Any hint of “jasmine revolution” in Beijing was swept away Sunday, first by legions of police, then by trucks spraying water onto a shopping street in the center of the Chinese capital. There was no sign of protest, and once again the turnout was largely security forces, foreign reporters and curious tourists.
Anonymous organizers …
Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE has just published an exit poll that suggests the votes currently being counted will add up to more than just a change of government in the country. As every opinion poll, and our own correspondent, predicted, Fianna Fail has been ousted and Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny looks set to be the next Taoiseach, or …
Why has Africa’s response to the Libyan regime’s shooting of protesters – and hiring of African mercenaries to actually pull the triggers – been so weak? So far, the continent’s reaction amounts to this: the African Union has condemned “the disproportionate use of force against civilians,” which pretty much implies that cracking down on …
The call to meet with the police came at about 5 p.m. on Friday. I suggested that as it was getting late, perhaps we could meet next week. The caller declined, and instead she gave me a rapid-fire review of China’s reporting rules, namely that reporters must get subjects’ permission before conducting interviews. The reason for the …
Raymond Davis, meet Aaron DeHaven. Davis is the U.S. diplomat — or alleged CIA contractor, depending on which account you believe — arraigned on murder charges in Lahore, with Pakistan thus far unmoved by his claim of diplomatic immunity following a shooting incident that left two Pakistanis dead. DeHaven is a security contractor …
The international community is finally beginning to coalesce around something like a strategy for Libya. The Obama Administration is talking about sanctions, there’s a move to freeze the Gaddafi family’s international assets, and proposals to blockade Tripoli.
These are all excellent ideas, and need immediate action. But they won’t …
1. Lion of the Desert
To understand the awesome courage of the long-suffering Libyans standing up to fight the tyrant Muammar Ghaddafi, there’s no better source than Moustapha Akkad’s Lion of the Desert. The film lionizes (sorry!) legendary Libyan guerrilla commander Omar Mukhtar, who …
Here are my quick two cents from a trip back to the U.S. from China. Two years ago when I was last here, I felt like the smart, educated people I talked to underestimated China’s rise. Yes, the Olympics had shown the world that Beijing was a big city full of modern buildings and amazingly talented athletes. But there was still this …
Beijing is scrambling to get tens of thousands of people out of Libya after a wave of attacks on Chinese oilfields, construction sites and work camps. As the state-run China Daily reported prominently this morning, about 12,000 Chinese nationals were evacuated by charter plane, ocean liner and bus. State media area playing up the …
Torn between backing long-time dictator allies and supporting the surging popular revolts seeking to bring those regimes down, few Western governments have sparkled in their tormented responses to protests sweeping the Arab world. But few nations have appeared as dumbly frozen in those headlights as France—where the government of …
Tony Blair’s 2004 meeting with Muammar Gaddafi was momentous by any standards. Blair’s arrival in Libya marked the first visit to the country by a British prime minister since 1943, and proceeded against protests by some relatives of the Lockerbie dead. His purpose was to encourage Gaddafi’s perceived desire “to make common cause with us …
Was the lifting Thursday of Algeria’s 19-year state of emergency a sign the country’s corrupt, authoritarian regime is responding to the growing public unrest that brought down the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt—and now looks set to topple Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi? Without any doubt. Yet it would be naïve to interpret the repealing …
Remember Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi man who launched a new fashion of protest when he threw his shoes at then US President George Bush in Iraq? Nick Blanford met him in Lebanon last week for a time.com profile, on the eve of his return to Iraq. Zaidi was going with a mission to take the Arab world’s popular revolts home. He didn’t get …
