Global Voices Online

The Spirit of Man thinks US government does not understand who the Leader in Iran is. The blogger writes while supreme leader of the regime says NO to the US-Iran talks, Bush's press secretary Tony Snow says that Khamenei's response is not official and does not have any official value. But I can say this to US government's Tony Snow that, when Ali Khamenei says NO, it is NO, it is official.

Recent Links also in Middle East & North Africa

Adil Najam discusses about a recently released list of 8000 persons including the president of Pakistan and 34 Pakistani politicians who have benefited from the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf on Oct 5, 2007. This ordinance “grants amnesty to all those against whom politically-motivated cases were registered between Jan 1, 1986, and Oct 12, 1999.”

Maghreb Blog reports that the sentence of Chakib Khayari, a human rights activist and whistleblower, has been upheld in a Casablanca court. Khayari is set to serve three years in prison for accusing high-level civil servants of aiding in drug trafficking.

Moroccan resident Ibn Ibn Battuta shares a list of nonfiction and travel books that keep him busy on the road in Morocco.