On Sunday, presidential opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai quit the race ending all hopes of a Mugabe-free Zimbabwe in the near future. Tsvangirai said that with the rising violence, he could not in good conscience ask his supporters to turn out to vote knowing that they might very well be going to their death. Sound dramatic? Well, considering that over 80 of his supporters have been killed by pro-Mugabe mobs since the beginning of April, and that one of his campaign aides is currently facing the death penalty on treason charges, and that Tsvangirai himself has been arrested 5 times in the past several weeks, sadly, he’s right.

He told reporters on Sunday that a free and fair election is impossible, stating, “We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate … sham of an election process.”

On Monday, Tsvangirai fled to the Dutch embassy in Hare, Zimbabwe’s capital, seeking refuge from the violent mobs. A Dutch official told Reuters that Tsvangirai asked to spend the night, but had not requested asylum. Also on Monday, over 60 opposition supporters were arrested in a police raid on Tsvangirai’s headquarters.

In Other News:

Also on Sunday, comedian George Carlin died of heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 71. Carlin made headlines with his drug-referenced filled stand-up comedy including a routine entitled, “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television.” In 1978, the US Supreme Court ruled that Carlin’s routine contained indecent words and that the Federal Communications Commission could ban the from being aired at times when children might be listening. In 2005 he told Playboy that he was looking “forward to an afterlife where he could watch the decline of civilization on a ‘heavenly CNN’”. Read More »

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International tensions are building up once more over Irans’ nuclear program. On June 1st, the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany agreed to offer Iran various incentives in return for the halting of its uranium enrichment program. They also warned, however, of punitive measures should Iran refuse the proposition. During his farewell travels throughout Europe, President Bush made sure to keep the threat of action against Iran in the news. He discussed the adoption of harsher measures against Iran with each world leader he met.

Despite these efforts, on Saturday Iran voted once again to continue its’ uranium enrichment program—sending a clear message to the rest of the world that it will not be bought off nor intimidated.

In response, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday that he and other EU leaders will begin to freeze the assets of Bank Melli– Iran’s largest bank. In anticipation, Iran pulled $75 million out of Europe.
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