Corruption and voter intimidation have engulfed the ongoing parliamentary elections in Somalia, the auditor general told the BBC. Bribes of between $1,000 - $5,000 have been paid according to Gen Nur Farah Jimale. The BBC has reported that some candidates have been offering bribes of up to $1.3m to secure votes. They never specified who. Gen Nur told the BBC Somali Service that some seats should be re-run because money had been used to "out-manoeuvre" other candidates. This is despite the elections being conducted by the United Nations. Cases of government resources being used in the election have also been documented, he continued.

NGOs: Grassroots Empowerment or Tool of Information Warfare?   During the early phases of the post-Cold War “New World Order,” NGOs were touted as representing a new wave of international politics. Instead of allowing international issues to be settled in closed meetings, the people themselves, informed by intrepid citizen journalists, would from now on play the key role in setting the agenda. Like most of the promises made in the 1990s, this one also failed to deliver. It became clear that many NGOs, far from representing the “grass roots” of politics, were more akin to the artificial grass-like stadium surface known in the US as “astroturf”. It may look and even, to a degree, feel like the genuine article, but it most certainly is not. Many NGOs, while presenting a public image of bottom-up activism, were funded by major corporations or governments, which had the effect of depriving them of their indepe

Click to see the full-size image The “ Armata ” Universal Combat Platform is a Russian advanced next generation heavy military tracked vehicle platform. It’s the basis of the T-14, the T-15 and several other types of engineering, artillery vehicles. The platform is designed to replace the older Russian battle tanks and military vehicles that are currently used by the Russian military. The T-15 IFV commenced trials in 2014 and was first publicly revealed in 2015. A first batch of pre-production vehicles was delivered in 2015.