Kazakhstan’s longtime leader ceded power to a self-appointed successor, who is all but certain to win this week’s election. NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan—Looking around Kazakhstan’s glitzy capital, you’d be forgiven for not realizing that the country is on the verge of one of its most meaningful political moments since the collapse of …
Could Nicaragua go the way of Venezuela? IT BEGAN three months ago with a protest against cuts in pensions decreed by Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s president. Now his Central American country is witnessing a full-blown civil insurrection with mass casualties. Although it has received far less attention, Nicaragua is following the …
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he wished people would “sit up at attention” for him like North Koreans do for their leader Kim Jong Un, a joke that sparked instant outrage on social media and cable news. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and North …
Belarus is nicknamed the “Last Dictatorship in Europe,” and it’s often described as a vestige of the Soviet Union, a sort of museum piece. But a visit to the country quickly reveals a highly modern authoritarian system, which uses nostalgia in very contemporary ways to exert a form of supple …
Nazi leader’s personal telephone, found in a Berlin bunker in 1945, was bought by an anonymous bidder at US auction. Adolf Hitler’s personal telephone, which the Fuehrer used to dictate many of his World War II commands, sold at auction for $243,000, the US house selling it announced. Originally a …
One of the most repressive states in the world is trying to become one of the healthiest. One of the most repressive states in the world is trying to become one of the healthiest. Turkmenistan is promoting fitness and wants to become a smoking-free nation – but when no-one can …
Source: AAEC – Today’s Political Cartoons
“Fiction gave me a very wide space to say what I wanted to say about totalitarian authority.” ~BASMA ABDEL AZIZ, whose acclaimed debut novel, “The Queue,” takes place after a failed revolution in an unnamed Middle Eastern city. Source: Quotation of the Day – The New York Times
Uzbekistan’s president has jailed, tortured, and murdered his opponents at home. Now, he’s hiring hit men to track down and kill dissidents abroad. ISTANBUL — A cold drizzle fell on Istanbul on the morning of Dec. 10, 2014, as Abdullah Bukhari made his way to teach his students at a madrasa …
BANGKOK — Eleven months after overthrowing a democratically elected government, the military junta that seized control of Thailand is growing comfortable in power — and many Thais, battered by 15 stormy years of democracy, are not complaining. The junta has given Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army chief-turned-prime minister, almost unbridled power and has …
BANGKOK (AP) — A draft of Thailand’s new constitution, written to reduce the power of major political parties and keep politicians in check, was submitted to an advisory council for review on Friday, nearly a year after the military took power from an elected government. The military abolished an …
(Reuters) – The last two times Thailand’s army grabbed control, in 2006 and 2014, fortune teller Warin Buawiratlert called it, informing the would-be junta ahead of time that they were destined for power. So when Warin recently predicted that junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha was set to stay for up to …
