Dissidents

Even as the trial of activist Aung San Suu Kyi approaches a predictable conclusion in a tumbledown prison courtroom in Yangon, the verdict may already be in for Myanmar's pro-democracy movement. The opposition, already reeling before Suu Kyi's arrest, increasingly appears powerless, divided and incapable of mustering the international intervention needed to topple the country's long-ruling military government.

When Gabriel Okelo rose early Thursday to join a banned opposition rally, he did not take his machete. But he was sure he would be using it to kill again very soon. Just the day before, he said, he had slashed two people to death because they were from a rival tribe. It wasn't hard, he recalled. It was night, about 8, and he was among 50 other members of his Luo tribe who rampaged through a suburb nine miles east of Nairobi, the capital, named Uhuru -- "freedom" in Swahili.

During 45 years of military rule, Myanmar's generals drilled fear and suspicion so deeply into the minds of their people that when their opponents tried to harness the rage seething on the streets last fall, no one knew whom to trust. The generals quickly took advantage, crushing the pro-democracy demonstrations, killing at least 15 people and jailing thousands. It was a brutally simple strategy that had worked before. But this time may be different.

Raila Odinga built a career as a political outsider. As a young man, he watched as his father, a fighter for independence and Kenya's first vice president, was outmaneuvered by political opponents and eventually jailed. Odinga pursued his own path of dissent, spending much of the 1980s in jail or under house arrest for his alleged role in plotting a 1982 coup. Later, as an outspoken government critic, he masterminded a 2002 opposition coalition that put Mwai Kibaki into the presidency.

Syrian authorities have arrested a leading opposition figure, hours after putting 10 other critics of the ruling Baath Party on trial, according to international human rights groups. Riad Seif, a former member of parliament, was taken into custody Monday evening and brought before a judge Tuesday, the activist group Movement for Justice and Development said on its website.

Perched in the living room of his sprawling villa, security guards posted outside, Ardeshir Cowasjee is feeling a bit cantankerous about the future of volatile Pakistan. Another leader has been killed. He considers his president a pawn of the United States and accuses him of sponsoring the kidnapping and torture of citizens. Massive vote-rigging in the upcoming parliamentary elections appears certain, he says.

Iran's hard-line constitutional watchdog said Wednesday that it had reinstated more than 280 candidates for parliament races next month, but reformists said many remained banned and that the move was not enough to ensure a fair election. The Guardian Council's reversal came amid growing criticism by both reformists and conservatives that a wide ban on eligible candidates would risk a low voter turnout and undermine the polling.

The leader of one of the biggest ethnic groups fighting Myanmar's military government was killed at his home in this border town Thursday, police said. Karen National Union General Secretary Mahn Sha, 64, was shot by two men, possibly as the result of differences within the rebel group, Thai police Col. Pasawat Tangjui said. No one has claimed responsibility.

A diplomatic standoff over the fate of an Iranian dissident temporarily detained this week at a Turkish airport has revealed new clues about the defection of a high-ranking Iranian military official in late 2006 and exposed lingering tensions between Ankara and Tehran over the incident.

As unrest has spread among China's ethnic Tibetan population, Beijing has found itself caught between its desire to appear reasonable to the outside world and its tendency to come down hard when feeling threatened. In recent days, the government's propaganda has grown shriller and its security tighter: The London-based Free Tibet Campaign, an activist group, reported late Friday that police in Sichuan province had fired on hundreds of Buddhist monks and residents, resulting in eight deaths.