This is President Barack Obama’s full speech to graduates at the Moscow New Economic School, during his two-day visit to Moscow.

Return to Main

As Jake Tapper of ABC News notes:

The military removal of Zelaya as president – and the appointment of Roberto Micheletti as interim President by the Honduran legislature – came after Zelaya attempted to rewrite his nation’s constitution to end term limits to continue his rule, despite the fact that term limits in the constitution is one of eight “firm articles” that cannot be changed.

After the Honduran Legislature refused to call a constitutional convention to rewrite the constitution, Zelaya called for a referendum to do so, which the Honduran Supreme Court and Attorney General declared unconstitutional. Zelaya, allied with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez , fired top military commander Romeo Vásquez Velásquez for refusing to carry out the referendum. Every branch of government sided against Zelaya and Congress began discussing impeachment proceedings. Acting on orders from the Honduran Supreme Court, soldiers arrested Zelaya on June 28 and sent him into exile in Costa Rica.

I find it curious that the Obama Administration wishes to restore Manuel Zelaya to the Presidency of Honduras. Such is a recipe for disaster. The rule of Honduras, as it is any civilized nation, rests upon acceptance of ruling by the Supreme Court. On more than one occasion, President Zelaya acted unconstitutionally.

In the end, the Honduran Supreme Court removed President Zelaya for violating his country’s constitution by seeking to extend his term in office and for defying its authority on the matter. Zelaya’s removal was authorized by Articles 239 and 272 of the Honduran Constitution.

The military removal of Zelaya as president – and the appointment of Roberto Micheletti as interim President by the Honduran legislature – came after Zelaya attempted to rewrite his nation’s constitution to end term limits to continue his rule, despite the fact that term limits in the constitution is one of eight “firm articles” that cannot be changed.

Restoring Zelaya is a non-starter.

Return to Main

Recently Professor Lawrence Lessig of the Stanford Law School has switched gears from his fight for copyright reform to a fight for campaign finance reform. At his talk at this summer’s Aspen Ideas Festival, Professor Lessig talks about Forbin Problems in a talk entitled Will Technology Change Our Lives?

Return to Main

It’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere and that’s given the H1N1 virus an extended life. Swine flu has killed sixty people in Argentina, making it the worst hit country in South America.

While the exact number of people infected by the H1N1 virus remains unclear, many fear that Argentina is ill-equipped to handle the crisis. Al Jazeera’s Cath Turner reports.

Return to Main

“Under the Neon” is an extraordinary journey below the surface of the bright lights of Las Vegas, to meet some of the city’s homeless people who are battling to make a home for themselves under the streets of gold in the city’s storm-drains and tunnels.

Return to Main

In China’s autonomous province of Xinjiang, more than 150 people have been reported killed and more than 800 injured in violent clashes between the ethnic Muslim Uyghur population and the Han Chinese.

The rioting that started in the provincial capital of Urumqi spread to the town of Kashgar and is now being called some of the worst ethnic violence in China in decades.

Andrew James Nathan, a political science professor at Columbia University, joins Martin Savidge to discuss who the Chinese Uyghurs are and what the riots may mean.

Return to Main

Only hours after U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Moscow on Monday for a summit meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the United States and Russia announced a preliminary agreement on a deal to reduce the number of their nuclear weapons. The deal represents a big step forward in relations between the two countries, which had been set back by the Russian invasion of Georgia last summer.

Nina Kruscheva, granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev and professor at the New School, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the current and future state of American-Russian relations.

Ms. Kruscheva hits some important points. Among them, Russia remains very conflicted on its direction. It wants to be part of the West and yet not fully embrace Western values at the same time.

Return to Main

President Obama met with AllAfrica reporters Charles Cobb, Jr., Reed Kramer and Tamela Hultman at the White House to discuss issues facing the continent ahead of his upcoming trip to Ghana. The interview was recorded on July 3, 2009.

The President highlights the relationship between good goverance and prosperity. It is in this light that Administration chose Ghana as the first country to visit in sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana last year accomplished something very few other African countries have managed to do. It held its third successive increasingly fair, free and transparent election in which the opposition managed to eke out a narrow win.

The transcript from All Africa:

We asked visitors to our site, allAfrica.com, what they might be interested in with respect to your policy. And as you might imagine, the responses are everywhere: conflict resolution, development issues, trade issues, et cetera. But they and we have one immediate question: How is it that you happened to pick Ghana as the first place to visit in sub-Saharan Africa?

Well, part of the reason is because Ghana has now undergone a couple of successful elections in which power was transferred peacefully, even a very close election. I think that the new president, President Mills, has shown himself committed to the rule of law, to the kinds of democratic commitments that ensure stability in a country. And I think that there is a direct correlation between governance and prosperity. Countries that are governed well, that are stable, where the leadership recognizes that they are accountable to the people and that institutions are stronger than any one person have a track record of producing results for the people. And we want to highlight that.

And I assume that you’d like to see a lot more ‘Ghanas’ in Africa. And part of your policy would be, I assume, to encourage that.

Absolutely.

How?

Well, part of it is lifting up successful models. And so, by traveling to Ghana, we hope to highlight the effective governance that they have in place.

I don’t think that we can expect that every country is going to undergo these transitions in the same way at the same time. But we have seen progress in democracy and transparency and rule of law, in the protection of property rights, in anti-corruption efforts. We have seen progress over the last several years; in some cases, though, we’re also seeing some backsliding. In my father’s own country of Kenya, I’m concerned about how the political parties do not seem to be moving into a permanent reconciliation that would allow the country to move forward. And Kenya is not alone in some of the problems that we’ve seen of late, post-election or pre-election.

And we just want to make sure that people are mindful that this isn’t just some abstract notion that we’re trying to impose on Africa. There is a very practical, pragmatic consequence to political instability and corruption when it comes to whether people can feed their families, educate their children, and we think that Africa – the African continent is a place of extraordinary promise as well as challenges. We’re not going to be able to fulfill those promises unless we see better governance.

(more…)

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s president and Africas first female democratically elected leader, is seen as the darling of the West. Her commitment to tackle corruption and lift war-torn Liberia out of poverty has won her international support.

But, as Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa reports, a report released on Monday by Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which she set up, could damage her clean image and imperil her political future.

More from All Africa:

In Liberia public opinion is divided on the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, based on four years of investigations into violations of human rights and humanitarian law during the country’s civil conflict.

The commission (TRC), which published its recommendations on 1 July, includes President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf among 50 Liberians who should be subject to public sanctions for their association with perpetrators of war crimes.

The TRC recommends an amnesty for children involved in armed conflict; institutional reform to promote good governance and human rights; a national mechanism for traditional dispute resolution; and reparations to communities and individuals who suffered in the war.

The report recommends President Sirleaf be barred from public office for 30 years once her presidential term runs out in 2011, because she failed to express remorse for her support for Charles Taylor -now on trial for war crimes- in the late 1980s. Sirleaf, like many politicians at the time, supported Taylor in opposition to former President Samuel Doe’s regime, and has been open about this support in her memoirs.

Taylor is already on trial in the Special Court for Sierra Leone for 11 counts of war crimes he is alleged to have masterminded in that country during its 11-year war.

The TRC will present its findings to the national legislature and the President in coming days following which the government is expected to outline how it plans to implement the recommendations.

Return to Main