Australian Liberal Party parliamentary candidate Jaymes Diaz was stumped when asked by Channel Ten News about his six point plan for addressing immigration issues.

[Read more…]

Britain’s governing Conservatives have hired Jim Messina, President Obama’s former campaign manager, to advise them ahead of the 2015 general election, the AP reports.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf “will be charged next week with the alleged murder of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, his lawyer said, the latest turn in a political drama that has unfolded since his return from exile in March,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Mr. Musharraf is alleged to have not provided Ms. Bhutto with sufficient security at the time of her assassination, when she was campaigning for coming elections. He is also alleged to have threatened her before she returned to Pakistan in October 2007.”

Swedish lawmaker Lars Ohly “was caught with his pants down Wednesday after flashing his private parts in a picture meant to show off his newly-inked Liverpool football club tattoo,” AFP reports.

He deleted the photo on Instagram but other Swedish politicians “were quick to weigh in on the issue after the picture went viral.”

Responded political opponent Carl Bildt: “Congratulations to you, after all these years, for getting this genuinely public breakthrough!”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling bloc “won a majority in Sunday’s upper house election, media exit polls showed, giving it control of both chambers of parliament and handing Mr. Abe a mandate to proceed with his ambitious plan for economic growth,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The strong showing was widely expected as Mr. Abe’s Cabinet enjoyed a near 60% approval rating going into the election on the back of support for his economic policy mix of monetary easing and fiscal spending steps. The focus now is on whether he will attempt to tackle reforms that are seen as necessary to further propel growth but are likely to be unpopular.”

“Russia unexpectedly freed opposition leader Alexei Navalny on bail on Friday, bending to the will of thousands of protesters who denounced his five-year jail sentence as a crude attempt by President Vladimir Putin to silence him,” Reuters reports.

“In a ruling that points to Kremlin uncertainty over how to handle Navalny’s case and revived protests, a judge approved an unusual prosecution request to release him while he awaits the outcome of an appeal.”

Wall Street Journal: “Russia’s most prominent opposition campaigner was found guilty of embezzlement Thursday and sentenced to five years in prison, some 19 months after leading the biggest protests to challenge the Kremlin’s rule since the Soviet Union’s collapse.”

A man who has been legally dead since 2010 was elected mayor of a small Mexican town, the New York Times reports.

“Authorities say relatives of Lenin Carballido used a death certificate showing that he died of a diabetic coma in 2010 to convince police to drop an arrest warrant against him for allegedly participating in a 2004 gang rape.”

“A living Carballido later ran in, and narrowly won, Sunday’s election in San Agustin Amatengo in Oaxaca state.”

“Egyptian prosecutors escalated what appeared to be a widespread roundup of top Muslim Brotherhood members on Thursday, acting hours after the military deposed Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist who became the country’s first democratically elected president just a year ago,” the New York Times reports.

“The roundup, which placed some Brotherhood members in the same prison holding Hosni Mubarak, the autocratic leader toppled in the 2011 revolution, came as a senior jurist was sworn in as the acting head of state.”

The Washington Post notes that just last night President Obama had warned Egypt’s powerful military “to avoid any arbitrary arrests of President Morsi and his supporters.”

The Week: The dangerous precedent of Morsi’s ouster.

Egypt’s military deposed Mohamed Morsi, “the nation’s first freely elected president, suspending the constitution, installing an interim government and insisting it was responding to the millions of Egyptians who had opposed Mr. Morsi’s Islamist agenda and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood,” the New York Times reports.

“The military intervention marked a tumultuous new phase in the politics of the Arab world’s most populous country, which overthrew Mr. Morsi’s predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, in 2011.”

“Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, has been sacked by her party and replaced by the man she ousted three years ago,” the Guardian reports.

“After an unprecedented day of political bloodletting in Canberra, Kevin Rudd beat Gillard to become Labor party leader in a ballot of MPs by a margin of 57 to 45. It is only the second time a sitting Australian prime minister has been removed from office by their party; Rudd’s removal was the first.”

The Sydney Morning Herald has the latest.

Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani “took a solid lead over conservative rivals on Saturday in preliminary vote counting in Iran’s presidential election in what could be the makings of a surprise victory over favored hardliners,” Reuters reports.

“The outcome is unlikely to transform relations between Iran and the outside world, the Islamic Republic’s disputed policy on developing nuclear power or its support of Syria’s president in the civil war there – all sensitive security matters that are the domain of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”

On Friday, Iranian voters will head to the polls to choose the successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, The Week reports.

Ultimate power rests with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei so it’s easy to dismiss the election as a sham. But, “despite outward appearances, the winner will actually be in a position to have an impact on Iran’s direction.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron “moved to repair relations with a bruised Conservative party by emailing a ‘personal note’ to all members in which he said he would never work with anyone who ‘sneered’ at activists,” the Guardian reports.

“Amid anger in the party at the allegations that a senior member of his inner circle had referred to activists as ‘mad swivel-eyed loons’, the prime minister said the party was held together by ‘a deep and lasting friendship.'”

Said one senior figure: “This is worse than John Major… With Cameron it feels like this could be terminal – and will be so before the election.”

“For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency,” the New York Times reports.

“All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the C.I.A. to the office of President Hamid Karzai… Moreover, there is little evidence that the payments bought the influence the C.I.A. sought. Instead, some American officials said, the cash has fueled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington’s exit strategy from Afghanistan.”

Said one American official: “The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan was the United States.”

A Pakistani court has ordered a three-day house arrest on former military ruler Pervez Musharraf over the murder of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto more than five years ago, Al Jazeera reports.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was forced to flee a courtroom “moments after judges ordered his arrest, dealing a fresh blow to hopes of reviving his political career at next month’s general elections,” Reuters reports.

“Musharraf’s hasty exit from the Islamabad High Court seemed to symbolize the diminished influence of a former army chief who once dominated Pakistan’s political landscape, but whose bid to stage a triumphal comeback has garnered widespread scorn.”

Judges have disqualified Pakistan’s former military ruler, Pervez
Musharraf, from running in the upcoming parliamentary election, the AP reports.