Inner Asia

Kyrgyzstan: new president pledges to boot US base

Kyrgyzstan’s newly elected president, Almazbek Atambayev, announced upon his victory that he will close Manas air base, which has been critical to the US campaign in Afghanistan, after the lease expires in 2014.

Africa

Kenya to divide Somalia?

As the Kenyan military and Shabab rebels accuse each other of killing civilians in southern Somalia, a BBC report suggests Nairobi hopes to carve a separatist enclave to be called “Azania” out of Somalia as a military-controlled “buffer zone.”

North Africa

Calls to divide Libya —already

As elite voices in the West call for breaking Libya up along “tribal lines,” the country’s Berbers—who have the most to fear from a centralized Arab-dominated regime—issued a statement calling for a unified state with equal rights for all.

The Andes

Colombia: ex-guerilla to be Bogotá mayor

Gustavo Petro, a former leader of the M-19 guerilla movement and longtime socialist legislator, was elected mayor of Bogotá. Petro called the vote a “victory of the desire for change.” Pre-electoral violence saw 41 candidates murdered.

Mexico

Mexico’s ex-prez Fox again speaks out for drug legalization

Mexico’s former President Vicente Fox again spoke out for drug legalization, telling a Washington DC meeting of the right-libertarian Cato Institute that prohibition bears responsibility for the horrific toll in his country’s cartel wars

The Andes

Unrest threatens Ecuador development projects

Growing political conflicts over development projects have prompted security forces to intervene in recent weeks in Ecuador, with military troops and campesinos in confrontations over mining and hydro concessions.

WHY WE FIGHT

From the San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 28: S.F. crash badly injures person in wheelchair SAN FRANCISCO — A person in a wheelchair suffered life-threatening injuries today after being hit by a pickup truck in a South of Market intersection, San… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT