THE Indonesian Election Commission officially announced on July 22 that the victor of the final round of Presidential elections held on July 9 was Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi. The elections were hard fought with the opposition engaging in dirty tricks in a belated effort to pip him at the polls. The opposition’s propaganda blitz did succeed in whittling down the 20 per cent lead that Jokowi had initially enjoyed before the campaign had begun in earnest.

RECENT months have witnessed a steady deterioration in relations between Washington and Beijing. The acceleration in the process started with the visit of President Barack Obama to Tokyo, where he re-emphasised his political support for Japan’s claim to the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea. The American president had also explicitly stated that if hostilities broke out between China and Japan, the US is bound by treaty to come to the defense of its long time ally.

WITH Israel-Gaza conflict claiming nearly 1,400 Palestinians lives, theatre personalities, activists and musicians today organised a cultural protest on July 31 against Israel and in solidarity with the Palestinian people. 

The celebrities sung songs with "anti-war" lyrics and recited "pro-peace poems" at an event in the backdrop of pictures of the violence intertwined in barbed wires and keffiyehs (scarfs worn by Palestinian men and a symbol of Palestinian nationalism during the Arab Revolt of the 1930s) hung from above as a mark of protest. 

THE Thai army, as most commentators in the region had predicted, has finally taken the first decisive step towards staging yet another coup to oust a democratically elected government. On May 20, an announcement on the Army run radio, said that the country was placed under martial law. The media has been put under strict censorship. The army spokesman specified that the civilian government would be allowed to function under the current caretaker ministry. The justice minister, Chalkasem Nitisri, has said that the army had taken the step without consulting the government.

2014 MARKS the centenary of the epic voyage of Komagatamaru. It was on July 23, 1914 that Komagatamaru which was anchored at the Vancouver Harbour since May 23, 1914 was forced to return when the Canadian authorities refused to allow the passengers to land and subjected them to inhuman harassment and repression for eight weeks. This is an event enshrined in golden letters in the long struggle of the Indian people for freedom from the British colonial yoke.