Spotlight: Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is used to ignoring international vilification. But the domestic outcry that followed police beatings of opposition leaders and the subsequent squashing of grass-roots protesters may offer players within his own party a chance to depose the octogenarian autocrat, whose rule has yielded 1,700% inflation, an 80% unemployment rate and average life expectancy of 35, the lowest in the world. Mugabe's chief rivals include a former army chief and an ex-- intelligence chief. Sure, they don't carry very progressive credentials, but in the eyes of many, anyone but Mugabe will do.

Imams Down Under

In a new report being discussed by Australia's Muslim leaders, Tom Zreika, the powerful president of that country's largest Islamic organization, warns that Aussies have "had enough of [the Muslim community] ... we have become the new communism." Among his recommendations for better integration: take note of the Aussie reverence for firemen and lifeguards and grab a hose or a whistle. "It would be great," Zreika writes, "to see a turbaned imam fighting fires alongside other bushfire volunteers."