The country takes on its next big democratic test with a presidential vote starring 13 candidates spanning the political spectrum.
South Africa: Over-Exposing the President
Let’s get one thing clear. Is ‘The Spear,’ a picture by the South African artist Brett Murray representing South African President Jacob Zuma in heroic revolutionary pose — with his penis hanging out — good art? No. The pose …
Must-Reads from Around the World, May 23, 2012
Missing in Action: On the Trail of Confiscated Copies of TIME in China
The note arrived in a nearly empty box sent to TIME’s Beijing Bureau. All copies of TIME Magazine’s May 14, 2012 issue with a cover entitled The People’s Republic of Scandal had been “safeguarded by customs.” …
Long-Term Uncertainty Remains in Nuclear Talks with Iran
What Lies? Beneath the Mysterious History of an Iranian Nuclear Site
On the northwestern edge of Tehran, a wooded hill rises abruptly out of the gray low-rise cityscape. The roads meandering to the top are lined with grills and picnic tables, and from the north slope it was once possible to peer through the trees and make out where the of the Physics Research Center used to stand. The vacant lot looked …
Must-Reads from Around the World, May 22, 2012
Summit Struggle – Ahead of Wednesday’s crunch E.U. summit, Der Spiegel reports that new French President François Hollande will pressure German Chancellor Angela Merkel to agree to euro bonds, which she has so far strictly …
Jerusalem Day in the Old City: The Conflict Marches On
Sunday was Jerusalem Day in Israel, a holiday once again observed by thousands of young Jews who chanted as they marched through Arab neighborhoods conquered in the 1967 Six Day War. The tension is always highest in the narrow …
Obama’s Afghanistan Problem: Neither Karzai Nor the Taliban Like the ‘Reconciliation’ Script
President Barack Obama huddled with President Hamid Karzai in Chicago on Sunday, urging Afghanistan’s leader to accelerate negotiations with the Taliban over a political solution to the longest war in America’s history. But the …
Must-Reads from Around the World, May 21, 2012
Spillover – Lebanon’s Daily Star reports on escalating violence inside the country after soldiers shot dead a prominent anti-Bashar al-Assad Muslim preacher Sunday. “The gravity of the incident… prompted leaders on both sides …
A Royal Party: The Commonwealth Celebrates 60 Years of Queen Elizabeth II
With parades, concerts and even tea with commoners, 86-year-old Queen Elizabeth II and the royals are traversing the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee. In a historic moment in the Northern …
From China’s State Press, a Not-So-Fond Farewell to Activist Chen Guangcheng
For a month now the case of the blind legal activist who sought protection in the U.S. embassy in Beijing has roiled Sino-U.S. relations, and official newspapers have denounced him as a tool of American interests. After Chen …