It’s news time with Kandy Korrespondent:

Yesterday in New York, the Rev. Al Sharpton and 189 others were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, when they blocked rush hour traffic to protest the acquittal of three officers in the shooting of Sean Bell. Shouting, “We are all Sean Bell”, demonstrators knelt in front of City Hall, blocking on of the streets leading to the Brooklyn Bridge.

In November 2006, twenty-three year old Sean Bell was shot over 50 times by undercover cops who say they thought he was going to be involved in a drive-by shooting. He died the night before his wedding day. His fiancée was one of those arrested in yesterday’s protest.

In Other News:

Despite barely beating Obama in Indiana and loosing in North Carolina by 14 points, Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton remains defiantly determined to continue her candidacy. Yet it’s becoming clearer and clearer that her campaign is quickly headed into the ground. Read More »

There are still no results from Zimbabwe’s March 29th presidential elections. In my first blog I talked about the growing apprehension of the populace during the initial post-election week. My second blog discussed the legal fights and growing danger faced by Zimbabwe opposition party members. This time we’ll be checking out the amazing diplomatic stalling techniques of South African President Mbeki during this crisis.

In her ever-so diplomatic approach, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this past week that, “It’s time for Africa to step up” and deal with this crisis. (nice job of passing the buck Condi)

South Africa has the largest economy within Africa—giving it major bargaining power with states such as Zimbabwe.

Enter South African President Thabo Mbeki.

He traveled Zimbabwe on Saturday April 12th to meet with Mugabe. Following these talks, he declared that there was “no crisis” in Zimbabwe.

Hmmm… Read More »

“Things are very confusing, looks like we are heading for a civil war and total destruction, its a ticking time bomb, any thing can happen any time”
That quote comes from Raj, in Harare, Zimbabwe on the BBC’s comment page.

Zimbabwe’s election (held March 29th) still has no clear winner. The opposition, led by Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC) accused incumbent Robert Mugabe of “preparing for poll war”.

The opposition petitioned Zimbabwe’s High Court to demand the immediate release of the poll results.

The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) countered by questioning the courts jurisdiction over the issue.

On Saturday, moreover, police prevented the opposition lawyers from entering the court to give their arguments. Luckily they made it into the court on Sunday.

On Monday the High Court ruled that it does have jurisdiction. The judge heard the case Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party said it wanted to re-check the election results because it feared discrepancies…. Right. Read More »

Zimbabweans headed to the polls this past Saturday (March 29th) in a historic vote challenging President Robert Mugabe’s 28-year iron grip on the presidency.

The challenging party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), announced soon after the polls closed that they were in the lead. According to the BBC, as of Monday night, (March 31) they claimed that their candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, had won with 60% of the vote.

While Mugabe has intimated that he will honor the people’s decision, the delay in announcing the decision has many fearing the worst.

Nana Ampofo, an analyst for Global Insight, told the BBC that; “It’s still not clear that the election results are fixed but there are definitely reasons to be concerned.”

Rumors abound of election rigging: Read More »