Ya Bass

Good piece in the Guardian today: Young democracy guerrillas join forces.

Meanwhile in Iran:
Iranian women kick out against football ban.

In Syria the Vice-President Abdul Halim Khaddam stood down from his position in the Syrian government and the Baath Party today. It probably doesn't signal much however - while he was a hardliner and one of the architects of Syrian policy towards Lebanon over the last two decades his political influence has been fairly small in the last few years.

Things are looking much less promising in Zimbabwe: From the Sunday Times.

[Police] swept through the centre of Harare, rounding up the many thousands of traders who survive by selling everything from chewing gum to second-hand clothes and even the colourful women flower sellers who have operated in Africa Unity Square for decades. Flowers and wooden curios were thrown onto bonfires as their owners watched in disbelief.

It was the start of what has since become a nationwide scorched earth campaign. In cities from Mutare in the east to Bulawayo in the south, police have torched homes, demolished market stalls, detaining more than 20,000 traders, and bulldozed shanty towns.

Naturally, Zimbabwe hold a seat on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.