Looks like Mugabe is going to do it again.

Zimbabwe's ruling party edged ahead of the main opposition on Tuesday with over half of parliamentary election results released and concerns grew that President Robert Mugabe was trying to rig the vote.

Riot police in armored carriers patrolled two of Harare's opposition strongholds overnight and residents were told to stay off the normally bustling streets.

Three days after the most important vote since independence, only 109 out of 210 parliamentary constituencies had been declared, showing the ruling ZANU-PF two seats ahead of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

No results have been announced for the presidential vote, in which Mugabe faces the most formidable political challenge of his 28 years in power -- from old rival Morgan Tsvangirai and ruling party defector Simba Makoni.

The opposition MDC says it won according to its own tally and has accused the veteran leader of delaying the issuing of the results in a bid to steal the election, which Zimbabweans hoped would ease daily hardships.

It is that presidential total that is the real key here. If one accepts the unofficial tallies released at polling places, Morgan Tsvangirai won decisively. That we are now three days out from the election and no results have been released can only lead to a single conclusion -- that there is an attempt to cook the books in favor of the nation's long-time dictator.

What action will the international community take in this thwarting of the will of the people of Zimbabwe?

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There really is no surprise in the ruling that the Brits didnÂ’t murder Princess Diana.

The coroner leading the inquest into the death of Princess Diana said Monday that there is no evidence that Prince Philip, the Secret Intelligence Service or any other government agency had anything to do with her death in a 1997 car crash.

Lord Justice Scott Baker told jurors they can decide whether Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, died as the result of an accident, or because of gross negligence by the paparazzi following their car or driver Henri Paul.

But he told jurors they do not have the option to find that Philip or anyone else staged the Paris car accident that killed Diana, Fayed and Paul.

"There is no evidence that the duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip) ordered Diana's execution, and there is no evidence that the Secret Intelligence Service or any other government agency organized it," he said.

Why is there no evidence? Because it didnÂ’t happen that way.

Of course, there are still those who believe that the moon landing didnÂ’t happen. There are still those who believe in Kin TutÂ’s curse? There are still those who believe with an ardent faith approaching religious zeal that human beings are responsible for global climate change. I therefore have no doubt that this conclusion will simply lead to strengthen those who believe that DianaÂ’s death was anything other than a senseless tragedy.

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Will Mugabe permit it to survive?

ZimbabweÂ’s main opposition party said Sunday that it had won a landslide victory, insisting that unofficial election results showed that the Movement for Democratic Change had unseated President Robert G. Mugabe, the man who has led this nation for 28 years.

Those results had been compiled by adding the vote counts posted at thousands of individual polling stations, and were not formally released by the government. Indeed, the nationÂ’s chief election officer warned that the oppositionÂ’s boasts were premature and asked people to wait for official totals.

People did just that, anxiously watching the government television station on Sunday for announcements about the election the day before. But instead of news they were shown irrelevant fare like a program about biodegradable Chinese plastic and a documentary about the NetherlandsÂ’ 1974 soccer team.

Near midnight, the election commissioner, George Chiweshe, finally announced that the official results would begin coming out at 6 a.m. Monday. At the appointed hour no results were forthcoming. “It is of absolute necessity that at each stage the result be meticulously analyzed, witnessed and confirmed,” he said. Soon after the designated time, an election official began laboriously reading results, but only of six parliamentary races.

So once again, we see electoral shennaigans in Zimbabwe.

I'm still waiting to see if these threats are carried out.

Zimbabwe's security forces, which have thrown their weight firmly behind Mr. Mugabe, said before the election they would not allow a victory declaration before counting was complete.

Government spokesman George Charamba warned the opposition against such claims. "It is called a coup d'etat and we all know how coups are handled," he told the state-owned Sunday Mail.

And since in some areas there are riot police n the streets and warnings for the people to remain indoors, the possibility of Mugabe refusing to honor the results of the election appears to be quite high.

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In some form or fashion.

Rice Wins Concessions From Israel

Time and again we have seen members of various administrations win concessions form Israel. From the Palestinians? Not so much -- and never concessions that are substantive or honored in practice.

That is why I'm even more disturbed as i read the content of the story.

