Word: general
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Kenya's descent into something like tribal war last year followed a general election, and revived questions of whether democracy works in Africa. Kenya is the economic and political center of East Africa, and its success or failure is an indicator of the region's political health. But within days of the vote, as counting continued, paramilitary police stormed the election-commission offices in Nairobi and forced them to declare for incumbent President Mwai Kibaki. The President is a member of the Kikuyu, Kenya's largest tribe and a group widely resented for its dominance of government and business since...
...Andrew Levy, I'm a rank amateur. Levy is the author of A Brain Wider Than the Sky (Simon & Schuster; 289 pages), which is a memoir of his experiences as a headache sufferer - he gets debilitating migraines 10 times a year - combined with a cultural history of migraines in general. On the face of it, this is a wobbly premise, since there is almost nothing more boring than listening to somebody describe his headaches. (See first paragraph.) But it's a challenge to which Levy rises. He collects headaches like rare butterflies, and he has a rare, possibly singular gift...
...After Israel assassinated the movement's leader, Abbas al-Mussawi, in 1992, Nasrallah took over as the group's secretary-general. Capitalizing on its growing clout among sympathetic Lebanese and claiming a spot under the ideological umbrella of Iran's ayatollah, Nasrallah entered Hizballah into Lebanon's general election that year; the group won eight parliamentary seats, solidifying its legitimacy. Meanwhile, the group continued its steady stream of attacks against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon until Barak, then Prime Minister, ordered their withdrawal in 2000 - allowing Hizballah to proclaim the achievement of their 18-year mission...
...Still, fallout from the prominence of fringe parties could be far-reaching. While Britain's first-past-the-post voting system at general elections mitigates against small parties, the euroskeptic Conservatives, for instance, will be left pondering how many of its supporters could in the future migrate to UKIP - and how it might keep them from doing so. The triumph of the BNP (along with seats for far-right parties from the Netherlands and Austria) will add to concerns that the economic downturn is fueling a move to fascist parties in some corners of Europe...
...rumpus, though, there are reasons Brown - only two years into his premiership - could yet cling on. Rebel MPs have so far shown little sign of uniting around a single replacement for Brown. Even if they manage to, choosing a second successive unelected Prime Minister would make an immediate general election almost inevitable. - Adam Smith / London