Frost Over the World

Peter Galbraith

The US official discusses Hamid Karzai’s takeover of Afghanistan’s electoral watchdog.

undefined
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has now taken control of the organisation that exposed the massive fraud in last summer’s presidential elections [GALLO/GETTY]

In this week’s episode: Hamid Karzai’s decision to take control of Afghanistan’s key electoral watchdog; Jesse Jackson on Barack Obama’s healthcare reform plan; and why sorry is becoming the easiest word for celebrities.

This episode of Frost over the World aired from Friday, February 26, 2010.

Peter Galbraith

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, worried Western diplomats this week when he unilaterally took control of his country’s key electoral watchdog – the same organisation that exposed the massive fraud in last summer’s presidential elections and forced him to agree to a second round of voting.

Sir David is joined by Peter Galbraith who was the most senior American official at the UN mission in Afghanistan but lost his job when he called for a recount of the votes.

Jesse Jackson and Edward Carr

Barack Obama’s healthcare reform plan has suffered another setback this week after a televised health summit ended without a deal to break the deadlock in Washington. So what now for Obama?

Sir David is joined by civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Plus, the Anglo Saxon media is out to sink us! That is what the Spanish prime minister is saying after the Economist and the Financial Times published critical accounts of his handling of Spain’s financial woes in recent weeks.

But is there any truth in this? Sir David is joined by Edward Carr, the foreign editor of the Economist.

Rankin

The photographer John Rankin, known simply as Rankin, has turned his lens towards new subjects.

He is best known for his portraits of the rich and famous including the Queen of England, Madonna and many other celebrities and rock stars.

But his new exhibition in London highlights photographs from his recent visit with the UK charity, Oxfam, to the Democratic Republic Congo, one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

Sandra Scott, Steven Williams and Irenea Renuncio

When Tiger Woods stood up and publicly apologised for his private behaviour, he knew he was taking arguably one of his greatest risks to date. He is not the first: Confessions by public figures are commonplace today, frequently just before or just after an expose by journalists. But do they work?

Sir David talks to Sandra Scott, a psychiatrist who frequently deals with traumatised celebrities put through the mill of various reality TV shows, and Steven Williams, the boss of Midas PR, one of London’s top PR agencies.

Plus, for the first time in nearly 40 years, a Cuban political prisoner starved himself to death this week.

Orlando Zapata Tamoyo died in hospital, 85 days after he began refusing food. In a rare move, President Raul Castro said that he “regrets” the death. But – as so often – he laid the blame, somehow – on the US. So what can we glean from the signals from Havana?

Sir David talks to Irenea Renuncio, a Latin America political analyst.