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...Constitutional Court case has precedents; in 1998 and 2001, it banned the party's two predecessors on similar grounds. But this time is different. The AKP enjoys far more popular support than either of its forebears: having received 47% of the vote in elections last July, it has held on to its position as the country's first single-party government in decades. The AKP has also been careful not to offer up the radical political Islamic rhetoric that has put previous pro-religious parties in direct conflict with Turkey's secularist traditions and laws. What's more...
...election, only managed an increase of two seats, to 26, on July 27. Three smaller parties took a combined total of seven seats, though official results will not be released for at least another week. The day following the election, the Sam Rainsy Party and the three other parties held a joint news conference to announce their rejection of the preliminary results of the election, which they claimed was "rigged...
...contrast, the Musharraf years held obvious appeal for Washington. As a man in control of both the army and the government, the former army chief wielded greater power, and when necessary, he could be counted on to resist public opinion. Gilani's struggling civilian government is deeply susceptible to public opinion, with recent polls consistently recording majorities hostile to the use of military force. A survey published by the International Republican Institute last week revealed that 71% supported the negotiations with militants, 61% urged "development and education" as a means of countering the threat and a mere 9% were...
...wives of his oldest sons and three grandchildren. The Shi'ite family lived in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of al-Dora in southern Baghdad up until the peak of sectarian violence in late 2006. That was when Mehdi's youngest son Ali, then 4, was kidnapped by insurgents and held for ransom for more than a week. After paying to get him back, the family left all their furniture and belongings and fled to Karrada, a safer neighborhood in central Baghdad. "The people who kidnapped our son were from our neighborhood," says Mehdi's widow Iman Kadhem, 48. "Now they...
...political wrangling, though. The ban amounts to collective punishment for all Iraqis. The IOC's protestations that it had no choice but to impose its rules are plainly disingenuous. For one thing, Iraq is hardly the only country where politicians meddle with sport. The Games are, after all, being held in China! For another, if the IOC was perfectly happy to let Iraq participate in previous Games when Uday was running Iraq sports. Perhaps locking a football player in an iron maiden doesn't qualify under the IOC's definition of "political interference," but that's a distinction that will...