Lalao Ravalomanana was picked as the candidate of her husband’s political party at a weekend meeting, party officials said Monday.

“It was absolutely a natural consensus between members of the Ravalomanana Movement and [ex)-president Ravalomanana,” Mamy Rakotoarivelo, a representative of the party told AFP.

But her nomination may inflame tensions in the troubled Indian Ocean island nation and complicate the holding of elections due on July 24.

via Madagascar: Ousted leader’s wife enters election bid | News | Africa | Mail & Guardian.

This was not my first experience with terror, having grown up in Pakistan. But for some reason, I didn’t think back to those experiences. Looking onto to the smoked, chaotic Boylston Street, I forgot about cowering in my childhood bedroom as bombs and gunfire rained over the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, close to our house. My mind did not go back to when I stood on the roof of my dormitory in Karachi as the streets were overrun with burning buses and angry protesters after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. None of the unfortunate experiences of growing up in the midst of thousands of victims of terror, personally knowing some of them, helped me in that moment. Nothing made it any easier.

Perhaps, if I had been thinking more clearly and hadn’t had my wife with me, I might have gone down to try to help the wounded. But at that moment all I could think about was getting us out of there. We lost our friends, then found them again. Our cellphones weren’t working. And then, as we worked our way through the dazed throngs in Back Bay, I realized that not only was I a victim of terror, but I was also a potential suspect.

As a 20-something Pakistani male with dark stubble (an ode more to my hectic schedule as a resident in the intensive-care unit than to any aesthetic or ideology), would I not fit the bill? I know I look like Hollywood’s favorite post-cold-war movie villain. I’ve had plenty of experience getting intimately frisked at airports.

via Living Through Terror, in Rawalpindi and Boston – NYTimes.com.

“When the foreigners are gone, the Taliban will beat us to death like flies,” says Abdul, 25. He stands out in the streets of Kabul, a clean-shaven young man surrounded by men in beards. He looks nervous as he walks past begging women hidden under their burqas, and men carrying Kalashnikovs. He is constantly looking around.

The first calls began about a year ago. When he answered his mobile phone, there would be silence at the other end of the line, and when he called the number back, the phone would already be switched off. The anonymous callers eventually began making threats. One of them said: “You help the infidels, you are a spy. You will die.” Abdul threw away his SIM card. He went into hiding with relatives in Kabul a few months ago. He had to leave his wife and daughter behind in Kunduz.

Abdul worked for the Bundeswehr as an interpreter for more than two years. He was proud of his job at first, knowing that the foreigners had come to help the Afghans. He felt that he was part of the future of his wonderful country.

via Afghan Employees of German Military Face Threats from Taliban – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to consume St. Thomas Bottled Lobster, Bar Clams and Bar Clam Stew because they may be contaminated with the bacteria that can cause botulism, a life-threatening illness.

via Recall: Bottled Seafood May Cause Botulism.