GADHAFI REACHES OUT — In recent days, Washington has been the target of a mini-media blitz by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, including an op-ed piece in the New York Times and a video conference with Georgetown University students. The advertised purpose of both was to push Gadhafi’s idea of a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, which he calls Isratine. But as commentator Dana Moss points out in the Guardian this week, the quirky Libyan leader is reaching out to the Obama administration “using his stance towards Israel as bait.” According to a Libyan source in Tripoli, Gadhafi is disappointed [...]
The inauguration of President Barack Obama was filled with tremendously moving images, perhaps none more striking than the crowds who gathered in Kogelo, Kenya — the birthplace of Obama’s father — to watch the ceremony. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the South African newspaper Business Day both compared Obama’s election to that of Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected president in South Africa. As elsewhere in the world, Obama’s task will be to maintain that enthusiasm in the face of real challenges. Although Africa has been billed as one of the Bush administration’s foreign policy successes, three conflicts continue to dominate [...]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – It is uncertain what effect last week’s arrest of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebel leader Laurent Nkunda will have on peace prospects in Africa’s third largest country, where more than 5 million people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since internal fighting began a decade ago. While some people have hailed it as the biggest step yet toward ending one of Africa’s worst civil wars ever, others suggest that any celebration must wait until the new-found alliance between Rwanda and Congo proves durable. Nkunda, a 41-year-old former DRC army general who has led [...]