Israel pledged to remove some West Bank roadblocks as a start to "concrete steps" in an agreement Sunday with the Palestinians that is aimed at paving the way for a final peace deal this year.

Under the plan that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced, Israel will remove about 50 roadblocks and upgrade checkpoints to speed up the movement of Palestinians through the West Bank.

The Israelis also will give Palestinians more security responsibility in the town of Jenin with an eye toward looking at "other areas in turn." They also pledged to increase the number of travel and work permits for Palestinians and to support economic projects in Palestinian towns.

In return, the Palestinians promised to improve policing of Jenin "to provide law and order, and work to prevent terror," according to a State Department statement.

Yeah, but no end to suicide bombings or the random lobbing of rockets from within Palestinian territory.

No end to gunmen shooting up schools and killing children.

No end to terrorists hiding among civilians to use them as human shields.

in other words, Israel agreed to reduce its security in exchange for nothing of particular value.

But then again, that is how it always goes.

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If this keeps up, maybe it will become necessary to cancel the Olympics.

After all, we wouldn't want a repeat of 1936, would we?

One policeman was killed and several others injured in riots Monday in western Sichuan province, ChinaÂ’s state media reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency gave no other details regarding the riot.

Xinhua also said that 381 people involved in protests in another Sichuan county, Aba, had surrendered to police, according to local authorities.

The Communist leadership has faced the biggest challenge to its rule in the Himalayan area in nearly two decades after protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa exploded into violence on March 14, sparking sympathy protests in the neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai.

China is murdering peaceful protesters in Tibet -- and the unrest is now spreading to other parts of the country. The Red Chinese are demanding that athletes be silenced in their home countries in the weeks and months prior to the Olympic Games, undercutting human rights around the globe. Better that the spectacle be canceled than allowed to lend legitimacy to the world's largest violator of human rights.

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One of the happier moments of my college years was watching Corazon Aquino become president of the Philippines. To see the will of the people enforced in such a bloodless, non-violent way was a moment of great hope for the world.

Now comes word that Mrs. Aquino is seriously ill.

Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino has colon cancer, her daughter said Monday.

Aquino, 75, was swept into power by the peaceful "people power" revolt that ousted late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, cementing her as an icon of democracy.

Usually dressed in her trademark yellow in public, she has remained active in social and political causes. Most recently, she has been attending rallies calling for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Kris Aquino, fighting tears, read a statement on live television that said her mother had gone in for tests after suffering from high blood pressure and difficulty breathing during the Christmas and New Year holidays, then a persistent cough and weight loss.

"The result showed our mother is suffering from cancer of the colon," she said.

In recent years, the former president has become active in politics again as she has fought corruption in the Arroyo administration. At a time when her nation truly needs her, she is fighting a much more serious, much more personal battle. In her honor, may the people of her nation heed her words and opt for an end to government corruption and abuse of power.

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The mobilization of troops along the border between the two countries, combined with his open support for FARC rebels, would certainly make it appear that way.

Venezuela and Ecuador have ordered troops to their borders with Colombia, raising concerns of a broader conflict after Colombia killed a top rebel leader on Ecuadorean soil.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday promised Venezuela would respond militarily if Colombia violates its border, where he ordered tanks as well as thousands of troops. He also ordered closed Venezuela's embassy in Bogota.

Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, called for the troop deployment while also withdrawing his government's ambassador from Bogota and expelling Colombia's top diplomat.

''There is no justification,'' Correa said Sunday night, snubbing an earlier announcement from Colombia that it would apologize for the incursion by its military.

Chavez called the killing of rebel leader and spokesman Raul Reyes and 16 other rebels on Saturday an attack by a ''terrorist state.''

I can understand Ecuador's concerns -- except, of course, for the fact that Ecuador has provided safe haven for FARC for years, just like the Colombians. But Venezuela has been actively interfering in Colombia's internal affairs on behalf of the rebels for some time now. These same nations would certainly take action within Colombia were they under constant assault by rebels based there, so the level of hypocrisy is astounding.

For its own security, Colombia must crush FARC. If that requires tangling with the state-sponsors of terrorism on its borders, then that is justified. Here's hoping that Hugo Chavez has bitten off more than he can chew.

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