* Ivory Coast: Forces loyal to internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara have supposedly taken over the presidential palace while U.N. and French troops have fired against soldiers loyal to incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo.* China: Contemporary artist Ai Weiwei has reportedly “disappeared” as part of a “massive” crackdown by Chinese authorities “on lawyers, writers and activists.”
* Yemen: At least 12 protesters were killed by “Yemeni security forces and gunmen in civilian clothes” in the city of Taiz.
* U.S.: Could the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan soon become the next head of the Central Intelligence Agency?
Image – Luc Gnago/Reuters via The Guardian (“Civilians pass a pro-Gbagbo soldier near the presidential palace in Abidjan.”)
Online Sources- The Guardian, BBC News, NPR, Voice of America, MSNBC
3 comments:
Toussaint Alain said: "It's not up to America or France to decide who must lead the Ivory Coast."
Toussaint is absolutely right! It is up to the people of the Ivory Coast to decide who they want to lead them. Toussaint's boss FORMER President Gbagbo is a sore loser who would rather destroy that country rather than step down gracefully because he still can't accept the fact that he didn't win re-electio¬n. Alassane Ouattara had 54% of the votes making him the winner, sorry about your damn luck.
The situation in the Ivory Coast is rather like that in the former Yugoslavia, which followed a similar cycle of political systems failing, rising violence with civilians often the victims and an international community for a long period only willing to take very limited steps in the face of a humanitarian disaster and likely war crimes.
Ivory Coast is going through a great transition phase. I wish things go well as soon as possible. Each of oyu who reads this post. Pray for them.
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