Reporters on the Job

from the December 31, 2007 edition

• The Wait Is Over: Staff writer Scott Baldauf says that the streets of Nairobi, Kenya's capital, were eerily quiet on Sunday in the hours leading up to the announcement of Thursday's election results (see story). "Most Kenyans stayed glued to their TV sets (or those of their neighbors), waiting. Shops and supermarkets were all closed. It was a ghost town," says Scott.

He notes that all the Kenyan TV stations were broadcasting live from the Election Commission headquarters, filling the air space with a steady drone of analysis on all the possible scenarios. When opposition leader Raila Odinga's lead began to slip on Saturday, riots broke out in cities that Mr. Odinga counts on for support, including Kisumu, Mombasa, and the slum of Kibera.

Late Sunday afternoon local time, when it was announced that President Mwai Kibaki had been reelected, the protest riots resumed .

– David Clark Scott

World editor

• Monday, Dec. 31:Thimphu, Bhutan: The South Asia nation holds its first Upper House election. Bhutan has been a monarchy since 1907, but its fourth ruler, Jigme Singhye Wangchuck, put the nation on the road to democracy.Darfur, Sudan: Ceremonial handover of responsibility for Darfur from the African Union force to an African Union-United Nations joint force, though troops for the new force are not expected until late in January.

• Saturday, Jan. 5:Tbilisi, Georgia: Early presidential elections scheduled. Polls show that President Mikhail Saakashvili's stands a good chance of winning reelection in the former Soviet republic, which he has sought to align with the West.

– Associated Press

Musadeq Sadeq/AP Art Reappears: Under Taliban fundamentalist Islamic rule, portraits of people were banned in Afghanistan. Today, Shir Mohmmad, an Afghan painter, is back in business. More cultural snapshots

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