About an hour before President Robert Mugabe addressed the sixth session of Parliament on Tuesday morning his Deputy Information Minister, Bright Matonga, was already in police cells facing corruption charges. Around noon Mugabe spoke about corruption. ”Another regrettable development is the incidence of cases of corruption,” he told both lower and upper house members in Parliament.”
For nearly two weeks Israel has been waging a war of terror and aggression against Lebanon. Its stated justification is the capture by the Islamic Resistance (Hizbullah) of two Israeli soldiers with the aim of exchanging them for Lebanese prisoners. The war has already resulted in the killing of about 400 and wounding of more than 1 000 Lebanese.
Far from civilisation in the endless tundra of the far north, an army of workers is toiling to fuel President Vladimir Putin’s vision of a new Russia. In summer a swarm of mosquitoes and gnats rises from the festering swamps, crawling down collars and up trouser legs. In winter the temperature plummets to -60°C.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles could be sacked because they were reported to have collaborated with the communist-era secret police, after the country’s right-wing government pushed through a law that critics say will spark a witch-hunt. The move is seen as central to the ”moral revolution” promised by the Law and Justice Party when it swept to power last year.
The latest chapter in the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner — and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis — there are about 10Â 000 in Israeli jails.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s 60-million people are unlikely to wake up on Monday to a dramatically changed country after Sunday’s first democratic elections in the Central African giant. They will, in all probability, still be voting in what has become Africa’s most expensive and complex election.
The Israeli government is facing a barrage of criticism over its handling of the war in Lebanon, with questions about the decision to attack Hizbullah, mounting military losses, strategy and tactics, continuing missile strikes and disquiet about Lebanese civilian casualties.
For a country with an unelected hereditary leader, there is a blunt irony in calling itself the Democratic Republic of Congo. This vast swath of Central Africa is many things — a failed state, a humanitarian crisis, a natural resource bounty — but a representative democracy it is not. That may be about to change with Sunday’s vote — the first multi-party elections in 40 years.
South African President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday expressed his country’s outrage at and condemnation of the bombings of the Lebanese town of Qana by Israel. Several other world leaders also condemned the Israeli attack, but the United States and Britain again refrained from joining calls for an immediate ceasefire.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) held its first multiparty election in more than four decades on Sunday, a colossal democratic exercise many hope will secure an end to years of fighting and corrupt rule that have devastated this gigantic, mineral-rich nation in the heart of Africa.