If you didn’t cry, you’d laugh. There are elements of farce to the saga gripping Britain—a tangled tale of criminality and corruption, of phone-hacking, glad-handing and back-slapping, of politicians in thrall to the power of the press and of police in the pay of the press. But for some it has been a tragedy compounded. Take Graham …
Venezuela’s Bicentennial: Should Chávez Re-Examine Bolívar – and His Revolution?
George Washington and Simón Bolívar are rightly remembered as the New World’s greatest independence heroes, but the anti-democratic flaws each possessed are too often forgotten. Washington was a slave-owner, a fact most Americans disregard during commemorations like this week’s July 4 fete. Likewise, the Caracas-born Bolívar …
Justice Deferred: Why Indonesia Doesn’t Want to Host the ‘Bali Bomber’ Trial
You’d think Indonesia would jump at the chance to try Umar Patek, the alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali Bombings. But the head of the country’s anti-terror agency, Ansyaad Mbai, says a high-profile terror trial is too much of a security risk. Patek, one of the leaders of the al-Qaeda linked Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah …
Clashing Op-eds: Recommended (Perhaps Even Required) DSK Reading
Well-deserved props to both the New York Times and Washington Post (What? I can do more than criticize!) , whose op-ed writers today contributed interesting observations and arguments about where the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case should go from here—and how the next steps taken in it will reflect upon the American …
An Indian Temple’s Hidden $22 Billion Treasure Hoard May Wake Political Dragons
Renowned as sites of great spirituality and stunning architecture, India’s myriad ancient temples draw tens of millions of devotees and tourists each year. But it’s been a long time since any of its many hallowed shrines were in the news for possessing something altogether more mundane: a vast golden treasure, worth approximately $22 …
Is China’s Ex-Leader Jiang Zemin Dead? Local Censors Don’t Want Any Speculation
Is he or isn’t he? Around 11 pm on July 5, China’s blogosphere began trading in rumors that Jiang Zemin, the former leader of the People’s Republic, had died. By midnight local searches on this topic had become very popular. But within half an hour, the heavy hand of China’s censors descended. Chinese language searches for …
What Happens When Journalists Take on Pakistan’s ISI
Omar Waraich examines for TIME what happens when a Pakistani journalist dares to criticize the powerful Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. Although the ISI was originally conceived as an external intelligence agency, it has a profound influence on Pakistan’s domestic politics, and is now widely accused of carrying out …
As One Alleged Strauss-Kahn Rape Case Cools Off, Another Heats Up
The legal travails of Dominique Strauss-Kahn seem to get messier as the days go by. As noted in our story yesterday, even as Strauss-Kahn’s troubles in New York seem to have dissipated with the prosecution’s case against him appearing to crumble, new charges of criminal sexual misconduct have surfaced back in Paris. On Tuesday, …
Macabre Tabloid Hacking Scandal May Finally Force British Newsrooms to Come Clean
UPDATE: Car manufacturer Ford has suspended its advertising with the News of the World pending the outcome of an inquiry into the latest hacking allegations.
They moralize endlessly, but Britain’s tabloid newspapers are notoriously relaxed when it comes to their own moral code. Even so, claims that Glenn Mulcaire, a private …
The Dominique Strauss-Kahn Story: A Cottage Industry For Theme-Seeking Journalists
Though it wasn’t deafening enough to mark the official opening of journalism’s summer Silly Season, a recent chorus of articles improvising on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn topic does merit the momentary elevation of the discerning reader’s eyebrow. Come on colleagues: this caper is sensational and dramatic enough on its own to …
With NY Case In Doubt, Strauss-Kahn Faces Attempted Rape Charges In France
Just as the legal outlook for ex-International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn started looking brighter in the U.S. with news prosecutors’ case against him for sexual assault may not get to a court, DSK’s horizon seriously darkened back in France. On Monday, as various signs accumulated suggesting his political career …
The Flotilla Sequel: This Time with Diplomacy
For a while there it was looking like Rocky II. Same story, much less reason to watch. A year after Israel shot itself in the foot by killing nine Turkish activists on the high sea off Gaza, everyone had taken their places and appeared intent on reprising familiar roles. The Israel Defense Forces was talking tough: “We’ve got some …
Legal Holes Develop In the DSK Case, But Will Women Care?
News of the prosecution’s weakening sex assault case against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn–and the consequential court decision Friday morning to lift his house arrest awaiting trial–have added a new jolt of drama to what already had been a sensational story followed closely on both sides of the …