Iraq Snapshot: The Normal of Gridlock and Death (Shadid)

Ten people died at Aroba Square, near a gold-domed shrine in the capital, where a bomber strolled a little after sunset before he blew himself up.

The day after, no one would know that. Electrical wires dangled, billboards were torn, lights were shattered and windows were broken. But that describes anywhere in Baghdad, a city more neglected than destroyed, living on bitter nostalgia.

The scene was ordinary. And that angered Hassan al-Bahadli on Wednesday.

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The Latest from Iran (6 November): A Flaw in the Script

2025 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kurdish activist Ahmad Baab has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

1700 GMT: A "Tribute" to Ahmadinejad. A crowd in Shiraz, led by a chanter in call-and-response, offer a rhythmic satire on the achievements and poses of the President: "Mahmoud has made himself look ridiculous". The video, according to Le Monde, was shot around 1 November.

1655 GMT: Execution Watch. The conservative newspaper Alef, linked to high-profile MP Ahmad Tavakoli, has criticised the stoning sentence against condemned adultresss Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

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The Untold Story Behind a Death Sentence: Iraq, a US Failure, and a Man Named Tariq Aziz

This week Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, was sentenced to death by hanging. Unrepresented in court, his Nuremburg-like defence --- I was only carrying out the orders of others --- fell on deaf ears. His son, Ziad, claimed the sentence was motivated by revenge administered by the Da'wa Party of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

One man, after almost a half-century of political manoeuvres, sitting in a prison cell awaiting his execution. One man whose fate provokes debate not only over his responsibility for the deaths in Iraq but over the past and future of the country. One man whose personal story is only part of a wider tale of leaders and countries who have pursued and failed to achieve influence and dominance.

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The Latest from Iran (5 November): A Disappointment?

1740 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Ali Gholizadeh has been arrested in Mashhad.

1640 GMT: The Medical University. Claimed video of a Thursday protest at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, closed last week by Government order. The students chant, "We will not go to class until we've reclaimed Iran."

1635 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Ayatollahs Bayat Zanjani, Dastgheib & Sadeghi Tehrani have condemned attacks on Gonabadi dervishes.

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Iran Document: Detained Student Majid Dori "I Salute Freedom. I am Proud to Be a Mohareb"

Receiving the Moharebeh sentence evokes fear in any human being. I became a Mohareb because I refused to live like an animal. If defending the right to education, the undeniable and inalienable right of every individual is waging war against God, then I am a Mohareb. If helping political prisoners, if showing compassion and sympathy toward their families is waging war against God, then I am a Mohareb. If publishing the names of those who have been killed and arrested and obtaining legal representation for those who have been arrested without cause and taken to undisclosed locations by unknown individuals is waging war against God, then I am a Mohareb. Yes, I am a Mohareb. No matter when or where, I am proud to be a Mohareb; this war is worth fighting as it is in the pursuit of freedom.

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Post-Election Israel-US Analysis: Why Obama Should Seek More than "Empathy" with Netanyahu

Given that the Republicans are still a minority in the Senate, Obama's defeat on Tuesday was far from comprehensive. Even if it was, it does not follow that adopting a pro-Israeli position turns setback into success: the invocation that Obama needs "political empathy", making the analogy with President Clinton in 1994, when he "quickly adjusted his polices and moved toward the center" is shallow, both in its assumption of the same situation in 2010 and 16 years earlier and its dismissal of considerations beyond the domestic.

Beyond the Republicans, the US faces other powers --- from Ankara to Damascus to Tehran --- who wish to assert their influence in the region. So where is Washington's front line: in an artificial "empathy" at home or in a decisive move abroad to get a real gain, one which be useful at the ballot boxes in 2012 but have much greater benefits before that?

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Middle East Feature: Behind Iraq's Church Attack, Religious Tensions in Egypt

These statements get inside the riddle of why an attack on a church in Iraq was undertaken to put pressure on Christians in Egypt over the personal faith decisions of two Egyptian women. Different religious beliefs can exist side by side, but in an ideological context that ascribes religion a communal and political identity, belonging is defined by sect. The problem is an anthropological one more than a theological one.

This attack on a Church in Baghdad is not only a tragedy for Iraq; it represents an encroaching understanding of social and political relations that is the biggest challenge in the Middle East in securing peace and equality for all its peoples.

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US Elections Video & Transcript: President Obama's Remarks on a "Shellacking"

EA WorldView, Wednesday morning: "The best prospect is to try and keep the American economic ship on the water, rather than under it, amidst protracted recession and unemployment....The Democrat/Obama strategy will be to present this pragmatic "stay the course" approach, appealing to the good sense --- political and economic --- of an American centre.

President Obama, Wednesday afternoon: " I think the overwhelming message that I hear from the voters is that we want everybody to act responsibly in Washington, we want you to work harder to arrive at consensus, we want you to focus completely on jobs and the economy and growing it, so that we're ensuring a better future for our children and our grandchildren."

BARACK OBAMA: Some election nights are more fun than others. Some are exhilarating. Some are humbling.

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Iran Feature: Revolutionary Guards Speak Out Against Ahmadinejad (Theodoulou)

Analysts suspect the [Revolutionary Guards'] magazine was encouraged to publish the [critical] article by the office of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. If so, however, this does not mean there is a major rift between the ayatollah and the president: it is more likely to be a warning shot aimed at reining in Mr Ahmadinejad, analysts said.

"It [the article] should not be turned into a narrative of withdrawal of support for Ahmadinejad and a sign of his imminent downfall," said Farideh Farhi, an Iran expert at the University of Hawaii. "But it should give pause to those who keep explaining Ahmadinejad's success in maintaining power in terms of his base of support in the Guards."

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Iran Analysis: "Sanctions May Weaken Domestic Opposition" (Mansourian)

Many years of sanctions coupled with sub-optimal economic policies in Iran have resulted in a weak economy and a fragile middle-class. The latest round of UN, U.S., and EU sanctions on Iran is likely to drive millions into poverty and destitution. As economic opportunities for the growth of a solid middle-class disappear, the young Iranians that have historically been the agents of change in the country will lose their social base.  Ironically, then, sanctions may do more to increase the power of the Iranian government and to weaken the domestic opposition movement, to the ostensible detriment of U.S. interests.

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