Zimbabwe

We have a good news-bad news situation.

On the bad news side, we have Mugabe sending the state security apparatus to do violence to and to otherwise intimidate the electorate, reports of a humanitarian crisis, what appears to be a
wafe of refugees fleeing the country, and credible reports of
vote theft in the legislative elections.

On the brighter side, it appears that the Chinese arms shipment to Mugabe won't be unloaded anytime soon, as you have impound orders from banks against the ship, US pressure to prevent offloading of the cargo, dock workers refusing to offload the cargo, and indications that the even the Chinese are backing down on the shipment.

Sane people know that when you get dumped by the Chinese, it's game over.

Also, it appears that military leaders, and not Mugabe are increasingly making the day to day decisions in Zimbabwe, though it indicates how bad thing are when a slow motion coup d'etat is considered progress.

It also appears that the ANC is firmly turning against Thabo Mbeki's policy of favoring Mugabe.

In more mixed news, Tsvangirai is appealing for UN intervention, which, as is often the case in such things probably will not make things any better.