The Mumbai attacks have left India in a state of shock. The demand for political accountability has already seen the resignation of a few high level politicians. With the world's largest democracy in such a vulnerable state, how can these acts be stopped in an age of 'celebrity terrorism'?

Recent reports in the media have stated that US president-elect, Barack Obama, is planning to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. Having been at the center of US interrogation debacle, Guantanamo Bay has become a human rights disaster for the United States military.

The Free Zone Film Festival in Belgrade, Serbia - freezonebelgrade.org - is young, fresh and noisy. Just four years old, this year (7 to 12 November) it had a new team. Srdjan Keca, the programme director is 28 years old, with his equally young colleagues Bojana Cućilović (festival coordinator), Jeja Veljković (guest team organisor) and Dragana Jovanović (press liason).

So, with the American elections out of the way and a global sigh of relief at the result, we thought we could dedicate this blog to a fairly apt question. Before the Obama-hype, Steps International asked famous athletes, politicians and everyday people who they thought could be President of the World.

A new leader. A new era. Well done America.

With the American elections just eleven days away, many pundits are scrambling through polls and surveys to determine a possible winner. Ordinarily, Democrat nominee - Barack Obama - would seem a sure-bet given the polls. However, a disturbing level of racism is beginning to rise to the surface among the voting public.

There have been a lot of postmortems on Thabo Mbeki, who resigned as president of South Africa under great pressure both from within his party and outside. I like this one from The Atlantic, which offers up some good numbers through which to examine Mbeki's acheivements and failures:

Monday 6th October

A few weeks ago I was in Frankfurt to take part in a discussion about the Why Democracy? documentary film project. It was organised under the auspices of the ‘Fernsehworkshop Entwicklungspolitik’.

Few people pay attention to Canadian politics at the best of times, so it should be no surprise that the U.S. Obama-McCain dustup has utterly overshadowed the October 14 Canadian federal election.

The Why Democracy? film, Egypt: We are Watching You, is receiving positive reviews from a number of viewers. This excellent documentary investigates incidents of fraud and corruption in Egypt's first multiparty elections. Told through the experiences of three female political activists, this film highlights the fragile nature of Egypt's young democracy.