The New York Times has reported that yesterday in Zimbabwe, a court dismissed charges against a leading human rights lawyer accused of obstructing justice. The lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, was part of a legal team representing political activists who later faced charges of ‘plotting to overthrow’ Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Mr. Muchadehama himself was arrested last month and accused [...]

Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa recently stated that when he takes office as head of Unasur he will sponsor the creation of organizations to monitor the unethical, irresponsible press and another to monitor human rights. Hmm. So one organization to monitor (censor) ‘unethical and irrsponsible’ press, relative terms at best when they oppose political leadership and [...]

I doubt I’ll ever find as much entertainment in a political figure as that I get out of Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Besides the soap opera that is the man’s family life, his brushes with the law and his ownership of nearly all of the nation’s commercial television channels which epitomizes the phrase ‘conflict [...]

If you’re going to be a successful corrupt dictator of a developing nation, its really all about strategy. Sure, its easy for a Robert Mugabe to parade around Harare with thousands of American dollars being spent on his 196th birthday, but the world is watching. Political leaders would be taking severe risks in negotiating, trading [...]

In the days following Jacob Zuma‘s rise to political power, one might forget an upcoming event that will change the way the world views South Africa henceforth – Fifa World Cup 2010. The event is one of the largest sporting spectaculars in the world, and the sport has perhaps the most incensed fan-base out of [...]

The beauty and indeed power of Bollywood has never been more prevalent than in recent months, with the smash-hit success of the film “Slumdog Millionaire“. Through the music of A.R. Rahman and the dazzling cinematography, one can only imagine the next big hit to come from an emerging economic and indeed cultural market. However, there [...]

Venezuela is often referred to as the capital of South America, and in some respects, its easy to see why. In terms of notable leaders on the continent, one doesn’t immediately think of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of a Brazil that comprises nearly half of the land mass, but indeed, of Venezuelan President Hugo [...]

Greater “transparency”, be it actual openness or not, has been one of the pillars of the Dmitry Medvedev presidency in Russia. With that in mind, Al-Jazeera has reported that today, Medvedev has begun a blog on a popular internet site. Investors need not heed this information as any more than a gaffe, a public relations initiative [...]

Robert Mugabe, pictured at left and quoted here in December of 2008, claiming that the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has been ‘arrested’. In my mind, Mugabe must be more a fan of Kim Jong-Il than of Hu Jintao. Why? Because although both Jong-Il and Jintao host nations with tragically stringent levels of media censorship, denying in many [...]

With the the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre fast approaching, the onus is on Beijing to show the world that it has changed for the better. Even before June 4, 1989, the day democracy advocates were gunned down, human rights in China remained an issue adamantly in question. China’s State Council recently released [...]