Free Republic

Suspected dissidents disappear after midnight visits to their homes; chilling screams can again be heard from Idi Amin's infamous torture chambers, reopened after a quarter of a century of disuse. From the few that escape come tales of punishment beatings and even mass executions. Welcome to President Yoweri Museveni's Uganda. One of Britain's favourite African states in recent years has, almost unnoticed in the West, become a sinister land where a corrupt regime uses its secret police to rule through fear. The reasons for this transition are not hard to fathom. Mr Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986, when his...

Is Binyamin Netanyahu's government too big? Yes. Is that good? No. So why would Netanyahu, an experienced politician, create such an unwieldy beast? He and his government face two historic challenges: an economic crisis that has yet to fully unfold, and a nuclear threat from Iran. We all want a government that can face these challenges. Could Netanyahu's critics suggest a better alternative to the coalition he managed to form, considering the sanctimonious refusal by Kadima to join a wider coalition? Netanyahu would probably prefer a more compact government. No one has suffered more from coalititis - the disease afflicting...

PV: The Chanakya of Indian politics Press Trust Of India IST Updated: Thursday, December 23, 2004 at 1652 hours IST New Delhi, December 23: A statesman, scholar and linguist Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao will be remembered for several firsts to his credit during an eventful five years as Prime Minister in the last decade that saw India take a new economic path, the demolition of the controversial Babri Masjid and the rise of the saffron forces. A hardcore congressman, Rao, who died at the age of 83, was the first Prime Minister from the South, the first from outside Nehru-Gandhi...