There’s currently a lot of activity, a good measure of confusion, but no real sign of progress in France towards an eventual resolution to the NATO-led intervention in Libya that Paris was instrumental in launching. And it’s against that backdrop of somewhat chaotic operation slog that the French parliament is being asked Tuesday …
Afghan President’s Brother Assassinated
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the younger brother of Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, according to news reports today. My colleague Joe Klein has a post up already on Swampland about the assassination, which is already a major news story around the world. The younger Karzai was well …
A Powerhouse Province Wants to Relax China’s One-Child Policy—But Don’t Bet on a Baby Boom
China’s richest and most populous province, Guangdong, has reportedly asked Beijing for permission to relax the one-child policy. Yesterday, Zhang Feng, the head of its population commission, revealed that the province is pitching a pilot project that would allow some families to have two children, reports the BBC. Under the …
TIME’s Pretty Young Cover Girl Who Wasn’t
The TIME cover showed a lissome young woman in a red cocktail dress—and it generated a firestorm. Twenty-year-old Guo Meimei became a lightning rod in China after she posted pictures of her white Maserati and orange Lamborghini online, along with images of her flying in business class and riding a horse. What, wondered China’s …
Amid Uproar, Israeli Lawmakers Vote to Punish Boycotters
Israel’s parliament late Monday night made it illegal to call for a boycott against the state or its settlements on the West Bank. The measure, which passed the Knesset 47 to 38, had the support of the right-wing coalition led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who nonetheless failed to show up for the vote. Reports in the Hebrew …
Why Cuts in U.S. Military Aid are Unlikely to Change Pakistan’s Behavior
The Obama Administration clearly wants the American public to know it is not allowing Pakistan’s double game in Afghanistan and on militant jihadists to go unpunished: The New York Times reports that the U.S. is withholding some $800 million — one third of the aid designated for the Pakistani military — to send a message that …
The Murder of Facundo Cabral: Death Squads Still Roam Latin America
After this past weekend, it seems even more fitting that Guatemala was the site of last month’s high-level international pow-wow on how dangerous Central America has gotten. Just before dawn on Saturday, July 9, celebrated Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral was murdered by gunmen as he rode from his Guatemala City hotel to the …
City of Women: No Men Allowed in Saudi Arabia’s Newest University
Saudi Arabia’s largest university for women is, for the moment, a universe of men. Laborers from Pakistan, India, and Syria crawl over the near-finished classrooms and lecture halls, polishing marble and fine tuning light fixtures. In the state-of-the-art library, technicians from Lebanon are putting the final touches on a vast …
In Israel’s Knesset, Glenn Beck Plays to the Home Crowd
Glenn Beck’s tour guide in the Knesset on Monday was the same fellow who squired Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee around Jerusalem: Danny Danon, the sleek, arch-conservative deputy speaker of Israel’s parliament and a man who knows how to inspire Christian fundamentalists. “I do a lot of fundraising in the United States,” Danon told me …
Gender Justice: Is Bangladesh Ignoring ‘Fatwa’ Violence Against Women?
Sometimes, the law isn’t enough. It certainly wasn’t enough for Hena Akhter, the Bangladeshi girl whipped to death in January. After surviving rape, Hena, 14, was labelled an adulteress and sentenced, by local elders and clerics, to 10o lashes. “She couldn’t speak or eat afterwards, and she was bleeding through her nose, ears and …
Memo to Mideast Quartet: The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Train Derailed Ages Ago
The Obama Administration and its European allies meet Monday in Washington, under the auspices of the Middle East Quartet, in search of a formula to head off a Palestinian bid for recognition of statehood by the U.N. in September. A U.N. vote would be a “train wreck”, U.S. officials like to say, setting up renewed confrontation; …
Eight Days in Israel’s Battle Against Pariah Status
Last Saturday, July 2, the Israeli politician Amir Peretz slipped onto a plane in London, and placing both his seat and himself in an upright position, escaped back to Israel just hours ahead of an arrest warrant. His crime: Serving as minister of defense during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, when civilians were killed along with the …
Tear Gas Erupts as Malaysia Detains Hundreds of Protesters
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, has always been a city redolent with tropical blooms. In recent weeks, the country’s opposition has been hoping to add a note of jasmine—of the political, not floral variety—to the air by calling for nationwide electoral reform. On Saturday, however, another scent was added to Kuala …