Success for Paris conference as Libyan leaders agree to election roadmap
Rival Libyan leaders have agreed on a political roadmap leading to elections on December 10. This is a success for French President Emmanuel Macron’s mediation efforts. United Nations envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame praises what he calls yesterday’s historic meeting in Paris. At a news conference announcing agreement on a roadmap to elections he says […]
Top political thinker says democracy is in ruins
Democracy and Its Crisis, by A.C. Grayling Oneworld Publications. Asked about democracy, one invariably reaches for the Churchhillian truism that it is the worst form of governance until it is compared with all others. The British wartime leader is also responsible for saying the strongest argument against democracy is a two-minute conversation with any voter. […]
Orhan Pamuk’s story about the complex and sometimes lethal father-son relationship
“The Red-Haired Woman,” by Orhan Pamuk If I tired of the didactic, I could not have stayed married to a grade one teacher for 44 years. Complaining about about the Nobel literature prize laureate’s instructive tone would be like bitching about Hemingway’s brevity. There’s so much more to it. Introduced to Pamuk through his even […]
British citizen freed from death row in Ethiopia
Ethiopian-born British citizen Andargachew Tsege, who was being held for four years on death row in Addis Ababa. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson praised his staff for their tireless work on the case. ends intro Andy Tsege, as he is best known, fled Ethiopia in the seventies and sought asylum in Britain where he took […]
WHO plans to use unlicensed ces vaccines to combat Ebola outbreak in DRC
The World Health Organization expects to get permission from Kinshasa authorities this week to use unlicensed vaccines to treat and contain the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In just over three weeks the deadly haemorrhagic disease has killed 25 people and sickened 51 in the Central African Giant where it was first […]