Another day in Europe, more mixed messages on just how Western allies in the NATO-led Libyan air intervention plan to end a campaign that has now officially attained “slog” status. Just hours after comments Tuesday from British officials saying they’d accept embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi remaining free in post-war Libya so long …
Why A Fresh Face Isn’t Enough to Move India and Pakistan Closer to Peace
The new Pakistani foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, landed in India yesterday for bilateral talks and, not surprisingly, the Indian media have heralded her arrival with intense interest. From a land-owning family with a long history in politics, Khar is decidedly younger and more glamorous than the usual diplomats making the …
The Knights Templar: The Militant Order Championed by Norway’s Terror Suspect
Anders Behring Breivik’s massive, 1,500-pg “2083” manifesto carries within it many odd and jarring tidbits, but nothing piques curiosity more than the Norwegian terror suspect’s obsession with the Knights Templar, a militant-monastic order that participated with bloody effect in the medieval Crusades. Breivik — who is …
Why Norway Terror Accused Breivik Says he Loves Israel
There was a time when a blond, blue-eyed nationalist looking to violently rid Europe of its “alien” immigrant population could be reliably assumed to hate Jews. It’s no longer quite that simple.
Anders Behring Breivik insists, in his rambling 1,500-page manifesto released on the day of his confessed rampage that killed 76 …
From Malawi to Senegal, Signs of a Sub-Saharan ‘Arab Spring’
After months of growing economic struggles, the southern African country of Malawi erupted into protests last week. Rioters took to the streets nationwide last Wednesday to protest the perceived mismanagement of the national economy and an impending fuel shortage. These protesters also stormed the offices of the ruling Democratic …
The West Slowly Backing Away From the Libyan Military Operation
It’s getting harder and harder to believe there’ll eventually be a resolution to Libya’s civil war that will allow anyone to claim Muammar Gaddafi lost to rebel forces—or was humbled by members of the NATO-led coalition waging air strikes against him. Indeed, it’s becoming increasingly clear as the weeks rush by that …
A Spade Is a Spade: Why a Western Terrorist Is No Different from a Muslim One
Last year on Sept. 11, I stood by the site of Ground Zero amid hundreds of people shouting obscenities against Muslims and the religion of Islam. They were gathered to protest the proposed construction of a nearby Muslim-run interfaith community center, which had earned the inaccurate moniker “Ground Zero Mosque.” The rally was …
Deadly Crash Adds to Worries About China’s High-Speed Trains
A deadly train wreck in south China has renewed concerns about the country’s rapid and costly development of a high-speed rail network. The collision of two high-speed trains Saturday evening near the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province killed 33 people and injured 191, according to China’s Ministry of Railways. The crash occurred when …
Famine in Somalia: When Does the World Decide to Use the ‘F’ Word?
The word ‘famine’ may be a familiar one, but it is not thrown around lightly by the people who decide when there is one. The fact that most of us today probably associate the term with the 1984 crisis in Ethiopia is testament to its exceedingly careful dispensation; to use it too often would dilute its power to command the …
Couch Potato Briefing: Snoops, Soldiers and French Fries
Here are Global Spin’s weekend recommendations for rental movies to watch that tell you about present world news. Presented by Ishaan Tharoor and Tony Karon.
The Conversation
The U.K.’s hacking scandal roiled on this week, with News Corporation titans Rupert Murdoch and his son James …
What the Oslo Bombing May Reveal About the State of the Global Terrorist Threat
(Update July 23: This post was originally written hours after Friday’s blast, when police and media speculation — and jihadist web sites — were pointing at Islamist extremists as the likely perpetrators of the Oslo terror attacks. On Saturday, however, Norwegian police had charged a 32-year-old Norwegian who they said was a Christian …
Israel’s ‘Threat’ to Bomb Nuclear Facilities is Central to its Iran Strategy
The reason TIME.com’s intelligence columnist Bob Baer this week found himself cast as the unintended source for “authoritative” claims that Israel is about to bomb Iran, is precisely because what he said had been speculative comments inadvertently played into the game of bluff at the heart of the matter. Bob saw an implicit warning …
End of the Road For Lai Changxing, One of China’s Most Wanted Fugitives
For more than a decade Lai Changxing has been fighting in Canadian courts to avoid being sent back to China, where he is wanted for running a multi-billion-dollar smuggling enterprise out of the southeastern port city of Xiamen. Now the deportation battle of one of China’s most wanted men is reaching an end. A Canadian judge upheld …