Daily News Channel
Observers with a working knowledge of Iranian politics have largely been able to shrug off President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bluster and bullying, knowing the diminutive President must still answer to a far more powerful figure: Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei. Since 1989, the shadowy cleric — a former president himself — has sat at the apex of Iran’s complex hierarchy as the final word in all political and religious matters.
Some were actually hoping the wretched west African nation of Guinea-Bissau might have a fresh start this summer. In March, both the country’s dictatorial President, Joao Bernardo Vieira, and its mighty army chief Tagme Na Waie were assassinated, creating something of a clean slate, a chance for the country to start anew with a presidential election scheduled for June 28.
There is no denying that the news clips from Tehran are dramatic, unprecedented in violence and size since the mullahs came to power in 1979. They’re possibly even augurs of real change. But can we trust them
We’re told that a young and restless Facebook generation has arisen in Iran, text-messaging and Twittering away at the fabric of a conservative clerical rule that it is no longer willing to accept. Ranged against it are the dogged defenders of a decrepit regime that has outlived its purpose, surviving only through brute force and its ability to convince the unsophisticated, mostly rural poor folk in their ragged suits and black chadors that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is their champion against corrupt politicians and the treacherous intellectuals and amoral rich kids who support them. Obviously these are stereotypes — and highly misleading ones at that
Four years ago, during a similarly sultry Tehran summer, I had an argument with Shirin Ebadi about whether Iranians should vote in their country’s presidential elections.
No one has contributed to Pakistan’s slide into chaos over recent years more than Baitullah Mehsud From his base in the wilds of South Waziristan, the leader of the Pakistan Taliban has overseen the killing of over 1,200 civilians and several hundred soldiers through brutal means including suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. He has been accused of masterminding the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in late December 2007. In late March, Washington announced a $5m reward for information leading to his capture, describing Mehsud as a “key al-Qaeda facilitator.” And over the past week alone, he claimed responsibility for five separate terrorist attacks, including the bombing of a luxury hotel in Peshawar and the killing of a vocal anti-Taliban cleric in Lahore
To the leaders of the Republican Party, a public health-care insurance option is a “non-starter,” the first step on a slippery slope to socialized medicine; in the eyes of the American Medical Association , it could “restrict patient choice”; and for President Barack Obama, as he put it Monday during his speech to the AMA in Chicago, it’s an essential part of any health care reform package that will “put affordable health care within reach for millions of Americans.” With all the hand wringing over a public plan, you could be excused for thinking there is already a specific plan on the table. There is not. But that hasn’t stopped House and Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle from turning a public plan into one of the most contentious issues being debated inside the Beltway, one that could potentially make or break the passage of landmark health care reform this year
Egypt said they would file a protest to FIFA after Brazi’ls controversial injury time winner in their Confederations Cup opener in Bloemfontein on Monday night. Egypt had come back from 3-1 down to be tied at 3-3 as the match headed into injury time, but were beaten by Kaka’s last-gasp penalty.
The parents of a California teen who disappeared on her way to school in February have closed the center that was the staging ground for search efforts, citing a lack of volunteers and a shift in direction. But the parents of 14-year-old Amber DuBois say the search will continue with a small group of dedicated volunteers. “We’re absolutely going to keep going
The Mexican military has arrested a suspect identified as the head of a drug cartel in the Yucatan Peninsula, federal defense ministry officials said. Tyler Hayes Weinman, 18, also is charged with 19 counts of improper disposal of dead animals and four counts of burglary, police said. Weinman lives in Cutler Bay and has lived with his parents in Palmetto Bay, the two towns where police said 19 cats were mutilated and killed.