LAGOS, Nigeria — Will Nigerians experience their first democratic transition of power since the end of colonial rule, or will corruption and disarray prevent the country’s fragile democracy from continuing another four years? It’s the question on everybody’s mind in the weeks ahead of the April 14 vote for president in the oil-rich, but troubled, West African nation. A week after the vote for president, legislative and local elections are scheduled to take place. After gaining independence from Britain in 1960, leader after leader in Nigeria has had his authority usurped by military coups. Though there have been fleeting periods [...]
GAUR, Nepal — In a small concrete shed next to Gaur town hospital in southern Nepal, the corpses of 13 young Maoists lay sprawled in a mess of drying blood. A red communist flag was bunched under one outstretched hand and outside the shed another 12 bodies were lined up in the midday sun. The gruesome scene was the aftermath of the worst single day of violence since the Maoists rebels signed a peace agreement with the government last November. A day after the carnage of March 21, leaders of Nepal’s top political parties arrived by helicopter to assess the [...]
From the moment Iranian forces captured a group of 15 British sailors and Marines, the tensions among competing power centers within Iran began bubbling to the surface. One can almost imagine the heated debates raging among assorted Mullahs, military men and politicians about what to do with the 14 men and one woman taken on March 21 in the waters of the Persian Gulf. That, not coincidentally, was the day before a scheduled meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which approved new sanctions against the Islamic Republic, demanding yet again the suspension of Iran’s uranium enrichment program. There are [...]
