23 May 2012 Last updated at 03:30 ET Egyptians vote in landmark presidential election Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The BBC's Jon Leyne reports from a polling station in Cairo: ''The mood here is very excited'' Egyptians are heading to the polls in their first free presidential election, 15 months after ousting Hosni Mubarak in the Arab Spring uprising. Fifty million people are eligible to vote, and queues are forming at some polling stations. The military council which assumed presidential power in February 2011 has promised a fair vote and civilian rule. The election pits Islamists against secularists, and revolutionaries against Mubarak-era ministers. The frontrunners are: Ahmed Shafiq, a former commander of the air force and briefly prime minister during February ... Continue reading →
Richard Nixon's great error during the 1960 presidential election was not so much to lose the country's inaugural televised debate as to agree to participate in the first place. He made his ill-fated decision after watching his opponent, John F Kennedy, deliver his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention. Seeing JFK speak for the first time of his 'New Frontier' in the open-air setting of the Los Angeles Coliseum, the then Vice President made a snap judgment: that his rival was not an accomplished performer on television, and that he had little to fear from stepping in front of the klieg lights. The debate, and Nixon's flop sweat, completely transformed the race. He never recovered. The story, which offers one of presidential politics' most salutary ... Continue reading →
48 Things That Will Make You Feel Old Prepare to have your mind blown. posted about an hour ago Continue reading →
Ending a weeks-long diplomatic drama, blind Chinese dissident and lawyer Chen Guangcheng arrived in the U.S. on Saturday evening. During the flight, Chen expressed hope for a new life in America, but also concern for his family—including his aging mother, who is still in China. “I thank the American Embassy and American people,” Chen, 40, told a handful of reporters on the plane who had traveled with him from Beijing to Newark, N.J. “I’ll never forget what they’ve done.” Late last month, Chen, a noted activist for women and the poor, made a dramatic escape from house arrest in the province of Shandong, taking refuge in the American Embassy for six days. After being transferred to a Beijing hospital for medical treatment, he announced his ... Continue reading →