Reminiscent of Thursday’s meeting of NATO defense ministers, today’s summit of European Union leaders produced a largely symbolic collective statement demanding Muammar Gaddafi give up power and end the violence raging in Libya—but refrained from proposing anything to back that urging up with. But given the important advances of …
arab uprisings
Tensions Mount in Bahrain as Friday Protests Get Underway
The golf clubs are primed, the clubs studded with nails. As a group of anti-government protestors makes its way from downtown Manama towards the Royal Court in Riffa, hundreds of government supporters are standing in wait, armed and spoiling for a fight. Bahrain is readying for a conflagration that could transform a weeks-old peaceful …
India to the Dalai Lama: Stay as Long as You Like, Really.
What happens when the Dalai Lama steps down as political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile? As far as India is concerned, he will always be welcome, according to statements today by the external affairs ministry.
“His holiness the Dalai Lama is an honoured guest in India. And he is a spiritual and religious leader,” an MEA
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Inside the World of Egypt’s Secret Police
TIME’s remarkable Photo department offers up one more treat: this weekend, hundreds of Egyptians ransacked the offices of the country’s reviled state security organization, an institution run out of the Interior Ministry that monitored, detained, intimidated and tortured countless Egyptians over the years. Now, the tables have …
Counterpoint: France’s Libya Move is Premature
I’m going to have to humbly disagree with my good friend Bruce Crumley who hails France’s recognition of the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council as the legitimate government of all of Libya. Recognizing the legitimacy of the rebellion does not require recognizing a hastily cobbled together leadership structure, the extent of …
France Recognizes Libyan Opposition Government
Props to French President Nicolas Sarkozy for becoming the first international leader to recognize the opposition battling Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi as the rightful representatives of their country. But should it have taken this long for someone to make such a no-brainer decision? And what’s taking Sarkozy’s peers so long in …
How Soccer Explains the Middle East
A soccer game was held yesterday in the West Bank. That may not be quite out of the ordinary in this soccer-mad part of the world, but the teams competing were: on one side, you had Thailand, and the other, Palestine. A qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympics, this was the first ever internationally-sanctioned game in the Occupied …
Libya’s Revolution, Online
Facebook and Twitter may be playing less of a role in the Libyan uprising right now than more traditional implements of revolution such as the Kalashnikov assault rifle and the RPG-7 rocket launcher, but the Interim Transitional National Council in the rebel capital of Benghazi today introduced itself to the world via a new …
The Logic of Talking and Fighting in Libya
Wait a minute: One minute Libya’s rebels are telling us that Gaddafi is offering to negotiate the terms of his ouster; the next we learn that the rebel offensive is losing momentum and taking a fearsome pounding from regime planes, tanks and artillery in Zawiya and Ras Lanuf. So was the claim that Gaddafi is ready to talk — and reports …
Harvard-Educated Facebook Activist Detained in Azerbaijan
The ripples of the Arab revolutions have reached the Caspian Sea. Inspired by youth-led uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, activists in the oil-rich, former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan used Facebook to announce Azerbaijan’s own “day of rage” on March 11. It’s unclear how many people will heed the call, but, as in other authoritarian …
International Women’s Day: A View From A Broad in London
U.S. TV producer Caryn Mandabach first got the idea for the TV series Nurse Jackie when she visited her goddaughter, who was working as a nurse in hospital in a tough New York neighborhood. On the subway, Mandabach found herself riding next to a woman balancing a basket on her head. The basket began to shudder and a serpent appeared at …
Echoes of Spain in Libya’s Civil War?
Addressing the rag-tag citizens’ army on the barricades of Madrid in 1936 preparing to face the fascist army massed to storm the city, Dolores Ibarruri — the revolutionary better known as La Pasionaria — laid out the creed of those who would give their lives to defend Spanish democracy: “It is better to die on our feet than to live on …
Libya’s Collateral Damage: Red-Faced Royalty, Shamed Soldiers
“There is no such thing as bad publicity—except your own obituary,” joked the Irish writer Brendan Behan. Since I blogged on Friday about the controversy surrounding Prince Andrew aka the Duke of York and his role as trade envoy for Britain, initially sparked by his contacts with Saif Gaddafi but quickly shifting to his private …