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20 Feb 2011 18:44

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World: Saif Gaddafi: Libya will be divided like North and South Korea

  • The country will be divided like North and South Korea, we will see each other through a fence. You will wait in line for months for a visa.
  • Saif Al Islam Gaddafi • Offering a pretty dark assessment of what will happen in his country if revolution continues. Again, WTF? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Feb 2011 18:32

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World: Gaddafi’s kid warns of bloody civil war in post-Gaddafi Libya

  • A tragically messed-up moment: Gaddafi’s kid, Saif El Islam Gaddafi, is making some pretty wild claims about what’s going to happen in the country: “Libya is not like Egypt, it is tribes and clans, it is not a society with parties. Everyone knows their duties and this may cause civil wars. Libya is not Tunisia and Egypt. Libya has oil – that has united the whole of Libya.” Saif also says that the death toll is 14! Just 14! Are you kidding? Not even the most conservative estimate is ten times that. Unfortunately, few journalists are on the ground to refute these claims. (above tweet from Al Jazeera English’s Ayman Mohyeldin) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Feb 2011 17:07

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Politics: A Senate revival? The secondary F-35 engine that just won’t die

  • yes House GOP leadership, led by Speaker John Boehner (whose state stood to benefit), fought for additional funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s second engine.
  • no However, it was forced out of the bill thanks to the hard work of Rep. Tom Rooney, who corralled the freshmen Republicans to block the amendment. Whoo!
  • yes Now, Sens. John Kerry and Scott Brown, among others, are working to ensure the funding gets back in the bill. Hey, at least it’s bipartisan, right? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Feb 2011 16:50

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World: Tunisia doesn’t know if Ben Ali is dead. A little help, Saudis?

  • issue For quite obvious reasons, Tunisia wants to extradite former president  Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from Saudi Arabia to force him to stand trial. Many protesters are out in the streets asking for the same thing.
  • complication Tunisia doesn’t know whether Ben Ali is dead or not, so it had to send a note to Saudi Arabia asking about “the possibility of his death” or possible illness, and for his return if he’s healthy. Odd. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Feb 2011 16:32

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World: Update on Libya: What’s currently happening in the country?

  • There’s a lot going on here, and there is much to parse. There isn’t a clear picture of the death toll in the country, with Human Rights Watch saying that at least 173 people have died in the violence, while other tallies have been much higher. Word is even spreading that some of the protests have shown up outside of Gaddafi’s stronghold of Tripoli. But none of it is as bad as it’s been in Benghazi. “It’s like a guerrilla war,” one female resident of Benghazi said of the violence. “There is a battle going on, and sometimes one part is controlled by the protesters, and sometimes other parts are. There are corpses in the street.” More items of interest:
  • one Reuters is reporting – but cannot independently confirm due to the limits on free speech in the country – that Libya’s hold on Benghazi has weakened to the point where protesters mostly control the streets.
  • two The Arab League’s permanent Libyan representative, Abdel Moneim al-Honi, has resigned in protest of the actions taking place in his home country.  “I am joining the ranks of the revolution,” Honi said.
  • three The BBC’s Jon Williams talks about the hard road for journalists covering Libya this weekend: “When we’re not on the ground, we have to work twice as hard to make sure that we’re telling all sides of the story.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Feb 2011 12:55

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World: A girl named “Facebook”: Egyptian family shows their gratitude

  • ‘Facebook’ received many gifts from the youth who were overjoyed by her arrival and the new name. A name [Facebook] that shocked the entire world.
  • An article from Al-Ahram • Revealing that an Egyptian family had named their newborn girl “Facebook.” We’re guessing that Mark Zuckerberg didn’t expect this to happen when he was sitting around his dorm room, trying to think up an elaborate way to meet girls and screw over the Winklevi. Which goes against the company’s whole stay-out-of-this-mess mantra. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Feb 2011 11:32

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World: China quickly quashes modest “Jasmine” protests of its own

  • 100+ Chinese protesters have been arrested by the government in the wake of an anonymous call for protests
  • 13 number of cities where the protests were expected; police have been out in full force in each of them
  • no China won’t let people talk about “Jasmine” online, and protest discussion has been prevented source
  • » China doesn’t screw around: The pro-democracy “Jasmine Revolution” protests, inspired by the situations in the Middle East, haven’t drawn very large crowds. But China’s elaborate and sophisticated response has basically been designed to discourage dissent against the state, making the road the anonymous protesters took much harder than, say, in Egypt.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

20 Feb 2011 11:03

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World: Ugandan election results favor dude already in office for 25 years

  • 68% the share of votes Yoweri Museveni, in office 25 years, got in Uganda
  • 26% the share of votes his closest rival, Kizza Besigye, received
  • 6% the share of votes everyone else received in the election source
  • » The opposition says it’s “illegitimate”: Besigye’s Inter-Party Cooperation is one of a couple of groups who have thrown up question marks about the electoral results. European Union observers, for example, say the elections are “marred by avoidable and logistical failures, which led to an unacceptable number of Ugandan citizens being disenfranchised.” A group of African-based election observers gave a statement claiming, however, that the election was “conducted in conformity with minimum international benchmarks for free elections.” Hopefully this doesn’t turn into the kind of mess that has marred the Ivory Coast over the last few months.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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