As troops loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi continue to pound the rebel-held city of Misratah — leading to hundreds of civilian casualties — British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced April 19 that the U.K. and France were dispatching a joint squad of military advisers to Benghazi, stronghold of the Libyan rebels in the …
Dictatorships
Al Jazeera Correspondent Slams Chinese Coverage of Arab Uprisings
In recent years China has greatly expanded the global voice of its state-run media. The goal is to boost China’s image abroad and to counter the influence of Western media outlets, which some people believe are overly critical of China. In doing so China has looked to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network as a model of how non-Western media …
Cluster Bombs Fall on Misratah While Obama Calls for Regime Change
The New York Times and international NGO Human Rights Watch both confirm that forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi shelled the city of Misratah with cluster bombs, munitions banned by much of the international community. Times reporter C.J. Chivers, currently in Misratah, no stranger to warzones and author of a recent book on the history of …
NATO Members Feud While Gaddafi Forces Batter Misratah
It’s increasingly looking like the only factor capable of resolving the international community’s dilemma in Libya is also the one element to that will never cooperate in finding a solution: Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi himself. Because as the meetings, summits, and declarations of coalition partners come and go, it becomes …
Libya After Gaddafi: Why How He Leaves is as Important as When
As I was preparing to leave Tripoli, I had a conversation with an Algerian British journalist who had just been released from detention by Libyan forces for reporting in the east of the country. He was angry that he had been picked up for doing his job, but didn’t let it color his reporting on the situation. As I had been gleaning …
Why the BRICS Summit Won’t Accomplish Anything
Yep, just what the world needs—another international summit. On Thursday, leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa convened under the palm trees of China’s Hainan Island for the third BRICS summit. The acronym was coined back in 2001 by an economist at Goldman Sachs to describe the bright emerging economies of Brazil, …
Swaziland: How Not to be a Royal
As Britain counts down the days to the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, there comes a reminder from the tiny kingdom of Swaziland in southern Africa of how not to be a monarch. On Tuesday, Swazi King Mswati III, the last absolute sovereign in Africa, unleashed his security forces on pro-democracy demonstrators. Police …
Whose Human-Rights Record is Worse? The U.S. or China?
It’s a spring ritual. Each year, the U.S. publishes its report on China’s human-rights record the previous year—and then China presents its findings on America’s own performance in the same realm. Both countries, as might be expected, find plenty wrong with each other. Indeed, instead of highlighting the actual human-rights …
How to Understand the Responsibility to Protect
Since the international community found itself stepping in to try to stem burgeoning humanitarian disasters in Libya and the Ivory Coast, much has been made of the principles behind the interventions. A cadre of liberal internationalists (in Europe, often lapsed socialists) saw in the two countries — particularly in Libya — a mandate …
Democracy, Kazakh Style: Where the Challenger Votes for the Incumbent
Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled this Central Asian state for the entirety of its independent existence following the disintegration of the U.S.S.R, cruised to reelection this Sunday in polls that reportedly saw over 90% of eligible voters turn out. Critics, though, say the election was a choreographed farce. …
Promises Unkept: The Latest on Eman el-Obeidi
Last Saturday, March 26th, a woman burst into the dining room of the Rixos hotel, one of the two Tripoli luxury hotels where foreign journalists are forced to stay. Libyan security guards had taken her, she said, and gang raped for two days. Within minutes of her appearance, hotel staff and the ubiquitous government minders that frequent …
Inside Gaddafi’s Compound
At nine pm the announcement went out over the hotel PA system: “All Journalists, there will be a trip planned to Baab al-Aziziya after dinner. Please gather in the lobby.” We duly trudged to the waiting busses, newcomers such as my self curious to see Gaddaffi’s compound, and veterans hoping against expectations that the man …
In Cairo, Revolutionary Zeal Turns Into Revolutionary Tchotchkes
The following post is by reporter and videojournalist Jesse Hardman
Egypt’s Jan. 25 uprising might have freed the country politically, but it also significantly disrupted the local economy. Around Cairo, with tourism dead and business in general down, people are looking for ways to stay afloat financially. Many have turned to the …