Libya’s rebels announced this Friday that a NATO air strike on the town of Zlitan — near Tripoli — killed nearly three dozen Gaddafi regime loyalists, including his son Khamis, commander of the feared 32nd Brigade, the country’s most crack military unit. This is the second time Khamis has been reported dead, and the Gaddafi …
Couch Potato Briefing: Dictators, Delusions and Scary Animals
Global Spin’s latest installment of five rental movies to watch over the weekend, pegged to the world’s news. Presented by Ishaan Tharoor and Tony Karon.
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The spectacle of a caged and bedridden Hosni Mubarak facing his accusers may have looked like an attempt to reprise of the death …
China Food Safety: Big Crackdown, but Big Concerns Remain
Chinese authorities have arrested 2,000 suspects and closed 4,900 businesses in the latest crackdown on food safety violations. Government investigators have inspected nearly 6 million food and additive producers since concerns about the use of harmful ingredients spiked this spring, the Food Safety Commission of China’s State …
Five Lessons the World Will Take From U.S. Economic Policy Gridlock
Washington may have cut an unlovable deal to avert a default on its debts, but U.S. and global stock markets are tanking anyway. That’s because the measures agreed Tuesday can’t reverse the slide of the U.S. economy — its fundamentals, to use a phrase beloved by politicians, are less than sound. So, what the world sees in America’s …
Piers Morgan Tomorrow? The Hacking Scandal Laps At The British Star
If News International holds a soirée at the Conservative Party conference this October, it’s likely to be a subdued affair. At the zenith of Rupert Murdoch’s influence over British public life, invitations to such shindigs were as sought after as Willy Wonka’s golden tickets. Would-be gatecrashers who evaded fire-breathing, …
Why The French Inquiry Of Christine Lagarde Is Unlikely To Threaten Her IMF Job
Does Friday’s decision by French justice officials to open a legal investigation into abuse of power allegations against Christine Lagarde mean the International Monetary Fund head risks losing her job less than a month after succeeding the disgraced Dominique Strauss-Kahn? The short answer is no, and for many reasons. Still, that …
Hama: One City, Two Massacres
The ancient city of Hama, in northern Syria, has a long history of violence: it has weathered the marches of Romans and Byzantines, the ravages of Turks and Mongols and the brutality of the Crusades. But none of these invaders had the tanks, heavy artillery and air power deployed by the Assad family on their own people.
Hama is …
Revelations Surrounding Air France Crash Inquiry Sparks Accusations Of Manipulation
It didn’t take for confirmation of our warning last week that the initial report into the causes of the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447 wouldn’t stifle debate about who was to blame for the calamity. Less than a week after France’s official Bureau of Investigations and Analyses (BEA) issued a preliminary finding stating …
Mired in Libya and Fearful of Consequences, West Holds Back From Syria Intervention
“Liberal Interventionists” in Washington had hoped, last March, that the decision by the U.S., Britain and France to launch U.N.authorized military action in Libya represented a new Western willingness to protect civilians under threat by their own regimes. The paralysis of the same governments and the wider international community …
Jail, Arrests and Resignations in Britain’s Hacking Scandal
Britain’s long-running hacking saga has finally seen one of its protagonists jailed, the first such penalty since the News of the World‘s royal editor Clive Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were imprisoned in 2007 for intercepting voicemails intended for Princes William and Harry and their aides and friends. On Aug. 2 …
Lethal Levels of Radiation Detected at Fukushima
In many ways, it looks like daily life in Fukushima is slipping back into its familiar routines. In Koriyama, a town south of Fukushima City, a group of taiko drummers set up in front of the train station to perform in an annual summer festival. Girls cruise by on bicycles in their plaid skirts and white socks in the unusually mild …
Egypt’s Mubarak on Trial: Pay Attention to the Men Behind the Curtain
Only a madman would have predicted, even nine months ago, that Egyptian TV’s ramadan special, this year, would be the trial of Hosni Mubarak. It’s a compelling spectacle, to be sure, the erstwhile epitome of the Arab “strongman” now laid low on his sickbed inside a courtroom cage, forced to answer for the violence unleashed by his …
Rape as a Weapon of War: Men Suffer, Too
It’s talked about in whispers, if at all. But men and boys are all-too frequently subjected to sexual violence, particularly in times of conflict, forced confinement or war. The problem is persistent and global. For the most part, though, nobody wants to talk about it. Over the last few months, however, a handful of reports from West …