knit the two governments closer together. Local livelihoods and environment will be hazardously impacted as well.

32 civilians linked to failed uprising at Manila hotel (International Herald Tribune, 12/2/07)
Authorities are still investigating the uprising, which was set to mobilize people against the government. Government officials as well as police officers were involved in the plot.

Filipino protesters storm U.S. embassy (New York Times, 12/2/07)
Taking advantage of the unguarded gates at the embassy, around two dozen protesters rushed the gate and hit the U.S. seal with bricks, before police pushed them back. The group was demanding the transfer of Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith to a Filipino jail following his conviction for raping a native woman. The corporal has remained under custody at the embassy since his conviction a year ago.

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Be sure to check out the full range of GNN contributor roundups – mwm’s If you knew… as well as Nathan Coe’s Labor News Roundup and also Alfonzo Torrez’s The Rebel Communique.