Archives for April 2010

The Pakistani government on Friday tabled a proposed 18th amendment to the constitution, which if enacted will be an enormous advance toward democratization in the country. I was watching Bill Maher last week and Christopher Hitchens remarked on the Iraqi elections that they “didn’t used to happen” under Saddam Hussein. Likewise, free elections did not […]

As part of his press for increased sanctions on Iran over its civilian nuclear enrichment program, President Barack Obama called Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday. The US has few bargaining chips to induce China to play ball on Iran, which supplies 8% of China’s imported petroleum. (For the importance of Iran to the Chinese […]

The party of Muqtada al-Sadr in the Iraqi parliament, with 39 seats, intends to hold a referendum on which prime ministerial candidate to support on this Friday and Saturday, according to al-Hayat writing in Arabic. Sadrist party offices and other party-affiliated buildings will be used for the polling stations. Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission refused […]