Hundreds of rioters in a southern Chinese city fought with police today after a disabled fruit vendor was reportedly beaten to death by officials in broad daylight. The protests are of a similar scale to last month’s riots by migrant workers in the southern city of Zengcheng (above) after security [READ MORE]

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization “is one of those international bodies whose proclaimed ideals conceal an often sordid reality,” writes Henryk Szadziewski, as is evident from the denial of rights of free association and expression within its member states, including those of the Uyghur people, whose homeland (which they call East Turkestan) is now China’s [READ MORE]

Former associates of ousted president Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali “are positioning themselves for political roles in post-revolutionary Tunisia,” reports suggest, “raising suspicions that the old guard is regrouping to thwart the country’s march towards democracy.”

Senior figures in the former ruling party have established new parties, including Al Watan (“The Nation”), led by 67-year-old Mohamed Jegham, a former interior [READ MORE]

The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program at the Washington, DC–based National Endowment for Democracy invites applications for fellowships in 2012–2013. This federally-funded program enables democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and enhance their ability to promote democratic change. Dedicated to international exchange, this [READ MORE]

Russia’s democratic backsliding gives cause for concern, but it is the country’s demographic crisis that is making the Kremlin anxious. The West’s democracies have demographic concerns, but they pale in comparison: Russia’s population is due to fall by 24 million people before 2050 to just one place above Vietnam as the world’s 14th most populous state. [READ MORE]

During his lifetime, Floribert Chebeya Bahizire (above) enjoyed little of the fame or recognition of such past recipients of the National Endowment for Democracy’s prestigious Democracy Service Medal as Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, the late Congressman Tom Lantos, or the Dalai Lama, writes Carl Gershman. But it is altogether fitting that he [READ MORE]

At a time of potential democratic breakthroughs in the Arab world, the experience of Eastern Europe enhances understanding of effective strategies that support and retard democratic transition, says the National Endowment for Democracy’s Nadia M. Diuk (right). And during a period of austerity, a strategic and concerted effort by both diplomatic and non-governmental actors [READ MORE]

Forthcoming elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo could intensify tensions in a country that already hosts the most violent human conflict since World War II or act as a catalyst for repairing a “badly broken country,” a Washington conference heard today.

Congolese voters have few of the illusions they harbored prior to the previous polls [READ MORE]

The tragedy in Norway is an important reminder that “the most cherished American illusion, the form of historically determinist optimism often called “whig history,” is a delusion and a snare,” writes Walter Russell Mead:

There is no principle so deeply engrained in American social science as the idea that moral and economic progress go hand in [READ MORE]

Perhaps the most important lesson of Indonesia’s democratic transition is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, according to a leading protagonist in that process

Democratizing Arab states “will face unique challenges, which will have to be addressed on their own terms,” writes Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director of the World Bank Group and a former Indonesian finance minister. [READ MORE]

“The end of Soviet rule two decades ago unleashed new freedoms in Russia, but also roller coaster political and economic life,” experienced observers suggest. Arab states should learn from Russia’s flawed transition:

In Russia the West was frustrated in trying to reform middle-aged, Soviet-trained elites. In Arab countries the West ought to have a longer-term focus: influencing the [READ MORE]

While liberation technology is empowering pro-democracy activists, U.S. and European technology firms are enabling China and other authoritarian states.

At Vodafone’s annual meeting tomorrow, critics will demand assurances that the mobile phone group will resist government efforts to use its networks for political ends.

After Yahoo colluded with China’s Communist authorities in tracking [READ MORE]

July 26, 2011. 9:30 a.m. – Voices from the Congo: The Road Ahead, a Congolese perspective on the current political and human rights situation and an effort to inform U.S. policy on Congo with ideas and recommendations. Conference organized by The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; the National Endowment for Democracy; and the Eastern Congo Initiative. Highlights: [READ MORE]

Egypt’s government today pledged to purge senior officials from Hosni Mubarak’s regime and continue with public corruption trials in an effort to placate protesters who have turned against the ruling military.

The announcement came as a coalition of 21 civil society groups and political parties released a statement blaming the military for Sunday’s violence around Cairo’s Abbassiya [READ MORE]

Social media was a contributory but not a determining factor in Egypt’s Jasmine revolution, activists say.

“The Internet played a key role but it was not the only tool. The revolution really belongs to the people,” said veteran blogger Wael Abbas (right).

The demonstrations that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule were not a single event orchestrated by cyber-activists, [READ MORE]