The Indian newspaper The Hindu has published an absorbing, multi-story Wikileaks package today about 5,100 diplomatic cables covering everything from India-Pakistan relations after the November 2008 terror attacks to the end of the Sri Lankan civil war and influence-peddling in Nepal. There are also some revealing behind-the-scenes …
Borders
TIME Reporter Expelled from Yemen
The following comes from TIME’s News Director Howard Chua-Eoan
TIME’s reporter in Yemen Oliver Holmes phoned in to report that he and the reporters for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times are being deported by the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The ostensible reason given by the government was that Holmes, Haley …
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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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 …
How Bihar Went from Basket Case to Case Study
I visited Bihar for the first time in 1998, when its reputation for lawlessness was well-deserved. Traveling by train from Delhi, you knew exactly when you crossed the border into Bihar. That’s when groups of aggressive, ticket-less riders suddenly jumped onto the train, comfortable in the knowledge that, in Bihar, no one would …
Libya: Talk of Intervention Continues, While Others Look at What May Follow Gaddafi
Massimo Calabresi summarizes President Obama’s thinking on Libya:
Obama clarified the U.S. position today, saying that he wanted to make sure “the United States has full capacity to act — potentially rapidly — if the situation deteriorated in such a way that you had a humanitarian crisis on our hands or a situation in which
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Somali Pirates Hijack Danish Yacht: Why Does This Keep on Happening?
On Feb. 24, the Danish Naval Command received a distress signal from a vessel in the Indian Ocean. Not long thereafter, Danish officials confirmed that the yacht of a Danish family had been hijacked by Somali pirates. The crew of seven, including three teenagers, their parents and the ship’s deckhands are now all captive. “It’s almost …
From Recruitment Camps in the Sahara, Libya’s Mercenaries Emerge
Very early on in the course of the uprising in Libya, an iconic image appeared: that of spent ammunition casings. This has been a revolution of chaos and attrition, with anti-government protesters pitted against a repressive and volatile state, one, which at times has seemed on the brink of collapse and, in other moments, appeared steely …