Daily News Channel
Agajan has a message for Afghanistan’s incumbent politicians. The turbaned, gap-toothed man may only be a humble shop-keeper, but on election day, Agajan will exercise his right and vote against the president. “I won’t vote for Hamid Karzai,” says Agajan, who according to local custom uses only one name.
Iraq’s legislative body elected a new leader Sunday in a move that some lawmakers say could pave the way for critical votes on major issues. The parliament elected Ayad al-Samarraie, a senior member of one the country’s top Sunni political parties, the Iraqi Islamic Party
Writing a wish on a piece of paper and sticking it into the cracks of Jerusalem’s ancient Western Wall is a time-honored practice among Jews seeking God’s help, so it’s hardly surprising that visiting the sacred site with a message for the Almighty has become an election-eve ritual for Israeli politicians. At twilight on Monday, Israel’s most controversial politician, Avigdor Lieberman, arrived with a phalanx of bodyguards and photographers and threaded his way between the black-hatted ultra-Orthodox men praying at the Wall to twist his message into a crack between the stones. It was a shrewd campaign move in light of recent warnings by several prominent rabbis that casting a vote for Lieberman would be “strengthening Satan.” A burly Soviet immigrant to Israel in the 1970s — his Hebrew still retains a Russian inflection — Lieberman provoked the rabbis’ ire not only because he is a secular Jew, but also because his tough, anti-Arab slogans are luring many hawkish Israelis away from religious parties.