Updates...

1. In Zimbabwe after weeks of silence the election commission finally declared a run-off necessary since Morgan Tsvangirai (per the ZEC) had failed to get 50% of the vote.

Today Tsvangirai agreed to the run-off. The MDC candidate insisted that international observers and media be admitted to the country and given full access to ensure fairness, and called on the Southern African Development Community to send peacekeepers to instill public confidence in the vote. However, these conditions were subsequently rejected by the Justice Minister. Looks like the disquiet expressed in “Can it be?” might be coming to pass…

Zimbabwe opposition to contest runoff

MDC to contest run-off against Mugabe

Read the following article for background on events leading to the elections, and a purported Mugabe-Mbeki axis.

Where do we go from here?

2. "Backward Iraqis" bemoaned the U.S. administration's underestimation of Iraqi capabilities, and the allegations that Iran is providing weaponry to Iraqi insurgents, the proof of which mostly consists of the alleged “sophistication” of the weapons.

Recently a huge cache of weapons was seized in Basra, said to include items of recent Iranian manufacture dated from this year (2008). However “… a plan to show some alleged Iranian-supplied explosives to journalists last week in Karbala and then destroy them was canceled after the United States realized none of them was from Iran. A U.S. military spokesman attributed the confusion to a misunderstanding that emerged after an Iraqi Army general in Karbala erroneously reported the items were of Iranian origin…” (see link below)

IRAQ: The elusive Iranian weapons